Ep. 13 - Noah Lirette : Louisiana Moonshine Legacy | Bayou Terrebonne Distillers
Miracles in Meat Podcast | Ep. 13 – Louisiana Moonshine & Cajun Craft Distilling with Noah Lirette
Uncovering Louisiana’s Moonshine Legacy
In this episode of Miracles in Meat, Shane Thibodaux sits down with Noah Lirette of Bayou Terrebonne Distillers to explore Louisiana’s bootlegging history and the modern craft distilling movement. From prohibition-era moonshiners to today’s distilleries, Noah shares untold stories of resilience, innovation, and Cajun heritage.
The Revival of a Lost Craft
Bayou Terrebonne Distillers is on a mission to bring back forgotten techniques while producing high-quality Louisiana whiskey and spirits. Noah dives into the challenges of craft distilling, from navigating strict regulations to maintaining authentic Cajun traditions in a fast-changing industry.
Inside This Episode:
🥃 Louisiana’s moonshine roots and how distilling shaped Cajun history
🥃 The craft distilling boom—how Bayou Terrebonne Distillers is reviving lost traditions
🥃 The impact of state and federal laws on small-batch distilleries
🥃 What it takes to create authentic Louisiana whiskey
Why You Should Listen:
Whether you’re a whiskey lover, history buff, or entrepreneur, this episode is packed with deep insights into Louisiana’s past, the modern craft spirit movement, and the determination required to preserve Cajun culture.
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🔗 Connect with Us:
🌐 Bourgeois Meat Market: www.bourgeoismeatmarket.com
🌐 Bayou Terrebonne Distillers: www.btdistillers.com
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📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bourgeoismeatmarket/
📩 Email: Shane@bourgeoismm@gmail.com
Transcript:
WEBVTT
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Music.
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You're listening to the Miracles in Meat Podcast. I'm Shane Thibodeau,
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the fourth generation butcher at one of the oldest meat markets in the world.
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My great-grandfather started this business by slaughtering one cow or pig at
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a time and selling the cuts door-to-door on horse and buggy.
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Today, our products were enjoyed across the globe. I will attempt to give you
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some insight as to how we got here and explore the challenges we've had along the way.
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At Bourgeois, our mission is to preserve our heritage generation after generation
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through legendary Cajun flavors and the development of relationships, not customers.
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Since 1891, Bourgeois has maintained age-old culinary traditions that fueled
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the South Louisiana lifestyle.
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Over the past 133 years, our Cajun products have gained global recognition,
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and for tens of thousands of
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folks around the world, the Bourgeois Cajun Lady logo is a symbol of home.
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Today, the fourth-generation butchers sit at the nine-foot maple
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block with loyal customers to discuss the adventures skills and passions that
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guide each of their legacies these conversations will become priceless resources
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for future generations of any industry this is our way of maintaining the spirit
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purpose and traditions of our lost arts in the world of change 133 years.
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Music.
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Okay, this is episode 13. Today I have Noah Liret with Bayou Terrebonne Distillers.
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I'm going to read you something from their website.
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If you click on their, like, about us section on their website, it says who we are.
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Located on historic downtown Homeless Waterfront, Bayou Terrebonne Distillers
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is a family-owned marsh roots company founded on the belief that honest joy
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is distilled from hard work and earned victories, both big and small.
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Our purpose is to preserve an illicit family tradition along with the unique
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culture of the Bayou region.
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Bayou Terrebonne Distillers is operated by the great-grandsons of a local moonshining
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legend and has been legal since 2019.
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So their great-grandmother, her name was Lily, she was a moonshiner during the Prohibition period.
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And she was also, fun fact, she was the first queen of Mardi Gras in Houma. She holds that title.
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So, I'll read on. Let's see. Her great-grandsons have carried on the family
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legacy, crafting liquor in Lily's defiant spirit and methodical fashion.
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All right. We're just going to wing this. I hope you don't mind about that. Sounds good.
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Let's go. I got some little. I'm surprised you got a sheet that's typed out. I've got my name on it.
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I've got some things I think about, but I don't know. I don't know how we'll do it.
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But I appreciate the bottle of Hogshead.
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Yeah, man. Golf kosher rum. Aged golf kosher rum.
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All right. Get back to telling me about this, the barrels, the barrel,
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the hogshead barrels. I thought that was pretty interesting.
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I've never heard that before.
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Yeah. So I discovered that too, just by doing research. I like to tie all our
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stuff at the distiller to some historical, something with some meaning.
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And we're looking for a name for this product, which is aged rum.
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And I was like, man, I want to tie it to something that's relevant to here.
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We have a silver rum, like an unaged rum that's called hardscrabble.
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And I named that after the Ellinger farm down in Montague, because it's a cool name.
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Uh, hardscrabble is a term for like bad dirt, like, you know,
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something like rocky that you can't really grow in.
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So I thought it was kind of interesting when I found out about that farm.
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I said, why would they call it hardscrabble when we have such good dirt down here?
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And, uh, my, my good buddy, those Ellingers over there, Chris,
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his daddy, been farming that forever. I said, man, tell me more about hardscrabble.
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And, uh, that's Alan J. Ellinger, the senator, that's their family, right? So Alan J.
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Handler's dad started that farm, and I found the account of how that name came to be.
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And somebody asked him, he said, why'd you call it hardscrabble?
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He said, because I came about the hard way. Like, that's badass.
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That's cool. So I asked Chris, I said, man, would you mind if we named our rum
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after your farm? He said, sure, man. So we did that.
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So that's, I'll tell you that because that's a good example of how we come about a name for our product.
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And uh when looking for a name for
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this one is just how we put it in a barrel what
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was some significant and I was interested before on those maps you see those
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those uh notations of hogsheads I'm like what's a freaking hogshead did a little
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research and never a term for a barrel you put sugar in it it's just a map on
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the back of the label when you look through the bottom yeah that old railroad
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map is something I found a while back.
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And one of those Sennac books. Have you ever looked at those Sennac books?
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It's an account of the history down here. He's done three.
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And that was kind of my start. I don't know that I have.
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Those are worth looking at. He's got Eyes of an Eagle, which is pretty much
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his family's history, the Sennacs.
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Then he put out, it's called Heart Scrabble to Hallelujah.
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And it's a story of every, an account of every farm from along Bayou Terrebonne,
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from Shriver all the way down the bayou.
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And Heart Scrabble was one. and uh that's kind
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of where i kind of learned about it too but those are excellent books if
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you want to know a little bit about our history here which
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is a great history and we talked about before we got on air about what you
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know about passion and this this podcast and for me passion is is history i
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love our local history and kind of learning where we came from i'm uh i'm ninth
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generation lee red in south louisiana and uh ever since i found out my origins
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it's been kind of my passion to understand that, why we're here,
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how we've been doing, you know, and kind of our lineage.
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And that's definitely taught the body to her. Which way did y'all come?
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We came, so we came from France. Lirettes are not true Cajuns. They're Frenchmen.
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The first Lirett was Jean-Pierre Lirett, and he married a exiled Cajun girl,
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Acadian girl, that was displaced from Nova Scotia.
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They brought her back to France, a little town called Nantes in France.
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And he was a son of a captain who did the ferrying, taking the Acadians to France.
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And they met. At that time, Acadians were eligible for a Spanish land grant
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to settle in Louisiana because at the time, Spain owned Louisiana,
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but they were having a lot of issues with squatters and people kind of just
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English people, Americans, you know, kind of squatting on Spanish land.
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And they wanted some people to kind of settle the land for them.
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So they figured, why not give it to these Acadians who have nothing?
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So it was like kind of a two birds, one stone deal because all these Acadians
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were on pretty much welfare on the French government.
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So Jean-Pierre met a little girl, Marie Derenberg.
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They married. They took a boat over.
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Ended up in Donaldsonville first and then made their way down to Terrebonne
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and had a little Spanish land grant for, what, 564 acres around Bayou Cain.
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And that's how we got here. One ligrette. That's cool, man. Yeah.
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We'll get into your grandmother or your great-grandmother. Great-grandma.
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We'll get into her story here in a little bit.
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But why the interest in the history in general?
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I don't know, man. I mean, I just like old stuff.
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I think that you can learn a lot from history.
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I think people don't really change, just the times change.
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And if you learn more about your history, you kind of get a better idea where you're going.
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And i mean that's that's an old adage but
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i do believe that's true and particularly for
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me it was easy for me to trace my history because i'm just a i'm just
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a pretty much french guy katian french guy that i
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can trace my my roots back pretty easily he's just
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a stray line so just the ease of it
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allowed me to get into it and truly starting the distillery kind of accelerated
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that because there was so much cool old stuff in that that building so that
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the like what would you yeah so by terrible on distillers was owned by the building
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was owned by a bloom and badgeron dry shrimp company they were started back in 1911,
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and they I mean they kept everything so when we bought the building from them me and my two cousins,
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There was just so much stuff. So much stuff that they actually,
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they cut us a check because they're like, man, I feel bad for leaving all this
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stuff behind that y'all have to deal with.
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I had no problem with it because it was just fascinating. Old letters, documents, pictures.
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And really- Shrimp stuff. Shrimp stuff. Everything, which is a fascinating bit.
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I love to talk about that too because people don't realize how cool of a business
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that is. Blooming Badgeron, they're still in business today.
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Where did they move? they moved to the corner of van and
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shoot industrial boulevard
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they built the building because they just needed more room but they built that
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building way back when and i mean they do international worldwide
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business and nobody really knows that they were actually the first the first
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business to do international seafood trade going out of america in the country
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they actually had the exclusive right to deal dried shrimp into china geez and
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what's cool is that I learned all those stories by just talking to those folks,
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man. This is Skippy Bloom.
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He's still around. He's a good old man.
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And I'll go visit before we bought the place. I go visit every week and he'd
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tell me a new story. And I just learned more and more about Terribone.
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So you had your eyes on that place for a while before you bought it?
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Or was it a in your face, call it now?
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It was just like a, just a, I didn't know it was for sale.
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It was just one of those deals. Like I kind of heard, I was looking for buildings
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for the distillery. and I wanted a cool building. I didn't want just an office warehouse.
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Well, of course. Everyone wants a cool building. Yeah. So I started looking
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downtown and had my eye on another building that kind of fell through and got
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word that the Blooms would be interested in selling their building at some point.
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So I just went and knocked on the door and told them what I wanted to do.
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And they said, come on in, man, let's talk. And we chatted and they didn't agree to sell it.
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They didn't agree to sell it for a while. I just go, I was like,
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I was dating them. I would go and visit with them And they'd tell me another
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story So I just wanted those things that kind of happened Tell me more about
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shrimp Tell me more about shrimp And they weren't shot.
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And at the end of it, they're like, well, I understand what you're trying to do.
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You know, obviously they built the place. They weren't really eager. A lot like bourgeois.
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Any young guys in the family? Yeah. In theirs? They passed it down.
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Got my age, Zach Bloom. He's running the show now. And just a great family business
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that, you know, they wanted to see that building be active and have a good business in it.
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Couldn't imagine passing this building down to another business, right?
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Exactly. And if you did, it'd be a long vetting process.
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That's what it was, man. But got to meet the parents and everything,
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you know, just like y'all, there's so many cool old family businesses around
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here that a lot of people don't understand their history and,
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uh, just a great story to tell, man.
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Bloom and Badgeron, if you, if you ever want to talk to some cool people,
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those guys are pretty awesome. For sure.
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And so what else is cool about that building to you? I've been in it,
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and I know what's cool about it to me.
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What's the key features that when you saw it, you knew you needed it?
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Well, when we first went in it, there's really, when you look at it from outside,
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there's not much to look at, just an old tin building.
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When you walk in, at least when I walked in the first time, it wasn't super
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apparent that it was too historical because they did a lot of renovations over
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the years, had a lot of drop ceilings and rooms.
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So anybody hasn't been in. So when you bought it, there was drop ceiling?
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Drop ceilings, a lot of interior rooms.
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You couldn't really see what you can see now, which is really open. Right. But.
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The one room that had a lot of historical stuff left in it was the office,
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which was the only room originally built out. Everything else was open.
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And they had an old safe in there. It's massive.
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I mean, when you close the door in the safe, it shakes. Yeah.
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And they had an old pent up on the wall and an old roll top desk.
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I'm like, man, this is, this is neat.
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And they told the story about that place and Skippy and them filled me in.
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But the, that office caught my eye. and then when you at the time they had two
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big walk-in coolers where they stored their shrimp and you can climb on top
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of them from from stairs and from there you could see.
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The rafters and all the old wood it's all cypress right
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which uh is probably the coolest thing physically
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about the building because at that time everything
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was built out of cypress because we had a shit ton of cypress around here but
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it all got logged out around 1920 and if
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anybody knows anything about cypress is that you can't just
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chop down a 20 year old cypress tree and turn
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it into lumber because it's soft it's got to be a really really old cypress
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tree to for lumber quality because it takes a long time for
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it to mature and the fact that that build
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was made you know fully of cypress is that it's
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time stamped you know most most buildings after that time
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period couldn't be built with cypress at least not from here so
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the fact that it's built with virgin cypress is pretty neat
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and it's it's unique and that's probably my favorite thing
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about it wood floors old bay doors i mean yeah
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that's really cool the cool thing about the bay doors is that the locks
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on were built out of a old railroad spikes they built
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them themselves and uh a lot of just cool little like little just nuances about
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that building that make it unique that you really can't replicate you know and
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i guess let's do it now let's get into why why the moonshine business moonshine business?
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Well, it's, I guess the easiest answer for that is it's very much in my blood.
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So when I was a, a younger lad about, I'm getting old now, about, uh.
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18 years ago, I guess, me and my cousin, Rodney and my, uh, my pirate Mark Liret,
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we started playing around with this old copper pot still that he had in his
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house that I heard stories about my whole life, but really didn't know too much about.
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So this is a little six gallon copper pot. Looks like a milk jug, old timey milk jug.
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And it belonged to my great grandmother, Lily LaBuff Liret.
00:14:55.063 --> 00:15:01.203
She married into the Lirets and she made moonshine during prohibition. That was her deal.
00:15:01.383 --> 00:15:05.143
She had 13 kids and that was just her thing to put.
00:15:05.363 --> 00:15:08.203
She made money off of it, right? She helped put food on the table.
00:15:08.783 --> 00:15:13.043
My family, like a lot of families here, come from a lot of, you know.
00:15:14.309 --> 00:15:18.549
Farmers sharecroppers really and they're not not really too wealthy or anything like that and,
00:15:19.029 --> 00:15:21.769
if you have any type of person like that
00:15:21.769 --> 00:15:24.629
in your lineage they most likely made moonshine during the
00:15:24.629 --> 00:15:27.329
days when it's illegal because it's just an easy way to put a
00:15:27.329 --> 00:15:30.369
little extra money in the in the jar and that's
00:15:30.369 --> 00:15:33.349
what she did man she made moonshine the neat thing about her
00:15:33.349 --> 00:15:36.689
besides her just being really can i
00:15:36.689 --> 00:15:40.249
you know you know what that means just wily is
00:15:40.249 --> 00:15:43.509
that she was our town's first mardi girl queen so she
00:15:43.509 --> 00:15:46.889
was the first queen of mardi gras and homo back in 1916 so
00:15:46.889 --> 00:15:49.809
she said so she well i got pictures to prove it all
00:15:49.809 --> 00:15:52.809
right pictures to prove it mr t go with the planus the
00:15:52.809 --> 00:15:55.489
father of mardi gras named her the first mardi gras
00:15:55.489 --> 00:15:58.489
queen and the route back then was not the route
00:15:58.489 --> 00:16:02.969
we have today for mardi gras it was in bayou cane and it just went down they
00:16:02.969 --> 00:16:08.489
had like you know horse-drawn floats with spanish moss and palmetto's and wildflowers
00:16:08.489 --> 00:16:12.729
pictures of that that's really cool that was in those synag books actually and
00:16:12.729 --> 00:16:16.209
she was the first queen and that's back when she was 16,
00:16:16.669 --> 00:16:24.209
and she uh met my uh my great great grandfather henry and they had a family they worked a farm,
00:16:25.249 --> 00:16:28.829
and she made moonshine she taught our kids how to do it do you know how she
00:16:28.829 --> 00:16:32.689
learned i don't know it ain't hard a lot of people think.
00:16:34.159 --> 00:16:38.019
Distilling is complicated, but it's really not. Yeah. Well, she didn't have YouTube.
00:16:38.679 --> 00:16:43.839
She didn't have YouTube, that's for sure. But I'm sure she learned it from some old timers, man.
00:16:43.999 --> 00:16:48.159
I mean, I think that's another reason why I love history so much is because
00:16:48.159 --> 00:16:52.739
you can learn a lot from folks, especially the older folks.
00:16:53.459 --> 00:16:59.759
And how similar is this to what she made, you think? I expect that.
00:17:00.219 --> 00:17:03.199
Did she make a specific, did she make bourbon? did she do just
00:17:03.199 --> 00:17:05.879
how was it done back then so probably didn't
00:17:05.879 --> 00:17:08.839
make any bourbon um i would
00:17:08.839 --> 00:17:12.119
imagine she made a lot of things that
00:17:12.119 --> 00:17:16.259
she had really available to her on the farm so probably
00:17:16.259 --> 00:17:19.659
a lot of brandy brandy's made from fruit so they
00:17:19.659 --> 00:17:22.539
had fruit trees they had satsuma trees just like a lot of people have some
00:17:22.539 --> 00:17:25.219
imagine she made a lot of brandy i imagine she made a
00:17:25.219 --> 00:17:28.299
lot of sugar cane a lot of rum a lot of sugar cane too because that was a
00:17:28.299 --> 00:17:31.079
prominent crop still today so she
00:17:31.079 --> 00:17:33.759
probably made a lot of that i would expect that she made
00:17:33.759 --> 00:17:37.559
a lot of unaged spirits a lot of clear stuff because she during that
00:17:37.559 --> 00:17:40.519
time it's quicker quicker cash quicker yeah
00:17:40.519 --> 00:17:43.239
and then you don't want that sitting around too long because yeah it was
00:17:43.239 --> 00:17:47.559
illegal all right so she made a lot of a lot of moonshine we call that today
00:17:47.559 --> 00:17:53.399
about a lot of the moon illegal alcohol but i would imagine a lot of rum a lot
00:17:53.399 --> 00:17:59.579
of brandy uh maybe some whiskey but all in that all in that one still yeah that
00:17:59.579 --> 00:18:01.119
thing has some magic in it, dude. Oh.
00:18:01.519 --> 00:18:04.779
How long does it take to start to finish? To make a pot of whiskey.
00:18:05.339 --> 00:18:09.819
Not to age it, to say to have it out, put it in a bottle and sell it. Mm.
00:18:10.719 --> 00:18:15.819
Two weeks, three weeks. So she was running one of those, where I guess once you get through that.
00:18:17.109 --> 00:18:21.649
Process you can you can start another one while you're on to the next step yeah
00:18:21.649 --> 00:18:26.369
you're just kind of rotating it so to make to make alcohol very simple anybody
00:18:26.369 --> 00:18:30.309
wants to make alcohol super simple all you need is you need to start with sugar
00:18:30.309 --> 00:18:33.289
all right and if you got fruit or if you got,
00:18:33.789 --> 00:18:36.669
sugar or molasses it's that the hard part's done
00:18:36.669 --> 00:18:40.089
from there you just need to pitch some yeast in it and the longest part of all
00:18:40.089 --> 00:18:44.049
this whole process is the fermentation fermentation will take you anywhere between
00:18:44.049 --> 00:18:49.749
three to three days to two weeks depending on how cold it is because the hotter
00:18:49.749 --> 00:18:55.529
it is the faster it's going to ferment from there you distill it that'll take you maybe a half a day,
00:18:56.149 --> 00:18:59.349
while while i'm thinking about this right now how does
00:18:59.349 --> 00:19:02.949
how does time of year around here and weather
00:19:02.949 --> 00:19:06.469
and stuff like that affect like your planning throughout
00:19:06.469 --> 00:19:09.269
the year so we try it when it gets colder right now
00:19:09.269 --> 00:19:12.429
yeah colder humid does that humid's great
00:19:12.429 --> 00:19:16.749
but it affects it right it makes a difference yeah well especially for the aging
00:19:16.749 --> 00:19:20.329
that's something that we learned after the fact from just talking with other
00:19:20.329 --> 00:19:23.929
distillers around the country and this kind of deviating a little bit but i
00:19:23.929 --> 00:19:29.989
think it's important so when you age any type of spirit in a barrel a wooden barrel.
00:19:30.669 --> 00:19:33.709
The key to aging anything the thing that gives that bottle
00:19:33.709 --> 00:19:36.369
color that that rum color is the
00:19:36.369 --> 00:19:40.009
wood itself and the in the char of the wood inside
00:19:40.009 --> 00:19:42.929
the barrel the hotter it is
00:19:42.929 --> 00:19:46.929
outside the faster that's gonna happen because it's
00:19:46.929 --> 00:19:49.709
just it's wood breathe right hotter and
00:19:49.709 --> 00:19:52.649
colder yeah so when you have a hot and the you
00:19:52.649 --> 00:19:55.389
know it's gonna get colder in the in the it's gonna
00:19:55.389 --> 00:19:59.589
get colder or it's gonna cool down at night when the sun goes down and that
00:19:59.589 --> 00:20:03.289
barrel is just expanding all day in that heat and then when it cools down it
00:20:03.289 --> 00:20:06.589
kind of contracts and it spits that whiskey back out for that rum It's almost
00:20:06.589 --> 00:20:12.189
like expanding its surface area and absorbing more and then pushing it,
00:20:12.269 --> 00:20:13.129
absorbing more and pushing it.
00:20:13.209 --> 00:20:16.269
It's almost like a pressure cooker, really. It's almost like mixing it, I guess. Yeah.
00:20:16.529 --> 00:20:19.809
I mean, it's breathing it in and it's spitting it out. And every time it does
00:20:19.809 --> 00:20:21.809
that, you get a little more color, a little more flavor.
00:20:22.309 --> 00:20:27.389
What did, what was your grandmother's name? Lily. What did she barrel in?
00:20:27.829 --> 00:20:30.809
I don't think she barreled at all. Just straight in jars. Just straight.
00:20:30.909 --> 00:20:32.509
Mason jars, I guess. In fact.
00:20:32.729 --> 00:20:36.569
Or whatever she could find. So we used to have, my grandpa was the last person
00:20:36.569 --> 00:20:41.649
to have a garden on our, that little Spanish land grant I was telling you about where we settled down.
00:20:42.329 --> 00:20:47.309
And he was, uh, he was tilling up his garden one time and he hit a couple of
00:20:47.309 --> 00:20:50.409
jars of that moonshine that she buried. Oh, that's cool.
00:20:50.629 --> 00:20:55.229
And that's what's on the map. Gotcha. That's on the map. I know now. Yeah. Yeah.
00:20:56.143 --> 00:21:00.523
All right, so there's more. She has more somewhere. That was a cool thing, man.
00:21:00.783 --> 00:21:06.963
Without her stories, we wouldn't have started this place because finding moonshine
00:21:06.963 --> 00:21:11.103
buried in the garden, we had an uncle that,
00:21:11.523 --> 00:21:16.263
Russell, man, he was my grandpa's cousin. We just called him Uncle Russell.
00:21:16.583 --> 00:21:20.963
And he would tell us stories before he passed about if you dug up by your tarabone
00:21:20.963 --> 00:21:25.403
across from your papa's farm, you find so many mason jars back there.
00:21:25.403 --> 00:21:28.463
In that pocket because you're you know just sometimes you
00:21:28.463 --> 00:21:31.583
have to dump it you know and hearing those
00:21:31.583 --> 00:21:35.203
stories like man that is neat without those stories from
00:21:35.203 --> 00:21:38.243
lily we wouldn't be here today because it wouldn't be worth anything at the
00:21:38.243 --> 00:21:41.363
end of the day that that's rum but what it
00:21:41.363 --> 00:21:45.123
really is for us is a conduit to tell that story you
00:21:45.123 --> 00:21:47.983
know sure this is i mean it's the same same as this place yeah
00:21:47.983 --> 00:21:50.943
you know people people like the
00:21:50.943 --> 00:21:53.803
beef jerky and it's good and it's awesome and
00:21:53.803 --> 00:21:56.723
they like the boudin but that's not really it
00:21:56.723 --> 00:22:01.243
that's not it you know it's the place it's like it's a it's something that lives
00:22:01.243 --> 00:22:05.883
it's just yeah and you can't explain it and it's it's cool to see it's cool
00:22:05.883 --> 00:22:11.643
to see employees that have been here for years start to like they start to get
00:22:11.643 --> 00:22:16.443
it like this you you could just see like you you can feel it on them you can you can see.
00:22:17.469 --> 00:22:20.689
You get it now. It's not really this. It's not about that.
00:22:21.309 --> 00:22:26.769
It's good stuff. It's good. And we'll do it the same, but that's not really why.
00:22:27.489 --> 00:22:28.729
People want something cool.
00:22:29.729 --> 00:22:34.649
I mean, I think so. I don't know. I mean, people definitely buy things for price and all that crap.
00:22:34.809 --> 00:22:39.089
But I truly believe, at least me, I like things with a story.
00:22:39.329 --> 00:22:40.929
I like things that mean something.
00:22:41.629 --> 00:22:46.749
This place means something. I try to make my business mean something beyond.
00:22:46.749 --> 00:22:48.029
And you're not going to get it.
00:22:48.469 --> 00:22:51.789
Not everybody's going to get it, right? But if you come by and you talk to us,
00:22:51.869 --> 00:22:54.329
you'll get it. Just like coming over here and talking to you.
00:22:55.109 --> 00:22:59.269
And that's what's important to me. And maybe that doesn't translate to more sales. I don't know.
00:22:59.449 --> 00:23:03.769
But to me, it's more important. It sure doesn't. Because you can get quicker.
00:23:04.009 --> 00:23:08.489
You can get sales. Like if that's all you wanted, you can get some quick sales, right?
00:23:08.849 --> 00:23:12.749
But it's not going to last a couple of generations doing that, you know?
00:23:13.689 --> 00:23:20.309
So when you first started, say when you were pursuing starting this distillery
00:23:20.309 --> 00:23:22.789
business, what were you after?
00:23:22.969 --> 00:23:27.269
What did you want? Did you want to make the best bourbon? Did you just want
00:23:27.269 --> 00:23:29.009
to tell the story and carry on the tradition?
00:23:29.409 --> 00:23:34.249
Did you want to kind of start your own name in your family?
00:23:34.469 --> 00:23:39.789
What was that maybe first motivation or the most important motivation?
00:23:40.829 --> 00:23:44.089
Motivation was to keep the story going, truly.
00:23:44.389 --> 00:23:46.769
I mean, that was, we didn't know we wanted to make bourbon. I mean,
00:23:46.789 --> 00:23:48.369
I like bourbon. That's why we made it first.
00:23:48.569 --> 00:23:53.509
There was an opportunity at the time to be the first Louisiana bourbon because
00:23:53.509 --> 00:23:55.229
we don't grow a ton of corn here.
00:23:55.609 --> 00:24:00.549
Grow a lot of sugar, sugar cane. What was Pelche doing?
00:24:00.869 --> 00:24:05.429
So when I was working on my business plan for this. Which was what year?
00:24:06.289 --> 00:24:10.709
They came out with the first bourbon in 2012. They opened up in 2008.
00:24:11.009 --> 00:24:12.329
And when were you planning?
00:24:13.029 --> 00:24:18.249
So I started working on this business plan when I was still in school at LSU in 2011.
00:24:21.260 --> 00:24:26.040
And at the time, Donner and Pellinger were the third registered distillery in the state.
00:24:26.240 --> 00:24:30.800
Now we got a couple dozen, maybe even a few dozen now. But at the time,
00:24:30.880 --> 00:24:31.640
they were one of the first.
00:24:32.420 --> 00:24:35.460
And they were making rum. They had the vodka. They had gin.
00:24:35.860 --> 00:24:40.480
They didn't come out with a whiskey yet. And by the time that I had my business
00:24:40.480 --> 00:24:42.960
plan ready to go, they came out with LA1 whiskey.
00:24:42.960 --> 00:24:47.880
But so in the business, in the planning phase, you knew that there was a chance
00:24:47.880 --> 00:24:51.500
you could have, if you get everything together, you could have that first bourbon.
00:24:51.740 --> 00:24:55.120
Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. That was. And then they dropped their bourbon. Yeah.
00:24:55.440 --> 00:24:59.280
Yeah. I was like, well, shit, there goes my opportunity to have the first Louisiana made whiskey.
00:24:59.860 --> 00:25:02.880
Well, actually we still had the first Louisiana bourbon, but they had the first
00:25:02.880 --> 00:25:05.180
Louisiana whiskey because LA1 isn't technically bourbon.
00:25:05.640 --> 00:25:08.900
Because of barreling process or what's in it? A few things.
00:25:09.240 --> 00:25:12.720
All right. What makes a bourbon? So to be a bourbon, you got to be 51% corn.
00:25:13.020 --> 00:25:17.480
It's got to be aged in a brand new charred oak barrel, American charred oak barrel.
00:25:17.680 --> 00:25:25.220
It's got to be bottled at or above 80 proof, and it's got to be barreled at or below 125 proof.
00:25:25.620 --> 00:25:31.480
The thing that disqualified LA1 whiskey as a bourbon was the barrel entry proof.
00:25:31.780 --> 00:25:36.620
They had some of their barrels, they put in at 130. As an error?
00:25:37.080 --> 00:25:40.020
No, no, no. They didn't care about it? I think they did that on purpose because
00:25:40.020 --> 00:25:41.220
they wanted to distinguish themselves.
00:25:41.400 --> 00:25:44.280
They didn't want to get boxed into a bourbon because if you look,
00:25:44.460 --> 00:25:50.040
if you taste LA one, it's a very unique whiskey and it doesn't really taste like a bourbon.
00:25:50.120 --> 00:25:52.920
It's got a lot of rye and it's got chocolate, malted barley.
00:25:53.100 --> 00:25:54.200
It's got a lot of stuff going on.
00:25:54.400 --> 00:25:56.620
And I think they didn't want to box themselves into bourbon.
00:25:57.809 --> 00:26:02.529
I like bourbon. I like the sweet notes of bourbon. I like that caramel toffee
00:26:02.529 --> 00:26:05.249
finish. I thought there was an opportunity to do bourbon.
00:26:05.869 --> 00:26:10.589
How old were you when you made your first batch of whatever you made? Shoot.
00:26:11.269 --> 00:26:15.969
So is your dad the one who taught you? No. No. I taught myself,
00:26:16.109 --> 00:26:17.709
man. Really? From YouTube, actually.
00:26:18.269 --> 00:26:21.229
Yeah, man. Just like mama, huh? Man.
00:26:21.909 --> 00:26:26.209
So that's still, my great-grandma still was in my pirate house on a coffee table
00:26:26.209 --> 00:26:27.709
as like just a conversation piece.
00:26:28.609 --> 00:26:31.649
And that show moonshiners came out on discovery channel
00:26:31.649 --> 00:26:35.569
at that time around 2010 i
00:26:35.569 --> 00:26:38.169
guess whatever and it just you know
00:26:38.169 --> 00:26:40.949
captivated the nation so it's like
00:26:40.949 --> 00:26:44.569
hey pirate does that still work you think or we think it
00:26:44.569 --> 00:26:48.009
was clean it up let's find out so i took it home cleaned
00:26:48.009 --> 00:26:51.109
it up got all shiny and uh googled
00:26:51.109 --> 00:26:54.169
up just googled a recipe how to make moonshine yeah
00:26:54.169 --> 00:26:57.449
found something when we just started playing around and
00:26:57.449 --> 00:27:00.889
uh i take all that back with me to my buddies up
00:27:00.889 --> 00:27:03.649
to college and sold some i drank
00:27:03.649 --> 00:27:07.829
a lot of it it was terrible absolutely terrible and
00:27:07.829 --> 00:27:10.609
how many years after that until you had something that tasted
00:27:10.609 --> 00:27:13.429
pretty good didn't take too long man we figured it
00:27:13.429 --> 00:27:16.349
out so we got we got pretty fancy ways of
00:27:16.349 --> 00:27:19.569
measuring alcohol content and temperature nowadays
00:27:19.569 --> 00:27:22.389
but what we used to do me and my power back in
00:27:22.389 --> 00:27:25.169
the day in the shed is we would it would
00:27:25.169 --> 00:27:28.429
come out the spout right and we would take it a little
00:27:28.429 --> 00:27:33.069
spoon and we'd light it on fire and when it didn't stay lit for about five seconds
00:27:33.069 --> 00:27:37.789
we'd shut the still off because when you're distilling you know the first thing
00:27:37.789 --> 00:27:46.629
water distills at at 212 degrees or condensates whatever at 212 ethanol which is what that is.
00:27:47.249 --> 00:27:50.449
Comes off at 170, right?
00:27:50.589 --> 00:27:55.269
So you got that from 170 to 1 to 212, you're cooking ethanol.
00:27:55.689 --> 00:27:59.349
And once you get to 212, all the alcohol is out of the mash.
00:28:00.049 --> 00:28:02.369
There's a balance point in there
00:28:02.369 --> 00:28:06.329
where you want to make a good cut so your alcohol doesn't taste too bad.
00:28:06.449 --> 00:28:10.009
Because the lower your alcohol content and higher your water content comes out,
00:28:10.069 --> 00:28:12.449
you distill it, it starts to kind of taste kind of funky.
00:28:12.829 --> 00:28:16.149
So you got to kind of find that balance. And we determined that balance was
00:28:16.149 --> 00:28:20.029
to be at the point where you couldn't light it for five seconds.
00:28:20.689 --> 00:28:24.109
Now- Which isn't a measurement. It's not really a measurement.
00:28:24.509 --> 00:28:26.829
It's like, yeah, it's like an art, right? It's a feel, right?
00:28:26.949 --> 00:28:29.929
Yeah. That's the cool thing about distilling too, is that there's a lot of art
00:28:29.929 --> 00:28:31.849
to it. A lot of subjectivity.
00:28:32.709 --> 00:28:36.469
Every distillery makes their own cuts in their own way. You got to taste it.
00:28:36.549 --> 00:28:39.729
I mean, I used to tell people, that's why I had to drink whiskey at seven in
00:28:39.729 --> 00:28:43.649
the morning, man, because I would start my stills at five and have to taste
00:28:43.649 --> 00:28:48.569
it and figure out where we're at. but there's an art to it, for sure.
00:28:49.349 --> 00:28:53.849
It's fun, man. It's one of those old-timey, I mean, I guess a lot like the butcher
00:28:53.849 --> 00:28:56.249
business is one of those things that.
00:28:57.287 --> 00:29:00.307
It's an old profession, which I love that, right?
00:29:00.627 --> 00:29:04.767
Yeah. Nowadays, everything's so technical and, you know, you make your living
00:29:04.767 --> 00:29:09.187
in a lot of different ways, but there's not too many ways to make a living doing something really old.
00:29:10.167 --> 00:29:16.007
Where are you getting your materials, ingredients from? You getting corn from where?
00:29:16.747 --> 00:29:20.287
That's one of the things we're most proud of. So this little gold sticker on
00:29:20.287 --> 00:29:21.967
here, that's from the Department of Ag.
00:29:22.627 --> 00:29:27.287
And to get that gold sticker, 80% of the ingredients have to come from Louisiana,
00:29:27.287 --> 00:29:31.267
which is very convenient for us because our first product that we made,
00:29:31.587 --> 00:29:35.867
Contraband, which is our clear corn whiskey, is a corn whiskey.
00:29:36.047 --> 00:29:39.287
And to be corn whiskey, it has to be 80% corn.
00:29:39.847 --> 00:29:45.227
To be a certified Louisiana product, 80% of your ingredients have to come from Louisiana.
00:29:45.227 --> 00:29:49.587
So we found a place in Alexandria that had certified Louisiana corn,
00:29:49.987 --> 00:29:55.727
concocted a grain bill of 82% corn, 18% malted barley, and ran with it.
00:29:55.867 --> 00:30:02.267
So the majority of our ingredients for our whiskey comes from Louisiana, 82% of it.
00:30:02.447 --> 00:30:06.087
But 100% of our rum ingredients come from Louisiana.
00:30:06.547 --> 00:30:12.647
I'm trying to find something to show you. I guess it's nowhere, but our Cajun Lady logo.
00:30:12.647 --> 00:30:15.767
I don't have a hat on or anything but the cajun
00:30:15.767 --> 00:30:19.547
lady logo it says product of louisiana cajun so that
00:30:19.547 --> 00:30:22.787
that was the old this sticker
00:30:22.787 --> 00:30:27.427
this this certification that was the old one but it's very old and you can't
00:30:27.427 --> 00:30:32.807
even find it like you can't even find that picture anymore but so you know we
00:30:32.807 --> 00:30:37.007
just had the business name it was just you know just bourgeois meat market and
00:30:37.007 --> 00:30:41.527
on the side of that we We were once a part of that certification,
00:30:41.787 --> 00:30:46.387
whatever you pay, you pay them and you, as long as you meet their guidelines, you get the sticker.
00:30:47.673 --> 00:30:51.473
And that just went for so long that that slowly became part of our logo.
00:30:51.633 --> 00:30:54.633
That's how they all got that logo. And now they ditched that. Like that thing's gone.
00:30:54.893 --> 00:30:59.613
It's a new thing now. It says, it's very close to this, but it's the same.
00:30:59.673 --> 00:31:02.693
It's Louisiana boot shape now. Mm-hmm. And that's.
00:31:03.193 --> 00:31:07.553
What's the origin of that picture? Is that like some sort of significance? Like some old art?
00:31:07.873 --> 00:31:11.873
I think that was the, I think that was the image.
00:31:12.453 --> 00:31:15.013
I mean, I know the image you're talking about, but how did they come up?
00:31:15.093 --> 00:31:19.633
Did you think they got drawn just for that program? Yeah, I would assume.
00:31:19.913 --> 00:31:22.713
Like why a lady, an old lady? Yeah, I would assume.
00:31:23.553 --> 00:31:28.453
It's cool. I've recently sort of like re-digitalized it.
00:31:28.813 --> 00:31:34.033
I had like a freelancer, just kind of modernized the image, make it not super
00:31:34.033 --> 00:31:38.773
modern, but a little more look to it. It came out really, really cool.
00:31:38.873 --> 00:31:41.833
Y'all get any calls from Certified Louisiana about that?
00:31:42.233 --> 00:31:47.193
No, not about that. We have about the actual, you know, the current program.
00:31:47.693 --> 00:31:52.213
Which I don't know that we are a member of it anymore. I don't know.
00:31:52.413 --> 00:31:54.973
You got to pay like 50 bucks for a brand or something like that. Yeah.
00:31:55.253 --> 00:32:00.233
They like verify that you got to verify you got your ingredients from Louisiana. So-
00:32:00.816 --> 00:32:05.836
Corn's coming from, okay, from local sugar. Lafourche sugars.
00:32:06.156 --> 00:32:07.536
You can go right out of Lafourche. Mm-hmm.
00:32:08.276 --> 00:32:12.596
You're getting molasses? You're getting sugar? So we do a little bit of molasses.
00:32:12.776 --> 00:32:18.416
So the primary substrate for that bottle of rum right there is mostly sugar.
00:32:18.636 --> 00:32:21.496
We had a little bit of molasses, just kind of add some flavor to it.
00:32:22.076 --> 00:32:25.956
But it's mostly raw sugar, what we use for that.
00:32:26.816 --> 00:32:30.536
You went over there the first time? Yeah, man. And I'll tell you what,
00:32:30.876 --> 00:32:34.596
getting, getting a five gallon bucket, they hate me.
00:32:35.776 --> 00:32:38.636
They're nice people. A guy over there, Ben, man, he's super nice.
00:32:38.856 --> 00:32:43.476
He always indulges me, but like, you know, they got big trucks coming in there all day, every day.
00:32:43.576 --> 00:32:48.136
And they got to pretty much like shut down for me with my little IBC tank to
00:32:48.136 --> 00:32:51.016
fill me up like 2000 pounds, which is like nothing for them. Right.
00:32:51.176 --> 00:32:54.316
So they definitely indulge me over there and I really appreciate it.
00:32:54.316 --> 00:32:56.096
I bring them a bottle every time I go. Yeah.
00:32:56.496 --> 00:33:00.496
Along with paying them too. That's cool. But, uh, but yeah, man, like great guy.
00:33:00.796 --> 00:33:06.036
One of those guys that knows the value of local and, uh, wants to see local products get made.
00:33:06.416 --> 00:33:12.056
What about, uh, what about water right out the bay? So we use, yeah, cool.
00:33:12.396 --> 00:33:17.516
We use city water for our, uh, our mash. So we got an RO filter and we just filter it like that.
00:33:17.636 --> 00:33:20.996
And we cut it with like when we're cut down. So when you make a pot of whiskey,
00:33:21.516 --> 00:33:26.216
right, it's going to be like 140 proof when it's done distilling and that's
00:33:26.216 --> 00:33:28.536
extremely hot, right? You don't want to put that in a bottle.
00:33:29.116 --> 00:33:31.096
So we cut that down with distilled water.
00:33:31.956 --> 00:33:34.916
And those are one of those things you kind of figure out. So you can't just
00:33:34.916 --> 00:33:39.696
cut down whiskey with any old type of water, like Dasani or anything like that.
00:33:39.756 --> 00:33:43.516
Because if there's any minerals or anything like that, it clouds it.
00:33:43.816 --> 00:33:45.236
It makes it look ugly.
00:33:45.576 --> 00:33:51.296
So to get good, clear whiskey, you got to cut it with distilled, super clean water.
00:33:51.636 --> 00:33:55.456
My uncle makes some stuff. I know.
00:33:55.556 --> 00:33:58.976
I think I've had some. Sean, but he runs up to Mississippi and goes,
00:33:59.096 --> 00:34:02.036
get a big barrel full of well water when he does it. He does.
00:34:03.328 --> 00:34:06.728
That's part of his little tricks. That's kind of like, you know,
00:34:06.748 --> 00:34:08.248
it makes a difference too, man. Yeah.
00:34:08.748 --> 00:34:11.748
That's why a lot of those places in Kentucky or where they're at,
00:34:11.868 --> 00:34:15.448
those old distilleries, because they're next to a good creek, you know? Yeah.
00:34:17.448 --> 00:34:23.108
How's the business doing? What's been some of the hardest things throughout the years?
00:34:23.128 --> 00:34:28.728
I know we just, we've both been through COVID and we've been through some heavy storms.
00:34:29.428 --> 00:34:35.608
I know COVID, the storms and COVID for us really just turned into a nightmare and it's still there.
00:34:35.808 --> 00:34:40.828
It's still, we're still feeling the effects of materials and stuff and,
00:34:40.828 --> 00:34:46.008
you know, triple, quadruple prices on costs of things.
00:34:46.008 --> 00:34:52.268
And it was pretty miserable, but how did that affect you as kind of being a
00:34:52.268 --> 00:34:53.568
newer business, you know?
00:34:53.888 --> 00:34:59.868
Dude, we're used to misery. Yeah. I mean, like we opened up our doors a month
00:34:59.868 --> 00:35:01.188
before the COVID closure started.
00:35:02.168 --> 00:35:07.688
So we, we, we just stepped right in it. And, uh, I mean, that sucked.
00:35:08.188 --> 00:35:10.268
It's, I mean, we knew nothing else, truly.
00:35:11.328 --> 00:35:16.068
We, every time we have, every time we're faced with some sort of issue like
00:35:16.068 --> 00:35:19.668
that, I mean, it's, it was COVID and it was Ida and then all the effects,
00:35:20.428 --> 00:35:22.948
political effects and everything following Ida too.
00:35:24.421 --> 00:35:27.381
I mean, that's the only thing we really know. We don't really know any good times yet.
00:35:27.521 --> 00:35:33.081
We just, our deal is, man, is that, you know, we're just trying to make it every
00:35:33.081 --> 00:35:34.541
day to keep the story alive.
00:35:35.061 --> 00:35:39.321
So it's always been a struggle. When you're a new, when you're a new distillery,
00:35:39.661 --> 00:35:43.521
I mean, go to the liquor store at Rouse's or wherever, Canata's.
00:35:44.041 --> 00:35:46.021
There's a hundred different bottles of whiskey on the shelf.
00:35:46.221 --> 00:35:49.861
And you got to sting yourself some way from all those different bottles.
00:35:49.861 --> 00:35:52.041
And, you know, we're not going to be able to compete on a low,
00:35:52.081 --> 00:35:57.481
a low cost strategy, right? We got, we got a differentiator product with a story.
00:35:57.741 --> 00:36:01.381
I mean, if you look at that bottle, we got wax and we got a really cool label.
00:36:01.521 --> 00:36:02.701
We got the map on the inside.
00:36:03.281 --> 00:36:06.721
All those things are the things we do to kind of separate ourselves.
00:36:06.901 --> 00:36:11.501
So it's, it's a battle every day, man. You know, you're always battling to make
00:36:11.501 --> 00:36:16.481
somebody figure out that your product is worth buying for a few dollars more
00:36:16.481 --> 00:36:19.381
than, you know, bottle of Jack Daniels or Tito's.
00:36:20.481 --> 00:36:23.121
So it's always a struggle, man, but that's all good. And it's tough,
00:36:23.461 --> 00:36:28.521
especially in tough times when penny pinching is kind of important.
00:36:28.921 --> 00:36:31.441
Yeah. Like you said, everything's going, everything's expensive,
00:36:31.581 --> 00:36:35.961
man. It hasn't stopped rising. My first barrel I bought was $155.
00:36:36.801 --> 00:36:40.141
Last time I bought a barrel was the same barrel with $265.
00:36:41.221 --> 00:36:44.601
So the barrels come charred, correct? Come charred. And they have to.
00:36:44.841 --> 00:36:47.521
Have to be. You can't char them yourself.
00:36:47.841 --> 00:36:51.521
You want to know the history of that? Sure. All right. So the reason why the
00:36:51.521 --> 00:36:57.681
first guy charred a barrel, a barrel to put whiskey in was because he had salted
00:36:57.681 --> 00:37:01.661
fish in it and he needed to store his whiskey.
00:37:02.061 --> 00:37:06.721
So he burned the inside of it to get all the fish out and then he put his whiskey
00:37:06.721 --> 00:37:09.621
in it, which is, I mean, you know, it's one of those, I love,
00:37:09.621 --> 00:37:10.701
I love unintended consequences.
00:37:11.641 --> 00:37:16.521
I mean, that's, that's everywhere, but distillation as an industry is full of
00:37:16.521 --> 00:37:18.881
them. Right. Right. Full of like bourbon.
00:37:19.821 --> 00:37:21.741
Bourbon has so many qualifiers to it.
00:37:23.026 --> 00:37:26.626
For a lot of reasons that are good and a lot of reasons that are pretty arbitrary.
00:37:27.186 --> 00:37:31.386
The reason why it's got to be a brand new Charter barrel every time is because
00:37:31.386 --> 00:37:34.226
that was back during the Franklin Roosevelt days.
00:37:34.486 --> 00:37:38.386
And that was part of the New Deal. He wanted to keep Coopridge's barrel makers in business.
00:37:38.746 --> 00:37:44.286
So he mandated that whiskey bourbon had to be aging a brand new Charter barrel
00:37:44.286 --> 00:37:46.826
every time. He had a brother-in-law in the barrel.
00:37:47.086 --> 00:37:49.226
Trying to take care of Coopridge's man.
00:37:50.106 --> 00:37:54.106
So there's so many crazy things. but you know, it all adds to what bourbon is
00:37:54.106 --> 00:37:55.926
now. I mean, bourbon's the American spirit.
00:37:56.246 --> 00:38:00.386
You know, it's, it's. What's your, what's your, I guess, favorite,
00:38:00.546 --> 00:38:02.686
favorite bourbon to go buy out in a store?
00:38:03.586 --> 00:38:07.706
If I had to go buy a bottle of bourbon, I'm a big, I love Buffalo Trace.
00:38:08.186 --> 00:38:12.266
Their whole, their whole lineage, I'm all about story. That's an old distillery. Blends.
00:38:12.766 --> 00:38:15.726
I mean, it's hard to beat a bottle of blends. That's what I'm gonna buy.
00:38:16.466 --> 00:38:21.866
I've been on a hard bullet kick. Bullet? It's hard for me to not buy a bullet.
00:38:22.526 --> 00:38:24.626
Bullet's good, man. It's just kind of too easy, you know? Yeah,
00:38:24.746 --> 00:38:27.026
bullet's good. I mean, they got four roses is great. They got a ton of good
00:38:27.026 --> 00:38:28.626
bourbons. How do you compare what you have now?
00:38:28.846 --> 00:38:30.886
All your different, you got a bourbon, you got a rum.
00:38:31.626 --> 00:38:37.106
You have the contraband is the clear, right? The good earth is the bourbon.
00:38:38.446 --> 00:38:42.046
This, the hogsheads, the rum. Is that the only three? We got a hard scrabble.
00:38:42.266 --> 00:38:44.066
What is that one? That's our clear rum.
00:38:44.706 --> 00:38:48.986
A clear rum, and then you got a clear whiskey. Right. So the clear whiskey is
00:38:48.986 --> 00:38:53.866
our bourbon, just unaged, and our clear rum is that, Hogshead, just unaged.
00:38:54.346 --> 00:38:57.346
All right. When you're coming up with one of these things and you say,
00:38:57.386 --> 00:38:59.946
I want to do a rum, do you have a rum in mind that you like?
00:38:59.986 --> 00:39:04.546
And you say, I want it to be kind of like this, but I want it to be like this,
00:39:04.626 --> 00:39:06.426
and I want it to be like this. It's all practical, man.
00:39:06.526 --> 00:39:12.626
We don't, we never, the reason why we came with our grain bill for our whiskey was we won.
00:39:12.786 --> 00:39:15.266
We wanted to have a certified Louisiana product.
00:39:15.786 --> 00:39:19.986
Corn is the only whiskey grain that really grows in Louisiana that you can get.
00:39:21.162 --> 00:39:24.542
And then the third and most important thing is that we needed to be able to
00:39:24.542 --> 00:39:27.262
sell something while our bourbon was aging.
00:39:27.522 --> 00:39:31.242
And corn whiskey is the only whiskey you're allowed to sell unaged.
00:39:31.522 --> 00:39:33.682
And to be a corn whiskey, it's got to be 80% corn.
00:39:34.162 --> 00:39:38.482
The only qualifier we did in terms of taste, besides just like truly practical
00:39:38.482 --> 00:39:42.902
reasons, was that we all like a really sweet bourbon. Me and my two cousins, I own it.
00:39:44.182 --> 00:39:47.382
And the more corn you have in your grain bill, the sweeter it's going to be.
00:39:47.542 --> 00:39:50.802
If you have more rye, it's going to be a little spicier. more barley it's gonna
00:39:50.802 --> 00:39:54.542
be more like earthier so we wanted have you ever thought about adding like a
00:39:54.542 --> 00:39:57.822
high rye or anything like that dude we don't have the production capacity to
00:39:57.822 --> 00:40:01.302
really like mess around yeah our whole deal was let's find something good and
00:40:01.302 --> 00:40:05.862
just do it well knock it out yeah so that's what we do so i've been in your
00:40:05.862 --> 00:40:07.382
uh place where you keep the barrels.
00:40:08.302 --> 00:40:11.262
How does that work you explain them you explain
00:40:11.262 --> 00:40:14.622
that to me you were barreling so i
00:40:14.622 --> 00:40:18.002
could i could buy a barrel good i could
00:40:18.002 --> 00:40:21.022
i can come make my own my own
00:40:21.022 --> 00:40:26.402
barrel of hogshead yeah if you want to work and pay me for it and have it and
00:40:26.402 --> 00:40:32.622
have it bottled so we do a barrel program we barrel whiskey you know all day
00:40:32.622 --> 00:40:37.302
every day if you want your own barrel of bourbon you can come pick it out you
00:40:37.302 --> 00:40:40.902
can have like we tell everybody look man you want to be part of the distillation process you want to come
00:40:40.992 --> 00:40:43.872
label it to whatever you want to do yeah you're more than welcome
00:40:43.872 --> 00:40:46.872
but our we have five gallon barrels
00:40:46.872 --> 00:40:49.612
we've got 10 gallon barrels we've got some bigger barrels too but we
00:40:49.612 --> 00:40:52.952
typically do our barrel program with those smaller barrels because it's just
00:40:52.952 --> 00:40:57.092
easier i mean you can like the little little yeah little chubbies yeah like
00:40:57.092 --> 00:41:01.832
little guys and that will yield you about 60 bottles of bourbon and those are
00:41:01.832 --> 00:41:06.072
our most popular and yeah you can pick out a barrel taste it and you tell us
00:41:06.072 --> 00:41:08.752
what proof you want like yeah i want a barrel strength i want an 80 proof or
00:41:08.752 --> 00:41:09.852
90 proof whatever you want,
00:41:10.472 --> 00:41:12.712
We'll customize it for you. We'll prove it wherever you want.
00:41:13.532 --> 00:41:19.452
And you'll leave with a big old pile of whiskey that you tasted, you picked, you proved.
00:41:20.032 --> 00:41:22.752
Where do you have to keep that? So it's got to stay.
00:41:23.372 --> 00:41:25.692
It's got to stay. That's the one thing. I can't just give you a,
00:41:25.852 --> 00:41:28.292
I can't be like, hey, Shane, here you go. Here's your barrel of whiskey. Why not?
00:41:29.712 --> 00:41:35.512
Because to leave a bonded premises, like a distillery, like we're a bonded premises
00:41:35.512 --> 00:41:36.512
in the eyes of the government.
00:41:37.012 --> 00:41:40.972
For alcohol to leave that bonded premises, it has to be bottled and labeled
00:41:40.972 --> 00:41:44.032
correctly before it leaves the case. What's that mean? What's bonded premises?
00:41:44.392 --> 00:41:50.172
So it's a place that has like a, pretty much an insurance policy on it. All right, so, so if a.
00:41:51.365 --> 00:41:55.705
If for something to happen, like we went out of business, Uncle Sam would still
00:41:55.705 --> 00:41:58.245
get their excise tax because we have that bond.
00:41:58.685 --> 00:42:03.045
All right. So we pay excise tax on, which is like a naughty tax, tax on firearm.
00:42:03.385 --> 00:42:06.765
For being bad. For being bad. Doing bad things. Having a contraband. Doing bad things.
00:42:07.105 --> 00:42:10.205
So you got to, if you're going to be making any type of booze,
00:42:10.245 --> 00:42:13.545
if you're going to be making any type of tobacco or making guns,
00:42:13.845 --> 00:42:16.945
you got to pay an excise tax to the federal government and the state too.
00:42:17.505 --> 00:42:22.025
They want to make sure that they get paid. So they require you to have a bond on your premises.
00:42:22.365 --> 00:42:26.145
So if, if my distillery went up in flames or something like that,
00:42:26.465 --> 00:42:29.785
that bond would make sure that the federal government would get their,
00:42:29.905 --> 00:42:34.085
their cut, you know, so that's, that's what a bond of premises is.
00:42:34.325 --> 00:42:37.365
In fact, the reason why we ended up with LA one.
00:42:37.625 --> 00:42:40.185
So talking about Donner and Peljee, you know, Gator Coolers,
00:42:40.185 --> 00:42:40.765
you're wearing their hat.
00:42:41.045 --> 00:42:44.645
So when Donner and Peljee shut down, right, we went over there and we bought
00:42:44.645 --> 00:42:47.265
a couple, a couple of tanks from them and stuff like that.
00:42:48.265 --> 00:42:55.405
I remember all that. Yeah. I actually sat at the, I sat in the warehouse for Ida.
00:42:55.825 --> 00:43:02.605
Yeah. Sat in the warehouse for Ida and watched those stills outside just kind
00:43:02.605 --> 00:43:03.665
of get pushed by the wind.
00:43:04.105 --> 00:43:08.285
But I remember all that equipment in there, like the first time they had gotten that building.
00:43:08.445 --> 00:43:12.705
It was. Seeing how massive all that stuff was. We just rolled up there one day, man.
00:43:13.245 --> 00:43:16.125
It's like, hey man, you want to sell any of this stuff? and at
00:43:16.125 --> 00:43:18.985
the time the plan for that distillery was
00:43:18.985 --> 00:43:22.325
to be sold to another distillery in new orleans and it
00:43:22.325 --> 00:43:25.145
fell through for whatever reason and then gator coolers ended
00:43:25.145 --> 00:43:28.585
up buying it well the tricky thing about that was
00:43:28.585 --> 00:43:31.445
that they couldn't take they couldn't legally take possession of that building
00:43:31.445 --> 00:43:34.245
until all that alcohol and all those barrels was
00:43:34.245 --> 00:43:37.805
either transferred to a bonder premises or destroyed
00:43:37.805 --> 00:43:40.565
and witnessed by a federal agent so they called
00:43:40.565 --> 00:43:43.685
us and hey y'all y'all want some of this whiskey and we
00:43:43.685 --> 00:43:47.465
made a deal with them and worked out but we uh
00:43:47.465 --> 00:43:50.045
so they'd have to come destroy it yeah it has
00:43:50.045 --> 00:43:52.985
to be you'd have to like like the old timey days when like the agents would
00:43:52.985 --> 00:43:58.105
come and hit the barrels with a hammer ruin it spill it yeah down the drain
00:43:58.105 --> 00:44:01.845
so either that or you know send it to another distillery that's crazy and they
00:44:01.845 --> 00:44:06.345
actually do that they still they do that that's all you have to you got to destroy
00:44:06.345 --> 00:44:07.785
it i mean you can put stuff in it,
00:44:08.345 --> 00:44:14.145
so like when we they think they're in a movie or something oh i'm sure atc agents are crazy man.
00:44:15.125 --> 00:44:17.965
But you can destroy whiskey in other ways
00:44:17.965 --> 00:44:20.905
so fun fact about the whole
00:44:20.905 --> 00:44:24.285
covid hand sanitizer days remember those i
00:44:24.285 --> 00:44:27.605
remember distillers were making hand sanitizer you made some we did too i got
00:44:27.605 --> 00:44:31.585
some of yours we did i still have it we had to do something i still have it
00:44:31.585 --> 00:44:35.965
here but in the early so when that first started it was like a mad dash because
00:44:35.965 --> 00:44:39.565
you know everything was shut down and Distillers were considered- God didn't
00:44:39.565 --> 00:44:41.005
make toilet paper, didn't you? No.
00:44:41.525 --> 00:44:44.005
You missed out. Definitely missed out on that. You really missed out.
00:44:45.658 --> 00:44:48.878
You can make, I mean, hand sanitizer is just alcohol. So obviously we can make
00:44:48.878 --> 00:44:50.598
it and we're considered an essential business.
00:44:51.078 --> 00:44:56.618
So early on, started making this hand sanitizer all across the country and folks
00:44:56.618 --> 00:44:59.898
were getting in trouble because like underage kids were drinking it,
00:45:00.358 --> 00:45:06.358
getting really sick because the other thing that goes in hand sanitizer besides
00:45:06.358 --> 00:45:09.918
alcohol is glycol and glycol keeps your hands from getting dry.
00:45:10.518 --> 00:45:15.478
So folks are drinking this hand sanitizer and just getting extremely sick, getting nasty.
00:45:15.658 --> 00:45:19.198
So they figured out like all right chill out
00:45:19.198 --> 00:45:21.818
the government's like all right y'all make hands sometimes you got
00:45:21.818 --> 00:45:24.518
to add a bittering agent to it so you can't drink
00:45:24.518 --> 00:45:27.378
it so you're like not only can't you drink it but if you ingest it
00:45:27.378 --> 00:45:30.078
you're gonna throw up immediately so we got some
00:45:30.078 --> 00:45:33.058
of this bittering agent and like man we had like 55
00:45:33.058 --> 00:45:36.018
gallons just full with alcohol and all
00:45:36.018 --> 00:45:39.598
you had to do was put like maybe man they made a quick
00:45:39.598 --> 00:45:42.718
dime off of that we did just like wrote just
00:45:42.718 --> 00:45:45.538
like roosevelt we made a uh it's funny
00:45:45.538 --> 00:45:48.338
man so at one point we
00:45:48.338 --> 00:45:51.238
were selling hand sanitizer back to the state for 80
00:45:51.238 --> 00:45:55.778
a gallon for hand sanitizer and i
00:45:55.778 --> 00:45:58.678
felt i felt that was justified because you know
00:45:58.678 --> 00:46:02.258
when they were out was blonde everywhere man so
00:46:02.258 --> 00:46:07.438
y'all y'all are heavy with uh regulations i'm i'm assuming what was that like
00:46:07.438 --> 00:46:12.598
just getting like final approvals to open up a distillery that seems like it'd
00:46:12.598 --> 00:46:17.958
be a daunting task massive barrier to entry we we just did i did all the paperwork
00:46:17.958 --> 00:46:20.698
for it was to sell the alcohol in gray.
00:46:22.000 --> 00:46:24.920
It's a lot. And it's, we don't, you know, we don't have a drinking on premise
00:46:24.920 --> 00:46:27.600
permit, you know, just selling, selling bottles.
00:46:28.460 --> 00:46:32.040
You know, it was a bit. It's a lot. It was a bit too much, you know?
00:46:32.140 --> 00:46:36.440
So I can't imagine if, if you're, you're trying to open up a business to make it.
00:46:36.640 --> 00:46:39.360
It's really the initial, the initial hurdle.
00:46:39.600 --> 00:46:44.020
After that, it's pretty much government as usual, just kind of lackadaisical
00:46:44.020 --> 00:46:47.280
and they check in on you every now and then. We got to do reports.
00:46:47.500 --> 00:46:50.960
I mean, we, you do have to keep a pretty tight log of all your alcohol on the
00:46:50.960 --> 00:46:54.920
premises. We got to submit that every month to the state and to the federal,
00:46:55.060 --> 00:46:57.300
to the TTB, the federal agency.
00:46:57.900 --> 00:47:02.340
So you got to do your reporting. But by far, the initial hurdle is the worst.
00:47:02.540 --> 00:47:06.460
And that's kind of a good thing too, because it keeps some people,
00:47:06.640 --> 00:47:08.100
it keeps a lot of people out, to be honest.
00:47:08.240 --> 00:47:12.460
The reason why breweries took off faster than distilleries is just less front
00:47:12.460 --> 00:47:16.600
end permitting, right? Yeah. Just because it's a load proof alcohol.
00:47:17.580 --> 00:47:21.400
But yeah, a lot of stuff on the front end. I remember the first time we came
00:47:21.400 --> 00:47:27.320
and inspected by our TTB agent to get started to get our manufacturer's license.
00:47:27.500 --> 00:47:31.840
So we're manufacturers is what we are. We manufacture high content alcohol.
00:47:32.380 --> 00:47:36.580
And she comes, she had a German accent. It was crazy. And she told us,
00:47:36.680 --> 00:47:40.260
you know, you're getting into the most highly regulated industry there is.
00:47:40.660 --> 00:47:43.360
I'm like, no, man, we didn't know that. But thanks for letting us know.
00:47:43.820 --> 00:47:45.880
And then she proceeded to tell us.
00:47:47.054 --> 00:47:50.814
It was funny because in order to get your manufacturer license from the state
00:47:50.814 --> 00:47:56.414
or from the, from the federal government and the state, you got to secure a place, right?
00:47:56.454 --> 00:48:01.194
You can't just make it in your house and sell it, right? You have to have like a facility, right?
00:48:01.234 --> 00:48:04.554
So it says, you know, have a facility, have your equipment, all that kind of
00:48:04.554 --> 00:48:09.034
stuff. So we bought a place, we bought a building, we had all our, all our equipment.
00:48:09.694 --> 00:48:12.574
We're calling the lady from the TTB to come inspect and give us a permit.
00:48:13.174 --> 00:48:15.914
And she goes, I can't give you a permit like this. So why not we have
00:48:15.914 --> 00:48:18.734
we made a commitment we have our we bought a building we
00:48:18.734 --> 00:48:22.074
have our stills and she goes well you don't
00:48:22.074 --> 00:48:24.694
have sheetrock on that wall right there and it was
00:48:24.694 --> 00:48:28.294
just we had we were in the process of you know building out so i said all right
00:48:28.294 --> 00:48:33.094
if i get sheetrock on that wall and take a picture of it will you give us our
00:48:33.094 --> 00:48:37.174
permit she's like yeah so we did it real quick and sent our picture and there
00:48:37.174 --> 00:48:42.614
we go but truly arbitrary and the do the federal government will just.
00:48:43.354 --> 00:48:48.954
Dicky around man yeah yeah with that we've got a long history here too with with regulations,
00:48:49.574 --> 00:48:52.214
i imagine we all grandfathered in a lot right so tell
00:48:52.214 --> 00:48:55.274
me about that like how what's it like starting a new something like
00:48:55.274 --> 00:48:58.134
that what's that like man because i heard because like
00:48:58.134 --> 00:49:01.574
you know we did the boucherie and the lady out there in raceland man i mean
00:49:01.574 --> 00:49:07.614
her slaughterhouse is like old-timey verdance yeah yeah all right yeah she's
00:49:07.614 --> 00:49:13.094
great and does a great job but oh she told me that the reason why she hasn't
00:49:13.094 --> 00:49:16.234
been bothered too much is that she's grandfathered.
00:49:16.474 --> 00:49:19.894
So what's that like? What is that? I think they just mess with you less.
00:49:20.214 --> 00:49:25.654
They're less likely to put their foot down on things or send people, I guess.
00:49:26.354 --> 00:49:31.274
I mean, that building had to be, you know, it's by the book. And if...
00:49:32.506 --> 00:49:35.826
If we were to just want to duplicate this over there, we couldn't.
00:49:35.926 --> 00:49:39.026
We couldn't do our game plan in this building over there.
00:49:40.226 --> 00:49:44.206
I'm sure this tastes different here than in a new place, right? Or no?
00:49:44.746 --> 00:49:48.906
You'd be surprised that you couldn't tell which one came from where.
00:49:49.086 --> 00:49:52.506
Really? Yeah, it's the same guys making it. The same guys that were making it
00:49:52.506 --> 00:49:55.086
over here just went over there. I don't want to believe that.
00:49:55.266 --> 00:49:57.386
I want to believe that it's something to do with the old smoke house.
00:49:57.686 --> 00:50:00.926
I do too. A hundred years of smoke in there has given the flavor of it.
00:50:00.946 --> 00:50:04.406
I do too. but we're good at what we do but yeah
00:50:04.406 --> 00:50:07.366
think about all the meat markets back then just like all the the
00:50:07.366 --> 00:50:10.346
i'm sure all the people making moonshine back
00:50:10.346 --> 00:50:13.306
then every time they put a regulation down
00:50:13.306 --> 00:50:16.866
it knocks off some of them some of them figure out
00:50:16.866 --> 00:50:19.546
a way around it but it knocks off some of
00:50:19.546 --> 00:50:22.206
them same thing with the like the meat inspection acts and all
00:50:22.206 --> 00:50:25.366
of this stuff that's why we had to stop doing blood boudin
00:50:25.366 --> 00:50:28.126
back in the day um because they didn't like the
00:50:28.126 --> 00:50:30.966
way it was it was unsanitary the way the blood was being
00:50:30.966 --> 00:50:33.786
caught at slaughter so my grandpa was
00:50:33.786 --> 00:50:36.766
like pretty instrumental in writing back and forth to those
00:50:36.766 --> 00:50:40.146
uh agents and coming up with basically presenting
00:50:40.146 --> 00:50:43.046
well what if we do this no well what
00:50:43.046 --> 00:50:46.626
if we do this until something bit and you
00:50:46.626 --> 00:50:49.846
know they kind of changed the regulations and laxed up
00:50:49.846 --> 00:50:52.586
a little bit and gave a specific procedure and that's how
00:50:52.586 --> 00:50:55.506
it's done now you know and so it allows us
00:50:55.506 --> 00:50:58.406
to make blood Buddha again but a lot of a lot of
00:50:58.406 --> 00:51:01.226
businesses had other things going on just like
00:51:01.226 --> 00:51:04.006
that that they had to stop doing and had to shut down
00:51:04.006 --> 00:51:06.926
you know luckily we didn't have to shut down
00:51:06.926 --> 00:51:09.606
when we had to stop making blood boudin you know we still
00:51:09.606 --> 00:51:14.786
had other things but y'all sell a lot of that still yeah we do we make a good
00:51:14.786 --> 00:51:18.726
bit it's good man it's really good people are afraid to taste it but once they
00:51:18.726 --> 00:51:23.686
do i'll you know i can't i can't imagine any guy that's gonna that likes boudin
00:51:23.686 --> 00:51:27.666
likes all good cheese i can't imagine him eating it and saying and he doesn't like it.
00:51:27.786 --> 00:51:31.726
Dude, when y'all were doing that, you remember, I think it was the second or
00:51:31.726 --> 00:51:33.486
third moochery, whenever y'all
00:51:33.486 --> 00:51:37.586
decided to move the table from the back- To the street. To the street.
00:51:37.886 --> 00:51:40.486
Yeah. Dude, the people that gathered around watched y'all doing it.
00:51:40.526 --> 00:51:42.086
That was so cool. It was cool.
00:51:42.226 --> 00:51:46.166
A lot of people came on the table and helped either debone or bundle.
00:51:46.306 --> 00:51:48.006
That was pretty cool. Yeah. That was neat.
00:51:48.366 --> 00:51:51.726
But just seeing y'all do that, man, I got a picture of Donald on my phone still of him.
00:51:52.166 --> 00:51:54.286
He's mixing the blood, the blood boo now.
00:51:54.886 --> 00:51:56.786
And I was taking a picture of him. He goes, wait, wait, wait,
00:51:56.786 --> 00:51:59.366
Wait, wait, wait. And he put his hand in it and he smeared it on his face.
00:51:59.486 --> 00:52:00.166
He goes, now take a picture.
00:52:01.706 --> 00:52:05.586
Oh, yeah. Wild kid. He had a good time with that, man. So, yeah,
00:52:05.686 --> 00:52:09.146
you don't only use that building to make whiskey in.
00:52:09.726 --> 00:52:13.006
It's much more than that now. I had my wedding there.
00:52:13.646 --> 00:52:18.126
I've been there for multiple events. Was that a foresight thing?
00:52:18.426 --> 00:52:24.126
Was that just you got tired of people asking for things and you said,
00:52:24.186 --> 00:52:27.246
let's do it? or how did all that come to be?
00:52:27.466 --> 00:52:30.246
Man, that was, you know, all necessity too, making a buck,
00:52:31.688 --> 00:52:35.208
Like I said earlier, you know, we wanted a cool place for our cool story.
00:52:35.748 --> 00:52:39.288
And then, you know, we found this beautiful place with all this history and
00:52:39.288 --> 00:52:42.748
all these cool things that were left. We preserved it.
00:52:44.088 --> 00:52:48.588
We displayed a lot of history that attracted a lot of people that thought it was beautiful too.
00:52:48.908 --> 00:52:52.748
And then we started getting people like, hey, can we have an event here? Like, yeah, man, pay me.
00:52:53.128 --> 00:52:56.168
Sure we can, you know? And that became something that was just one of those
00:52:56.168 --> 00:52:57.788
deals that we didn't see coming,
00:52:58.948 --> 00:53:03.988
but it's a it's been one it's been an aspect of our business that's been very
00:53:03.988 --> 00:53:05.428
rewarding because we get to
00:53:05.428 --> 00:53:08.048
share sharing a lot of cool events with people's lives like your wedding,
00:53:08.728 --> 00:53:13.128
believe it or not probably our most popular event is baby showers a lot of baby
00:53:13.128 --> 00:53:18.408
showers i think it's hilarious because you know sometimes whiskey is the start of making a baby.
00:53:19.288 --> 00:53:24.508
You make full circle you know but that's really cool it's it's yeah you just
00:53:24.508 --> 00:53:26.508
got to be creative and do what you can.
00:53:26.708 --> 00:53:32.788
And I mean, you know, it's almost your space and your history and the story
00:53:32.788 --> 00:53:37.608
and the like aura is almost like a byproduct.
00:53:37.688 --> 00:53:42.108
And if you're not using it, then you kind of not. What is the foundation?
00:53:42.588 --> 00:53:46.068
I think it's, I think you got to start with a good purpose. With anything,
00:53:46.188 --> 00:53:49.468
I don't care if you're making ping pong balls or whatever you're doing.
00:53:49.948 --> 00:53:52.648
I think. Hand sanitizer. Something, you know,
00:53:53.228 --> 00:53:57.348
beef jerky, whatever it is, you got to start with a purpose and if you stay
00:53:57.348 --> 00:54:00.908
true to that you won't be lost i mean that's that's the thing is that no matter
00:54:00.908 --> 00:54:04.748
what we do the purpose is always there the purpose is to preserve
00:54:05.188 --> 00:54:11.048
our illicit family tradition and some bayou culture that's that's the root as
00:54:11.048 --> 00:54:14.528
long as we go back to that we can't get lost and we do that every day we do
00:54:14.528 --> 00:54:18.788
that with our whiskey we do that with our events we do that with our community
00:54:18.788 --> 00:54:23.188
stuff i mean it's that's the foundation and That keeps us grounded.
00:54:23.688 --> 00:54:28.648
So who do you have running the venue? I'm sure you've had to hire quite a bit
00:54:28.648 --> 00:54:30.068
of hands since you opened up.
00:54:30.448 --> 00:54:32.508
So we kept it pretty lean.
00:54:33.008 --> 00:54:34.908
Currently, I got my cousin Zach there.
00:54:35.888 --> 00:54:41.448
He's running the stills for us. I got a great office manager who kind of handles
00:54:41.448 --> 00:54:43.248
our venue stuff too, Kelly. She's awesome.
00:54:43.828 --> 00:54:48.988
And me and my two cousins, man. And then, you know, we got a fleet bartenders. They're all great.
00:54:49.328 --> 00:54:52.808
And we got a lot of good people. you know and that's i think
00:54:52.808 --> 00:54:55.508
like you said with the people that work here that they start to
00:54:55.508 --> 00:54:58.268
get it i think we get a lot of that too like either you get it
00:54:58.268 --> 00:55:01.028
or you you kind of move on and a lot
00:55:01.028 --> 00:55:03.728
of the people have been with us for a while now they've bought
00:55:03.728 --> 00:55:09.368
into the purpose the aura of the place and and what we're trying to do and just
00:55:09.368 --> 00:55:14.468
makes things so much easier when people believe in what you do you know so and
00:55:14.468 --> 00:55:21.028
uh tell me about the hatch grant how you're involved with that and And I don't
00:55:21.028 --> 00:55:22.808
know, it seems to revolve kind of around the,
00:55:23.088 --> 00:55:25.668
that's the, your place seems to be like the headquarters.
00:55:26.148 --> 00:55:29.848
Yeah. Yeah. So the distillery is the headquarters of the Hash Grant Association.
00:55:31.553 --> 00:55:34.313
Hatch grant came about i was sitting in
00:55:34.313 --> 00:55:38.333
a deer stand in the 2020 in
00:55:38.333 --> 00:55:41.053
december and i was reading an old book that my
00:55:41.053 --> 00:55:44.713
good buddy chris pelaski loaned to me called tiger bayou
00:55:44.713 --> 00:55:47.413
and it was just an old book on a shelf and i went eat supper at this place
00:55:47.413 --> 00:55:50.113
one night and i said can i borrow that book man i'd like to
00:55:50.113 --> 00:55:52.933
read it it's just a story of a it's an
00:55:52.933 --> 00:55:56.993
old cajun family around it's a story of a boucherie and this
00:55:56.993 --> 00:56:00.893
was at the height of covid and i was like man homo
00:56:00.893 --> 00:56:03.773
downtown homo was dead we had businesses closing left
00:56:03.773 --> 00:56:06.553
and right i just opened my business i was like man if
00:56:06.553 --> 00:56:11.133
we don't if we don't do something like you remember the time it was chaos it
00:56:11.133 --> 00:56:14.593
was nuts nobody knew what was going to happen but there was a profound feeling
00:56:14.593 --> 00:56:18.953
of everybody was isolated which is a terrible thing for us particularly in south
00:56:18.953 --> 00:56:22.613
louisiana because we all we're so community oriented and the boucherie is a
00:56:22.613 --> 00:56:25.693
huge symbol of that and i was reading that book and it was,
00:56:26.153 --> 00:56:29.733
you know during covid it was reminding me of all things we're missing out on by being together.
00:56:30.393 --> 00:56:35.613
And i said man we got to do something to bring folks back and i was like let's
00:56:35.613 --> 00:56:40.393
throw a boucherie so i got i got some good buddies that all met mainly through
00:56:40.393 --> 00:56:44.713
the distillery you know that come by and we all kind of became like-minded we
00:56:44.713 --> 00:56:49.413
did a podcast manny merlos mitch trahan my buddy chad,
00:56:49.913 --> 00:56:53.173
Guidry we all kind of gravitated to each other started doing
00:56:53.173 --> 00:56:56.553
a podcast at the distillery started meeting a lot of cool people and everybody
00:56:56.553 --> 00:57:02.213
wanted to be together and do something I said dude let's throw a boucherie and
00:57:02.213 --> 00:57:04.933
it's like all right well let's we'll do that but what were we raising money
00:57:04.933 --> 00:57:09.313
for and like let's let's build a bandstand the reason why the bandstand was
00:57:09.313 --> 00:57:13.833
an idea because I found some cool pictures of a bandstand in downtown homo in
00:57:13.833 --> 00:57:15.133
the cordial square that was,
00:57:15.713 --> 00:57:20.973
removed a long time ago and you know you know the history of bandstands they're built.
00:57:21.983 --> 00:57:24.943
Particular time in communities typically when times
00:57:24.943 --> 00:57:27.883
are good all right so it's usually a symbol that a
00:57:27.883 --> 00:57:31.383
community has kind of made it there's a place for people to gather you know
00:57:31.383 --> 00:57:34.103
there's there's something worth celebrating and play music so we used
00:57:34.103 --> 00:57:37.243
to have one of those when times were really good in terrible parish and i
00:57:37.243 --> 00:57:42.803
can go i can talk about that for days i mean the from 1900 to the you know 1920s
00:57:42.803 --> 00:57:47.163
was the golden age of homo a lot of cool stuff going on and that's when that
00:57:47.163 --> 00:57:50.643
band was built i said that's what we need we need a project we need to build
00:57:50.643 --> 00:57:54.783
something that symbolizes community and the just revitalization.
00:57:55.243 --> 00:57:59.063
So we decided to raise money to build that. And the Hatch Grant was formed.
00:57:59.403 --> 00:58:03.283
The reason why it's called the Hatch Grant is that the section of land that
00:58:03.283 --> 00:58:08.523
downtown sits on, the original plot of land was called the Joseph Hatch Grant.
00:58:08.523 --> 00:58:10.843
It was a fellow by the name of Joseph Hatch.
00:58:10.963 --> 00:58:13.323
It's actually pronounced Ashe. We didn't know that at the time.
00:58:13.783 --> 00:58:16.903
So Hatch just kind of stuck, but it's truly Ashe.
00:58:18.203 --> 00:58:21.763
And he actually represents the first settler in Terrebonne
00:58:21.763 --> 00:58:24.463
Parish this was the perfect name I mean it goes back
00:58:24.463 --> 00:58:27.603
to the roots the origins of the place and we saw
00:58:27.603 --> 00:58:31.723
the name had the boucherie had another boucherie had another one raised enough
00:58:31.723 --> 00:58:35.863
money and built the bandstand and the idea for the patch grant became let's
00:58:35.863 --> 00:58:41.043
do real projects that people can go and see and touch and know where their money's
00:58:41.043 --> 00:58:44.643
going so we built the bandstand and currently we're about to build a paddle
00:58:44.643 --> 00:58:46.623
launch downtown where's that gonna be?
00:58:47.243 --> 00:58:50.723
Right across the street from the bandstand and the body right there.
00:58:51.003 --> 00:58:52.983
It's going to be kind of like what they have in front of Nichols.
00:58:54.104 --> 00:58:58.104
Similar, like a floating dock and also. And there used to be one back in the
00:58:58.104 --> 00:59:01.224
day. I mean, you remember downtown in the bayou in Houma?
00:59:01.744 --> 00:59:05.484
They used to. I remember hearing that. It used to be a pretty cool festival
00:59:05.484 --> 00:59:06.824
and they used to have a P-Rogue race.
00:59:07.424 --> 00:59:11.684
And I mean, I did it several times when I was a kid. And the spot where they
00:59:11.684 --> 00:59:13.544
had a P-Rogue race, there was an old wooden dock.
00:59:13.804 --> 00:59:16.724
It was built a long, long time ago where it's all rotted now.
00:59:16.864 --> 00:59:17.844
So that's where we're building the new.
00:59:18.924 --> 00:59:22.404
How was the turnout of the boucherie? Was it what you expected,
00:59:22.564 --> 00:59:25.584
the very first one? and how has it evolved from there?
00:59:26.344 --> 00:59:31.124
First Boucherie was the first public event thrown since COVID.
00:59:31.664 --> 00:59:33.144
So we were the first festival.
00:59:33.824 --> 00:59:39.424
It was rainy. You remember? It was inside. We had the doors open. We had the doors open.
00:59:39.804 --> 00:59:42.664
It was outside and inside. We had a Pedro tournament inside.
00:59:43.684 --> 00:59:48.504
And people came out, man. I was thinking that maybe people wouldn't with the
00:59:48.504 --> 00:59:50.964
rain, but people wanted to get out.
00:59:51.064 --> 00:59:54.664
Yeah. They just wanted to. And we just kind of hit. They want it to be bad.
00:59:54.964 --> 00:59:55.984
They want it to be very bad.
00:59:56.404 --> 01:00:00.164
You know, they knew that was all crap and they, you know, we needed to be together.
01:00:00.344 --> 01:00:01.904
And you can't stop people from congregating.
01:00:02.084 --> 01:00:05.784
And that's what we did. And then that was the first one. And in year two,
01:00:06.104 --> 01:00:08.284
did you get an attendance number on year one?
01:00:08.664 --> 01:00:11.264
What do you think? 500. And what about two?
01:00:12.124 --> 01:00:16.724
Thousand. Double that. Probably 1,500. And then last year was our biggest year.
01:00:17.044 --> 01:00:22.624
About 2,000, 2,500 people. And then the second year and the third year,
01:00:23.244 --> 01:00:26.824
you got the street blocked off, which I'm sure made a big thing.
01:00:27.084 --> 01:00:29.864
And then was there a cook-off on the first one?
01:00:30.284 --> 01:00:34.304
Yeah. So we've always tied a cook-off to it. So the white bean cook-off. Yeah.
01:00:35.804 --> 01:00:40.844
We had a couple of aspects. One was the boucherie with all the traditional dishes.
01:00:41.744 --> 01:00:45.464
Two was the white bean cook-off. It was like, what goes good with pork? Let's do white beans.
01:00:45.704 --> 01:00:50.704
Nobody does a white bean cook-off. Did that. And then the third was the Cajun Olympics, which...
01:00:51.493 --> 01:00:54.853
Of harken back to those downtown in the bayou festivals where you had competitions
01:00:54.853 --> 01:01:01.913
the p-road race we got chicken chase got catch a chicken fast duck call contest 20 penny nail drive so,
01:01:02.973 --> 01:01:06.373
just i mean i don't know about you but i don't really like just to sit around
01:01:06.373 --> 01:01:10.673
and listen to music like i like it don't get me wrong but i do like i do like
01:01:10.673 --> 01:01:16.013
things to do when i'm out tasks base yeah so that's we kind of and that became
01:01:16.013 --> 01:01:19.813
good fanfare too watching somebody chase a chicken You know,
01:01:19.953 --> 01:01:23.153
the last boucher we had, we had the parish president, the sheriff,
01:01:23.773 --> 01:01:29.513
the chief of police, and then my daddy in that race. My daddy beat everybody, which is pretty cool.
01:01:30.673 --> 01:01:33.873
But I mean, you should have seen the people just cheering that on and watching.
01:01:34.013 --> 01:01:35.853
That's very cool. And people want that kind of stuff, man.
01:01:36.553 --> 01:01:39.553
Music's great, but if you can put together some cool events too,
01:01:39.913 --> 01:01:43.393
that's something we kind of figured out with our festival is that,
01:01:43.813 --> 01:01:46.093
you know, a lot of people do music, a lot of people do cook-offs.
01:01:46.093 --> 01:01:48.673
But if you can get some things that are interesting and do something different.
01:01:49.173 --> 01:01:51.233
What's your vision in the future for that?
01:01:52.953 --> 01:01:56.313
That block, that city block, what are you thinking?
01:01:56.913 --> 01:02:03.173
You're just trying to flood the streets of Houma? My vision for the 10th Boucherie
01:02:03.173 --> 01:02:07.673
would be for Main Street to be closed off from the Cordell Square to the distillery.
01:02:08.113 --> 01:02:10.513
And just nothing but cooking trailers on either side.
01:02:11.433 --> 01:02:15.433
And people doing everything you can think of from boudin, hogshead cheese,
01:02:15.653 --> 01:02:19.073
criads, gratins, everything, multiple.
01:02:19.353 --> 01:02:22.293
I mean, you ever heard of hogs for a cause in New Orleans?
01:02:22.533 --> 01:02:25.873
It's a massive pork cook-off, but it's pretty much a barbecue pork,
01:02:26.013 --> 01:02:28.793
but I want that, but I want boucherie dishes.
01:02:29.053 --> 01:02:31.193
Okay. As far as you can see down Main Street.
01:02:32.517 --> 01:02:36.757
That's the goal. You're on the way. That's it, man. Just one more year. That's all.
01:02:36.977 --> 01:02:40.877
Yeah. And then the next year. It's our fifth one, man. Fifth one's coming up March 26th.
01:02:41.037 --> 01:02:45.997
Man, I'll never forget the very first email I got from you asking to go make boudin over there.
01:02:46.377 --> 01:02:48.777
And we all thought you were crazy. Why?
01:02:49.317 --> 01:02:53.037
Because we were like, he wants to make it there. We have to make it there.
01:02:54.037 --> 01:03:00.557
God, can we make it here? You have no idea how toned down my vision got by the
01:03:00.557 --> 01:03:03.457
time I started talking to you. because I wanted to kill everything there.
01:03:04.737 --> 01:03:07.837
And I wanted to do the whole thing there. And then you should have seen the
01:03:07.837 --> 01:03:09.417
people. Now, Donald might have been up for that, actually.
01:03:09.637 --> 01:03:12.977
He might have been all ears. People were so concerned, man. Like,
01:03:13.097 --> 01:03:15.817
you cannot kill a pig in the streets. Watch. Like, watch me,
01:03:15.897 --> 01:03:17.117
dude. I was like, we're going to kill it.
01:03:17.977 --> 01:03:20.297
But again, we just didn't have enough time. I mean, that was the thing.
01:03:20.357 --> 01:03:23.517
I was like, well, it would be awesome. Yeah. And it'd be true.
01:03:24.057 --> 01:03:26.937
But there's just not enough time to kill it, clean it.
01:03:27.237 --> 01:03:34.717
So I missed this. but what two weeks ago Bo and Donald Bo's a part of or his
01:03:34.717 --> 01:03:36.377
kids are a part of the Troops of St.
01:03:36.457 --> 01:03:41.677
George you know about that it's like a sort of like a boys outdoor Catholic,
01:03:42.137 --> 01:03:45.357
outdoor group they take them camp and do outdoor activities,
01:03:46.097 --> 01:03:49.997
well Bo and Donald took them to the property and slurred a cow at our barn and
01:03:49.997 --> 01:03:54.757
let all the boys participate and skin the cow out and then that's what we need
01:03:54.757 --> 01:03:59.197
they all brought it back over here and processed it up and each family got their
01:03:59.197 --> 01:04:00.397
little box of processed,
01:04:00.877 --> 01:04:02.617
you know, their, their little meat box.
01:04:03.177 --> 01:04:06.437
But, uh, when y'all do that, that was, that was the first time ever.
01:04:06.537 --> 01:04:08.937
That was just a kind of a quick pop-up event.
01:04:09.057 --> 01:04:11.637
I think they had about 12 families.
01:04:11.897 --> 01:04:15.057
Well, I got a three-year-old boy that I would love to send her that. Yeah.
01:04:16.157 --> 01:04:20.917
But yeah, things like that is, it's not many people doing things like that,
01:04:21.037 --> 01:04:22.837
you know? You gotta pass it on, man. Yeah.
01:04:24.622 --> 01:04:28.102
Yeah, the boucherie was something cool. The first year we did it on the back
01:04:28.102 --> 01:04:31.062
porch, we did the full cook, right?
01:04:31.162 --> 01:04:34.262
Yeah, we brought the pot out there. We cooked it on site. We lit it in the morning.
01:04:34.502 --> 01:04:37.742
The old grinder, man. The old grinder you had? Yeah, we brought the old grinder.
01:04:37.962 --> 01:04:42.882
We brought a little mini stuffer, and we made boudin right there in the building,
01:04:43.002 --> 01:04:47.162
just like we do here, and then bundled it up and brought it over to the guys
01:04:47.162 --> 01:04:49.222
cooking, and they threw the links on the grill.
01:04:49.902 --> 01:04:54.702
And then the next year, I think after we already started, we decided to take
01:04:54.702 --> 01:04:59.362
the whole situation and bring it out in the middle of the street because no,
01:04:59.442 --> 01:05:02.982
I had the street blocked off legally this time, I think.
01:05:03.422 --> 01:05:07.762
And so we put the table right there, right in the middle of the street and just
01:05:07.762 --> 01:05:10.362
big mess of 300 pounds of pork on top.
01:05:10.422 --> 01:05:14.182
It was either you or Bo came up to me with a very serious face,
01:05:14.402 --> 01:05:17.082
like we're moving the table to the front of the street.
01:05:17.082 --> 01:05:19.842
Your mic yeah don't let me stop
01:05:19.842 --> 01:05:22.802
you man yeah no it
01:05:22.802 --> 01:05:26.742
was really cool and uh yeah it gets people engaged you
01:05:26.742 --> 01:05:31.582
get people walking by and like yeah that shock factor like what the people don't
01:05:31.582 --> 01:05:34.962
see it nowadays man and like you know i'm sure you're a big performer of knowing
01:05:34.962 --> 01:05:39.282
where your food comes from sure what you do and a lot of people don't and to
01:05:39.282 --> 01:05:43.842
see it it's fascinating yeah that's why we'll never get rid of this right here.
01:05:44.462 --> 01:05:47.662
You know, we did this, I don't know how often you go to gray,
01:05:47.822 --> 01:05:51.762
but the vision for gray was to, you know, as close as we can,
01:05:51.762 --> 01:05:54.902
if you walk through this door, you're looking at the old market.
01:05:55.062 --> 01:06:00.682
So black countertop, two jerky blocks, saw table door.
01:06:00.882 --> 01:06:02.782
Y'all done a great job with that place. Yeah. We tried.
01:06:03.042 --> 01:06:08.862
It looks new and it doesn't look worn in yet, but the, the key elements are there and,
01:06:09.381 --> 01:06:13.821
That's important to us to have, you know, freaking love walking a cow out on
01:06:13.821 --> 01:06:16.601
your shoulder and slapping on the table when they got some little kids there.
01:06:16.681 --> 01:06:18.701
They're like, what is this?
01:06:18.881 --> 01:06:23.121
You know, and it's not too uncommon for me to grab a kid and take them in the
01:06:23.121 --> 01:06:25.221
cooler. Like, you interested? Come see.
01:06:25.661 --> 01:06:29.841
Hop over. Like, you know, and it's cool to see kids that you've been doing,
01:06:29.961 --> 01:06:34.001
you know, buddy, Brandon, his boys have been coming in here since they were three.
01:06:34.001 --> 01:06:37.321
Like I remember when they, you know, you bring one of them in,
01:06:37.401 --> 01:06:41.101
can barely walk, picking them up over the counter, going, take them in there.
01:06:41.221 --> 01:06:45.061
And now the dude's like about to be driving, you know, like that's,
01:06:45.101 --> 01:06:47.381
that's really cool. And he's still coming in with his dad.
01:06:47.601 --> 01:06:53.841
I got, I got memories, dude, of, uh, when I was a boy coming to this place during
01:06:53.841 --> 01:06:55.781
alligator season with my daddy.
01:06:56.181 --> 01:06:59.681
And that was the first thing that my dad ever took me to do besides fishing.
01:06:59.681 --> 01:07:03.081
But in terms of hunting or trapping, he'd take me to fish alligators.
01:07:03.281 --> 01:07:07.861
When I was about four, he started taking me. And we'd come here and we'd get a pack of beef jerky.
01:07:08.081 --> 01:07:11.541
And he would give us some like scraps to bait hooks.
01:07:12.681 --> 01:07:16.541
And I can still remember the smell of this. And I can remember the smell of scraps.
01:07:17.101 --> 01:07:22.121
And they both smelled good, you know? But that was, I mean, seeing this paper
01:07:22.121 --> 01:07:27.281
right here has been a part of my life and part of so many people's lives down
01:07:27.281 --> 01:07:28.901
here for such a long time.
01:07:28.901 --> 01:07:33.321
I mean, I remember the first time I started wrapping my own meat and I just,
01:07:33.401 --> 01:07:37.161
I thought about this place and I'm just seeing freezer paper. Man, it's weird.
01:07:38.241 --> 01:07:41.801
You know, we have the vacuum seal pouches. That's what we have to do to ship it.
01:07:41.921 --> 01:07:45.941
And it makes a, it makes a good gift when you don't know when the person can have it.
01:07:46.041 --> 01:07:50.081
You know, this stuff has to be, it has to be refrigerated. We don't have preservatives in it.
01:07:50.181 --> 01:07:54.641
So it's not like a, you know, true beef jerky out West all dehydrated.
01:07:55.101 --> 01:07:57.921
It will go bad if you leave it out. so we
01:07:57.921 --> 01:08:01.041
sell them both in the store we sell the the paper app just loose
01:08:01.041 --> 01:08:04.761
fresh out the tote and then we sell the the vacuum sealed sometimes
01:08:04.761 --> 01:08:08.481
the vacuum sealed was made more recently
01:08:08.481 --> 01:08:14.421
than the than the paper app but people just they know it's different they say
01:08:14.421 --> 01:08:18.581
i don't i don't want the i don't want to seal stuff i want the real jerky and
01:08:18.581 --> 01:08:22.461
they mean that they want the white paper what it's like to me it's like drinking
01:08:22.461 --> 01:08:27.621
out drinking a coke out of a glass bottle versus a plastic bottle that's good That's what I think.
01:08:28.161 --> 01:08:31.521
That's very right. It's something about that, something about it.
01:08:31.661 --> 01:08:33.501
Oh, we were talking about this recently.
01:08:35.101 --> 01:08:38.221
Know what it is i don't have my finger
01:08:38.221 --> 01:08:41.381
on it but i know it to be true and i know it's very cool is that
01:08:41.381 --> 01:08:44.741
this thing right here is an acceptable gift
01:08:44.741 --> 01:08:49.161
no matter what's inside of it yeah father's
01:08:49.161 --> 01:08:52.541
day brother-in-law's wedding baby shower
01:08:52.541 --> 01:08:55.481
it's a good gift and it's it's like
01:08:55.481 --> 01:08:59.441
it's eye-opening gift right but you take you
01:08:59.441 --> 01:09:02.861
can't take a cellophane wrap platter of
01:09:02.861 --> 01:09:05.821
ground meat and give that to dad for father's day
01:09:05.821 --> 01:09:08.901
and get too much out of them and i don't know what what
01:09:08.901 --> 01:09:11.681
it is about that but i'm i'm glad that you know
01:09:11.681 --> 01:09:14.401
i'm thankful that we have that that this is
01:09:14.401 --> 01:09:18.321
a this is a respected gift you know why because you
01:09:18.321 --> 01:09:21.021
know it's just like it's so funny man the more we talk
01:09:21.021 --> 01:09:24.741
about this stuff it's there's so many similarities between whiskey and
01:09:24.741 --> 01:09:27.841
this you know a barrel is a
01:09:27.841 --> 01:09:30.981
really crappy way to store something because it leaks and
01:09:30.981 --> 01:09:33.821
things like whiskey will evaporate you lose 20
01:09:33.821 --> 01:09:37.301
of your whiskey in a barrel over the course of two years but we're
01:09:37.301 --> 01:09:40.181
mandated to have it in a whiskey barrel you can
01:09:40.181 --> 01:09:43.141
age whiskey in like a stainless steel tank with
01:09:43.141 --> 01:09:46.001
and just put like char in there right right and you can achieve it
01:09:46.001 --> 01:09:48.721
that way but people don't want that they want
01:09:48.721 --> 01:09:51.721
whiskey aged in a barrel right but the reality
01:09:51.721 --> 01:09:55.181
is that it's a crappy outdated container that's
01:09:55.181 --> 01:09:58.081
why you don't see anything shipped in whiskey and wooden barrels anymore right
01:09:58.081 --> 01:10:00.961
just because they leak and they're not you know but people want
01:10:00.961 --> 01:10:04.241
whiskey out wooden barrels and people want boudin and.
01:10:04.241 --> 01:10:09.901
Beef jerky wrapped in freezer paper because it's it's the old way it's authentic.
01:10:09.901 --> 01:10:15.101
It just looks so real it is real and it tastes different to me it probably is
01:10:15.101 --> 01:10:18.661
just probably just a placebo effect but you're absolutely right when you get
01:10:18.661 --> 01:10:24.161
something like that you smile you're happy with it getting something like free, like, you know.
01:10:24.501 --> 01:10:27.941
And like a shrink wrap is a little bit different. Yeah. No doubt about it.
01:10:29.007 --> 01:10:33.247
Tried to trick people and it doesn't work. Do you ever put, do you ever like open one up?
01:10:33.907 --> 01:10:38.547
Like, and then like just change containers and see if you can get a different response?
01:10:39.167 --> 01:10:43.047
You should do a blind taste test. I've done lots of things with this, with this jerky.
01:10:44.147 --> 01:10:49.547
I want to know the history about it, man. Like, tell me what you can about this product.
01:10:51.187 --> 01:10:58.647
So the jerky from, from what I understand, Uncle Biff, I think was the first person to ask about it.
01:10:58.647 --> 01:11:01.807
To ask papa i think he was reading the old western magazine
01:11:01.807 --> 01:11:04.927
this is what i remember he's reading like a western magazine
01:11:04.927 --> 01:11:08.027
and asked papa
01:11:08.027 --> 01:11:11.207
what about beef jerky like they're they're eating beef jerky these cowboys
01:11:11.207 --> 01:11:15.367
eat beef jerky what would we have to do to make beef jerky and papa kind of
01:11:15.367 --> 01:11:19.467
told him like well it'd have to be kind of dry you'd have to you have to smoke
01:11:19.467 --> 01:11:25.187
it for a while you'd have to use a pretty lean piece of meat probably probably
01:11:25.187 --> 01:11:29.247
something off the hind you know just just just kind of ballparking some things.
01:11:30.347 --> 01:11:33.667
And he's like, how much, how much would it cost to mate?
01:11:34.027 --> 01:11:36.787
And he like kind of did some quick math and it's like, well,
01:11:36.867 --> 01:11:40.607
you probably have to sell it for whatever at the time, $3 a pound.
01:11:40.987 --> 01:11:42.587
Probably have to sell it for $3 a pound.
01:11:43.127 --> 01:11:47.507
Biff was like $3, you know, nothing in here at that time costs $3 a pound.
01:11:47.907 --> 01:11:50.847
He's like, wow. So I think he was kind of drawn to it.
01:11:51.867 --> 01:11:56.407
Like, can I try to make some? So I think he let him make a little batch for him.
01:11:57.167 --> 01:12:03.607
Biff? Yeah. Biff made the first beef jerky? I think Biff made the first. I did not know that.
01:12:03.787 --> 01:12:08.467
I think he made the first, I guess, rendition.
01:12:09.287 --> 01:12:11.107
Made some beef jerky.
01:12:13.496 --> 01:12:17.736
I did not want to sell it, you know, was, was no, not doing it.
01:12:17.936 --> 01:12:18.816
You were talking about Lester?
01:12:19.156 --> 01:12:23.216
Yeah. Okay. Not getting into it, don't want to do it. So I think Biff had made
01:12:23.216 --> 01:12:27.876
some, some variations of it for him and maybe some friends and stuff.
01:12:28.476 --> 01:12:34.436
And then years later when Biff was, I think Biff had already went to Vita.
01:12:35.696 --> 01:12:39.276
I think donald and john was maybe
01:12:39.276 --> 01:12:43.176
approached by a guy a salesman and
01:12:43.176 --> 01:12:46.136
and wanted some wanted some beef jerky and i
01:12:46.136 --> 01:12:49.036
think they were you know guy would guy would
01:12:49.036 --> 01:12:52.276
biff and they re re uh
01:12:52.276 --> 01:12:55.576
redid the recipe or you know
01:12:55.576 --> 01:12:58.716
came up with a with a new recipe i don't i don't know the details
01:12:58.716 --> 01:13:02.916
there but started making some again and i
01:13:02.916 --> 01:13:05.836
think that was like donald's deal with that
01:13:05.836 --> 01:13:11.656
salesman and once that guy had some and he you know it was like kind of a fairly
01:13:11.656 --> 01:13:17.796
large order and i i think the story goes papa was not here of course he wasn't
01:13:17.796 --> 01:13:23.296
yeah i think he was not here and that guy I wanted some jerky or, you know,
01:13:23.656 --> 01:13:30.656
put a big, put a big order down and I think Donald made it and give me another
01:13:30.656 --> 01:13:33.596
order next week and another order next week and another order next week.
01:13:33.676 --> 01:13:36.296
And it, and it just, it just blew up, you know?
01:13:36.436 --> 01:13:43.216
So I think the first person to make some was Biff by way of Papa,
01:13:43.396 --> 01:13:47.456
by his, his knowledge, you know, I don't think he ever made it.
01:13:47.556 --> 01:13:48.776
I don't think Papa ever made it.
01:13:49.695 --> 01:13:52.955
But he knew what you would have to do to make it. He just assumed no one around
01:13:52.955 --> 01:13:54.275
here would pay for that. You know?
01:13:54.695 --> 01:13:59.375
That's just like those, I'm going to talk like those unattended consequences, man, that shape places.
01:13:59.595 --> 01:14:04.295
Like, you know, my grandma, my great grandma making moonshine just because,
01:14:04.515 --> 01:14:07.135
you know, now Body Terrible in the Stillers is here.
01:14:07.895 --> 01:14:13.275
Biff making beef jerky and this becoming like, you know, not the most famous thing.
01:14:13.435 --> 01:14:19.775
Maybe it is, but definitely a staple of Pujols' meat market that your Pawpaw was not a fan of. No.
01:14:20.115 --> 01:14:23.755
And like, you know, like the history of tobacco, Tabasco and how that was,
01:14:23.975 --> 01:14:25.095
how that kind of came about.
01:14:26.095 --> 01:14:33.495
So Avery Island was a Southern farm. After the Civil War, the husband of one
01:14:33.495 --> 01:14:36.775
of the girls that was the heirs was living there and he was a banker that was
01:14:36.775 --> 01:14:40.835
lost his job to some like carpetbaggers and he had nothing to do.
01:14:40.955 --> 01:14:45.675
So he just made like pepper sauce and he was just like a bum at his father-in-law's
01:14:45.675 --> 01:14:48.975
house and he just made pepper sauce at Avery Island.
01:14:49.335 --> 01:14:52.915
And that became Tabasco. Just one of those things that, one of those offshoots
01:14:52.915 --> 01:14:57.835
that you weren't expecting to go anywhere and bam, beef jerky, Tabasco. Mm-hmm.
01:14:58.535 --> 01:15:02.395
That's cool. That's a, that's neat. I did not, next time I see Biff,
01:15:02.495 --> 01:15:03.375
man, I'll have to ask him.
01:15:04.095 --> 01:15:08.015
I'd like to know what the first, you know. I'd like to have some Biff beef jerky.
01:15:08.155 --> 01:15:10.815
I'd like to have been there for the first couple of tries, you know.
01:15:10.935 --> 01:15:12.255
Yeah. It was probably terrible.
01:15:13.815 --> 01:15:17.455
So a couple of years, I don't know, a lot of years ago, I guess.
01:15:17.455 --> 01:15:21.195
Me and Bo went to a processing expo where they have equipment and stuff.
01:15:21.315 --> 01:15:23.135
This is when we were planning to open up the new place.
01:15:23.495 --> 01:15:26.075
So we were looking at saws and grinders and all that stuff.
01:15:26.455 --> 01:15:31.395
And we went to a seminar and the seminar was on pet treats.
01:15:31.975 --> 01:15:36.915
You know, it was all meat processor expo, but the seminar was on pet treats.
01:15:37.495 --> 01:15:40.135
So we went and we were just, you know, didn't have much to do.
01:15:40.255 --> 01:15:43.655
So we went sitting there and, you know, the guy opens with, like,
01:15:43.735 --> 01:15:51.735
if you're not in the, pet industry at all, you throw it away a lot, a lot of money, you know?
01:15:51.835 --> 01:15:54.795
So he's like, let's, let's start talking about what you, what are you throwing
01:15:54.795 --> 01:15:56.995
away and how can it be used?
01:15:57.135 --> 01:16:02.415
And, and just some examples, like here's this meat market, they were doing this, they, whatever.
01:16:02.775 --> 01:16:09.395
So we left there with the idea to start, you know, every morning we throw shoulders
01:16:09.395 --> 01:16:11.755
on the table, debone them, pick the bones, throw them in the trash.
01:16:12.015 --> 01:16:17.295
We do that for as long as I can ever remember. We've always gotten bone in stuff.
01:16:17.815 --> 01:16:21.715
It's harder that way, but it's better that way. So you get bone in,
01:16:21.995 --> 01:16:22.855
throw away the bone, boom.
01:16:23.975 --> 01:16:28.355
So on the way back from that seminar, we were like, all right, let's try it.
01:16:28.575 --> 01:16:32.695
We're going to try, throw some salt on the bones, throw them in the smoker with
01:16:32.695 --> 01:16:34.415
the sausage that's already in there.
01:16:34.735 --> 01:16:36.915
Just throw it, you know, we're going to throw it underneath the sausage.
01:16:38.115 --> 01:16:42.815
And now we can't keep up. So what does the salt do? Just cures it. Okay. Cures the meat.
01:16:44.438 --> 01:16:49.298
Smoking things with no salt doesn't work. It'll rot. So you have to put salt on bone too, though?
01:16:49.838 --> 01:16:54.038
Yeah, well, you know, not super clean. It'll have some bits of meat on it,
01:16:54.078 --> 01:16:55.998
but that meat will rot if we didn't salt it.
01:16:56.158 --> 01:17:01.458
So literally what we're throwing in the trash, we're throwing in a little pan,
01:17:02.058 --> 01:17:04.238
sprinkle a little salt, throw it on a smoker.
01:17:04.838 --> 01:17:07.238
No, you know, really no extra work.
01:17:08.418 --> 01:17:14.098
And we're selling the bones. And once we told Papa that Once it got really Once
01:17:14.098 --> 01:17:18.598
it caught on And we were like Oh crap Like now we have to remember To smoke
01:17:18.598 --> 01:17:22.638
the bones Like or we'll be out And that was That was such a weird thing You know,
01:17:23.178 --> 01:17:28.318
But we told Papa one day We did some math We were like How many shoulders Y'all
01:17:28.318 --> 01:17:32.378
used to bone Like per week How many bones Y'all were thrown away per week So
01:17:32.378 --> 01:17:34.758
we showed him Like he did that For about 70 years,
01:17:35.218 --> 01:17:40.398
Let me show you what that He said Boy y'all Y'all ought to go to jail.
01:17:41.278 --> 01:17:42.998
They ought to put y'all right in jail.
01:17:44.118 --> 01:17:47.938
That sounds like a pop-ball response. Yep. But yeah, things like that.
01:17:48.258 --> 01:17:51.138
Those little unplanned circumstances.
01:17:51.478 --> 01:17:54.478
Those are the best, man. Yeah. That's where the store's at. Yep.
01:17:55.958 --> 01:18:00.178
You've got a growing family. What's that like right now with work and how's
01:18:00.178 --> 01:18:02.838
the balance of work and home life stuff?
01:18:03.498 --> 01:18:06.658
So I got a little boy that's three, Jack.
01:18:06.958 --> 01:18:09.898
I got my baby girl. old she's just turned one
01:18:09.898 --> 01:18:13.338
jesse and then i have my stepdaughter julia my
01:18:13.338 --> 01:18:16.078
wife natalie who's the sister of brody
01:18:16.078 --> 01:18:19.798
and i met natalie right when
01:18:19.798 --> 01:18:23.058
i started the distillery actually met her while i was giving
01:18:23.058 --> 01:18:26.358
away moonshine and we started
01:18:26.358 --> 01:18:29.218
our story right when i started the uh story by
01:18:29.218 --> 01:18:32.718
a terrible distiller and our family grew with it and it's a
01:18:32.718 --> 01:18:35.678
lot man it's uh you know 30s 30s are
01:18:35.678 --> 01:18:39.138
a time in your life where you're just running and gunning i think kind of
01:18:39.138 --> 01:18:42.618
what it feels like you just you just don't stop and you
01:18:42.618 --> 01:18:45.718
know that's that's pretty much it also i mean i work for the government now
01:18:45.718 --> 01:18:48.398
so that terrible so i do
01:18:48.398 --> 01:18:53.638
that i do the distillery and then i'll you know try to be a family man too so
01:18:53.638 --> 01:18:59.298
it's a lot but definitely a rich life you know i'd rather i'd rather be pressed
01:18:59.298 --> 01:19:03.598
for time and have not enough time today than to have idle time you know do miss
01:19:03.598 --> 01:19:06.918
hunting than fishing like I used to. Not too much time for that anymore, but.
01:19:08.581 --> 01:19:11.801
I went really hard on the hunting for a while and fishing. Yeah.
01:19:12.281 --> 01:19:15.381
And like this year I hadn't been, hadn't been on sand yet. I hadn't pulled back
01:19:15.381 --> 01:19:19.761
my bow in probably a year, over a year. And that bothered me.
01:19:20.061 --> 01:19:24.681
No. Before I'd be, or I just wouldn't have gone that long without doing it.
01:19:24.841 --> 01:19:26.381
Before family and pre-family.
01:19:26.681 --> 01:19:29.641
I mean, that's, that was my life, man.
01:19:29.781 --> 01:19:36.421
Just, I spent, I spent two, two, three years renovating that old building for the distillery.
01:19:36.581 --> 01:19:40.061
And that was my whole life for that. I didn't really hunt fish too much during
01:19:40.061 --> 01:19:41.961
that time, but before that's all I did.
01:19:42.201 --> 01:19:46.321
It's cool though that that wouldn't really work, right? Like that wasn't because
01:19:46.321 --> 01:19:53.561
you have something so clear and you have a drive that's so high for this to
01:19:53.561 --> 01:19:54.761
accomplish this, whatever.
01:19:55.321 --> 01:19:58.621
That stuff isn't work. Passion. You know, so if you can keep,
01:19:58.741 --> 01:20:03.661
if you keep that, it's going to change over the years. It's not always going to be the same thing.
01:20:03.781 --> 01:20:08.241
It's not always going to be the, this isn't always going to excite you, you know? Right.
01:20:08.981 --> 01:20:12.821
The Hatch Grant stuff isn't always going to excite you, but it's being able to.
01:20:14.424 --> 01:20:17.224
Around and check those boxes and come back to them
01:20:17.224 --> 01:20:20.504
this year and give it give this year all you
01:20:20.504 --> 01:20:23.784
know and then set somebody else up to learn it and then move and
01:20:23.784 --> 01:20:26.744
give this year all you know that's that's how i kind
01:20:26.744 --> 01:20:31.044
of have to do it i do catch myself going 150 percent
01:20:31.044 --> 01:20:34.564
you know for two years on this and then two
01:20:34.564 --> 01:20:37.524
years on this but never zero percent on
01:20:37.524 --> 01:20:40.484
anything you know there's a weird time frame that i've kind of
01:20:40.484 --> 01:20:43.684
figured out in my life and i think it's i think
01:20:43.684 --> 01:20:46.744
it's probably pretty universal like four years
01:20:46.744 --> 01:20:50.164
or is typically like a chapter of my life and
01:20:50.164 --> 01:20:53.284
i don't know if that's something to do with like school you know
01:20:53.284 --> 01:20:56.744
four years of college four years i don't know if that was premeditated
01:20:56.744 --> 01:20:59.744
because there's some sort of magical time of four years
01:20:59.744 --> 01:21:02.444
where it's just it's all you can remember maybe that's all
01:21:02.444 --> 01:21:05.984
you can remember but i can remember two years honestly
01:21:05.984 --> 01:21:09.104
like even when i was telling you earlier about
01:21:09.104 --> 01:21:13.424
the storm i was trying to remember which storm i was in the gator coolers warehouse
01:21:13.424 --> 01:21:17.804
for like that's hard for me to think about like what storm i don't know we had
01:21:17.804 --> 01:21:22.164
i don't know seven eight of them what year was that could have been 18 could
01:21:22.164 --> 01:21:27.824
have been 21 like those are all just so like those all just went for me i think
01:21:27.824 --> 01:21:28.784
that you know you definitely.
01:21:29.324 --> 01:21:32.444
You definitely start kind of getting bored
01:21:32.444 --> 01:21:35.584
i get i'll start getting bored with something after a
01:21:35.584 --> 01:21:38.384
period of time i love just chasing something i
01:21:38.384 --> 01:21:41.184
can get engrossed in when i was renovating that
01:21:41.184 --> 01:21:44.344
building i mean dude i did that i lost like 30 pounds
01:21:44.344 --> 01:21:47.244
i got i had there was no ac in
01:21:47.244 --> 01:21:51.424
that place i was sweating my ass off all day i was there from sun up to sun
01:21:51.424 --> 01:21:58.044
down into the night learning how to do woodwork learning just construction and
01:21:58.044 --> 01:22:01.684
just trying to figure it out because i had to i mean i had to make it work but
01:22:01.684 --> 01:22:06.284
i put my whole a whole heart and soul into renovating that building.
01:22:07.224 --> 01:22:10.284
And i mean i i loved it right i
01:22:10.284 --> 01:22:13.924
loved it every it was hard it was taxing on
01:22:13.924 --> 01:22:17.164
physical health mental health everything right
01:22:17.164 --> 01:22:20.764
but those are the things that i try i i long
01:22:20.764 --> 01:22:24.504
for in life is finding something i can get lost in lost
01:22:24.504 --> 01:22:27.824
in that i'm still lost in in trying to
01:22:27.824 --> 01:22:31.004
you know make terremont a better place to live that's
01:22:31.004 --> 01:22:33.584
kind of my thing i'm in now is you know
01:22:33.584 --> 01:22:36.824
from the distillery and from trying to preserve my
01:22:36.824 --> 01:22:39.504
family name and my family story to how do I
01:22:39.504 --> 01:22:42.704
how do we preserve and make attractive Terra Bones
01:22:42.704 --> 01:22:47.744
story because it's a great story it's unique to a lot of places dude it sounds
01:22:47.744 --> 01:22:53.244
so it sounds so interesting it sounds so big to me it's that's never been something
01:22:53.244 --> 01:22:58.124
that I've you know tried to put on my plate I've tried to put you know other
01:22:58.124 --> 01:23:00.624
big things on my plate and.
01:23:01.660 --> 01:23:04.760
I can hardly keep my phone charged for an hour
01:23:04.760 --> 01:23:08.200
yeah so thinking about like making terrible
01:23:08.200 --> 01:23:11.700
on a better place sounds so extraordinary so i
01:23:11.700 --> 01:23:14.960
i admire that that that's what's moving you
01:23:14.960 --> 01:23:17.780
right now well when you look at you got you have
01:23:17.780 --> 01:23:20.840
a young child you have one one child i've got so my
01:23:20.840 --> 01:23:23.640
daughter uh austin is seven britney's daughter
01:23:23.640 --> 01:23:26.280
aubrey is nine and then we just had a
01:23:26.280 --> 01:23:29.020
little boy two months ago you know we really
01:23:29.020 --> 01:23:32.040
kind of solidified my desire to
01:23:32.040 --> 01:23:35.280
take on making terrible on a better place to
01:23:35.280 --> 01:23:38.400
live is that when i look at my son you know
01:23:38.400 --> 01:23:41.660
i want him to have the best life that he can have obviously like every other
01:23:41.660 --> 01:23:46.580
father i also want him selfishly to have that life in terrible parish because
01:23:46.580 --> 01:23:52.480
i've committed i got a i got a land grant framed in the distillery And it's
01:23:52.480 --> 01:23:55.560
from my great times full grandfather.
01:23:56.000 --> 01:23:59.620
It was the ratified Spanish land grant by the United States government.
01:23:59.900 --> 01:24:01.920
And that's, that represents the start.
01:24:02.380 --> 01:24:06.500
And I look at it, I look at it all the time. Like I'm not going to be the one to leave.
01:24:07.080 --> 01:24:10.180
Yeah. Not me. I'm staying, but
01:24:10.180 --> 01:24:13.240
I'm not going to tell my son to stay if he can't have a good life here.
01:24:13.820 --> 01:24:16.600
So, I mean, I got 15 years until he's 18.
01:24:17.740 --> 01:24:20.800
And my goal for those next 15 years is to be able to look him in the eye and
01:24:20.800 --> 01:24:22.840
say, hey, you can have a good life here.
01:24:23.060 --> 01:24:26.500
You can raise your family here. And if I can't tell them that I'm going to tell
01:24:26.500 --> 01:24:27.300
them to go somewhere else.
01:24:28.140 --> 01:24:32.900
So that's my purpose. That's, you know, that's where I'm at in terms of my life.
01:24:33.280 --> 01:24:35.140
I'm here. I'm going to die here.
01:24:35.720 --> 01:24:38.640
And I'm going to try to make a place where my son can have his family too.
01:24:39.200 --> 01:24:41.800
So that's where it all starts for me. But dude, I mean, terrible,
01:24:41.980 --> 01:24:44.620
but it's a great place. I mean, the history of this place, people came from
01:24:44.620 --> 01:24:46.900
all the world to make their fortune here. Yeah.
01:24:47.652 --> 01:24:50.892
Because it's the good earth, right? Terrebonne, you can drop a seed in the ground, it's going to grow.
01:24:51.452 --> 01:24:58.172
We have a topography and just a geography that's unique to the world in terms of our estuaries.
01:24:58.612 --> 01:25:01.852
You know, Bloom of Agile on shrimp, you know, they think they're doing so well
01:25:01.852 --> 01:25:05.372
because you can, you know, the abundance of shrimp here. I mean, oysters.
01:25:05.652 --> 01:25:08.032
The history of that, all the people that came to Terrebonne,
01:25:08.152 --> 01:25:11.172
people think Terrebonne, they think Cajun. It's not the case.
01:25:11.712 --> 01:25:15.112
This place was shaped by so many different ethnicities and people from different
01:25:15.112 --> 01:25:19.192
walks of life. I mean, Alan J. Ellender, the favorite son of Terrebonne.
01:25:19.352 --> 01:25:21.732
I mean, I think they came from Illinois is where his family's from.
01:25:21.852 --> 01:25:26.252
But, you know, this place drew, this place had a hold on people that drew people
01:25:26.252 --> 01:25:28.012
from all over the world, oil and gas.
01:25:28.652 --> 01:25:32.012
And I think we lost that, man. I really do. And I think if more people knew
01:25:32.012 --> 01:25:37.372
the history and knew the value of this place, they have more of a sense of pride for one.
01:25:37.472 --> 01:25:42.092
But I think our biggest problem in Terrebonne Parish is the lack of hope, especially after Ida.
01:25:42.552 --> 01:25:44.772
Yeah, for sure. We got to figure out a way to find that back.
01:25:45.552 --> 01:25:48.552
Well, I think you're helping. I don't know if I'm helping or not,
01:25:48.612 --> 01:25:53.392
man. I'm giving it a try. Can't say you didn't try. Can't say I didn't try, man. That's it.
01:25:53.972 --> 01:25:57.452
Same thing with y'all, man. I mean, I'm sure there's days where you can probably
01:25:57.452 --> 01:26:02.232
do something a lot easier to make a living, but why do you stay here, Shane?
01:26:02.392 --> 01:26:07.672
I mean, I'm sure there's a reason that's more important than money or an easy life.
01:26:08.997 --> 01:26:12.057
I mean, like you were saying earlier, you were for, what, three,
01:26:12.277 --> 01:26:15.737
how long you did the renovation? Two and a half, three years.
01:26:16.037 --> 01:26:19.057
Two years, and you're going that hard.
01:26:19.537 --> 01:26:27.977
You can't ask people or expect people to do that for just money. Like, you can't.
01:26:28.997 --> 01:26:34.817
You'll never pay someone enough to do that, right? So, like, what is that?
01:26:35.097 --> 01:26:38.757
Where does it come from? What is it? Who has it?
01:26:39.237 --> 01:26:42.877
When did they get it? How did they get it? You know? Everybody has that in them,
01:26:42.957 --> 01:26:44.457
I think. It's just a matter of finding your purpose.
01:26:44.977 --> 01:26:48.417
Yeah. You know? I think it's, that's what all comes down. And like purpose,
01:26:48.637 --> 01:26:52.797
once you have the purpose, all the other stuff is just ancillary, right? The money.
01:26:53.257 --> 01:26:55.537
You'll figure out a way to make money as long as you get that purpose.
01:26:55.637 --> 01:26:59.397
I think when people truly get down is when they, you know, have no purpose and
01:26:59.397 --> 01:27:00.517
then they'd be making a lot of money.
01:27:00.837 --> 01:27:04.677
It doesn't make them happy. That's when you start turning to other things that aren't good for you.
01:27:04.777 --> 01:27:10.617
But I think that's by and far. I mean, I'm 37. How are you? 34.
01:27:11.097 --> 01:27:16.937
I'm 37. And, you know, we're both still young men, but I think that that's been
01:27:16.937 --> 01:27:20.657
my biggest revelation from having a family and having kids and starting a business
01:27:20.657 --> 01:27:23.357
is that seek what matters.
01:27:23.997 --> 01:27:29.077
Seek what's, you know, what drives you and what's important to you and everything
01:27:29.077 --> 01:27:29.997
else will figure itself out.
01:27:30.997 --> 01:27:34.417
It's good, man. This is awesome. I enjoyed it, dude.
01:27:35.057 --> 01:27:39.157
Absolutely. Is that for me? That's for you. Hell yeah. You're a good guy.
01:27:41.357 --> 01:27:45.797
Plenty more of that came from. I know that's right. I'm glad I wasn't in cellophane.
01:27:46.477 --> 01:27:47.677
Yeah, I would never do that.
01:27:49.177 --> 01:27:53.457
All right, dude, this is awesome. Let's have some drinks at the place one day.
01:27:50.160 --> 01:28:02.800
Music.
01:27:54.017 --> 01:27:56.157
Absolutely, bro. Yeah, thanks. Thanks for having me.
01:28:01.557 --> 01:28:04.517
All right, that's it for this episode of the Miracles of Meat podcast.
01:28:04.517 --> 01:28:08.497
We ask that you share it with at least one person in your life that you think
01:28:08.497 --> 01:28:12.497
needs to hear it um you know if you got a little something from it you got some
01:28:12.497 --> 01:28:16.857
little goose pimples or it just gave you some feel goods um you know send it
01:28:16.857 --> 01:28:18.897
to someone else let them let them feel that too,
01:28:19.517 --> 01:28:22.797
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is out there and what kind of
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01:28:58.480 --> 01:29:30.891
Music.
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