June 11, 2025 • 29 mins
What happens when passionate craftsmanship meets Florida's unique environment and rich history? At Indian River Distillery in Vero Beach, Ray and his team aren't just making spirits—they're bottling the essence of the Treasure Coast itself.
From the moment you step into their "tasting room" (not a bar, as they'll kindly remind you), you're immersed in an experience that honors tradition while embracing innovation. The distillery operates under a craft designation, serving only what they produce on-site—a commitment to authenticity that shapes everything they do.
During our conversation, Ray pulls back the curtain on the meticulous distillation process happening in their 2,800-square-foot production area. We learn how they transform simple grains into complex spirits through grinding, cooking, fermenting, and distilling. But what truly sets them apart is their determination to create distinctively Floridian products. While other distillers might climate-control their aging facilities to mimic Kentucky or Tennessee conditions, Ray insists on embracing Florida's humidity and temperature: "I want to taste Florida whiskey, and if we're going to make Florida whiskey and Florida rum a thing, it needs to be that."
Their dedication extends to every detail—from crafting their own cola and ginger beer rather than settling for commercial mixers, to incorporating a piece of silver from the actual 1715 Spanish shipwreck into their Treasure Fleet rum. As Ray puts it with refreshing honesty, "Does it make it better? No, but it's a cool story."
Beyond the spirits, Indian River Distillery has become a community hub where regulars feel like family and newcomers are warmly welcomed. With live music from talented performers like world-class blues musician Ben Prestage (whose guitar is made from an alligator head!), the atmosphere strikes that perfect balance of fun yet sophisticated.
Whether you're a spirits enthusiast or simply curious about local craftsmanship, join us for this fascinating glimpse into how passion, history, and innovation come together in a glass—one small sip at a time.
Presented by Killer Bee Marketing
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Brian (00:00):
All right, well, welcome back to the Vero Beach Podcast.
We are sitting here at thedistillery, at the Indian River
Distillery, with Ray, and duringthis episode we're going to
talk about the day-to-day whatit's like.
So earlier, Ray, I mentionedthat we had stopped in before
and there was some live music.
Shawna (00:16):
Yes, so I'll tell this story.
Our son, who's 20, he washaving a hard day and he loves
live music.
So I came up with the idea thatwe would do a little tour
around the town.
It must've been a Friday, I'mguessing, or a Saturday.
We were going to do a touraround the town, see all the
places that had live music and,you know, just get his spirits
(00:37):
up a little bit.
So we went someplace else wherethere was music and the service
was terrible, which that placewill go unnamed forever.
But we decided, okay, let's goto Indian River Distillery.
Pippin was playing.
So we came in and, unbeknownstto us, there was a fireman's
fair going on, so there wasnobody around.
(00:57):
There were a couple of peoplehere in the distillery, but in
general, like the whole town waskind of at this fair, I suppose
.
So we came in and it was such afun experience for us because we
were the only ones by, you know, up by where the music was,
where Pippin was singing.
So we had all sorts of rapportthere and our son had one of the
(01:17):
colas, one of the craft colasthat you create, and he loved it
so much.
It was just such a goodexperience and we didn't go
anywhere else.
We stayed here for the rest ofour night before we went home.
Obviously, the cocktails wereamazing and just the entire
atmosphere was just exactly whatwe needed that night.
It was fun, but it was chill.
Your decor is just beautifuland classy and it was just such
(01:40):
a great experience for us.
We really enjoyed our visithere and obviously we're going
to be back.
Brian (01:45):
Good yeah, tell us a little bit about the cola,
because that was definitely asurprise.
I know he was really excitedabout that.
Ray (01:51):
So how that started.
When I was here building thebar, you built the bar.
Yeah, I built the bar.
Oh wow, I was here building thebar.
Shawna (01:59):
Is that a live edge?
I'm peeping, oh Is that a liveedge.
Ray (02:01):
I'm peeping.
Oh yeah, oh my, yep, that's apine tree that was cut down in
town by a local tree guy andthen a sawmill in Winter Beach,
between here and Sebastian.
Guy's got a sawmill in his yardand he cut the lumber for us.
Shawna (02:13):
No, way, that's so cool.
Ray (02:15):
So I was here building the bar and a Coca-Cola salesman
comes in the door you know I'vegot all the doors open in here,
music playing, and he says Iheard you guys are opening up
and, uh, you know, I, I need toget you set up on coca-cola
products.
And you know, sign thiscontract.
We, you know we give you thissoda gun.
And you know I've never workedbehind the bar as a bartender,
(02:39):
so I don't really understand.
But I guess soda guns are apain in the neck, they get dirty
and you got to keep them clean.
But I just thought that that'sthe way it was done and I said
something to Mandy.
That night this soda guy cameby and this is what we got to do
and I would have had to runlines through the floor because
I want the soda gun behind thebar and not on the other side.
(03:00):
So I was thinking, all right,well, I can, can do it.
I put a piece of conduit there,I can do something with that.
And you know what?
Which one of these sodas do wewant?
You know there's room for thegun on this and you know we can
have this and this ginger beeror ginger ale, and we were kind
of not feeling good about it.
It's like we're going throughall of this work and all of this
(03:22):
trouble making these spiritsand then you're going to dump
the rum and coke.
And you're going through all ofthis work and all of this
trouble making these spirits andthen you're going to dump the
rum and coke and you're going tomake a mule out of seagram's
ginger ale the same stuff weused to drink in the woods when
we were in our 20s.
You know, no, that doesn't seemright.
So you know her and I thoughtabout it for a minute and, uh,
okay, well, we can fix this.
(03:43):
We'll make our own ginger beerand our own cola.
And we tried a few recipes andkind of tweaked them a little
bit and got what we thought weliked.
And this is the bar is built,not painted, the plumbing's in
behind it and we pulled somefriends from across the street
(04:05):
at Walking Tree and we weregoing to have kind of like soft
opening or kind of workoutnights, knock the bugs out of
everything.
So we were working on ourcocktail menu and we came and
we're doing rum and cola withthis cola and it was like
everybody loved it.
And then the ginger beer wasthe ginger beer that we made and
(04:27):
that was one of the things onthe comment cards that we made,
that everybody don't change this.
I thought, wow, okay, and howwe were doing it is.
We had a syrup that we weremixing with soda water which was
wasn't quite getting thecarbonation the way we wanted it
.
You know, being that mike fromwalking tree brewery, that the
(04:47):
head brewer, um and owner, hewas one of the people here and
he asked me how I did it and hesaid, well, why don't you put it
in a beer keg?
Well, mike, because I don'tknow how to do that.
And he just, all right, getthis and this and this and I'll
show you how to do it.
So you know, we make the colasyrup and we make the ginger
(05:08):
beer syrup and we mix it withwater and then we carbonate it
in a keg like you would beer,and we use beer taps for it.
Brian (05:14):
Wow, that's so cool, wow, and I love the story of how
your friend right here from thewalking tree came alongside you
and helped you figure out how tomake this happen.
Shawna (05:25):
Yeah, yeah, that is so cool.
That is so cool.
Yeah, I love that.
We really good friends.
Ray (05:29):
You know we're running back and forth across there.
You know I I initially, when wewere looking at this building,
I wasn't too concerned about it,but you know it is a concern.
We're opening across the streetfrom you guys and we serve
alcohol also, yeah, uh.
So I went and you know I talkedoh no, we love it.
We want you guys to be here,for sure.
Shawna (05:48):
Yeah, I know, we like good people.
Ray (05:49):
We like friends.
Let's do some cool stufftogether.
Shawna (05:53):
And that's what it's been.
Ray (05:54):
We're always trying to do cool things together Wow.
Shawna (05:57):
It's such a perfect picture of everything we're
hearing around.
Vero is like people supportingeach other.
I absolutely love that.
Ray (06:04):
Yeah, not everybody in Vero is that way, but we all know
who the ones are that aren't.
Shawna (06:10):
We'll get a list later.
Brian (06:12):
No list, you'll figure it out.
Shawna (06:14):
We'll figure it out, no list needed.
You can help us along.
Brian (06:18):
Well like.
So we're running a distillery.
What does a typical day looklike Like?
What are some of the processesLike?
Ray (06:29):
we're running a distiller.
What is the typical day looklike like?
What are some of the processeslike?
Because there's a lot that Ihave no idea about like, and
probably some of our listenersas well.
So a little bit about thedistillation process there's.
You can kind of, you can call itin when you're doing it, or you
can do it right and we do thatproperly.
So we'll grind the grain, youknow.
Then you cook the grain or youconvert the starches in the
grain over to sugars, becausecorn is starch, yeast eats sugar
(06:51):
.
So you change that by cookingthe grain at a certain
temperature for a certain amountof time and then lower it down,
and then you add malt to it oryou add enzymes to it.
So when you're through cookingthe mash it tastes sweet like
you added sugar to it.
That's because all of thestarch is converted over to
sugar.
Then we pump that into afermenter, fermentation vessel,
(07:13):
fermenter firm.
Generally that batch size isabout 500 gallons and that will
be 500 gallons with the goal ofmaking that 10% alcohol.
So that fermentation takes fromthree to 15 days, depending on
specifically what you're doing,and by that time that's done you
(07:35):
have 10% alcohol on it.
Then you put that into thestill and you, like we talked
about earlier, you heat it up tothe point where more alcohol is
vaporizing off of it than waterand other things, and then you
recapture that.
Shawna (07:48):
And that's all done on this property.
Ray (07:50):
Yeah, yeah, in the in the back room.
Brian (07:52):
Yeah, I can say, like when you come in here, when we
came in here first, I didn'teven realize how big of a
process it was, because you sitin here and you don't see that.
Ray (07:59):
Yeah, the entire building is 7,000 square feet.
Shawna (08:04):
Oh, wow, wow.
Ray (08:05):
Right now we're using 1,600 square feet for our tasting
room and 2,800 square feet forour production area.
So the production area isalmost twice the size of the
tasting room.
And then we have our friends atthe taco restaurant next door,
yeah.
And then I have my office onthe other side of that and then
just a old storage room down onthe end.
Brian (08:26):
Wow, so I like how you call this is the tasting room
Tasting room.
Ray (08:29):
I like that too, yeah, it's written on the wall over there.
Is it really?
This is a tasting room, not abar.
Brian (08:33):
Oh.
Ray (08:34):
I like that.
That's cool.
We have to remind peoplesometimes.
Brian (08:37):
Well, that's interesting because like was what's
something people don't see ormaybe don't understand about
what you do?
I think we're a bar.
Ray (08:47):
Yeah, that's it right there .
I think Bill and Michael justgot hats the other day.
That says we don't serve beer.
People will come in and ask fora beer or ask for a wine and we
don't serve it In Florida.
I guess other states aresimilar, but my experience is
with Florida.
You have something called aliquor license and you can
(09:07):
either have a 2-COP, which is atwo consumption on premise, and
that's a beer and wine license,or you get a 4-COP, which is an
actual liquor liquor license,and then you can buy liquor, you
can buy wine, you can buy allof that.
That's what gives you the rightto serve it on premises.
We don't have a liquor license.
We are a manufacturer ofdistilled spirits with the craft
(09:30):
designation, because we makebelow a certain amount per year
and we send a letter to thestate saying we wanted to be a
craft distillery.
That makes our license fee lessand it gives us the privilege
of serving products that weproduce.
So we don't have a liquorlicense.
Brian (09:51):
I never knew that, so that's a very good answer to
that question.
How often do people come andthink that this is a bar?
Well, I guess enough for themto want to get hats.
Ray (10:03):
They got tired of it, so you know, we have our, we have
our regulars that come in, thatare very educated on it, and
we've tried to to make sure thatpeople come in, that we do
educate them.
Um, but you know, occasionally,once a month or so, we'll we'll
bring in a really big band or agood band and we'll have a lot
of people here that aren'tregulars, and that's the ones
(10:24):
that we have to explain.
Brian (10:26):
Yeah, so let's talk about that for a second, because we,
like I said, we did love.
It was pippin right right, welove pippin, and we did see like
you had like a list ofdifferent musicians that come in
.
Did you guys start bringingmusicians right off the
beginning, yeah, right off thebat.
And are these people that youalready, you guys already
already knew from connectionsbefore?
Ray (10:43):
Well, as soon as we started building this place, I started
having magicians, magicians,musicians musicians, musicians
and musicians and DJs and uhjugglers and everybody else beat
on the door and and try to bookand uh, I know good music when
I hear it, but I don't know agood musician by looking at them
(11:07):
.
So you want to run, you want toclear a room quick.
Have a bad musician, oh yeah,oh yeah.
So I at least understood that.
So we met Anna Keener.
Shawna (11:22):
We met her here that night yeah.
Ray (11:24):
Okay, and we got her here that night.
Yeah, okay, and one of the mostsweet and honest and just
helpful human beings you'll everever meet in your life.
Uh, she is in a couple of localbands.
Uh, the big one is soul jam,the big band that has a lot of
following here.
So she is a booking agent, butnot your normal booking agent.
(11:44):
She's actually a musician inthe business and basically does
it to help the industry out.
So Anna said that she would doall of our bookings for us and
we thank her every time becauseshe knows pretty quickly if
somebody is good at what they do, if they understand, know how
to play to a room, right, um,what price they should be asking
(12:07):
for.
That's good.
And, uh, if they're going toshow up or not, because that
that happens a lot.
I mean, we've had that a coupleof times.
Uh, there were somebody cancelslast minute and then anna finds
us somebody to replace quickly.
It's.
It's really good to not have toworry about that.
Uh, so we we book really goodpeople.
Um, we have low key.
(12:29):
You know Pippin when he'splaying by himself, that's
pretty low key.
You know, there's nothing lowkey about Pippin himself.
He's a he's a pretty goodpersonality, for sure, but the
music is pretty low key.
Uh, but if you book you knowhis entire band.
Brian (12:46):
But if you book his entire band.
Ray (12:47):
That's a bigger night.
We have Bruce Hunter and theReal Country Band that comes in
every once in a while and it'sguys that played when my mom was
going to bars around town thatshe went to high school with.
So they've been around here fora long time.
Bruce played in Nashville.
(13:09):
His guitar is Mark Chestnut'sguitar.
Mark Chestnut gave it to him.
What Felix the bass player wasthe bass player for the Gary
Stewart band.
Gary Stewart is from FortPierce.
He's a really big name aroundhere and they packed the house
out Every other person.
Brian (13:30):
Sorry we don't have beer.
Look at the venue.
Yeah well, I mean, and I meanwe could tell like again, it was
a great night when we visited,that night Pippin did a great
job.
I mean we could tell that thepeople that sit around the bar
like they were regulars, like itfelt like a family, just kind
of reconnected that's our castclub well, we thought we were
going to come and have a drink.
We ended up staying and having acouple of drinks and just
really enjoyed it.
It was actually hard to walkaway because we were just
(13:51):
enjoying the whole environment.
So we just felt welcomed andthat was a big thing.
Ray (13:58):
You've got to come June 14th.
That is the wrap-up of ourscavenger hunt and we have a guy
named Ben prestige is going tobe here, and ben prestige is
world class.
Brian (14:12):
You've never seen anything like it really.
Ray (14:13):
He's played all over the world.
He's toured for years and isagain one of the nicest human
beings you'll ever meetcompletely humble.
All of the musicians come towatch him play.
Brian (14:24):
That's's cool.
I love music.
I'm a musician, I love music.
I have an addiction with vinylrecords, so I have a problem
there, a real problem, a realproblem.
But that's a good problem tohave His guitar is made out of
an alligator head.
Oh, my gosh, he's got a bunchof cigar box guitars.
I have a cigar bass.
Ray (14:44):
Yeah, he's got.
I think he's playing threedrums, two cymbals and passing
back and forth between hisguitars.
He's got a slide guitar.
He's got a diddly bow that heplays.
That's a closet door.
You know that he carries aroundwith him.
Yeah, he's world-class bluesmusician.
Brian (15:05):
Oh, that's cool.
Yeah, we'll definitely have toput that on our counter and get
out of here.
That'll be a great time.
Are there techniques ortraditions that you that's
helped shape you and what you'redoing in the craft and when it
comes to creating these drinksand the distillery?
Ray (15:20):
Don't take the easy, easy cut and the easy work and the
you know with with the productsyou you really need to to go the
mile with them.
Brian (15:30):
I could see how it could become easy.
You, you launch this distilleryand if people are asking for
beers and stuff to get to themindset it's like, well, we need
to get beer and we need tostart, we need to go down that.
But you, you're not.
You're staying like in yourlane and say, hey, this is who
we are, yeah, and I love that.
Ray (15:47):
Well, what is the purpose of a distillery?
You know what was our purposethat we talked about in the
beginning.
You know the spirits.
I know I've said it a hundredtimes that this isn't a bar.
It's pretty damn close and Idon't want to be a bar owner for
my whole life.
I can't do this forever, yeah,so at some point the spirits
need to lead the show.
(16:07):
If we leaned into it and got abeer and wine license and then
you know, then we're justcreating a bar.
You know we have to educate theconsumer and we have to educate
people on what specificallywe're doing.
Shawna (16:21):
So what is your, what's your long term goal, then?
Ray (16:24):
Distribution in the Treasure Coast area and doing
cool things.
Brian (16:30):
So now you're going to educate us some more too,
because again we're new to thearea.
So, Treasure Coast.
Explain to me what all areasdoes the Treasure Coast include?
Ray (16:40):
That would be Indian River, st Lucie and Martin Counties.
That's the Treasure Coast, andit's named the Treasure Coast
because of the 1715 treasurefleet that's wrecked a hundred
yards off of our shore.
There is hundreds of millionsof dollars in treasure that's
still along our shore from thewhat was it?
(17:00):
12, 11 ships from the SpanishArmada that was taking treasure
back from the Caribbean to Spainand they came too close to the
store to try to avoid.
A hurricane hit the reef andall was lost.
The guys swam up onto the beach.
They camped on our beach inVero Beach.
(17:21):
Wow, there was a salvage campthat was up at the treasure
museum towards Sebastian Inlet.
That's on the site of thesalvage camp and they rode boats
out there and saved as much ofthe treasure as they could, but
the lion's share of it's in themud out there and in the sand.
Shawna (17:40):
Wow, and are there still a lot of people that come to do
treasure hunting out there?
Ray (17:45):
Those, are leases.
Yeah, so it's people that cometo do treasure hunting out there
.
Those are leases.
Yeah, so it's people that holdthe lease can go find the
treasure.
So somebody will have the leasefor the treasure and then
they'll hire subcontractors togo look for it.
If it's in the water, itbelongs to them.
If you find it on the beach,then it's free game, that's
interesting.
Shawna (18:05):
We better pay more attention when we're walking the
beach.
Brian (18:09):
Yeah, forget those heart-shaped rocks that you keep
looking at.
You can look for those, I'lllook for the treasure.
Ray (18:13):
As part of what we talked about earlier with using our
products to teach the history,our rum is Treasure Fleet rum.
We have a piece of the silverfrom the 1715 Treasure Fleet
that we put in our still, soevery bit of our rum runs across
the treasure and it has thespirit of the 1715 Fleet in
(18:37):
every bottle.
Brian (18:37):
That is so cool.
That is so cool.
Ray (18:40):
Ask me if it makes it any better it does.
Does it make it any better?
No, but it's a cool story.
Shawna (18:45):
It is a really any better.
It doesn't make it any better.
No, but it's a cool story.
It is a really cool story.
It's really cool.
It's just the idea of it yeah.
You know, that's what makes itcool.
Brian (18:51):
When it comes to deciding what to make next.
Do you follow trends, seasons?
What helps you and your teamdecide?
Hey, we should try this.
Weekly meetings try something.
Ray (19:07):
We should try this.
Uh, weekly meetings, you knowwe have.
We have weekly meetings that wetalk about all of these
different things with you knowwhat type of cocktails can we
make if we had x, if we had y,if I could buckle down and make
a vermouth, these would be thehappiest bartenders in the world
.
They really would, but I justdon't have the bandwidth to do
it right now.
I think our next thing is acinnamon-flavored whiskey.
(19:30):
We're putting out which Ialways said.
I didn't really want to doflavored whiskeys, but it needed
to be done.
It definitely did.
Shawna (19:39):
That'll be good timing for fall too.
Ray (19:41):
So instead of doing cinnamon flavoring into whiskey,
what I did is I infused whiskeywith Brazilian oak, which is
called Ambarana, which gives ita lot of warm baking spices, and
then we're putting cinnamon init and a little bit of sugar in
(20:03):
it, so it'll be a little bitdifferent than your normal
cinnamon whiskey would be.
After that, I finally need tofinish up my spiced rum that
I've been working on forever.
I have not been happy with ourrum recipe from the get-go.
It's really good rum, it's nicerum, but it's not the rum that
I wanted.
So I've been tweaking therecipe quite a bit and it's not
(20:25):
easy stuff because there's nomanual on how to do that.
Everybody hides their secrets.
We found I actually found uh,it's called the rum station
papers.
It was a uh.
I think he was a british or aspanish doctor in the 20s or 30s
that did a study on Caribbeanrum distilleries and he
(20:46):
published these papers on itthat I found translated copies
over.
So he's telling you what rum inPuerto Rico is made like, what
do they do in Jamaica, what dothey do in Barbados, and all of
the differences and thescientific reasons why this rum
tastes like this.
But it's scattered out over 10years of research in a bunch of
(21:08):
different papers.
So I learning chat GPT.
I created a chat GPT distillerymodel that I uploaded all of
this to and I can bouncequestions off of Smart Instead
of trying to find which one ofthese studies said this or that.
You that I can say, hey, chatGPT.
I remember reading this, wasthis the case?
(21:30):
Where was that at?
And it would just give me thewhole answer.
Then I uploaded ourfermentation size, our cooling
capacity, our heating capacityall of this to the chat GPT
model that I can bounce thingsoff of, and it's actually a
pretty big time saver for me andI can get rid of some of this
stuff in my brain andconcentrate on other things,
(21:51):
because I'd really like to havemore of a funky Caribbean style
rum, which would be really funto do that.
Shawna (21:57):
You're going to figure it out.
I believe in you.
Brian (21:59):
Oh, I got it figured out, and I love that you're using
the AI tools to help streamlinethat, and that's very cool to
hear you're using tools likethat.
It does the Florida like theenvironment.
Does that affect the distillerytoo?
Absolutely.
Ray (22:14):
Yeah, mostly in aging.
So most of your bourbons aregoing to be aged in places like
Appalachia or Indiana or thingslike that that have a lower
humidity, a larger temperatureswing and not as high as a
temperature that we have.
So humidity and hightemperature affects the aging
(22:36):
process.
Things are aging in someaspects really fast here, mmm,
but in other aspects they're not, and the alcohol content is
constantly dropping in thebarrel.
So we're figuring out howexactly we're dealing with that,
how some of the thedistilleries I've been to we're
dealing with it is.
(22:57):
They are climate controllingtheir aging facility, making it
similar to other places.
And that's absolutely not what Iwant to do.
I want to taste Florida.
I want to taste Florida whiskey, and if we're going to make
Florida whiskey and Florida ruma thing, it needs to be that.
So we need to figure out how todo it, not take the easy way
out.
Whether that's distilled alittle cleaner than you would,
(23:20):
or age it for a shorter amountof time in a new barrel and then
finish it in a really, reallyused barrel after that, that has
less of a barrel impact.
There's a lot of ways to do it,so we're learning as we go, and
all it takes is money.
Right, I've got plenty of thatlaying around everywhere you got
gotta go find some of thatsunken treasure.
Brian (23:41):
Yeah, right, yeah.
What would you say?
Is your your favorite spirits?
Like, what do you enjoy workingwith the most?
Ray (23:47):
I I enjoy doing whiskey and I enjoy doing rum a lot.
It's fun.
But both of those came to mevery naturally.
I'm good at it and I don'treally have to try it.
It's like it just makes senseto me and now, and the rum is.
Brian (24:03):
I guess that would be like more of a.
It's more smoother than thebourbon correct.
Ray (24:08):
All right, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do a little education
piece for you?
Yes, okay smooth is a feeling,not a taste.
So smooth is texture.
But a lot of people use that todescribe a spirit because they
don't have the vocabulary to beable to say you know you're not
(24:30):
going to say something wrongwhen you're describing what a
spirit tastes like to you,because it only tastes like that
to you.
She's going to taste somethingcompletely different.
She's got a different taste.
But also, when you taste thataction is with the left side of
your brain, describing it iswith the right side of your
(24:51):
brain, so you're less likely tosay this tastes like brown sugar
.
You're going to say this tasteslike you know those cookies my
grandma used to make you knowthey had the brown sugar in it,
so I guess ittastes like brown sugar.
You know you're.
You're relating that taste toan experience that you've had.
(25:13):
This reminds me of of and youcan't remember exactly what it
is.
Throw the word in there.
That's as close as you can get.
It doesn't have to Throw theword in there.
That's as close as you can get.
It doesn't have to be fancy.
I describe whiskey waydifferent than some other people
do.
My palate is an okay whiskeypalate.
It's not one of the top onesall around.
I've taken a lot of time to tryto train myself, but still I
(25:35):
know my capabilities.
I smoke cigars sometimes.
I use smoke cigarettes all thetime.
I know what I've done to mytaste buds.
I smoke cigars sometimes.
I use smoke cigarettes all thetime.
I know what I've done to mytaste buds.
I eat habaneros.
Yeah, I don't have a delicatepalate.
Shawna (25:48):
So what is a good way to describe so?
When I said this was smooth,what I meant was it's not.
Some whiskeys are so bracing,maybe so like astringent in your
mouth, like it's shocking, butthat this doesn't taste like
that.
What's a good way to describethat?
Ray (26:07):
so do you mean the, the effect of the alcohol on your
palate?
Shawna (26:11):
yes, like the burn yes, like sometimes like a very
strong alcohol, like make youreyes water, make you wince.
Yeah, yes.
Ray (26:19):
So that's affected by a lot of different things.
Primarily it will be proof.
A lot of times it's how you'veprepped your palate.
The first taste.
If you haven't had anything ina while, it's going to knock you
.
It's going to knock your tastebuds for a loop until you start
to acclimate your taste buds andyour sinuses to the ethanol.
(26:42):
So it's ethanol that's doingthat.
So a lower proof would work.
That's 100 proof whiskey.
So to me, 100 proof whiskey islow proof.
To a lot of people that onlydrink 80 proof whiskey.
100 proof is a little bithigher.
But if you learn how to tastewhiskey, take a really small sip
in the very beginning.
(27:03):
Let it cover your mouth.
Let your taste buds start toacclimate to the ethanol.
Then try a little bit more andthen a little bit more.
That's not how all of us weretaught to drink.
Shawna (27:13):
We were taught to drink in high school.
Ray (27:15):
Slam this thing down.
Shawna (27:16):
Get it down, man.
Ray (27:18):
And you feel the burn when you do that.
Shawna (27:22):
That's such a good point I didn't really think about it,
because that's exactly how Idrank this tiny sips, and so
that makes a lot of sense partof that's the environment.
Ray (27:29):
I gave that to you in a glen karen glass.
I didn't give that to you in ashot glass.
Shawna (27:33):
That's true, so you can't.
I mean, you could shoot this ifyou really wanted to, but it
wouldn't.
It's not easy, it doesn't, it'snot easy.
Brian (27:39):
It doesn't feel right, it doesn't feel right just because
of the way the glasses yeah,the whole energy here is enjoy
it.
Ray (27:45):
Learn how to enjoy it.
Brian (27:47):
It's education.
Ray (27:48):
If I gave that to you in a shot glass, you would have said,
oh good, that's great.
Brian (27:53):
That's some good insight.
Like every little detail,there's a purpose behind the way
you're serving it.
Absolutely every little pieceto align with your purpose and
what your goals are.
Absolutely.
This has been a great episodehere, ray.
I really enjoyed learning moreabout the behind the scenes and
uh, definitely anybody, luckily,if you've not been out, you
should definitely stop by andwe're gonna wrap up this episode
(28:14):
and get ready to jump into thelast episode about bureau beach.
Why bureau beach?
And learn more about some ofthe history behind Vero Beach,
because Ray's got a lot ofinsight on that, so I can't wait
to get into that.
So, with that, you guys, thanksfor tuning into this episode.
Shawna (28:29):
See you next time, neighbor.
All right, well, welcome back to the Vero Beach Podcast.
We are sitting here at thedistillery, at the Indian River
Distillery, with Ray, and duringthis episode we're going to
talk about the day-to-day whatit's like.
So earlier, Ray, I mentionedthat we had stopped in before
and there was some live music.
Shawna (00:16):
Yes, so I'll tell this story.
Our son, who's 20, he washaving a hard day and he loves
live music.
So I came up with the idea thatwe would do a little tour
around the town.
It must've been a Friday, I'mguessing, or a Saturday.
We were going to do a touraround the town, see all the
places that had live music and,you know, just get his spirits
(00:37):
up a little bit.
So we went someplace else wherethere was music and the service
was terrible, which that placewill go unnamed forever.
But we decided, okay, let's goto Indian River Distillery.
Pippin was playing.
So we came in and, unbeknownstto us, there was a fireman's
fair going on, so there wasnobody around.
(00:57):
There were a couple of peoplehere in the distillery, but in
general, like the whole town waskind of at this fair, I suppose
.
So we came in and it was such afun experience for us because we
were the only ones by, you know, up by where the music was,
where Pippin was singing.
So we had all sorts of rapportthere and our son had one of the
(01:17):
colas, one of the craft colasthat you create, and he loved it
so much.
It was just such a goodexperience and we didn't go
anywhere else.
We stayed here for the rest ofour night before we went home.
Obviously, the cocktails wereamazing and just the entire
atmosphere was just exactly whatwe needed that night.
It was fun, but it was chill.
Your decor is just beautifuland classy and it was just such
(01:40):
a great experience for us.
We really enjoyed our visithere and obviously we're going
to be back.
Brian (01:45):
Good yeah, tell us a little bit about the cola,
because that was definitely asurprise.
I know he was really excitedabout that.
Ray (01:51):
So how that started.
When I was here building thebar, you built the bar.
Yeah, I built the bar.
Oh wow, I was here building thebar.
Shawna (01:59):
Is that a live edge?
I'm peeping, oh Is that a liveedge.
Ray (02:01):
I'm peeping.
Oh yeah, oh my, yep, that's apine tree that was cut down in
town by a local tree guy andthen a sawmill in Winter Beach,
between here and Sebastian.
Guy's got a sawmill in his yardand he cut the lumber for us.
Shawna (02:13):
No, way, that's so cool.
Ray (02:15):
So I was here building the bar and a Coca-Cola salesman
comes in the door you know I'vegot all the doors open in here,
music playing, and he says Iheard you guys are opening up
and, uh, you know, I, I need toget you set up on coca-cola
products.
And you know, sign thiscontract.
We, you know we give you thissoda gun.
And you know I've never workedbehind the bar as a bartender,
(02:39):
so I don't really understand.
But I guess soda guns are apain in the neck, they get dirty
and you got to keep them clean.
But I just thought that that'sthe way it was done and I said
something to Mandy.
That night this soda guy cameby and this is what we got to do
and I would have had to runlines through the floor because
I want the soda gun behind thebar and not on the other side.
(03:00):
So I was thinking, all right,well, I can, can do it.
I put a piece of conduit there,I can do something with that.
And you know what?
Which one of these sodas do wewant?
You know there's room for thegun on this and you know we can
have this and this ginger beeror ginger ale, and we were kind
of not feeling good about it.
It's like we're going throughall of this work and all of this
(03:22):
trouble making these spiritsand then you're going to dump
the rum and coke.
And you're going through all ofthis work and all of this
trouble making these spirits andthen you're going to dump the
rum and coke and you're going tomake a mule out of seagram's
ginger ale the same stuff weused to drink in the woods when
we were in our 20s.
You know, no, that doesn't seemright.
So you know her and I thoughtabout it for a minute and, uh,
okay, well, we can fix this.
(03:43):
We'll make our own ginger beerand our own cola.
And we tried a few recipes andkind of tweaked them a little
bit and got what we thought weliked.
And this is the bar is built,not painted, the plumbing's in
behind it and we pulled somefriends from across the street
(04:05):
at Walking Tree and we weregoing to have kind of like soft
opening or kind of workoutnights, knock the bugs out of
everything.
So we were working on ourcocktail menu and we came and
we're doing rum and cola withthis cola and it was like
everybody loved it.
And then the ginger beer wasthe ginger beer that we made and
(04:27):
that was one of the things onthe comment cards that we made,
that everybody don't change this.
I thought, wow, okay, and howwe were doing it is.
We had a syrup that we weremixing with soda water which was
wasn't quite getting thecarbonation the way we wanted it
.
You know, being that mike fromwalking tree brewery, that the
(04:47):
head brewer, um and owner, hewas one of the people here and
he asked me how I did it and hesaid, well, why don't you put it
in a beer keg?
Well, mike, because I don'tknow how to do that.
And he just, all right, getthis and this and this and I'll
show you how to do it.
So you know, we make the colasyrup and we make the ginger
(05:08):
beer syrup and we mix it withwater and then we carbonate it
in a keg like you would beer,and we use beer taps for it.
Brian (05:14):
Wow, that's so cool, wow, and I love the story of how
your friend right here from thewalking tree came alongside you
and helped you figure out how tomake this happen.
Shawna (05:25):
Yeah, yeah, that is so cool.
That is so cool.
Yeah, I love that.
We really good friends.
Ray (05:29):
You know we're running back and forth across there.
You know I I initially, when wewere looking at this building,
I wasn't too concerned about it,but you know it is a concern.
We're opening across the streetfrom you guys and we serve
alcohol also, yeah, uh.
So I went and you know I talkedoh no, we love it.
We want you guys to be here,for sure.
Shawna (05:48):
Yeah, I know, we like good people.
Ray (05:49):
We like friends.
Let's do some cool stufftogether.
Shawna (05:53):
And that's what it's been.
Ray (05:54):
We're always trying to do cool things together Wow.
Shawna (05:57):
It's such a perfect picture of everything we're
hearing around.
Vero is like people supportingeach other.
I absolutely love that.
Ray (06:04):
Yeah, not everybody in Vero is that way, but we all know
who the ones are that aren't.
Shawna (06:10):
We'll get a list later.
Brian (06:12):
No list, you'll figure it out.
Shawna (06:14):
We'll figure it out, no list needed.
You can help us along.
Brian (06:18):
Well like.
So we're running a distillery.
What does a typical day looklike Like?
What are some of the processesLike?
Ray (06:29):
we're running a distiller.
What is the typical day looklike like?
What are some of the processeslike?
Because there's a lot that Ihave no idea about like, and
probably some of our listenersas well.
So a little bit about thedistillation process there's.
You can kind of, you can call itin when you're doing it, or you
can do it right and we do thatproperly.
So we'll grind the grain, youknow.
Then you cook the grain or youconvert the starches in the
grain over to sugars, becausecorn is starch, yeast eats sugar
(06:51):
.
So you change that by cookingthe grain at a certain
temperature for a certain amountof time and then lower it down,
and then you add malt to it oryou add enzymes to it.
So when you're through cookingthe mash it tastes sweet like
you added sugar to it.
That's because all of thestarch is converted over to
sugar.
Then we pump that into afermenter, fermentation vessel,
(07:13):
fermenter firm.
Generally that batch size isabout 500 gallons and that will
be 500 gallons with the goal ofmaking that 10% alcohol.
So that fermentation takes fromthree to 15 days, depending on
specifically what you're doing,and by that time that's done you
(07:35):
have 10% alcohol on it.
Then you put that into thestill and you, like we talked
about earlier, you heat it up tothe point where more alcohol is
vaporizing off of it than waterand other things, and then you
recapture that.
Shawna (07:48):
And that's all done on this property.
Ray (07:50):
Yeah, yeah, in the in the back room.
Brian (07:52):
Yeah, I can say, like when you come in here, when we
came in here first, I didn'teven realize how big of a
process it was, because you sitin here and you don't see that.
Ray (07:59):
Yeah, the entire building is 7,000 square feet.
Shawna (08:04):
Oh, wow, wow.
Ray (08:05):
Right now we're using 1,600 square feet for our tasting
room and 2,800 square feet forour production area.
So the production area isalmost twice the size of the
tasting room.
And then we have our friends atthe taco restaurant next door,
yeah.
And then I have my office onthe other side of that and then
just a old storage room down onthe end.
Brian (08:26):
Wow, so I like how you call this is the tasting room
Tasting room.
Ray (08:29):
I like that too, yeah, it's written on the wall over there.
Is it really?
This is a tasting room, not abar.
Brian (08:33):
Oh.
Ray (08:34):
I like that.
That's cool.
We have to remind peoplesometimes.
Brian (08:37):
Well, that's interesting because like was what's
something people don't see ormaybe don't understand about
what you do?
I think we're a bar.
Ray (08:47):
Yeah, that's it right there .
I think Bill and Michael justgot hats the other day.
That says we don't serve beer.
People will come in and ask fora beer or ask for a wine and we
don't serve it In Florida.
I guess other states aresimilar, but my experience is
with Florida.
You have something called aliquor license and you can
(09:07):
either have a 2-COP, which is atwo consumption on premise, and
that's a beer and wine license,or you get a 4-COP, which is an
actual liquor liquor license,and then you can buy liquor, you
can buy wine, you can buy allof that.
That's what gives you the rightto serve it on premises.
We don't have a liquor license.
We are a manufacturer ofdistilled spirits with the craft
(09:30):
designation, because we makebelow a certain amount per year
and we send a letter to thestate saying we wanted to be a
craft distillery.
That makes our license fee lessand it gives us the privilege
of serving products that weproduce.
So we don't have a liquorlicense.
Brian (09:51):
I never knew that, so that's a very good answer to
that question.
How often do people come andthink that this is a bar?
Well, I guess enough for themto want to get hats.
Ray (10:03):
They got tired of it, so you know, we have our, we have
our regulars that come in, thatare very educated on it, and
we've tried to to make sure thatpeople come in, that we do
educate them.
Um, but you know, occasionally,once a month or so, we'll we'll
bring in a really big band or agood band and we'll have a lot
of people here that aren'tregulars, and that's the ones
(10:24):
that we have to explain.
Brian (10:26):
Yeah, so let's talk about that for a second, because we,
like I said, we did love.
It was pippin right right, welove pippin, and we did see like
you had like a list ofdifferent musicians that come in
.
Did you guys start bringingmusicians right off the
beginning, yeah, right off thebat.
And are these people that youalready, you guys already
already knew from connectionsbefore?
Ray (10:43):
Well, as soon as we started building this place, I started
having magicians, magicians,musicians musicians, musicians
and musicians and DJs and uhjugglers and everybody else beat
on the door and and try to bookand uh, I know good music when
I hear it, but I don't know agood musician by looking at them
(11:07):
.
So you want to run, you want toclear a room quick.
Have a bad musician, oh yeah,oh yeah.
So I at least understood that.
So we met Anna Keener.
Shawna (11:22):
We met her here that night yeah.
Ray (11:24):
Okay, and we got her here that night.
Yeah, okay, and one of the mostsweet and honest and just
helpful human beings you'll everever meet in your life.
Uh, she is in a couple of localbands.
Uh, the big one is soul jam,the big band that has a lot of
following here.
So she is a booking agent, butnot your normal booking agent.
(11:44):
She's actually a musician inthe business and basically does
it to help the industry out.
So Anna said that she would doall of our bookings for us and
we thank her every time becauseshe knows pretty quickly if
somebody is good at what they do, if they understand, know how
to play to a room, right, um,what price they should be asking
(12:07):
for.
That's good.
And, uh, if they're going toshow up or not, because that
that happens a lot.
I mean, we've had that a coupleof times.
Uh, there were somebody cancelslast minute and then anna finds
us somebody to replace quickly.
It's.
It's really good to not have toworry about that.
Uh, so we we book really goodpeople.
Um, we have low key.
(12:29):
You know Pippin when he'splaying by himself, that's
pretty low key.
You know, there's nothing lowkey about Pippin himself.
He's a he's a pretty goodpersonality, for sure, but the
music is pretty low key.
Uh, but if you book you knowhis entire band.
Brian (12:46):
But if you book his entire band.
Ray (12:47):
That's a bigger night.
We have Bruce Hunter and theReal Country Band that comes in
every once in a while and it'sguys that played when my mom was
going to bars around town thatshe went to high school with.
So they've been around here fora long time.
Bruce played in Nashville.
(13:09):
His guitar is Mark Chestnut'sguitar.
Mark Chestnut gave it to him.
What Felix the bass player wasthe bass player for the Gary
Stewart band.
Gary Stewart is from FortPierce.
He's a really big name aroundhere and they packed the house
out Every other person.
Brian (13:30):
Sorry we don't have beer.
Look at the venue.
Yeah well, I mean, and I meanwe could tell like again, it was
a great night when we visited,that night Pippin did a great
job.
I mean we could tell that thepeople that sit around the bar
like they were regulars, like itfelt like a family, just kind
of reconnected that's our castclub well, we thought we were
going to come and have a drink.
We ended up staying and having acouple of drinks and just
really enjoyed it.
It was actually hard to walkaway because we were just
(13:51):
enjoying the whole environment.
So we just felt welcomed andthat was a big thing.
Ray (13:58):
You've got to come June 14th.
That is the wrap-up of ourscavenger hunt and we have a guy
named Ben prestige is going tobe here, and ben prestige is
world class.
Brian (14:12):
You've never seen anything like it really.
Ray (14:13):
He's played all over the world.
He's toured for years and isagain one of the nicest human
beings you'll ever meetcompletely humble.
All of the musicians come towatch him play.
Brian (14:24):
That's's cool.
I love music.
I'm a musician, I love music.
I have an addiction with vinylrecords, so I have a problem
there, a real problem, a realproblem.
But that's a good problem tohave His guitar is made out of
an alligator head.
Oh, my gosh, he's got a bunchof cigar box guitars.
I have a cigar bass.
Ray (14:44):
Yeah, he's got.
I think he's playing threedrums, two cymbals and passing
back and forth between hisguitars.
He's got a slide guitar.
He's got a diddly bow that heplays.
That's a closet door.
You know that he carries aroundwith him.
Yeah, he's world-class bluesmusician.
Brian (15:05):
Oh, that's cool.
Yeah, we'll definitely have toput that on our counter and get
out of here.
That'll be a great time.
Are there techniques ortraditions that you that's
helped shape you and what you'redoing in the craft and when it
comes to creating these drinksand the distillery?
Ray (15:20):
Don't take the easy, easy cut and the easy work and the
you know with with the productsyou you really need to to go the
mile with them.
Brian (15:30):
I could see how it could become easy.
You, you launch this distilleryand if people are asking for
beers and stuff to get to themindset it's like, well, we need
to get beer and we need tostart, we need to go down that.
But you, you're not.
You're staying like in yourlane and say, hey, this is who
we are, yeah, and I love that.
Ray (15:47):
Well, what is the purpose of a distillery?
You know what was our purposethat we talked about in the
beginning.
You know the spirits.
I know I've said it a hundredtimes that this isn't a bar.
It's pretty damn close and Idon't want to be a bar owner for
my whole life.
I can't do this forever, yeah,so at some point the spirits
need to lead the show.
(16:07):
If we leaned into it and got abeer and wine license and then
you know, then we're justcreating a bar.
You know we have to educate theconsumer and we have to educate
people on what specificallywe're doing.
Shawna (16:21):
So what is your, what's your long term goal, then?
Ray (16:24):
Distribution in the Treasure Coast area and doing
cool things.
Brian (16:30):
So now you're going to educate us some more too,
because again we're new to thearea.
So, Treasure Coast.
Explain to me what all areasdoes the Treasure Coast include?
Ray (16:40):
That would be Indian River, st Lucie and Martin Counties.
That's the Treasure Coast, andit's named the Treasure Coast
because of the 1715 treasurefleet that's wrecked a hundred
yards off of our shore.
There is hundreds of millionsof dollars in treasure that's
still along our shore from thewhat was it?
(17:00):
12, 11 ships from the SpanishArmada that was taking treasure
back from the Caribbean to Spainand they came too close to the
store to try to avoid.
A hurricane hit the reef andall was lost.
The guys swam up onto the beach.
They camped on our beach inVero Beach.
(17:21):
Wow, there was a salvage campthat was up at the treasure
museum towards Sebastian Inlet.
That's on the site of thesalvage camp and they rode boats
out there and saved as much ofthe treasure as they could, but
the lion's share of it's in themud out there and in the sand.
Shawna (17:40):
Wow, and are there still a lot of people that come to do
treasure hunting out there?
Ray (17:45):
Those, are leases.
Yeah, so it's people that cometo do treasure hunting out there
.
Those are leases.
Yeah, so it's people that holdthe lease can go find the
treasure.
So somebody will have the leasefor the treasure and then
they'll hire subcontractors togo look for it.
If it's in the water, itbelongs to them.
If you find it on the beach,then it's free game, that's
interesting.
Shawna (18:05):
We better pay more attention when we're walking the
beach.
Brian (18:09):
Yeah, forget those heart-shaped rocks that you keep
looking at.
You can look for those, I'lllook for the treasure.
Ray (18:13):
As part of what we talked about earlier with using our
products to teach the history,our rum is Treasure Fleet rum.
We have a piece of the silverfrom the 1715 Treasure Fleet
that we put in our still, soevery bit of our rum runs across
the treasure and it has thespirit of the 1715 Fleet in
(18:37):
every bottle.
Brian (18:37):
That is so cool.
That is so cool.
Ray (18:40):
Ask me if it makes it any better it does.
Does it make it any better?
No, but it's a cool story.
Shawna (18:45):
It is a really any better.
It doesn't make it any better.
No, but it's a cool story.
It is a really cool story.
It's really cool.
It's just the idea of it yeah.
You know, that's what makes itcool.
Brian (18:51):
When it comes to deciding what to make next.
Do you follow trends, seasons?
What helps you and your teamdecide?
Hey, we should try this.
Weekly meetings try something.
Ray (19:07):
We should try this.
Uh, weekly meetings, you knowwe have.
We have weekly meetings that wetalk about all of these
different things with you knowwhat type of cocktails can we
make if we had x, if we had y,if I could buckle down and make
a vermouth, these would be thehappiest bartenders in the world
.
They really would, but I justdon't have the bandwidth to do
it right now.
I think our next thing is acinnamon-flavored whiskey.
(19:30):
We're putting out which Ialways said.
I didn't really want to doflavored whiskeys, but it needed
to be done.
It definitely did.
Shawna (19:39):
That'll be good timing for fall too.
Ray (19:41):
So instead of doing cinnamon flavoring into whiskey,
what I did is I infused whiskeywith Brazilian oak, which is
called Ambarana, which gives ita lot of warm baking spices, and
then we're putting cinnamon init and a little bit of sugar in
(20:03):
it, so it'll be a little bitdifferent than your normal
cinnamon whiskey would be.
After that, I finally need tofinish up my spiced rum that
I've been working on forever.
I have not been happy with ourrum recipe from the get-go.
It's really good rum, it's nicerum, but it's not the rum that
I wanted.
So I've been tweaking therecipe quite a bit and it's not
(20:25):
easy stuff because there's nomanual on how to do that.
Everybody hides their secrets.
We found I actually found uh,it's called the rum station
papers.
It was a uh.
I think he was a british or aspanish doctor in the 20s or 30s
that did a study on Caribbeanrum distilleries and he
(20:46):
published these papers on itthat I found translated copies
over.
So he's telling you what rum inPuerto Rico is made like, what
do they do in Jamaica, what dothey do in Barbados, and all of
the differences and thescientific reasons why this rum
tastes like this.
But it's scattered out over 10years of research in a bunch of
(21:08):
different papers.
So I learning chat GPT.
I created a chat GPT distillerymodel that I uploaded all of
this to and I can bouncequestions off of Smart Instead
of trying to find which one ofthese studies said this or that.
You that I can say, hey, chatGPT.
I remember reading this, wasthis the case?
(21:30):
Where was that at?
And it would just give me thewhole answer.
Then I uploaded ourfermentation size, our cooling
capacity, our heating capacityall of this to the chat GPT
model that I can bounce thingsoff of, and it's actually a
pretty big time saver for me andI can get rid of some of this
stuff in my brain andconcentrate on other things,
(21:51):
because I'd really like to havemore of a funky Caribbean style
rum, which would be really funto do that.
Shawna (21:57):
You're going to figure it out.
I believe in you.
Brian (21:59):
Oh, I got it figured out, and I love that you're using
the AI tools to help streamlinethat, and that's very cool to
hear you're using tools likethat.
It does the Florida like theenvironment.
Does that affect the distillerytoo?
Absolutely.
Ray (22:14):
Yeah, mostly in aging.
So most of your bourbons aregoing to be aged in places like
Appalachia or Indiana or thingslike that that have a lower
humidity, a larger temperatureswing and not as high as a
temperature that we have.
So humidity and hightemperature affects the aging
(22:36):
process.
Things are aging in someaspects really fast here, mmm,
but in other aspects they're not, and the alcohol content is
constantly dropping in thebarrel.
So we're figuring out howexactly we're dealing with that,
how some of the thedistilleries I've been to we're
dealing with it is.
(22:57):
They are climate controllingtheir aging facility, making it
similar to other places.
And that's absolutely not what Iwant to do.
I want to taste Florida.
I want to taste Florida whiskey, and if we're going to make
Florida whiskey and Florida ruma thing, it needs to be that.
So we need to figure out how todo it, not take the easy way
out.
Whether that's distilled alittle cleaner than you would,
(23:20):
or age it for a shorter amountof time in a new barrel and then
finish it in a really, reallyused barrel after that, that has
less of a barrel impact.
There's a lot of ways to do it,so we're learning as we go, and
all it takes is money.
Right, I've got plenty of thatlaying around everywhere you got
gotta go find some of thatsunken treasure.
Brian (23:41):
Yeah, right, yeah.
What would you say?
Is your your favorite spirits?
Like, what do you enjoy workingwith the most?
Ray (23:47):
I I enjoy doing whiskey and I enjoy doing rum a lot.
It's fun.
But both of those came to mevery naturally.
I'm good at it and I don'treally have to try it.
It's like it just makes senseto me and now, and the rum is.
Brian (24:03):
I guess that would be like more of a.
It's more smoother than thebourbon correct.
Ray (24:08):
All right, I'm gonna, I'm gonna do a little education
piece for you?
Yes, okay smooth is a feeling,not a taste.
So smooth is texture.
But a lot of people use that todescribe a spirit because they
don't have the vocabulary to beable to say you know you're not
(24:30):
going to say something wrongwhen you're describing what a
spirit tastes like to you,because it only tastes like that
to you.
She's going to taste somethingcompletely different.
She's got a different taste.
But also, when you taste thataction is with the left side of
your brain, describing it iswith the right side of your
(24:51):
brain, so you're less likely tosay this tastes like brown sugar
.
You're going to say this tasteslike you know those cookies my
grandma used to make you knowthey had the brown sugar in it,
so I guess ittastes like brown sugar.
You know you're.
You're relating that taste toan experience that you've had.
(25:13):
This reminds me of of and youcan't remember exactly what it
is.
Throw the word in there.
That's as close as you can get.
It doesn't have to Throw theword in there.
That's as close as you can get.
It doesn't have to be fancy.
I describe whiskey waydifferent than some other people
do.
My palate is an okay whiskeypalate.
It's not one of the top onesall around.
I've taken a lot of time to tryto train myself, but still I
(25:35):
know my capabilities.
I smoke cigars sometimes.
I use smoke cigarettes all thetime.
I know what I've done to mytaste buds.
I smoke cigars sometimes.
I use smoke cigarettes all thetime.
I know what I've done to mytaste buds.
I eat habaneros.
Yeah, I don't have a delicatepalate.
Shawna (25:48):
So what is a good way to describe so?
When I said this was smooth,what I meant was it's not.
Some whiskeys are so bracing,maybe so like astringent in your
mouth, like it's shocking, butthat this doesn't taste like
that.
What's a good way to describethat?
Ray (26:07):
so do you mean the, the effect of the alcohol on your
palate?
Shawna (26:11):
yes, like the burn yes, like sometimes like a very
strong alcohol, like make youreyes water, make you wince.
Yeah, yes.
Ray (26:19):
So that's affected by a lot of different things.
Primarily it will be proof.
A lot of times it's how you'veprepped your palate.
The first taste.
If you haven't had anything ina while, it's going to knock you
.
It's going to knock your tastebuds for a loop until you start
to acclimate your taste buds andyour sinuses to the ethanol.
(26:42):
So it's ethanol that's doingthat.
So a lower proof would work.
That's 100 proof whiskey.
So to me, 100 proof whiskey islow proof.
To a lot of people that onlydrink 80 proof whiskey.
100 proof is a little bithigher.
But if you learn how to tastewhiskey, take a really small sip
in the very beginning.
(27:03):
Let it cover your mouth.
Let your taste buds start toacclimate to the ethanol.
Then try a little bit more andthen a little bit more.
That's not how all of us weretaught to drink.
Shawna (27:13):
We were taught to drink in high school.
Ray (27:15):
Slam this thing down.
Shawna (27:16):
Get it down, man.
Ray (27:18):
And you feel the burn when you do that.
Shawna (27:22):
That's such a good point I didn't really think about it,
because that's exactly how Idrank this tiny sips, and so
that makes a lot of sense partof that's the environment.
Ray (27:29):
I gave that to you in a glen karen glass.
I didn't give that to you in ashot glass.
Shawna (27:33):
That's true, so you can't.
I mean, you could shoot this ifyou really wanted to, but it
wouldn't.
It's not easy, it doesn't, it'snot easy.
Brian (27:39):
It doesn't feel right, it doesn't feel right just because
of the way the glasses yeah,the whole energy here is enjoy
it.
Ray (27:45):
Learn how to enjoy it.
Brian (27:47):
It's education.
Ray (27:48):
If I gave that to you in a shot glass, you would have said,
oh good, that's great.
Brian (27:53):
That's some good insight.
Like every little detail,there's a purpose behind the way
you're serving it.
Absolutely every little pieceto align with your purpose and
what your goals are.
Absolutely.
This has been a great episodehere, ray.
I really enjoyed learning moreabout the behind the scenes and
uh, definitely anybody, luckily,if you've not been out, you
should definitely stop by andwe're gonna wrap up this episode
(28:14):
and get ready to jump into thelast episode about bureau beach.
Why bureau beach?
And learn more about some ofthe history behind Vero Beach,
because Ray's got a lot ofinsight on that, so I can't wait
to get into that.
So, with that, you guys, thanksfor tuning into this episode.
Shawna (28:29):
See you next time, neighbor.
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