Ep. 171: Doc Brown Farm and Distillers with Founder Amy Brown

Episode Transcript
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(00:02):
Hey folks, welcome to a new episode of the Whiskey Ring Podcast. This week, I'm
thrilled to be going down to Georgia so we can scratch another state
off of the list of ones that I hadn't gone to yet with the podcast. And
to join me as the first Georgia distillery is Amy
Brown of Doc Brown Farm and Distillery. They
are in, I wanna get this right, so give me

(00:28):
It written out looks like Senoia, but no, Senoia,
Georgia, close to Atlanta in Northern Georgia. So
Hey, thank you so much. And not many people get Senoia correct.

(00:48):
So Amy here is half of the Doc Brown name.
She is the Brown of the Brown, of the Doc Brown name. Her
partner in business, partner in life, Paige Dockweiler
is the Doc part of the name as well. And
without going into too much detail, as Amy was just

(01:10):
telling me before air, Paige is sharing in the
cold with me up here in the Northeast as
we're recording. So, but anyway, so
Amy, you are, just to jump right in, you are the CEO
and founder, co-founder, your favorite title is Bourbon Farmer. So
why don't we jump right into the origin story

(01:33):
Sure. Yeah. So thank you,
first and foremost, for having us on your show. Paige
and my son, Daniel, who's also a third partner, but he's a
UPS pilot. So he is the true Santa Claus
of the world. He's out actually flying to
Alaska tonight. So you've got me, which is all

(01:57):
six foot of me. This
found us. This is what we tell people. I
would love to sit here tonight and say I had this great business plan
and after I retired as a banker, we were going
to do this and all of that. It kind of found
us. I come from a fifth generation line of farming.

(02:21):
Paige Dockweiler also does too. Both of our families have
farmed. pretty much the entire
time being here in the United States from the 1816 forward.
As I retired as a banker, I knew
I wanted to do something. I didn't want to just sit around and

(02:42):
let life just pass me by and not have any
aspirations. I was young. Raised my two boys. I was young. So
we bought a farm. And it's in a program
where we get a tax abatement if we grow feed or
food. I didn't want to grow cattle or
have cattle of any sort, whether it's goats or

(03:03):
sheep or hogs or cows, or we could grow feed.
And it would give this farm that we bought a
tax reduction, not a whole abatement, but a tax
reduction. It's called the CUVA program. So we all decided let's
grow corn. And we were sitting on the beach

(03:24):
in Florida, and my son Daniel had an article in Gardening
Gun Magazine, and it was about this beautiful Jimmy
Red corn, non-genetically modified heirloom
corn. And he said, mom, why don't
we grow corn, this variety of corn? I said, I'm
fine with that. What are we gonna do with it? It's really not good

(03:45):
to eat, right? It's a field corn. It's
very, very high in sugars, but
it's not the corn that you're going to put on your dinner plate. Let me just put
it that way. So you can eat it. A lot of people
ask us, can I eat your corn? I said, absolutely you can. Will you like
it? Probably not, but you can eat it. And

(04:07):
I said, okay, what are we going to do with this beautiful corn if we can't
eat it? And he's like, why don't we make our own bourbon?
and have a couple of barrels a year, and let's just give
it away to family and friends. Weddings, birthdays, celebrations, retirements,
et cetera. I'm like, that's cool with me. So
called up a friend that's a master distiller, and I'm like, hey, if we grow this

(04:29):
corn, can you distill us some bourbon? It's gonna be private. You'll
distill it for us. We'll pay you for it. Absolutely.
When we got there, and it was
distilling day after the mashing and everything, and he said,
This is absolutely phenomenal. It's
high in sugars, which of course what we know converts. It

(04:53):
has beautiful oil. So it's got that oil
that when you have it in your glass, that it stays on
the side. And it just has
a flavor profile that's just different, right? And
he's like, I really think y'all should consider doing this
full time. And so we sat down as a

(05:14):
family and I said, listen, family
businesses are hard. You're going to get your feelings hurt.
It's I don't really recommend this, but I'm willing to
do it if y'all are. And both Dan and
Paige, we made a pinky promise that we would let family be family
and we would separate business. And those lines never cross. If

(05:36):
we have a hard decision to make in the business world, we
make it. but we don't bring it to the dinner table. And
I said, as long as we can do that, I will do this journey
with y'all, but I'm not going to sacrifice the love of
our family, the unit that we are for a business. It's
not worth it to me. And so that was in

(05:59):
2018. And here we are, and we're having fun and
we're even more close now as a family than we've ever been.
And we've, where
it evolves pretty much every day. So that's, it
So I want to explore those, explore

(06:21):
that jump a little bit because you've got your
background as a banker page in the healthcare field and
Dan as a pilot. Yes. None of those are
screaming distilling even with the farming background
that your families have. So I
hear you when you say, Dan came across this article. And by the way, one of our

(06:44):
most recent guests was Highwire in South Carolina. So
we went deep into it on Jimmy Redd. So
how did you get the jump from
finding the Jimmy Redd to saying

(07:09):
So we tell everybody, first and foremost, we
are proud American farmers. That's one of the things that
we're extremely proud of. Every bottle
of bourbon that you're going to pull off the shelf starts on
a farm. And so we, we wanted
to, we wanted to be the farmer and

(07:31):
the producer, and we knew that was going to be a tough road to
go and that there would be a lot to learn on both ends. Coming
from a farming background, we had a leg up on
those people. Both Paige and
I, Paige grew up on a 5,000 acre farm down in
South Georgia and her daddy was a full-time farmer. So we

(07:52):
have that farming background. We
didn't have the distilling. And I will say this,
we have a master distiller that
is our master distiller. We knew we just couldn't
go and start and like, oh, let's try
this concoction and see how it turns out.

(08:15):
We knew what we liked as a family. We
took it to Matt, our master distiller, who is a part of
Doc Brown Farm and Distillers. And we're like, Matt, we
want Effie Jewel, Resurrection Red,
and then our always one off of Uncle Vogue. Here's
the profiles that we enjoy. Here's what we

(08:38):
like as a family. We've narrowed down our bourbon wall to
these. Let's create something that
doesn't mimic them. I'm not gonna mimic anybody. I'm not gonna steal mash
bills. Let's come up with our own. So we
came up with a four grain, which is Effie Jewel. And
we came up with a higher rye corn,

(09:02):
our Resurrection Red, that has yet to be released, but is
this Uncle Boag. And then Uncle Boag is always going
to take one or two of those barrels and finish it in a very creative
and unique way. And so, that's how we did
it. And we also grow our own Abruzzi rye. So,
Abruzzi rye is a very difficult rye to grow. It's a,

(09:24):
it's, bakers love it. It's an old Italian version. And
so, we knew that flavor profile we
enjoyed. We knew the Jimmy Red Corn we enjoyed. Taste
and High Wire, like you said, we've We've tasted all of their products.
They have a fabulous lineup of products. We love them all. And

(09:44):
so we just kind of did our own thing and worked hand in hand
with our master distiller who has, in
the six, seven years going into our seventh, has
taught us so, so, so much. We are there.
We drive the corn on the truck up there. We're there when
it's going through the grist mill. when it's

(10:06):
being mashed in, when it's firming, when it's going into the tank, when
it comes off the steel, going into the barrel. We're there
every step of the way, quality control wise, learning
from Matt, all of that. So
that's how the whole process goes, is

(10:26):
it literally goes from seed all the way down to
the steel, to the barrel, into that glass. And it all comes
from our farm with the exception of our barley. We
do not grow barley here. That grows better
more in the northern parts. We
get, a malt house has one, and we get our winter

(10:47):
wheat from a local farmer. It's within 10 miles of
here. So everything is sourced right here. And
terroir is a big thing right now. Terroir has always been huge
in wine, right? The grape region, the soil
and the weather and all of that. It's really
becoming a big thing in the spirit industry because it

(11:10):
does make a difference. It does make a huge difference.
Where those grains have been grown, have they
been used, harsh chemicals on them? What's
the soil conditions? What's the weather conditions? When
you get a bottle of our goods, you are getting a
bottle of Georgia. and the

(11:32):
taste of the farm. So to back up, go back to your question, that's
how all of that happened. We knew the farming aspect.
We did not know the distilling aspect. We
are still and probably will be learning for the next 30 years the
distilling aspect. But our
master distiller is one of the best in the industry,

(11:55):
bar none, and he takes our beautiful grains and
we just turn them into these delightful bottles of
So with the Jimmy Redd in particular, like
I said, with High Wire, we went kind of deep into the resurrection story of
the Jimmy Redd. So we won't take up time going
into it here. Though I do want to pick up a couple of things that

(12:18):
you said with that. One of them was you mentioned it has a
lot of sugar in it. So great conversion, good
sugar to protein ratio. And you also mentioned something that Scott
mentioned as well, which was that oil. Yes. He
said he got a solid couple inches of oil cap on

(12:41):
Yeah. And he's now using 100% Jimmy
Red for his bourbon. Earlier batches used weed, the
seven-year-old from them that just came out and had weeded in there. But
that's 100% you're using a four grain mash bill instead.
And I know that's a proprietary secret, I believe, so

(13:02):
I won't push you on that. But, you know,
with that being said, I'm curious, I guess to
start with, was there any interaction with HiWire to figure
There wasn't any in the beginning. We've certainly
emailed back and forth and reached out. They have such a huge

(13:24):
operation and run in their mills, you
know, 24-7 pretty much. But
we just, we really highly leaned on
our master distiller, Matt, to really sit down and
say, this is really cool how this distills. And
working with this type of grain is totally different

(13:48):
than working with just a white dent
filled corn or a yellow corn. Not that those are wrong. There's nothing
wrong with those, not at all. They're just different, right?
And so it's like having a Cabernet. or
a Sauvignon, you know, it's a bottle of
wine, it's a different grape. So that's the

(14:10):
way we look at it in the grain industry is
that corn has such a corn forward
profile. So when you taste a Jimmy Red
Corn Bourbon of any kind, you're
gonna have a forward taste of corn. because

(14:33):
that sugar and that oil
is what makes that corn so prominent in the
bourbon. And that oil cap, I agree with Scott,
when you look over in the vat, I'm telling you,
it's beautiful. It's a pinkish, purplish,
beautiful color, beautiful color. The aromas

(14:57):
coming off of it are totally different. than
what you're gonna get with another variety. Again, it's just
a different variety. And just when you pull
it off the still, that first, even at still strength coming
off after the heads are thrown out, it's
smooth. It is just really, really smooth.

(15:18):
I'm sorry that Rosie, we've got a golden doodle and
every little sound she'll do. So that's
why it distills differently is because of
the higher content of sugar, which is the conversion, and
And I want to note on one of the, I don't

(15:41):
think it was on your website. I think it was on the website of Ginger Monkey who
did the design for the bottles and such. They had a really
great shot of the kernels
from the Jimmy Red in people's hands. And they genuinely look
like pomegranate seeds. They're that deep red and

(16:03):
They are. Those were my hands. We had a photographer come
out to the farm. And when we
combine it and the combine shoots it into the grain wagons,
one of my favorite things to do with the grain kids is climb up
the ladder and just go into the grain wagons.
And even in the grain wagons, you

(16:28):
can smell the difference, even just coming out
of the combine. And so the
color is absolutely stunning. Like
you said, it looks like pomegranate seeds. When you grind
it on the gristmill, the grits, as

(16:48):
I call it, it looks like pink
grits, and it's just the
way it goes into and creates that pink purplish
cap. But one
of my favorite things about that is that you can
see the richness of that color and it comes out

(17:11):
even in our bourbon. I know it comes off the still clear,
but when this starts to age and the notes start
pulling it in, it really just starts creating that
beautiful, beautiful color. with the barrel and the interaction of
This is jumping ahead a little bit for process and such before

(17:32):
we get back to the story. But I know that you had said a couple
of different places that
the Jimmy Red had to be milled a
little coarser than you would normally do it, like somewhere between a grits
and a cornmeal. It does. And I
know that can depend on varietal as to how you,

(17:54):
do you want it as a flour? Do you want it a little thicker or even thicker than that?
Did you kind of have to play around at
We did. So we were so antiquated when
we first started this in 2018. There
is a water powered grist mill in

(18:16):
Georgia. One of only two kind of in
our area that are working. Beautiful, beautiful
place. Drove the corn down there. and ground
it on a rock, a stone
gristmill, and powered by water.
And we got the first barrel

(18:38):
wrong. It just, it was wrong. It formed
dough balls. It got really, really doughy. And
even though it was fine, when I took
it, it just didn't cut with
the distillation. turn back
a little bit, turn the wheel back, and it truly is in

(19:00):
between cornmeal and grits. If
there's something in between, that would be what
our consistency is. With
that oil in there, if you're not careful, that's
what creates that moisture that
will dough it up, make it like little, just little dough balls.

(19:24):
And of course that doesn't distill at all. It's got
to be that consistently. We let our corn dry
out in the field. We do not use corn
cribs. We do not put it in big vats
to dry with fans on it. We let our
corn stay out in the field until it hits 14% or

(19:46):
below moisture. Our cornfields by
September, October look horrible. I'm embarrassed about
them. They look horrible, because I'm a real meticulous person
with how our yard looks, how our farm looks, but
we have to let it grow out in the field. And if
it's anything above a 14% moisture, it's

(20:10):
not going to grind good. It's still going to have too much moisture in
it, coupled with that oil, it's going
to make a really, really a big mess. So
there is a fine line with the
day that it's ready to the day we harvest it.
We don't let 48 hours go in between that. There's so

(20:30):
many reasons for that. And then we
take the corn straight out of the combine
into the grain wagons. We clean it immediately, and
then we take it straight to the distillery. Our corn or
our bruise rye never sits in silos. It never
sits in grain vats. It doesn't sit in a storage area

(20:54):
where rodents and things like that can get to it. It
truly comes from the field straight.
And Matt knows we kind of work our calendars and
it's a moving target, but we know about
when every year we're going to harvest. And I'll
say within 48 hours, I'll have it to you. And

(21:15):
it's truly being distilled within 48 to
72 hours of coming out of our field, which is remarkable.
The other thing is we plant in the
spring after the last frost and we
harvest September, October, depending on the
moisture. We distill and

(21:37):
barrel and everything is done before the end of the
year. We do all of that in a 12 month time
period. When you get a 2020 bottle,
that was all done in
2020, 2021, 2022. And that goes back to a lot of what's coming out right

(21:58):
now in the bourbon and in the whiskey world. We
got invited and flew up to Kentucky, to the University of Kentucky's
inaugural Whiskey Alliance program
that they're doing, the James Beam Institute, And
they invited us up to be a part of the initial thing.

(22:19):
And we got to talk to people there from Maker's Mark, from Heaven's
Hill, from the farm, the farmers were there as well as
the other. And they were all so, Jeff
the Creed was there. They were so intrigued by
how we do everything in a year's
time, in a 12 month time period. brings

(22:42):
a whole new meaning to bottle and bond, right? It's
farmed and bond. I'm trying to coin a phrase like,
okay, this corn hasn't sat in a vat for six or eight or 12 months.
It's gone straight from the field into the barrel. And
one of the guys from Makers Mark

(23:04):
said exactly what we just talked about a few minutes ago. The terroir and
the fact that our corn is not continuing to
dry and possibly lose some of its
notes and its flavors while it's sitting in a silo or
a corn bin or a corn vat. So
there's something to be said of that and they're actually studying that

(23:26):
and we've been in contact with them and I'm trying to help a
few of their research people. All I'm doing is saying, this
is what we do, right? You
guys are the scientists, you guys are working on your doctorate, you guys
figure out the science behind it, but I
can tell you it makes a big difference when that corn goes straight

(23:48):
from the field into the gristmill, into
And this is also, we should know, this is very much in the vein
of farm distilling. The Jimmy Red, unlike,
let's say a yellow or white corn, it's only
one crop per year. When it comes in, that's

(24:10):
when it's ready. You don't have a second one to do. It's all, like
you said, within the one year. I like the idea of like a farmed and
That could be. And I've been whirling in my head with Ginger Monkey,
Tom, our brand designer and creative genius.
And I'm like, nobody else is really doing this. Like

(24:32):
we're doing all of this. And I'm like, why don't we call it farmed in
bond or bond and, you know, something. And he's like, you know what, Amy, I
think you're onto something. In the Estate Whiskey Alliance, 100 percent,
they're onto it as well. What we want people to know is
that this truly has our thumbprint on
it. from the day we plant that seed all the

(24:52):
way until, sometimes we are still distilling on
into December and at the very last week,
like get it in the barrels, get it in the barrels. But there's
something to be said of that. The freshness,
the richness of that coming straight out

(25:13):
of the earth and into the barrel, something
to be said of that. And we're watching that as we
taste barrels and pull samples and how they're aging and
all of that. It's really a remarkable thing in
our opinion. Now, others may disagree, and
I'm okay with that because every person is open to

(25:34):
their opinion. But I told
somebody one day, David, that we
chose, it's like we sat down and chose the most difficult
industry to be in, growing the most difficult
crops to grow, the Abruzzi rind, the Jimmy red corn, trying

(25:55):
to get it to where we do everything in a 12 month time period, and
then trying to make a profit. Those, as
a banker, as a retired banker, if you'd have brought me that business proposal,
I would have said, you have lost your mind. Go
to your next business. But

(26:16):
we love it. And that's something that we're proud of. And that's where
that fine line goes in with the farmer flipping
over to the producer, right, because we are the producer,
working hand in hand with our master distiller. making
sure that every kernel, we do not let one kernel,

(26:37):
if one drops on the ground going through the gristmill, we're out there
with the dustpan and a broom sweeping it up and reclaiming it.
Because when you farm it, you know the value of
that, right? You know the day
in, day out labor of what it took to get that
corn cob, that beautiful red pomegranate

(26:58):
seed corn cob, into that
bottle. So we're constantly saying no waste, no
kernel lost, no kernel left behind. And so that's
how important that is to us, that we value
and we respect that crop because
we know what it took to get us here. We know what it took for Mr.

(27:21):
Tuning to revive those ears, right, that
y'all talked with Highwire about. and he single-handedly
saved this crop, this almost extinct variety.
And we are also seed savers now. And
so it's important to us that we don't let a kernel go
to waste because that one kernel will recreate

(27:45):
a cob. Why let it lay on the floor and sweep it
out in the trash? No, no, sir. Pick it
I kind of like the idea of, this has been, it's been tried
in the whiskey industry very rarely. The
one that comes to mind is Bob Blair did this, but the

(28:05):
idea of whiskey vintages, you
know, I know bottled and bond, you, you kind of get that adjacent
in a way to say it was, it was all,
distilled and produced at this point, and it was all harvested from
the barrels at this point. So you can look at that a little bit, but having a true, I

(28:26):
just remember seeing the ball of layer bottles of like ball of layer 2002 or
something, or 2012. And you get a sense of the terroir and
the climate of that year. And when you're
that close to the, when you're, like you said, as close as you can be
to everything that's going on from seed to sip. it's
something to explore. So with that, let's

(28:49):
ask a little more. You know, this is the first time going to Georgia for any distilleries
on the podcast. What does your
climate look like? You know, what is the terroir of your area?
Oh my gosh. And that plays a huge part of this. We
like to say we have four seasons and
most years we do, but there are some years that

(29:11):
we have two seasons. We go from, cold to hot overnight,
right? Georgia, where we are in the Piedmont District
of Georgia, we have beautiful,
beautiful soil. We're constantly testing our
soil. We do soil testing probably three or four times a year

(29:32):
on different parts of the farm just to make sure that we're
balanced where we need to do. Our
weather, our climate, we have hot, humid, summers.
So we can have humidities up into the 90s in those
hot. This past summer was brutal. It

(29:53):
was brutal. We went almost 68 days, if
I'm not mistaken, without rain, which that's not
good. And then it got so blistering hot.
We are not irrigated, but even the farmers close to
us that are irrigated, the sun was
so hot that it just, it burned. A lot

(30:14):
of the tassels, when the corn first tasseled, the
tassel burned. So this past year, we
did still have a yield. We still didn't make corn. It
was cut in half. So this year, that vintage,
if you will, will be interesting when we bottle
that because of the year we had. In a good year,

(30:36):
we have a cold winter. It's going to be down in the 20s
here tonight. So Georgia's cold right now. We're expecting a
little bit of ice, a little bit of sleet. It's going
to be down in the 20s. We'll have a cold winter.
We'll have an absolutely amazing spring. No humidity, beautiful
78 days, cold nights. Our summers are humid. Corn

(30:58):
is a grass. It likes heat, it
likes sun, it likes moisture. So
Georgia's a fabulous state for growing grasses,
which is a bruisey rye for us, and of course our
corn. And then in the fall, beautiful
typical fall, which is when we will harvest,

(31:23):
and like I said, that humidity has to get out
of the air so the corn can dry in
the field. That's why we typically harvest end
of September, first of October. By the end of
August, a lot of times the humidity is starting to
wane off, still got a little bit, but not as July, June,

(31:43):
July, August. By October, if we
have a good week with low humidity, our corn will hit
that 14% moisture level and we're able to
harvest. That's why I said within a 48 hour of, hey
y'all, it's at 14%, let's harvest because
a heat wave could come back in with a little bit of humidity and

(32:04):
drive that humidity back up. So, it
is definitely a timing of, of
getting it in and getting it out just at the right time. We cannot
plant until after the last frost, which is typically after
Easter. And then we harvest typically

(32:25):
before the middle of October. So that's our growing window.
That's our sit on the front porch and kind
of watch it every night grow, biting your
nails, hoping that a good windstorm doesn't come by and knock it
down. And we plant it pretty dense so
that they hold each other up, but all of

(32:46):
that plays into it. But we, Georgia, this area where
we are, we have a great area for growing corn.
And that makes me think too, what was the question? It just went right
out of my head. Let's see if I can get it back quickly. It was the
Oh, my God. Wow. It went right out. Oh,

(33:09):
yes. So you said that this year, because of the anomalous
weather, it was drier. We had something similar up here. We went four
months without a quarter inch of rain or something. And
my question with that is, I
know you haven't been producing for a super long time, so trends

(33:34):
But I'm curious to know if you think that
the additional, let's
say crop stress, will
that drive up the sugars, drive down the sugars? And
then what does that do for the, not just the
yield in terms of tonnage, but the

(33:54):
yield in terms of the flavor that you get out of that?
Great question, and I don't know that we're going to know the answer to
that until we start pulling samples from this year,
because this was the first year that we just had a weird,
hot, brutal, dry summer. So

(34:15):
I will tell you this, it still came
off the still really good. When we
cooked it, mashed it, the cap was still
beautiful. We didn't see any change.
And I thought the same thing. I thought, you know, this year
was tough. I doubt this is going to make anything, but

(34:36):
it did. But again, we won't know, probably
I'll start tasting this year, a year from now. And
we probably won't know the true girth of
what happened until we start really tasting this year out.
We put up 57, I think this year, 57 barrels,
not bad. for

(34:57):
a bad year. So we'll start kind
of tasting them and picking a few random and
seeing if we can see a notable change between
the years previous when it was a normal cycle of rain,
hot, heat, humidity, rain, you know, all of
that. Now we also crop rotate. So

(35:19):
we are, when I say restorative, A
lot of people use the word regenerative farmers, and I love that
word. The word I choose to
use is restorative. And the reason I choose to use that
word is I think
we have to bring back and stop

(35:40):
doing some of the things that we've done in the past that has
harmed our earth, the overuse, the
overuse of a lot of harshness. And
so We do a lot of things that help us. We
brought in bees. We are not the beekeepers, we are
the bee farmers. We provide a beautiful, beautiful, safe

(36:04):
environment. We have two full-time beekeeping families that
help us with the bees. We started researching and
we saw that bats can help farmers
like us who do not spray for bugs
and and creatures that love to eat our corn. The

(36:24):
earworm being our biggest nemesis. So we've
put up bat houses around the perimeter of our farms.
And at night, it is a spectacular aeronautical
show of the bats going through the
fields, trying to catch the moth before
it lays the egg on the ear. That's how the earworm gets

(36:47):
there. we
crop rotate all the time. So we quarter turn
our crops every year. So if corn was here
last year, we quarter turn it. Rye is back
there. We use cover crops in the winter. So
right now out there we do have some Abruzzi rye planted, but

(37:10):
we also have some crimson red clover. Clover
is a beautiful plant to use for nitrogen.
The earth needs nitrogen. Corn is
greedy when it wants nitrogen, so it'll suck it out. And
so we replenish it over the winter. We give our fields
a rest. We don't drive equipment over it for

(37:32):
compaction issues. We let it rest. We
feed it. We're constantly feeding our soil by
making sure we cover crop it. We're soil testing it.
If it needs some lime spread out on it or some magnesium or
some, you know, it's the macro and the micro units
when you look at your soil sample testing. And we're

(37:54):
constantly monitoring that to make sure that we're giving it
back what it gives to us. And
we let it rest. There will be a field or two this
year that will get nothing. We're letting it rest. And
that's back in the olden days, the way they farmed, you
know, every seven years they'd let their fields rest. And

(38:17):
you have to, you have to restore. It's like
us as humans, our bodies get tired, right?
If you work 24 seven, if you aren't eating healthy,
if you aren't getting enough water, if you're not getting enough, you
know, meditation type times in your life,
your body will start breaking down on you. Same

(38:38):
thing with the earth. And that's for every farmer out there that's
providing the corn to the biggest distilleries out
there down to us very, very tiny craft distilleries. We've
got to learn to take care of what
we're expecting this earth to do for us. And
if we don't, if we don't take care of it, then

(39:01):
eventually On those harsh years, like last year,
we could have had a goose egg. We did get something. It
still will give to you. And so that's our passion, is
making sure that what goes into our
bottles, what goes into our bourbon creams, our whiskeys, whatever
we do, that people understand that first

(39:24):
and foremost, we've been good to the earth to get it to
this bottle, to get it here. We've treated
the earth with kindness and goodness, and we've tried to
restore it and take away anything that would
be harsh. And let's restore back the

(39:46):
I loved, this was a
video or an interview, but it was with Metro Atlanta. And this
is where I first heard you talk about having the bats on the farm and
the bees. And the
bees, I think I had heard probably a couple of others who had that,
who were implementing that for the same kind of reason. It's good for pollination. It's

(40:08):
just great for the ecosystem. But the bats, I
think were new. for me, and I
loved hearing about that. My wife and I love bats. I think they're really
cute and fascinating, very misunderstood. The
bees in particular, I wanted to ask about, even

(40:28):
though I think the bats are the one that catches my attention, the bees are
what I want to ask you about, which is You said you brought
in bees, you have two families of beekeepers. And
initially, I heard you brought them in to
potentially help with pollination. And it
did make a difference. It didn't increase the number of ears,

(40:50):
but it increased the yield by increasing the size of the cob and the number
This is where my farming knowledge really falls short, unfortunately. So
I may not ask the right question here, but at, you know,
where were you before and how quickly did that change happen?

(41:14):
Absolutely. Corn is wind pollinated. So
you don't, a lot of people, when
we say we have bees, they're like, yeah, but corn is wind pollinated. I
get that. The tassels, the wind blows, got the tassel up
here. the ears forming, the pollen reaches down,
corn grabs it, grows the kernel. What

(41:36):
we found when trying to balance our
ecosystem here, we did it more as, let's restore
our part of Georgia. Let's just take this
on as our family project. We need this, we
need that, and bees, of course, without bees, we don't eat
any of us. And so, brought

(41:59):
the bees in, and the beekeeper suits
up. We do not suit up. I probably will one day here soon.
It's intriguing, but I've just not had the time, pretty
much. But he'll suit up, and he walks the cornfields, because
Alex is his name, and he said, I wanted to see if
they were going to pollinate the flowers, the corn, the

(42:21):
tassels. And they did, because
And again, when I was in Kentucky and I talked to one
of the directors at Maker's Mark, you know, Maker's Mark has a huge, huge
And they- I didn't know about it until I visited them. Yeah. They don't really publicize

(42:41):
They don't. They don't. But they found the
same thing was accurate. That the
size of the cob lengthwise, circumference
wise, which when you have a larger circumference, that
equals more kernels, right? You've got a longer and a larger
ear of corn, then it only

(43:04):
makes sense that you're going to have more kernels. And I put
something out on our social media. We're
seed savers. And the way we save seeds is we save them
on the whole cob. And we save them in
a dark, cool place until we're ready for them. And
really when you save seeds, you only want the middle part of the cob. You

(43:25):
don't want really the ends on either side because the middle parts
are what's really going to give you the best yield. So
I took out a cob from like 2019 from
when we had, and then when we brought the bees in to the,
to the next one, huge difference, size,
length, and the amount of kernels. And

(43:47):
so, While I am certainly not, I'm
a banker, so I'm good with numbers. I
am not good with biology or science or any
of that. I can 100%, and I
would put this farm up for it, I
can tell you it has made a huge difference in

(44:10):
our yield population. Same amount
of land, same amount of kernels planted every
year, right? because you plant on it with a planter
and you ever so many seeds per acre. It's
made a huge difference in our yields, bringing them out
of the field, into the grain wagons, into the

(44:32):
bags that we take up. And not only that, the
honey that we've gotten from the beehives,
from the bees, we've used in our hot honey and
our honey whiskeys, which we have out on the market now.
So not only do you get a taste of our bourbon
in the Jimmy Redcorn, Uncle Bo, Effie Jewel, et cetera. Now

(44:55):
you're also getting a taste of the honey in our Dace Wigger series,
which is the honey and the hot honey. And so
Absolutely. Absolutely. So we're increasing
the bees this year. We've told both James and Adrian, and

(45:16):
Alex and his wife that we want to increase the bee boxes. And
so we're out making arrangements for that now. They have, you
know, they tell us where they want to sit the boxes. We go prepare
the land and make sure that it's, again, a safe, as
safe as you can be for bees, but there are certain things that they look for,

(45:37):
and so we're out there also doing that in
the next few days. After this cold spell happens, we'll be out doing that.
So bees have made a huge difference, as
have the bats. I know that intrigues you as well. The bats have absolutely
taken the nemesis of the earworm that
we fought and we fought and we fought, and there's no way to

(45:58):
fight it other than walk in the fields, and if you see one, get it
out of there. Now we don't have
to do that. We let the bats do that for us. And so it's
really an amazing, and the bees and
the bats have brought in other pollinators, the
dragonflies, the hoverflies, the hummingbirds. Holy

(46:19):
moly, I've never seen too many hummingbirds in my life. But that's
what happens when you start balancing and
restoring the earth and the ecosystem back
to what it's supposed to be. Nature can show up,
right? And nature can do its job. And
that's what we're letting happen on this farm is help

(46:41):
us be bourbon farmers and help us
do it in a very natural and
So with that, I want to pivot a little bit to the,
it's not really pivoting actually, it's still within the realm of farming, which
is, so in my mind you have kind of a,

(47:03):
it's not a paradox at all, it's just two coexisting mindsets.
You have this very new one of a Jimmy Redd
that was almost gone and now it's
completely revived. Yeah. I
think it was originally grown in Georgia too, even though, you know, Hiawara has
the name for it right now in the Carolinas, but

(47:28):
So you have a revived grain that was originally
And you're also creating a
new bourbon. This is a new product with your
terroir, with your ecosystem that you've created, with flora
and fauna and everything that goes along with it. So

(47:51):
something you had said, this is in the Times Herald, was that, quote,
our aim is to revive Georgia's rich farming heritage and show everyone
how good Southern bourbon tasted before prohibition and modern agriculture
changed things. And quite so. So
when you look, you've already mentioned a couple of things about, you know,

(48:11):
using this this mill from, you know, 1901 Meadows, these
very non GMO, non modern chemical ways
of controlling pests and all of this. So
then I want to go back to something you said at the very beginning, which was
when you were thinking about bourbons that you and Paige

(48:33):
and Dan drank. You said you had a shelf and
you narrowed it down to a couple. Let me just start
with what were you drinking? What
There are several. Number one, we love Woodford. Who
doesn't love a good Woodford? Woodford, Woodford Double Oat.

(48:57):
That always became a favorite. 1792 came up to be When
we kind of did some blind testing, that always came
up to be. I'm a big fan,
and I know it's a blend, but I'm a big fan of the barrel,
the brand barrel. And they

(49:19):
are doing a fabulous job of blending. And
so when we started looking at what are the notes out
of here that we're looking for? What is it that we're
actually going for? who doesn't love a George Stagg
and a Stagg jr. Right. So that was,
uh, the Stagg jr. Was on there. We do not have

(49:40):
a bottle of Stagg, but we have a Stagg jr. Neither
do I. So that's okay. Um, one
of our family members, uh, got a
bottle of, of a 14 or 15 year Pappy and
had shared a half a bottle with us. And we had that fabulous,

(50:01):
Um, we love any, you know, I love
Weller. I know it's a higher, it's a weeded, but it,
it just is a little bit, that's, we're kind of effy cause we're
all different. Dan, boy, Dan's going to go for
the cast strength and you know, I'm all this and that
and the other. I end up probably with

(50:23):
something like a 95 to 105, a really nice good blend. Again,
the Penelope, the Beryl, the
things like that. Paige is a mix between us
two. Definitely loves a little bit higher strength,
but not so much to where it takes your head off your shoulders, right?

(50:47):
To where you're like, God, that just, that's still burning an hour later.
So those are the ones I'd have to go through my, my
cabinet. It's now a cabinet plus
a wall plus that because we collect everywhere we go. Love
anything from Bardstown that they did. We got to

(51:07):
go up there recently and And we brought home
some beautiful bottles of Bardstown that you can only
buy there. We always try to go buy the things that you can only buy
there, right? Because that's the ones you
want on your shelf. So that's kind of where
we all just, we just pulled from
there and we're like, okay, we knew we wanted one that

(51:30):
would, I'm going to say
this and I'm a woman and I don't want to offend by nobody, anybody,
but, As a bourbon drinker and
as a woman, like I just said, I don't want
it to be to where it blows my head off. You know, like you taste that
first sip and you're like, oh my gosh. Make it easy,

(51:53):
make it smooth. So the four grain with the wheat
and the rye, the wheat kind of tamps
down the spiciness of the rye. And
then you mix in that beautiful Jimmy Red corn. The malted barley
is only 3%. of our entire mash
bill. So it's really with Effie, you get a

(52:14):
very generous blend of all the flavors, but
the corn, I'm telling you that Jimmy Red Corn, still that flavor
profile still is prominent, but it just kind
of tones it down. So that's where I kind of land is in the
92, 95, up to a hundred, just something easy sipping. However,

(52:35):
this Boag at what? 120 proof? doesn't
drink that way. In my opinion, I enjoy a neat
pour of Uncle Bo because it's
smooth and it's not something that
I feel like if I take the first sip that it's got my breath. Are we
Yeah. So this is As

(53:02):
I was telling Amy before, I don't do tasting
notes on air, but I will say, so just for a couple of specs, this
is a special batch, one off of the Uncle Bogue, that
is 120.8 proof. It was Asian
Torrego wine barrels. So Portuguese grape, I had to look it up. Hadn't

(53:22):
heard of it before. And the
Now I will say I, I completely agree
for almost 121 proof. This doesn't
drink like it at all. This is maybe feeling
like 110 to me, uh, like a soft hundred and 10. Um,

(53:45):
the, the wine definitely takes a little bit of the edge off because, uh, to
me it comes off as a very sweet wine and not, I'm not very familiar with this
one, so I don't know a profile off the top of my head, but it feels floral
fruity. Jammy definitely isn't that comes to me. Definitely.
So this is 120.8. The classic, if you will,

(54:05):
Uncle Bo is 122 proof. Right. And
So you do have those two well
within normal limits. But I want to say that
having not tried the FeJewel, so I can't obviously give a note on that, but
I will say from just the specs perspective of it, I

(54:26):
appreciate what you're saying about your own tastes
of not wanting it to be below a certain proof point, because I
find, especially with corn distillate or corn-based distillates,
that they can, even with stuff like Jimmy Red, you
can lose the flavor under a certain proof in a way that you don't

(54:46):
with a malt spirit, for example. I've said
in the past, I can have an 80 or 86 proof scotch, And
it's got a good mouthfeel, good body to it, good flavor, it's all there. Can't
say the same for most, I'm racking my
brain trying to think of a corn based spirit at 80 or even 86 that has
that. And you have to be around the 92 point where

(55:09):
you start really getting that. Sorry, just the last thing
on that, which is when you have a
green that's giving you so much oil and
character in there, you don't want to have
it below that proof because once it gets below the 92, then you're
dealing with you know, either non-chill filtration

(55:31):
or chill, and then it's going to come out of suspension and you might lose
some of that. And yes, you can get it back in suspension. I get that.
But you lose something below that 92 where
You do. And that's why we chose where we, of course,
we, we sat and we started at barrel proof with
Effie and we came all the way down and we got it to where

(55:55):
we liked it and where it didn't lose the
corn spirit flavor. Again, we're proud of
the corn and I want people to taste that. As
it ages, it's going to lose some of that just because the barrel is going
to continue to feed it its notes. We use char four
barrels. They're going to continue to feed that, but

(56:16):
at the same time, we wanted people to
be able to sip it neat, enjoy it in a cocktail, as
a modifier, but when you even modify it,
still be able to taste that beautiful, beautiful
corn distillate and that Jimmy Red flavor that's going
to come through with that oil and with that high sugar and protein

(56:38):
content. So we let Effie
kind of land there to attract maybe
some women, some females that are just getting into
the bourbon scene, right? Maybe just like, oh, I want
to be a part of that. It's not just for women. I'm not just saying
that, but we've heard that a lot. Women, when

(56:59):
we do tastings, oh, my husband loves bourbon, and I really
want to share this love for
him with him. And it's like, try this
one. It's a lower proof. you know, and it's kind
of an easing them into, Oh, now
we can go on up the ladder. And so we, and then of course

(57:19):
we have, uh, uncle Vogue, who is just, we call him our
rogue uncle. Who's going to come out at cast strength every time, uh,
we're, we're doing different finishes and, um,
he's just going to be that one off that only
so many bottles will be there. And once, once that's done, that's
done. Uh, so, kind of hoarded this batch

(57:41):
because I've got a case sitting downstairs. I'm like, oh, I'm not sure
I'm going to release all 198 bottles, but
the Resurrection Red, we have yet to release a
Resurrection Red, which is Jimmy Red Corn and
a Bruisey Rye. Okay. And, um,
we've yet to release just a Resurrection Red. We've, we've

(58:02):
been just letting them sit while we've released Effie
and Uncle Bo, we're just continuing to let them age. they're aging
beautifully. And it's probably going to become real close to time
next year, this, this year, 2025 to probably put
It's weird to think this year, 2025 now it's weird.

(58:26):
It's we're only a weekend. I'm still getting used to it. It'll take me a month or so.
With the, as you said, there's 198 bottles available of
this particular release. I'm, I'm sipping on it right now.
Again, I'll do notes. I. I'm really enjoying this. Uh,
the, the bourbon is definitely coming through. It's not lost at all, which is always my
biggest worry with finishes is are you going to lose the whiskey? Not

(58:50):
at all here. Um, and the wine is makes
me want to try a bottle of Wolf mountain to rig a wine because
it's great. And some of the
more unique wine finishes I've had over the years, I think of Ironclad
in Newport News, Virginia. They also
have a special corn that they use, but they had

(59:13):
a local winery do a petite Verdot
cask finish. And they only do it once every couple of years. And my
God, was that good. Of course they were sold out of the wine by that time, but it was
I know. We enjoy, I love collaboration. The
guys, the family that owns Wolf Mountain, the vineyards

(59:35):
are on the grounds. And so
we have such an affinity with them because like us, they grow their
own grapes and as we grow the corn and they, you know,
distill and make their own wine there. And we just
knew that that was going to be a really, really, really good collaboration. And
they had just emptied that barrel that morning. They

(59:56):
called us and said, we're intended in the morning. Y'all be up here about a
four hour drive for us from where we are up there. And
just, just the smell of that wine coming out
of that barrel was spectacular. And we
wanted it wet. We wanted the barrel wet. And so, um,
and, and I'll be honest, we were afraid too, is it going to become too

(01:00:19):
jammy? And, um, So, but
I love collaborations like that to where we can, we
can talk about what they do and what we do and just really
make a product. So, and it's, this one's one
and done, it's done. So, unless
they have another Cabernet or something, we might do another collaboration with

(01:00:41):
them. But superb family, their wines are award-winning. Not
what people think of Georgia with Muscadine wine, not
at all that. They're true, true. beautiful
That region of, generalizing the
region of the South and Southeast of
the country, I'm finding more and more, I mean, number one,

(01:01:04):
I'm just not familiar with the, the agriculture there.
And I was, I think this made me think of another
recent interview with Jay Rieger out of Kansas City, talking
about how, you know, Missouri is, I
think he said the fifth largest wine producer in the
country. And you don't know that, right?

(01:01:24):
Like, I mean, I'll be honest as a New Yorker, New York city,
I like, I don't, I don't think of that. I think wine, I think, you
know, New York, California, Oregon, but
to have Missouri in the top five, I just don't think about that. Same
thing goes for Jack Daniels did a release a
couple of years ago as a part of their Tennessee tasters series that it

(01:01:46):
was the Tennessee whiskey finished in Tennessee red wine casks.
It was my of the 13 releases they've
now done in that series, which they've since renamed. It's my
second favorite release. The first one was the Rye, which they turned into
their whole single barrel program now, which is, you know, in a league of its own.
But my second favorite was that red wine. And it was Tennessee red wine. They

(01:02:11):
wouldn't say which winery it was. It
had to be someone of some scale because we're talking Jack Daniels, even with
a limited release. Yes. But even
so, I wanted to know because I want to know, can I taste that wine?
Because then you put the wine next to the finished whiskey and you
see the components. And I think that's a great experience to have that

(01:02:32):
we don't get to do that very often. You spoke at
Bardstown. I'm sorry to cut you off. You spoke at Bardstown there
just last year, they did the Silver Oak collaboration. So
getting to try that and be able to buy a bottle of Silver Oak and
see what that is like is, it's a really

(01:02:52):
It is. And we were, we got to taste that when we were there. And,
um, we, I like what
you just said, just like Jack, what Jack Daniels did. It's
highlighting, I mean, look what Jack Daniels has done for Tennessee. Come
on. Yeah. Uh, you know, But
yet they continue to evolve. And that's

(01:03:15):
what we want to do. Listen, we're a speck.
We're like a grain of sand on this vast ocean. Dot
Brown Farm and Distillers is just a little
sweet little family out of Georgia. But I'm hoping that
with events like this, that we
can showcase that our state really, our largest

(01:03:38):
industry is agriculture. When you look at the state of Georgia and you Google
what is their largest, you would think having the Delta Hub here, the
Coca-Cola World Headquarters here, you would think all of that,
right? No, it's agriculture. We
are still such an important part of this country
and this world with our production of

(01:04:01):
all the the grains, the nuts, the
vegetables. And so collaborating with
winemakers and grape growers up
in North Georgia, it only makes sense. Let's
highlight them. Let's let the two beautiful
award-winning wine that they make marry

(01:04:23):
with our bourbon from our farm. Let the North Georgia terroir
and the Piedmont Middle Georgia terroir marry. It
just worked. We were crossing our fingers, but
it worked. Cause you know, like you said, you never know. You
never know. And so to

(01:04:44):
me, highlighting families, family of farmers, the
agricultural part of it, again, every bottle sitting
on your shelf, my shelf, your
listener shelves, whether it's a wine, a spirit, a
whiskey, a scotch, It
all starts on the farm. It all

(01:05:06):
starts on and in the ground. And
why not do some collaborations with people across
the country? that, hey, let's use
your rum barrels, like Angel's Envy is so notoriously
known for. I love their stuff, love their stuff. Let's

(01:05:27):
use some different, no one had heard of a Turaga wine. I mean,
they had heard of it, but like you just said, you had to look it up. Let's
do something different. Let's not just use a Cabernet, let's
use something that's really a Portuguese variety.
And so, to me, We

(01:05:47):
are so proud of this Uncle Bo because it
allowed us to also showcase the
beautiful winemakers of Georgia. There's a lot of good winemakers
here in Georgia. Again, it's not the sweet watermelon
moonshine that Laney Wilson sings about or

(01:06:07):
the Muscadine wine and all that. Yes, they're here,
but there are some really good grape
grape vineyards and some great winemakers
here in Georgia. And we're just thrilled that ours
turned out to be so good with their barrel and that they allowed

(01:06:30):
Absolutely. So with that, I want to make sure we spend
a little bit of time just in the time remaining to talk about your
production itself. You said this year was a little short. It
was 57 barrels. But you were also telling
me before I hit the record button that you're in
the process of building this whiskey barn. That's a place

(01:06:51):
where people can visit and see. And
We farm a total of 120 acres, so
we're not a huge farm, but it's large enough
that Dan, Paige, and I, it keeps us busy, keeps us hopping. The

(01:07:13):
farm right here where I'm sitting that we live on is
the 20 acres. Caddy Corner to me is the 100 acres
that we farm, so we're constantly moving equipment back and forth. On
this farm, we're going to build, it literally was outside
pretty much all day today getting the grading started. We're going
to build a barn. We get probably

(01:07:37):
10 to 12 calls a week saying, hey, I'd love to
come tour your farm. I'd love to come see what you're doing. I'd love to come see
your facility, et cetera. And then I always say, oh
gosh, you know, we're just a farm and et cetera, et
cetera. So it got us all to thinking and what I
have found and what a huge shift in, I think,

(01:07:58):
even our culture is that people are now wanting
experiences more than ever. And
people, let's face it, we're born for human connection,
right? We need people. Whether we like them or not, we
need them. And people want to see Who's
growing that tomato that's in my salad? When

(01:08:21):
you go to the farmer's market on Saturdays, who grew those carrots? Who
grew that head of lettuce? And you get to interact with
the farmer and the producer. So we
will have a place where people can
come, literally walk out of the rye fields or
the corn fields, whatever's growing, because we rotate, literally

(01:08:43):
walk from the field into the barn and
see the whole process, the whole process. That's
the part of the education that I want our
followers and the people who have been so kind to us to be able
to see, because it's one thing to talk about it. It's one thing to

(01:09:03):
put it out on social media. This is what we do every day. We're extremely transparent.
When we have a bad day, we're going to let you know it. Have a flat tire, you're
going to know. But to
be able to literally go into the cornfield, feel
the corn cob in your hand, the dirt, and
then walk into the barn and see the process all the way

(01:09:24):
through. Now, we will have a small, we
will not be distilling here on the farm. Our
county won't allow that. What we will have is
a demonstration. We will have a small
cell scale that'll just, I'll show them how, the water, it'll
be water, how it goes through and all of that. We're still

(01:09:45):
gonna distill up with where we do at the Distillery
of Modern Art, Matt being our master distiller. The pot
still is a 1500 gallon Vendome. There's
no way we could put that here on
the farm, you know, that type of facility to do the type of volume
that we're gonna need. Right now we have 275, I think,

(01:10:12):
barrels that are continuing to age. This
year we hope to put up 100. So we're planting 400 barrels
and we have to back our way into that. How many
pounds does it take to make a barrel? And then we
divide it backwards. That's what we're planting for.

(01:10:33):
We planted for that last year, got 57. That's
okay. We had about a 40% reduction. So
this year, weather permitting and no
hidden scorchers again, we
should be able to hit that. So we're gonna
be a small, that's small, that's such small potatoes to

(01:10:56):
what everybody else is doing. But for us,
if we do that consistently every year and we allow people to
come see that process and have that hands-on experience,
be able to touch the corn, the field, be able to
feel the grits, as I call it grits, in your hands, to
be able to watch how it goes through the process and into the barrel. I

(01:11:21):
don't know where else you can get that really, you
know, from walking out of a cornfield into the barn. So
we're excited about that experience and we hope to draw
people like the bourbon trail does up
in Kentucky, it draws thousands and thousands and thousands
of visitors every year. We don't expect that, but

(01:11:43):
at the end of the day, we hope that people will come, not just
for us, but for the bourbon and whiskey industry
as a whole. We can't let the
small craft distilleries die. We just can't.
That's what founded this, pre-prohibition.

(01:12:03):
Farmers had leftover corn, leftover
grains. What are we going to do with it? We're going to go in the woods. We're
going to make moonshine and we're going to make liquor. We're going to
make whiskey. Those small family craft
farm distilleries are, in my opinion,
what's going to be one of the biggest shifts in the next five to seven

(01:12:26):
years. Just my opinion. When you have people
looking for experiences over just
things. And you have people
wanting to know the farmer. Like I said, where
did that tomato come from that's in my salad? Where did that beef,
that hamburger come from that I eat on that hamburger tonight? Those

(01:12:48):
things matter to me and my family. And I
seek out local farmers to
buy our beef, our chicken, our salads.
And I think people more and more are doing that. And if we
can literally take them from the dirt to
the sip, I think it'll be an experience like none

(01:13:11):
other. And I'm hoping that people will enjoy it. And again, we're
going to be as transparent as ever and let people know,
hey, tough year. Corn is not looking good in
the field. You're going to see it anyway. We're not going to hide it. We're
not going to cover it up. We're not going to sugarcoat it.
that can be a lesson in agronomy right there. This

(01:13:32):
is what it is this year. This is what the corn looks like when this happens. And this is,
at the end of the process, we got for this, for 2024, we
got 57 barrels from this set
of circumstances. And that, I enjoy that. I
don't think of it as pedantic at all. I think it's very much a learning moment.

(01:13:53):
Yes. For those. And I should note, you know, just in terms of getting
to your, and Atlanta's known as like, I
think it has the worst traffic in the country. Worse even than
here, but distance wise, you're a little less than
an hour from, you know, central Atlanta. So
just South Atlanta. So it's, you know, not even a day trip. It's

(01:14:16):
you do a half day trip and still come in and visit. And
I think just from
what I've seen in Georgia, there's
still not a ton of distilleries in Georgia. There's maybe a few dozen at
most. The biggest

(01:14:37):
ones that I knew about are ASW, Old
Fourth, but none of these are huge by
any means. No. ASW, they do have
the ads at, it's not Turner Field anymore. Is it

(01:15:04):
ASW is fabulous and they've done a lot for our industry to
get the eye on Georgia with what they've done. They're Fiddler and the
things that they've done. They've done a really, really good job.
But you're correct. There's not a lot of us here in Georgia. There's
You all seem to be though, there's no one
giant behemoth. In Tennessee, there's not a Jack Daniels

(01:15:27):
or even a George Dickel. In Georgia right
now, there's an opportunity for all of you to still work together on a
relatively even plane. Even
if ASW and Old Fourth are leading the way just
by sheer relative size. You
know, there's a lot of collaboration that can happen. And I've seen it

(01:15:49):
working other states for sure. And with other states creating distillery trails
of their own. So, no, I agree. I think that's a
very positive thing. And I want to look more into this
distillery of modern art. I know I had seen them,
I'm sure on Instagram at some point, because it's just beautiful. And

(01:16:12):
You need to. They are some of the finest people you'll ever meet.
The distillery is absolutely gorgeous. Spectacular.
Modern science, technology, everything. You
need to look at it. I can make introductions. I love the guys at
Old Forth. They're friends of ours. We do a lot of

(01:16:34):
collaborating. And when
we do go to events together, Like
this year, we went and did for multiple sclerosis.
You know, they have their galas every year. And O4th
was there. We were right near them. And it's just fun because you
can, you're just, they get you. They

(01:16:57):
get the good days and the hard days. They get the good times and
the bad times, you know, and they are definitely
setting Georgia on the map. And I'm so grateful for
those guys. They've done a great job. And we learn from them and
they learn from us. You know, they're not farmers. So they'll call us and
say, hey, have you ever heard of this variety? Why don't you grow this?

(01:17:18):
And you have to tell them about agronomy and why you can't cross
pollinate. I can't grow my corn and your corn because
it'll cross pollinate and create this weird variety. But
I agree with you. Georgia is such a unique state. And
of course, it's home. So I'm going to say it is. But we

(01:17:38):
have the coast, we have Savannah, we've got oceanfront, we've
got the agricultural belt that
produces more pecans than any state
in the nation. We're the largest producer of pecans, pecans,
pecans in the nation. Watermelons, watermelon
capital of the world sits right here in Georgia. We

(01:18:02):
have all the technology. We have the film industry
here now. The film industry is 12 miles
from this farm. We call it Yollywood. It's where
the Trillith Studios is where they film all the Marvel movies
and they film that. So now we have Hollywood's come to
Georgia. Arthur Blank has just, is

(01:18:25):
building it right now, a soccer, a
soccer federation, I don't even
know how big it is. It's huge. So
the world is coming to us, right? They're coming
here to make movies. They're coming here to play
in the World Federation Soccer Leagues. They're building

(01:18:45):
this fabulous state-of-the-art center there. Atlanta's
the hub of Fortune 500 all over. We've
got the coast. We've got the beautiful North Georgia mountains. So
when you come to Georgia, we want to be just one stop.
on your many stops of what you can see
here in Georgia. And we want people to know that in addition

(01:19:08):
to being all of that, you can make movies and you
can fly into the busiest airport in the world, but
you can also visit a farm that makes some dad-blame-good bourbon
and some good whiskeys. And we
can then tell you, go visit these people. Go
here, go there. And you can really plan out your day, whether

(01:19:30):
it's wine or beers. We've got some microbreweries here that
are fantastic. Just
things. So Georgia has all of a sudden become this on
the map, you know, just from our film and music industry
that we put out. So to be in this state
doing what we do is such an honor. It really is.

(01:19:53):
And to be able to now showcase let's
add one more thing that you can do in Georgia, come
visit the Whiskey Barn. There's not one, there's distilleries to
visit and they're fabulous. But if you wanna go see
a true working farm and taste a

(01:20:15):
I think it's a perfect way to end it there. So, Amy, thank you so much for
coming on to talk about Doc Brown, to talk about Georgia a little bit more in
depth, talk about all the farming that's happening there as well. I
really look forward to delving into the state more, tasting more of
your products as they come along, hopefully get ahold of some Effie Jewell, and
when it comes out, the Resurrection Red as well.

(01:20:37):
And yeah, hang on with me for just a
minute after we finish recording. I have a question for you off air. Sure. Yeah.
Thank you so much for coming on. This has been another episode of the Whiskering podcast. Thank
you everyone for listening. Please make sure to listen to the end
notes and we'll have more information in the show notes. So you can follow Doc Brown
on Instagram and everywhere else you can find them. So you can visit,

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Ep. 171: Doc Brown Farm and Distillers with Founder Amy Brown

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