Distillery 291: “How hard can it be?” Distilling the Spirit of the West with Michael Myers & Eric Jett

Cory Comer  00:00

Music.

Ryan Hall  00:05

This is whiskey wanderlust, and we’re on an expedition to discover how Colorado is elevating craft spirits from grain to glass.

Cory Comer  00:14

We bring whiskey explorers like you an inside look at the distilled stories, colorful characters and rich flavors that make Colorado a true whiskey frontier. So pour yourself a tram and join us on an unforgettable journey.

Ryan Hall  00:34

On this episode, distillery 291

Cory Comer  00:38

Welcome to whiskey water lust, the Colorado spirits expedition. We’re your hosts, Cory and Ryan, and we’re gonna introduce you to our second episode today, which we’re super excited about. Who are we meeting with

Ryan Hall  00:50

today? We are talking to 291 and we are speaking with what’s an interview with Michael Myers, who’s the owner, and Eric Jett, who is the head distiller at 291,

Cory Comer  01:00

or as chief scientist is his, his title changes routinely throughout the episode, yes, but yeah, I this is a local, a local distiller for us here in Colorado Springs. And Michael Myers started this up 13 years ago, and well, actually, we are just a couple weeks past his 13th anniversary. So

Ryan Hall  01:25

291 13th anniversary was yeah in September, yep, and 11th, as we’ll find out, the significance behind yes that well,

Cory Comer  01:34

and I mean, Michael has had quite a journey to get to where he’s at today. Former fashion photographer lived in New York. 911 played a big role for him and his migration from New York to Colorado, and decided read an article that he would start a whiskey brand, right? Yeah. I think his words were, how hard could it be? Yeah?

Ryan Hall  02:00

And I think is, as it turns out, really damn so. And

Cory Comer  02:05

Eric, Eric affirmed that, right? And they’re, they’re kind of unconventional meeting to, you know, throughout, you know, meeting, doing some things in the industry together, and it’s really fascinating to see Michael having written down in a journal that, you know, wanted to work with Eric one day after meeting him. Yeah, and then some, I don’t like, a year or two passed and ended up bringing, actually, like, a long, little longer than that, but, yeah, to bring them together, but two really humble people. And as you’ll see, Michael Myers is a true artist at heart. He wears his emotions on his sleeve. It’s just a great guy, Eric Jett, or the two of them are just a great pair. And so what stood out to you,

Ryan Hall  02:48

I think just Michael’s passion, because he’s, I mean, like you said, he’s a true artist. And not only like speaking through the whiskey because the whiskey is really good, but also just it really shows and the care and the experimentation that he went through and, you know, just kind of, I’m gonna, you know, I’m gonna not let things prohibit me from trying this out, right? And he just kind of DIY it until he created something really great. So that was really impressive one.

Cory Comer  03:17

And like Eric, you know, came from a printing background and end up breaking into distilling and strand hands. And anyways, their meeting, though, is kind of serendipitous, and I think the two of them work really, really, really well together, and they’re doing some cool things. They’re specialists in high proof whiskeys, right? You’re not going to get anything that’s a standard 90 proof, right? They’re gonna get, you know, you’re looking at 120 or better. And in a lot of their spirits,

Ryan Hall  03:45

as we find out in the episode, this is the good stuff, yes. And it’s not just Michael saying it,

Cory Comer  03:52

yeah. And, and they’re doing also some unconventional things, which some of them maybe have become a little bit more urban legends, a little bit and other things, you know, that people said that they couldn’t do, but they’re doing it, and they’re doing it very well. And it’s been, it was, it was a great interview with them. And Eric man, we’ve had some good tasting so far, but Eric led quite a tasting for us that was, that was really great. A five course tasting with highest group of spirits. It was. We really enjoyed that one. 

Ryan Hall  04:26

So, yeah, fun. So stick around at the end of the episode to either listen to or watch that tasting at the end of the episode.

Cory Comer  04:32

And there’s several nuggets in this particular tour, which you will not want to miss, including how the still was made, the history behind the materials and the plates in which Michael used, super fascinating. And I won’t get in too much, but the spirits pass through New York on their way to your bottle. So anyways, super fascinating. Here we go. All right. Well, welcome to whiskey water list. We’re. Here at distillery, 291 with Michael Myers and Eric Jett. I’m Cory. This is Ryan, and we are really excited about this today. Guys, thanks for joining us.

Michael Myers  05:09

Thank you. We’re excited.

Ryan Hall  05:10

Yeah, thanks for having us.

Michael Myers  05:12

Yeah, absolutely Glad to have you.

Cory Comer  05:14

Well, we just wrapped up the tour with you, right? We walked through a lot of a lot of cool stuff, but the one thing we didn’t really talk about, right? Was, was your your origins, like you talked about a little bit, but not really in detail, right? But you started your career as a fashion photographer.

Michael Myers  05:29

I did. I born and raised in Georgia, and my mom moved to California when I was six, and I spent my summers in California a little bit, and she’s interior designer, and I thought I was going to be that and or interested in architects, architecture, actually. And when I was 15, turning 16, the Christmas of I was 15, she gave me a camera, an Olympus OM 10, a Cheryl Teagues camera, and I picked it up and never put it down. That’s awesome. So, yeah, so went to Savannah College of Art and Design for photography, and graduated there, and then moved back to Atlanta for a year, and then California for five, and then New York for 13.

Cory Comer  06:14

And quite, as I understand, a fairly prolific career, correct?

Michael Myers  06:19

Sure, I had a I had a very nice career. I wasn’t the level. It didn’t reach the level that I had hoped it would. It was headed that way when I pivoted. And, you know, 911 changed my life, and then I had to pivot at 10 years later, about so

Ryan Hall  06:41

Go ahead and tell us, since we’re talking about 911 go ahead and tell us a little bit about that experience. Yeah, so we’re living just blocks away from the towers, correct?

Michael Myers  06:48

Yeah, three blocks from world trade. I was lived on Warren and West Side Highway, 25th floor and and my kids went to or my oldest was in school on the second floor, and we dropped him off at school, and then walking to Washington market school for my younger who was a day old four that day, and we stepped in Dwayne off of Greenwich, and the first plane was scraping buildings coming in and and hit the World Trade. I didn’t actually see it hit. I saw the aftermath of the, you know, Fireball coming out because I was inside the block, and the building was blocking me, so I had run out. Yeah, so crazy day. Couldn’t get back in our building. Went to Long Island friends house the next day, the night of 911 which is kind of interesting. Erickson place is the north side of the building, and the brandy library is in the bottom of that building. And so spent the night there with like seven families. And at the time, I don’t think the brandy library was there. And so in 2018 I won world’s best rye whiskey from whiskey magazine. We have to win Worlds are America’s best first. And so I did, and I went to New York to accept that award, and and it was at the branding library. So it was really interesting how much it was a full circle that here 911 changed my life to where I started making whiskey, in a sense, and winning this award, I’m, you know, being given it in the same building. So that was really poignant and just kind of crazy at that stage.

Cory Comer  08:51

Had you moved on from photography and gone into whiskey full time? 

Michael Myers  08:53

Yes.

Cory Comer  08:54

Yeah.

Michael Myers  08:54

So, I had been ..

Cory Comer  08:55

So, it really book-ended your two exactly the state chapters of your life. 

Michael Myers  08:59

Yeah, so this was 2018 I did win America’s best no age statement from whiskey magazine in 2016 first time presented, but and they sent me an email and said you should come brandy library or whatever. And I was like, they’re just paper in the seats. Why would they ask me to come? And so I did. I we won America’s best.  2017 we were like fourth, 2018 America’s and then world’s best. Okay, so 2017 I went. I met Jeff Arnett. He was master distiller Jack Daniels at that time. So it was, yeah, full circle, crime crazy. 

Cory Comer  09:41

And I think there’s span of 17 years that you kind of condensed there. When did you actually open up distillery 291?

Michael Myers  09:49

Yeah, so I read the article. It was article that Stephen Goss wrote about creating Hendrix Jim and Sailor Jerry and the New York Times. I was. Shooting Vanity Fair in New York, flying back, and I read this article, and I was looking for something to do. And that’s when I thought I could, you know, it was August 2010 I thought I could brand a whiskey. And I came back and talked to Mike Bristol, Bristol Brewing Company here in Colorado Springs. He was a friend, and he said, you know, get your license. I’ll try and help. I can brew beer. I don’t know anything about distillation. And I said, I’ll figure that out. And so, being from Georgia, they make it in the woods. How hard could it be?

Eric Jett  10:31

Turns out kind of hard.

Cory Comer  10:36

And your master’s still right here.

Michael Myers  10:38

So I started in 300 square feet, can make 60 gallons a month. Eric Jett, my head distiller now, I met him 2011 a week or after I distilled, I went to Denver to distillers guild, tasting at Stranahan’s  and had white whiskeys in a bottle. You know, I didn’t have anything aged yet, and he came out with Rob Dietrich and a few other guys, and tasted my white dog. And…

Eric Jett  11:15

It was great. I mean, I told him it was the best white dog I’d ever tried. Like, I was like, This is great. I can’t wait to see it age. And talked about tasting notes, and just kind of hit it off. And we’d see each other at different events, different industry things over the years, you know, became friends, and he always told me he’d try to hire me one day, and eventually he did.

Michael Myers  11:34

So yeah, I was in 300 square feet for three years, so it took a little while to get there. But yeah, in my notebook, in the gutter, it says, met Eric. Hopefully he can work we can work together one day. Yeah,

11:50

It was 2011 started working together. 2014 January of 2014 so, yeah.

Cory Comer  11:54

So then tell us about your background. Like, how did you, how did you get here? 

Eric Jett  11:58

Mine’s not nearly as cool as Michaels. No, I was, I was, I was a screen printer for a while, like, five years or something. It was good, but, you know, I was kind of in the background thinking, what do I want to do with my life? Not sure, my wife and I both really enjoyed whiskey. We’d have, you know, little whiskey parties at our house and stuff. And so back in 2010 for one of our wedding anniversaries, we took the day off of work, and we went and did a bunch of things. And one of the things we did was towards stranahans distillery, which was at the time, one of our favorite whiskeys, and had never thought about making whiskey, always enjoyed drinking it. But, you know, you read bottles by distillers, and it sounds like you gotta be born into this family, like somebody’s like, great, great grandson inherited this distillery. Like you gotta live in Kentucky and be this, you know, part of this family never thought it was for me, but went there that day, saw being made, and I was like, This is amazing. This is so cool. So updated my resume and continued to harass Stranahan’s for almost a year until they brought me on and learned on the job there, worked with them for about three years, and that was while I was working there that I met Michael, and in 2014 we started working together. So.

Cory Comer  13:03

Really, like I met you at a whiskey event. You were actually at strandhans, which is kind of funny enough, right? There was a strand of hands of one, and so we talked about that, which is kind of fun. But before we move on too far, I do want to ask you, obviously, 911 is a huge deal, and we all have, you know, emotions with them, and we all speak to where we were in the event, but you being there, seeing aftermath. How does that change your life, and how did like, what prompted you to come this way?

Michael Myers  13:36

Big Questions. What prompted me was my ex wife’s parents lived here. We couldn’t get into our apartment. It was a nightmare. And so we decided to move here for, we thought, a month. And early on Erin day two, or whatever is like, I got to put my kids in school so they have a normal life. And and she did, and it was a good thing she did. And so we ended up staying for the nine months, and then we moved back to Colorado, I mean, back to New York and and lived there for a couple more years. And it just wasn’t good for my kids and or my wife at the time, um, they she had a emergency bag packed at the door, you know, ready to go, it was crazy. So it changes your life and and so it’s like, Okay, what’s what’s best for my family? And so we moved back school, everything was better. And so we moved back and and I commuted. And that was like, Okay, I’m commuting weekly, almost three weeks out of the month in New York, and, you know, and it just got to a point where I was like, this isn’t good for my family. Either I need to either be there, or we need to, you know, go back to New York. And that wasn’t going to happen. So that’s when I really started looking and turned.

Eric Jett  15:00

How Colorado Springs doesn’t have a big fashion beauty scene, here.

Ryan Hall  15:04

There’s a lot of landscape photographers.

Michael Myers  15:06

Or Denver, yeah 

Cory Comer  15:09

Lot of adventure Instagram influencers, right?

Michael Myers  15:12

Yeah, but that didn’t exist.

Ryan Hall  15:15

A lot of landscape photographers.

Michael Myers  15:17

yeah, I have a few of those, yeah,

Cory Comer  15:21

beautiful was it? That’s for sure? Yes, absolutely.

Ryan Hall  15:23

So then what was, what was the, what inspired you to make that change and to make that jump going from the art world, what you know, into the whiskey world?

Michael Myers  15:34

Literally, that article. So, I mean, I had looked at like running some of the galleries here, you know, the couple, there’s a couple of museums or, you know, can’t even think names here, but I even put in a resume or two at those and just nobody was interested in me as that. And, you know, what am I going to do? Be a used car salesman. No, that’s not creative. I mean, for me, right?  And, and, you know, even the, even the ad, ad agencies in Denver and stuff here, were like, oh, you know, he’s a fashion photographer. He’s got an attitude. He’s gonna you guys have met me, I don’t know. I’m not. I don’t fit that the preconception. Yeah, absolutely. So it had to be something that was going to be creative, but also something that I didn’t have to be there every day Because I as a photographer, you have to be there every day to make money, something I can pass on to my kids, because you can’t really can’t really pass on anything, you know, photography. You can pass on the negatives. And sort of, if you’re like Tammy Liebowitz, you make some money after that, right? So those were the criteria, and, and I read this, you know, and I liked whiskey, and I grew up on a farm, and I, you know, cows and horses. And it just, I liked the West. I was the western saddle in our barn with all English, you know, other saddles and, and I just was like,  I, you know, read this article, and I was like, well, I could brand a whiskey, you know, yeah I could brand a tequila, you know, and tequila you can only make and, you know, like champagne and and the interesting thing about that is, I went through my mom living in California and in the 70s and all. And the white wine of California, the sparkling white wine, you couldn’t call it champagne, and it was really hard to sell and brand and all, yeah. And so I learned about all that. And so that was like, okay, agave spirit, no, whiskey, yes,  Okay. Can I make it in California? Because family lives there, I could live where, you know. And I was like, California whiskey. That doesn’t sound Georgia whiskey, and that’s not working 

Cory Comer  18:05

More like Georgia moonshine, right? 

Michael Myers  18:06

Yeah, so Colorado whiskey is sexy, right? And so that’s where, where I landed. I lived here. I also didn’t realize that building a brick and mortar business, because I was a freelance photographer, I could live anywhere, right? Building, brick and mortar. You’re stuck where you you know, right? And so I’m here. None of my family lives in Colorado Springs anymore, and I’m here. 

Cory Comer  18:32

That’s awesome. So heart and soul of an artist, right here, right? And you come at this from much different angle, and you said, figured how hard it could be. I think your head scientists here might.

Eric Jett  18:44

My title keeps changing.

Cory Comer  18:51

Let’s talk about like,

18:52

I mean, this is just as much of an art to me as it is to him. I don’t have the career as an artist, but I am no scientist.

Michael Myers  19:00

I think I’m more of a scientist than he is!

Cory Comer  19:04

So tell us. I mean, and you’ve been around a while, right? How long you been with? Can anyone know?

19:09

10 years this month? 10 years, okay, this is my 10 month anniversary. This month in 10 years, 

Cory Comer  19:14

So you were barely putting aged product in a bottle, before he joined you.

Michael Myers  19:18

Oh yeah. Oh yeah, yeah. Moved out of 300 square foot space. 

Cory Comer  19:21

So you’ve been here like, What is your perspective, right? Being crafting this? What’s your proudest moment for distillery? In your mind? Oh,

19:32

so an easy answer would be things like world’s best ride or really big awards. You know, we’ve won lots of awards, but I don’t think it’s anything one thing like that for me when I left strand Anne’s, when I wanted to be working with Michael, I was very much considering where I wanted to work, and 291 was pretty much that’s the only place I could see myself working at that time in the Colorado landscape, because Michael was making some. Something unique and something delicious. And I think the proudest thing, the thing I’m most proud of about 291 is that we’ve been able to make something that is totally unique. Our bourbon doesn’t taste like a Kentucky bourbon. Our rye doesn’t taste like a Kentucky rye, but it’s also not weird. You know, there’s sometimes you taste a whiskey, you’re like, that’s different, but different and not necessarily a good way, right? Ours is different in a very good way, and I love that if you want this flavor profile, you got to drink 291 to get it. We’ve been able to make something different and make something delicious and really stand out in a sea of a lot of amazing whiskeys, but some of them are all pretty similar, and I think that’s probably the thing I’m most proud of over these 10 years.

Ryan Hall  20:43

What are some of the unique ways that you’re preparing when you’re distilling and finishing these whiskeys? I mean,

20:50

so we do our Aspen stay finish. A lot of people think that that is what makes our whiskey stand out. We were the first distillery to ever use Aspen as a finishing wood for whiskey, and it does. It changes the whiskey a little bit, but it is very subtle. I tell people, Look, by the time you get to the point where Aspen stay finishing at the end of the aging process, the cake has already been baked. This is just the icing on top. We’re using malted rye. Michael was the first person I ever heard of that was using malted rye in making whiskey. The specific type of yeast we’re using is very unique. The shape of the stills that Michael created, and the way we make our original still is one of a kind, yeah. And then there’s the stripping still. The stripping still too, yeah, but all of our stills are are made here in Colorado Springs. They’re very DIY. You’re not going to find another still that looks like it. And yeah, the way we make our cuts, the climate that we’re aging in, is very dry cut. We’re not climate controlling or any of our warehouses. So so much of that goes into making a whiskey that tastes unique before we even do that last step of the process. But, um, yeah.

Cory Comer  21:56

For our viewers, our listeners, yeah. Michael made his original still from copper plates, from photography processing. I’m I would butcher the word that you’ve you’ve heard. 

Michael Myers  22:08

It’s a French word, photograph viewer

Cory Comer  22:10

okay, I mean, you’ll have to…

Michael Myers  22:11

Means photo etching.

Cory Comer  22:12

Photo etching. You’ll have to refer to the the tour on YouTube for that and to see and you’ll see the person, which be great. So, yeah, 

Ryan Hall  22:19

Well, tell us a little bit about how you decided to use those to create your first deal.

Michael Myers  22:25

So that’s funny, because I talked about Vendome making my condensers. So I knew I needed a still, and I I went to Vendome and asked, you know, how much is a 50 gallon still? And they were like, well, we have one, it’s electric and it’s 50 grand. And I’m like, I’ve never made whiskey in my life. I don’t have that kind of money. I’m, you know. And so I was like, I grew up on a farm. I’m an artist. I’ve sweat copper. I mean, I think I could build something. And so I was like, well, I need copper. And I had done this show in Tribeca with these photographers, and knew I had the copper plates. Actually lotar, the man that made the plates, had them. And for 100 bucks, I had them FedEx to me. And I, you know, had drawn up the still in high school, I had 15 or 11 quarters of drafting in high school, so mechanical drafting, so I can, I can draft a little bit. So I broke those skills out and came up with the measurements and everything, and took them to Western steel here in Colorado Springs, and had them water jet cut, you know, my pattern, and then took him to another place, and me and another guy hand rolled him through a roller to curve him, and then took him to Al Novak. Rest his soul. He’s amazing welder man, and he’s no longer with us, but he he TIG welded it all together for me and and I had sourced all the parts the site, glass and different things. And in

24:06

The first time you did a run on that still was 

Cory Comer  24:09

September 11, 2011 

Eric Jett  24:10

10 years to the day. Wow, 

Cory Comer  24:12

That’s awesome, 

Eric Jett  24:12

September 11th

Cory Comer  24:13

Coincidence, or deliberate?

Michael Myers  24:15

Well, sort of. I took the, I took the rolled copper to Al early in the summer, and he was a, he hadn’t TIG welded copper in a while, and really a hard process, and so he kept putting it off and doing other things. And I’d show up and I’d be like, Al, are you gonna work on my still? And he’s like, yeah, come back tomorrow or two days, and I’ll, we’ll start it and come back. And he’s like, I got this. I was like, and so finally I got to a point, and I didn’t realize it, but I I said, how this is I got to have the still. I’ve got, I’ve got a space, and I’ve got to make whiskey. And he’s like, Oh, it’s costing me money. And I was like, Yes. And that clicked. You. He’s like, Come Monday and we’ll start. And that was, I think, he finished the still the seventh of September. And, yes,

Eric Jett  25:10

Like, off a few days. You’re like, might as well wait.

Michael Myers  25:13

Yeah. And I was like, Why? I should wait? Let’s remake that, that anniversary. And so I did, that’s awesome, yeah, going back a little bit.

Cory Comer  25:25

Well, I guess one of the coolest things about that still is there’s, you know, you talked about New York, but the Chrysler Building is literally imprinted on the inside of that still. So you’re even passing New York through on every every bottle you make now, right? 

Michael Myers  25:37

Yeah, but to say the column inside the column is the Chrysler Building, also, I don’t, I don’t tell many people this, every image on that still has a special meaning to it. So the Chrysler Building, because in art school, you learn about that building because it’s such a work of art, absolutely. Jackson Hole, yeah, I won’t get through it if we start down that road. 

Cory Comer  26:10

Over a dram another time. Eric, pull back the veil a little bit and talk about product right? Because you know, when you go to craft product like tell us the process you guys go through to select the recipe, all the products that you’re putting in there for some

Eric Jett  26:24

For something new?

Cory Comer  26:24

Yeah, something new especially, yes, 

Eric Jett  26:26

That’s, that’s a collaborative thing between Michael and I. I’d say, you know, definitely, mostly Michael, he’s still very much in the driver’s seat his artistic vision. But we definitely we’ll collaborate. And we have what’s called our E series of whiskeys. The see a big gold E on the label is the E stands for experimental, and that’s really a line of whiskeys where we can flex our creativity and just try things out. Michael will, oftentimes, just, he hikes a lot, and on a hike, he’ll come up with an idea, like, oh, I want to try a whiskey. Like, I think soon, here, in a moment, we’ll actually taste a whiskey that is a new experiment that we’ve been working on, and oftentimes

Michael Myers  27:02

It’s actually what we all have something different. Oh yeah, we have in our glass. 

Ryan Hall  27:07

This is delicious.

27:09

And so oftentimes our E Series is really the way that we do that. And Michael gets really intrigued with mash bills. Likes to try different things out with mash bills, but we’ve tried different yeast before we’ve tried different some different finishes. There’s a lot of other distilleries doing finishes, so we’re happy with our aspens Dave finish, and mostly it’s different mash bills, different fermentation processes, or aging processes, things like that. But you don’t really know until you try it. It’s really difficult to be able to predict. If I make this change, I know exactly how it’s going to change the whole process because there’s a ripple effect across the whole way you change the yeast, for example, right now, all of a sudden you have to make different cuts coming off your still, because you have different esters that are available to you know, the flavors that are coming off the still. So you you change one variable, and it changes all the variables that come after it, and you don’t know until you try it.

Cory Comer  28:00

And when it first comes out still. I mean, are you able to taste like, Oh, yes, this is good, or is there? Sometimes you’re like, Well, you don’t taste the age…

Eric Jett  28:07

You don’t know what the end product is going to taste like, but you can definitely say this is going to be something good. It has a lot of promise 

Michael Myers  28:12

Or special. 

Eric Jett  28:12

Yeah, or, and this isn’t that great. And even if we sit on it for a while, it probably won’t be that great, right? You can tell. 

Michael Myers  28:19

Or maybe.

Eric Jett  28:20

Sometimes you get surprised. So get surprised. 

Michael Myers  28:22

The big thing about that process is, and early on, it freaked Eric out. Eric’s been around long enough now that it doesn’t freak him out as much, but is, we’ll be tasting something. We’ll have a couple of whiskeys that we’re talking about, whether they’re an E or not. And this goes back a few years, and I’ll be have two of them in my hand, and I’ll pour them together, and early on, kind of a freak me out. Be like, wait, wait, how much was what and meaning the ratio to it? And it’s like, no, we’ll figure it out. If it’s good, we’ll figure it out. That’s your problem. But now he’s like, Hey, we should try those. Yeah? I mean, we do that a lot, yeah. All rye?

29:07

Yeah, so, all Rye, right. Here is 100% malted rye. 50% of that Rye is actually coming from Germany, and 50% is coming from here in Colorado. We just, we mash those, distilled those, and age those separately, wanting to compare different varietals of rye grown in malted and different regions, we liked them both. They were both very different whiskeys just changing that one variable of where you’re getting your grain. And we liked them both for different reasons. And for this particular release, we actually found we liked it when we married them together at a even ratio, 5050, and then E 12, one of our more recent e releases was actually a marrying of two different wheated bourbons. There was a weeded bourbon recipe that I wanted to try out and a weeded bourbon recipe that Michael wanted to try out. Originally, think they were probably gonna be two different E’s. Again, we liked them for different reasons, but when we decided to marry them together, we liked them better together than separately. And so. So that that particular e release is two different weeded bourbon mash, bills married together. 

Cory Comer  30:05

Sounds like a good partnership. 

Ryan Hall  30:07

Yeah.

30:07

It is a really good partnership.

30:09

I tend to like whiskey a little sweeter. He tends to like whiskey a little spicier. Although, right now I’m drinking a rye whiskey because it’s winter time and snowing out, and, man, this

Michael Myers  30:17

is a rye whiskey. But

Eric Jett  30:18

also, right?

Michael Myers  30:19

It’s a little sweeter, probably than that, yeah.

Cory Comer  30:22

So, I mean, you’re, I mean, you’re talking about, like, collaboration and artistry, and I mean, really, it’s not that you guys have a really, a true passion for this, right? So obviously, Kentucky is still the crown region of the United States, maybe the world for whiskey, right?

Michael Myers  30:37

Really? I don’t know about the world.

Cory Comer  30:41

I would agree.

Michael Myers  30:42

There’s a lot of Scottish people that give you a hard time. 

Eric Jett  30:44

I still walk Kentuck-who? 

Cory Comer  30:46

Yeah, I mean hillbillies, right? That’s, you know, I start off in Scotland. I start off in scotch. So, like, I totally agree, like, Scotland for my opinion. But there’s a lot of people you talk to, especially United States, like, Oh no, it’s Kentucky, right, yeah. But, and you mentioned earlier, Colorado whiskey. It’s sexy, right? But it goes beyond that now, right? I mean, you guys Colorado. You guys are a part of the movement now, bringing Colorado more, bring it up on the map. Tell me, what are you guys doing, like, what how do you feel your impact is making, and what do you see the future of the the industry here in Colorado?

Ryan Hall  31:17

You want to go first.

Michael Myers  31:20

No, you can go first. I’ll go first. We are definitely making a mark. Colorado is making a mark in the whiskey world. You know, Boulder Spirits, Laws, us, Stranahans…

Eric Jett  31:41

Deerhammer, Bear Creek, yeah, Peach Street

Michael Myers  31:43

Woody Creek, Peach Street

31:45

Leopold. There’s too many names we left off the list I’m sorry.. I think there’s, at this point, around 100 licensed distillers in Colorado somewhere around there. They’re not all producing right now, we don’t have anything on the shelf, but there’s a lot of distilleries here in Colorado.

Michael Myers  31:58

And they’re crushing it, and they’re, we’re talking grain to barrel to bottle, you know, making it from scratch, not sourcing. And they’re crushing it. And Colorado whiskey is a thing, and you know, it will it only is attracting more people in the whiskey world here to make whiskey and as well, you know, all the, all the our friends in Kentucky that are starting distilleries that are, you know, making grain to barrel to bottle or sourcing, all of A sudden, they’re ending up on the shelves here. And I’m like, wait, what? Wait, wait a minute, you know? So it’s kind of interesting, because there’s more people drinking whiskey in the South Georgia, Kentucky, you know, Louisiana than Colorado, but there’s a big push to get your bottle on the shelf in Colorado. And that says a lot, right?

33:05

Well, it’s interesting. One of the first markets we opened outside of Colorado was Kentucky. Yep, that’s, you know, go, go to the home base, like, you know, enemy territory. So it’s not right, but like, you know, go where it’s, like, they’re proudest of their Kentucky bourbon. Like, here’s a Colorado bourbon on your shelf. Yeah,

Michael Myers  33:23

Yeah. Something funny about that is, we had some people in tasting room the other day, this couple and, and they were, he was really funny. And I walked in and started talking to him and, and he’s like, you know, you know where I’ve tasted your whiskey first. And I’m like, where? And he goes this bar in Lexington, Kentucky. He goes, we walked in, and they’ve got a huge selection of whiskey, and he said to the bartender, what’s your favorite whiskey on the shelf? And the bartender turned around and pulled 291 off the shelf and poured it for him. The guy said, we laughed. He and his wife laughed at the bartender, and then they taste it, and they’re like, “Oh, damn”. They are working in Denver now, and they drove down because they’re like, We love your whiskey from that day. 

Cory Comer  34:11

Well, that’s like, your story that you have, you know, like Colorado whiskey, right? That’s the, that’s your adage that you use, you know, that’s awesome. 

Michael Myers  34:18

Yeah, walk in a bar, a western bar. This is the whiskey they should put down. 

Cory Comer  34:23

You heard it here the West start starts in Kentucky, but it’s hearts in Colorado, right? Yeah.

Ryan Hall  34:29

So what’s your distribution now? Is it? Oh, how far outside of Colorado are you guys distributing? 

Eric Jett  34:34

Pretty far.

Michael Myers  34:35

We’re in 23 states. That doesn’t mean we’re shipping pallets, some of them Wyoming. We is a controlled state. They order a case every once in a while, California is a little more than that. You know, pallets go out to California. But, yeah, we are focusing now back on Colorado again to grow it even more. We’re excited about that. You know, talking about. I had an article a while ago, and someone asked me, I forget what the question was, but my response was, Kentucky fired the first shot. Tennessee heard the rapport, and Colorado joined the fight. So absolutely, yeah.

Cory Comer  35:16

Awesome, well, Michael, I know you’ve got a stop coming up here soon, and before we get before we let you go, we want to talk about our Angel share segment where we talk about giving back to community. Giving back to me is big for Ryan and I. We’re both foster parents. We both adopted kids. Awesome. We’re heavily involved in our in our local communities and churches and stuff, and so that’s something that’s big and near and dear to our hearts, and I understand it is to you guys as well. So I’d love for you guys to talk about your tough enough to wear pink initiatives that you helped out with the cattlemen drives out there, or cattlemans days, excuse me, and you’ve had a relationship with them since 2016 as I understand, and you guys helped them raise a lot of money. Tell us more about that and some of the benchmarks you guys have done for them.

Michael Myers  35:56

Yeah. So we, we give to the community. So anybody reaches out to us that has an event to raise money, we donate a bottle to some kind of something for them to put an auction. We have a little bit of a criteria, but not much. We just want to make sure that we raise money for that. And it was interesting. I saw Todd hood on Buck horn the other on my hike, he was riding bikes, and we’d given him bottle for fundraising for a biking community thing, and and he goes, we raised $2,000 so thank you, you know. But to get back to Tough, whoo, tough enough to wear pink. That came about. Dean Dillon wrote Tennessee whiskey. Famous songwriter, wrote tons of George straits number ones, I mean, over 700 or something, and he was having a movie launched about him, or something like documentary. Somebody asked us to donate whiskey. So Philip Rawley, my senior VP, went out to do the tasting or whatever at the movie. Was standing outside smoking a cigarette, and there was this long haired guy with a cowboy hat, and he’s like, What are you doing here? And and Philip’s like, well, I some guy’s got a movie about it. He’s, he’s a, you know, musician or something, and Dean’s like, that’d be me. And so we became friends, Philip, with Dean, and then went and they were raising money for adaptive sports and tough enough to wear pink in crest Butte. And so they do a music festival, singer songwriter music festival. And so we started donating whiskey for that tastings, getting people liquored up. So when they have the auction, they just crack open that wallet and, you know, and give money. And then we’ve done a pink label that’s only sold in crest Butte, and we take money from that and we either buy stuff at the auction or donate or whatever. So we give back in that way, but mainly just support in any way we can, in the sense of dinners where they have singer songwriters. We show up there, we’ll be in an auction. And they’ll be doing, you know, auction off, a night with Marla cannon, you know, Josh, all these singer songwriters have written for a bunch of really famous, you know, musicians and, and really famous songs and, and they’ll do a night, and we’ll throw in, you know, they’ll get up to a certain point, you know, $30,000 for that night, or whatever we’ll be, we’ll throw in three cases of whiskey, and Philip will make cocktails at night, and it’ll go to $40,000 so, yeah, so What is tough enough to wear pink? Specifically tough enough where pink is originally raising money for breast cancer, but it’s all, all cancers in the Gunnison Valley area. It’s, it’s a nationwide thing, but Gunnison Valley Hospital is, we’ve raised a lot of money for them, bought a couple of really amazing dollars, I understand. Is that correct? Yeah, amazing machines. Awesome where they don’t, where people that have are going through cancer don’t have to go to Denver if they do, there’s a couple of cars to to ferry them up there. There’s places for them to stay.

Cory Comer  39:38

But the huge support network and stuff to help support. That’s awesome.

39:42

My sister in law actually had breast cancer, and in Montrose, there’s a, I don’t remember the name of the Breast Cancer Research Hospital thing that they started there. That’s part of all that. So, 

Eric Jett  39:53

So, she’s a beneficiary of the program.  It’s near and dear to my heart. Yeah, I think she actually, I think, right before we started supporting. But it’s very important me that we support to all that. 

Michael Myers  40:03

I’m going out on limb. I think everybody’s had some kind of brush with cancer, somehow touched by it, and so it’s not just for us cancer. It’s, let’s, let’s help anybody that’s been in that, you know, position.

Cory Comer  40:19

Right. But before I go, I have one question, what do we what do we have to do to get Sam Elliott to be tasting your whiskey on a Netflix show?

Michael Myers  40:27

Well, he does, he does on the ranch, yeah, yeah.

Cory Comer  40:31

Dose he show your label and all that stuff?

Michael Myers  40:32

Yeah, it’s on there a lot. It’s also on Ozarks. It’s on episode three.  I’ll have to write that down so I can see absolutely Episode Three and season four. Episode Six, Laura Lenny is with her brother, and she pops the bottle and they pour a drink there. That’s season three. And then season four, she pours it and takes it to her daughter and says, this is some of the good stuff. And your daughter goes, if you say, takes a drink, and goes “If you say so, Mom.”

Cory Comer  41:06

You can catch 291 on the ranch on Netflix and Ozarks, which is also, yeah, that’s awesome. Well, Cheers, guys. Cheers. Thank you for joining us today.

Eric Jett  41:16

Yeah 

Michael Myers  41:17

Nice to meet you. Guys.

Cory Comer  41:19

Awesome. You well, We just wrapped up an awesome interview with Eric and Michael here at Distillery 291 and right now Eric is going to guide us through a tasting of of his whiskeys here.

Ryan Hall  41:30

Yeah, so Eric, what’s the tell us about the first whiskey?

41:32

We’ll just, yeah, we’ll do a few. We’ve got a lot of different whiskies here. We’re going to start with our flagship. This is our 291 barrel proof, single barrel Colorado whiskey. This is a rye whiskey you won’t see rye on the front label this. Michael loves rye whiskies, and when he set out to start making whiskey, he wanted to make really Western, rugged, full bodied rye whiskey. One of his favorite rye whiskies is Thomas Handy. He took inspiration from that, but he really wanted this to be one of the things he was most well known for contributing to the Colorado whiskey world. And so that’s why we just call it our Colorado whiskey. It’s our barrel proof rye. We’ll start with this. It’s going to be a single barrel. So every barrel is going to be slightly different. This particular barrel is 1080 and the proof on this one is a little high. It’s 134.8 proof. So very, very full body. Let me pour some for you guys. There you go. Thanks, sir. You’re welcome. All right. So this whiskey, all these whiskeys, we’re gonna be tasting our Aspen stave finish. That is something we talked about in the interview. We were the first and only distillery for the longest time to use Aspen as a finishing wood on our whiskey. And with this rye, one thing we like to say is, it’s kind of a bourbon drinkers rye. It’s gonna be a little bit sweeter, a little less herbal than, you know, some rise that you might get out of Indiana, or some, even some rise you’ll be getting in Kentucky. Definitely got the spice on there,

Cory Comer  42:53

But for a barrel proof, Rye is very easy on the nose, like, yeah, full of, full of, I mean, you could, you can smell. There’s a lot, lot coming off. But it’s not harsh.

Eric Jett  43:03

A lot of a cinnamon, a lot of cinnamon stick. A lot of toffee. Get a little bit so with you tend little brown sugar, you tend to get a little bit of pine sap or eucalyptus. There’s tends to be a little bit of a herbal or floral bite. I get a little potpourri on this, but overall, it’s actually a pretty sweet rye whiskey on the nose and on the pallet.

Cory Comer  43:21

It’s got all the all the nose you expect out of a typical rye, you know? Christmas notes, right?

Eric Jett  43:26

I should say too that our rye, this mash bill, 61% malted rye, 39% corn. So it’s a two grain rye, and we use malted rye. All the rye that we use in our distillery is malted that goes back to how Michael first started making his recipes, and we’ve carried that forward ever since. Most of our Rye is coming from Germany. Right now. We’ve also done a lot of experiments with different local Colorado ryes, different varietals and different malting, and they all taste so different. So we’re kind of right. We’re doing some experiments with that. At the moment, I want the

Cory Comer  43:55

With that heavy corn too. That’s going to be, it’s going to be sweeter than, yeah, a lot more barley. Yes,

Michael Myers  44:02

cheers, cheers, well, that’s good, yeah,

44:09

this is our flagship. We, I’d say we’re most known for our rye whiskeys. Bourbon is a bigger, a bigger category, and so we do sell more bourbon than our rye. But you know, we won world’s best rye, as Michael said in 2018 at the World whiskey awards. Two years prior to that, we won Best American rye, but didn’t quite win world’s best that year. We’ve won lots of different awards with our rye whiskey, and it’s really helped put us on the map. And there’s a lot of people out there when we go to events, when I do tastings with people that they’re like, Ah, I’m a bourbon drinker. I’m not really a rye drinker. And if we just say, Hey, your pressure. I’m a little bit surprised. Give this a try. You don’t like it nine times out of 10, they’ll taste it. And if they’re not a rye drinker, this is usually what gets them.

Cory Comer  44:48

It’s got that heavy spice, without being spicy, there is a that heat you get from the rye that that’s really pleasant, but it’s not overwhelming, like a lot of ryes can be. Yeah, that’s a very nice

44:58

And this is a very high proof. This is our. Like I said, our barrel proof single barrel, we do have a small batch version of this. It’s a batch of about 22 to 24 smaller format barrels, and it’s going to be 101.7 proofs. We’ll cut that down a little bit. You can find, you can find these whiskies pretty much everywhere. But if you you’re not sure about barrel proof, I’d recommend our small batch. But I mean, we love our barrel proof whiskey. Actually, all the whiskey is gonna be tasting right now are gonna be barrel

Ryan Hall  45:22

proof. They’re fantastic, yeah, and it’s not, it’s barrel proof, but it’s not super hot, just no spices. Yeah, pleasant, very smooth. Yes, very, very much.

Cory Comer  45:31

That’s pleasant.

Eric Jett  45:33

How do you guys feel about rye whiskey in general? I love rye.

Cory Comer  45:36

I love Ryan. I started to scotch, so when I found moved into rye, rye was kind of a natural fit there. I love the complex flavors.

Eric Jett  45:43

So if you, if you like that, let me guess You like Isla scotches. Peaty, full body. If you like a full body rye whiskey?

Cory Comer  45:49

Yeah, I do like Highland, though, as well. Like, yeah, of course. You know Isla, I’m not initially big heavy smoke, sure. So I love, you know, they like the heavy smoke.

Eric Jett  46:00

I can’t, I can’t get enough of that stuff. Man. Yeah, I love my Isla scotch. I love my rye whiskey with my bourbon. That’s very good. Love it all, all right, so speaking of bourbon, that’s what I’m pouring now, basically the bourbon version of we what we just drank. It’s our barrel, proof, single barrel. 291 Colorado bourbon whiskey finished with Aspen woods. Dave’s again, single barrel. So this particular barrel we’re tasting is 1115 and the proof is 132.5 again, a very big proof whiskey here. So with our bourbon, as opposed to the rye, you’re gonna get maybe a little more, little more orange marmalade or dried fruit, maybe a little dried apricot in there, maybe a touch less cinnamon, but more of, maybe more of an herbal tea note in there, definitely brown sugar, lot of dried fruit, though. On there with our bourbon, though, because typically with our whiskey, you get a touch of that pine sap or eucalyptus. Like I was saying, there’s always, there’s always, definitely a little bit of cinnamon. The Aspen actually helps with that bright note on the front, that cinnamon bite, sometimes it comes across as minty, so nice, long, Woody finish on a lot of our whiskeys. The Aspen helps with that, right? Because of that, there are some bourbon drinkers who are used to just really sweet Kentucky bourbons that taste this and like it’s not quite as sweet as what they might be used to, right? So, like, where I was saying our rye whiskey appeals to people who didn’t think they would like a rye that like sweeter whiskeys. Our bourbon actually appeals to rye drinkers or people who aren’t as a fan of, you know, really sweet bourbons. Yeah, Bourbon is not really my thing. Some Scotch people that are into like, kind of those heavier, full body scotches. We give them our bourbon, and they really like that a lot.

Cory Comer  47:38

Yeah, it’s funny. You mentioned poo-pourri on 

Eric Jett  47:41

Not poo-pourri

Cory Comer  47:43

yeah, that was a slip

Eric Jett  47:44

Poo-pouri’s that product that you spray on the toilet

Cory Comer  47:47

Potpourri the on the rye, I actually picked that up on here with that dried fruit note you talked about. I’m thinking

Ryan Hall  47:54

I have some of that. The Aspen state too, the toast, yeah, smokiness,

48:01

So in the finish, that Woody note that Aspen really helps with that. But it’s not like not overpowering Woody. It actually just is a soft fish again, for 132 proof, it’s a relatively soft bodied whiskey, very viscous, very oily, but not not the overpowering heat that you get on the back end. We can’t give her some higher proof whiskeys. And, you know, our bourbon here, we like to call this our bottle bling. Or, you know, if you’re a fan of office space, it’s our bottle flare. Yeah, absolutely. I can’t fit 37 pieces on here, but we’ve won over the years. You know, our rye 198 points at IWC. Our bourbon here is 197 points. You know, double platinum, double gold. At world the San Francisco, world whiskey, world spirits competition, all kinds of stuff. We won, just last year with World whiskey awards, we won icons of whiskey, craft Producer of the Year, just for across our line of whiskeys, right? So, fantastic. Award winning bourbon. Yeah, these are these, I would say, are two kind of flagship products, our bourbon and our rye, we make most of them, I should tell you, too. Sorry, that’s okay. Um, for anybody that’s curious about the mash bill, this one is 80% corn, 19% malted rye, 1% malted barley, just a just a touch of malted barley in there, mostly, you know, the corn and the rise.

Ryan Hall  49:16

I feel like, I feel like this is spicier than the rye. The heat on it?

49:20

Yeah, and it kind of depends. Depends on the barrel. Every barrel is gonna be a little different, especially with the single barrel. I’d say our bourbon does tend to be a little sweeter, but again, it’s not as sweet as when someone hears the word bourbon. That’s gonna be really sweet, yeah, but this is definitely more of a summer drinking whiskey to me and the rye. It’s as we’re as we’re recording this. It’s snowing out outside right now. I can’t get enough of our Rye

Cory Comer  49:42

That’s a good, that’s a good choice there. I mean, the, there are some honey notes and stuff in there as well. And I think that the finish uncommon to, I think a lot of bourbons, is it lingers for a while. Oily finish. You mentioned sunish is something you’re going to get out a lot of bourbons. You’re going to get that more of the complex rises, scotches. I really like that. It’s, it’s a good. That’s good finish. I like that.

50:01

Thank you. And I should also say that our our bourbon here, we also have a small batch version This, again, 2224 ish barrels, and a batch, and it’s, we’re going to prove it down to 100 proof, 50% ABV, the same mash bill, just we’re going to proof it down a little bit. And, yeah, you can find that pretty much everywhere. So that’s, that’s awesome. And while we’re on bourbons, the next thing we’ll be tasting is what’s known as our bad guy bourbon, our 291 bad guy Colorado bourbon whiskey. This is a seasonal release that we release once a year, every October, and this is batch nine that we’re tasting. This is this year’s release. It is a four grain bourbon, and wheat is the second most prominent grain, so we call it our four grain weeded bourbon. And this one, we go into the barrel at a slightly lower entry proof. It’s also still going to be barrel proof, but this one came out at 120.6 proof after aging. And this particular batch, batch nine, we only got 1400 bottles out of it. So it’s just a small little batch every year that we make, and it’s a lot of fun for us.

Ryan Hall  51:06

And how long are you aging these?

Eric Jett  51:08

So most of our whiskey is gonna be aged in these smaller, 10 gallon barrel format. That was kind of a necessary consequence of how Michael started. He started in 300 square feet. Didn’t have a lot of room for barrels. Also was bootstrapping it, and so needed to age whiskey as quickly as possible. Oh, yeah, it’s difficult to age whiskey in small barrels. Most people thought you could not make great whiskey in small barrels. Obviously, talked about our awards. We’ve figured out how to do it. It has got to make great white whiskey be able to go into the barrel, small barrel. So with this size we’re aging a minimum of one year, up to around two years. Most of the whiskey we’re harvesting these days is about two years old. Okay, sometimes we’ll even go a little over two years in a 10 gallon barrel. Got some 30 and 53 gallon barrels aging as well right now. But, yeah, yeah, minimum of one year these days.

Ryan Hall  51:58

It doesn’t taste young.

Eric Jett  51:59

It’s all pretty right around two years. So I should say sorry, I should say our bad guy bourbon here. This started as actually a mash bill that Michael was experimenting with, and he had a buddy who had a restaurant here in town and was looking for kind of his house whiskey, like a house mash that was his own. And so Michael had this kind of gave him this recipe. Michael made it barrel to form all that stuff. And the name comes from the son of that restaurant owner. He had a young son at the time, and son said, You should call it bad guy, because bad guys drink whiskey. And Michael, you know, being arts, he’s like, that’s perfect bad guy bourbon. There’s a ring to that, right? Absolutely, you have to name it that. So we really made this. You know, Michael was working on this recipe anyway, but they got our first batch of it this restaurant here in town, and eventually it reverted back to us, and so we just started releasing it to the public. But it was really kind of Michael originally thought was either gonna be a one off or something we made just for them. But I’m personally happy that we were able to release to everybody stuff. So it’s going to be a little bit sweeter than the previous bourbon. Yeah, wheat helps soften it out the mash bill on this one is 59% corn, 29% malted white wheat, 9% malted rye, and 3% malted barley.

Cory Comer  53:18

I’ve been nosing in this one, the nose is so good. There’s there’s caramel sweetness to it, but there’s like, brown cracker and stuff in there too. And it’s, it smells, yeah, it smells awesome. I’m just like enjoying the nose on this one. 

Eric Jett  53:28

So, it’s a little ironic the name, you know, Michael, heard the name from, you know, that guy’s son and and wanted to name it. That’s such a great name, bad guy bourbon. But it’s softer and sweeter and more delicate, for sure, than our other bourbon. And so it’s just funny that our sweeter, softer bourbon is kind of, you know, named bad guy bourbon, when it’s really not harsh at all?

Ryan Hall  53:49

Bad guys are all kinda soft at heart, right?

Eric Jett  53:51

Yeah, you guys almost made Michael cry in his interview, which is not hard, because he’s, he’s a wonderful softy at heart.

Cory Comer  53:58

But you know you catch Michael is three. He’s a he’s a tall guy, and you could totally catch him, like, looking good wearing all black, like he like, kind of presents that bad guy, kind of, but you start talking, he’s, he’s obvious, yeah, this is a pretty good representation of Michael right here.

Eric Jett  54:13

So, yeah, flavor profile again, each batch we do, one a year, you know, it’s going to vary a little bit batch to batch. But this particular one, I get some creme brulee, some vanilla custard, a little bit of, you know, Fuji apple note on there. It’s just, yeah, nice and sweet.

Cory Comer  54:28

So creme brulees, I smell that bad. Yeah, yeah.

54:35

Okay, so I have one more special treat. This is actually what you get. We were drinking, well, I had something different on my glass at the time, but what you guys had in your glass during the interview, this is not released yet. It is a four grain rye whiskey we Michael wanted. He was just curious to see what would happen with it. So we took this bad guy recipe, the 59 corn, 29 wheat, nine rye and three. Barley. You took that and you wanted to flip it on its head and make a rye whiskey out of it. So we flip flopped the corn percentages and the rye percentages to make it a rye whiskey, but with wheat malted white wheat being the second most prominent grain. Okay, I had never heard of a four grain rye, let alone a four grain rye where wheat was the second most prominent grain and not corn, so we don’t

Cory Comer  55:22

You gotta a lot of four grain bourbons, stuff like that, right? But, yeah

55:25

We’re not sure what we’re even calling this yet. We’re not sure if it’s gonna be an E or if it’s gonna be a separate release, you know, with with its own kind of label, or what this is just something that Michael and I are both really excited about, and you guys are some of the first people get to taste this stuff. Oh, I know. Just pulled this out of the barrel today.

Cory Comer  55:41

You didn’t describe it very well in our previous engagement here, but I really enjoyed it, so I’m looking forward to tasting this again.

55:47

And this is 122 proof, like I said, just pulled it out of the barrel today, took a proof on it, and yeah, again, very sweet for a rye whiskey. I wouldn’t say overpoweringly sweet. It’s still a rye at heart in a lot of those floral floral notes, yep, little bit of potpourri, or baby’s breath. There’s still a little bit of that Eucalyptus. But I also get little bit of, like, red licorice. And, yeah, and stay with me. Did you guys ever have the brown sugar cinnamon Pop Tarts?

Ryan Hall  56:18

Oh, those are my favorite. Yeah.

56:27

It was the brown sugar singing Pop Tarts. And this has that note in there. Oh,

Cory Comer  56:31

yeah, you know, I grew up on my mom making a stolen bread. It’s a German, traditional German pastry bread. And I’m picking up notes of of that out of this, which is awesome,

56:42

which is, I have no reference point for that, but, yeah, I mean, if it smelled like this, then I would like that typical

Cory Comer  56:48

with the rise, right? Christmas, the spice it’s, yeah, it’s

56:59

little bit of dried apple in the finish on this one. So what’s interesting, we’re tasting this. I just pulled this out of the barrel. We haven’t actually done an aspen state finish on this yet, because it right now, it’s two and a half years old. Probably gonna let it age a little bit longer then open.

Ryan Hall  57:12

I can really, I can really tell on the other ones the spice of the Aspen.

57:16

Yeah, hoping that, you know, might get released this year. Might not. I don’t know. You guys just have to wait and see. But it’s right now. It’s still aging, and we haven’t done the Aspen finish

Cory Comer  57:24

on it, so it’s a lot more oak on the finish on this one than I am on your others. Little more oak, yeah, just because of how fresh it is, or do you think that’s gonna impart itself to the final product?

57:33

It depends. It could be part of the age typically, though, we can age it three, four years easily without getting over oak.

Cory Comer  57:41

Oh, it’s definitely not over oaked

57:44

The aspen can kind of soften that adds a woodiness, but it’s a difficult thing to describe. It kind of softens and lengthens that finish, whereas this one I feel like right now is dropping off a little bit more compared to what we’ve tasted. Yeah, and as a harder stop to the finish, part of that is we haven’t done the finishing process yet to the whiskey, so during that

Cory Comer  58:02

first bourbon we tried, had a lot longer finish than and the first ride for sure. Yeah, yeah. So it’s very good, though. Yeah, as I continue drinking,

58:11

I’m getting a lot more dried apple, dried fruit on it. Very sweet whiskey. I mean, ice too. Like baked, like you ever had those baked cinnamon apples? Yeah? Like they turn red, yeah, on the Apple Yeah, get a little bit out

Cory Comer  58:24

on the pile apple pie. Yeah, right, yeah. Not necessarily the sweetness, but you know, the out of the before, I mean, the first, the rye, yeah, first rye we try is, is fantastic. Everything else is great too. But it’s between the your normal. Ryan, this one to be the ones that I had. This is really good, cool.

Ryan Hall  58:46

I can’t wait to try this one once it’s finished.

Cory Comer  58:48

Yeah, pick up a bottle that for sure.

58:51

I’m happy to drink more with you guys, but we’ll do it off camera.

Cory Comer  58:57

Well, you heard him. Thank you so much for watching Eric. Thank you so much for having us and cheers, cheers, cheers.

Ryan Hall  59:07

Thank you for joining us on whiskey wonderlust. Subscribe to the show on YouTube, Apple podcasts, Spotify, Amazon music and all other major podcast platforms, and be sure to leave us a rating and review. Follow us on social media and visit us online at Whiskey wonderlust.co