Garrison Brothers Distillery™, Texas’ first legal whiskey distillery, is thrilled to announce that their highly acclaimed straight bourbon whiskey is now being distributed in the great state of Kentucky – the universally acknowledged birthplace of bourbon. The distillery has released 1,200 bottles of its award-winning straight bourbon whiskey to bars and liquor stores throughout Kentucky, as part of its partnership with Republic National Distributing Company.
The first straight bourbon whiskey ever legally made – from corn to cork – outside Kentucky, Garrison Brothers’ Texas Straight Bourbon Whiskey™ has long been a labor of love for proprietor and distiller Dan Garrison, who, with the assistance of a “small staff of bourbon cowboys,” releases a unique vintage of its straight bourbon whiskey each year. All previous vintage releases have sold out in Texas, Colorado, and New York, and demand far exceeds what the small distillery can produce. Kentucky will be treated to a limited allocation of the Fall 2013 Vintage, the Spring 2014 Vintage, and soon, the Fall 2014 Vintage when it hits shelves later this year.
“We are extremely proud of this bourbon,” says proprietor and distiller Dan Garrison. “We’re so confident of its quality, taste and character that we’ll put it up against any Kentucky bourbon in blind taste tests. There will certainly be skeptics of a Texas-born bourbon in Kentucky, and there should be, but I hope they’ll try a bottle. We just might surprise them.”
The experts apparently agree. In his 2014 Whisky Bible, respected taster and writer Jim Murray gave Cowboy Bourbon from Garrison Brothers – an uncut and unfiltered release — a rating of 96 and named it the American Micro Whiskey of the Year.
After a successful launch in New York this past spring, Garrison Brothers is confident that its highly acclaimed Texas straight bourbon whiskey will impress Kentuckians. Already, many of Louisville’s finest bourbon bars have placed orders, including Proof on Main, Down One, Haymarket, Sidebar, St. Charles Exchange, The Vernon and Equus.
“I learned everything I know about bourbon whiskey from carefully studying how the legends in Kentucky did it. I traveled to Kentucky more than two dozen times between 2002 and 2006 and each time I developed a greater appreciation and respect for the legacy of Kentucky bourbon. Elmer T. Lee, Craig Beam, the Kulsveens, Jimmy Russell, Chris Morris, Dave Pickerell, Bill Samuels, Jr., Harlen Wheatley, Fred Noe — I consider these men my heroes and am fortunate to call a few of them my friends.”
Garrison Brothers observes sustainable business practices throughout the distilling process, such as using ultra-pure rainwater captured from the distillery’s rooftops and maturing the whiskey in custom-built, new White American Oak barrels harvested from sustainable forests. They also donate the spent distillers’ grains (the cooked corn, wheat and barley) to local ranchers in Texas for nutritious cattle feed.
“We continue to distill, barrel and bottle every batch by hand, the old-fashioned way,” says Garrison, who prides himself on the attention he devotes to the process, and personal touches like hand-numbering and signing each and every bottle the distillery releases. Unlike Kentucky bourbon distilleries, which make bourbon from “sour mash,” Garrison cooks a “sweet mash” utilizing locally grown grain that is ground fresh daily and never reused. The organic white corn is harvested from farms in the Texas Panhandle, and when the weather cooperates, Garrison grows his own organic soft red winter wheat on his ranch in the Texas Hill Country.
Garrison Brothers Distillery, built in 2005, is Texas’ first and oldest legal whiskey distillery. Since then, Garrison and his dedicated crew have been painstakingly cooking and fermenting a sweet mash of organic Texas corn, wheat and barley, which they distill from a small antique copper pot still nicknamed The Copper Cowgirl. In 2011, the distillery acquired two additional 500-gallon Vendome pot stills nicknamed Fat Man and Little Boy, and today, more than 7,000 barrels of bourbon are aging in custom-built barns on Garrison’s ranch in Hye, Texas.
“Making straight bourbon whiskey requires a commitment of time, money and patience that few craft distillers are willing to make,” Garrison said. “Dozens of high-priced consultants told us this could never be done. It has been done now.”
Garrison Brothers Texas Straight Bourbon Whiskey is now available across the state of Kentucky.
Anyone interested in learning more about Garrison Brothers’ bourbon, or taking a tour of the distillery, should visit www.garrisonbros.com.
