234 – Scotch Pursuit with Dr. Rachel Barrie


New for 2020, it’s Scotch Pursuit! Ok, not really. But what better way to start the new year by trying something new and having Dr. Rachel Barrie, the master blender for The GlenDronach, BenRiach, and Glenglassaugh of Brown-Forman, come and show us the ropes. We talk about malting, peat, Glens and Bens, rules and regulations to be considered a scotch, the temperatures and more. This is a fantastic 101 to the scotch world and even made us, not so much scotch curious, but more single malt curious. Since this recording, we’ve tried numerous single malts and found some great ones. If you have an “entry Scotch” for bourbon drinkers, drop it here in the comments.

Show Notes:

  • This week’s Above the Char with Fred Minnick talks about Al Young.
  • Why all the Glens and Bens?
  • Does the altitude affect the whiskey?
  • Talk about growing up around scotch.
  • Tell us about your doctorate.
  • Tell us about the the brands.
  • What is an old school malt?
  • How do you keep malts consistent?
  • What is malting?
  • What is the process for making scotch?
  • What kind of stills do you use?
  • What is your favorite cask?
  • How do you make a blend?
  • How old does scotch have to be legally?
  • Is there a lot of evaporation loss in the barrel?
  • What proof does BenRiach come out of the barrel?
  • How many barrels are in a typical batch?
  • Do you have a team helping you blend?
  • Is there a limit to the number of times you can use a barrel?
  • Tell us about the special releases.

Transcription:

0:00
All right, and I want to make sure that I’m saying these right. Ben Ben. Ben rush when we have Ben react. Oh, gosh. Ben, Ben react. Well, no, I want to be able to introduce and kind of talk about it. So Ben, we are going to hear him fumble. Glenn chronic, right and then Glenn glassing Oh no, glass, glass, I

0:23
have a glass of wine glass. Okay.

0:27
I must leave that one and

0:32
I’m gonna butcher this so bad.

0:45
Happy New Year everybody. It is Episode 234 of bourbon pursuit. And with the new year it comes time that we can all reflect back and start with a clean slate. It gives us a chance to focus on where things are exciting and where we see change happening and we looked at the world of bourbon

1:00
Saw that there’s too much drama. So we explored what else this wonderful water whiskey has to offer. And we decided that we’re going to start venturing off into scotch. So now you can look forward to a whole lot more scotch podcast happening in 2020. All right, that was a bad joke. We’re not gonna be doing any of that. We don’t have any other scotch playing episodes, except for this one you’re gonna hear today. So you’re in the clear. All right. Now let’s get on with the news. The bourbon world loss and other great on Christmas Day at 2019. With the passing of Al young from four roses. Alice served in various roles at four roses for 52 years. In 1990. He became distillery manager and in 2007, was named four roses bourbon brand ambassador. He was also historian and published the book for roses. The return of a whiskey legend in 2010. I was inducted into the whiskey magazine Hall of Fame in 2015. And he’s also a member of the Kentucky distillers Association, Kentucky bourbon Hall of Fame. After the dedication of the 50th anniversary bottle in 2017. He was boosted in the spotlight and he was regularly seen during

2:00
Private barrel selections. We captured him telling the story of four roses and part of his career. Way back on episode three in 2015. Our thoughts and prayers go out to his family, friends and the entire four roses community. We covered this in the podcast way back in July because on July 3 2019, lightning struck a warehouse at beans maturation complex on the site of the former Old Crow distillery on McCracken road. The warehouse held an estimated 40,000 barrels of whiskey and collapse resulting in a fire. The site is located in the banks of the Glens Creek, which flows into the Kentucky River, which eventually goes into the Ohio River. State Fish and Wildlife investigators later found dead fish along 62 miles of all three waterways with the most impact happening in Glens Creek in the Kentucky River beam. Suntory has agreed to pay the state of Kentucky more than $700,000 following the environmental damage from July’s warehouse fire, according to Global’s courier journal that Kentucky Energy and Environmental cabinet negotiated a $600,000 fine with the

3:00
Companies Jim beam’s brand new unit, an additional $112,000 to reimburse the agency for its expenses from the fire. Now we’ve talked about the rise of shipping alcohol on the podcast plenty of times before. But now there are studies coming out, the volume of liquor sold online in the US should be more than quadrupled by 2020 for reaching an estimated value of $13.4 billion. And this is according to I Ws or who is the global benchmark for beverage alcohol and data intelligence. out there hurdles that come on this, you’ve got the antiquated three tier system, you get blue laws and individual states that take care of age verification. And you also have perception because half of the people that were surveyed during this thought that purchasing online was illegal, with companies like drizzly leading the charge, along with other retailers using things like instacart for Costco, people like this. They’re doing same day delivery. Expect to see more that it didn’t happen in 2020. Thank you to everyone who supported the bourbon pursuit Christmas charity.

4:00
raffles, we raised $13,740 for the USO pets for vets and love city. We appreciate everyone who took the time to donate to these good causes and the winners, you’ll be receiving your items in the mail over the next two weeks. We’ve been truly impressed by our latest pursuit series offerings. Episode 18 of pursuit series was our first ever ride barrel. And it came from Finger Lakes distilling. It’s a four year old but it packs fruit and spice all in one for $65 and we also released Episode 19, which is from our Tennessee stock. It’s a 10 year old bourbon and it tastes like those orange push ups that we all used to love as kids. We have less than 15 bottles remaining of Episode 18 and about 80 bottles left of Episode 19 we also have less than 10 bottles remaining of Episode 12 so you better act fast. You can get the links to purchase all these by going to pursuit spirits.com this was an exciting episode for Ryan and I we don’t know anything about scotch like none

5:00
Least when we started this podcast, we were curious about bourbon. And we started to learn a whole lot more before really diving into it. So what better way to get the full experience about scotch, then by having Dr. Rachel Barry, who is a master Blender for multiple lines of scotches, come on the show and show us the ropes. We talked about multi Pete regulations be considered a skoshe temperatures and a whole lot more. This is a fantastic one on one to the scotch world, and even made us not so much scotch curious, but more so. single malt curious. Since this recording, we’ve tried various American and foreign single malt and found some that we’ve really loved and enjoy. So there’s a lot more out there than bourbon for most of us. Now. Sit back, Let’s relax. Let’s hear what Joe from barrel bourbon has to say. And then you’ve got Fred minich with above the char.

5:51
I’m Joe Beatrice, founder of barrell craft spirits, we explore whiskey in an entirely new way. My team at barrel craft spirits selects and blends barrels of whiskey

6:00
into something greater than the sum of their parts. Next time ask you bartender for barrell bourbon.

6:06
I’m Fred MiniK. And this is above the char. There are a few people you meet in life, where they just instantly feel like they’re a brother or a family member, or someone who just cares so deeply about another human being that they would just do anything for a total stranger.

6:27
That’s who al Young was. Al young, was probably the most knowledgeable person in bourbon that never wanted any credit. Al Young was this incredible brand ambassador for four roses, who had started working for the seagrams company in 1967. And had been all over the place in the distilling business. You know, to me that the pinnacle of his career was when he served as the plant manager for four roses, everybody talks about the master distiller but our was

7:00
plant manager. And when it came time to retire, they found another job for him because they didn’t want to let him go. Because anybody who ever met our young just felt this Kismet kind of special relationship to him. He was, he was avuncular, caring kind, and he wanted to know about you. That’s what made our young so special was that it was about bourbon and he loved four roses. But it was never about really anything other than the people. I wanted to know where you grew up. How many kids you have, what you love about whiskey, what you don’t like, he wanted to talk to you and learn about you. And so when he passed away on Christmas Day, this past week,

7:50
I think

7:51
a lot of us felt that we felt this big hole that we lost a friend and yeah, we

8:00
always talked about how we lost a whiskey legend. But more than anything, Al was everybody’s friend. And if you ever did a barrel pick with him if he ever shook his hand if you ever had a drink with him in a bar or, or had a sandwich in a cafe, you know what I’m talking about. Now, Young was one of a kind, and he will be missed.

8:25
And that’s this week’s above the char. If you want to learn more about al Young’s contributions, go check out my Forbes article, visit forbes.com. And you should also check out the book he wrote about four roses. You can just find it on Amazon search for four roses. Until next week. Cheers

8:48
welcome back to this episode of bourbon pursuit the official podcast of bourbon, Kinney and Ryan here on site in in another studio or at Brown formance. Yes, but today we’re talking about

9:00
topic that’s so green to us. Like, um, I, we got this email from Andrea who set this up. And I said, Let’s take it, let’s do the opportunity because we need to branch out a little bit because we’ve been so bourbon focused in our podcasts and our lives. We forget about this. Oh, there’s this whole other world of whiskey that we’re not even touching on. And then actually, if you look at it sort of Trumps even what bourbon does on the global map to Oh, yes. But by far and it’s funny on the way here, I was thinking like, all right, what we’re going to talk about and then like, start thinking, like, when I was when you’re like in your 20s, early 20s, you like, kind of make all these rules for yourself. Like, I will never pay someone to mow my lawn or my kids won’t be the ones that screaming at the restaurant. And another role for me was, because I’m from Bardstown. I will never drink scotch. But today, I’m changing that and I’m excited to learn about it and drink some scotch. I know it’s going to be exciting to do that. And that’s really why we have it. It’s a

10:00
This is what I love about this is that we have a guest on today that is is pretty world renowned, especially for the scotches that she blends and she touches. You know, I think we might be a little jaded, we might be sitting in the bounds of royalty right now not even really recognize it. Yeah, we’re peasants, Scott.

10:19
So let’s go ahead introduce our guest today. So today we have Rachel Berry. Rachel is the master Blender for Ben wreck, the Glen. Glen glass and all i got i hope i got that right for single malt Scotch whiskies in the brown Forman portfolio. So Rachel, welcome to the show. Thank you for having me. It’s great to be here. You did well with those Kenny Yeah, I know. He was kind of fumbled through this quite quite comical

10:42
because we want to have a glass of Glen glass and though it was that, is that how it was? I said a glass of glass. Ah, let’s see. That’s a very basic question. It starts off while the Glens and Ben’s what like there’s, you know, Glenlivet, Glynn morenci Glen, Glen glass and Glen dragon

11:00
We’re with altitude Really? Okay, so Glenn doneck is very deep down a valley in the valley of brambles.

11:09
So it’s a Glen. Okay, and Glenn Glasser is deep down beside the sea. Okay. So you have to again, go down and tickling glossa and then Ben reacts a little bit higher altitude we call those dollars here.

11:28
dollar Yeah, yeah. go fishing. Exactly. You can go fishing. They’re absolutely good surfing there. Oh, no, there’s no service

11:39
whereby the see Okay, cool. Yeah, yeah. And then Ben react is slightly higher altitude. So it’s a bad. Okay. Yeah. So I’m assuming the altitudes do something to the whiskey that really kind of pushed into the name is it as well? Yeah, everything makes a difference with scotch. I mean, scotch whiskey.

12:00
been around since 1494.

12:03
If not for centuries before that was our earliest recorded evidence and we’ve got 128 distilleries in Scotland and no to disillusion the same is the spirit with the greatest diversity of style and individuality of character in the wild.

12:19
And we’re gonna be tasting three years a little bit later we’ll dive into those I probably jumped ahead. itinerary or

12:26
so yeah, altitude is a part of it is a part of it. It’s one part of many parts. Okay, glad we got it kind of like you know pinos, you kind of grew up you know, to our wine, you kind of grow in the more lower humid regions, then you have grapes in the higher regions, they get more sun and sky kind of gives different flavors white, right? It affects it affects the maturation effects of fermentation, where the distilleries, gotcha. Cool. And so you’re based out of Scotland too. Is that correct? Absolutely. We’re in Scotland. Well, I was born, five minutes from Glen donek distillery, and I was brought up the air

13:00
Then I went to Edinburgh University and the head office the brown Forman production head offices in Edinburgh, or the Scotch whisky. merry go round by so you’re destined to be in scotch? Absolutely. And, you know, I’ve come home working for Glenn doneck and bendrick and going glass, because, say born near Glen donek. I learned to surf with my dad at Glen Glasser and learn to glide at Ben REAC. That’s cool. So I guess talk about growing up around it. I mean, was it was your family having influence into it at all? Or was it just something that you just kind of naturally gravitated towards? Well, my dad was the first to share with me a weed jam when I was far too young. I shouldn’t say this to be having a weed drum.

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beat everybody.

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And he also collects malt. So it was a big promote efficient model.

13:52
And, you know, it’s more actually being involved in farming as well. You know, it’s more of that side of things.

14:00
Then distilling, but yeah, it was serendipity getting into really,

14:05
because I’m a chemist by trade, and I could work for oil or, you know, pharmaceuticals and offer jobs with those. But then I just happened to be cycling past the Career Service on the last day, adult was advertised at the scotch whiskey Research Institute didn’t even know such a job existed and got the job. And then I’ve never looked back for years and researching the alchemy of scotch and then making it so that’s even a fun journey. Now the other thing we forgot to mention you’re also a doctor the trade might not it might correct so last year, I got an honorary doctorate from the University of Edinburgh so I was honored to be given that feel even worse about myself now.

14:49
You’re not only seeing the hands of greatness we’re also a doctor.

14:53
Well, I actually studying medicine first as well. It’s quite funny. Well was good medicine.

15:00
Why See? That’s why I say you know we drama D keeps adult 30 yep away

15:07
How much have you been drinking already today? Not in this kit.

15:12
So let’s let’s talk a little bit more about you know your history. You know going because I know that you’ve had your hands in a lot of the Glens and bends of the region as well before you were a master Blender here at Brown Forman taking care of the brands here. So kind of talk about some of that history too. Yeah, I mean, I started off with a Glen and the far north of Scotland and to Glens. The margy Glen Murray, and then also eila with our bag and work with their blends as well creating them so that was, that was a fun journey. I was 1617 years and then move to more worked more with xyla

15:54
with the highlands clan, and also with the lowlands

16:00
was a Glasgow distillery. And then

16:04
a couple more.

16:07
I lost and another Highland. But I’ve left the best to last working with Baron Corbin because it’s truly going home. So I’ve done my whiskey exploration. Yeah, you’ve seen them all. Yeah, whenever I see a bottle Glenmorangie I’m like, is it tastes like oranges? Or you know, like, I don’t know it, it looks like an orange bottle like, I don’t know, what’s, what’s the difference between like you talked about, I’ll guess that’s where Laphroaig and you know, different types of brands. What makes the region different? Like one part is one part. I mean, a lot of it is down to the conditions. So

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we’ll talk about space side and stuff like that to

16:49
go 50 to 60 distilleries in it. So that’s where most of the distilleries are. And Ben react is right in the heart of space sites.

16:57
Halfway between the mountains See, and it’s beautiful.

17:00
Beautifully balanced. And, you know, it tends to be you know, fruit laden moles are from Speyside so when rain is particularly fruit Laden, like orchard fruit.

17:12
So everything makes a difference. shape of the stills water the barley.

17:18
Yeah. And then the highlands I’ve actually would like with Glendora there’s actually very few distilleries in the eastern Highlands there’s only three. So Glendora is incredibly distinctive.

17:29
And it’s a real old style old school mode, which makes it an old school because you gotta understand we’re coming to this you know, we know mash but let’s start the basic like, what is is God’s vs. Okay, here we go. Here we go. We’ve only got four malt whiskey anyway. Yeah. single malt and that’s the caterpillar that’s growing. That’s what people are really loving. And, and we’ve got three award winning top distilleries. three ingredients. malted barley, so has to be malt for single malt

18:00
Whiskey meter.

18:02
Like sir deserves 100% one all. Gotcha. So when you go the tour, it’s like it has to be 100% Well,

18:11
they’re always like 15 you 1% corn You know, that’s the thing 100% malt because malted barley is the most complex material you can create flavor from in the world. There’s hundreds of flavor compounds created from malted barley. And there was that versus other grains, because it’s just all cast in a pool of amino acids of lipids as well as the starch that gives you the sugars. So there’s just so much on the on the husk, you even get vanilla, you get searchers, there’s so much to be extracted and converted by the yeast to flavor so it’s much much more than just

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alcohol. So in you know, in fermentation, you actually create the same flavors as you would do in a wine. So, you know, people often say Oh, how come

19:00
This great penis from mote

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mall is magical. It just creates all this flavor. And that’s why notice those are the same. It’s a very complex material. And it’s the synchronicity of, of where the seller is every single step of the process that creates quite a distinctive character as well to say how do you keep that consistent

19:20
between the distilleries because I would imagine that you know, one farmers multi bar one farmers barley that you got to bring in and malt like you had to have some sort of process that try to get a consistency. Yeah, but I mean, there’s always going to be some sort of variations. Yeah, I mean, the malted barley varieties per year might be slightly different and more to do with the harvest. But generally, you know, most of Scotland will be growing the same, the same varieties because they’re the ones that are working and you know, disease resistant and and grow and give you the highest yield.

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But I mean, multi process can affect it. Ben Rhea, we’ve got all more tanks, which is something really special

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one of only two distilleries of those, you know, 55 distilleries in Scotland that to have the Maltings so that’s you know, something something special we don’t maltol year but we do batches somebody doesn’t know can you describe what multi malting is just bring that would be that somebody

20:18
is bringing the barley to life. So the barley is harvested spring barley is harvested in August and then it will be melted typically, you know, in the autumn

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or it can be kept as but just the green barley as we call it before it’s melted for longer and malted in the spring.

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But malting means that you basically steeping water. Okay, so you’re giving it some moisture, which is encouraging it to grow. Yep. And the growing phase is called germination. And that’s where the mall is layout and the floor and the old style is with a, you know, to shovel it, basically

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Mo shovel and turn it starts routing together it stops it from knitting together with sprites, okay and ensures an even temperature. And this allows the the enzymes to start working and the fooling the barley into thinking it’s growing right because given that those conditions and so when we got the enzymes just perfect and the body is modified so this activate those enzymes, it’s then we need to stop it. And that is done through mulk killing. And that’s where the the germination barley is, is is raised on to Multi Floor. And beneath that there is heat and that’s the kill. Okay.

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Traditionally, Pete was used and most distilleries when we were back, but then you know, in the 20th century there was gas etc. So, so so most distilleries these days are undefeated.

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with Ben reate, we’ve got both. So we’re very lucky to have both. But Pete itself, is is, is found a lot in Scotland.

22:12
For Ben REAC. We source it from nearby the distillery and there was Caledonia forests 10,000 years ago and over 10,000 years, the Caledonian forest is as broken down over time over this time, and created the piece that we use. So Arpita actually, you can see fibers in it almost like fibers of wood. So is this like, like sphagnum peat moss or anything like that type or no, this is more like woodridge widger Okay, this is because it’s from the northeast where you have Caledonia forest. Whereas if you went to Iowa, which is an island off the west coast, which makes the most

22:53
was the highest density of peated whiskies when it is a peat moss, a peat moss. Yeah.

23:00
No moss and also only because I use peat moss. I’ve agrico like turf. He’s, he’s

23:07
a

23:09
horticulture degree and we we use peat moss to like improve soil profiles and textures because it’s rich in organic matter

23:18
all that organic matter you see this decade over 10,000 years and different parts of the geography of Scotland and you have you know different types of vegetation. And when you burn the peat, which fuels the fire that most of barley,

23:35
the aromas from from that material that vegetation and permeate the barley. So this introduces smoky flavors and you know, more nyla you find something more medicinal, more CBD decaying sweet seaweed type of smell.

23:54
Whereas, with Ben REAC it’s that sweets would smoke on

24:00
Like a barbecue smell I think people in Kentucky would love it.

24:04
You know, it’s really, really sweet. I guess that’s based on the native vegetation there. Yeah, absolutely. But also in space side this is very, very rare, right? We Pete, every year we do about 15% of what we do. And then I get to have fun playing tunes with the beat on the competed stock and with flavor and create flavor so so it’s great fun but space I typically is undefeated malts they tend to most of your glands

24:34
So Ben Ben reacts really very bold and adventurous and having Is there anything like heat shortage or is that ever word like people here talking about you know, uses evoke or whatever they’re like, oh, Ukrainian oak shores they ever complained about they’re all using all our Pete. We thought plenty.

24:55
There’s plenty of pee. Gotcha. doesn’t actually take that much Pete to create smoke. Gotcha.

25:00
etc. So it’s all relative, isn’t it? probably use more in your horticulture. Yeah, farmers and weekend gardeners. Let’s see, I was kind of curious about like, what was the shift of moving away from Pete? Was it just in efficiencies of scale? Or was it a change in flavor that people were looking for? Like, what was that? Because you said most distilleries are kind of shifting away from that.

25:22
Well, this know historically,

25:25
it was more to do with the fact that we could get natural gas to to

25:33
drive barley and which is more efficient.

25:36
And also, you know that for the environment overall. So yeah.

25:45
We got, we got we got barley, they were melting it and then we’re killing it. Yeah, dry it out to stop the germination process. All right, where we at steps the next step? Oh, we get the multi barley in

26:00
millat we have to put in a mill. And there’s two different types of mill and distilleries. porcius or Bobby mill, and they’ve got four different rollers. And when it goes through the mill, this cracks open the husk, which is the surface of the barley. And then it goes down to the next level of rollers. And it gives you three different particle sizes, which are the husk on the outside of the barley, the grist in the middle and the flower, and you have to get perfect combination to give you the best taste and to get the most extraction. How do you get the perfect combination? Well, you just know what’s right for you guys. And then you can use a sieve and use a sieve and you you work out your different particle sizes percentages, got a really simple process to for the guys to the distillery

26:45
analogous to like the corn that we take in, you know, basically turn into a powdered form. We’re sitting there getting ready to do our mash. I guess the

26:55
flower package is not good because it would clog up the mash tun

27:00
Okay, okay give it will give you lots of alcohol and also it’s not as good from flavor.

27:06
husk is great because it gives us a filter bed and mash tun and we want to produce a clear war target. So when we drain it off, and you know it filters through, and then the rest is the majority of 70% in the middle size particle skips great flavor and alcohol. Awesome. Alright, so we’re moving past the mills where we’re going next we’re going into the mash tun and there’s different sort of mash tons and scotch. I Glenn jornet. We’ve got copper mash tun

27:37
which goes right back decent job six, it’s incredible. Lots of content with copper. It’s a traditional recompile very slow process takes six hours to mash. Ben react also takes a long time to to mash very slow, where some more efficient, bigger distilleries might take three hours. But we believe slow and steady wins the race. That’s right. The the tortoise always wins when I read this

28:01
Yeah, you know, Peter Pan, do you know the tortoise scene? Yeah, well, you get complexity in whiskey if you take your time. That’s right. So with bedrick, for example, we we add one water at around 6065 degrees,

28:23
we mash this and then we drain it off through the filter bed. And then we add another water, a higher temperature around 74. And we drain off and they both go into the fermentation process. And then we add two more waters, which just clean it all out and go back into the first with the first water from the next run. And so we saw remash water, so it kind of

28:51
so we, we basically are great economists in Scotland. We don’t let any job goes to waste. Yeah. And so with

29:00
mentation Are you all hanging your head on like this is our own yeast we’ve had for since 1400 or whatever, you know, we’ve got great distillers yeast that the whole industry uses which are perfect for scotch, she’ll be black distillers uses profit for scotch. But when we ferment as well, you know, this is where the magic comes in, you know, we know we’ve got

29:23
wash backs that you know, air does the natural Flora can get into so it can influence the fermentation as well.

29:33
Tanks kind of sort of thing. Gotcha. Well, it’s a Glen Donna, we have Scottish large wash backs. And sorry, I thought it’s large. It’s a wood. Oh, okay. I’ll never would see he knew exactly was not miss anything. Yeah, like I got nothing here. So

29:52
my computer

29:54
was like, you know, you think about some disorders we go to and they’ve got the Cypress tanks. You know, that’s my guys, man. That but yeah, this is

30:00
Uh,

30:01
yeah, so yeah, so squad is large and therefore, you know, it can you know pick it can breathe. You can never get it fully cleaned. But that’s great because it gets more of the micro flora. Yeah. Your

30:15
character character.

30:18
Character Yes. funks a good boss. Robust, robust Highland character. Yes. That’s how royalty says yeah.

30:29
Alright, so we’re through fermentation. We’re, I’m saying distilling copper stills, right pot stills. Oh, copper ports tell ya, I noticed again, notice no column stills ever never call themselves from all over. And while they’re saying it’s because it’s pretty efficient and what we see around here that’s kind of what a lot of the lot of the stories hang their hats on are doing a lot of bourbon and a lot of runs at once is basically using a really massive column stills. We have one of the most inefficient process

31:01
Incredible complex to flavor. It’s all about the flavor and the end of the day. And with single malt in particular.

31:10
There’s lots going on. So you want to take one cut this special for your distillery in the second distillation. So there’s two distillations, typically in scotch. first one’s called the wharf style tends to be the bigger style. And the second one is the spirit. So

31:30
in the first still, you distill the beer from around 8% alcohol up to around 20 24%. That’s called low winds. And then you take the low winds, which is 24 and two, the second still the spirit still, and we, we cut the middle point, so whether it’s the ceiling over

31:52
with bendrick, for example, 13 minutes, we just recycle. So we cut it, it goes into one

32:00
chamber. And then the middle heart goes into another chamber and that is for Philippians cask. And then the tales go back into that first chamber and then they’re all recycled. So it’s a very slow process, but it means that we capture very specific flavors. And then the still design is has an influence as well. So a Ben reate we’ve got very pure shapes so they just look quite beautiful pairs. And the this captures almost a fully peer job. Apple characters like an apple or church and the sales were that Glen Drona. We have

32:40
almost like saxophone stills.

32:43
Very unusual design. Certainly in terms of the neck, it curls around, up and down just like a swans neck. And this is very, very unusual.

32:53
So we have a boil ball that gives you lots of reflex and then the swans neck so we get this unique character.

33:00
How many different kinds of stills Have you seen over your course of time? You know, with all the time so I mean there’s there’s not kind of like a

33:09
I guess a good recipe that everybody kind of follows along like around here everybody goes oh, let’s just call them down and we’ll call today Yeah, well yeah, write a check and then in Dumbo Scotland all the stuff for sites Yeah. Oh coppersmith and the replace the stels member scotch whiskey is been gone for a long time Glendon It was 1826 You know, when I got those cells, so they’ll replace them. Exactly. You know, every every little batch every you know, everything just the right, same, exactly same dimensions, but each distillery Yeah, so they’re the man they’re the coppersmith. Gotcha. Yeah. So quite often, you see stills just driving along the road.

33:49
being replaced. Yeah, that’s awesome. Though. The corporate does where I mean corporates makes great conductor. It’s wonderful for flavor because it catalog

34:00
is more fruit takes it the harshal elements. It’s, it’s magical. Absolutely. And so from there you’ve got your hearts and you’re swimming you’re filling barrels. Now you’re filling barrels lately. Is it typical still 53 gallon sometime x bourbon cask like we’re talking about the book is interesting because if you go back to 1826 for example, back then, it was Sherry principally that was important into into Scotland and bottles. And then the cast’s were just use the surplus before then it was Aquavit, I Water of Life clear spirits. And you know, that farmers made because they had surplus barley. Who wouldn’t? Yeah,

34:46
a little bit different around here. Normally, you would call that moonshine? Yeah.

34:51
Yeah, so it was serendipity, as many things and then the scotch industry that these Sherry cast and the main but the results are

35:00
podcast klarich cast what at that point? And we’re used to, to host the whiskey which

35:08
you can ask me that. I love with no. I mean, I’ve spent so much time analyzing oak from around the world. I just love them all. I cannot say that. That’s a cop out. Yeah. I love the one. I’m creating the whiskey with that day better. So today Yeah, yeah. Today president with that cast, I’m fully present with each cast. Gotcha. Absolutely. Alright, so what was the last cast you used? What was the last before? Well, I came to Louisville a few days ago. And the last cast I knows from was

35:44
definitely Glenn Dornoch, Patrick Hammond f cask. The last one px px Sherry right. And yeah, so that was the last one I’m learning the beauty of scotch and parvis

35:57
authenticity as well.

36:00
That we have this incredible selection we have to use a walk. Walk is the best. Yeah. You know, other words just do not cut the mustard. They don’t have the complexity.

36:11
But apart from that it can have been you know, virginal we can use just like in Barban and or use casts So, for example with Ben redic we have the most eclectic collection of casks in space eight if not in the whole of Scotland. And we’re has 13 we’ve got everything from the virgin not to bourbon to rum, to red wine, Bordeaux, New Yorker to Moscow masala to Tawny port report to a Miss Miss Miss Spano.

36:50
Madeira, so turn Okay, yeah. So you have all these different cask and I guess we’ll get into to your your black magic of blending

37:01
Well let’s talk about blink. So like here, like the master distillers like you know the celebrity or the you know the person that everyone looks to like but I hear over there the master blender is kind of like the runaway hit and away nosing lots of casks I know is about 5000 samples per year from casks

37:23
because it’s such a complex spirit and no two castles in there very can be very different.

37:31
So I’ve noticed about hundred and 50,000 casks well my lifetime so far,

37:37
and counting and counting. But, you know, is the key part of,

37:44
of, of delivering a perfectly balanced single malt is knowing, obviously, what would you use what your wood policy is because we can reuse them more than once and then the different recipes of such

38:00
are almost in the cast selection. So the percentage you might use a bourbon cask virginal although very few us first you know we’ve got a real we’re onto a winner here with Brian for men because we have source of virgin oak it’s absolutely amazing it’s great to play with and tons of us to work and tons of great dad Daniels barrels good for desirable for so take your pick so yeah so it’s up to the master blender to kind of work out in conjunction obviously in collaboration with various people in the business so our influence in various various people in the business to see I think this will really work and consumer love it and you so like we’re doing it. Are you like all right I went 30 bourbon expert and blends and when 35 x Madeira blends and or Derek has finished and then to blend to make you know a brand or like or no formula. Well it’s it’s really up to

39:00
whiskey. And to be honest, it’s the whiskey that tells me

39:04
because she can keep me in Kim, it tells you it tells you the story tells you what it wants to be, you have to listen. And see you’re not the guidance counselor.

39:16
Like Jackie says, when you know when she gets barrels off, she can like taste them and be like, all right, you’re going off to be the old forester. You’re going to be the prohibition series. You’re going like here and there, but yeah, actually, you actually let the whiskey Tell you what, what to do with it. Absolutely. You know, like,

39:36
the characters whiskey Jasmine, what to do with it. I mean, with Ben react, it’s got perfect balance of fruit Mononoke you know, and that is the key for me is to create character individuality.

39:50
Make it shine, just bring it all out, you know.

39:54
So, with Ben week 10 for example, general this is an appropriate time so yeah.

40:00
Yeah So Ben Murray lunch

40:08
with the careers of master distiller spanning almost 50 years, as well as Kentucky bourbon Hall of Famer and having over 100 million people taste his products. Steve nalli is a legend of bourbon who for years made Maker’s Mark with expertise and precision. His latest project is with Bardstown bourbon company, a state of the art distillery in the heart of the bourbon capital of the world. They’re known for the popular fusion series, however, they’re adding something new in 2020 with a release named the prisoner. It starts as a nine year old Tennessee bourbon that has been finished in the prisoner wine companies French oak barrels for 18 months. The good news is, you don’t have to wait till next year to try it. Steve and the team at Bardstown bourbon company have teamed up with rackhouse whiskey club rackhouse whiskey club is a whiskey the Month Club on a mission to uncover the best flavors and stories that craft distilleries across the US have to offer. Their December box features a full size bottle of Bardstown suffusion series and a two

41:00
Hundred milliliter bottle of the prisoner. There’s also some cool merchant side. And as always with this membership shipping is free. Get your hands on some early release Bardstown bourbon by signing up at rackhouse whiskey club.com. Use code pursuit for $25 off your first box.

41:19
So, with Ben week 10 for example, general this is an appropriate time. So yeah.

41:25
Yeah, so Ben Murray.

41:30
So this is the core whiskey from Ben REAC. It’s unpainted, or just make sure we’re going which way Left to Right Left, left, right, left Bell know if you’re not.

41:40
Yeah, well, the last time we did this, were wells with with Jackie and I went right to left and I was like, I’m not getting the same notes as you all but you know, that’s me for not following directions. So this is this is the great label one that we’re trying. So this is Yeah, this is the core product and this is

42:01
A marriage of

42:05
bourbon so principles john Daniels car says the main constituent of this product and also some Sherry cask from European oak and then also some of the brain for forming cooperage virgin oak, which is medium toasted and medium charge the same chat Tanya yes or no for a smell like Hawaiian Punch or like you know like the pineapple. Pineapple like like a toasted coconut like yeah more you know is that the more fruit you’re gonna get? It just keeps on giving memory it just like is so fruit laden it’s like a pina colada or something.

42:48
Well, you get pina colada Yeah. I got an apple orchards how work with ripened ripening peaches. Yeah, Rhino come up with the best tasting notes for you.

43:00
They’re everything I had as a child. And I’m like, All right, we’re gonna find this in the whiskey. Yeah. And you find it. I did. Well, I didn’t have pina coladas when I was a child, but

43:11
I did have lion punch. Yeah. You ever had Hawaiian Punch? Yeah. Okay, cool. I know what you’re talking about for all relatable still.

43:19
So very fatty. very fruity. Yes. Very nice. pear shaped cells. Yeah. You know. Beautiful. And you got a Yeah, I mean, some people who who drink wine really loves us. So, you know, becoming from Shapley or, you know, sharni you know, that fruitiness

43:37
is very, very distinctive layers of fruit. So, what kind of proof what kind of proof we’re looking at 43% alcohol, which is 86 degrees proof.

43:49
So, it’s a good strength. It’s just the right strength to keep the fruit martynuk in perfect balance. So like with scotch like bourbon, they typically like art for years. We can start selling this one

44:00
Are you all like we can start selling this? Well legally it can be from three years old. Okay, okay, but I would never sell think about three years old because

44:11
the complexity is so much richer. It just gives you more a 10 years old so at three years is that for the single mother to be called a scotch? It has to be at least three years over boss. Okay, so any scotch whiskey be a blend of Multan green, because we do have green distilleries as well.

44:33
Like what other kind of grants or you know, we focus on the single malt because that’s where all the flavor is.

44:41
So, if you look at other grains then is like like filler, like it doesn’t really have it doesn’t bring as much complexity or character to

44:51
the Scotch whisky industry was built on the complexity of single malt

44:58
and the green

45:00
Yeah, was pretty much there as a as a filler. Gotcha. See? Yeah, greens cheaper. So like, yeah, we’re saying a mall is, you know, expensive to make the match process. It’s handcrafted. It’s you know, it’s barley is expensive, sort of talking about aging.

45:18
Because it seems that barrels seem to like, retain a lot more liquid over in Scotland and Lino The longer they sit, I mean, you’ve you’ve got scotches that are yet wanting to learn 50 years old gin gin? Yeah, it’s hot as hell. Yeah. And so we never get so Scotland.

45:39
I know sometimes I wish I lived there because be so easy to grow grass is the perfect weather. You know, we’ve got I guess that’s why

45:49
we have an incredible landscape. Yeah, Scotland is so lush. And yes, it’s perfect for barley as well on the east coast and then P on the west coast.

46:00
Public question. Well, yeah,

46:04
it’s add, it’s okay. I didn’t count grass. Well, it’s like, we’re talking about how hot it is here versus Scotland. And I’m like Scotland is the perfect place to grow grass because grass here in June, July, it’s like, it hates it. But it’s good for bourbon because it’s evaporating and moving it out of the barrel, you know, and I guess that was the question more along the lines of evaporation. I mean, you see in a lot of evaporation last over in Scotland that you would compared to like bourbon that are that’s coming from Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky, what what’s considered a we call it a short barrel here, you know, like, if it’s like below, like 100 bottles were like, Ooh, that’s a short barrel. That one’s gonna be good. Do you have Scotland? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. We lose about on average for the whole industry. And it does vary. And then we get into another discussion. We lose about 2% of the volume and leasers about cold per year

46:57
of the original desk, which is ok.

47:00
We’re about what five to 8% I think is kind of what you see around here at least at the first year. I think it’s upwards double digits. But yeah, after that it kind of settled. Yeah. So what that means because it’s a very slow reduction and also the the apple strength goes down. I know in bourbon, it goes up. Oh, really? Wow. Yeah.

47:21
There you go. I told you you were coming in with

47:24
no idea. Yeah. So the ankle strength goes down. And that means that you’re extracting different things from the the old cast the longer you leave it because that strength is going down. But you’re only losing 2% volume, meaning that you can leave it for longer. It’s got more interaction with the word more oxidation, most importantly for single malt because that gives you the elegance of complex to the top notes, etc. The finesse that you find in a single malt is nice, but I’m how much different flavor now to get in this. You know, 86 proof tenure. What does this

48:00
single malt Yeah, yeah Ben REAC there’s a lot going on it’s like it’s incredible the flavors you can get out of it. Like I said, we’re pretty amateur and scotch and you know, most of the scotch I’ve had had been very heavy peated so it’s like really pungent kind of earthy like smoky type. This is definitely more on the fruity or side and more like Captain Crunch berries. We ever can crunch with the berries. Sorry, talking to him, but I can imagine what you’re enjoying. Well, so it’s kind of like, you know, cereal in the milk. What will sugary substance yeah you have like a really sugary berries. And absolutely.

48:44
That is the 10 years or cheers for another delicacy here in Kentucky Fried pizza.

48:53
Fit pizza. Never heard of a big sugar cookie with the

49:00
Oh, I had that with this whiskey for lunch. See we’re on the same wavelength. And it was just amazing because you get the fruit you get the malt which is like the creaminess of custard and vanilla. And then you get the oak, which is like the actual sediment on top and the lovely pastry base. Yeah, you know, so layered. Have you have you tried it yet? for pizza? If you tried this? Oh, no. Yes. I noticed you having a Oh yeah, we said we

49:29
are Ryan. Kenny. Ryan. Yeah. And then we have both been drinking.

49:35
So

49:37
we see Oh,

49:40
sounds good. Cheers. Cheers.

49:44
Y’all for pizza? Yeah, somebody new pairing? Take them take them back to Scotland. I will. Yeah, I said I probably I need to visit our local patisserie. Oh, yeah, maybe they

49:56
call it them. But it is it’s just like a bakery. And that’s the beauty.

50:00
Henriette, because it’s in a sweet spot between the mansion in the sea and has a perfect environment to give you this balance of fruit modern look, if you go up the hill of it to other sellers, you get a little more kind of delicate fruit but without the malt. And if you go down it gets a bit more oil and it loses fruit. So we have the perfect balance to

50:19
little higher up. Yeah, yeah, cool. But this, I like the hierarchy. Yeah, yeah. Power up. Yeah.

50:28
What about the next Ben? And while I do the same facility? Yeah, yeah. It’s the same, same.

50:34
different, different a different expression. But the different expression here and Black Label for anybody. Yeah, I mean, anyone that’s curious. We have curiosity is anyone that’s curious about beat because this is the piece of all there it is. Yeah. And going back to the 1970s. This is the only way

50:57
this is the only space side to have peace and welcome back to the 97

51:01
And and off space site. So an RP

51:05
is there has to be there has to be a ton of people that love that the taste and the smell of Pete. And I don’t know for me it’s hard to kind of gravitate towards like a more fan of of the the other Ben versus the peated. But yeah, I think this is also could have been my upbringing. I don’t know if it’s our upbringing it could be, you know, our palates not adjusted to it, you know, because a bourbon Bourbons very sweet. We’ve had torn pieces. Yeah, maybe that what it is, but you know that we come from Bourbons. It’s very sweet. Yeah. Well about the barbecues.

51:38
Smoking weed like a ha ha. Yeah.

51:43
He likes to smoke me. I got my green and I got do some brisket, some pulled pork and some ribs. Yeah, like that. It does. And you have any forest you have forest. Burnham forest. So salvus in the forest, your brother a few boys, guys.

52:01
Tiger scout Yeah, start playing baseball maybe it wasn’t about it I never really never really made it ever have the pleasure of maybe you know as you age just wow I love having a little campfire Yeah, I had I had flint and steel at one point I think that was the coolest thing ever got out of Boy Scouts was actually having my lens steel. Oh yeah, yeah, being able to actually create a fire with that like just, you know, well have a sniff back there. It will take you back there. You’re in that forest. You feel like with your fire steel. You’ve got some marshmallows being toasted.

52:35
Ah, you’ve got some sugar maple in there as well. sugar maple.

52:43
It’s just so it’s just so radically different than what we drink. You know? That’s, that’s, that’s why it’s so like, it’s still

52:50
just as you haven’t tried to, you know,

52:54
open your mind. I knew I was coming into the diversity of flavor we got here you little bin is

53:00
The gateways are gateways God gateways gods and this is like Big Bang

53:05
well big bands little bit higher and strength as well okay 6% alcohol non chill filtered and nice to decrease gotcha what uh what are they? Were they coming out of the barrel typically at you didn’t already say that did you know I didn’t know we know they go down

53:20
okay so over 10 years, we’re probably going to go from the felling strength of around 63.5% you say 163.5 is what you go into the barrel so 63.5% 136 730 737 degrees proof and then it goes down to losers over 10 years but 5% alcohol so I’ll go down to about 5859 Okay, basically, pen Twitter’s in the warehouse, concert warehouse it ends up in size of the warehouse. Traditional dunnage or tall is there an idea in the scotch world of like single barrels

54:00
Because I guess Glendora can Ben Rick, we we do single bottles for for for customers for you know for retailers, you know some of the specialists. So to see the single cast Yeah.

54:14
So yeah, absolutely. And we’ve got we’ve got cast strength and expressions as well so yeah. All right around the corner. So but this is 4692 degrees proof

54:33
right? Oh yeah, this one reminds me of like my

54:38
smoke a turkey every year for Thanksgiving and has this like Cajun rub that I put on it’s like a real spicy and smoky so like, kind of get kind of makes me regret reminds me of that. And this is Barban cast. Cast. No wonder

54:57
I feel like I’m

54:59
still suffering.

55:00
That’s why you’re loving it because it’s still got the sweetness. Remember I said it was the Pete has wood rich so yours like smoking mood. Yep. And then got the Emperor front caviar. And then unlike the island malts, we are very fruit laden even in distillation so we get all that fruit in there as well as the smoke. So like smoking a fruit pizza, smoking a fruit pizza. I love it. Yep. Get it on the cam everything. Everything is under the fruit pizza around here. Yeah. Oh, and maybe some some bananas on the barbecue with some chocolate in them as well. Dark Chocolate Chocolate. Banana croquettes it since you’ve been to Kentucky I’ve not had the pleasure. Oh, wow. Change Your Life. But I’m gonna ask for about Banana. Banana, rolled in. Mayonnaise and then bake. It sounds so good. And you could crush that peanuts on it. It’s magical.

55:57
Barbecue that and it’s this is exactly

56:00
Glass right here, nailed it. You know, you just have to open your minds and Kentucky to the flavors that you can join your food. You know? So I guess another question that we get to kind of, you know, kind of related back to bourbon a little bit is with inside of bourbon, we have this idea of like, oh, like there’s a huge shortage, like, all these higher age expressions are getting very hard to find. They’re very, very expensive. And everybody rushes and jumps and like there’s this huge influx of people that are really starting to buy. Now, do you see that still happening like in the scotch worlders that scotch has just been around for so long? It’s had the luxury of time and stocks and that you’re able to still put out 10 2030 year old expressions and they’ve been agent since 1400. Yeah, you know, may I ask, Is there any actually left in the battle and Kentucky after 10 1520 years? Yeah, not much after, I’d say. What was it I think, you know, we have we know some distilleries around they have they have some 15

57:00
20 year old releases, but you’re looking at 70 to 95 bottles in the bank cash during a cash drink something like that. You know you, you talked to Chris Morris we’ve talked about before and birthday Bourbons and stuff like that with the heat cycled warehouses that there are times that even 12 years old that they haven’t the casks. Yeah. So imagine Christus forgot to put the plug.

57:24
I would imagine with Virgin oak, there would just be wood, wood and more wood. And lots of food. Yeah, I would imagine for a very long Oh, yeah, definitely. I’m sure like, it takes a lot. You’re like, all right, this is very tacky, or Yeah, like, bitter kind of finished to it. So there’s like we’re all just going for balance. I mean, the fact that single malt. Ben music is so fruit Laden. It means that with maturation over a long time, you’re just getting the escaping that balance convert in the woods into a softer flavors and

58:00
Get a lot of reactions happening rather than just a distraction. So it’s very, very complex. But in answered your question, yeah, we’ve got some older songs and we’re very lucky at Ben react because started putting in 1972 again, and we’ve got starts going back to the end of the piece of models. So we’ve got 21 year old Tim porous Well, it’s fully peated but tastes like caramelize Pier. It’s incredible. And Honey, I need to enable untoasted ever had a pair caramelized? There you go get on it on Oh, yeah, it’s amazing. You know, so really, yeah. peachy, but you know, so And yeah, so we have all this wonderful whiskey that for people to discover

58:48
in flavor, you know, people are just waking up tomorrow. Well, so I guess the I go ahead and I was gonna say and these so what like a typical barrel dumping these blends like how many barrels are

59:00
Yeah, typically bad. Yeah. And Ben Rhea typical batch would be around 50 to 60. Okay, it’s pretty small. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I mean it’s pretty small batch single malt

59:13
per bottling and obviously I want to keep it consistent as well each time so yeah, very cool. Well, yeah so we bought mostly bourbon bourbon for the the Curiosity is the 10 year old was the virginal the Sherry and the the bourbon. And we’ve got lots more expressions besides using wine cast, etc. Oh, yeah, I get to play. So you’re getting like me, it’s like a pessary you get so much different flavor going on. He’s going into that cake shop. Is it like here we have like a like,

59:47
I don’t know what this word comes. My accountability partners are like tasting panel tasting panel. That’s what I’m looking for. To like.

59:54
You know, just make sure that everything you’re blending is consistent with the brand

1:00:00
Rachel or is there? Or is there a team behind you as well? That’s sort of like to be on the team. I do. I think I’ve passed.

1:00:07
I think I could do just for pizza. You know, I’ve got an assistant. This is just one, just one assistant. On flavor side. Here. There’s like a likes like five or six, five or six. However, however, you know, the distillery team as well, everyone gets involved. Everyone gets involved. Gotcha. You know, the final product is and speaking the final product, let’s talk about the last one we have on our right, which is the Glen dronicus. So talk about what this is. And really what this expression is, as well. Yeah, you said it so perfectly drawn. Know, 55 minutes later, I think I figured it out.

1:00:41
Well, that means valley of the brambles. You’ve heard the brambles, brambles, brambles, no blackberries, blackberries there. Oh,

1:00:49
it’s beautiful. It’s in Highlands. But isn’t a valley in the highlands. And it’s I was born very close to silly brought up there. It’s the richest most abundant

1:01:00
landscape for agriculture. You’d love it.

1:01:03
It’s great soil. Great, just best barley and Scotland near Glendora distillery and primarily we use Sherry cask that’s what really sets us apart

1:01:18
we say

1:01:20
there you go

1:01:22
really going hard with the apples here lots yeah like applesauce or rather not baked because what oh no they’re not baked not be

1:01:31
there you go oh wow well I get everyone’s nose is different of course Oh, sorry

1:01:39
yeah I mean ourselves she said yes we’ve got saxophone shape skills which means that we have a robust kind of earthy character and on top of that we’ve got all these fruits which are picking up

1:01:52
but Bramble fruits is quite dominant I think a picots figs

1:01:57
Oh yeah, all that going on. Kind of

1:02:00
Soft fruits and the and the darker fruits come through. So, with gone donek we source Spanish oak, from from Spain from Galicia is filled with two types of sherry, primarily

1:02:17
Pedro Jimenez and all the Russell and Pedro Hammond. I think we buy the most pedra Hammond f casks in the industry because Pedro Hammond eth is known as the King of cherries. And it gives you a really anxious kind of sweetness, dates, raisins, dark chocolate, all that going on. And that really sweet and then the other also is dryer and nuts here.

1:02:41
So yeah, so we for the 12 year olds

1:02:45
have 12 year old petropolis 12 year old are also and we bring them together, and the combination is the perfect balance for Glen tonic. So a question about when you’re using

1:03:00
You know, x px and alluro. So barrels and stuff like that, because you use them multiple times over. Is there like a, because you’re going to only extract so much of that flavor, you’re not going to get it every single time. So it’s like, Is there like a chalk line? It’s like you like 123? Like, like we’ve used this three times. Yeah. And so and so you know, like we need, we need one that’s first new fill or a few new fills to add into this to kind of keep that sort of consistency to it. Yeah, absolutely. It’s just

1:03:32
my path I’ve got archaeon flight path and working on because obviously as volume grows, and it will people love going john, we’re just gorging casks for the 12 year old and they’re all first fill. pajamas and all their also you did ask in this first fill, and we just scored those and then we’ll maybe refill them with new make the new fill. And then I know that it’s going to take longer for a second fall. So it might be 18 years.

1:04:00
are more or am I even have to rewrap it back into ourselves? If it’s not? If it’s not if it’s not worked as well or it’s not extracting enough, but Spanish is incredibly deep in color and talents. It’s like Spanish podcast last a long time. So, typically in the industry going back to the 19th century, there would have been used to be four or five times, you know, and they would have still been strong when it leaked, etc. The solid the Gothic. Steve’s a big casks. And, but we only use them

1:04:35
twice, really? And if I was to fill a third time, I would probably not gonna give me Yeah, I’m gonna be back after a few years. I mean, reracked I take it take the risk out of that cast and put it into First of all, gotcha. Okay. So, you know, it’s like, if you’ve got kids, you know, if they’re doing well at school, you leave them as that school and doing well and they’re flourishing and they’re, you know, becoming great individuals, if they’re not doing so well, that

1:05:00
school you might take it out and put into for school. Rachel, you hit the park with this one. This one’s awesome like that you like the Glen? Yes. I think I’m a Glen fan. I like I like the valleys in the highlands. Yeah, well the thing about Glen janyk is I’m a judge at spirits competitions. Okay. And for me the whole mark of fine whiskey full stop. But especially fine single finest single malt is that it must be complex balanced loads of character. And always deliver more on the taste than on the nose. Yeah. xid expectations every time. This is Yeah, this reminds me of like a apple cider with all the you know the get the cinnamon sticks and the morning spices all in there kind of just like a little bit prettier version of that. But

1:05:52
I see again, the spice from the all are also cast. So you could get gin, warm gingerbread bake in the oven center.

1:06:00
Thanks absolutely great for Christmas. For me, like no, I think all our Christmas in a glass you know? Or Yeah, definitely fall as well. So you get a nuttiness at the back of the palette from the other also. So when you taste it up or just have another sip, yeah, go for it. Yeah, I guess I another question about because I know that Glenn tronic has a really big kind of cult following sort of behind it to like it’s it’s one of the most popular brands that are out there. And I know I joined

1:06:28
it I know there was a head of in in a probably a year, maybe a year and a half ago there was released called like 1993. It was kind of talk about sort of that and sort of some of these, these sort of special releases that are coming out that a lot of these sort of a whiskey nerds and scotch nerds are really going for Yeah, I mean, the beauty of Glenn donek is that its traditional, and we haven’t changed anything. So it’s that’s why I call it it’s kind of old style.

1:06:56
And what that means is your recommend nature and obviously we

1:07:00
You have seasons. So for example, the spring and the spirit of steel and I get a little bit more kind of like vines and almost a grapey quality from all it’s incredible. And then into June I’ll get more kind of dark fruit and jamee into October and Autumn in the fall. You get more of this nutty tobacco leaf leather is incredible. So what does this mean? Well, obviously when I create 12 year olds, I’m using whiskey from all the seasons and I’m giving that perfect balance taste, getting all that complexity that you love with a single casks, individual cask bottlings. You know, it’s giving the connoisseurs an opportunity to wow they’re appreciating all these different complex flavors that are coming through and different cast at different times. They’re getting that chance to really have a taste of complexity of Plantronics and different individual cast. So it might be a cast that’s more robust and more full body Normally, you know all our offices

1:08:00
Maybe from from November. Or it might be one that’s a bit more spicy from the winter. Or maybe one that’s just before Jeremy from the summer. Like, you know, no, that’s awesome. So yeah, so and they love and they love discussing it. They love it. They love it, but you know your stuff.

1:08:21
Listen, I read a few forums and I see what people are talking about what they’re buying, and I just get curious and that’s just one of the things that happened. That’s not quite a following Glenn Dornoch has got quite a following and more and more gravitating and I think you know, with this quality I think people in Kentucky are gonna love it. Yeah, and this one actually, you know, it has a little bit of a darker and richer color than than the Ben but well the Ben and Ben Maria can go and donecker all natural color. And that means it’s just from the from the cast naturally cast imparted color.

1:08:53
Other other malts might be have caramelize for example.

1:08:57
But you know, it’s all natural for us.

1:09:00
So, the color that you see is coming from the Spanish shock and pedra menethil are on the roster, Cherie. So, yeah, you get a more intense, more intense color. Well, you know, that’s, that’s awesome. And thank you so much for the information. And, you know, also, thank you so much for flying all the way to Scotland to have this interview with this unbelievable. I mean, this was a pleasure for us. So I know, I know, it was definitely an honor for us to actually have you on here. Because there’s, there’s probably so many people in the scotch world that know who you are. And it was a pleasure for us to finally have this introduction from somebody like you to say, you know, lead us through a scotch tasting like this. So it was it was really an honor. That’s absolutely my pleasure to be with you. I hope I’ve managed to convert at least one of you to add single malt Scotch to your repertoire. I think we might have like a Glen and Ben might be in the ticket here. Yeah. So I agree. Glen and have been glad in the back. Yeah, yeah. So you’re going for

1:09:59
Yeah.

1:10:00
glendan have been Yeah, I agree. I mean this cleanse dronicus really good. And then the I’m still I’m still not on board with the Pete yet. Maybe it just it’s like everything else it just makes you like your coffee. I don’t drink coffee I don’t drink

1:10:13
coffee.

1:10:16
I either like it like black nothing in it like, like Peru or Nicaraguan blends, like they’re real kind of fruity like panicky kind of, or I like it as an almond milk latte where you go nutty that’s why you like them but don’t like milk coffee cuz kind of like brings it down. See you like both bands Don’t you like smoking on to you were there in the forest. I was in the forest in the camp, you know? Turkey and mark you were? Yeah, you see it’s interesting because interesting. You don’t like coffee because people will love coffee and coffee that that the tannins and the coffee and that that kind of lovely lingering taste. You know, they love video whiskey, they love the peated been no

1:11:00
The good thing about Pete been he’s teamed up

1:11:05
with anything else, and when you’re tasting whiskey and you’re growing with whiskey, you know, everything is, you know, you get you get a progression. And you know, I remember the first time I had a peanut whiskey and I always just repeated scotch and I was like there’s no way like why would people even drink this now I’m sitting here talking with you and we’re and we’re going through it and yeah, you’re trying to take me back those memories and the times around a campfire and you can actually get you can get some of that from it. You can never been around campfire. He’s in tech. I’m a city boy. You need to take him you know to take him

1:11:39
see us at least flip the switch and it comes on. Yeah, it’s must be curious. You need to tell your drama kiddo once you get it to join our team.

1:11:48
We can have a picnic. Okay, we can take some fruit pizza as well.

1:11:53
Come over to Scotland will bring our fruit pizzas and we’ll go and visit the Steelers with you. How about that sound like a good deal? Absolutely.

1:12:00
Can’t wait to see you must come to visit us. We’d love to make it happen. I just finished a very close. They’re only like half an hour apart. Wow. So it’s easy. You can do both. It’s like a bar sale. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So Rachel, thank you again for coming on the show today. Like I said, it was a it was a true honor, especially from somebody of your caliber, in your history of being able to guide us through this was it was really fantastic. So Ryan, go ahead and start actually, I want you to also get an opportunity for anybody else that’s out there that wants to learn more about you or wants to follow you on social media. What are the uragan Instagram or Twitter? Yeah, kind of talk about how people can get on.

1:12:43
Lady blend

1:12:46
on Twitter. Yep.

1:12:48
On Instagram, I’m RB whiskey maker. I like it. There we go. There you go. So now you go follow her and you can kind of get an idea of the the Glen’s and the bends and everything we’ve been talking about today. So it’s a fantastic

1:13:00
opportunities but our malls also have Oh Facebook sites are malls boundary I can land on it also they have Facebook sites and they’re on Instagram and

1:13:11
Google and glasses oh yeah

1:13:14
did I say it right glasses to glass even tasted

1:13:21
points like if somebody were to go

1:13:24
okay so the the oh yeah we got we got to take it to the dollar $60 a bottle

1:13:31
yeah roundabout yeah and curiosity and the Glendon 12 Yeah, they’re all around about $60 Oh, wow. So you just need to find your mo you know and we’ve got them out for everyone. You know

1:13:49
the T shirt in the making right there so you know whether you like your mom or your mom with Glenn and then there you go. You’re welcome brown Forman. Yeah, yeah. No, thank you.

1:14:00
So much. This was an honor and a lot of fun. I think we had a good time I had like I had to get time, my way to join your team. And, you know, we’ll do a bunch of tastings together, put the glyndon bands out there for everyone to like. But now,

1:14:14
I didn’t know anything about scotch coming into this. So it was interesting for me to sit here and chat with you about it. And now I’m with me once I’ve kind of break that initial hurdle. Now it’s like a deep dive in like, let’s nerd out as much as we can about it. So I’m definitely a big fan of glyndon. So appreciate you taking the time and come to see us cross the pond. So with that, we’ll see you all next time. Cheers to having me

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

2 thoughts on “234 – Scotch Pursuit with Dr. Rachel Barrie

  1. I’m glad you fellas realized that you were sitting down w scotch royalty, a real privilege. I’ve been to the GlenDronach distillery twice and Edinburgh once just hoping I might run into her and just tell her how appreciative we are of her work, never happened but oh well. Thoroughly enjoyed the interview, Sláinte 🥃

  2. These podcasts would be so much more enjoyable if the hosts were not heard. Listening to grown men use the word “like” every third word is annoying as hell, and distracts from the important content. It’s as if they suffer from some sort of 13-year old hipster Tourette’s syndrome. Maybe Fred could host?

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