11/28/2023 0 Comments Texas whiskey garrison brothersEach label is designed by an Austin artist and Still Austin has become a community hub, hosting regular music events and spotlighting local creators. Every employee at the distillery owns a share of the company and they source everything locally, from grain to glass. When Seals decided to open a distillery with his father, a recent retiree hunting for a passion project, he wanted to give back to the city that gave him so much. “It helped me to accept, value and fully express who I am,” he said. “It would be hard to find another thing in my life that has made me Chris Seals more than Austin, Texas,” Seals said.Īustin’s inclusive community was also formative in his coming out as a proud gay man. For founder Chris Seals, who grew up on farms around Missouri and East Texas before moving to Austin in 1993 to attend the University of Texas, the city has played an integral role in his life, and now in his whiskey. has claimed many Austin titles - first Austin distillery since Prohibition, official whiskey of the Longhorns and Texas Exes, ardent Austin art scene sponsor. Since it was founded in 2015, Still Austin Whiskey Co. More: 3 restaurants named in our Austin360 Restaurant Hall of Fame 2022 Still Austin Whiskey Co. But we need to be responsible citizens of the world and care about the environment our kids will be living in.”įierce Whiskers is at 5333 Fleming Court Tasting room hours: 4 to 10 p.m. “We want to be about making really awesome whiskey and being awesome Texans. “We wanted to show our industry, Texas and our consumers that if you care, you can do,” Vo said. Despite being a young bourbon, Five O’Clock Shadow tastes smooth and bright, with notes of caramel, plum and vanilla.ĭuring my Zoom call with Vo, who was born and raised in Houston and also founded clean energy company Carbon Better, he was holding his newborn baby - his infant second child, not the new bourbon - and excited about creating whiskey through sustainable processes. Their premium flagship release will be available for purchase in another two years. Their new bottle has been aging for slightly less than two years, so it isn’t “straight bourbon” (bourbon aged for a minimum of two years). Five O’ Clock Shadow is carbon-negative, meaning the processes used in distilling, bottling and distributing the bourbon are powered by solar and wind energy and use carbon-reducing local products like ISC White Oak barrels. Founded by self-professed nerds, childhood friends and veteran clean energy entrepreneurs Tri Vo and Tim Penney, Fierce Whiskers is committed to producing beautiful whiskeys with minimal environmental impact. 24 (currently sold out, $70 at anniversary). Newcomers to the ATX whiskey scene, Fierce Whiskers distillery just celebrated their one-year anniversary and the release of their first single-barrel bourbon, Five O’ Clock Shadow, on Sept. All of them are proud to be making whiskey in Texas.Ģ022 Dining Guide: The best restaurants in Austin Fierce Whiskers All of them seem to know each other when one distillery runs out of barrels, it’s likely they’ll give another one a call. “We love whiskey nerds but we hate whiskey snobs.”Īll the distilleries I spoke to had a deep respect for Texas terroir and sourcing locally. Distillery founder Daniel Whittington said. “What marks our people most is that we really, really hate snobs,” Crowded Barrel Co. What I found was a scene refreshingly free of pretension and full of people who joyfully and compulsively obsess over each process that goes into grinding, cooking, mashing, aging and bottling. Prohibition-era history of bootlegged booze aside, the last 10 years have seen a boom in whiskey distilleries around Austin and the birth of an inclusive, innovative community centered on a passion for distilling mashed grain.ĭuring September’s recent Bourbon Heritage month, I spoke to the folks behind some of Austin’s distilleries about the Texas whiskey scene, what makes their distillery special, and what is going on right now in Austin-made whiskey.
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