Brush Creek Distillery

Drew H (00:08):
Welcome to Whiskey Lores Whiskey Flights, your weekly home for discovering great craft distillery experiences around the globe. I'm your travel guide Drew Hannush, the bestselling author of experience in Kentucky Bourbon, second edition Whiskey Lore Volume one, the book that bust 24 of Whiskey's biggest myths and the soon to be released entire United States Distillery Travel guide experiencing American whiskey, which will be going on pre-order very soon. And we are really at the last stop of my western swing of the great 48 tour in total, 4,000 miles, 11 states, 11 distilleries in 10 days. And I got to tell you, my next trip to New England, not going to be quite this much driving incredible scenery all the way across from the Rockies in Colorado to the sandstone canyons in southern Utah, A great salt lake, the treeless grasslands of Nevada, Eastern Oregon and eastern Washington state, the Sequoia forests of California and big sky country from Idaho to Montana.

(01:18):
And then after leaving Butte on Sunday morning, I made my way off to Willie's Distillery in Enni, Montana. This is a distillery that I've been told about many times during my travels through the state. So I finally got there, yes, on a Sunday morning at about nine 30, and I wasn't able to taste anything because state law says you can't taste anything until 10. But I saw a bunch of people coming in actually that were heading to Yellowstone, buying bottles of whiskey before they headed out. I waited till 10 o'clock, did my samples, and then started to make my way on a long day of driving. Columbus, Montana was my first destination and really the only destination besides my hotel that night in the middle of Wyoming. And my stop there is all about researching and getting some information about an upcoming whiskey lore truth or lore episode.

(02:13):
Then after reaching my hotel, got a good night's rest up the next morning, and I swear that every single bug in the universe was trying to affix itself to my windshield as I was driving. And then the sun started coming up and I got the windshield wiper going and it's a smearing bug all across and I could not see anything. It was so streaky. It was a very tough drive. Finally found a gas station, got myself the windshield cleaner and took care of that back on the road again. Still lots of driving to go to get to today's distillery destination. It's interesting, I was driving down the road and I saw a sign pointing towards the town of Kirby, and I kept going, Kirby, why do I know that name? After I got past it, I remembered that's where Wyoming distillery is at. Then the next part of the trip was absolutely stunning.

(03:10):
I went from nothing to some of the most unique and interesting landscapes I've seen on the entire trip. This is the Wind River Canyon where the Bighorn River goes in and outflows the wind river and just the limestone formations, dolomite walls, then the tunnels you drive through and you're just riding along the river. Absolutely beautiful. I wanted to take pictures, but I had to get to my destination. The drive went on and on. It was a five hour drive from when I had gotten my gasoline down to Saratoga, which is a town right outside of where Brush Creek Ranch is. I knew I, I'd found the right place when I saw a big green bus outside and a windmill, and up on the hill was the ranch, and it's just absolutely an amazing property. We're going to talk about it in this episode. I got a chance to tour through with Ethan, the assistant distiller, and then Emma took me down into the speakeasy and the tunnels below the building.

(04:17):
The man who put me onto this particular distillery is the managing director Andrew. He was not able to meet me there because he just happened to be getting married that weekend. We scheduled a Zoom call and we went over a little bit of everything and in this Patreon version, extended commercial free, higher quality, you're going to get to hear this entire interview from beginning to end. So let's dive right into it. This is Andrew was of Rush Creek Ranch Distillery. What were you doing before getting involved in the distillery and what drew you into getting involved with Rush Creek?

Andrew W (05:01):
Yeah, so I'm a Kentucky guy, grew up in Kentucky, spent some time out west in college and made a return afterwards, but I actually worked for 18 years on the distributor side of the business with Republic National Distributing Company of Kentucky. So had a great experience there over the course of the years and had an opportunity to really serve in a number of different roles while I was with R and DC and anything from on-premise sales to assistant director of operations, district manager, area manager, marketing and finance portfolio. So yeah, it gave me a really great background for the industry and the current role that I'm in.

Drew H (05:49):
Nice. So now all of a sudden you're involved in a distillery, and first of all, how did you find this opportunity and how did it all kind of build out?

Andrew W (06:02):
Yeah, so after 18 years on the distributor side, I really enjoyed working with the upcoming brands, whether they were craft or large brands, anything from a startup, craft distillery to a rack. And I enjoyed walking through brand building really on all aspects, whether it was on the sales side, whether it's marketing or finance, and worked myself up to a second floor office in an industrial park and realized that I wasn't ready to spend the next decade or two looking over in Industrial Park. I had a lot of creativity and entrepreneurial drive. And so interestingly enough, I reached out to one person in the industry, said I was looking for a change, and that individual called me back about five or six weeks later and said, Hey, I've got a great opportunity for you and you've got about 75 minutes to meet somebody at a private airfield. And that kind of led to introductions and this opportunity that was back in 2019. So I've been out here a little over six years.

Drew H (07:13):
I can attest from my own visit that this place is nothing like, in fact, it's the opposite of an industrial park.

Andrew W (07:21):
It is completely opposite. I changed my view from that second floor office park to 30,000 acre ranch and really being able to see just endless skies and landscape. So it was definitely the change I needed at the time.

Drew H (07:38):
So what is that land used for? What was its purpose before a distillery landed on it?

Andrew W (07:46):
The ranch itself was, it's always been a ranch in some form or fashion, and that goes all the way back to homesteading as the development of the west. People were coming out here to claim their land plant roots and start their ranching, farming operations, that sort of thing. And so it's been a number of different ranches over the years, but the family that owns it currently, they bought the property in 2008 December of 2008, and it really started out as kind of a little bit more of a passion project in terms of retirement friends and family type location and a lot of other things that they do that quickly grew over the course of the years to the point where they built things up, they rehabbed a lot of the blotching and buildings on the property and decided, you know what? We've got something special here and we need to share it with more than just friends and family. And so over the course of the last, almost two decades now, they have turned it into what's considered one of the top luxury resorts in the American West and really probably one of the top 50 resorts, luxury resorts in the world. So it's a pretty remarkable place that's off the grid, but there's a lot of things happening out here in a very remote location that most people would be unaware of.

Drew H (09:19):
Yeah, you got to be aware of it and know that it's there because if you're just driving down I 80, you're going to be miles from it. There's no signs pointing you in the direction. It's quite a ride out down through some beautiful country to get to it,

Andrew W (09:38):
And that's really on purpose. They wanted to create a place that was an unbelievable experience, guest experience, but also just was off the grid a little bit because most of the people who come out here to stay at the ranch, that's really what they're looking for. Yeah, it's special for that reason.

Drew H (09:56):
So is it kind of like a resort or is it more like cabins? What are some of the features of the property?

Andrew W (10:04):
Yeah, so Brush Creek Ranch itself covers a little over 30,000 acres. It's not a contiguous piece of property, so you could have parcels here, parcels there. You could be 45, 50 minutes from one property to the other, but they have three luxury properties on site. They're there lodging properties, if you will. The main property is called the Lodge and Spa at Brush Creek, and that is really kind of anchored by the lodge, and there's a number of different amenities around there, whether it's restaurants, saloons, activity barns, wedding chapels, amphitheaters, you name it. But most of the lodging occurs there at the lodge, but they also have a number of just small cabins that are spread out on the property at the lodge and spa. And then a separate lodging property they have is called McGee Homestead. It's a relay and Chateau property, which there aren't too many of those in the country. It's a unique property in and of itself, but it's smaller. There's only about nine or 10 cabins on site. You have your own dedicated culinary team, activities, teams and things like that. So yeah, you've got those two options. The third is a property called French Creek, and that really started out as kind of a sportsman's club. It's changed a little bit over the years, but it is still very much fishing, hunting and a little bit hard to believe, but a little bit more remote

(11:41):
In terms of where we're located. So you've got those three properties that really kind of started everything out,

Drew H (11:50):
Kind of a fly fishing area, ski resorts, I would imagine somewhere near there

Andrew W (11:57):
On the fishing side, the fly fishing. So we're located right on the North Platte River, and the North Platte is probably some of the best fishing in this part of the country, and so it draws a lot of people in from all over the world. But yeah, there's a lot of fishing that takes place. There is, as you mentioned, some skiing. Obviously Wyoming's got some great ski resorts, but Brush Creek Ranch itself has a just shy of 700 acre private ski resort called Green Mountain as well, and it's for cat skiing, so there's no chair lifts, two snow cats. I think it'll hold seven people each. So you have a total of 14 people skiing on any given day during the winter, and you really somewhat have a mountain to yourself, which is, it's pretty wild.

Drew H (12:51):
Yeah. Now I'm thinking about a distillery experience in the middle of all of this. I imagine in the wintertime it can be a little rough trying to get to the distillery if there's snow coming. Are there times when the roads close that you're kind of shut down for the season?

Andrew W (13:10):
We're never shut down for the season, but there's definitely, there can be an impasse. And part of that, just over my shoulder, we have the snowy mountain range medicine, bow national forest. That pass is seasonal, so we're beginning of November here. We'll probably have about two to three weeks before that pass shuts down until Memorial Day. It's a beautiful scenic highway. I think elevation up there is a little over 12,000 feet, and so you generally have snow up there year round, all types of activities taking place up there. But that shuts down I 80 for those who are familiar with that. They refer to it as the highway to heaven or the highway to hell. And a lot of that has to do with just the Wyoming winds out here. And so it can be summertime and 60, 70 mile per hour winds out there. And there's a lot of limitations for semis and things like that. As you get into the winter season, that really becomes more of a snow factor, and whether it's the amount of accumulation or whether it's just a little bit of snow and high winds and a lot of traffic, that's probably one of the most heavily trafficked east to westbound routes, and so it becomes an ice skating rink of sorts.

Speaker 3 (14:28):
Wow.

Andrew W (14:28):
So there's times where they can shut down for three to four days at a time, and which always makes operating in this environment unique in terms of getting product in, getting product out, but it's also kind of the mystique and the fun of being out here.

Drew H (14:44):
Yeah. Well, you have a town called Saratoga that's not too far away from where you're at. If people were staying there and they wanted to come in, have you had anybody come in with a snowmobile as their way to access you that time of year?

Andrew W (14:58):
We actually have between snowmobiles and the winter and just kind of your razors, your side-by-sides during the summer. It's basically legal out here to have your side-by-side on the road

(15:13):
And you can traverse a lot of distance, whether it's by highway, by rural route, or even just cross country. So yeah, we get people coming in from Saratoga all the time that they find us just because there's not too many different themes and attractions out here. So yeah, we're lucky in the fact that we're probably one of the top destination spots for experiences in Saratoga. Saratoga has a public hot springs open 24 hours a day. It was donated to the town of Saratoga, and then there's also a Saratoga Hot Springs Resort and the hot springs just we've got that healing effect and just natural wonders, and so they bring people in from all over the country just for the hot springs itself.

Drew H (16:06):
I have to tell you that they call Montana big sky country. It wasn't until for a kid that grew up in the mountains of North Carolina and all of a sudden my first drive across Wyoming was the first time I saw the beginning and end of a storm that it is so wide open out there. So when you first arrived there, what was kind of your feeling when you saw it?

Andrew W (16:32):
It's just, I wouldn't say overwhelming, but it's just you're always in constant awe of your surroundings, and that really is all seasons. So where I'm sitting today, look over my shoulder, I can see the backside of Steamboat Mountain, which is probably about 70 miles as the crow flies, but it's about a two hour drive and there's no stoplight between Saratoga and Steamboat, so I'm kind of watching a storm roll in right now, but we can watch a storm roll in during the summer and it is really cool to watch and see. And then it also has an effect on our operations just because of our elevation at about 7,800 feet changes the barometric pressure. And so our team's dialing things in over there to account for the changing weather and what's happening in our surroundings.

Drew H (17:36):
So how do you go about drawing a distiller out to such an isolated, you have to find somebody who is really wanting to be like you and kind of get away from the hustle and bustle and find a place like that.

Andrew W (17:53):
Yeah, it's definitely a unique environment and the fact that you're off the grid in a way, but it's also very, very much appreciated by a certain group of people that they're ready to get out of the city, they're ready to get out of the hustle and bustle and looking for an opportunity to unplug a little bit, work hard, but just not be in the chaos of the everyday world sometimes. And so we've been fortunate in that regard. We also have a lot of folks that when we post jobs, there's this, oh my gosh, this appeal, I'm going to be in this remote location surrounded by this beauty. And you got to do a lot of weeding out. If somebody is reaching out from LA and they think they want to get off the grid, it's not for everybody.

(18:45):
So you have to really kind of find out their backgrounds, their interests. It can get pretty quiet around here during the winter months, and so you've got to make sure that you identify folks that they want to be in this environment. They have interest that are going to keep them busy throughout certain times of the year, whether that's hiking, biking, camping, fishing, that sort of thing in the summer, whether it's skiing in the winter, whether it's cross country skiing, downhill skiing, camping, whatever. It happens to be hunting and fishing as well. So yeah, you've got to find people that are a good fit that are going to be able to stick it out when things change and things get a little bit more quiet.

Drew H (19:36):
Yeah. Let's talk about what the idea was in terms of trying to put together a product line in a state that doesn't necessarily have a whiskey tradition. We probably would think in terms of Wyoming as being the place where the whiskey showed up and it was in the saloons that people were knocking it back and all of that. But what were you thinking when it came time to say, alright, what are we going to make? What is going to be our core product line?

Andrew W (20:10):
Yeah, it was really a blank slate when I got started where we are located here on the Brush Creek Ranch property. As I mentioned, there's the three different lodging properties where we are specifically is called the farm at Brush Creek, and it's about a $40 million epicurean experience. So there's no lodging here on the farm at Brush Creek. It's really about experiences. I liken it to a small Disney world of sorts, right? People are staying on property, but they're always looking for something different, unique that they can do while they're, and that's always evolving. So the owners, I give them a lot of credit, the owners of Brush Creek Ranch because they really wanted to create this epicurean experience that offered a number of different things, but one of them was a distillery. They didn't have that background, but when they built out the facilities, they built out a space for a distillery and said, let's find the right people to pull this thing together and bring it to market for the guest on property as well as showcasing products and talents throughout the country as well.

(21:22):
So how it came together was, again, really a blank slate, but I fell in love with the fact that as you're looking at job opportunities, that there's a really crowded market in places like Kentucky. My background, there's got to be another distillery that pops up what feels like every other week, and there's going to be a lot of stories that go along with it. There's the heritage brands out there, a lot of the craft brands that pop up. There's the stories about we found this recipe under my great Grand Pappy's fallen log cabin, and we're bringing it to life and that's great. But for us, for myself especially, this was a bricks and mortar facility and there's a lot of history in the west. There's a lot of fascination with the west, and you've probably seen that trend over the last decade and it's continuing to grow. So I kind of looked at the map and said, Hey, there's a lot of white space out here, and that was the big draw to me. There's only about 13 distilleries in Wyoming,

(22:26):
And so it gives you an opportunity to really stand out in your own backyard, but also bring light to what we're doing here to other parts of the country as well. And we're a whiskey centric program, and you go back to 2019, you're looking at the popularity of whiskey. And so we knew we wanted to be in that space. So we do make other products as well, but again, whiskey centric. We say we're craft distillers, blenders and trailblazers. And so the craft distilling that part of our business, we are making bourbon, rye, gin and vodka here on site. As you know, we can bring our vodka and our gin to market pretty quickly on the new make side, our new make distillate for our bourbon and rye. We're going to wait about six years

Speaker 3 (23:20):
Before

Andrew W (23:21):
We bring those products to market. Our environment here is obviously much more different than the typical distillery in the Midwest. We've got a little bit more dormancy, so it's going to take longer to age our products, but there's also a lot of unique factors in that, in the fact that our elevation, the maturation in terms of how that plays out on our new make distillate, but being very cautious to make sure we don't rush things on that side. So we're excited to bring some of those, our products, our new make products into the mix next year by incorporating 'em into some of our current product offerings, doing some probably a bottle and bond and doing some things onsite in Wyoming. The other side of our program, which is a little bit of a bigger focus at this time, is our craft blending. And so the background that I have in Kentucky on the distributor side, I had a chance to work with all these great distilleries from all over the country, but especially in the Midwest, I had a chance to go back to really these industry friends and say, Hey, we're putting this program together.

(24:32):
We want to buy some great spirit and bring it to Wyoming and incorporate it into our source and blending program. And so we've done that with, we've got about 1500 barrels on site that are from Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee, a number of different supplier partners, if you will. And each one of those are unique to the products that they're going into. The trailblazing piece is really a little bit more fitting for us in the terms of innovation. It doesn't mean that everything we do on the trailblazing side is never been done before, but it's a way for us to offer some unique products that incorporate our surroundings. A lot of the partners that are here on property or within Wyoming or surrounding areas,

Drew H (25:26):
I was surprised to hear Ethan was going through some of the spirits that he was working with in terms of blending and was talking about even using 17, 18-year-old Tennessee whiskeys in these blends. So you have found some really interesting barrels. I think the other thing that I find interesting about the idea of sourcing in your particular case, you're in an area where you really don't necessarily know what the aging factor is going to be. I mean, I would imagine it's somewhat dry in that climate and you're at a high elevation, what, 7,800 feet I believe. So dealing with those types of things, it's like the source whiskey actually gives you an opportunity to see a little further age on a spirit and see how it's going to affect the whiskeys that you now have aging that are from your own still.

Andrew W (26:21):
The great part about that is really our team, and I can never compliment them enough, our head distiller, which you didn't have a chance to meet at the time, Philip Mont, he actually was head of production at STR Hands, which is North America's largest single malt distillery. So based off his background, he wasn't too far removed from a distilling environment in an elevated environment. So he brings that background knowledge to the table and the operational side of being in a bigger environment to a craft distillery. We also have two other distillers that we brought in from Kentucky. You met Ethan Whitman and his background with Kentucky Artists and Distillery. And then we also have a gentleman, Chris LaPierre that we brought in from Kentucky Artists and Distillery as well. There wasn't any poaching there.

(27:14):
I had a good friend that reached out who was the master distiller there in Kentucky, and he said, Hey, my right hand man just bought his big four wheel drive Ram truck and he's heading west, and I want to see him end up in a good location. And so we said we'd love to have him out here. So really between Phyllis background and our two guys from Kentucky we're pulling a lot of resources. And as you know, the industry, it's a big industry. It's a small industry. So when I was interviewing, I had just helped kick off Bardstown Bourbon Company,

(27:50):
And I knew Steve Ally's background there, loved everything. He had done 33 years at Makers, but he also spent six years at Wyoming Whiskey before he made a return to Kentucky and got involved with Bardstown Bourbon Company. So it was shortly after we kicked that off and this opportunity came up and I found myself at Bardstown Bourbon Company probably once or twice a week. And he's like, he seemed to have a keen interest in what we're doing out here. And one, I loved what they were doing, but I also knew that Steve had a lot of tasks and knowledge in terms of distillery operations and maturation in Wyoming. He still has a house out here. He's visited us several times, and he's just been a great industry resource to tell us, Hey, here's what to expect outside of Philip's knowledge. Here's the things that we encountered and the good and bad. And so yeah, we rely on folks that are experts in the field in addition to our own team, their talents.

Drew H (28:52):
One of the whiskeys that I tried while I was there, the one that kind of turned my head, not only because of the whiskey itself, but also because of the story behind the whiskey is what you see behind me, the railroad rye. Well, first of all, I love rye. So that's a big connection for me. One of the pieces of whiskey history that does not ever get talked about, and this other bottle that I have back here, this was a bottle that I referenced. It's a Hermitage nine-year-old whiskey. It was distilled in 1914. It was bottled in 1923. The story behind this is it was actually distilled in Frankfurt, Kentucky, then it was put on a rail in a barrel, and it was shipped all the way out to California where they then put it into a bonded warehouse for nine years. So you have to imagine that that whiskey, as it was traveling out west, we hear all the stories of flat boats going down to New Orleans and getting color in the whiskey and the rest, but the railway was really a main transportation for any of the whiskey that was leaving Kentucky and going out west.

(30:11):
So it was definitely going to be rocking around in those box cars as it was making its way out because railroads are not the smoothest thing in the world to transport something on. And so what got this idea into your head, give the background on this story of this whiskey and the inception of the idea, what made you kind of think to do this and then the logistics of getting it done?

Andrew W (30:41):
So I've always been a little bit of a western historian, if you will, just love the development of the West. When I came out to interview in 2019, that summer, it was about a three or four day interview process, which is kind of crazy, right? Because not making quick trips back and forth for the next interview. And so when I came out, they were celebrating the hundred 50th anniversary of the Transcontinental Railway and the railway industry out here. It's just a very storied program, a lot of history. Obviously, it's the gateway that bridged the east of the West and all the industry that was spurned as a result, the hardworking kind of men and women that made it possible. And so I really took note of that at the time while I was here. And then the individual who put me in touch with the job opportunity was a good friend, Trey Zoller. Trey has started Jefferson's bourbon. I always appreciated his background is creativity, his entrepreneurial spirit and just doing things that are outside the norm. And one of those is the Jefferson's oceans. And so when I came out recognized this hundred 50th anniversary, and just knowing the background on the rail, I said, you know what? If I get this job, I'm going to put full barrels of whiskey on a rail car and ship it down the path to the Transcontinental Railway. That was really a little bit more about celebrating our home place in the American West

(32:16):
Than it was the maturation on the rail. It was also a little bit of a homage to tray and what he had done with the Jefferson's oceans and just bringing to light a different way of maturation and product finishing and things like that. So that's kind of where that took off. And I did get the job, and then immediately I reached out as we were buying barrels as part of our source blending program, reached out to Union Pacific and said, Hey, I want to put full barrels of whiskey on a rail car and ship it a little over 1200 miles down the path to Transcontinental Rail. And I was immediately met by, that's the dumbest thing we've ever heard. And part of that was it hadn't been done, you just kind of touched on it. It hadn't been done since pre-prohibition.

(33:07):
And so nobody really wanted to touch it. They didn't have a background on it. It's not something that typically occurs. The Union Pacific said, you're basically going to have liquid and toothpicks over the course of 1200 miles between Chicago and Rock Springs where there's a transfer station. And so I got some logistics companies involved, and they were all very interested, but at the same time, they said this hadn't been done, so there's a lot of risk involved, and if you do this once and it doesn't work, they were the ones that were really taking on the risk from an insurance point of view. And so yeah, kind of weeded that process out. But a lot of other things that happened in our industry, when you've got whiskey and you've got some good contacts, you can figure out a way to make things happen. And so really with a lot of passion and dedication, we eventually figured out how to work directly with the Union Pacific Railway. We had a whole blocking, bracing, tackling kind of system that they had to put in place to allow them to do that. And that first rail car, as you've got railroad rye, we box car number one, and now number two,

Speaker 3 (34:25):
That

Andrew W (34:25):
Was a couple years of getting everybody on board and then making it happen. And so fun program.

Drew H (34:32):
Yeah, I was going to say, was this a blend before it went on the car or is this from one distillery?

Andrew W (34:43):
Yeah, so it was not a blend on box power number one. We put 80 full barrels of whiskey on there. It was with one of our partners in southern Indiana. And so we brought those out and basically we offloaded in Rock Springs, brought 'em back here, put 'em in what's called our barrel barn most elevated Rick house, if you will, at about 7,800 feet. We continue to mature those barrels onsite. I mean, they were mature whiskeys when we brought them in, but we continued to mature 'em on site for a little over a year. And then we took a couple different mash bills, blended those together out of 80 different barrels. We chose 12 barrels and kind of hand selected 12 barrels and the mash bill that we thought was very fitting. We chose rye because we felt like it was most reflective of Wyoming and our surroundings, the American west, the people, it's a hearty grain, and so it was really just a good fitting part of what we were trying to bring to market. So the first one was 91% rye, and then the second one that we're just now releasing boxcar number two, it is 90% rye, a couple of different mash bills in there. The difference between 'em was boxcar one was a four, five and

Speaker 3 (36:08):
6-year-old

Andrew W (36:09):
Blend of straight rye whiskeys, and this one is a blend of five, six, and eight year. And we also took some of the barrels from boxcar number one and incorporated 'em into boxcar number two. And so we'll continue to do that. We want each boxcar railroad ride boxcar release to be different, unique and really kind of help further tell the story of our home place in the American West.

Drew H (36:36):
So this is going to be an ongoing thing.

Andrew W (36:39):
It is, and I can tell you the second time around was much easier than the first. So boxcar number two, we loaded 112 barrels on boxcar number two in late 2023, brought them out, they arrived in Wyoming early 2024, stored them on site again, much like boxcar one. And then we just earlier this year, we pulled nine barrels as part of that. And again, some different age statements and a little bit of a different mash bill. So that's incorporated into box car number two. Yeah, we're excited to keep taking that box car journey. There's nothing cheap about all the logistics and leasing box cars and things that go along with it, but for us, I think it's a standout way to tell our story. It really goes beyond just the whiskey enthusiast itself. It's also the historian, it's the railroad enthusiast. And so it opens up a lot of different avenues that it's exciting.

Drew H (37:51):
I was going to say the one experiment that I would love to see you do at some point is take out a bottle's worth of that before it hits the train car and then taste it versus after that time on the train to see whether it actually does influence the flavor of the whiskey over that. Because with Trey's whiskey, I can taste some kind of ocean influence. I taste a little bit of a briny character to what I get out of his whiskeys. So

Andrew W (38:26):
We have done that. Have you? Okay. Yeah. And for us, again, I think when we released Boxcar number one, there was a lot of, oh, I don't know, this sounds gimmicky. And they go back and you're like, no, even though you really spell it out in a press release and in your conversations with others, there was a hard time getting people to really fully understand the story. So for us, it wasn't all about the maturation on rail Boxcar number one was about 30 days before it made its way out here to our distillery and kind of location. But a lot of that time wasn't how much time it spent on the rail itself. Well, it was on the rail, but how much time it spent traveling. And the big piece, the obstacle that the Union Pacific had was it's more about no problems. It's going down rail, but when it gets pushed back into those rail yards, you can hear that coon cocoon when all the cars are coming together and the amount of friction, and they told me what it was, but it's an unbelievable amount of friction. And so that's where their big concern came in. So I mean, yeah, we love to find out how the changes that occurred by rail, but also, again, it's a little bit more that just storytelling about the American West.

Drew H (39:51):
Yeah. Well, let's talk about some of the other elements here. You actually are using the char that's left over in your barrel for some interesting little projects. Can you talk about those?

Andrew W (40:02):
Yeah, we are. And some other things too is kind of our byproducts, if you will. So here, our home place at the farm at Brush Creek, we're surrounded by a number of other departments that are part of Brush Creek Ranch. So there is a 20,000 square foot sustainable greenhouse. They grow some of our botanicals. We forged Jennifer right off the property. There's Medicine Bow Creamery, it's Wyoming's only grade a goat Dairy Creamery.

(40:30):
So they make all their own chef cheeses, and with that program, we'll actually give them our char when we go to dump barrels for the next blend. They use that char as a secondary aging on some of their she cheeses, and it really follows the history of aging cheeses. They would use an ash. So in this case that ash is just barrel char. And so it incorporates a little bit of that flavor profile in there. It makes it really unique there. Also, we've been aging honey from a local apiary in freshly dumped bird barrels. They'll take that honey after it's aged about six months, and they make a brown butter goat's milk, bird barrel caramels

(41:20):
With the creamery process. And it's like a Tootie roll on steroids, and it's unbelievably great. So there's a restaurant on property called the Cheyenne Club, and they use our staves. So when we go to break down our barrels, we'll give them our staves. They use that as a heat source to cook Wagyu. So there's a Wagyu program on site as well. So they'll use our staves as a heat source while they're cooking 78 ounce tomahawk on an open fire grill. They incorporate a lot of our spirits. It's a whiskey demi glaze or there's all types of things. There's a pastry and bakery commissary on site here at the farm as well. So the chef there will take some of our spent grains and she makes a spent grain bread that is to die for. Part of that is a little bit more about balancing out the pH in the bread and just the process, the bread making process. We give them our spent char as well, and they make a barrel char ice cream. So if you think about a vanilla bean ice cream where you've got the flex of vanilla

Speaker 3 (42:34):
Bean,

Andrew W (42:35):
Well in their burn barrel char ice cream, it's actually small flex of our barrel char, and it comes through in that finished product. And again, really unique. And then we've got, there's a 94 yard underground wine tunnel that has a little over 30,000 bottles of wine. It's one of the top three largest private collections in North America, top 10 in the world. And we work with them, not so much in what they're giving, what we're giving them, but what they're giving us. And that plays out in some of our wine cask finished programs.

Drew H (43:13):
Emma walked me down there and yeah, I mean, it's like a whole world underneath, and then

Andrew W (43:22):
It

Drew H (43:22):
Is, you have a speakeasy down there too, which I thought was pretty cool that there's a little hidden door and she's like, can you find the door? And I'm looking around, and of course I didn't pick the right place.

Andrew W (43:35):
It holds a collection of curated spirits from all over the world, so it is not just BS and whiskeys from the us, but it's an unbelievable collection in a very hidden remote location that is just the wow factor that goes on in there. I don't know if you notice, but it's like leather floors, it's everything. And all of this stuff kind of serves as inspiration for what we're doing.

(44:03):
And again, it was one of the reasons that I came out here is because you can put a distillery anywhere, but you would be very hard pressed to surround yourself with all of the different things taking place on property and talents. They've got chefs coming in from the French laundry and they've got pastry bakery chefs that are at the top of their craft. And so everybody kind of feeds off of, what are you doing over here? How can we get involved? And yeah, it's never ending. I've been here a little over six years and I'm still in awe. I can go downstairs and you're like, this is crazy. There's parts of the property that I've never been on just because there's things located in remote locations that you wouldn't know of. Yeah, so it's definitely a unique environment and it's a big part of our story and how we try to promote ourselves and the inspiration when we win. We're in market.

Drew H (45:03):
Yeah, when somebody is wanting to come visit and tour, you're doing tours. There

Andrew W (45:09):
We are. So we have a number of different tours. We've got our open table tour, really, which is just open to the public. A lot of that's seasonal, basically just on the traffic that's out here. So you get a lot of folks that are coming out here for the summer, whether it's hiking, mountain biking, camping fishing, horseback riding, that sort of thing. So we'll get a lot of seasonal traffic that flows through here late spring through kind of mid-fall. So our open table experiences there. We also have a BCR guest experience, so guests that are on property, we have a two hour experience with them, and it takes 'em from, starts off at our barrel barn, kind of talks about our maturation process here in Wyoming, brings 'em into the distillery, takes 'em through some of our core spirits, give 'em a little background on our distilling operations, new make distillates are bottling, blending and bottling. And then we do some barrel thieving in there as well. And then on top of that, we have a bottle, your own experience, which is over my shoulder.

(46:16):
So folks that are on property, or if they're coming through in the public, they can bottle their own and kind of put their unique stamp on it. We do store for a day experiences. We do a lot of curated experiences, so anything from whiskey and cigars to blending seminars and things like that. So yeah, we get a lot of traffic through this small space in remote location, surprisingly, and we love it. It's the best way to tell your story folks that are out here. They really become some of your best ambassadors in the market. And we touch a lot of unique individuals that come in from all over the world, and a lot of 'em been through big distilleries and they've seen the process, but this is such a hands-on program that I think it gives 'em just a different takeaway. And so they become some great ambassadors for us in the market.

Drew H (47:14):
Well, Andrew, thank you so much for the invite out, first of all. And it was interesting because I was actually just about to reach out to a Wyoming distillery for my great 48 tour, and I was like, okay, I have a couple on my list, but I'm not sure who, and then all of a sudden I'm getting a message from you saying, Hey, we have a distillery in Wyoming and maybe you'd like to learn a little bit about it. And it's like it was just perfect. And actually in a great spot. You're only maybe what, three and a half hours from Denver? I guess

Andrew W (47:54):
About four hours, depending on what time of year. I've slept in my car on the side of the road in June because of snowstorms.

Drew H (48:01):
Be prepared.

Andrew W (48:04):
But no, we were glad. I love what you're doing. I love the fact that you are taking an opportunity to visit all these programs around the country and expand the story of what's happening outside of what's considered the hub of the Midwest. And so there's so many great craft programs, not just craft, but programs out there that are bringing unique products to market, A lot of unbelievable talents. So keep doing what you're doing. I think it really opens up a lot of eyes and ears to what's happening and yeah, in our country.

Drew H (48:43):
Perfect. Thank you so much, Andrew. Cheers.

Andrew W (48:46):
Yeah, you bet. Thank you very much.

Drew H (48:50):
Well, I hope you enjoyed this journey to Brush Creek Distillery in Wyoming. If I piqued your interest in visiting the distillery, make sure to head to whiskey lord.org/flights where you can view the profile of Brush Creek Distillery and over 1300 other worldwide distilleries and an online whiskey lore, distillery travel guide. And if you sign up for a free membership, you can bookmark any of the distilleries, and then when you land on your member page, you'll see them all there on your whiskey lore wishlist. And when you're ready to book your travel, all you have to do is use the site's planning tools, maps, tour dates, booking links, and more to firm up your plans. Start your journey@whiskeylord.org slash flights. As we wrap up this trip out to the west, it is time to head to the complete opposite side of the country. For the next nine weeks, we're going to be exploring distilleries in New Jersey, New York, and New England as I soak up tons of fall foliage, craft distillery stories, and some amazing spirits. Join me on Milk Street for our next episode. All you need is your ticket to ride along, and you can get that by smashing the subscribe button on your favorite podcast app. I'm your travel guy, drew Hanish. And until next time, cheers and Slava for transcripts and travel information, including maps, distillery planning information and more. That's to whiskey lord.org/flights. Whiskey lowers of production of travel fuels life, LLC.