Oregon Spirit Distillers

Drew (00:08):
Welcome to Whiskey Lore's Whiskey Flights, the weekly home for discovering great craft distillery experiences around the globe. I'm your travel guide Drew ish, the bestselling author of Whiskey Lord's Travel Guide to Experiencing Kentucky Bourbon's second edition, the Lost History of Tennessee Whiskey, and the book that bust 24 of Whiskey's, biggest myths, whiskey lore, volume one. And after leaving Hinter House yesterday, I had a five and a half hour drive that took me through Sacramento right before rush hour, which was kind of a mess. And then another four hours to drive north to get to my hotel, which actually was a motel, which was something that I found that it was like, well, this is a good price and it's getting good reviews. I kept getting text messages though all during my drive and I'm like, what is all this about? Well, I didn't read the text messages when I arrived.

(01:00):
I went looking for an office and there was no office and there was a woman there, and she's looking at me, she's going, you're looking for the office, aren't you? And I said, yeah, where's the office? And she said, there isn't one. Look at your text message. And so I'm reading my text message and it's like, there's the room number, there's the code to get in the door, easy as can be. I sort of like it. I am also a little creeped out by it. It's so weird knowing that there's nobody on property and you're staying in this place out in the middle of nowhere. But anyway, got a nice night's sleep. I will say that it is a dog friendly place, and the only thing I don't like about dog friendly places is if the person that was in there before you didn't have a flea collar on their dog, you end up with fleas in the room and there was a flea in the room.

(01:51):
I shuffled it out. I will say that the thing with me is that fleas love me, and that is why I am not really a big fan of bumping into fleas in the room. But anyway, got up this morning, made my way up to Bend, Oregon again, long drive, still about three and a half hours for me to get there. And as I'm coming into town, I'm thinking Bend Oregon. There is something here that I'm supposed to be seeing besides this distillery that I'm heading to. And I can't remember what it, oh, blockbuster. There's a blockbuster video in town and you're going, what? I thought Blockbuster was long gone. Well, there's actually a documentary that I saw a couple years ago where this family had decided to hold onto their franchise. They actually fought to keep their franchise and they became the last blockbuster. So I'm like, I got to stop by.

(02:51):
I got to see what this place looks like and talk about a feeling of nostalgia. It's funny, it's the first time I've ever walked into a blockbuster where there were getting their picture taken outside of it. And then I go in and it's like, oh my gosh, this is a throwback to seven years ago. And what I miss about Blockbuster is that back many years ago when you were going to watch a movie, you had to have an intention to watch that movie. Today you can just flip on the TV and go, oh, what's on this? And that's it, and you pull it up. But in the past, you had to really make an effort to go see a movie. And there was something a little bit more substantial about that to me. Weird. I know, but that's kind of the way I feel about it.

(03:36):
So it was fun walking through Blockbuster again, and I did what I love to do at Blockbuster, which was go through the rack where they had all the movies that they were getting rid of and they were on deep discount. And so I bought myself five movies to take back. It was five for 10 bucks. I was like, why not? So I bought myself five DVDs while I was there and then made my way over to Oregon Spirit Distillers to meet with Brad and Kathy over at the Distillery. You may be asking me why I didn't go to Portland. It just seems like, well, there's a lot of distilleries there. You'd have a lot to choose from. I first of all wanted to get a little deeper in the state to kind of show that Oregon's got a lot more distilleries than just what's in Portland.

(04:20):
But also because I had bumped into Brad Irwin while trying to find an Oregon Distiller's Guild because I had some questions for my book experiencing American whiskey. And I thought maybe I could ask him some of the questions, some of the rules around Oregon spirits. But also I found out that he runs the Oregon Whiskey Festival. And one of the things that I'm trying to do in this book is also point out states that have whiskey festivals that are very much dedicated to that state's spirits, and that is definitely a festival that is Oregon focused. So once I got there, Brad and Kathy and I had a nice little conversation, and then Brad took me around the distillery and we talked about process and the things that he's making. And then we went into his office, sat down, and here we are ready for our conversation. And usually I like to get a little baseline on people. I want to sort of know how did you get into this whiskey industry? What made you decide to go into the expense and the process of building out of distillery? And so Brad, what was your background?

Brad (05:31):
I had had a couple different businesses, and in between periods of being in business and not being in business, I always found myself bartending.

(05:40):
It was always my backup gig. I loved it, but it was never anything I wanted to make a career out of. I just suddenly needed a job. And as I started to age, I realized that I probably should focus on being a better mixologist. I couldn't tell jokes very well or I needed some sort of shtick to be a good bartender. And I really loved investigating spirits, understanding how they played in a cocktail. And then also I was really just fascinated by the different flavor profiles, the different whiskeys provided as well as gin. And it was really fascinating to me that there was so much great whiskey out there and I couldn't determine which one was better. You taste different even within bourbons or scotches or whatever other people might have different likes or whatever, and you can't say that they're right or wrong. You have to agree with them even though you might have a different preference. That's fascinating to me.

Drew (06:34):
Yeah. When you were diving into this, did you kind of have cocktails in the back of your mind as kind of part of the main focus of this?

Brad (06:44):
We wanted to make spirits mostly whiskey focused that participate in cocktails. I personally didn't like whiskeys or brands that the spirit itself was an afterthought to the cocktail. So when we designed all of our whiskeys, you'll notice that we use quite a bit of rye. And the reason that we use rye in our bourbon and our wheat whiskey, even though it's wheat, is because we wanted enough finish that it would participate in a cocktail, and that's what Rye provides. So we wanted that. And the same with our gin. We didn't want to be the fallback gin that was just at the back of the cocktail. We wanted to be part of it.

Drew (07:21):
Where was Oregon at the time in terms of distilling?

Brad (07:25):
We started in 2009, and there were some great distillers that came before us. Certainly Steve McCarthy with Clear Creek founded the early revolution of small distilleries in the Pacific Northwest, and he did a lot of fantastic fruit spirits. And then when I came around in 2009 and my wife and I decided to open Oregon spirit, I believe we were the 14th distillery. There was a couple that were bigger than us. Ben Distillery and Cradle Lake were certainly more successful in the vodka range. And there was a couple fantastic Portland distilleries that were really starting to develop whiskeys. And it was a really exciting time. And I thought that I was late to the party. This was 2009, maybe there's room for me. I hope these guys don't mind showing up in the market. And then we're 16 years later and there's 70 in Oregon and it's incredible. But yeah, I'm really proud to be part of this community.

Drew (08:25):
When you look back and you think of the steps that you took and what you introduced first today, I think a lot of people just lean into bourbon first because they go, that'll sell. People know what it is. Where was your thought process and what was the first thing that you released?

Brad (08:44):
The first thing we released was wheat whiskey.

Drew (08:47):
And

Brad (08:47):
One of my first lessons in the spirit industry is that there's a lot that I don't know, and there's a lot of things that I knew and could figure out, and I was absolutely convinced that wheat whiskey was going to be the next thing.

Speaker 3 (08:59):
And

Brad (09:00):
This is 2009, and bourbon's been around for a long time, but bourbon wasn't what it was today. And even the people in 2009 would say that, I mean a lot more room for whiskey and that people were pushing the boundaries of what whiskey could be, especially American whiskey. And I was really excited about it. And particularly because we're from Oregon, and Oregon is a great agricultural state. Our two resources are fantastic water and fantastic grain, and we produce more wheat than anything else. And I know us, a historian will know that any distillery is trying to use their local resources. You move the distillery to the resources, you don't move the resources to the distillery. And wheat whiskey is fantastic. It's a delicious spirit. It's not bourbon. I was absolutely convinced that we were going to take over the world and Jim Beam be scared because here I come with wee whiskey. It's fantastic. Yeah,

Drew (10:00):
This little distillery coming out of Oregon is going to upset the apple cart of Jim Beam.

Brad (10:04):
Yeah, we'll coexist. It'll be fine. We will have a trade boundary or something.

Drew (10:09):
Anyway, we talked about Bernheim is really the one that I think most people who go deeper than bourbon would probably maybe know the name because of Heaven Hill producing it. But

Brad (10:25):
It's pre-prohibition, like it's really wheat whiskey. That's fantastic. And

Drew (10:29):
Yeah, so what other wheat whiskeys were out there at the time, but did you take stock of what was,

Brad (10:36):
There's a couple other Northwest producers who make great we whiskey dryly is a couple years older than we are, and I think they were 2007, 2006, they had probably some two year whiskey out at the time. But I really did know Bernheim that was on most nice bars. You'd find it. And also I didn't know them and they released it about the same time we did and it's really neat. But Stein Distillery and Joseph, great product. They have a wheat whiskey that's similar to ours, and they started after we did, but a year after or something like that. But now you see a lot more wheat whiskey. It is only confused by the popularity of weed bourbon. If I say wheat whiskey now, people say, oh, you mean you've got a wheater? And I know if they say Wheater that actually we're not on the same page,

Drew (11:28):
You're saying it's 51% corn at least, and it's got wheat in it is the primary grain, rather than saying that wheat is the primary grain in it. So 51% wheat is the lowest you can go. What did you decide to do? Did you experiment with different amounts?

Brad (11:45):
We did quite a bit of experimentation before we had our license. And then really early on when we had our license, there was a lot of different recipes that went into barrels at the very beginning. And there's two lessons from that. One is a hundred percent wheat whiskey has a really interesting front, soft and gentle and complex, but really lacks on the finish. And we could not make something that was really interesting and participated in a cocktail with a hundred percent wheat whiskey. And so we were playing with different grain bills and our favorite was 70% wheat, 15% malted barley, 15% rye. Again, a little bit of rye to just give that lift at the end. And that malted barley really helps with the transition between the two. But I was still playing around and one of the most important lessons that I learned was early on, my wife and I ran the business together and she said, Brad, you have to pick a recipe. You just have to pick, because I met like 65 and 12 and 18. And she was like, no, you

Drew (12:50):
Just tweak it to death.

Brad (12:52):
And it was that day we picked 70, 15, 15. That was 16 years ago. Our recipe hasn't changed since then. And I think it's great.

Drew (13:02):
And you were tasting it while it was still new make to make that decision.

Brad (13:06):
There was some barrels that I'd put away in my garage or played with oak chips in glass, which I really don't recommend. It isn't the same thing. It's better than, it is better than making bread and saying that's what you recipe is.

Drew (13:24):
So when you're working with wheat whiskey, you don't have a lot of people you can ask about what are some things that I should do when I'm distilling and the processes and all of that sort of stuff. So what kind of decisions did you kind of have to make? Things like fermentation and the rest?

Brad (13:41):
Fermentation? Yeast strain was really important. We didn't have cooling vessels, and so we needed a yeast strain that was handled. The Central Oregon temperature change, we really like high gravity mashes, so we needed yeast that could handle a lot of sugar upfront. There's a pH swing that happened and a lot of those decisions and those lessons that you learn, sometimes your environment just dictates what they are.

Speaker 4 (14:07):
And

Brad (14:07):
You can try and beat your environment. You're not going to win. Sometimes you're going to have to let the fate of where you are, the resources that you have dictate what those are. And so some of those decisions were that way. The barrels that we use since the second year, we've only used Kelvin Cooper's barrels. I think they're great, a fantastic barrel. There's a lot of people who make great barrels. We use a medium char. We think it's fantastic. We've played a little bit with different chars, but it's what we know and it's what we love. And so sometimes you just let that be the way it is.

Drew (14:47):
Yeah, this has been a very interesting trip for me because every distillery I've gone to on this trip has had to deal with dry conditions. However, they also have to. Some of 'em were dealing with colder temperatures, some were dealing with hot temperatures and how you deal with that. And I sense there's a decent amount of humidity. It's not 16% probably here that you have lakes nearby. So that helps a little bit with the dryness, even though you're in a high desert, which it doesn't look like a desert. It doesn't

Brad (15:23):
Look like the desert, but that's what they call it. It's not Death Valley. But we do see, our winters are cold. We get below zero here and we'll see a hundred in the summer. So we do have an annual temperature swing, and almost all of our precipitation in central Oregon is in the form of snowfall and it does rain, but when it rains in central Oregon, it rains for 20 or 30 minutes. It's not like western Oregon or Washington where it rains all day. And so it is pretty dry here. And that does influence our aging, but it isn't like it is in hot or drier when you talk about what they're doing with tequila and NE is a finished product and it's because it's so hot there that they just can't let it sit longer than that. So I think it's really important that we do have seasonal temperature swings. Our warehouses are not insulated. We want it to be cold in the winter and we want it to be hot in the summer and it is dry

Speaker 4 (16:27):
Here,

Brad (16:28):
But it's also why grain grows so well here. That's why we grow wheat here. That's why we grow rye here because a lot of our farmers are not irrigated farms. And that's where wheat and rye come from is non irrigated high desert. One of the things that I think makes our rye whiskey really interesting too is we use a species of rye and I think it's a great rye and different rye grains taste differently. And the reason that we chose it is because it's what grows well around here. And if you didn't use haslet, can you make great rye whiskey? I bet you can, but ours is haslet and it has nice flavor spices but not overly peppery. And that's sort of a product of our environment too. That's what my farmer wanted to grow. And then when he plants every year, we just make sure he uses the same variety.

Drew (17:25):
I'm looking up above. I'm seeing a lot of different bottles around here. Are most of these yours?

Brad (17:31):
All of those are ours.

Drew (17:31):
All of them. Okay. So I'm seeing Fin's, j Becker,

Brad (17:37):
Cher Rye,

Drew (17:38):
Cher, okay.

Brad (17:38):
Yeah.

Drew (17:39):
So what is the story behind these

Brad (17:41):
Days? Okay, so in this office, is there a hundred bottles? There's probably a hundred bottles.

(17:48):
We have 20 skews available. We have four different whiskeys with a couple different skews, but over the years we have done a lot of different experiments. We try and release four unique things a year, and some of 'em are very good and some of 'em are too expensive to make again, or there's a curse spots are there. One year cherries were really inexpensive. They were just available and it was a great learning experience. And I think the spirit is good and we don't want to make cherry brandy anymore, but if you got it, it's really good. And it is a fun way to keep us fresh and learn something new. But day in and day out, we really just want to make whiskey and make a couple different kinds of whiskey.

Drew (18:39):
Being from Michigan, I swear that I should have run into a distillery that is making cherry brandy, and I imagine somebody is, but I don't remember seeing it. This is the first time I've really ever, it's a fruit, so it makes sense.

Brad (18:53):
Oh, it's really good.

Drew (18:54):
Yeah. Is it? Okay. So what got you thinking? Was it just having a,

Brad (18:58):
We occasionally do fruit spirits anyway, the other thing where we live, central Oregon, when it was first settled, a lot of people planted plums.

Speaker 3 (19:08):
There's

Brad (19:08):
A lot of blue and Italian plums throughout these older neighborhoods, and it's one of the only fruits that really grows well in this high desert community. And the year that we started, we didn't have any money for production. We bought the still and some barrels and started and plums were very prominent that year. And so we went out and went to neighbors and said, Hey, I know that a hundred year old plum tree in the back of your yard is just going to fall. Can I have the plums? And my daughter, who was six at the time, and I would climb into these trees picking plums every and so we made s sl of its is what it is. And then every year we try and it was fantastic, but it's weird and nobody wants to buy it. People want to buy whiskey. It's hard. And so every year we try to do a different fruit spirit, even though, so it's a clear brandy. And so the year the cherries were prominent, all the cherry farmers had too many. They're like, please take our cherries. And we're like, okay. Yeah. And so we made

Drew (20:18):
Ovitz. You

Brad (20:18):
Said ovitz

Drew (20:19):
Is?

Brad (20:20):
Yeah.

Drew (20:21):
Oh, okay. So is that a translation from another

Brad (20:24):
Language? I think all of the, it's spelled differently in Poland as Czechoslovakia. It is mostly eastern European and I make sure never to say it in front of somebody I think who has European because they'll say it differently and they'll correct me. So yeah, it's spelled differently and it's popular in Europe and it's Kurt Foer is cherry and they're fantastic and weird.

Drew (20:52):
It gets people to ask questions when they see it on the label, right?

Brad (20:54):
Yeah.

Drew (20:55):
Do you have a special name for the apple brandy? You do? Just apple brandy. Okay. Straightforward. All American apple. Look the comments if

Brad (21:04):
There's something. Yeah, we do have a five acre apple farm with about 500 apple trees that are still young. We're picking apples this year. And so you'll see apple brandy at the four and five year mark several years from now. Sometimes we use our neighbors apples too. When they have a nice harvest, we collect them. And there's a central Oregon community of people who are excited. So it'll never be a big marketing focus, but it's yours yummy. And when you're picking apples on a sunny but not too hot day, it's a pretty good day. That's better than mopping floors and cleaning tanks.

Drew (21:47):
When you get these special brandies and other experiments that you're doing, do you create cocktails for your list for those?

Brad (21:56):
We do, yeah. A lot of 'em like light cocktails, it is nice to add a little bit of sweetness and a little bit of citrus to it, but on any of those, you really want that spirit to show through. You work so hard to capture the plum or the apple or whatever. You don't want to smother it in too much, but always got something fun at the tasting room.

Drew (22:16):
So I have a wheat whiskey in front of me.

Brad (22:17):
Yes.

Drew (22:18):
I wanted to spend some time on wheat whiskey. Can we about

Brad (22:20):
Whiskey? What's that? Let's talk about whiskey.

Drew (22:22):
Yeah, because I haven't really talked with anybody because as you say, there's not a lot of people making just a wheat whiskey. So my thing with wheat is that sometimes it can come across a little bit lifeless and I think it's going to depend on where the grain came from and many other factors

Brad (22:43):
On top, how it's

Drew (22:44):
Distilled, how it's distilled, exactly. But the combination with rye and barley is interesting because I like rye and barley together without something else because it creates an interesting flavor. So how do those intermingle with this and what do you think the general characteristic of your wheat whiskey is?

Brad (23:09):
What I really think that wheat does the best job of is subtle complexity. And just like wheat bread is so versatile, you can have it with peanut butter, jelly or mustard. It doesn't argue, right? Wheat doesn't argue. And I think it does a really good job of holding the barrel flavor, those notes and the vanillas and the caramel that do come from the barrel and it doesn't override it and lets the barrel shine. It gives it that complexity that if the grain comes through too strong, you lose the complexity and you don't know where the flavors are coming from. If it's the grain, if it's the barrel. And I do think that wheat has a really nice subtle sweetness that's very different than corn. And so a big bourbon drinker is going to be, especially if he's had bourbon first is going to be a little disappointed. He really will. But if I can get him to fresh his palate and take a different look at it and go, okay, look for the flavor profiles of the barrel. Let's just talk about complexity and let's not talk about how big of a bourbon it is or if you can drink it at one 40 proof. Let's talk about what it's really bringing.

(24:28):
And I really do think that wheat does the best job of it,

Drew (24:30):
Really nice mouthfeel. And the thing that I pull out of it is that while it has a caramel effect, it's kind of, I mean it's a really interesting, it is sweet, but I don't have a sweet tooth. I mean this is a nice level of sweet. It lets you know it's there and I get a little bit of the char coming in. So you got the hints of the barrel, but it's not overdoing it how many years?

Brad (25:02):
This is a five year and it's bottled and bond, so it's at a single barrel bottle and bond. So it's at a hundred proof and it's a five year, unless you tasted it next to a hundred percent wheat. The thing that you do find, and it's really with the rye, is there is that little bit of a lift towards the end of it because otherwise it would just fall off. And I used to drink a lot of the more popular weeded bourbons before I started a distillery. And one of the things you really like about it is it doesn't have bite at the end, especially if you're not much of a bourbon drinker and you're just drinking it on the rocks like I did in the two thousands. You liked it that it was soft at the end.

Speaker 4 (25:45):
You're

Brad (25:45):
Drinking it straight now, and that's because it's wheat instead of rye. A lot of these weed bourbons, but it also doesn't provide anything in the cocktail. It doesn't have that. And when's it over? I don't know.

Drew (26:05):
So what cocktail does this work best in?

Brad (26:08):
I really like it in low citrus. We will do it in a derby. It has some sugar, so grapefruit, but not a lot of it. And we're usually mixing it down with soda water,

(26:21):
So not a heavy juice. If it's got too much juice, we're just going to cut it with water because it does have a nice spinach. But if you want it to be a whiskey cocktail, you can't put bitters with it. You can make a Manhattan with it, but the vermouth will argue with it. You've got too many competing things. So a little bit of sugar, maybe agave, do some stuff with agave and grapefruit and then maybe some soda water to allow it to participate. If you just put bitters and sugar and make a fashion out of it, you're going to wish it was bourbon or rye. You're going to be like, this is good. I'll have another, but can I have bourbon next time? Yeah, because those flavors are so prominent.

Drew (27:02):
Something that was really interesting when we were chatting before is that you come out of a bartending background, but your philosophy on what you have on your menu is really interesting. Kind of describe that and how you came to that. I think of bartenders as maybe wanting to experiment a lot.

Brad (27:24):
I think bartenders really like their flare and they really like their signature on it, but if you really look down, down at some great cocktails, they really just are the classics and then with a twist or a nuance or they're using something else instead of this or something like that. But when was the last time there was a true classic that came out that you think is going to stand the test of time that isn't just based on a classic

Speaker 4 (27:55):
And

Brad (27:57):
There's a lot of creative bartenders out there, and I wanted to be creative. And at the end of the day, I think not all the classics, but most of the classics are, they're great, and if you can do something better, awesome and put it on a menu, and I hope you become a very wealthy bartender until then, maybe I don't feel like I have the skillset and I just think that maybe you can make a better Manhattan than I do because your bitters is Walnut Bitters or something like that. But at the end of the day, Manhattan's a pretty good drink and it's been around for 140 years or something like that. And the only cocktail that I can think of that is going to be a classic that wasn't around a hundred years ago is the paper plane. And that's a great cocktail

Speaker 3 (28:49):
And

Brad (28:49):
I think it's newer. I am sure in your comments I might be corrected on it, but yeah, I think that there's a place for ingenuity in the cocktails, but at some point it's a variation of a margarita or old fashioned and saex are great, traditional

Drew (29:11):
And familiar. And like I say, I use the old fashioned as a baseline wherever I go. So if somebody is coming to the area to visit, first of all, when do you do tours and what else do you have here at the distillery that they can enjoy?

Brad (29:28):
So we have a full bar and we do flights. So most people who are coming from out of the area, they'll want to do a flight and we have a whiskey flight and we also have a gin flight. But a lot of times your companion might not want that and they might just want a cocktail and a cheese board. And we do that and I think we do it really well. It's really helpful if you book online to schedule, but we really, if you show up with a couple people and we have somebody we try and fit you

Drew (29:59):
In terms of tours

Brad (30:01):
For tours, I'm sorry. And I think our tour experience is great. It is a 30 minute tour experience. We walk through the facility, it's nice to have it scheduled so that you don't catch us when we're busy doing forklifting, but we really try and get you in the tours usually go over 30 to 40 minutes, but my wife likes 'em to be 30 minutes

Drew (30:28):
If mommy ain't happy.

Brad (30:31):
But all of our tour guides, myself included, really like to visit with you afterwards. If you're the guy who has the extra questions, we will come make sure that all your questions are answered and then we usually end up with a flight or a cocktail. And then our host has great knowledge of the spirits and so we'll walk you through all of the whiskeys that you're drawing. And we're in central Oregon, which is a beautiful part of Oregon. It's in the high desert, there's mountains to the east. And what bend is really good at is outdoor recreation. If you like to be outside, you probably already know bend. And so there's a lot of mountain biking. There's all the water activities of whether you just like to float. A lot of fishing is near a lot of rock climbing is near. And then our winter recreation is top notch, a lot of skiing and snowboarding and then cross country skiing. We've done a really good job. This area is a great place to be from in that there's 365 days of recreation here and you see it in the community. Nobody has a real job. Right. Nice. A lot of people like to move here and have a job that they sit on a commuter and then put on their bike outfit and go biking in the afternoon. So

Drew (31:48):
Yeah, I was reminded as I was driving up from California and I passed by Crater Lake. I was thinking the last time I was here and I was recognizing some of the scenery I was passing by. And then I remembered that when I came here in 1999, I had my 50 megapixel digital camera first I ever, but I paid 50 bucks for it, I think. I don't know. It took no better than thumbnail size pictures and the colors were horrible. And so my photo of Crater Lake, it is so blue now. I know it is really blue. It's the deepest fresh water lake in the United States. However, it wasn't that blue. So part of me was like, I'd love to have stopped by there and gotten and refreshed my pictures. But definitely bring a good camera with you when you come to the area. It's a beautiful spot.

Brad (32:38):
It is beautiful. And anything outside is fantastic. The mountains always have snow on 'em, and it's a beautiful place to be from.

Drew (32:49):
Yeah. Well Brad, thank you so much for spending some time with me, walking me around, giving me the whole big tour, the longer than 30 minutes tour, which I appreciate because I love throwing some questions in there and diving in. Yeah,

Brad (33:02):
It's a good afternoon.

Drew (33:02):
Yeah, it's great to meet you and great spirits and hope to be back soon. Absolutely. Cheers. Thank you. Cheers. Well hope you enjoyed this trip to Oregon Spirit Distillers in Bend, Oregon. And if I peak your interest in visiting this distillery, make sure to head to whiskey lore.org/flights. You'll click on the distillery name, then click on the bookmark, and then sign up for a free account. You'll be able to bookmark any of 1300 distilleries on the site. Add them to your very own personalized whiskey lo wishlist, when you're ready to travel, use the site's convenient planning tools, maps, tour dates, booking links, and more to craft your perfect distillery itinerary. Start your journey@whiskeylore.org slash flights and as I get ready to hit the road for my next destination. If you're still on the fence about a visit to Oregon Spirit Distillers, let me give you my three reasons why I think you should have this distillery on your whiskey lore wishlist.

(34:01):
First, if you're curious about the taste difference between a corn-based wheater bourbon and an actual wheat whiskey, well this is a great place to experience it along with the flavor of the local terroir. Second, if you're cocktail curious, well, Brad and Kathy's focus on producing the most classic recipes and doing them right. We'll give you a great baseline to work from as you dive into your cocktail journey. And third, there's some really marvelous terrain out this way. Don't just go to Portland, make sure to see the other side of Oregon and maybe make plans to go to the Oregon Whiskey Festival next September. While you're out here, brush back some of the nostalgia, amaze your friends back home by telling them that you had a nice long trip to a video rental store. And then show 'em a current picture of you standing outside the world's last blockbuster, just a couple of blocks away from the distillery.

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Well, I hope you enjoyed this visit to Oregon, spirit Distillers about to hit the road. And by my way, to Spokane, Washington, where we're going to visit a distillery that was heading out of business when a family winery took it over. And rather than making Brandy decided it was time to embrace Washington's weather and grain, make whiskey. Make sure you got your ticket to ride along by smashing that subscribe button on your favorite podcast app. I'm your travel guide Drew Hanish. And until next time, cheers. And well, I hope you got Enjoy my surprise Whiskey lore stories episode about the first bottled bourbon last week. And by the look of the download numbers, you guys look like you've been ready for some lore busting for a while. Well just FYI was actually a guest on someone else's podcast last week, someone that I met at the podcast convention that started this whole western swing of my great 48 tour off.

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His name is Michael May. He's got a podcast called A Story of Strange, where he deep dives into historical mysteries and we got to talking about rye whiskey. And then that evolved into rye. And my theory about how there is a possibility that the Salem witch trials may have been the result of a fungus called ergot that grows on rye grain, which is known to cause everything from hallucinations to death. And it's a subject that's always fascinated me, but it's kind of just a fringe topic for a whiskey podcast. The thing that got me interested in it was that the witch trials that were going on in Europe and here in the United States seemed to coincide with this disassociating of women as distillers. I go into that whole story. I go into my theory about how I think ergot poisoning is something that can't be dismissed, even though some people are trying to dismiss it as one of the possible causes of Salem's notorious witch trials. Just look for a podcast called A Story of Strange. The September 30th episode is called Rye Madness and the Salem Witch Trials. And by listening, not only will you get some really interesting conversation, but you'll be supporting another great independent podcaster that's a story of strange available on your favorite podcast app. For transcripts and travel information, including maps, distillery planning information and more, head to whiskey lord.org/flights. Whiskey lords of production of Travel fuels life, LLC.