Garrison Brothers’ Cowboy Bourbon

Friends,

Last week was bittersweet in Hye, Texas. A distributor’s truck arrived and hauled off an amazing little bourbon.

“Little” may apply to the 375-ml size of the bottle, but nothing else is little about Garrison Brothers’ Cowboy Bourbon. This is the first new bourbon we have introduced since we released Garrison Brothers Texas Straight Bourbon Whiskey on Texas Independence Day in 2010.  This bourbon is uncut and unfiltered, straight from the barrel, weighing in at 136 proof. It is not for the faint of heart and certainly not for casual drinking.  It is a limited release – just 600 bottles – of the finest bourbon we’ve ever made.

At Garrison Brothers Distillery we have bottled bourbon from more than 500 barrels so far. The ten best tasting barrels we’ve ever discovered were held back and hidden for almost four years. The few precious drops of bourbon remaining in those barrels is our Cowboy Bourbon. It won’t be introduced again until 2015.

I asked our distributor to hold back a portion of these bottles for the five Hill Country Liquor Stores (in Blanco and Gillespie Counties) who have been so instrumental in helping us get this business off the ground. The Cowboy will ride into these towns on Friday, May 10 or Saturday, May 11. I would anticipate that stores in Austin, San Antonio, Dallas, Houston, Fort Worth and other Texas towns will receive their allocated bottles a week or two later.

If you’re looking for a bottle, you are more likely to find one at stores who have been selling Garrison Brothers from the get-go.

Like all Cowboys, this one probably won’t stick around too long.

And I should warn you, it may set you back a little. We’re anticipating retailers will price these rare bottles at $159.99 to $169.99. We won’t be announcing this publicly until Tuesday, May 14. So …  you’re the first to know.

They’re back and they’re ready to make some sausage. Texas legislators have once again invaded the state capitol in Austin. For those who follow this biennial pilgrimage of our esteemed leaders to the nation’s largest state capitol building, this is a time of hope, or more likely, a time to have one’s hopes crushed like grapes.

Personally, my whiskey glass is always half full. So once again I approach this legislative session with a positive belief in the virtue of mankind. Call me crazy but I believe our state’s leaders are generally good people performing a public service that nobody else would seriously consider. Are they occasionally led astray? Sure. But who isn’t? The fact of the matter is that public service is not easy, glamorous or popular but somebody has to do it. So, I am thankful to these men and women for their service.

One Senator in particular, Senator Leticia Van De Putte of San Antonio, appears to truly believe in fair play for the little guy and economic progress for the state of Texas. Just when I thought she’d given up on Texas distillers, like a pointer on a covey of quail (meant very respectfully), she has introduced and begun to champion a series of bills that could create significant opportunities for craft distilleries, and help grow the Texas economy, even as state liquor tax revenues are increased. Watching her take on the lobbyist establishment (the lions swishing their tails from the gallery) is a beauty to behold; she eats them alive.

Here’s a quick summary of those bills I believe in and why I do. If you share my sense of justice, please let your state senator or representative know how you feel. A complete list of contact information for your representatives can be found here: http://www.fyi.legis.state.tx.us/Home.aspx

• Ever Visit a Distillery and Leave Empty-handed? Despite our best efforts to educate, entertain, and be Texas friendly to those who visit Garrison Brothers Distillery, many visitors leave a little upset. Why? They just spent an hour and a half of their valuable vacation time learning everything about making great bourbon whiskey. Then, they come to the end of the tour to learn they can’t even buy a bottle. This is particularly frustrating to the thousands who visit our distillery from other states or countries where they can’t buy Garrison Brothers anyway?

  Senate Bill 905 (Van De Putte, Carona and Eltife) and companion House Bill 1997 (Kuempel) will correct this craziness and permit craft distilleries to sell a small amount of souvenir or commemorative bottles to visitors for off-premise consumption. The bill also permits craft distilleries to sell their products as cocktails or drinks for on-premise consumption, but those of us at Garrison Brothers aren’t real interested in running a bar or lounge, so we’ll leave that to the hipsters and city-slickers in urban areas.

• If You Think You’re Drinking Good Texas Whiskey Now, Just Wait a Little While. If you have visited Garrison Brothers, you already know that we make a sweet mash that is fermented to become distiller’s beer. Well, the great state of Texas has some legendary beer makers too. Think St. Arnold’s. Think Shiner. Think Real Ale. What if they could share their beer with Texas distilleries and we could distill that beer into whiskey or schnapps? The same principle applies to Texas wines. Fermented Texas grapes can become magical brandies, cognacs and eau de vies. Imagine the possibilities! I sure am.

  Senate Bill 652 (Van De Putte) would allow Texas distilleries, wineries and breweries to buy distilled spirits, wine and beer in bulk from each other thus creating entirely new and previously un-imaginable types of beverages. Though I really don’t give a shit about anything but straight bourbon, I would like to see what kinds of bourbon I could make with some of the beer from Real Ale. This bill would give me that chance.

• Want Texas Bourbon in Your Barbecue Sauce? Currently, makers of food products like candies, chocolates, barbecue sauce and chili can apply for an industrial use permit from the TABC. If they obtain this permit, they are allowed to buy distilled spirits from craft distilleries to use in their confections. The problem is: the existing TABC code prohibits craft distilleries from selling them their spirits.So, instead, they buy their bourbon from Kentucky or Tennessee. Stubbs barbecue sauce is made with Kentucky bourbon. Ever been to Chili’s? Their baby back ribs are coated with Jack Daniels barbecue sauce. Ever bought Garrison Brothers’ bourbon-filled chocolates from Chocolat in Fredericksburg and wondered why they were so outrageously expensive compared to all their other chocolates? Now you know.

  Senate Bill 642 (Van De Putte) will correct this inconsistency in the code and allow Texas distilleries to sell bulk tax-paid bourbon to these fine food processing companies, thus creating an entirely new category of Texas-produced gastronomic delicacies. Seems like a no-brainer to me.

So, that provides a menu of the whiskey-related sausage currently being ground up at the Texas Capitol. If you think some of this sausage sounds pretty good, please let your legislator know how you feel.

When you signed up for this newsletter, I promised I’d send it just twice a year to keep from cluttering your in-box. Well, I lied.

Here’s why: Yesterday, a 10-page story about Garrison Brothers Distillery broke in Southwest Airlines in-flight magazine, Spirit. When senior editor Alison Miller originally approached us about it, we knew it was going to be a big deal for our little business, but we never expected such an extensive and beautifully written profile. Alison, God bless her, captured what we’re all about.

http://www.spiritmag.com/features/article/spirits_guide_to_spirits1/

The magazine has 3.2 million readers nationwide but there are only 1,500 cases of Garrison Brothers Texas Straight Bourbon Whiskey available in stores somewhere in Texas (100 cases of the fall 2011 vintage; 400 of the spring 2012; and 1,000 of the fall 2012). In other words, stores will soon be sold out. And we won’t have any more bourbon mature enough to bottle until spring 2013!

Since many of our friends have made giving a bottle of  Garrison Brothers for Christmas a Texas tradition, we wanted to make sure you know that if you want a bottle or a case, you should get to stores quickly. If they are already sold out, please make sure the store manager starts a waiting list.

Also, if you’re in a Texas airport this Christmas, please stop by The Antlers Bar or any Pappas Restaurant and ask for a tall glass of Garrison Brothers. They’ve told us they’ll be serving it.

We sure appreciate your support. Thank you so much. Merry Christmas to all!

Kind regards,

Dan Garrison
Proprietor and Distiller

P.S. The manager of Bob’s Chop House on Lemmon Avenue in Dallas told us she would not taste Garrison Brothers because no one was ordering the other Texas whiskies she’d put behind the bar. If ya’ll could let her know how you feel about that by stopping by and requesting a glass, we’d sure appreciate it.

When I am not wearing boots in Hye, you can often find me wearing running shoes at The Trail at Lady Bird Lake. In fact, with help from some special friends, I founded the Town Lake Trail Foundation back in 2002. Today, the organization is called The Trail Foundation and the Trail is now the Ann and Roy Butler Hike and Bike Trail. Whatever you call it, it’s the heart and soul of Austin and my favorite place to run.

The Trail Foundation continues today to introduce exciting landscaping, architectural, restorative and signage improvements at Lady Bird Lake and is always willing to take your money to make it happen. They are doing God’s work.

To that end, we at Garrison Brothers Distillery are going to see if we can raise a little money for The Trail by giving away some bourbon. I’ll be at one of Austin’s finest bourbon bars, TenOak Bourbon House + Lounge, at 404 Colorado on Thursday, November 15 from 5 – 7 p.m. for an evening of fine bourbon, delicious appetizers and stories about the Trail.

The bourbon is on me and TenOak’s providing the appetizers. Tickets are $25 and it goes to a great cause. Please come join us. Space is limited. Make reservations at The Trail Foundation’s website or click here.

As always Texans are the greatest humans on earth! In fewer than 48 hours, we now have all the help we need and a few hundred very cool people waiting in the wings.

We can’t work anyone else into the bottling schedule until next year.

God bless you all and thank you so much for your support!

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If you’ve got flexibility, we could use a little help!

Click to see video on how we do it.

 

Toward the end of September, we’ll be bottling our largest bourbon release ever — more than 9,000 bottles of our heavenly ambrosia.  By October 15, Garrison Brothers Texas Straight Bourbon Whiskey will be available everywhere in The Great State of Texas, from El Paso to Port Arthur and Dalhart to Brownsville.  It’s about damn time!

That’s a bunch of bourbon, so we could use a little help. Already a hundred brave Texans have crossed that line in the sand and have volunteered to come out and help us bottle this bourbon. But we’re a little short-handed in the middle of each week. So, if your lifestyle, career or schedule has a little flexibility, we could sure use a couple of extra hands on the following days:

• Wednesday, September 19
• Thursday, September 20
• Friday September 21
• Wednesday, September 26
• Thursday, September 27
• Wednesday, October 3
• Thursday, October 4

 

A word of warning: Bottling at Garrison Brothers is not for the faint of heart! It means hard work, attention to detail, reliable, consistent help, and above all else, patience. Every finished bottle has to get past Inspector Number 1 — me. This video from our talented friends Rob Cordes and Jim Walters will give you an idea what to expect:

http://www.garrisonbros.com/video1.html

Every morning we start at 9 and we almost always finish by 4. Throughout the day, we’ll provide breakfast, lunch, entertainment, and an occasional shot of courage to keep everyone creative and motivated.

If you’d like to take part, it will take you a couple of hours to learn the craft, so we ask those who participate to commit to two full days, 9-4. At the end of your two-day shift, we’ll thank and reward you with your own bottle to take home, along with a few other thank you gifts.

If you can handle your own travel and lodging, and commit to giving us two days hard work, please send an email to Laurel Hoekstra, our Bottling Queen, at laurel@garrisonbros.com.  Give Laurel your contact information and let her know what days you can join us.

Please don’t delay your decision too long though; last time we announced this, we were cowboy’d up in less than 24 hours.

Hope to see you in Hye.

Once again, its summer in the Texas Hill Country and that means Stonewall Peach Jamboree and Rodeo! Yee Haw!

The 51st Annual Peach Jamboree, Parade and Rodeo is Thursday, June 14, Friday, June 15 and Saturday, June 16. There’s a sensational small town rodeo and dance each night and it is definitely family-friendly.

An awesome display of pure unadulterated America, the Peach Parade meanders through Stonewall Saturday morning at 10. And the locals here really know how to dress up a tractor. Garrison Brothers will have a float in the parade and we’re sponsoring the Barrel Races at the rodeo.

Immediately after the parade, on Saturday at 12:30, everybody is invited back to Garrison Brothers Distillery for a fried chicken lunch in our Barrel Barn. We have Charlie Montague and his band playing off the back porch. If you’ve never seen this guy, prepare yourself. He rocks!

Come early though because we’ll probably run out of chicken, and lunch is first come, first-served.

You can learn more about everything going on in Stonewall and buy Peach Jamboree event tickets at http://www.stonewalltexas.com/

The fried chicken lunch at Garrison Brothers is BYOB and we’re asking for $20 a person for tickets. We will donate 100% of the chicken dinner proceeds to The Hye Preservation Society. Tickets can be purchased from any Hye Preservation Society board member or from Stephanie at our hospitality cabin Wednesday thru Sunday at 10, noon, 2 or 4. Members of our Old 300 can email me (dan@garrisonbros.com) or Stephanie (stephanie@garrisonbros.com) to reserve tickets.

We can only accomodate 250 at Winner, Winner Chicken Dinner and tickets are already going fast. We hope to see ya’ll there.

At the request of a few private clubs, great spirits retailers and legendary Texas bars and restaurants, we’ve added a few more events this spring. Hope you’ll feel inclined to drop what you’re doing and come have a drink with us:

Once again, I want to thank all of you who are enjoying a bottle of Garrison Brothers right now. Please rinse, repeat, and go get another. We appreciate your support.

On Friday, the wise and hilarious Federal Judge Sam Sparks ruled in favor of Jester King Brewery, Authentic Beverage and Zax Pints and Plates in their lawsuit against the TABC.

As a result, it is now legal for Garrison Brothers Distillery to actually inform bourbon drinkers which stores are selling our bourbon.

Seems a little ridiculous that it took a lawsuit to make this happen, but for now, our hats are off to Jester King, Authentic and Zax. Ahh, and just in time for Christmas!

Here’s a list of the fine Texas liquor stores who have ordered and should be carrying Garrison Brothers Texas Straight Bourbon Whiskey. We strongly encourage you to call them first to make sure they’re not sold out before you make a road trip.

It seems we’ve pissed someone off. Not really sure why but some folks who write about the whiskey business seem to have their panties in a wad.

In recent weeks, John Hansell of Malt Advocate, a well respected whiskey writer whose opinions I greatly admire, has written that craft distillers may be damaging the bourbon industry. In his most recent newsletter, Mr. Hansell writes: “The issue here is that these bourbons aren’t as mature and complex as the straight bourbons being put out by the larger distillers and it’s going to drag down the reputation of bourbon.”

Mr. Hansell refers to a story from Clay Risen, which appeared in The Atlantic, that claims “distilleries are cutting corners to speed up the process.” In this story, Mr. Risen has fond things to say about Garrison Brothers, but he then goes on with broad generalizations about all craft distilleries making whiskey.

It seems highly coincidental that at the same time these gentlemen are making these far reaching accusations, the Kentucky bourbon industry is rushing a bill through their state legislature that would give them a tax break for their aging barrel inventories.

Much of the fuss seems to focus on craft distilleries (and I guess we are one since we consider making fine bourbon a craft) that are using smaller barrels to age their bourbon. The authors argue that this is “cutting corners” and that the result is a green, raw, woody bourbon that does not have the same character and complexity of bourbon aged longer in larger barrels.

I suppose this is an interesting debate for those who are talking about it. For those of us actually making fine bourbon, the debate is ridiculous.

At Garrison Brothers, we have more than 1,500 small barrels filled with bourbon we made ourselves from scratch aging in our barns. We also have 10 gallon barrels, 20 gallon barrels, 53 gallon barrels, and 59 gallon barrels filled with our bourbon.

We hand-select the organic Texas corn, wheat and barley that we use. We grind the grain by hand. We cook our own mash. We ferment our own beer. My men and I distill our own bourbon, day in and day out, on three beautiful, reliable Vendome copper alembic pot stills. I dare say our White Dog is superior to any White Dog I’ve tasted in Kentucky.

But since they’ve opened the door, let’s talk about “cutting corners.” My small barrels cost me twice as much as a traditional 53 gallon Kentucky bourbon barrel. Most of my barrels hold only 15 gallons of bourbon. So, it costs me almost five times as much money to age my bourbon in small barrels as it does for the large commercial distilleries.

Could we use larger barrels? Sure. But we don’t. Why? Because the bourbon we’re aging in the small barrels tastes far superior to the bourbon aged in the larger ones. Does this sound to you like we’re “cutting corners”?

Recently, one of the largest Kentucky bourbon distilleries bought 100 small barrels from my cooperage to make their own small barrel bourbon. Does that seem odd? A distillery that’s been in business for decades tastes our bourbon and then decides to try make their own. Isn’t imitation the most sincere form of flattery?

So, debating the use of small barrels does not hold water. Just maybe the real debate should be about what we don’t do.

• WE DON’T RELEASE YOUNG, UNDER-AGE  BOURBON. All Garrison Brothers today is straight bourbon whiskey, aged a minimum of two years. Soon, all Garrison Brothers will be three years old. Then four. Then five. 
• We don’t buy whiskey from a large midwestern ethanol refinery and call it our own.
• We don’t use grain neutral spirits and then claim we made it ourselves.
• We don’t buy Canadian whiskey or Kentucky bourbon and then put a label on the bottle that says “MADE IN TEXAS.”
• We don’t add wood chips, flavoring, or wood spirals. We believe that is illegal, and it should be.

In the next few months, new “craft” whiskies will flood Texas liquor stores. From the outside, the bottles will appear to look like bourbon. Many may be altering their barrels to try to make the distillate inside taste like bourbon. As I understand it, these “whiskies” are aged 6 or 9 months in used bourbon barrels.

These bottles will say “Texas Whiskey” or “Made in Texas”, probably in big, bold print, even though the makers know good and well that it was actually distilled somewhere else.

The liquid inside these bottles is NOT bourbon. If anything should piss off bourbon writers — who claim a desire to preserve and protect America’s native spirit – this should be it. It makes me mad as hell.

Interestingly, a few weeks ago I invited Mr. Hansell down to Texas, at my expense, to learn the truth about small barrel aging.  I wanted him to try our three-year old directly from small barrels and large barrels so he could taste firsthand that the bourbon has indeed gone through the extraction, absorption and esterification phases. I wanted him to taste the character and complexity that can only come from small barrel aging. He declined my invitation.

So, I’m going to try it again and this time I’ll put my money where my mouth is:

Mr. Hansell and Mr. Risen, please come visit us at Garrison Brothers Distillery and try our bourbon. While you are here, we will offer you a taste of all three previous releases of Garrison Brothers and the forthcoming November release. We’ll also share some of our favorites from Kentucky: George T. Stagg, Pappy Van Winkle 23, Old Drum, W.L. Weller 12, and Makers. We’ll provide these samples blind and ask you to choose your two favorites.

If you DON’T select my bourbon as one of your top two favorites, I will donate $500 to the charity of your choice.

Come visit us here in Hye. Then be the judge of whether our distillery might be “damaging the reputation of bourbon.” Around here, bourbon is sacred and we will fight like hell to defend it.

If you’ve visited Garrison Brothers Distillery for one of our concerts, open houses, chicken dinners, Bourbon Camps or parties, chances are you’ve heard Scooter Pearce sing and play guitar. We’re pretty fond of Scooter.

Sadly, a few weeks ago Scooter fell asleep at the wheel while driving home from a gig. Her injuries were bad. After a few hours unconscious, on the side of the road, she was able to call paramedics, and was life-flighted to an Austin hospital and began her recovery, which is going well.

However, her guitars, instruments, sound equipment, PAs, CDs and merchandise were damaged or destroyed. Her truck was a total loss. And her medical bills are approaching tens of thousands of dollars with no certainty as to how much follow-up care may be required.

We at Garrison Brothers want to lend a hand and are hopeful a few of you who know Scooter might help too. Our family is contributing $500 to start a fund to help Scooter with expenses. If you can help out, please drop off a check at the distillery in Hye or mail your check to:

Bourbon Drinkers for Scooter
c/o Garrison Brothers Distillery
P.O. Drawer 216
Hye, Texas 78635

In addition, my family has quietly tucked away 24 bottles of the sold-out Garrison Brothers Pre-release bourbon whiskey we originally introduced in March 2, 2010. This was the first bourbon whiskey ever made in Texas. For its historical significance, and since it all sold out overnight, these bottles have become collector’s items.

To show our appreciation, we will give one of these bottles — with a note on the back that reads Scooter Rocks! – to the first 24 people who drop off a check at the distillery for $100 or more.

(Due to the complex TABC rules governing intrastate shipping of distilled spirits, we cannot mail these out to those who send checks by mail. Sorry.)