This is our 19th episode of the Brain Brew Whisk(e)y Academy. We will discuss fun in our whisk(e)y and the craft cocktail recipe - Remember the Maine. This podcast episode features Whiskey Maker - Doug Hall and Whiskey Drinker - Tripp Babbitt.

Show Notes

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

[00:00:40] Building Fun into a Whisk(e)y

[00:01:08] Is Whisk(e)y too Serious?

[00:02:56] Cocktails are Fun!

[00:04:09] Whisk(e)y in Cocktails Makes for Fun and New Experiences

[00:05:11] Bartenders Can Tailor Your Cocktail

[00:08:24] Homework: Make Cocktails from Scratch

[00:12:21] Brain Brew Craft Whiskies - Cincinnati

[00:12:50] Cincinnati was the Hub for Whisk(e)y - Riverboats

[00:13:56] Brain Brew Keel Boat

[00:14:43] Brain Brew Paddle Wheel

[00:16:07] Brain Brew Deckhand

[00:17:06] Brain Brew Tall Stacks

[00:18:39] Craft Cocktail Recipe - Remember the Maine

[00:19:22] Step 1

[00:19:28] Step 2

[00:19:31] Step 3

[00:19:36] Step 4

 

 

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 whisk(e)y company like has never been done before.

 

Tripp: [00:00:26] Ok well let's move to the Brain Brew Whisk(e)y Academy the importance of fun in the Brain Brew Whisk(e)y. Say you're applying fun everywhere you go I got it now.

 

Tripp: [00:00:40] It's integrated into the culture that you're building with the Brain Brew folks. Give me some examples.

 

Doug: [00:00:47] Well I got to tell you that I think that when you're a craft company people can feel your feelings when you created the product that in those products they can get the sense of joy.

 

Doug: [00:01:08] I mean to call it fun call it Joy. Call it whatever you want. They can get the feeling of it and and it's sad because many whiskies have become especially the very expensive ones have become so damn serious. You know I mean it's a leather chair in a wood paneled room with a crystal decanter and a glass of you know fine sipping whiskey. Yes. Yes.

 

Doug: [00:01:34] I mean it's like I mean that you know I mean whiskey was made it was a working man's thing and it was fun. And and I think that joy needs to be brought into it. And and and it's coming I mean David Wecker when it was written with books and hopefully were going through the next book together. He taught me when we were writing something if when we were reading it to edit it we laughed at what one or other of us even though we knew the joke.

 

Doug: [00:02:04] We laughed again then we said my guess is people will laugh the first time they read it. In other words if we're not amazed and having fun with the thing then nobody else is going to have fun. It's where we end up with organizations. OK. I'm going to deadly seriously make this so that people can have fun. No it doesn't work that way. You've got to get that spirit into the thing and you've got to open yourselves up to those things. And in the case of whiskey. Yes we do that whiskey. I mean taking 200 year would I mean Virgin American would from an old bar that's come down from whiskey at the time of the riverboats. That's that's nuts.

 

Doug: [00:02:41] It's crazy and it's crazy fun because you taste it and you go Oh my God that's like totally different than today's whiskey because the wood and the trees it grew this what we used in our Paddle Wheel product was totally different back then and that's awesome.

 

Doug: [00:02:56] And and but the place where it really goes crazy is cocktails. I mean remember we've talked to dating 18 percent. Very big huge megaton study stupidly expensive you know tens of thousands of people across America 18 percent drank whiskey in the last twelve months. Yeah. OK. I mean 82 percent didn't but when I go to cocktails I can get you know 75 80 percent of them are going to like it because you know a cocktail made with whiskey as the backdrop gives it a richness that you're not going to get with vodka you're not going to give a gin and you're not going to get it with rum that's a whole different dimension. And why are the top cocktails made with whiskey. Because that's how you get that real complexity of taste and you get these magical things that have all of these tensions to come together. And so cocktails is where you can really rip it and have fun. If you make your whiskey for Congress that's why we do this custom cocktail experience where we take you through we have you taste like we'll start out with an old fashioned and we'll take our riverboat series and we'll give you for old fashions with four different whiskeys.

 

[00:04:09] And people in the industry old puckered people will say well when you make cocktail don't matter what whiskey you put in it. Well you're wrong it's wrong old man because if you taste that you taste in old fashioned made with the four our four core whiskeys and you go Oh my God it's a totally different cocktail and then we start to show people about high balls and cocktails and the ratios. And we have them go through an experience and we generally connect it up around the four seasons. So spring summer winter fall cocktails throughout the seasons and in the moments and and all of a sudden you know people that maybe never had one or had one or two are open up their mind they go Oh my God this is amazingly interesting things and then we teach them how to customize it for themselves because you know so when you go to a bartender Tripp and you ask for a cocktail especially a whiskey cocktail they might ask you a couple questions. Well what do you like with this. And you don't know it but they're adapting your cocktail without you even knowing it.

 

Doug: [00:05:11] They're adjusting which whiskey they take. Do they start with ride. They start with bourbon. They start with American for grain product. They're playing with is it an ounce and a half or two ounces of whiskey. Are they going to do one teaspoon of simple syrup or two. I mean they're making adaptations trying to guess which you're going to like. That's why when you go to a really great bar you have the cocktail. Oh my God that's amazing what's it called. They tell you the name you go home. You can't make it because they've adapted it and we've gotten at Brain Brew. We've gotten really really good at this. People come in to the bar at the at the Eureka! Ranch and tasting room and they have a drink and they go Oh my God. That is so amazing. I can't believe how that was so good the way you made that. And then we educate so we show them the trick. It's OK for you. This is what I did. And for him I made it this way. Now hit you know taste the difference the goat cheese. Yes. Amazing difference. And so we're enabling people to make their own cocktails so that they can have do it. And then it's just plain fun. I mean it's just fun.

 

Tripp: [00:06:15] Yeah I know. And I have to off to say I started out when you first started introducing these cocktails. You know I had a lot of fun with THE Martini. I mean it was just funny. So few people go back to that that particular episode and I can't remember which one it is off the top of my head but the. The martini and how you went about making it what it was. It was just kind of a fun episode anyway. But but I. But since then you know I made the Sazerac and I had some friends over actually this past weekend and we made the Sazerac and we also made the Bourbon Milk Punch and the Sazerac. You know it's funny you set it up very well which is you're either going to really like it or you're really gonna like it because that was kind of the reaction for instance my daughter. She she didn't like the Sazerac but good friends of ours Marvin and Misty Brown they they tried it and they loved the Sazerac and that kind of licorice taste.

 

Tripp: [00:07:24] Now like I said I don't pour out all that absinthe because it's expensive associated with that. And then at the Super Bowl I made the bourbon milk punch and people like that. I mean it was just. And I think people just had fun trying something different something that they they didn't have before. And you know it's an experiment. Like you said it's experiment no I don't I'm not doing a same type of experience experiments you do. I've just you know enjoy your cocktails are having fun with it.

 

Doug: [00:08:02] That's right. OK. So you know I'm going to give people a homework. OK. OK. So here's the first part. Go to the. Go to the Web site for the podcast or DougHall.com click on it to get there. And you can open some newsletters or maybe trip maybe finally we should just bake a document that has every cocktail.

 

Tripp: [00:08:22] So yeah it's on my. It's on my list.

 

Doug: [00:08:24] Ok. So let's. Well you can get that and pick three of the cocktails that are least familiar with you at least familiar with. In other words don't I don't want you to turn around and just you know do what. Oh I know that. No. Try something different and give them a try OK. They're all proven and reliable. If you want to listen to the episode right describe it in more detail but you know try something new to get get a new taste then part two is I want you to then start to mess with it. So riff off it. So last week we talked about the Algonquin where we took pineapple replaced it with grapefruit juice start to do your own riffs on these things. That's what this is about. OK. This is about fun and bringing together and when you get something cool give it a name and a recipe and go to the Doug Hall Facebook page and post it post it and let's make a celebration of fun whiskey cocktails and share them with one another.

 

Tripp: [00:09:20] Yeah. You know and for me you know I'm tonight I bought all the stuff yesterday for the whiskey the whiskey sour to make with the orange and the lemon and the lime and for me it'll be better. I'm not using that. Yes. And the zest. But that also I've never used anything other than a mix before. So for me that back. Stop. Stop. How do you know. OK So. So I'm going to go just craft it.

 

Tripp: [00:09:56] You know the way the way you describe. And for me that's a step up. You know. So before I was using to mix quit using mixes maybe one of the things that you try as hard and as far as your homework and and doing this because you do get to the actual raw ingredients that go into these cocktails. And for me that's that's a change. That's that's something that's very different for me because I never really thought about it. It's just easier.

 

Doug: [00:10:22] Ever go back even. And and it is a pain in the butt for some of the cocktails to squeeze limes in limes when stupidly expensive. A year ago but the squeeze limes to squeeze lemons. I don't care. There is not a single bottled or canned lemon or lime juice out there. They're just not worth drink. I've tried them all because it's such a pain in the butt to squeeze them all the time. But I got to tell you. You make them side by side. You will never ever have you'll never go back to the bottled crap you just won't just want because the fresh is amazingly better. Amazing. By now it's really good for about 24 hours but you can leave it for three or four days and you're still going to be way ahead of you. It's not gonna be as good as it was fresh but it's still going to be amazing.

 

Doug: [00:11:10] You know it's just gonna be amazing and just put its group but get a screw top on a jar or something and close it up put it in your fridge so that you can have it I have I always have lemon juice lime juice. I'm starting to do more and more with grapefruit so I'm starting to have grapefruit all the time so that I've got stuff to play with. I was a cocktail.

 

Tripp: [00:11:31] Yeah. And you know maybe that's something else we we cover off the episode is you know I've got a whole bunch of new bar tools before I had a cobbler shaker. I mean that's and I didn't even know it was called the cobbler shaker. And then you introduced me to the Boston shaker. So there's different things happening other than just you know the drinks themselves. Now in your newsletter for the first time now I haven't seen this before. You've got the kill book. You've talked about some of these the kill boat the paddle wheel the deck hand and tall stacks and I'll be sure to put that picture also in the show notes and then you have each of the drinks so looks like you've got the bourbon milk punch. I'm not sure this looks like the one of the embassy.

 

Doug: [00:12:15] That's the second one's embassy you've got you've you've got a gold rush and a boulevard.

 

Tripp: [00:12:21] Ok. So so you've got this four by the way maybe one of the future things you need to put on your list. Doug is the make non boring glasses you need to have the Doug Hall glasses to go with these creative drinks that you have something that looks fun and I don't know they all look the same. But anyway there's always something that's out there but that's the first time I've seen that the four that are out there. Can you briefly go through what these are and what are.

 

Doug: [00:12:50] These are these are products these are actually just these these are prototypes that you're seeing those are just prototype labels. I'll tell you in the image but as we talk Cincinnati pre prohibition was it really was a commercial home of whiskey. There was more whiskey made in Cincinnati and in the surrounding areas going into it into into Kentucky in that and owned by folks in Cincinnati and anywhere on the planet there was literally ten times the value of whiskey made in Cincinnati was ten times that of beer. And we're a German town. There was a lot of beer being made. So this was the epicenter and it was primarily because it was it was the Queen City of the West. It was the market town where the steamboats came to ship down to New Orleans into the world. And so it was it was the time so in making this line we made this just for Cincinnati that we're going to introduce coming up and it's really celebrating the Cincinnati as this place with the riverboats. And so it's. And they go in order up to more intensive notice if you would.

 

Doug: [00:13:56] The first one is Keel Boat. It's a four grain easy drinking product. We've got some unique twists on this saying and it celebrates the Keel Boat secure boats were the ones that would you know you had flat boats first that would just float with the current keel boats had a keel and you could now steer them so rather than just push with poles you could actually steer them a little bit. So what's the next step up of boats. And and so we celebrate keel boat kind of slowly going down the water nice and easy. That's a four grain product it's got a high wheat content to it very smooth it makes very if you're new to whiskey it's great. It is the ultimate cocktail it is no speed bumps in it it's just a very it's like velvet it's really really really nice it's a 40 percent alcohol product. OK.

 

Doug: [00:14:43] Next up is really the flagship of the line it's called paddle wheel. This is celebrating the paddle boats and the bridge from Dan in Cincinnati. You can see in the background of the image Toby did these incredible artwork and it's full label art like you see on wine bottles. Again not something that's done on whiskey bottles. And and the paddle wheel uses 200 year wood. So we take old wood from an old barn down in Kentucky. We clean it off cut it up and it's actually cleaner than the wood that you get today because there was less pollutants when the trees were growing. And it gives you a taste. It's the closest you can get. It's a bourbon 45 percent alcohol bourbon. It gives you the taste of what whiskey would have tasted like you know back at 100 years ago. And in fact I've had 1920 1930 whiskeys that had the same character to it. In fact a top whisk(e)y expert over in Edinburgh he tasted he says OK now I'm upset with you I said why. He says now you've got the finish of old whiskies. How the hell are you doing that. I said it's old wood. He says it totally figures that the wood was different back then. So this is amazing. This is our flagship bourbon. This this adds more richness to your cocktails. So if you want a little bit more richness you're going to get more there and it's. And it is about the corn but it's more about the wood that's going to do that.

 

Doug: [00:16:07] Than the next one goes over the top. It's called deckhand hand and it's also subtitled the working man's rye. And this is a rye whiskey. Ninety 95 percent rye whiskey 48 percent alcohol just like rise are up a little bit higher. And this product really celebrates the working man. And it's really a celebration for bartenders bartenders love this product because it really gives if you want a more whisk(e)y forward. This has five different woods in it. So we're using 200 year wood we're using young American oak. We're using European oak. We're using maple and we're using cherry wood. And so you've got five woods that give this complex yet smooth rye like nothing else. I mean the ryes. Our ryes regularly. People just go out of their minds for because it's a totally different type of ride than what you're used to. Usually they're really hot and spicy. This is just it's it's an elegance that's just amazing makes great cocktails.

 

Doug: [00:17:06] And then last in the line is tall stacks that the big stacks on the steamboats. Now we're at the time of the steamboats so we moved up up the line here and and so and this is a three wood smoked and so now we're getting that smoke cloud in the background. You either love it a lot or not. It's like the Islay as Islay whiskeys the smoke whisk(e)y is repeated whiskeys aren't to Scottish whisk(e)y. This is to bourbon. This is a bourbon and and you either think this is the greatest thing you've ever seen. In fact the photo that you're seeing the fellow that took the photo tasted them and he's like I need some of that tall stacks. People just go crazy and it makes a cocktail like you've never seen before. But it is a it's a more specialty thing you've got to be pretty intense if you like Islay you're going to love this. And if you like smoked food really smoked food you're just gonna go out of your mind when you taste this. It's also I will tell you if you have a mal Peck oyster from Prince Edward Island and you pour a little bit of this on it it's heaven heaven.

 

Tripp: [00:18:09] See I like that. And this is more inside information like that Timberwolf that you had me try probably six months ago or maybe longer than that.

 

Doug: [00:18:18] Yeah it's a rum product that is a rum. Yeah.

 

Tripp: [00:18:21] All right. All right very good. So are these going to be just available then in the Cincinnati area ultimately. OK.

 

Doug: [00:18:30] Just Cincinnati and we just it's just maybe a local product celebrating the local local word and and tribute.

 

Doug: [00:18:39] You mentioned Sazerac that you like the spice rack. So I thought I said that's so I'm the cocktail this week is a twist on a Sazerac. It's called Remember the Maine. And this is a 1939 cocktail by Charles Baker. It's part Sazerac and part Manhattan and it's named after the U.S. naval ship the Maine as in the state that mysteriously exploded and sank off the coast of Havana Cuba which was controlled by Spain and of course in 1898. And this is what caused the spark the Spanish American War and led to Cuban independence. But so what we do with this is this has got some up to it.

 

Doug: [00:19:22] So we're starting with two ounces of our deckhand rye that we just talked about or another craft right. So it's it's a big taste.

 

Doug: [00:19:28] Three quarters of an ounce of sweet vermouth.

 

Doug: [00:19:31] A half ounce of Cherry Herring which is a cherry liqueur.

 

Doug: [00:19:36] And a teaspoon of absinthe and you generally stir this and then strain it into a I again I'm really liking these Martini glasses. I just think it gives a nice elegance to upgrades the cocktails although you could serve it over the rocks too but you've got the vermouth and the Rye of a Manhattan but you've got the absence of a Sazerac. So it's kind of this twist between the two and I just think it just brings some fun to it. You know what people that are in Manhattan. I want to Manhattan I want to Manhattan. I want to a Sazerac I want a Sazerac. And all of a sudden you do this kind of flip which you've got a real history to it. And I just think it it just brings a little bit of fun to people and gives them a new experience.

 

Tripp: [00:20:17] Okay. All right well let's get another one for me to try now. Going to have to get go out and get the Cherry herring cherry liqueur. That's used in something else but I can't remember what the what the drink was that that they had or maybe it was just that a conscious thing.

 

Doug: [00:20:33] There's also there's also another thing. There's another version called luxardo just used in the Hemingway are the Hemingway Dockery or Martini uses luxardo. I've not made remember the Maine with Luxardo. Oh I should probably try it that way. There's an old joke that. You know if you've got a cocktail every cocktail will be made better if you add luxardo or champagne. You know is classically what to do it Cherry herrings get a little different character than luxardo has to it it's got more arbitrariness to it.

 

Tripp: [00:21:11] So OK well maybe that'll be your homework then to try the luxardo in it.

 

Doug: [00:21:16] Yeah I stocked my my bar stocks both because you know. But again I'm crazy. Yes.

 

Tripp: [00:21:23] So there was some time where you have to get a picture of what's inside Doug's bar probably a whole episode on its own. All right. So have fun everyone. That's the key to making good whiskey and products and everything else.

 

Doug: [00:21:40] Yeah life's too short. Let's have some fun.

 

Tripp: [00:21:50] Have you ever thought about owning your own craft whiskey business. Well subscribed 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 with. A Brain Brew whisk(e)y Academy podcast will take you behind the scenes to learn the good the 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.