This is our 16th episode of the Brain Brew Whisk(e)y Academy. We will discuss using learning to make better whisk(e)y and the craft Cocktail recipe - The Whiskey Sour. This podcast episode features Whiskey Maker - Doug Hall and Whiskey Drinker - Tripp Babbitt.

Show Notes

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

[00:00:29] Episode 16 - Always Learning asa a Secret Weapon

[00:02:54] Micro Cocktails

[00:05:33] Government Shutdown

[00:06:57] ACSA - American Craft Spirits Association Conference in Minneapolis

[00:09:19] The Whiskey Sour - Most Popular

[00:09:33] Making the Sour Mix - Step 1

[00:10:47] Step 2

[00:12:40] What's Coming Up?

 

 

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 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: [00:00:29] Always learning as a secret weapon. How are you using learning as your secret weapon.

 

Doug: [00:00:36] Ok. So to get learning to become part of a culture it's critical that the leader lead by example. You've got to be open to changing all the time.

 

Doug: [00:00:48] You've got to be open to changing all the time. And recently I was talking with some folks about our Noble Oak and our Relativity whiskeys. And people taste it in my car. That's amazing. I can't believe that. And you know they like man. How could you in just a couple of years when double gold in San Francisco ninety fives to have a double gold you know. Okay. So what's the real secret. And these were like bourbon aficionados who basically started the conversation by saying I don't think I'm going to like you.

 

Doug: [00:01:17] And at the end of this they said at the end they said they said can you make. Can I make a whisk(e)y. And so I said they said what. What are you doing. How are you making this work. I said. It's easy learning. We never stop learning. That's our secret sauce. The two guys looked at me. They were like You know what do you think we're idiots. No no. But what really is it. And I go No it's embedded in the culture of brain brew and our sister company Eureka! Ranch an addiction to learning to always learn never ending a never ending continuous learning. And that's just part of what we do. And as an example. So we've got this custom whisk(e)y experience. It's very cool where people craft their own whisk(e)y. And it works and it works well and people like it. But you know Phillip and I were looking at it and we said it's kind of clunky it's got to be a better way. And so we started looking for different things we could measure with different ways we can put it together different ways people could taste it and you know we got in a whole bunch of different things and we just messed around with them and played with them and we figured out a new way. And literally within a week we had a whole new way of helping people put their whisk(e)y together. That was massively better. And interestingly the that same system for putting the whisk(e)y together. We then looked at our cocktail experience where people tasting craft cocktails.

 

Doug: [00:02:54] And one of the problems with making cocktails is you know if whisk(e)y costs even 25 35 40 dollars you make a cocktail it's a pretty expensive deal and you can't make like 20 variations like we like to make because it can get pretty expensive for somebody. And I think one of the barriers to people finding their own personal cocktail is it cost too much. And so this measurement system that we had with these little spoons and different things that we were doing what we found is we could create micro cocktails that are literally 10 percent so 10 percent the size of a regular cocktail. And then we tested that and people could taste it and see if they liked it or not. And so you know as we say eureka you know less waste faster crafting more options much easier to make and taste. And so here we've just all set up where the thing going a whole nother direction. And and this will be fine. And then three months from now somebody I'll turn around Peter or Joe or Philip or David or Tory and I will look at it we'll make something new. We'll find another way of doing it. That's how it happens. So we live this. Anything that can be done can be read and done and be reinvented. That's the fundamentals of our success at Brain Brew custom whisk(e)y that's cool. So you got to get in your culture. You got to get it in your culture. Never ending continuous change. That's the key.

 

Tripp: [00:04:26] Ok. So so a rumor I want to bring this into the conversation because we've talked kind of at a high level about your custom whisk(e)y experience you know crafting your own personal whisk(e)y. And you mentioned in here that it was clunky and slow. So so can you give me a picture of what it was and what it is that that through learning that it's become now.

 

Doug: [00:04:54] Oh I'm gonna in a broad sense because there's some patent stuff that I don't a broad sense our sense on it too because it's kind of cool. It was just the way people mixed the cocktails to the cocktails or they put their own whisk(e)y together. It was the way they would do the blending the way people had to measure and assemble a product one way versus a new way. And so we had to change that. That's all that's all.

 

Tripp: [00:05:20] OK. So. All right. All right. Well I didn't want to infringe on your secrets.

 

Doug: [00:05:26] I got good news on the whisk(e)y side his government's back in business regarding this.

 

Doug: [00:05:33] The government's bad good business and that means the TGV transfer and bond and our labels are now in theory moving forward again. Yes it has been a total shut down for all of the alcohol in America because all of our new stuff for the new year literally shut down without approvals.

 

Tripp: [00:05:53] So OK. So does that change the timeline for you. I mean you still can't distill something right here at the Ranch.

 

Doug: [00:06:02] We we I don't intend to ever distill stuff at the ranch. OK. You know we will we buy spirits and we put all of our money in the aging because 70 percent of the flavor comes from the wood. Yeah. So our whole focus is time compression of the wood. I mean we've got to still and we we. Which we'll use for some experiments but then we'll take it out because they can make it faster and better quality and at a better price than we can make it. I mean that's the reality. You know when you put it fully loaded it's much cheaper to do well with other people so that that's how we work it. Ok. So so we move forward we will be. You know it all goes forward.

 

Tripp: [00:06:46] So what what has to happen for you to be open and from from where we sit today. You said you were waiting for labels and I forget what the other thing.

 

Doug: [00:06:57] I mean we're open now. I'm running. Boone County. So we have another distiller that the bottles done under his license over in Kentucky. And so. So we make products there. So we're still open but we're not going to be a traditional I mean our whole focus is a B2B deal where we're going to work with distillers. So I mentioned last week we're gonna be at the CSA the American craft spirits Association's convention in Minneapolis. February 10 11 and 12.

 

Doug: [00:07:29] And talking to folks we're gonna look for a few pioneers to sign on to become part of the journey for us as we go through beta testing this this year for then expanded. But it basically allows craft distillers to make more money. It allows them to make a higher margin and not have to wait months and years for whisk(e)y. They can make a profit immediately their own product unique taste their taste there would you know which is where the real value added is put it.

 

Doug: [00:08:03] I should also mention that February 24 to 26 the Innovation Engineering team is in New York City at the League of innovation and community colleges. We're going to we'll have a booth there and where we're meeting with community college people I'm speaking to I guess fifteen hundred people doing the leadership and then we're doing workshops on Monday but February 3 4 and 5 in February 24 25 and 26 we're in New York City. So see us in Minneapolis see me in New York would love to connect with folks.

 

Tripp: [00:08:44] Ok. Very good. What. Let's move to your craft cocktail recipe the brain brew whisk(e)y sour. So I'm going to guess that this is something that a little bit different than the traditional whisk(e)y sour.

 

Doug: [00:08:59] Yeah. So Philip who heads our for us is a chef a phenomenal chef and his sour mix. So let me tell you what you don't do for a whisk(e)y sour is by one of those sugar concoction jugs of sour mix.

 

Tripp: [00:09:17] Wait a minute that's what I do.

 

Doug: [00:09:19] Just toss it. Instead the secret to this the Sour is the number one rated cocktail even among whisk(e)y drinkers in our recent research which was which was pretty amazing.

 

Doug: [00:09:33] And so the key is the sour mix. And so it's a half cup of sugar half cup of water and a quarter cup each of lime lemon and orange juice and by the way that's fresh lime lemon and orange juice. And you do the zest from the limes lemons and oranges.

 

Tripp: [00:09:56] What do you mean the zest.

 

Doug: [00:09:58] You take a greater and take take some of the skin and get some of the zest. And ideally what you do is you just heat it up gently for it all to meld together and then cool it and you can filter out the zest if you want. I like to keep it in. But you can filter it out and then you can keep this in the fridge and it'll stay for for a week or so it goes down as time goes on but it'll still be amazing. And so this is this is something where you've got you know you got basically you know only a half cup of sugar three quarters a couple juices half cup of water. So it's not overly sweet but my god the balance of the lime lemon and orange just gives you a depth that is just blow your brains out. Mm hmm. And then the cocktail is simple it's a one to one mix so.

 

Doug: [00:10:44] An ounce and a half of Philip's sour mix.

 

Doug: [00:10:47] With an ounce and a half of our Relativity product.

 

Doug: [00:10:51] You know stir it up with some ice and you know garnish it with a cherry if you want and enjoy enjoy something that is truly there is no one in the world that won't think that this is an amazing drink. If you want to make it more whisk(e)y forward use rye instead of you know an American whisk(e)y a four grain product type product but an amazing drink a truly amazing drink even for whisk(e)y drinkers and whisk(e)y drinkers can be tough because they can sometimes not like these things but this isn't too sweet.

 

Doug: [00:11:23] It's not it's got depth I mean because bringing the three different juices and the zest in just gives you a more multi-dimensional nature to this cocktail that just makes it so much more interesting and really works with the whisk(e)y.

 

Tripp: [00:11:41] Okay. And I notice that you switch step by me here. You said to add it to ice and stir it 12 times. What's up with that.

 

Doug: [00:11:52] Oh I just want to keep you on toes.

 

Tripp: [00:11:55] Is that a typo Are you messing.

 

Doug: [00:11:56] I just want to keep you on that matter. It doesn't matter okay. But stir it a few times anyway. Yeah. Okay. Very good.

 

Tripp: [00:12:08] One question I did have for you Doug on this is when you get the zest from the fruit is there a tool or something that you use to do that.

 

Doug: [00:12:18] Yeah I mean you're just using a grater. I mean you can use the thin side of a box grater but usually this is some different culinary ones that you just you know you can disasters or such things as investors. So there's no different ways to do it.

 

Tripp: [00:12:32] Ok. All right very good. All right. So what do you think we might have upcoming where we may be talking about in Brain Brew.

 

Doug: [00:12:40] I don't know. I mean we're going to be we've got a bunch of stuff happening. I try to keep this very real to what's what's really happening and thinking we've got a whole bunch of academics coming to the ranch this week coming up. They're going to push us with regards to learning as we expand innovation engineering to hundreds of schools to universities. I've got a bunch of data stuff we're doing. We've got more research experiments on the whisk(e)y side that's happening. And then I'll be up at the I'll be up in Minneapolis and obviously out of Minneapolis there'll be all kinds of stuff in the trip to New York we'll also have tons of stuff. So I don't know I don't know I'll just let life come as it comes.

 

Tripp: [00:13:22] Very good. All right. Well we thank you for joining our show this week and we look forward to whatever adventures Doug's got coming for us in the weeks to come.

 

Doug: [00:13:34] The fundamental thing is get up get out get going.

 

Doug: [00:13:38] Let's start learning and not get more stupid.

 

Tripp: [00:13:43] So we're going to end this with stupid. All right.

 

Tripp: [00:13:51] 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 podcast 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.