The Whisky Holler: Recent Episodes
Gary Lee
Each Week we talk to an industry insider to earn what it takes to work in the craft spirits industry
Let’s talk about class. I’ll be the teacher here, but this isn’t the grade school classroom. This is the class of spirits. In the previous post, I gently touched on touched on class being the big differentiator in spirits and today we’re going to get into what those classes are. This information comes from the code of federal regulation, or CFR, chapter 4, and there are 20 different types of classes. On this part we are going to look at neutral spirits and talk about what they really are and what they are not. Let’s get started with what the TTB says:
§5.22 The standards of identity.
Standards of identity for the several classes and types of distilled spirits set forth in this section shall be as follows (see also §5.35, class and type):
(a) Class 1; neutral spirits or alcohol. “Neutral spirits” or “alcohol” are distilled spirits produced from any material at or above 190° proof, and, if bottled, bottled at not less than 80° proof.
So what class 1 means is that you’ve made alcohol so potent that you could damn near put it in your lawnmower. It also means that it can be made from anything. You could make neutral spirits from any base product. You could make it from grain, from sugar, from fruit, etc. Hell, you could make it from Fruit Loops if you wanted too. Now lets delve into the different classes of Neutral Spirits.
Walk into a well-stocked liquor store and you’ll see countless whiskey brands, each boasting an inspiring story of independence and heritage. And yet, more than 95% of the nation’s whiskey comes from a small handful of giant companies with links to organized crime, political controversy, and a colorful history that is far different than what appears on modern labels. In Bourbon Empire, Reid Mitenbuler shows how bourbon, America’s most iconic style of whiskey, and the industry surrounding it, really came to be—a saga of shrewd capitalism as well as dedicated craftsmanship. Mitenbuler traces the big names—Jim Beam, Maker’s Mark, Evan Williams, and more—back to their origins, exploring bourbon’s founding myths and great successes against the backdrop of America’s economic history. Illusion is separated from reality in a tale reaching back to the Whiskey Rebellion of 1794, when the ideologies of Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton battled to define the soul of American business. That debate continues today, punctuated along the way by Prohibition-era bootleggers, the liquor-fueled origins of NASCAR, intense consolidation driven by savvy lobbying, and a Madison Avenue plot to release five thousand parrots—trained to screech the name of a popular brand—into the nation’s bars. Today, the whiskey business takes a new turn as a nascent craft distilling movement offers the potential to revolutionize the industry once again. But, as Mitenbuler shows, many take advantage of this excitement while employing questionable business practices, either by masquerading whiskey made elsewhere as their own or by shortcutting the proven production standards that made many historic brands great to begin with. A tale of innovation, success, downfall, and resurrection, Bourbon Empire is an exploration of the spirit in all its unique forms, creating an indelible portrait of both American whiskey and the people who make it.
Well this is possibly the greatest thing that could ever happen. There is finally someone filling the bottom shelf offering for Missouri Spirits! Truth be told, there wasn’t anyone that has been making thin mash that was priced accordingly. There has been a void on the bottom shelf for Missouri producers for quite some time and I think that it is really good that my former salesman is now making his own and peddling it all over SW Missouri. There are a lot of limited budgets that really don’t want to shell out their hard earned cash for a high end bottle of whisky and I understand that; some folks have different objectives when they crack open a bottle. I’m just glad that it is my neighbor and fellow veteran doing it. It’s a shame he didn’t tell me he was opening his doors. I would have loved to congratulated him in person.
I had to take a break from packing so I decided to go to the Virginia Wine Expo in Richmond. For 60 bucks I got a free glass and was able to sample wine and spirits from over 70 producers. I was amazed. I was amazed by the turnout of both people and vendors there. I was also amazed by something else; the bullshit.
Before I go any further, let me also explain that I have a two week rule before saying anything negative in a public forum. Yeah, I know that zero people subscribe to this blog, but I feel like a man should respond and not react. However, I'm not changing anything below the words "READ ON!. or above this paragraph. This is legit. I still feel like this company is trying to take credit for something that they don't give two fucks about. Yeah, this is the first time I've cussed on my blog but I mean it. These oxygen (and money) thieves are selling themselves as local guys but packaging a factory, button pushing, soul-less product. Kind of like the SOBs that run Clyde May's. Cylde Mays isn't even close to Alabama. They are L.A. (lower Alabama) or Florida. But that is another post that I'll save for later. READ ON
Before I start bashing on faux hipsters, let me point out what is "right" here in England's oldest colony. Virginia has some amazing wines. I seriously don't understand how California isn't going broke from a loss of interest in Virginia wines. I'm definitely not a wine aficionado but I have a pretty keen pallet. Everything that I tried that was "dirt to glass" Virginia was absolutely amazing. I come from Missouri, which is known throughout the wine industry for producing top notch Norton and Cynthia wine varieties. I've drank gallons of Norton/Cynthiana wines. I'm also ridiculously picky when it comes to alcohol; I've got a couple barrels of beer, maybe three barrels of wine (all for personal use), and a few thousand gallons of (documented) whisky sitting in my rickhouse at home so I don't ever need to buy anything. I also know a lot of folks back home that make some pretty top notch wine and beer back home. One of which is a cattle farmer that probably the best Chambourcin in the country. However, I bought a bottle of Norton. It cost me all of 22 bucks and buddy, it was worth it. I digress though. Virginia has some amazing wines and it's worth the trip to go and try some. Lets get back to our downtown craft distillers.
Let me explain. Among the hard working, salt of the earth, vineyard managers was one booth: Belle Isle.
https://www.belleislecraftspirits.com
Standing behind their counter were two young bearded beaus and another guy that just had a cool hoodie and pointy sideburns; maybe he just wasn't sure about the commitment of a beard. Like whisky, it's a potentially multi year endeavor. Luckily for him, Belle Isle is just selling "moonshine". Again, I think that is another story. READ ON
These gents looked like young urban distillers. Maybe best friends that decided to break Virginia's liquor laws one day and make their own hooch. Perhaps they worked out an SBA loan, hocked their Vespa scooters, opened up a craft distillery in a run down garage and have been scraping to keep the doors open while they hone their craft and create an artisan product. Looks can be deceiving though. These aren't the owners, distillers, or anything even remotely related to craft spirits. They are just selling bottles. Belle Isle doesn't make anything. Here is what Belle Isle actually "does": they buy grain neutral spirits from an industrial distilling plant. What is an industrial distilling plant? Basically it's a factory. By the way, factories suck. I worked at one the first couple of years that Misty and I were married. It is a soul sucking, 12 hour shit (sorry, shift) of waiting to go home so you can get drunk off your ass and forget that you wasted that much oxygen pressing a button and making sure that a piece of wire wasn't 1 millimeter too long. So after they have got their industrialized craft moonshine, they do something magical: they put it in a bottle with their “magical brand” glued to the front, and peddle it to hard-working stiffs that don’t yet know enough to realize they have been duped.
This is the type of industry that you support when you buy a twenty dollar bottle of Virginia's Belle Isle Moonshine. Belle Isle basically takes the grain neutral spirits out of the Industrial Bulk Containers (IBC totes) filled with liquor that they didn't make, add Kool-Aide flavors, and put a pretty label on it. So what is grain neutral spirits? Grain neutral spirits, according to the TTB, is "Spirits distilled from any material at or above 95% alcohol by volume (190 proof), and if bottled, is bottled at not less than 40% alcohol by volume (80 proof)" Let me break this down for you. This means that you can't "taste the grain", or there is no similarity to the alcohol and the grain that it was made for. It's neutral. That rubbing alcohol that you have sitting underneath your bathroom sink is neutral spirits. The only difference is that it was treated, or "denatured" so that it would be undrinkable. Wait.... I guess there is another difference. Belle Isle uses organic corn. Cool. So do I. My neighbor four miles down the road raises organic corn too. He is a dirt poor farmer that uses heirloom corn seeds and can't afford to buy commercial pesticides. and because he works two jobs, (one at a chicken processing factory), doesn't have the damn time or patience to get a certification to label his 16 acres of corn as "organic". But let's get back to the glorious entrepreneurs at Belle Isle.
I waited about seven minutes for my turn to get to the counter and asked them about their craft, artisanal, and hand made products. Did they make it? Did they bet the farm on their dream of creating the best USDA certified, triple macchiato, gluten free, polar bear friendly moonshine ever known to mankind. Not only no, but hell no. No, and according to the bearded sample master, the owners, whoever they are, don't have any plans to start producing their own products. The tall, bearded blonde said that their business is "blossoming" and that they "have expanded into ten states" and that "sales are strong." All this company has is a name, a filling line, and hipsters with beards. Hey, as long as folks are buying the story I guess they will keep selling "Virginia Moonshine".
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So I'm keeping true to my word. This is what I wrote one hour after visiting with the bearded drink pourers. In a way, I don't blame Belle Isle. It's just that on the way home, I called my wife. I sent her back home to Missouri while I packed the apartment up. I'm headed to S. Korea in 3 weeks and my orders say I'm going to be there for two years. Misty told me about how our youngest daughter finally decided to start talking and how our oldest (just turned 5) woke her up at 3 am. She was crying because she had a bad dream. She said that "daddy didn't love her anymore". I just think about my deployments, missing the first year of her life, how I've put my family into uncertainty, and about missing TWO years of my children's childhood. I'm sacrificing the most. valuable resource that I have so that I can take this tiny ass, backwoods distillery from a holler in the Ozarks to maybe a shelf in Los Angeles. It is just really painful when you realize the actual cost of it all and I guess that deep down I feel like Belle Isle is trying to cut in front of the line. I mean hell, Evan Williams is a family owned business that has been making Bourbon since Methuselah was in diapers. They don't talk about culture, heritage, technique, and skill; they are living it. Evan Williams also makes one of my favorite bourbons in the world. I would prefer to see them than these bozos. Really, I have a bourbon collection that has it's own insurance policy; I'm not joking. I prefer Henry McKenna 10 year old, bottled in bond to some of the stuff that I have paid 900+ bucks for. Henry McKenna is just really old Evan Williams. Evan Williams paid their dues; they didn't sell out to a corporation headquartered in Japan, and they are making great bourbon the way they have always made it. That is the direction that I want to send White Mule Distillery. Lets walk the walk before we talk to talk. Fuck the hipsters.
I've been meaning to add a post for about two months, but I run on Ozark time so I reckon I'm just about on time. I'm headed to South Korea. I'll be there for two years and I ain't coming home until I play this game like a professional. I'm not sure, but I think this will be my last post for a real long time; just because I like to be honest and real honesty is hard. Soul-crushing hard. We lie everyday and it doesn't matter how you rank yourself on the piety scale. We lie and the person we lie to most is ourselves. Let me be honest with you though. The last year and a half has been the best, and hardest year since my last deployment. I realized the American dream; I opened my own business. I opened a business with my best friend. My best friend quit. My second daughter was born- on the day that I opened the distillery. I made a whole bunch of new friends. I barely made my mortgage payment. I did tastings at big events with my neighbor and good friend Mark. I damn near got bit by a copperhead (multiple times, seriously I have killed about 20 of them). I made whisky at George Washington's distillery. I filled damn near 1600 holes on leaking barrels created by leadcable borers. I maxed an Army APFT for the first time. I two-stepped with my 82 year old grandma who beat cancer. I was actually there for my child's first words. I read 20 books. I had legit hugs. I listened to TOOL with a whole new perspective. I helped an old man clear out his winery. I set myself on fire- be careful, distilling is dangerous. I watched the sun come up over the Chesapeake bay in Virginia.
But I went back on to active duty for the Army because I ran out of cash and didn't really want to bring in anyone else on the operation. Opening a business is tough. There is SO much that you don't know and won't know because hell, you've never done it before.
I have a very "old school" mindset of doing business. If you can't pay for it, then don't do it. I didn't run a line of credit and didn't sell out and buy my inventory from MGP just so that I could provide an aged product without making it myself. Everything that WHITE MULE DISTILLERY has ever sold is what we made, aged, and bottled ourselves.
If you don't take that first step though, there's a good chance that you'll never do it. That was my reasoning when I opened up. I'm actually a very logical, step-action oriented person. If I don't have a legitimate path for getting from point A to point B, I really am not interested. A craft distillery is different though; there is not a lot of guidance on how to do it and ZERO guarantees of success. However, the possible outcomes are tempting; wealth and an independent lifestyle are a legitimate possibility. The only drawback is the possibility of bankruptcy and failure. Yeah, bankruptcy.
So here I am. Packing my stuff and wondering if my youngest daughter will remember who I am when I get back home. I am thinking about how my eldest daughter will change over the next two years and what she will look like in 2020. I feel regret that I won't see the next four birthdays and relief that I will be able to fulfill my financial obligations. If you sign that bank loan, then you pay for it. I wish that our large US banks and corporations had the same values.
In the end, don't feel bad for me or my family because I have zero regrets. I've had a lot of great experiences and truly lived a hell of a lot more than most people ever get the chance to. How many people do you know that were born without a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of? How many of those have shot machine guns, opened a distillery, stepped foot on over a dozen countries, and made chocolate chip waffles for their daughter? That list has gotta be short. Be patient and stay tuned. We are bringing you the best of the Ozarks.
Over the last four days I feel like I've been given a "once in a lifetime" opportunity. I've been making whisky at the historic George Washington Distillery and Gristmill on the Mt. Vernon Estate. I basically stopped in for a tour and volunteered to help if they ever would like an extra hand. The manager agreed and two weeks later I'm splitting wood and tending the fire for their 18th century distilling operation. That of course was fun. The staff at the Army Logistics University was flexible and understanding of this volunteer opportunity so I've managed to spend four days with some of the best historians and distillers in the U.S. I just feel so blessed for the opportunity.
You never know where you will end up in this life. Four years ago I was deployed. Two years ago I was unemployed. Today I was making whisky at the George Washington Distillery in Mt. Vernon. Yesterday I was chewed out in an email. Today I was thanked in an email for making the best whisky anyone has ever tried.
I started this blog to share the experience, but I've also found it to have a secondary function. That is journaling. It's pretty amazing to me to be able to catalog what I'm thinking at the moment. I don't really plan these posts out. That is why some are short and some are long and there is no set time limit between the posts. I was looking back on my Jan 29 post and reading what I wrote. January was a real hard month. I was sleeping in my car (whisky in the trunk) in Kansas City parking lots and knocking on doors to get sales in between making, bottling, labeling, and helping my wife with our newborn. It wasn't very glamorous but in hindsight, it made me hungry and it made me realize that I really need to be doing more than making a great product. I better be on the path to something that is substantial. Stay tuned.
Here is the nice part about still having a job while you are making whisky part time; you've got options. Truly, what needs to be done next is pretty straight forward: make it craftier. What that means for me is one of three things: start malting our own barley, making our own barrels, or put in a grist mill. Of course the most expensive is in reverse order. A grist mill will mean buying land and building a 200k + facility. A cooperage will cost about 40k and is pretty far outside of my current abilities. A malting facility is a little cheaper at 25k, but is even further outside of my expertise. However, this is one of the three things that I'll be doing next year. Yes. When I say I'm going to do something, you can pretty well bet your paycheck that it's going to happen. Comments? Probably not. I don't think I have a single subscriber to this blog and don't give a damn either.
What is craft? What is artisanal? How important is "traditional" and what precisely does that mean in an ever evolving industry? For me it has come down to physical location and available resources. I don't make bourbon as I don't really think that I should even remotely be on the same level as Beam-Suntory, Sazerac, Heaven Hill, etc. I DO make whisky from local resources though. Yeah, I've sold some pretty young (one week to one year) old whisky but I haven't charged anything over 30 bucks either. I personally think it would be bullshit if anyone does if it isn't at least a year old. I use local grains. I use spring water from my own spring. We hickory smoke our grains, and make our own charcoal out of hickory. I'm a rural distillery and none of my neighbors grow organic, non-gmo grains. Maybe that sounds awesome on a label, but I'd rather patronize the farmers that I go to church with instead of having a cool logo on my bottle. I don't just make whisky either. We have all kinds of stuff sitting in bond: Apple Brandy, Strawberry Brandy (damn that one hurt the wallet), Straight Rye, Grape Brandy, and rum. The rum sure as hell wasn't made from locally made molasses, but the molasses was free if I could get it off of the truck. So far it's the only thing we have not made from Ozark grown produce. We have got about 8 barrel variations as well: recoopered, new white American oak, new toasted, 3x used wine, new uncharred, etc. Only time will tell which one will taste better and I'll wait as long as it damn well takes to find out. I still have a day job so that I can feed this obsession too. I wake up at 5am every morning, listen to the "snap crackle and pop" of tired joints, and put on the uniform of a U.S. Soldier. When I have a long weekend, vacation, or a holiday, I go back home to my Ozark holler and make liquor. So tell me this: Is it craft? Is it artisanal? Better yet, call me one of these days, set up a time for a tour, and try it. Ultimately what I'm asking is this: Is it phenomenal? If not then let me know because my dedication is to making mind blowing great spirits and I don't care if it's done one cup or one thousand gallons at a time. What are your thoughts? I honestly don't think that this topic is really hit on enough. I think that if you are going to bring a product to market it should be to answer a problem. For me it's because of my deep love of the Ozarks. I wan't the end user experience the terrior of the Ozark region of America. I believe that it is underrepresented and should be a distinctive category in spirits. Let me be real clear. I love the Ozarks and think that we should stand out in the spirits category. I think that is something that we can all raise our glasses to.
I am fascinated with legacy technology that still works well. I am in Virginia for a few months and stopped by the Mt Vernon Estate just outside of D.C. It was phenomenal to say the least. One thing that really sticks out though is the distillery. Of course my interest would pull me there, but truly the best part of the distillery is hands down the grist mill. I can't describe with justice the attention to historical detail and craftsmanship of this mill, so please visit their website, visit them in person, and don't be a bitch. Pay the 100 bucks for the pint of whisky that they sell. you cannot get anything else like it anywhere else in the world. I'd pay 200 if that is what they charged. I digress...... The mill is powered by a two mile race from a pond. It seems to me that this is the next logical step for a lot of distilleries. Want to go green? Yep, no fossil fuels required to make your ground up corn. Also, look back in to the history of distilleries. They were always next to a good water source AND a grist mill. I think that if I'm able to this is something that I'd like to incorporate into our process.
As I mentioned in previous blog posts, young whisky sucks. Even if you start with a 159 proof, near grain neutral spirit, you'll find that with less than six months that it's harsh. Harsh is probably a kind word. I think one of my louder than life uncles used the term wildcat piss for young whisky (moonshine). Between a year and 2 years you have color, vanilla, oak, and hints of caramel, but that is just about where the complexity stops and branding begins.
Let's take Ole Smoky Charred Moonshine, which is grain neutral spirit aged in oak barrels for 3-4 months. It's a heapin helpin of good ole fashioned Americana on the surface. Founded by college friends and situated at the foot of the Smoky Mountains in Gatlinburg Tennessee, it sounds like the American dream come true. The bottle (if a mason jar could be called such) just states that it is bottled by Ole Smoky. That means that the liquor could probably come from Indiana or nearby Kentucky. It tastes like oak and rubbing alcohol. Seriously. I don't think I would even disinfect an open wound with it. However, with a few million, you can manage to get national distribution, marketing, POS displays, and celebrity or big brand endorsements (a la Harley-Davidson).
Personally, it pisses me off. Not because of the success; not because they didn't live on hotdogs and ramen while they were crafting a superb spirit. I root for all things that Ole smoky says it is. What pisses me off was that they didn't take the hard right. They didn't put the quality first, They didn't hunt down the best local ingredients. They don't sell what they make. What I'm getting at here is that it has never been a quality centric product. Perhaps the ma and pa kettle packaging will pay off and they will keep making money hand over fist. It's hard to say.
What this comes down to for me is that they didn't take the hard right and by God we will. I know that this sounds like a rant, and in a way it is. However, really I'm not complaining but instead just sharing my thought process of what I think a great brand should be doing. Really, I'm documenting this process of how Ozark Mountain Distilling is becoming one of the most valuable brands in the U.S. Yeah, I said it. Mark my words; we will be one of the most valuable brands in the U.S. I honestly don't know if we will be the most profitable, but by drawing this line in the sand I think we are doing what is right, what is ethical, and what will make the greatest product. Chances are, it's going to take years for this to happen. Look at Jim Beam, Jack Daniel's, Laphroaig, etc. These companies grew organically, over time, and grew because they made a great product. I'm patient. I don't care if it takes me until I'm 80. I only care that it happens. Think these other "craft" guys are looking a quarter century down the road? Probably not. It's a hard right and we are taking it.
Today was extremely crappy in terms of productivity. I had one goal: fix this god forsaken grinder and get it out of my distillery bay. Did that happen? Definitely not. I picked up this 1970s piece of vintage machinery from one of the local Amish farmers for 200 bucks with no guarantees of anything. The hammers looked ok so I figured what the heck. I don't have the money to buy a new one so I better have the time to fix an old one. It needed a bearing on one of the augers and the screen un-stuck on the mill. After about 6 trips to the local farm supply store, all of my parts were sourced, the busted up rim replaced, and I was in business. I thought. Misty and the girls were all feeling a little under the weather. My infant is cutting teeth, so add that on and you have one cranky (and needy!) baby. I helped around the house and with the girls with interruptions of fixing the grinder basically. At 830 pm, Misty looked miserable so I told her to go on to bed and I'd take care of the girls. At that point, I gave in and decided to enjoy the rest of this day. I rocked the youngest to sleep, put her on the bed, and then me and a 4 year old made a chocolate cake before brushing teeth and a bedtime story. I was a hero, and truly enjoyed the rest of my day. Sometimes we need to appreciate the moments that we have and actually live in them. Most people are present physically in the present, but are mentally in the future or past. Sometimes, maybe most times it would be best to just actually live now and realize that yesterday is gone and tomorrow can only happen tomorrow.
Disclaimer: this is a long blog post!
So what happened? For about six months you saw us everywhere. I was hitting it every day on twitter, instagram, Facebook, youtube, and this blog on the whisky holler. Then the online content just DROPPED. Well, here is the truth: I think that I was taking this business down the wrong path. There were a couple things that really pushed me to put all of this on a hold. I'm going to cover the first one in this post. The first was the crushing financial/time drain from promotions. You see, everybody wants to trade their space for your dollars. We did whiskey fest, sugar rush, grand openings, tastings, and the list goes on. Some of it costs money, and some of it cost me my time. My hopes on all of this was that it would translate into sales, and for a brand that already has a marketing budget that would be correct. However, we are an unknown and wherever we went we were just interesting and that was about it. Interesting doesn't sell young whisky in the long run and for the most part all I managed to do was give away a lot of whisky. It was fun, but didn't really create a return on investment- and it cost me a lot of time. I mash, distill, barrel, bottle, sell, account, and somehow manage to help my wife with out with our two young daughters. My cash flow is basically nil. This endeavor has been on my own dime and credit so at the end of the day, my profits from sales cover putting up whisky in barrels as well as payroll, excise taxes, and my personal mortgage payment. After we got the building, rick house, equipment, and barrels set up, there wasn't a hell of a lot left. I met with some "investors", but what they were after was different from what I was after. Here is what I'm getting at: young whisky sucks. A big sorry to all of my fellow craft/micro distillers (seriously, I feel your pain). I started selling whisky that was less than a year and it wasn't anything that I really liked to drink. I decided it was wrong. I haven't distributed (wholesale) any aged whisky since April because it wasn't ready. I tried advanced aging techniques, and it was good, but it wasn't phenomenal. I know in my heart of hearts, and my pallet confirms, that there is nothing better than OLD whisky. The only problem here is that we started distilling in July 2016. The MINIMUM age of good whisky, and ask any true afficionado, is four years. It just takes that much time in the oak. Period. You can't cheat father time. There is no short cut for fantastic whisky. I'll say it again: THERE IS NO SHORT CUT FOR FANTASTIC WHISKY.
Also, let me be frank. That thirty to fifty dollar bottle of craft whisky is a rip off in some ways. Look, I'm not saying that they are actively trying to cheat you, but they really can't afford to sell it for any less than that. They have the same problems that I do. They need to sell in order to keep their doors open and time is money. So what is sitting on the shelf from a lot of small producers is whisky that is under two years old. It's brown and has a lot of the characteristics of great whisky but doesn't have the complexity that comes from good ole fashioned time. I've decided to not push out whisky that isn't ready. If I'm going to charge thirty dollars for a bottle of whisky, it's going to be worth forty. I believe that you should always try to give more- always. Call it an old fashioned background, stupid, stubborn, or whatever you want, but I want to be in the reorder business, not the sales business.
I'm now back on Active Duty in the Army. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the Army. I have deep, deep respect for the military, serving my country, and absolutely love serving my Soldiers through leadership. The Army has taken me from a nobody hillbilly from the Missouri Ozarks to a Captain in the Army commanding Soldiers and responsible for millions of dollars of equipment. However, all I really want to do is make whisky here in the Ozarks. These are my true loves. I could write pages and pages on both of these subjects but I'll save you for now. In the end, I need to feed this business. I have corn to purchase, and a business loan to pay for. In three years, this business loan will be paid for and more whisky made. Provided I have survived another four years of active military service and haven't been killed by a mortar round in Afghanistan, I will have five year old whisky ready to sell. I think its a good tradeoff.
That is how much I believe in what I'm doing. I have had a few detractors tell me that I'm quitting. No, it isn't quitting. This is hard. I'm leaving a log cabin with a live spring sitting on 30 beautiful acres in the ozarks. I love my family and being able to see my mom whenever I want. I love barbecues on the 4th of July and going fishing. I love not shaving. I love going over to my neighbors and watching them practice roping calves. I love going to my neighbors and getting fresh milk from (still warm, fresh from the udder). I'm trading this to put a bottle of five year old whisky on the shelf. I'm not quitting, I'm digging in. I'm taking the hard right over the misunderstood wrong. I spent most of my first daughters life deployed. I missed first words, first steps, the first bite of ice-cream, and a lot of firsts in desert heat. I'll probably miss a few firsts in the coming years. What I'm getting at is that this is the hard right. White Mule Distillery is going to take it so that you can literally sip on the very best of the Ozarks. I hope you think that it's worth what it costs you.
Gary Lee sits down with Mike McConnell and Keith Hendrickson with the Missouri ATC to talk craft distilling in the State.
A brief outline of this series. We cover the purpose, audience, and give an example of future content
This blog thus far has merely functioned as a rant for my frustration with trying to get this venture off the ground- not like any of the other military blogs that I previously post on or guest blog on. However, great things are coming; each week I will be interviewing industry experts on the craft distilling movement and uploading to a new podcast on iTunes and putting the transcription on this blog. I've already got some heavy hitters lined up- Tom Hogue with the TTB, one of the leaders in MO Alcohol Tobacco Control, a certain MASTER DISTILLER with Brown Forman, just to name a few. Stay tuned for fun and information.
I feel like opening up a liquor business in the Ozarks has been a real blessing, but not in the way that you would think. I make craft whisky, a product that usually retails between 30 and 90 bucks a bottle in urban venues in the U.S. In the Ozarks, the reality though is that it might as well be a thousand dollars a bottle because this isn't urban and it sure as hell isn't like anywhere else in the U.S. Believe me, I wouldn't have it any other way.
If you can make it in Barry County, you can make it anywhere and I'll tell you why. Any kind of a business around here that doesn't cover basic needs or at least cover them affordably is doomed to failure. The median household income is around 24k. That is 2 thousand a month before you take out taxes. If you have a couple of kids your grocery/household items bill alone will be 500 bucks, and that is IF you cook most of your meals. That means that you probably have around 1300 bucks a month to cover your mortgage/rent, vehicle loans, insurance, gas, electricity, trash, phone, and internet. Then there is the EXTRA school stuff like school stuff, boy/girl scouts, sports, feed for livestock, or repair expenses. Did I mention health insurance? No, I didn't because a lot of people don't have it because they can't afford it. For a lot of the folks around here it's cheaper to pay the annual penalty and go to the urgent care/ER when it's an absolute necessity than it is to pay the monthly premiums for insurance that isn't even close to being comprehensive. What I'm getting at here is that there is always more month at the end of your money. Beer and liquor for a lot of folks a fantastic escape from the harsh reality of living on a razors edge, but you damn well better be able to squeeze it in on a budget that isn't there in the first place.
Really, I understand this. I remember working double shifts mopping floors and being proud as hell that I brought home a paycheck that amounted to 800 dollars. My idea of a party was 25 dollars worth of cheap beer and a pack of smokes, but I still had to go to work on Sunday with a pounding head from drinking the aforementioned cheap beer.
That is why my whisky sits on the shelf for around 25.00 retail. I make around five dollars on every bottle and that is only because I self distribute. I have bought all of my grain by the silo and I currently only have part time employees (which is something I have a LOT of guilt over). So at 5 bucks a bottle I better be selling 400 bottles a month. I pay about 2100 a month just in loan and excise taxes, which makes my take home income every month a little less than 2k. It's pretty spartan, but I'm taking a gamble. I'm betting that if it's hand-made, craft product that the working stiff can afford, that they will actually buy it- that I can make up my margins by selling in quantity. Only time can tell. Hopefully I can afford to keep selling it this cheap.
Lets get back to why this is a good thing- at least in my mind. My bet is that if my whisky is within reach of the working stiff or college student, that I will be able to sell enough to keep my doors open. With that in mind, sales will eventually increase. With more sales, comes more demand, comes more revenue, and bingo! More jobs are created. I had a pretty good gig as an active duty Army Officer with 8 years of service. Pay was good, benefits were good, and as long as I did a good job I was guaranteed retirement. However, it wasn't satisfying.
I didn't start this business so that I could get rich or even be comfortable; I started it to create jobs, increase agri-tourism, and invest in the rural Ozarks. This isn't about me, this is about the people around me. I want to create Lynchburg Tennessee right here. Jack Daniels is in Lynchburg, TN. There is literally NOTHING in the area besides Jack Daniels. They make a good product, employ most of the locals in the area and give generously to the surrounding community. It's a pretty good business model.
In all, that is why my product is priced the way it is. It isn't rot gut whisky with a price tag of an 8 year Scotch, but something reasonable that any average Joe could pick up in the store. To me, that is worth the dollars and worth the support. Only time can tell if I'm right or not.
Can you “Out-Bourbon” Kentucky?
I’m writing this a day after I attended a local whiskey tasting event here in Missouri. It was a lot of fun and I had an opportunity to really get to know the types ofcustomers that I would want as a craft distiller. There were aficionados, regular working stiffs, localvores, and curious attendees. I had the same opportunities that they did to taste a LOT of different whiskies, and it confirmed my belief that I should not be making bourbon whisky and chances are, most distillers probably shouldn’t either.
Let me first give you a disclaimer; I’m a distiller. Notice that I didn’t put “craft”, “master”, or “artisan” in front of the word distiller. I’m an amateur. Yeah, I’ve been making alcohol since I was about thirteen, and yeah, I can tell the difference between heads, hearts, and tails on a pot still, but compared to the nearly 200 years of generational knowledge that sitting in Kentucky, I’d be an amateur in making bourbon no matter how long I’d been doing it. I don’t have the financial backing, the warehouses, or the football sized scientific team that goes into crafting a consistent tasting product. I’m one guy with a mashtun, a still, and some empty bottles.
So let me give you (the “craft distiller”) a break down of your competition. Beam-Suntory, Brown-Forman, Heaven Hill, and Diageo have combined assets of nearly 53 billion dollars (That is with a B). They have lobbyists that probably make more than you do on any given year, and they have never had to stir a pot of boiling corn mash. Diageo alone had a marketing budget of nearly a billion dollars in 2016. They put up posters, slam your Facebook feed, and take so much shelf space on the aisle that you will be lucky to be sitting on the bottom shelf next to the bottled water. You think your crafty google ad-words campaign is really going to make an impact? Probably not.
So I know what you are thinking now: “But I make bourbon better than anyone in Kentucky.” Maybe you do. Maybe you got your best friend to help you. Maybe you both have truly epic beards and you both visited Scotland and the bourbon trail both while you were in college. It doesn’t matter. You don’t have the time, which is something that Kentucky has lots of. They can afford to make a sub-par product if they want to and just wait for it to get better in the barrel. Do you? Nope. You better be making some damn good moonshine and hope that the American consumer will change their minds and think that it actually tastes good. Actually go hit some bars like I did and try to tell someone your selling moonshine. You will have a hard sell. Harder still? Sell them some of your bourbon. They will automatically think about Kentucky, and with good reason. The first mention of bourbon was in Kentucky, and that was in 1821. What I’m getting at here is that bourbon is synonymous with a state that I don’t live in. Even if I made the best bourbon in America, I’d always be the distillery that is doing something that Kentucky started and I’d always be years behind.
This is why I don’t make bourbon and probably never will. I know that I will never out-bourbon Kentucky. Don’t get me wrong. If you make a great tasting bourbon, your making money at it, and the bottles are flying off the shelf, then by all means you should keep doing what you’re doing. On the other hand, if you’re wondering why there’s dust sitting on the bottles in the local liquor store, then perhaps you should consider placing a little extra effort in crafting a spirit that encompasses your local terroir, is within reach of the average consumer, and offers a taste that will set you apart from the titans of the whisky business. Just keep working on it. After all, all you have to lose is time, which Kentucky has shown can be quite profitable.
Another "post midnight" post. I just can't help but wonder sometimes why in the hell I'm doing this. Nobody in their right mind would put in the hours that I do, face the financial risk that I do, and deal with some of the straight up retards like I do and not make a goddamn penny for it. This may sound like a rant. Truth be told, I couldn't be happier. Yeah, I haven't made a profit but I've been open for 3 months. I have been pushing myself harder than I ever have with little present results. But that is the way it is in everything. In Jan 2007 I weighed 210 lbs. and in Dec 2009 I weighed 165. In The first 10 were easy to lose and the last five were easy to lose. In between there was a slump and I had to change my approach. Towards the end there was a slump and I had to change my approach. I've heard people say that the last 5 are the hardest to lose, but in reality it's only hard because they are doing the same things to lose the last 5 as when they lost the first 10. Things change and you have to change with them.
Really, that is my struggle right now. Our first month was a huge success. We sold out of product 3 times! Now we are in a slump. I have a way to change my approach, but I'm not sure the whisky world is ready for it. Let me break this down for you. Most really, really great tasting whiskies are aged 6+ years. I've got a process that makes a full bodied, ultra smooth whisky in about a days time. It is remarkable. Do you call it rapid aging? Do you call it cheating? What DO you call it? So I have a new approach, but is it consistent with what my distillery is based on? At the outset, I said that I would only make great whisky and that I've never had a good whisky younger than 3 years. Well I've figured out a way that makes great whisky in about a day and I'm wondering what my end customers want to buy; an age statement, or great taste?
It should be an easy answer. I've been working on this process for over two years now. It started out as "wonder what happens if I heat up the alcohol in some wood chips?", but ended in a 14 step process involving chemistry and a lot of miscellaneous pieces of farm equipment. I haven't a lab, a science background, or financial backing like that guy at Lost Spirits, but I have well over 100 test batches; actually I just stopped counting at 100. I'm just glad I never tried to figure out how many hours I've spent on it. So all in all, I should be thinking "Yeah, you figured this out so you should cash in on it." but for some reason the purist in me didn't want me to do it.
Long story short, I'll be at Whiskey Fest in Springfield this weekend and I'm going to hand out samples and see what the overall reaction is to it. If its good, the world gets a new whisky. If its not, I'm just out of a lot of time for figuring it out and a lot of time arguing with the TTB for the label approval.
I came in this weekend to work on the place. I got here at 2am and am getting ready to head back at 2am. This is wearing me out, but to tell you the truth I've never had so much energy. I really believe that I'm gearing up to be able to give something truly great. It's not just about alcohol. There is a lot of great alcohol in this world but not much from the Ozarks. I know that all of this hard work is going to enhance peoples lives. Not just at the club/bar, but this is going to create jobs, promote tourism, and give another way for local farmers to liquidate their crops. This is the "best of the Ozarks"!
I've been working diligently down in Arkansas for the Army but haven't given up on this dream. At first I admit that I was really overwhelmed by leaving the holler when I was just really starting to get the ball rolling, but I never stopped. There is so much that goes into preparations; much more than I could have imagined. Its a sacrifice for sure. I work all week- sometimes well past a 12 hr shift and then head home on the weekends. Over Independence day it got me to thinking about how its that way for a lot of our military- a life of sacrifice. In honor of this sacrifice I will be opening the distillery on September 11, 2016. It may not be a grand event, but it is symbolic. All vets that can show up for it will be getting a drink on me.
I didn't really put this in blazing letters anywhere on this site, but I'm still in the military. I'm not on active duty, but I joined the Arkansas National Guard after leaving my last active duty station. Well, I have been called back into service and I will answer the call. It looks like my projected open date of April 15th will be pushed back. How far I don't know yet. Stay posted.
It has thrown a little wrench in my plans, but it really doesn't bother me that much to be honest. We are building a business around the concept of service to your community. Offering a product or service means absolutely nothing if you aren't using at least part of your time of profits to better the surrounding community. I have been serving since 2008 and I will always serve. Hopefully I can do it a little closer to home next time so that I can bring you "the very best of the Ozarks"
I have to admit that I struggle with actually believing that I will be successful. Growing up in a family with limited financial resources left me with a belief that money, success, health, and wealth only comes to a lucky few. Although I have learned and lived differently, there is a little voice in the back of my mind that says "you ain't gonna make it". Therefore, I tend to try and overpower this nagging feeling with dedicated research to ensure that I do NOT fail. I was looking up some marketing stuff, and I came across this guy named Frank Kern https://www.facebook.com/Frank.Kern.Page/ who seemed pretty straight forward in his marketing approach. He basically postulates that you need to know who your customer is in great detail and tailor your product to him. Seems like a good idea, but when you consider that damn near everybody likes a snort of whisky, the task seems daunting- at first.
As I got up this morning, drank about a half a pot of coffee, popped a couple Motrins, and tried to remember who in the hell I was, I realized that my "ideal" customer is probably a lot like me. A dude in his late twenties to early thirties, got a kid or two, loves wearing a comfortable pair of blue jeans, generally eats healthy but has a secret love of twinkles, works too damn many hours to pay for the toys (motorcycles?) that he doesn't have time to enjoy, and wishes he could spend more time outdoors. He thinks that America is too commercialized and that most of the social interactions he encounters day to day are basically bullshit. He craves something that is authentic, not just marketed as authentic, but doesn't think that paying double the price for it is reasonable. I think this is about right. Only my cash register will tell. Either way, stay tuned. I'm bringing you the very best of the Ozarks!
I have had a lot of confusion around here as to why I'm spelling my hooch differently than the fine gents distilling in Kentucky. Let me give you a couple reasons and clear the air.
Language: I love language. I come from a family of musicians and song writers, so words, and how they are used is a part of who I am. I love plays on words so I have to admit that I'm kind of prone to puns. This is a Scottish spelling, and this is a nod to the Scots-Irish people that settled this region.
History: I also love history; in particular Ozark history. This is a pretty cool region that until the mid-1800s was where civilization (states) ended, and territories began. In the western Ozarks, there was often very little distinguishing between these two. This area was settled by and large from people of Scots-Irish descent. Many moved westward from Appalachia and brought with them their customs and language. There is a lot of old English (Elizabethan) words, phrases, and grammar present, but I'm making Whisky and not Gin! The Scotts in particular spell it Whisky and not WhiskEy. I think that is important because:
I'm not making bourbon. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely LOVE me some bourbon, but my obsessive desire to reduce, repurpose, and recycle has left me creating a product that tastes like bourbon but doesn't meet the federal criteria. Bourbon must be aged in brand new barrels. I am using wine barrels that have been recoopered. Whisky on penetrates a few millimeters into the wood. I have a company shave out the area that hits the whisky, have them give it an alligator char, and ship it to me. Trees are saved (literally) and amazing whisky is made.
In all, come by and lets talk about language. I love the language diversity in the U.S. There has been for a long time a heavy push towards homogenization of American English, and I severely hope that this ceases in favor of diversity. Accents and grammatical diversity is celebrated in many cultures worldwide, but there is a strong association of backwardness, stupidity, and ignorance in Appalachian/Ozark language. Disagree? Come by, have a sip with me, and lets talk about it.
References: These are cool links about Ozark Language. It applies just the same to Appalachian language as well
https://thelibrary.org/lochist/periodicals/wrv/V1/N11/sp64e.htm
https://thelibrary.org/lochist/periodicals/ozarkswatch/ow803j.htm
http://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/destinations/2012/11/25/shakespeare-ozarks-arkansas-unique-language-heritage/1724131/
I've put this off for too long. Kind of like opening the distillery.
A little back story though. Why this? Why a distillery, and why "in the middle of nowhere"? Let me start off with my first love: the Ozark landscape. I grew up a little ways outside of the city limits and my family struggled financially. A house without A/C in the summer was not a great place to hang out in so I spent a lot of time outdoors. I fell in love with the spring fed creeks, the wild woods, and the wildlife that inhabited it. With that comes agriculture. In all my years, my mom has never failed to grow a garden and can her own meat and vegetables. Growing a crop from simple seeds is a true wonder of nature and something I've always been fascinated with.
Additionally, I have an undying passion for the culture and the people that inhabit this region. We are industrious and resourceful. I grew up with "hillbilly engineering"- using what is available and what you can find to fix something that is broke or needs to be built. My great grandad in his life was a mechanic, a farmer, a bar owner, and a moonshiner. He was an expert in hillbilly engineering.
Ultimately, I want to bring together these concepts; the terroir, agriculture, and whisky culture of the Ozarks. I want to stay close to the land and source of supply that it comes from and you can bet I will be reinvesting in this rural landscape. However, that is another blog post. Stay tuned because the best is yet to come, and I'm bringing you the very best of the Ozarks!
-Gary Lee