Show Notes
[00:00:01]
The Driving Eureka! Podcast
[00:00:33]
Episode 19 – Theme is Fun!
[00:01:37]
About Jumpstart Your Brain
[00:02:31]
The Story of Yink
[00:05:10]
The Story of Yink
[00:13:35]
The Driving Eureka! Book Segment
[00:14:45]
Research on Humor for Creativity
[00:15:46]
Ideas for Humor
[00:17:57]
How Humor Disappears as We Age and Then Reappears
[00:20:23]
How to Set the Creative Mood
[00:24:43]
Keep the Creative Light On 24/7
[00:25:33]
Brain Brew Whisk(e)y Academy
[00:25:46]
Brain Brew Fun
[00:28:03]
Cocktails Make Whisk(e)y Fun
[00:29:21]
Whisk(e) Cocktails with Different Whisk(e)y Makes a Different Cocktail
[00:32:14]
New Drinks Make for Fun – Even Old Drinks in a New Way
[00:33:11]
Homework – Try Cocktails that are Different
[00:34:59]
Go Back to the Original Fresh Ingredients for Cocktails
[00:36:38]
Specialty Cincinnati Whisk(e)ys by Brain Brew
[00:38:00]
History of Whisk(e)y in Cincinnati
[00:43:37]
Craft Cocktail Recipe – Remember the Maine
[00:44:30]
Step 1
[00:44:35]
Step 2
[00:44:38]
Step 3
[00:44:42]
Step 4
Transcript
Tripp: [00:00:01] Welcome to the Driving Eureka! podcast where we share ideas and advice for helping you find filter and fast track big ideas.
Tripp: [00:00:14] Hi I’m Tripp Babbitt advisor to global organizations on the Deming philosophy and host of the Deming Institute podcast.
Doug: [00:00:23] And I’m Doug Hall inventor speaker teacher and whisk(e)y maker. I’m also the founder of the Eureka! Ranch and author of the driving Eureka book.
Tripp: [00:00:33] This is Episode 19 of the Driving Eureka! podcast and the theme for Episode 19 is fun. We’re going to have fun so we have say it so seriously. Anyway hanging over Doug come on I’m the straight guy. Remember.
Doug: [00:00:52] We’re going to have fun. Joy.
Tripp: [00:00:58] You’re hurting me.
Doug: [00:00:59] Okay so we are already having fun. Si si si si the.
Tripp: [00:01:04] And they wonder I have a headache after this. Okay. Okay. So our feature article it’s fun is fundamental. And I got to tell you I got a kick out of reading this and especially since you sent me a link to the video of this thing see there’s there’s Jumpstart Your Brain I believe is the book that that this came from which was your first book but it’s kind of a story that you wrote and so give me a little bit about the inspiration and how you went about writing this.
Doug: [00:01:37] Okay. So so you know mostly we do Driving Eureka! which is latest book but I was just I was poring through some stuff and I found this the art for this. It was actually a photocopy of it but that color photocopy. But the art for a story in my first book jumpstart your brain and jumpstart your brain was it was about creativity but it was about it had kind of a twisted sideways. I mean the idea was to get people to laugh and we’ll talk more about the importance of fun in the Book segment. I took a segment from the from the book about it but you know the idea was to open up people’s minds and at the end of the book because I wrote the first book and we did your first book contract and that’s in the old days where they gave you like a lot of money as an advance and was done by William Morris. I mean I’m doing Morris and Time Warner did the book you know you’re figuring like OK this is gonna be the book you know because I’m never going to do it again right.
Doug: [00:02:31] I know I was going to write seven so far with an eighth coming but so you put everything in it and I said I really like Dr. Seuss a lot. And I said I wonder if we could create kind of a Dr. Seuss like storyline about creativity and how as we old you know we get stupid. I think we talked about that recently. Can I talk about how to bring people back to life and in today’s world trip we got so much negativity so much live there that I figured we needed to have a smile this week. And so the idea was to give ourselves a little bit of fun. And so with my dear friend David Walker the most amazing writer on planet earth who is my co-author on the book and Randy masala who did some just inspired artwork and with a nod of the head to Ted Geisel who is no better known as Dr. Seuss. We we wrote this crazy little story about a character named Yank and how you think it is what it’s called.
Doug: [00:03:33] And of course to it being that idea that you need to find it and we tell a story of young growing up joining the workaday grind and then his boss Mr. Herman MC Moss very squishy and type character.
Doug: [00:03:48] And you got to see the art if you can because it really hits. It’s got a hilarious. Is he got a real problem and then yank is is trust struggling and struggling to find the answer. And then Yinkling named Perl that would be his daughter tells him to ease up dad and come on get a grip and and with a sense of play he relaxes his mind. And the best it this side of Topeka. Oh okay okay okay. Cheese ball way to get your freak name in it. But you know it is just a fun and foolish story that really I don’t know. It just it makes you smile and yes it’s over the top.
Doug: [00:04:34] It’s not great art but it was the way we ended the book The Jumpstart Your Brain book which is now in its second edition Jumpstart Your Brain 2.0. So we recorded it. I recorded it with the images it just made you know just with the pages flipping by if you’re at a device where you can see the video with this podcasting do it if you’re not if you’re driving don’t stop trying to look like you’re driving. But you know you can see it on on a desktop or patters. I get I don’t know how that stuff works but we’ve got it out there and here it is.
Doug: [00:05:10] Hi this is Doug Hall author of the new book Driving Eureka. But for this video I’m going back in time to my first book jumpstart your brain to tell you a little story about Yank there once was a Yank who knew how to think he was especially good at pretending this Yank was a guy with his head in the sky he could dream sweet dreams without ending when you think was a kid dreaming was all that he did and he often would think a great thought while his pals watch TV you could set his mind free to invent which he did quite a lot he thought of umbrella hats of an electric ball bat that never misses whenever it swings of shoes with large wings and kites without strings to name but a few of Yanks idea things but the older he grew the less this Yank knew or so he thought when he started in school he learned to draw straight and to never be late. But mostly he learned dreams are for fools Yank decided to try to grow a necktie he bought a dozen identical suits and quick as a blink Yank learn not to think in meetings with corporate recruits Yank turned off his mind joined the workaday grind and got a job with a reputable firm. He bought an average home with an average loan which he pledged to repay on a 30 year term. Then one day Yang’s boss a Mr. Herman McManus told employees the outlook was dire sales were crawling.
Doug: [00:06:44] Profits were falling said Mike Moss our fat’s in the fire what we need is in it a great it to it an idea to fill rivals with fear and it won’t quit and it with true grit and who I choose for the job is right here. Mike Moss pointed to yank who wanted to shrink to the size of a little bug here for yanked out and not if it wasn’t God he’d most assuredly be out on his rear. What is it you mean. Asked his gills green by an it that won’t quit with true grit said McMoss. Don’t ask. This job is your task. All I know is I’ll know it when I see it so Yank sat and thought he was in a tight spot. He grimaced and grimaced and groaned all his it’s were the same each one of them lame his brain dribbled and dribbled and groaned Yank thought a lot so hard did he think he practically turned orange purple and pink and yet he could draw a straight line and be right on time but he’d forgot how ideas are made silly jotted a note to pass off as it so he hoped to escape the boss’s office unscathed unfortunately Mr. Mc Moss did not see yanks it in a positive light this it is the pits make my sadness in it not even close it’s nowhere in sight then Herman McMorris became particularly cross I’m not yanking you yank I want it’s the don’t clink it’s your it your it is rinky dink further pork here it stinks you ask yet again for a how what why when for a hint we’re in it could be found said Mike Moss you got me. But I’ll know when I see. Please don’t ask me right now to expound it grew so morose he turned white as a ghost. He barely kept a stiff upper lip that night his little girl a Yinkling named Pearl said he’s up Dad. Come on get a grip let’s play dad it’s fun you chase and I’ll run. Never mind all those it’s ends in bits. Let’s run through a yard and play really hard.
Doug: [00:09:08] So they did and yank forgot all about it’s and after a while yank started to smile the best it this side of Topeka popped into his head and instantly said a Christian this it a Eureka we I’m sorry it quickly pricked up and promptly worked up a Eureka Report right away it wasn’t hard what he did he just thought like a kid his boss didn’t quite know what to say you know it’s pretty hard to rhyme with Eureka Okay so it’s a stretch you think you’ve done yourself proud. I’ll say it out loud said McMoss on the corporate P.A. your ink is pure gold your ink breaks the mold it’s the best it ever.
Doug: [00:09:53] Hurray because of yanks it Mc Moss Inc scored a hit and you his boss had much occasion for laughter and it became Yinks style to think like a child and he lived happily long ever after that my friends is the story of Yank that’s it written by my dear friend Mr. David Walker and with me as well as Randy Moss Zola doing the art and if you want to see amazing stories the greatest writer on this planet Mr. David Walker at Brand flick or you can connect to us at the Eureka ranch innovation during all the foolishness as well as the amazing brain brew custom whisk(e)y.
Doug: [00:10:39] Hey have fun folks and hug your child today. OK I haven’t good authority. All of us were at one time four years old. You’ve got it within you. You’ve got it within you let’s have fun OK.
Tripp: [00:10:55] So this.It’s it’s very cheesy. It’s got it’s got a message in it. Which which is good that I like and as I’m listening to it I’m saying. Well that’s pretty much everybody as we get more obligations and there’s things that we do and as as you mentioned earlier about you know as adults as we age we get you know we become more stupid from a standpoint of that we aren’t creative and we are thinking in terms of anything other than our obligations and things that we have to do. And we’ve lost this creativity associated with it. Now that I pulled the right things from the story.
Doug: [00:11:41] Yeah yeah. I mean you know yank as I said he could draw a straight line and be right on time but it forgot how ideas are made. And so we we lose that spirit.
Doug: [00:11:53] Now I’m not saying that a four year old’s more creative than you. That’s not what I’m saying because they don’t know how to make the thing real but there is a sense of free spiritedness as my daughter Victoria says as a little child once we were we were driving and I said oh we’ve got to get there we’re not going to make it we’re not going to make it.
Doug: [00:12:12] And she said Daddy miracles can happen. Don’t forget them you know. And that is so true. You don’t presuppose things let your mind go. There’ll be plenty of time for planning and organizing and doing it but just released cause I got to tell you it’s just more fun. You know when you just let the mind go in and you can do this but the stresses and strains around you just it doesn’t make life fun. I mean at the end of the day you know we’re all going to die. Right. So we’re not have a little bit of fun in the process before we get there.
Tripp: [00:12:55] Ok. And don’t forget to look in the show notes for the Yink link. How do you like that. See I’m having fun.
Doug: [00:13:07] You know what’s amazing is we actually had marionettes made of Yink you know wouldn’t you.
Doug: [00:13:13] Oh that guy makes like a cat by Arrow. So we have an area that that’s nice. I mean it’s just fun. I mean life is too short. Look let’s have fun
Tripp: [00:13:35] It’s time now for the Driving Eureka! book segment with author and inventor Doug Hall.
Tripp: [00:13:48] Let’s moved to our book excerpt than our book segment which is much easier for me to say. Still on the theme of fun is fundamental. Now you go through how I got to tell you Doug. You know as I’m reading through. Well Mike
Tripp: [00:14:08] You get serious there for a minute when you go through the research that you know that came out of people you know having fun and they’re more creative and I thought this is great for me. You know as far as that then you get into the ideas of things you can do to have fun. And I’m sitting there and I don’t know if you get through all these but it folks if you go read the newsletter four through seven please don’t do this because you’re going to get reported to h r you know in your company for doing these things. I know that’s the setup for this. There is. Go ahead.
Doug: [00:14:45] There is science that says that humor works OK. They’ve done studies when people are laughing versus not laughing they come up with more creative ideas and there’s a famous study from the University of Maryland where students are watching outtakes bloopers from TV shows were more successful coming up with solutions 300 to 500 percent by the way not five or 10 percent 300 to 500 percent to come up with solutions than the group watching the math on the area under the curve. Not exactly. And so you know laughing is easy. We just have to open ourselves up so so the amazing David Walker and I. So this is an excerpt from Jumpstart Your Brain 2.0. My first book and and we had some methods to help you get a good belly laugh in case you’re mentally constipated and you need some help.
Doug: [00:15:37] And these are all these are not politically correct and I’m just saying.
Tripp: [00:15:42] These are before the metoo movement definitely.
Doug: [00:15:46] This is more like you’re going into a standup comedian who is off the record. OK. So I’m just going to tell it the way it is. So I just read a couple of them check out a country music karaoke night at any holiday inn near any Japanese auto plant in the Midwest. OK distribute a couple dozen would be cushions to your fellow passengers the next time you take a bus a plane or the Staten Island Ferry. By the way you should know that. Well the book opens with the story of me being in a very overpriced resort and there in the middle of the Rocky Mountains with a about 300 top executives from incisor Bush and they didn’t know it but underneath their seats I had taped a would be cushion at the appropriate moment. I had that I literally had my own imprinted woodpecker shoes and they would blow up the would be cushions and we would have one giant flatulence. It was glorious.
Tripp: [00:16:46] So that the Guinness World Book of World Records then what good are you getting with this you know. And and so there’s all kinds of craziness down in here.
Doug: [00:17:00] I remember one one I had a young fella came to work for me as a as an apprentice. This is before Trump we used to call him apprentices before the TV show and he said that he laughed at this one so much that he actually did it just for four for giggles. I think they might have been drinking on campus I’m not sure. But no. There’s a whole bunch of here. You can read them on the newsletter is wrap your arms and legs in aluminum foil wrap a football helmet in foil and put it on your head attached to attached to aluminum pipe hands side by side and wear them as a chest protector to shield and sword from cardboard and wrapped them in foil to walk up and down the sidewalk in front of your house or apartment brandishing the sword what your neighbors
Tripp: [00:17:46] Are going to call the police. Paul they’re going to call the police in your case. They probably expect it. But if I did something like that the police would be there in like five minutes.
Doug: [00:17:57] Just got to have fun. My dear friend Chip Thompson author of the book What a great idea and really just a spectacular creative expert. I mean just wanted one of the greats. He told me that he’d done some research he found that the average five year old laughs about 110 times a day. Mm hmm. Okay 5 as we laugh it drops by age 44 we laugh only eleven times a day. And it only goes up upon retirement so it’s like we laugh as a kid and we laugh when we’re older and in the middle we live this you know Drudge O-E-O or you know we just die woke up already.
Doug: [00:18:39] Let’s have some fun. Let’s not take it seriously. And in the process 300 to 500 percent so when the boss comes by says Why are you laughing. I’m trying to be creative boss. Remember remember the annual report says we’re innovative and creative.
Tripp: [00:18:54] So I’m just doing what the there you get sent to the loony bin. I got to ask this question Doug. Have you done or been trained in improv is it just just you.
Tripp: [00:19:10] Is it just Doug I know I’m not.
Doug: [00:19:13] I don’t know anything about improv I look like I try to know what I try to do is to live in the moment which I guess that’s what improvisers. Yeah. I mean at its essence improv is you are fully present in the moment and when your mind sparks something you speak before you think of that problem anyway I’m not sure that’s what I think it’s about being fully present and and be present listen observe and just let the mind go don’t constrain it you know mentally constipated you know it is always what we get and and we just need to let it go let it go.
Tripp: [00:19:55] So so is there is there something directly somebody could take from let’s say what’s let’s go kind of go back to the create sessions that we talked about in the last episode. Is there a way to set up these scripts. I know you said criticism too bad that it was from the last episode but then utilizing d do you start with people watching a funny film first thing they know how do you how do you get people to ready to do create.
Doug: [00:20:23] Well I mean we’ve got we’ve got a bunch of things that we do but but one of the one of the biggest ones is is to just get you know we take them through an approach to use free associating off of ideas and allowing one idea to be get another idea another idea. And and and and I’ll challenge them as this is it’s amazing if you tell people to be foolish and have fun. They are literally directing a group. If you say I want you to come up with outrageous ideas. They they do it. If you say I want you have serious ideas. They do that. And so when you set the tone as the facilitator as the leader to say I want to just take these things over the top let’s just have some fun with this go beyond reasonable. It’s easy to tame down than it is to push out so start from the outrageous and bring it in. People naturally like to go with that. And and because that’s the rules and rule people that follow rules will follow the rule because that’s what they’ve been told to do. OK but you can’t assume that they’ll do it. You have to basically lead them into into having an openness and having some laughs. And again you know one of the things that I do if I’m in a room and I’m not the leader but the group is like going nowhere. I’ve learned if I stay three really stupid things. It changes the tone of the whole conversation. You know with a smile. I mean I’m not being mean but in a smile just say them in a fun way and have some fun with it.
Tripp: [00:21:52] So. So this is you know as I hear you talking. And so even from some of the previous episodes that we’ve done you know this is one of the reasons why innovation I think almost has to be separate from the rest of the or another reason why innovation needs to be separate separate from the rest of the things that you have going on on a daily basis that it needs kind of its own focus that you need to be pulled pulled out of your kind of current day to day grind in order to be creative and to have a portion of your thought associated with just being creative is that does that fit the narrative of what innovation is about.
Doug: [00:22:43] I really I really hope not. OK. I really hope not. I mean that is the existing belief.
Doug: [00:22:48] Ok but why should only certain people have fun at certain moments and everybody else have drudgery. They have to fix. They have to turn around and they’ve got problem solving they’re going to do. Everybody’s got problem solving we’re about enabling innovation by everyone everywhere every day. And so it should. There’s a time and a place for it obviously. But you know when we’re problem solving we should open up our minds and it should be something that everyone embraces not just a few people at a few times. It’s like you know I joked before about being Jehad the time we will wear casual clothes between Memorial Day and Labor Day. After that we go back to serious suits you know. I mean come on really really. You know everybody should have the fun and it needs to become part and that’s what happens when you get a culture of innovation which is I know it’s crazy but that’s what we’re trying to do now.
Tripp: [00:23:47] I guess I wasn’t necessarily trying to dismiss people from doing it but that. Are you referencing that it needs to really be integrate. I’m just saying when you’re creating ideas I mean do you have to be focused on doing that. I mean granted an idea may come up at any time during the course of your work or are something associated with that but doesn’t it require a group of people kind of getting together a diverse group as we’ve talked about before and coming up with meaningfully unique ideas in order to come up with a focused effort on getting our mind out of what we’re doing every day and going. Going after that I’m not maybe I’m not expressing that in the right terms or correctly. Does that does that resonate with you at all or is that you do you still see it as something that’s just part of what you do.
Doug: [00:24:43] I think in this life it’s life. It’s how you live. OK. It’s a 24/7 thing. You’re either open to fight working smarter and finding new ways of doing it or you’re turning your mind on and off. And what I want to get to is I want to get to not turning it on and off. I wanted to be on all the time.
Tripp: [00:24:59] Ok. All right. Well that that probably is the best statement of explanation of what your thought is on that then
Tripp: [00:25:11] This is the Brain Brew Whisk(e)y Academy podcast. Well we will take you behind the scenes so you can see what it takes to build a whisk(e)y distillery. This Eureka ranch team led by Doug Hall. Are Creating a craft whisk(e)y Company. With patented technology Like has never been done before.
Tripp: [00:25:33] Ok well let’s move to the brain brew whisk(e)y Academy the importance of fun in the Brain Brew Whisk(e)y. Say you’re applying fun everywhere you go.
Tripp: [00:25:46] I got it. Now it’s integrated into the culture that you’re building with the brain brew folks. Give me some examples.
Doug: [00:25:54] Well I got to tell you that I think when your craft company people can feel your feelings when you created the product that in those products they can get the sense of joy. That means to call it fun call it Joy call it whatever you want. They can get the feeling of it and and it’s sad because many whiskies have become especially the very expensive ones have become so damn serious. You know I mean it’s a leather chair in a wood paneled room with a crystal decanter and a glass of you know fine sipping whisk(e)y. Yes. Yes. I mean it’s like I mean. You know I mean whisk(e)y was made it was a working man’s thing and it was fun. And and I think that joy needs to be brought into it. And and and it’s coming I mean David Walker when it was written with books and hopefully we’re gonna do the next book together. He taught me when we were writing something if when we were reading it to edit it we laughed at what one or other of us even though we knew the joke. We laughed again that we said. My guess is people will laugh the first time they read it. In other words if we’re not amazed and having fun with the thing then nobody else is going to have fun. It’s where we end up with organizations. OK. I’m going to deadly seriously make this so that people can have fun. No town work that way. You got to get that spirit into the thing and you got to open yourselves up to those sayings in and in the case of whisk(e)y. Yes we do that whisk(e)y. I mean taking 200 year would I mean Virgin American would from an old barn that’s come down from whisk(e)y at the time of the riverboats.
Doug: [00:27:47] That’s that’s nuts. OK. It’s crazy and it’s crazy fun because you taste it and you go Oh my God that’s like totally different than today’s whisk(e)y because the wood and the trees grew. This what we use in our paddle wheel product was totally different back then and that’s awesome.
Doug: [00:28:03] And and but the place where it really goes crazy is cocktails. I mean remember we’ve talked to dating 18 percent. Very big huge megaton study stupidly expensive you know tens of thousands of people across America 18 percent drank whisk(e)y in the last twelve months. OK. I mean 82 percent didn’t but when I go to cocktails I can get you know 75 80 percent of them are going to like it because you know a cocktail made with whisk(e)y as the backdrop gives it a richness that you’re not going to get with vodka you’re not going to give a gin and you’re not going to get it with rum that’s a whole different dimension. And why are the top cocktails made with whisk(e)y. Because that’s how you get that real complexity of taste and you get these magical things that have all of these tensions that come together. And so cocktails is where you can really rip it and have fun. If you make your whisk(e)y for Congress that’s why we do this custom cocktail experience where we take you through we have you taste like we’ll start out with an old fashioned and we’ll take our riverboat series and we’ll give you for old fashions with four different whiskeys and people in the industry old puckered people will say well when you make cocktail don’t matter what whisk(e)y you put in it.
Doug: [00:29:21] Well you’re wrong it’s wrong old man because if you taste you taste an old fashioned made with the four our four core whiskeys and you go Oh my God it’s a totally different cocktail and then we start to show people about high balls and cocktails and the ratios. And we have them go through an experience and we generally connect it up around the four seasons. So spring summer winter fall cocktails throughout the seasons and in the moments and and all of a sudden you know people that maybe never had one or had one or two are open up their mind they go Oh my God this amazingly interesting things and then we teach them how to customize it for themselves because you know so when you go to a bartender trip and you ask for a cocktail especially a whisk(e)y cocktail they might ask you a couple questions. What what do you like with this. And you don’t know it but they’re adapting your cocktail without you even knowing it they’re adjusting which whisk(e)y they take. Do they start with ride. They start with bourbon they start with American for grain product.
[00:30:26] They’re playing with is it an ounce and a half or two ounces of whisk(e)y. Are they gonna do one teaspoon of simple syrup or two. I mean they’re making adaptations trying to guess what you’re going to like. That’s why when you go to a really great bar you have the cocktail. Oh my God that’s amazing. What’s it called. They tell you the name you go home. You can’t make it because they’ve adapted it and we’ve gotten a brain but we’ve gotten really really good at this. People come in to the bar at the at the Ranch and our tasting room and they have a drink and they go Oh my God. That is so amazing. I can’t believe how that was so good the way you made that. And then we educate so we show them the trick. It’s OK for you. This is what I did. And for him I made it this way. Now hit had no taste the difference. Goat cheese yes an amazing difference. And so we’re enabling people to make their own cocktails so that they can have do it. And then it’s just plain fun. I mean it’s just fun.
Tripp: [00:31:22] Yeah. Now I have to off to say I started out when you first started introducing these cocktails. You know I had a lot of fun with the martini. I mean it was just funny. So few people go back to that that particular episode. And I can’t remember which one it is off the top of my head. But the. The martini and how you went about making it what it was. It was just kind of a fun episode anyway. But but I. But since then you know I made the Sazerac and I had some friends over actually this past weekend and we made the Sazerac and we also made the bourbon milk punch and the Sazerac. It you know it’s funny you set it up very well which is you’re either going to really like it or you’re really gonna like it because that was kind of the reaction.
Tripp: [00:32:14] For instance my daughter. She she didn’t like the Sazerac but good friends of ours Marvin and Misty Brown. They they tried it and they loved the Sazerac and that kind of liquor ish tastes now like I said I don’t pour out all that absinthe because it’s expensive. Associated with that. And then at the Super Bowl I made the bourbon look punch and people like that. I mean it was just. And I think people just had fun trying something different something that they they didn’t have before.
Tripp: [00:32:56] And you know it’s an excuse. Like you said an experiment. I don’t I’m not doing a team type of experience experiments you do. I’m just so you know enjoying your cocktails or having fun with it. That’s right. OK.
Doug: [00:33:11] So you know I’m going to give people a homework. OK OK. So here’s the first part. Go to the gym go to the Web site for the podcast or dark hall dot com in. Click on it to get there and you can open some newsletters or maybe trip maybe finally we should just make a document that has every cocktail.
Tripp: [00:33:29] So yeah. It’s on my. It’s on my list.
Doug: [00:33:31] Ok. So let’s what you can get that and pick three of the cocktails that are least familiar with you at least familiar with another other words don’t I don’t want you to turn around and just you know do what. Oh I know that. No. Try something different and give them a try. OK. They’re all proven and reliable. If you want to listen to the episode right describe it in more detail but you know try something new to get get a new taste then part two is I want you to then start to mess with it. So riff off it. So last week we talked about the Algonquin where we took pineapple replaced it with grapefruit juice start to do your own riffs on these things. That’s what this is about. OK. This is about fun and bringing together and when you get something cool give it a name and a recipe and go to the dog Hall Facebook page and post it post it and let’s make a celebration of fun whisk(e)y cocktails and share them with one another. Yeah.
Tripp: [00:34:27] You know and for me you know I’m tonight I bought all the stuff yesterday for the whisk(e)y the whisk(e)y sour to make with the orange and the lemon and the lime and for me it will be I’m not using that.
Tripp: [00:34:43] Yes. And the zest. But that also I’ve never used anything other than a mix before.
Tripp: [00:34:48] So for me that back. Stop. Stop. How do you know. OK. So.
Tripp: [00:34:59] So I’m going to go just craft it. You know the way the way you describe. And for me that’s a step up. You know. So before I was using to mix quit using mixes maybe one of the things that you try as far as far as a homework and and doing this because you do get to the actual raw ingredients that go into these cocktails. And for me that’s that’s a change. That’s that’s something that’s very different for me because I never really thought about it. It’s just easier.
Doug: [00:35:29] Ever go back even. And and it is a pain in the butt for some of the cocktails to squeeze limes in limes when stupidly expensive. A year ago but the squeeze limes to squeeze lemons. I don’t care. There is not a single bottled or canned lemon or lime juice out there. They’re just not worth drink. I’ve tried them all because it’s such a pain in the butt to squeeze them all the time. But I got to tell you you make them side by side. You will never ever have you’ll never go back to the bottled crap you just want. Just won’t. Because the fresh is amazingly better. Amazing. Now it’s really good for about 24 hours. But you can leave it for three or four days and you’re still going to be way ahead of the others. That can be as good as it was fresh but it’s still going to be amazing. You know it’s just going to be amazing and just put its group but get a Scrooge up on a little jar or something and close it up put it in your fridge so that you can have it I have I always have lemon juice lime juice. I’m starting to do more and more with grapefruit so I’m starting to have grapefruit all the time so that I’ve got stuff to play with I was a cocktail.
Tripp: [00:36:38] Yeah. And you know maybe that’s something else we we cover off the episode is you know I’ve got a whole bunch of new bar tools before I had a cobbler shaker. I mean that’s and I didn’t even know it was called a cobbler shaker. And then you introduced me to the Boston shaker. So There’s different things happening other than just you know the drinks themselves. Now in your newsletter for the first time now I haven’t seen this before. You’ve got the keelboat. You’ve talked about some of these the Keel boat the paddle wheel the Deck hand and Tall stacks and I’ll be sure to put that picture also in the show notes and then you have each of the drinks. It looks like you’ve got the bourbon milk punch. I’m not sure this looks like the one of the embassy.
Doug: [00:37:22] That’s the second one’s embassy embassy. You’ve got you’ve you’ve got a gold rush and a boulevard.
Tripp: [00:37:28] Ok so so you’ve got this four by the way maybe one of the future things you need to put on your list a dog is to make non boring glasses. You need to have the dog Hall glasses to go with these creative drinks that you have something that looks fun and I don’t know. They all look the same. But anyway there’s always something that’s out there. But that’s the first time I’ve seen that the four that are out there. Can you briefly go through what these are and what are these are these are products.
Doug: [00:38:00] These are actually just these these are prototypes that you’re seeing those are just prototype labels. I’ll tell you in the image but as we talk Cincinnati pre prohibition was it really was a commercial home of whisk(e)y. There was more whisk(e)y made in Cincinnati and in the surrounding areas going into into Kentucky and that and owned by folks in Cincinnati than anywhere on the planet. There was literally ten times the value of whisk(e)y made in Cincinnati was ten times that of beer. And we’re a German town. There was a lot of beer being made. So this was the epicenter and it was primarily because it was it was the Queen City of the West. It was the market town where the steamboats came to ship down to New Orleans into the world. And so it was it was the time so in making this line we made this just for Cincinnati that we’re going to introduce coming up and it’s really celebrating the Cincinnati as this place with the riverboats. And so it’s. And they go in order up to more intensive notice if you would the first one is Keel boat. It’s a four grain easy drinking product. We’ve got some unique twists on this saying and it celebrates the key about secure boats were the ones that would you know you flat boats first that would just float with the current keel boats had a keel and you could now steer them. So rather than just push with poles you could actually steer them a little bit.
Doug: [00:39:21] So what’s the next step up of boats. And and so we celebrate Keel boat kind of slowly going down the water nice and easy. It’s a four grain product. It’s got a high wheat content to it very smooth. It makes very if you’re new to whisk(e)y it’s great. It is the ultimate cocktail it is no speed bumps in it it’s just a very it’s like velvet. It’s really really really nice. It’s a 40 percent alcohol product. OK. Next up is really the flagship of the line it’s called Paddle wheel. This is celebrating the paddle boats and the bridge in Cincinnati. You can see in the background of the image Toby did these incredible artwork and it’s full label art like you see on wine bottles. Again not something that’s done on on whisk(e)y bottles. And and the paddle wheel uses 200 year wood. So we take old wood from an old barn down in Kentucky. We clean it off cut it up and it’s actually cleaner than the wood that you get today because there was less pollutants when the trees were growing. And it gives you a taste. It’s the closest you can get it’s a bourbon 45 percent alcohol bourbon. It gives you the taste of what whisk(e)y would have tasted like you know back at 100 years ago. And in fact I’ve had 1920 1930 whiskeys that had the same character to it.
Doug: [00:40:44] In fact a top whisk(e)y expert over in Edinburgh we tasted he says OK now I’m upset with you. I said why. He says now you’ve got the finish of old whiskies. How the hell are you doing that. I said it’s old wood. He says it totally figures that the wood was different back then. So this is an amazing this is our flagship bourbon. This this adds more richness to your cocktails. So if you want a little bit more richness you’re going to get more there and it’s. And it is about the corn but it’s more about the wood that’s going to do that than the next one goes over the top. It’s called deck hand and it’s also subtitled The Working Man’s rye. And this is a rye whisk(e)y a 95 percent rye whisk(e)y 48 percent alcohol just like rise are up a little bit higher. And this product really celebrates the working man. And it’s really a celebration for bartenders bartenders love this product because it really gives if you want a more whisky forward. This has five different woods in it. So we’re using 200 year wood. We’re using young American oak. We’re using European oak. We’re using maple and we’re using cherry wood. And so you’ve got five woods that give this complex yet smooth rye like nothing else. I mean the rise. I rise regularly. People just go out of their minds for because it’s a totally different type of ride than what you’re used to.
Doug: [00:42:06] Usually they’re really hot and spicy. This is just it’s it’s an elegance that’s just just amazing makes great cocktails. And then last in the line is Tall Stacks that the big stacks on the steamboats. Now we’re at the time of the steamboats so we’ve moved up up the line here and and so and this is a three wood smoked and so now we’re getting that smoke cloud in the background. Either love it a lot or not. It’s like the Islay as Islay whiskeys the smoke whisk(e)y is repeated whiskeys are to Scottish whisk(e)y. This is to bourbon. This is a bourbon and and you either think this is the greatest thing you’ve ever seen. In fact the photo that you’re seeing the fellow that took the photo tasted him and he’s like I need some of that tall stacks. People just go crazy and it makes a cocktail like you’ve never seen before. But it is a it’s a more specialty thing. You’ve got to be pretty intense if you like aioli you’re going to love this. And if you like smoked food really smoked food you’re just going to go out of your mind when you taste this. It’s also I will tell you if you have a mal Peck oyster from Prince Edward Island and you pour a little bit of this on it it’s heaven heaven.
Tripp: [00:43:16] See I like that. And this is more inside information like that Timberwolf that you had me try probably six months ago or maybe longer than that.
Doug: [00:43:25] Yeah it’s a rum product that is a rum OK.
Tripp: [00:43:28] All right. All right very good.
Tripp: [00:43:32] So are these going to be just available then in the Cincinnati area ultimately. OK. Yes.
Doug: [00:43:37] Just Cincinnati and we’re just it’s just maybe a local product celebrating the local local word and and tribute. You mentioned Sazerac that you like the That’s right. So I thought I said that’s so I’m the cocktail this week is a twist on Assad’s Iraq. It’s called Remember the Maine. And this is a 1939 cocktail by Charles Baker. It’s part Sazerac and part Manhattan and it’s named after the U.S. naval ship the Maine as in the state that mysteriously exploded and sank off the coast of Havana Cuba which was controlled by Spain and of course in 1898. And this is what caused the spark the Spanish American War and led to Cuban independence. But so what we do with this is this has got some up to it. So we’re starting with.
Doug: [00:44:30] Two ounces of our deckhand rye that we just talked about or another craft rye. So it’s it’s a big taste.
Doug: [00:44:35] Three quarters of an ounce of sweet vermouth.
Doug: [00:44:38] A half ounce of Cherry Herring which is a cherry liqueur.
Doug: [00:44:42] And a teaspoon of absinthe and you generally stir this and then strain it into a I again I’m really liking these Martini glasses. I just think it gives a nice elegance to upgrades the cocktails although you could serve it over the rocks too but you’ve got the vermouth and the Rye of a Manhattan but you’ve got the absinthe of a Sazerac. So it’s kind of this twist between the two and I just think it just brings some fun to it did you know what people that are Manhattan. I want a Manhattan one of Manhattan. I want to say as our hero says right. And all of a sudden you do this kind of flip which you’ve got a real history to it. And I just think it it just brings a little bit of fun to people and gives them a new experience.
Tripp: [00:45:24] Ok. All right well that got another one for me to try. Now you’re at have get go out and get the Cherry herring cherry Liquor let’s use in something else but I can’t remember what the what the drink was that that they had or maybe it was just that a conscious thing.
Doug: [00:45:40] There’s also there’s also another thing. There’s another version called luxardo just used in the Hemingway are the Hemingway Dockery or Martini uses like Sardo. I’ve not made remember the Maine with Luxardo I should probably try it that way. There’s an old joke that you know if you’ve got a cocktail every cocktail will be made better if you add like Sardo or champagne. You know it’s classically what to do it Cherry herrings got a little different character than looks like it has to it it’s got more arbitrariness to it.
Tripp: [00:46:18] So okay well maybe that’ll be your homework then try to look smart it.
Doug: [00:46:23] Yeah I stocked my my bar stocks both because you know. But again I’m crazy I guess.
Tripp: [00:46:30] So there was some time where you have to get a picture of what’s inside Doug’s bar. Probably a whole episode on its own. All right. So have fun everyone. That’s the key to making good whisk(e)y and products and everything else. Yeah
Doug: [00:46:47] Life’s too short. Let’s have some fun.
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