Whiskey & Wisdom

Your Local Master of Scotch and Spirits, Anthony Tubbs

December 21, 2022 Anthony Tubbs Episode 46
Whiskey & Wisdom
Your Local Master of Scotch and Spirits, Anthony Tubbs
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Show Notes Transcript

This week we introduce Anthony Tubbs, Wilmington's Master of Scotch and Spirits. Anthony is currently the front of house manager at True Blue in Wilmington, NC. We brought Anthony because he has been professionally trained in Whiskey and Gin distilling in Edenborough, Scotland.

In this episode we learn how to properly taste whiskey,  what makes bourbon different from scotch, and lessons learned being in the hospitality industry.

You can find Anthony Tubbs mostly at the True Blue location in downtown Wilmington. If you enjoyed this episode make sure you listen to Raelin Morris' episode HERE, she is the one who introduce Anthony to us!

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How to find us:
Whiskey & Wisdom: @whiskey.and.wisdom
Chris Kellum: @ctkellum
LinkedIn: Christopher Kellum
Tyler Yaw: @tyler_yaw_
LinkedIn: Tyler Yaw

Anthony:

Anthony Tubbs. I'm from Pennsylvania, currently living here in Wilmington, working for True Blue, so I'm their beverage specialist and front of house operations manager. And kind of came in contact with these guys through one of our co friends, mutual friends. Yeah. And I'm excited to be here and talk about some whiskey with you guys. and

Tyler:

you brought on some scotch as well for us to try. Yeah,

Anthony:

I did. So I studied in Edinburgh, Scotland at the Edinburgh Whiskey Academy, so I'm certified in scotch and gin distillation. Oh wow. So obviously scotch is my bread and butter. Specifically ILE Scotch is, I mean that's what I love to drink all the time. If I'm having a night pour, that's what I go with. Yeah. So I wanted to bring a limited edition lack of for you guys, which is their 12 year special release. It's a European special release. And then I also brought one of my favorite distilleries, abag, I brought their black sheep, which is a committee 2020 release. So that's a huge thing cuz it's also a covid thing. Yeah. So that was a big deal for him. Yeah. That's

Tyler:

awesome. Yeah. We greatly appreciate you bringing these on too because we haven't really ventured into SCOs just in general, let alone something that actually came from Scotland.

Chris:

Yeah. I was thinking, I'm like, I know we've done some Irish whiskeys. That's about,

Tyler:

yeah,

Anthony:

we haven't really ventured the scotch. Haven't seen scotch overlay. Yeah. No. I'm sorry but I won't be leaving these here with you.

Tyler:

We didn't expect those are coming back to my

Anthony:

house yet. Yeah, absolutely.

Chris:

Yeah. I love it cuz the, it has so much the scent to it. Mm-hmm. Cause I'm always like a scent person. It's very smooth and doesn't like burn your nose like some. but when you sip it, there's so

Anthony:

much flavor. Yeah. Well you know, that comes down to distillation itself. Mm-hmm. With a lot of cheaper lower end whiskeys that you have when you smell that strong scent, when you sip it and it burns really hard down your throat, that's cuz of the ethanol in the whiskey itself. Mm-hmm. you know, know, and that usually comes from like a continuous still, which is what a lot of major distilleries use nowadays. You know, a lot of Kentucky bourbon distilleries use continuous stills. Mm-hmm. which is just a faster way of distilling the alcohol. You know, it does it a lot Quaker. Right. It produces a lot more where in Scotland, like I was saying to you guys earlier, you know, they're very specific on how they actually make their stuff. So they only use pot stills over there. Mm-hmm. Which a pot still is basically, can't really think of the fun way to say it, but it really spends time. making quality distillation from it. You know, the fumes that come from it afterwards is collected in a lot more of a smoother way. Yeah. You know, it's not just meant to pump out a butt load of gallons of whiskey. Yeah. You know, it's very specific. You know, there's a lot of labor and love put behind wet scotch distillers do.

Tyler:

So you can definitely taste the pettiness in this one too. And for people that don't know, like I didn't a couple months ago, it's more of like a smokey type. Feel and taste to it. Is that, is that the

Anthony:

proper way of Yeah, absolutely. So what that term is actually called as peat reek. That's the smell that you're getting there is Pete reek. Oh. What peat is, is actually decaying plant matter. So literally it's basically a field of grass. Okay. And then if you've ever seen, like in Lowe's or Home Depot in the gardening section, there's like that tool that you can push in the ground and it pulls up like a cylinder of dirt. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You know, or like golf courses use it to make a new hole on the green. Yeah. Right. You know, so they basically have a big one of those and they just go out into this peat field and they just, chunk up big pieces of decaying plant matter and it, at first it's just dirt, you know, and then they let it dry out and they let it dry in these like cylinder forms. And then that basically becomes kind of like timber. And then what they do after that, because it can't catch on fire, it smokes an incredible amount. Oh. You know, it's basically like catching a pile of wet leaves on fire. You know, like it's not gonna actually catch on fire, but it's gonna cause a lot of smoke. Mm-hmm. So that's what they do to create that peat re and specifically in Scotland. they do that in molting warehouses. So the very beginning process of barley, which is molting the barley mm-hmm. They'll use that smoking of the peat to help with the molting process kicking off. So there's literally like companies that just do that all day long and then they sell it to smaller distilleries. And then, you know, your bigger ones like Laal and abag, gli, you know, Glen Finnick, all of them. Mm-hmm. they have their own warehouse, you know, they're big enough at this point. They've been open long enough Wow. That they do it all themselves, which that is wicked cool in my opinion. Yeah.

Tyler:

So is that something that's more so specific for scotch? Is that ki that Pete reek or not all

Anthony:

SCOs SCOs have that? So not all SCOs have that ever. Almost all barley has to be molted to start. But not all barley is molted by smoking. Pete for instance, like GLI is one of my other favorite SCOs. You know, they don't have a big peat to it at all actually. Okay. You know, a lot of their stuff actually tastes very similar, similar to like American whiskeys to me. It's really like an orange citrus to it. It's a lot sweeter. Like I really catch no smokiness from a glimmer orange bottle. Specifically like the Lasanta edition, which I believe that one's aged in a sherry cask. Or it's a port either or. Yeah. You know, like that really is just extremely smooth, you know? I mean, if someone says they don't like scotch, I grab that bottle for them to try. Yeah. You know, because that's very similar to the smoothness of a bourbon that we know because of the corn. Mm-hmm. you know, so that's like my go-to to someone who's like, I don't like scotch. I'm like, well, you just haven't had the right one yet. Yeah. You know, like, everyone likes it. So

Tyler:

with scotch too, so I know it has come from Scotland. Mm-hmm. So what other standards need to be in place for, to be considered a

scotch?

Anthony:

So the biggest thing is that it has to come from Scotland. Right. And first off, in Scotland, they don't call it scotch, they call it whiskey. Oh, nice. If you call it scotch, they're like, Hey, give the finger, you know? They don't like that. So they just call it whiskey over there. You do have to age it for a minimum of four years. Just like, you know, with bourbon, there's a minimum of aging in an Oak cas as well, a new chart, oak ca. But other than that, it really comes down to the process of distillation and the whole process that they go through. Mm-hmm. Making sure everything is from Scotland, organic, natural, bottled, distilled there and sold there, you know, so like anywhere else in the world. Can't call it a scotch, obviously. Yeah. But that's the biggest thing is that has to come from Scotland. Okay. But what's cool is a lot of people are taking on Scottish ways of distillation. So for instance, here in North Carolina, there's a distillery called Defiant. I don't know if you guys have heard of'em. Mm-hmm. heard of it. Yeah. Yeah. But I haven't been

Chris:

there yet. What's that? I have not

Anthony:

been there yet. No, but have you tried their stuff yet? Yes, I have actually. Okay. Yeah. Wick good. Yeah. They have a Mott whiskey as well, right? Literally same exact process as a scotch. Oh, oh, wow. And it is absolutely delicious. I mean, you guys probably have heard a strain of hands out in Colorado. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So they're a single malt whiskey as well, so they kind of do the same process, you know, so we can have scotch whiskeys here in America, we just can't call it a scotch. Right. You know, they, we can make it taste exactly the same way. A huge company that's actually winning awards in one, number one malt whiskey in the world. I think like two years ago was Alconan, which is in Texas. Yeah. You know, their whiskey beat out scotch whiskeys, you know, way the mold, you know? I was like, all right, go Texas. You know, like that was pretty cool, you know. But the story behind'em, they started off as a small little group and ended up buying like this massive abandoned. train, construction warehouse. Mm-hmm. I don't know, something like that. And turned it into this glorifying fortress of a distillery in Texas. Wow. You know, the Texas way. Yeah, of course. Go big or go home, I guess. Right? Exactly. But the head distiller there, man. I mean, he is just brilliant. And he also is in love with scotch whiskey and he studied in Scotland as well, I'm pretty sure. And, you know, that's where his kind of inspiration came from. So, I mean, it's pretty cool, you know, it's pretty neat to be able to say that an American whiskey won that, you know? Yeah, exactly. Well,

Tyler:

let's, I wanna take it back a little bit first too. So what got you into the love of scotch and

Anthony:

whiskey? Yeah, so it actually started after college, right after I got outta college. It was because, you know, when I left college, I, I'll be honest, I didn't actually finish school, right? Mm-hmm. Because I started working at the Rebellion when I was a young kid in high school. You know, I started out as a dishwasher, went to serving, et cetera, et cetera. And then I left and went to college and the owner actually reached out to me my sophomore year and was like, Hey, you know, like I need some help here. You're willing to come back and be a bar manager for me? Hmm. And I was like, you know what? Yeah. Like, I'm gonna do it. I was going for hospitality anyways. I went to Penn State University. Yeah. You know, and in this industry, schooling's great. But in my opinion, personal experience and actually being there is more important in this industry. Yeah. Yeah. Excuse me. So yeah, I started bartending there and kind of being the beverage manager and being honest, you know, I knew that most people aren't gonna come in to flirt with me Yeah. to, to help me get some money, you know? So I knew being at the whiskey bar, the most important thing was my knowledge. Right. You know, I knew that I had to impress everyone that came in with being a, a, a good bartender, and b, very knowledgeable about my stuff. Yeah. So at first, you know, it was really just. kind of for shits and giggles. Mm-hmm. you know, just to make sure I knew some things, but the further I read into all the bottles mm-hmm. you know, I really fell in love with it. And not really the whiskey, but I fell in love with the history of it. Right. You know, each distillery has a story to it, you know, and you can say that about wine, you can say it about a brewery. Mm-hmm. any company really, but, you know, this is what stuck out to me. Right, right. So I just fell in love with that. You know? I mean, a lot of Scottish distilleries are 300 years old, you know, the oldest one is Bush Mills. They're coming up on 400 years old. You know what I mean? I didn't realize that. Yeah, man. I mean, it's wicked. They, old Bush Mills was the very first distillery to get licensed in the late 16 hundreds. And that distillery is still there today. Mm-hmm. They don't really use it anymore. It's more for the like, fun, touristy things to go see. Yeah, right. You know, and now it's just bush mills instead of old bush mills. Mm-hmm. but. So yeah, I fell in love with the stories behind it cuz my dream one day is, you know, I want to own my own distillery. Yeah. I would love to start something that in a hundred, 200 years from now my family still owns, you know, and is worldwide famous cuz a lot of these distilleries are still family owned. Mm-hmm. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, the person who owns it now never met the guy who opened it, didn't meet his great-great-great grandfather, but it's still in the family. And to me, you know, family's the most important thing and I think that's an incredible way to, to celebrate that. Yeah. That's one way to

Tyler:

cement

Anthony:

a legacy right there. Yeah, that's for sure. Absolutely. Yeah. That's cool. I mean, we're drinking the guy's whiskey right now, you know what I mean? Like so's some good stuff. So

Tyler:

where in the process from getting started at the rebellion up there in PA to going to Scotland to learn more about whiskey?

Anthony:

Yeah, so that actually happened because we started gaining a lot of popularity in the bar. We started winning awards. We became number one restaurant out of 200. Wow. And this actually all happened, I was only beverage manager there for maybe half a year. Mm-hmm. And then our restaurant manager got in a fight with the owner, so he got kicked out you know, and then I just kind of walked right into that restaurant management position, you know, I took ownership of it. Yeah. And then ever since I did, like I said, we started winning awards, became number one restaurant in our county. And then like a year later, we were awarded number one whiskey bar in central Pennsylvania, which was like a huge deal. Yeah. I started getting magazines written about me because I was doing craft cocktails. I made our bar all natural. That's good. You know, there was nothing artificially flavored. You know, I have nothing against screwball. Right. Great peanut butter whiskey. But I would, you'd have to kill me to put that in that bar you know what I mean? Like I made that a hundred percent natural bar. You know, we were an all craft bar, which. Was very important to me. Yeah. Mm-hmm. as far as bartending goes, you know, I can never be your dive bartender down at the husk. Right. You know, until 3:00 AM I can never do that. Mm-hmm. But if you want me to be like, make your really nice cocktail, might take me five minutes to make it cuz there's a lot in it. Yeah. You know, but I give you that experience. That's what I always loved. And that's what we did there and that's what kind of started kicking us off. So anyways, after that it came to our attention that like, hey, I know a lot, but I don't know enough. Yeah. You know, and then that's kind of where it started. And then obviously I started studying with Edinburgh Whiskey Academy. And that took about three months, you know what I mean? Back and forth, et cetera, et cetera, because it's still running a restaurant. But afterwards, you know, I was able to get my certification in scotch and Jenin distillation, so I'm considered to be a master in that. Wow. So if there is any distilleries out there looking for an apprentice, I'm open to ears to say But yeah, absolutely. And that's kind of where that started off and went towards. you know, that was a great experience for me. I got to learn a lot about the thing that I love. You know, kind of start the process of that. And then what helped me also was is there's a distillery up north that our restaurant was partnered with called Big Spring Spirits. They're one of three distilleries in the world that's gold lead certified, meaning that they're leaders in environmental and energy design. And I started kind of working with the owner there a little bit, as long as well as working with the rebellion. You know, I just sold their products for'em. I would help at the distillery a little bit. Yeah. You know, that was an awesome experience for me. But yeah, that's where it kind of started. And ever since then, you know, I came back and I would just spread my knowledge. And what was awesome about that is I actually, in 2020 during Covid, I was selected as one of the top 30 youngest business professionals in the entire state of Pennsylvania. Wow. Which was a huge deal. That was by PA business. Right. So that was really awesome for me. You know, I was the only one that was a restauranter, you know, everyone else was like a banker or mm-hmm. you know, one of'em was like a lawyer and some of'em were like real estate agents, you know, I was the only one in the restaurant industry, which I was like, you know what? I tapped myself on the back. Exactly. Yeah. For sure. That was a huge deal for me. Definitely Something to you're proud of. Yeah, absolutely. So

Chris:

what, excuse me. So what brought you down here? I, I'm assuming it was because you had a lot of accolades and someone was like, yo, let's get this guy away from the cold.

Anthony:

Now, so, if I'm being honest I was actually in a really serious, committed relationship up north and things kind of just went south. Mm-hmm. you know, and a lot of things weren't making me happy anymore. Yeah. You know, I was at that restaurant for a very long time. I loved it. I have so much to be thankful for from that restaurant. But I knew it was time already and I was already thinking that. And then after everything that happened in my personal life, I was like, screw it. You know? It's time for me to leave. Right. You know, it's time for me to go do something else. You know? And my best friend of 17 plus years moved down here about a year ago, and I visited him a bunch of times, shout out Kelton, Moe and he was like, all right, I'll start looking for a place for you, you know? And I was like, all right, let's do it. You know? And literally within a month of my decision, I moved on down here. You know, I gave the last restaurant enough notice, you know what I mean? Because I think that's respectful. You know, I had to do that, of course. So I gave them enough notice and it literally worked out like beautifully. I found a gorgeous apartment. Got it. The day of, right downtown. So I live in the historic district downtown. Oh yeah. Which is beautiful. Two-story loft apartment. Couldn't have gotten luckier. And then at first I started working for Urban Food Group. Mm-hmm. in, in town here. Yep. I'm not gonna say much about them. I'm just gonna leave that at that. And I'm very lucky that Bobby Zimmerman from True Blue and their service director, George, awesome. French guy. Right. Love this guy. Yeah. I'm very lucky that, you know, we already kind of knew each other from just the industry in the area and they've reached out to me after a little bit and they were like, Hey, we have this job opportunity for, you know, and I, I hopped on that. Yeah. Quicker than you could imagine. You know, I was like, this is a company I'm gonna work for. So I'm very blessed that now I work for True Blue. They're an awesome company, you know, and probably Zimmerman's doing great things in town. He's got a bunch of things opening up. And the restaurants, he does have care about quality and that was really important for me. That's actually what was the key factor for me, you know, is quality, which is really important. So, and then now I'm here, you know? Absolutely.

Tyler:

So are you bringing some of the more an all natural product thing to true blue as well too? Is that something that you're gonna keep on going with, with

Anthony:

the cocktails? Absolutely. Yeah. So that's something we're doing. A lot of our cocktails are not now like craft cocktails, you know, I'm trying to bring that artificial stuff. I make the shrubs, I'm making bitters. Oh wow. No tinctures, all of that. So I really believe in that, you know, I mean, I'm not making our cranberry juice you know what I mean? it's a little excessive. I'm not gonna do that. I'm sorry. Yeah. But, you know, other than that, any like, fancy juices we're doing, you know, we, we try to make it the main bared tender down at Barrel. He's awesome. His name is Michael Pardy. Okay. You know, I mean, he does a great job with that too. I mean, he's very involved in it and wants to do the same thing. So that's huge. And then the bartenders at table, I mean, every single one of'em are. lovers of craft cocktails. Yeah. You know, which, that's just an awesome environment to be around. Yeah. Like if you're into that stuff and you have other people surrounding you mm-hmm. you know, your ideas don't sound stupid. Right. You know, they're like, I actually love this idea. Let's do it. You know, and that's really important for someone running a bar program, right. Is that the bartenders are on board with that. Right. So that's super helpful. And you know, every restaurant kind of does that. Mariposa, which is that Spanish top is bar authentic, you know? Mm-hmm. their bar program is a lot smaller, but they're a lot more intimate of a restaurant, you know, so like they don't do crazy things there with it, but everything is quality still. Like I said, you know, during the wintertime when there's no patio, it's maybe a 20 seat restaurant, so it's very, very intimate. Oh, for sure. You know, so we don't need 20 cocktails that are True. Super high end, you know, you just need one or two. That's really good. And then you gotta have good food and good company, you know, and then you're set. Right. What's

Tyler:

your favorite

Anthony:

type of cocktail to make? So that's a tricky one. Most people would think that I like a whiskey cocktail. Mm-hmm. But I'm actually a Negroni fan. Really? Yeah. I love my gin. You know, I mean, I really do. That's something that's actually happened in the past year. Mm-hmm. you know, I learned about it when I was over there, but, and I learned how to make it. Yeah. I still was like a screw gin, you know? It was like, I'm a whiskey drinker, I'm a man, you know, it was like, but then I started drinking more and more gin and you know, it's a euphoric alcohol. Like every alcohol in the, I mean every ingredient, those botanicals, they bring out euphoria in you. You know? And that's why I love Jenin, cuz that's a happy alcohol to drink, you know what I mean? Everyone has their thing, you know, some people are like, oh, vodka, I'll get in a fight outta the bar you know, or tequila. I'll be dancing on the bar, you know, for Jen, for me, it's just like, I'm having a great time, you know? And a Negroni just hits all the marks for me. The sweet vermouth and then the Campari in it. Like it's a very simple, basic drink. Yeah. You know? But I'm not a complicated man, you know what I mean? I like the. the easy classics. So Negroni is my number one go-to. So is Scotland

Tyler:

known for it's gen as well

Anthony:

too then? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Okay. I would say Ireland's more huge on that Ireland or, you know, like England. Okay. They're, they're more on their gen wave than Scotland is, but Okay. It's really United Kingdom thing that a lot of good gins come from there. I mean, one of my favorite is gunpowder gin, which is an Irish gin. Okay. You know, I mean, that's really, really good. It's got a lot of flavor to it because what's cool about gin is the only common factor is juniper berries in it. Other than that, it's kind of up to the distillate, like the distillers discretion. Mm-hmm. on what botanicals they put in it. Okay. And botanicals are just rosemary time, you know, sage, any herb that you want to throw in there, you know, so it's up to them. So gin can be vastly different, you know? You can have one that tastes. Like oranges and then you can have one that tastes like, I don't know, freaking flowers or something like that. You know, like it's totally different. So that's really

Tyler:

neat. That's something I've been slowly getting into as well. Cause I didn't realize how vast the gin world was. Yeah. I always just thought like, Bombay, Bombay, Satre, Sure. It was like my standard. It is so much more than that. Yeah. Yeah. So tell us, I know it's a whiskey podcast, but my new love of starting to get into Jen. Tell us a little bit more about kind of the, the distill

Anthony:

process for that. So it's, it's very similar to any other distillation, you know, I mean everything as far as the distillation goes, right? Mm-hmm. it all comes down to the ingredients really. Okay. Other than that, you know, you still have to put it in a still, you still need it to ferment. Before that, you know, you need to boil the mash, you need to ferment it. Then you need to still it collect that, you know, you collect the fumes of the boiling mash and it's still. You know, that's the difference between beer and whiskey, right? Right. Beer stops at the fermentation. Mm-hmm. whiskey takes that, fermentation, puts it in a still, you know what I mean? So that's like, beer is basically whiskey. Just whiskey has a lot more steps to it afterwards. Right. You know, and whiskey is moonshine. Mm-hmm. you know, cause whiskey comes out clear just like every liquor does. Yeah. You know, every single liquor that's distilled out there comes out clear cuz it's virtually impossible to have colored fumes. Right. You know what I mean? Like, once you collect those fumes at the top of the still, if there's color to it, you either put a lot of something in it or you. Mess something up. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. So it's really comes down to the ingredients that are in the liquor itself, you know, because other than that, distillation is distillation. Yeah.

Tyler:

Something else I wanted to talk about on the podcast too, cause we talked about it prior. So this the whiskey that we're drinking right now almost looks like a wine to me because of how light the color is. Sure. Do you wanna tell the listeners what you told us prior to why it's so much lighter than. dark brown whiskeys word he looking at. Yeah, absolutely.

Anthony:

So when it comes to the coloring of whiskey, most people are kind of tricked by cuz in America, and we don't have a lot of regulations on coloring whiskey mm-hmm. So to be colored right, without any artificial caramelization or anything to it, it takes a very long time in a barrel to get there. You know, I was just telling you about that 35 year old scotch I have. Yeah. It doesn't look like any of these yet, you know. Oh, wow. And it has no dark color to it yet. I'd say it's probably like two shades darker than the lack of oen we're drinking right now. You know? And that's because you can only get so much out of a barrel, right? Yeah. Mm-hmm. So like, if they aren't switching that barrel out every year, you know, and it's just sitting in that same barrel, eventually it hits its max, you know, and it, they say about after 15 years, you don't get much more color out of it. You know, after 15 years you got enough out of that barrel, you know, and at that point it's just aging the fineness of the whiskey in it, you know, it's pulled everything it could have out of it. So for it to actually get really dark, it would have to sit in a barrel for a really long time and probably change barrels quite often. Cuz if not, you know, it's gonna come out looking very, very light. Cuz it's almost impossible to get it tar. Our now what I said earlier though was where there's an exception is if it gets put in a finishing cask. So again, pork sherry, any wine cask, cabernet mm-hmm. pinot noir, you know, there's so many different barrels that they can use for that. If it's something like that, that already has a very dark color to it and the wood that's inside is stained with that red wine Yeah. You know, that red wine will infuse into the whiskey and that in turn can make it darker a little bit faster, but it's also gonna change the flavor profile to fit whatever was in that barrel beforehand. So if you wanted to keep a traditional whiskey, you can't do that. You know, you can't put it in an old ex cask, you know? Yeah, yeah. You could use a bourbon cask, you know what I mean? Actually, a lot of times in Scotland they do that. One of their main suppliers of barrels is from America, because a, we're way bigger. Right, right. We have a lot more distilleries here, and we have a massive production specifically coming out of Kentucky. Yeah. And after a Kentucky distillery uses it, because for us it has to be new oak charred barrels. Yeah. They can't reuse'em. Right. So they just sell barrels that are used for the butt load, for cheap, you know, Yeah. Like they just are handing out barrels, you know what I mean? Like you can go buy buffalo tray barrels right now, you can probably buy 20 of'em for like 200. You know what I mean? Yeah. Because at the end of the day, they're just wood. Yeah. Mm-hmm. you know, so they do do that occasionally, but as long as it's only a new oak charred barrel and it's an ex bourbon barrel, you know, that's not gonna bring much color to it. Right. You know, I mean, that's gonna be basically if they're just using their own thing. So. Interesting. That's

Tyler:

interesting. I didn't know that. Is that something that they do pretty often over there? Is using bourbon barrels, or is that just something that they do for like shits and giggles? I guess should

Anthony:

that is a pretty common practice that they do. Oh, okay. Yeah. That is something that's a big deal because, you know, money's tight. Yeah. They gotta save money where they can. Scotland's not huge. Mm-hmm. you know, they're not gonna go cut down every force that's on. That's true. On their land. You know what I mean? Just to make some barrels. Right. So, I mean, most distilleries and companies in today's world is very environmentally conscious. Yeah. You know, so if they can use it, they're gonna use it. You know, I mean, like, it's not like they're gonna be hurt by that. Like they're helping save the environment and they're not just cutting down trees to make barrels and then. Toss'em into the waste. Right. Yeah. Doesn't make much sense

Tyler:

that way. Yeah. Do they do many whiskeys in Scotland with the finishing

Anthony:

barrels? Yeah, absolutely. Almost every distillery does that nowadays. Oh, okay. You know, I mean, it's just a unique way to create something different. You know, they could take, for instance, you know, if this was the regular Lara Hole in 16 year, you know, if they wanted to do something different, they could take the same exact. just put it in a finishing barrel. Boom. You got something different. Yeah. Because that barrel's gonna make it taste way different than the normal thing, you know? Now if someone in Scotland's listening to this right now, they're probably calling me an idiot. I would never do that Right. You know what I mean? Because especially with lack of vlan being an ILA scotch, I mean, you don't mess with the Pete. Yeah. You know, but Lare, for instance, is a great example of that. They have several multi-layered cask, you know, they've got their quarter cast, they've got a sherry cask. Okay. You know, Laro is definitely open to doing those things. And what I love is all of these distilleries are like 20 minutes away from each other. I know, right. You know, I mean, I lay is a very small aisle in Scotland. Right. You know, I mean, it's not like you can be huge, right? Mm-hmm. I mean, it's, it's an island there. They're very close to each other. And I almost brought one of my other favorite whiskeys, but unfortunately for you guys, it's getting very low. Oh, yeah, So I was like, I can't do that right now. But it's a distillery called Port asca. And it's actually the northern port in the Iowa of island. It's the only way on and off the island, right? Like, as far as like ships go, like big ships, you know, and you could pull a boat up like a small boat on the side of the island, right? But like, if you actually need a port of entry, you know the portas cake is where you go. And it's a very small distillery that's in that like little town area there. And oh my God, they just absolutely kill it. I mean, very small production. I've got two of their bottles, you know, the one is 110 proof fricking burns, but burns like beauty, you know what I mean? Like wildfire down your throat. I mean, it's delicious. But maybe one of these days I'll bring you guys a little taste of it.

Tyler:

So do you go back over there and get these bottles? Or how do you acquire these?

Anthony:

No, you know, I haven't, haven't been over there since. But luckily for me, my family is actually mainly all European. Oh, okay. Ironically, right now my parents are in Germany for the month. You know what I mean? Oh yeah. So I'm very lucky my entire life I've traveled over there a lot. Mm-hmm. you know, I mean, the first time I was over there I was three months old and that's cuz they wanted me to get baptized in the same church that Oh yeah. My dad did. My grandma did. My great grandma did. You know, so I've traveled, I've traveled every country in Europe already. Wow. You know, which is something I'm very thankful for. You know, I've learned a lot from that and I've experienced a lot from that, you know, and it. tries to make me realize that there's more than just like this little bubble that most people get stuck in. Yeah. You know what I mean? There's a huge world, world out there. So, you know, right now they're gonna be bringing me back a couple bottles, You know what I mean? Like, like yeah. I mean I have hookups like that and where a lot of my collection that I have was from when I was up in Pennsylvania, one of my regulars, he had his job was based in the United States, but his family lived in Australia. Hmm. So he'd had a house here and he had a house in Australia and he would come here for like two weeks and then he'd go back for a month and then he'd come to PA for two weeks. I'm back and forth and back and forth. You know, in Australia has a lot more supply there, you know, they get a lot more limited releases and stuff. One of the best bottles he ever brought me was Blaine's Gold Label. Right. Oh wow. It's the one with the Gold horse on top. Yeah. Which is an Australian limited edition bottle. Right. You can start finding'em here now more, but. You know, he would bring me stuff, right. And he'd be like, he'd messaged me on Facebook, be like, Hey, Anthony, like right. What do want me to bring you? And I would be like, Hey, all right. Grab me whatever you want, man. You know, because like he was an avid whiskey drinker too. I was like, whatever you find that you think I need, just bring it to me. Know. That's neat. So it's a little community that you create that that's how you get to finding these interesting bottles. Right. You know, and myself, like unfortunately in North Carolina, it's not easy to get limited stuff. Mm-hmm. you know? Mm-hmm. like same with in Pennsylvania, and PA's a state run State too. Yeah. But where Carlisle was at is a 30 minute drive to Maryland. Yep. You know, so I would just drive to Maryland and there was this one little shop, shout out, e little whiskey shop, that's what it was called. And it was in Maryland, just right past the border, basically. And I would just go there and I would say every other time I went, they had something that was like, whoa. Like, I cannot believe you have this, you know? And it's cuz they're not a state run state. And that owner just happens to have really good connections. You know, either that or is a drug mule or something, you know what I mean? Like, I don't know, but I didn't care. I would, whichever way you Yeah, whichever way I got what I needed. So I was okay with it, you know? So yeah, I would just collect off of random occurrences or coming, buy the bottles randomly, you know? I mean, it's taken me a while, you know, I didn't get to where I was outta my collection, which like I said is a little over 170 bottles, you know, I didn't get to that. overnight, you know what I mean? It took a long time. That's cool. A fat amount of money already spend into that collection. Like I told you guys about these two bottles, it's like, damn, you know, I regret some of that, but you know, it's too late now. At least I get to enjoy the whiskey, you know? Exactly. Yeah. You only live once, you know what I mean? Yeah, exactly. There you go. You get it. Exactly. Yeah.

Tyler:

And with those type of bottles too, you get to kind of experience different parts of the world too. Like, like you said, like the history of it. So like if you really appreciate what you're buying, it's more than just a

Anthony:

bottle of whiskey. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. There's a history to it. Mm-hmm. that's cool.

Chris:

So my brain works in mysterious ways. Outside of like just your ILE with whiskeys and SCOs what would be your favorite American whiskey?

Anthony:

Yeah, so that's that's actually I've got two of'em. Okay. One of'em I already kind of told you guys is one I'm trying to collect all of'em of it's High West and mid-winter Night Jam. Yeah. Which is based off of Shakespeare's a mid-summer night's dream. Yeah, right. Absolutely love it. You know, being up from Pennsylvania when there's two feet of snow outside that whiskey is what you want to drink. You know what I mean? I, I have a picture in my phone somewhere of the bottle sitting in a pile of snow you know, with a glass sitting next to it full, you know, just to be like artsy about it, which I don't know, probably a bad shot, you know, but why not absolutely delicious Rye whiskey, you know what I mean? It's got so much flavor to it. It's very strong in the sense of like spiciness from the rye. Mm-hmm. you know, not the ethanol strong. Mm-hmm. So I absolutely love High West, amazing distillery. And then my second favorite one, and it probably won't come to a surprise to a lot of people, but it's gonna be eagle rare from Buffalo traits. Yeah. Okay. You know, I mean, Absolutely delicious bourbon for the price of the bottle, you know what I mean? Mm-hmm. I mean, it's aged 10 years. It's the same mash blend as Buffalo Trays just aged longer in a different distill, a different location, you know Eagle Rares just for, for the price that you pay and for what it is, is a delicious bourbon. So that would be my go-to. Si.

Tyler:

Yeah. That's great. So those, those are actually my, my two favorites as well too. Yeah. So I appreciate that. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. And then we had, we didn't plan that by the way. No, no. Yeah. Well, we had Chris Lako on, he's the one that brought us the bottle of high, high West. The Booie. Yeah, the Bry. And I didn't know it existed until he brought it on and was blown Aw away. Blown away. And then mm-hmm. Been lucky enough to try a few other of their whiskeys that come out of there and have been very impressed. And then, like you said, the, for what you get for the money for Eagle Rare.

Yeah.

Anthony:

It, it's a no-brainer. Yeah. I mean it's, it's amazing. So do we drink Eagle Rare?

Tyler:

Yeah. Ironically enough, we had it with Rayland which is

Anthony:

how yeah, that's how we met. There you go. How we met. Yeah, so shout out

Tyler:

to Rayland for this one. I

Chris:

was sitting there thinking, I was like, I know I have a bottle of legal rare sitting in my house, and I couldn't remember how I got to it, and I was like, did we drink it on the podcast or did I just get it? For some reason, because that's the hard part about having this podcast is we get to try so many new ones and then we also have stuff at the house and it's like, wait, did we try that with someone? Mm-hmm. should I know more about this, but I agree. Eagle wear is a good one. Yeah. I can't wait to find some place that has the mid-summer night.

Anthony:

Well, one of these days I'll just drop some off for you guys to try. Yeah, appreciate that. I mean, you gotta do that. So, and if you're interested right now, the liquor store right down the street there, they're, they're coming out with their lottery for it, so I would, I would sign up for it real quick. Yeah, yeah. We're gonna signed up for our restaurant to get it, you know what I mean? Cause it's one of those bottles that when it comes in, you gotta get it. Yeah. You know, because it'll, it'll sell in a week or you'll drink it in a week if you buy for yourself, you know. So after this

Tyler:

podcast we're probably gonna walk down there and sign up

Anthony:

for it. There you go. I'd recommend that. So

Tyler:

and actually looking at these glasses too, it is slightly off topic. These they're pronounced

Anthony:

Glen car, right? Yep. Yeah, those are Glen Karens. So

can

Tyler:

you tell us why be best for tasting

Anthony:

whiskey? Sure. Yeah. First off to do that though, all of our glasses are empty, so I need to pour a little bit more for us. Fair. Hey,

Tyler:

some more

Chris:

So the first round was the log of Olen the Ile single malt 12 year, and that is the most gorgeous bottle. Mm-hmm. I think it's very American for our bottles to just be like words and no real styling. Sure. The Loga Olin bottle has a lot of, it looks just very classic. Mm-hmm. Visually to me, I would go straight to that bottle. Yeah,

Anthony:

absolutely. I forget who the artist is. But they do have a famous artist who does it for'em. Oh wow. I wish I could remember, but yeah, I don't, I remember reading it one time when I first got the bottle name completely slips my mind, you know what I mean? Yeah. But if you look up all their special releases, every single one of'em has a cool design. You know, this one's a falcon, but they have one that's like a big colorful lion that's on the front of it. I've seen that in that one. Yeah. So they have an artist that does it for'em, and I think it's a brilliant idea, you know. So yeah, going back to why Glen Karen's our best for it is the shape of the glass, right? Mm-hmm. So when I was talking earlier about ethanol, right? So the point of this right, is basically to be like a miniature red wine glass, you know? Oh, okay. Like the red wine glasses are really important to open up the aromas to kind of air it out, right? Yeah. For this, what's really important is so you can get your nose right up in that glass, you know, you're supposed to stick your nose all the way in. You want all that smell to hit you, right? Yeah. You want it to come right up. And the shape of it is designed to, when you swirling it and you go into smell, the ethanol gets caught on that shape down here where the aromas are allowed to come up first, you know? Okay. So you don't get the alcohol smell, you get the aromas of the ingredients in the mash first before that ethanol hits your nose. I see. And the ethanol is what's gonna burn it a little bit. And if I brought a little bit cheaper whiskey, one of my favorite scotch whiskey sommelier in Scotland, his recommendation first to drinking a good whiskey is to pour it in the glass and then flick it out. Oh, right. Because you want to get the entire glass coated with it, but that first coat's gonna be contaminated by whatever was on that clean glass, you know? So like, I'm not gonna do that with this black Shea. I don't wanna ruin your voice. Right. But that's the first thing he says to do is to flick it out. And then, I don't know if anyone's told you the proper way to actually taste whiskey. I was gonna ask you, but there's three steps to it to really get the full flavor. Right. So the first one, we're just gonna take a small sip and you're just gonna let it go over your tongue. You're gonna let it go back. So we'll do that. Yeah. Right away you can feel that smokiness. Yep. For me, ridiculously smooth. Yeah. Like no alcohol burn at all. It is all flavor for me. Yeah. I was surprised with

Tyler:

that one too, because you can find OBA in pretty much any place, but this is

Anthony:

very different. Yeah. So Art bag 10 years almost anywhere. Yeah. You know, I mean you can find that one anyway. Oh, that's their classic 10 year old scotch. Right. When it comes to their limited edition stuff, it becomes a lot harder to find. Yeah. The guy I was telling you about in Australia, he actually is the gentleman who got this black sheep for me. Yeah. Other than that, there's no way I would've ever had it. Right, right. So that's a very special bottle for me. Yeah. So. The arb, big 10 is just very kind of in your face. Smokey. Mm-hmm. I personally love it. It's a campfire in your mouth. Yeah. You know what I mean? Not everyone would enjoy that, but this one, because it's mellowed out, you know, it's their 20th anniversary edition, you know, they put a lot of love and care behind it. So that's what is a little bit more unique about this one. So, but the second step to tasting it is we're gonna let it sit under our tongue. Right. Okay. So you're gonna let it kind of sit under your tongue. It's gonna burn all the front pallets under your tongue first. Oh, for sure. And then we'll swallow after that. Okay. Sorry for the awkward silence there. Right. We can

Tyler:

ask some of that out. Yeah.

Anthony:

So now that that's burned everything on your tongue, your pallets are burned on the top there. Mm-hmm. I want you to do two things with this one. All right? So for the next sip, you're gonna sip it like normal again, but I don't want you to breathe in through your nose when you're sipping because 90% of taste is smell, right? So the smell has a huge effect on how things taste. That's why, you know, when you walk into a kitchen and you smell something, you immediately think of something nostalgic like you think of your grandma's cooking. Right. You know what I mean? Or that's why garnishes are more than just a pretty look on a cocktail. You know, especially herbs have a lot of aroma to it. You know, like a sage or rosemary. You burn that a little bit and it will dramatically change the way that your mind perceives the flavor. Yeah. You know? So this next sip, do it without breathing in a, you're gonna, it's gonna taste way better than that first sip. So we'll do that real quick. Oh, wow. Already way different than the first sip. Completely different. Yeah. Yeah. Because everything's already coated in your mouth with it. Yeah. You know, all the pallets, the fresh pallets are burned off. You know what I mean? So it's completely gone. So that last sip that we just did, there is straight flavor. It is all the ingredients and the flavor that that distiller wanted you to have. Yeah. Right. Now, for this next one, you gotta make sure you're smelling with your nose at the same time as sipping. And I promise on my life, it will again taste way different than just that last sip we just took. So, oh yeah. It's weird how it works. Yeah.

Tyler:

You had a lot more

Anthony:

of that smokiness when you breathe. We get a lot more of that smokiness when you breathe. Wow. Which for me is beautiful. Yeah. To some people that would make it taste like dirty piss ash water you know what I mean? But that's just the way it is. Taste is subjective. You know, one thing I love you might hate. Yeah. You know what I mean? But one thing you love, I might hate, you know, that's just the way it goes. You can't be picky about it. So, but that, that's the correct way of actually drinking or trying whiskey off the bat. You know, again, I, I would've done the whole funny flick it thing, but I don't wanna ruin anything in here and I'm not gonna waste good whiskey. Yeah. I wouldn't waste that either. No, no. I did that. I just did a whiskey training class for some of our employees. Mm-hmm. you know, and I did that for'em. And it was just funny. Everyone was like, what are you doing? I was like, I was like, calm down, calm down. I'll tell you why, you know? Yeah. Like, so it was funny. And I actually I'm doing a class tomorrow morning for our table employees. I'm gonna do the same thing for them, you know, because it's, it's a process, you know, whiskey's very complicated. Our service director, the French guy George I told you about. Mm-hmm. he's our wine guy too. Mm-hmm. He's probably gonna hate me when I say this, but whiskey is way more intricate than wine is. There's a lot more to it. Yeah. Than, than wine has, you know what I mean? Because there's so many more different things in the mash, you know, there's a lot more complicated processes that go into it. Yeah. Some more steps too. Right. There's a lot more steps to whiskey, you know? So I'm not saying it's older than mine, right. It's probably not true. I mean, first off, no one can really date when Whiskey first became a thing. Yeah. The very first time that it's ever written anywhere was in the 14 hundreds. It was in the late 14 hundreds, and it was in a like. Merchant Bookkeeper's log book, right? Oh, a guy who traveled with a trailer and he claimed to be carrying a barrel of sba and USBA is Gaelic for water of life. So that's what they called whiskey back then, right? So he was carrying a barrel of whiskey that he was going to sell, you know? And I absolutely love that. And I forget the date that it is, but there's also a document talking about royalty. Mm-hmm. And that was, it was sometime in the 14 hundreds again too or maybe early 15 hundreds. But it was talking about how mainland royalty, right? So kings and queens from the mainland of. would travel over to the islands to bathe in the water of usca. Right. Uhhuh. They would come over to get drunk as hell. Right. you know, like they'd come over for a good time because, you know, they were huge in the production there, you know, back then they weren't gonna make this stuff and then put it on a ship, which would take a month to get over to the mainland, you know what I mean? It was way longer of a process where now obviously they throw it on a plane and it crosses that little chan like channel in 30 minutes. You know what I mean? Way different back then. You know. So it was, it was a process for royalty to get over there and really only Royals could do that. They're the only ones who had the money to do that, you know? Right. Unless if you hopped on a boat with a merchant or something like that. Exactly. So it was. back then more of a, a specialty thing, you know, it was meant for the higher class, you know, I mean, again, they called it like Right. Yeah, exactly. You don't just call it water life for no reason. You know what I mean? But that's another thing that I really love about specifically abag. They're really cool with this. They actually tie in their past as far as like mythology and Gaelic terms go very strong. You know, there's a whiskey called Trayvon. There's one called Dale and all those, you know, the art bag we beastie, they're all based off of like myths, you know? Mm-hmm. And the Trayvon's history is about Gaelic, God, there's a little pond like lake area that has an ongoing whirlpool mm-hmm. that just has been there forever. Yeah. And it just is a random whirlpool. No one knows why. you know, I mean, I'm sure they do now, you know, with scientists and stuff, but back then it was a myth in the Gaelic mythology that that was a, a god, you know, that was him. Yeah. There like, and they base that bottle off of that like Gaelic myth. That's cool. You know? And I think that's so cool how they tie those like things into, that they took the water from that lake to make this whiskey, you know? So like when you're drinking that whiskey, it's like you're, you're drinking with the God. Right. You know, like, and it's just neat how distilleries will do that. You know? It just goes back to why, like, I would love to have my own thing one day, you know, so I could kind of tie in things like that as well. I mean, it's just, it's neat, you know?

Chris:

I mean, when you open it wherever your distillery is, we'd love to bring you back on and run.

Anthony:

Yeah, absolutely. I would love to, you know, we, we'll probably bring you on back before then too, so Yeah, I would love to come back on, you know, I mean, I've got plenty enough to try and I love to talk about it, you know? But before I open a distillery, I need to get about like,$10 million. So Yeah. Cause if I'm gonna do it, I need to do it right. You know? And a good pot still cost you about 3 million, you know? Oh, wow. So, yeah, I mean that's before buying a building blueprints, buying the ingredients every, I mean, it's an expensive process to go through to open a distillery. That's why I always give Mac credits, you know, especially to like, End of days down the street that mm-hmm. you know, I believe his name is Shane Faulkner. Mm-hmm. You know, I give him extremely mad credits for opening up a place, you know, I mean, the guy that I was talking about with Big Spring Spirits, his name is Kevin. You know, I mean, it takes a lot to open up a distillery and you really gotta be passionate about it, you know, because if not, there's no point in being in that industry, you know, because if you're just doing it for shits and giggles, you're not gonna get far. No. You know, I'm sure there's a lot of times where it's a struggle, you know, and mm-hmm. it's hard to get your name out there. And the popularity out there, and again, I'm gonna shout out end of days, you know, they do an incredible job with their products. I am a huge lover of their gin. I mean, I'm a gin guy again. Yeah. Their Luna Bloom and their regular gin is just phenomenal. I actually have their gin and their Luna Bloom in a cocktail at Barrel downtown. Oh, okay. Just cuz it, it's an incredible, incredible liquor, you know? Mm-hmm. That's very cool.

Tyler:

Yeah. So if you were to open your own place, would you start out with gin just to get the revenue through the

Anthony:

door, I guess you would say Sure. Yeah. So that's a, that's a huge thing with distilleries, right? Because I'm a firm believer to be a good whiskey. It needs time. Yes. You know, so you, you cannot open a distillery in age of two year old whiskey and sell it. It's gonna taste like shit. Right. You know, it's gonna taste horrible. So there's two things that you can do. Right. What most distilleries will do is they'll start producing vodka and gin. Mm-hmm. you know, or something that's easy to do, that they can just produce it and then it's ready to get bottled cuz it doesn't need to be aged or anything. Right. Right. So that's one thing that a lot of places will do. Mm-hmm. The second thing that some places will do, which is not the most common, but a great example is Whistle Pig up in Vermont. They will start doing blended whiskeys. So basically they'll take whiskeys from other places and blend it themselves and they'll start selling that. So Whistle Pig is a great example of that because for the longest time, all their product was from Canada. Oh, no way. So I, I'm not hating on it, you know, great stuff man. Right? I mean, I love their stuff. But one of their very first batches of their own was their, their piggyback, you know, their six year old whiskey. Yeah. That was one of the very first things that they started to produce. Again, blending a whiskey is not easy, you know, so I'm not saying that's the cheap way of taking it out. Like you, you gotta have your own special blend of it, right? And that takes a lot of time of mixing things together. And does this taste good? You know, like one of my favorite things to do in restaurants is have an infinity bottle. And what that is is basically it, it's for an employee thing only. Cuz you can't legally sell this. Right. But like when the bottle gets down to only being like a tiny little bit left, like not even half an ounce left, you know, instead of selling that you pour this in the infinity bottle and then around the bottle you have like a blank sheet of paper that you write. Oh, I just put 0.5 ounces of this in it, you know? And then the next thing, oh I just put this mount in that, you know, and then you write everything down until you fill that bottle up and then you drink some down and then you keep going down in it. Oh wow. And what's cool about that is one pour might make it the best fricking whiskey you've ever had in your life. You know, I've had that moment. Yeah. Like where I put something in it and I was like, this is amazing. and then you put something else in it afterwards, and then you're like, wow, this is shit. You know, like this is the worst. Yeah. You know, like, so it's just funny to go about it like that because like one thing can make it absolutely phenomenal and then the next thing can make it horrible, you know? So to come up with a blended whiskey is actually very difficult. And it takes a lot of time to create something unique. You know, it's hard to just do it with like three or four whiskeys. Sure. I mean, technically a blended whiskey only has to be two or more, right? Mm-hmm. But at this point, how many blended whiskeys there are out there, you know, a lot of distilleries are doing like 50 or more things Wow. In their blend, you know? Which makes it very complicated, but that's how they create their own unique thing. Oh, for sure. Yeah. So that, that's the two ways that distilleries can start making money like that. Because if you're strictly just going off of whiskey and you're doing it yourself, right, you're loaded. You know what I mean? Like you're okay not making any money. For five or six years and you're okay spending hundreds of thousands and thousands of dollars until you do, you know, I don't know too

Tyler:

many people like that.

Anthony:

Yeah, Yeah. I don't, I mean, if I did, I, I, no offense, I wouldn't be here, you know, I'd be somewhere else Exactly. With my own distillery at this point. So, yeah, so

Tyler:

you can blend pretty much anything together in order to call it a blend whiskey then. Right? So like if after you have a whiskey for one or two years, you can blend it with something for that six years and it can still be considered a blended whiskey and you're okay with that. Like, it's okay.

Anthony:

Yeah. Okay. Absolutely. So legally as far as like describing on the bottle of what it says, you can only put the youngest age on him, right? Oh, so a lot of blended whiskeys, you know, especially in Scotland. There will be some that have a 20 year old age whiskey in it, but it's only gonna be a little bit, and then the majority of it's gonna be a one or two year age whiskey. Ah, okay. So legally they can only say what the youngest one is. So they can't have a blended whiskey in just cuz they put half a barrel in, in the blend. Yeah. You know, they can't say it's a 20 year old scotch, blended scotch, you know, they can only say it, it's a two or three year old scotch, you know. So that's where the, the kicker kind of comes in with it. But there's a lot of really good blended stuff out there. Yeah. You know, again, I was just saying with Whistle Pick, I have no hate on that. You know what I mean? They are phenomenal. They're killing it. You know, they just came out with their road stock rye mm-hmm. like a year ago. That's a huge deal. You know, they kind of took that off the twist of Jefferson's Ocean Yeah. You know, and that's the, the cool thing of the distillers where in today's society, you know, they gotta come up with new ways to do things. The guy who owns Jefferson's o like Jefferson's Distillery. Brilliant. You know what I mean? Like he bought a cargo ship and was like, oh, I'm just gonna fill it up with whiskey and I'm gonna send it out into the ocean. Like, what's cooler than that? You know what I mean? And Whistle Pig, they filled up a tractor trailer full and you know, they're in Vermont and I think it was like the Daytona or something like that going on in California. I don't know what the race is, don't hate me But you know, they drove it all the way from Vermont to California and then from California all the way back to Vermont, you know, and then they bottled those whiskeys up, you know, like, so it's just a cool way of aging it differently, you know, cuz the whiskey's moving in the barrel gets different air surfaces. Yeah. You know, so it, it's just a different way of, of aging, which you kind of have to do nowadays. You know, you gotta keep changing to keep up, you know, I

Tyler:

haven't tried this one yet, but I think it's really interesting what they've done is the. blacked where they have Metallica playing extremely loud. Okay. Where it's being barreled and so like the sound waves Sure. Yeah. Is what's making vibration ripple and stuff. So I thought that was pretty, like I've never tried it, so I don't know if it's any good or not, but it's just an interesting way of making the barrels move. Mm-hmm. and the ripples and the, and the whiskey. So something willing need to put on the list. one day. Yeah.

Chris:

One day I'm like, I could knock out so many whiskeys in a year, just like we were at at rounds and they have the whiskey club and I was like, oh yeah, I could go through this. And then I realized, I'm like, but do I want to just hammer through it or just want to enjoy life? Yeah. And that's how I've taken my path through the,

Tyler:

their whiskey club. I may or may not have hammered through it. I I started in October of 2021 and finished in January of 2022. What's this club? It's called the Whiskey Club at rounds in Mayfair Town Center. Okay. We just had one of the owners on, and they have three different levels, the silver, gold, and platinum levels. Yeah. And you drink nearly a what?

Chris:

80? So 80 or 90 different

Tyler:

bottle. Yeah. Wow. And for me it was great because I didn't really know much about whiskey. Mm-hmm. and it, I'm sure you know too, just by trying is how your palette opens up. Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. So it, it was fantastic for me. I'd go in after work every day just about and try another one off of there. And that's kind of how the love of whiskey came about and how the podcast came.

Anthony:

Mm-hmm. Yeah. So, yeah, no, I mean, you, you definitely have to be able to try a bunch of different things. I mean, I was lucky with my first place, you know, the rebellion up in pa, right? Yeah. We didn't nearly have as much as some places in town here have, You know, we had about 200 to two 50 on average, you know, but I tried every single bottle I bought, duh. You know what I mean? So that allowed me to try a lot of things. I have a lot of unique things in my own personal collection. Mm-hmm. you know, I mean, I am jealous of French Street Brewery. I'm just gonna say it. Yeah. You have 400 whiskeys there. You're freaking kidding me. I mean, that collection is beautiful. Yeah. But I know it took forever to get there. Oh yeah. Mm-hmm. you know, that's not something that you can just go to the liquor store and buy, cuz some of those bottles that are on their shelf is like, man, you've probably had that for like a year or two, three years. You know, because like your average person is not gonna know the rarity of that bottle. Right. You know, so there's a lot of things that are up there that I'm just like, whoa. You know, my girlfriend's like, calm down. Yeah. I'm

Tyler:

like, I can't, don't go crazy.

Anthony:

I'm like, I'm like, I'm freaking out here, babe. Like right.

Tyler:

So we are coming up on an hour here, so we don't wanna take up too much of your time,

Anthony:

but I do have one last question for you. Sure. Yeah.

Tyler:

If you were to tell your younger self

Anthony:

one thing, what would it be? You know, that's an interesting question. Mm-hmm. and I'm not gonna say to change anything. Yeah. I would say to just stick true to who you are because, you know, I went through a lot of shit growing up and you know, I've screwed myself over in a lot of situations and you know, I've had as many good things happen to me as I have as many bad things. And, you know, I wouldn't change a single thing because you can't, you know what I mean? And I am who I am now, and I'm very happy with who I am and the path that I'm going on and you know, the life that I have. Like, you gotta be thankful for the little things. You know what I mean? Not everyone can have everything they want in their life, and that's okay. You know, I mean, it would be superficial of me to say that. And I need other things in my life. So I would, I would really just say to my younger self, like, continue to do what you're doing. You know? I mean, I, I really wouldn't change a thing. I mean that no one can. Yeah. That's who you are. Yeah. You know, but if my dad was talking to me, he'd say, save more money. Right. you know, like that that, I mean, I guess I could say that. Like, don't be an idiot. You know what I mean? Yeah. But so yeah. That's awesome though. I love that.

Tyler:

So with looking at the past, looking towards the future what do you hope to be doing in the next year to

Anthony:

three years? You know, I really can't, I learned a while back that you can't really plan too far ahead in the future. Mm-hmm. you know what I can say is a dream of mine is I do want my own cocktail lounge eventually. Yeah. I would love to open up a cocktail cigar. You know, cigars are a huge thing in my life as well. I was gonna bring you guys some, but I didn't know if you'd like cigars or not. So next time I will if you do. Definitely. Yeah. But you know, I was very fortunate in 2019 I was able to go to Honduras and I went to Rocky Patel's personal guest house. And, you know, I saw the whole process from start to finish of how a cigar was made. Oh, wow. You know, and when they say it's handmade, they don't just mean like, some of it, the only two machines that I saw was a tractor on the farm. Right. And then at the very end, there's a machine that they would use three machines. I'll say that tractor in the middle of, after they rolled the cigar, it was like a suction tester. So they would like put the cigar in it to make sure that it was sealed and it would like do a test on how tight that seal. Right. Because they don't want people putting their mouths on it. Of course. Yeah. You know, so they just use this machine. And then the third one was saran wrapping everything. Right? Like it would like put a plastic seal on it. Other than that, everything was done by hand. Right. So I fell in love with cigars. One of my father's best friends owns a cigar lounge up in State College, you know, so I'm really involved in that cigar world. So by the time I'm 30, cuz I'm 25 by the time I'm 30, I would love to own my own cigar whiskey lounge. I mean, that's my goal. Like, don't get me wrong, I, I love working for other people. You know, I'm very blessed for the opportunities that I've had. You know what I mean? But I'm honest about it. I don't want to work for anyone else. I want to own my own thing. Yeah. You know, like you're eligible enough about it. Yeah. I mean, there's nothing wrong with that either. I mean mm-hmm. I want my own business. You know what I mean? Yeah. But that takes time. It takes money. Obvious. You know, but that's my, my near future goal is eventually opening that up. And I do have a name, but I can't say it out loud on. Yeah, you don't wanna, you don't wanna take it Yeah. I'm not gonna put that out there. Right. So, but you

Tyler:

know, have you been to Rocco's yet? Nope. I'll have to take you to Rocco sometime. Where's that? It's off of Marco Street. We'll, we'll get the calendars together and we'll

Anthony:

go out there. Isn't that by like all the car dealers? Okay. I've seen it. I've driven by it a bunch. Yeah, it's across from Toyota. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I know exactly where you're talking about. I just, you know, I've never been like, Hey, let's go there. Right.

Tyler:

Yeah. We'll get the, we'll get the calendars together

Anthony:

and we'll go sometimes. Yeah, absolutely. I would love them. Need someone to go there with

Tyler:

me. Yeah. yeah. Finding a better location than that, you'll, you'll do perfect

Anthony:

Yeah. That's what I'm saying. If you could, like, I don't want to be rude to any businesses downtown, but there's so many businesses that I'm like, you are wasting that building. Yeah. You know? And like, there's one that I, again, I'm not gonna say the name because I don't want to be rude, but it's like in a solo building. Mm-hmm. you know, and it just looks old school. I mean, it, it is a beautiful building, but the restaurant in it sucks you know, and I'm like, you are wasting that space. You know? I'm like, come on. Like, you know, there's so many gorgeous old buildings out here. That's what you need. Yeah. You know what I mean? You want people to feel like when they walk in your door, they're transported back in time. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, I, I don't know if you guys watch Peaky Blinders or anything like that. Yeah. But like, you want, you want them to feel like they're in some Peaky Blinders, you know? Like you want them to. like they're getting an experience, man. You know? And like definitely that. I love the buildings that are here. Some, I mean, some of them are just gorgeous, you know? So that's what you need, you know? Oh, for sure. Yeah. So,

Tyler:

well, Chris and I are always looking at different businesses for sale and stuff too, so if we see something that we think that might fit the bill

Anthony:

for you, we'll send it over. Oh yeah, definitely do it. Yeah, most definitely. I would love that. That's

Tyler:

awesome. Yeah, we talked to a lot of people too, so maybe we can make your, your dream of reality love

Anthony:

you part. Well, I would love that. Yeah. Why not? Certainly. Well,

Tyler:

thank you so much for coming on and bringing on these wonderful SCOs. I've never had anything like'em before, so I greatly appreciate

Anthony:

it. It means a lot to us. Yeah, I'd love to come back on again. We certainly will. I got plenty of them that I know you haven't tried before. Right. So, and there's too

Tyler:

much whiskey knowledge that you have that we bring onto this podcast. So we, we need to have you back on

Anthony:

again. Yeah, I was gonna say, we barely scratched the surface on that. Exactly. Again, it's so unique, so that's awesome. Thank you so much. Oh, for sure. And shaped away for sure. Well, I just wanted to say thank you for having me and I am looking forward to coming back. So, yeah.

Chris:

Do you have anything you wanna plug. Like social medias businesses?

Anthony:

No. So actually I'm one of the few people. I have zero social media. I don't like it. You know what I mean? It just causes chaos in your mind and makes you think of other things. And you know, I don't have that I don't really care for social media, but what I can say is, you know, if you want to talk to me more and anyone that's listening wants to learn a bit, you know, I'm always around at the restaurants. Again, I'm mainly at True Blue Butcher and Barrel downtown. Yeah. We're a whiskey specializing bar, which is why they have me there mainly. Right. We have about 300 whiskeys and phenomenal food. So you can always catch me around there. So other than that, I wish I had something to tell you this, but no, I'm not giving. That's perfect. I'm not giving you my Snapchat, that's all I have. So That's for me personally, so

Chris:

yeah. I love it. So, and I hear Barrel has one of the best burgers in town

Anthony:

too. Oh yeah, absolutely. If just there Tuesday. Yeah. Were you really? Yeah. Wow. Yeah, absolutely. I probably saw you probably is a good chance But every Wednesday we do our$5 burger night. So like if you really want to try, come in and do that. We just came, that's the second one. I, I put them up today. We just came out with our whiskey flights there, so I have eight different whiskey flights I put out. Mm-hmm. you know, to actually be able to try a bunch of different whiskeys at once. Mm-hmm. you know, I mean I think that's something that's a little bit underutilized in this town. I haven't found a place that really does that. Mm-hmm. you know, so it's a great way to try a bunch of different whiskeys. And also grab a really good burger for cheap, you know, so, but I'm always there so if you guys want to come in and chat more specifically, you two or anyone listening right now, you know, please feel free cuz I love talking about it. I mean, it's my life. Whiskeys is my life. So salt.

Tyler:

I'll be there on Wednesday. Alright, See you Wednesday. Yeah.

Anthony:

Love.

Chris:

That's awesome. But yeah. Thank you everybody for listening. To this episode the usual, leave us a, a nice review, like, comment, keep a lookout for any more giveaways that we might be doing just because we just like giving you guys free stuff. Yeah. Lead

Tyler:

up to the holidays. It's time to give.

Anthony:

There we go.

Chris:

Sweet. All right. Thank you everybody.

Tyler:

Thank you so much. Cheers. Cheers.

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