Podcast: The Bourbon Show #82,1-15-2020
- Dan Garrison, founder
- 2001 Dan went to KY to learn about Bourbon
- 2004 he filled out papers to start his distillery
- 2005 his distillery was the first to open in TX since Prohibition
- Married with 2 kids
- 1989 grad un TX moved to NY city for 4 years, and she was from Austin, TX
- Worked for a company GSDN in marketing
- He went to an Internet based company called Extraprise which was sold in 2001 to $178 million he had stock options but it was bought by a company that their biggest client was Enron so all of his stock options and savings disappeared with their bust.
- He was 40 at that time
- He went to KY for a week, where he got the idea to start a distillery
- He convinced his mother in law to buy property in TX
- 2006 he got his first pot still from Buffalo Trace
- 2008 got a federal permit
- 2010 sold his first 2,000 bottles
- 2019 verge of turning first profit and selling 10,000 cases
- About $7million to get it started in today’s money,
- He was bankrupt 3 times
- 50 employees
- When he started there were only 29 distilleries in the US, now over 2,900 now
- And now “distributors” are not taking new brands up now so it is very tough
- On his first trip to KY he went to Makers Mark and Dave Pickerel sat down and talked with him then a few months later Dave quit and Dan had him come in and help him start his distillery
- When he was staring he built an outside shower to wash off all his hot mash that would spray up on him and burn him, lots of burns he said, pipes bursting or connecting hoses coming apart
- He had issues finding the right temps for his grains
- If you don’t hit those strike temps then the grains become glue
- Craig Beam helped him over the phone on how to hit those correct temps
- He kept a journal for two years on this process
- He had a personal diary for every barrel he put up in his shipping container (10 gallon barrels) his rick house
- His wife recruited investors
- In his early days there actually was a web site that had a forum where all the big names would be on and answer questions.
- 2011 he walked into an Austin Bar and saw his bourbon on the shelf and he spent the entire day buying drinks of it for people
- He first came out with a “young” whiskey because someone cam in for a tour and was asking them questions and he was not very upfront with them on why he was asking questions and they knew he was asking them because he was starting a distillery. So after that guy left he went to his master distiller and said “are we going to let someone beat us to the punch and release a whiskey fist in TX?”
- They wanted a “straight” at least (2 yrs)
- They went through all their barrels to find just the best ones that were ready to bottle.
- They gave about half of those away to the construction people, engineers and electricians who helped them build their place
- Sold 1,000 bottles in local liquor stores
- They thought they were the first to sell in TX, but that guy that came to them asking questions had gotten to one liquor store first and sold a case of bourbon first, which they still hate the idea
- About 3 years in one of their partners split
- They take care of their employees
- He wanted to create a family of bourbon makers not just to make a profit
- Made charities
- Good bourbon for a good cause
- High preservation society, buys farmers crops
- They use rainwater to cut the bourbon
- Temps are 90-100
- 10 Months of heat
- General out of barrel proof is 130-140
- 149 proof out of the barrel is their record
- 200,000 storage capacity for rainwater when it does rain
- The heat makes the bourbon expand into the barrel better
- 3 coperatges were just staring making small barrels around them
- They started with 15 gallon barrels to start then to 35
- The staves would crack because of the heat was a typical problem
- 10-11% angle loss in typical today for them, but ie used to be very hi
- Harley Wheatly from Buffalo TRace helped them with the entry barrel proof
- Heas space inside was important so he helped them experiment with the right amount of filling the barrel
- Average gift shop sale is $89
- Two new bourbons in development:
- Lagoona Modre
- Aged 4 years
- MN oak
- Put into limose oak barrel from france that limits how many trees can be cut per year
- $8,000 per barrel
- High vanilla taste
- Limousine barrel
- Aged another 4 years
- 101 proof
- Named after his master distiller whos nickname is 101
- Liquid candy
- Coming out this summer
- Only 2,000 bottles released
- Un named
- 2025
- In development phase
- His staff said they were doing it whether he was for it or not
- Lagoona Modre
- His brother works with him out on the road
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