Four Branches Bourbon - From Camouflage to Casks: Veterans' Journey to Whiskey Craftsmanship

What happens when two veterans trade in their uniforms for bottles of bourbon? Find out as Harold and Rick share their journey from military service to whiskey craftsmanship.

https://www.fourbranches.com/story

Dive into an episode filled with camaraderie, laughter, and a tribute to all branches of the military with their Four Branches Bourbon. Harold takes us on a nostalgic trip back to his roots in Mount Holly, North Carolina, revealing how playing high school sports paved the way to his Navy service, while Rick opens up about his dramatic experiences in the Marine Corps, resembling tales straight out of a TV drama.

Join us for a spirited discussion that honors brotherhood and bravery with each sip of Four Branches Bourbon. Harold and Rick captivate us with their stories of transitioning from the high seas and military bases to the art of whiskey making. Enjoy a generous pour of wit, wisdom, and whiskey as we explore their inspiring journey and toast to their service and spirits. Whether you're a whiskey enthusiast or a fan of heartfelt military tales, this episode promises a rich blend of both worlds.

Also in studio local friends Keith and Chris to join us in the tasting.

https://linktr.ee/ManCaveHappyHour

www.ManCaveHappyHour.com

Jamie Flanagan @DJJamieDetroit

Matt Fox @fox_beazlefox

Merch www.WearingFunny.com

Transcript

Jamie: 0:02

I said, hey, hey, welcome to the man Cave Happy Hour. I said, hey, hey, welcome to the man Cave Happy Hour. We're gonna drink a fine whiskey and smoke a really fine cigar. It is time for Happy Hour, smoke a really fine cigar. It is time for Happy Hour. It is the man Cave Happy Hour Whiskey, cigar, spirits, the stories that go along with it. I'm Jamie Flanagan. I'm August Gitschlag.

August: 0:34

Jamie. There's no Matt today. There's no Matt today. That means these two are going to be the butt of all my jokes.

Jamie: 0:38

Now We've tagged in, and I don't know if you guys know it or not, but you guys are affectionately known as the.

August: 0:47

Men in Black Along with Tulio.

Jamie: 0:48

They show up, they get the job done, and I usually don't remember a damn thing afterwards.

Harold (aka Dog): 0:53

Yeah, there you go Poof, did you?

Jamie: 0:55

know that we refer to you as the Men in Black. It has come up from time to time.

Harold (aka Dog): 0:58

Okay, fair play.

Jamie: 0:59

Oh, the Men in Black are here. All right, keith and Chris have jumped in because we got some. We got some just a taste. Today we got some fun tasting. We're looking at the Navy and the Marines today. We're talking to it. Well, we're all four branches, all branches are involved. There's a little bit of a spoiler, but today, specifically speaking about the with with the Navy and the Marines, we have a couple of very special guests and we have a very special bottle to try. It's Four Branches.

Harold (aka Dog): 1:31

We're posting, as in, four Branches of the Military right, four Branches of the Military.

Jamie: 1:35

Four Branches Bourbon, and with us today we got Harold and Rick. Gentlemen, welcome to the man Cave.

Rick: 1:42

Hey, thank you for having us.

Harold (aka Dog): 1:45

Glad to be here.

Jamie: 1:46

Super excited, honored. Thank you for your service. Let's start with that.

August: 1:50

of course Are you talking about for making whiskey. Thank you.

Jamie: 1:54

And thank you for the bottle especially as well. But yeah, where are you guys coming?

August: 1:59

from today. Where are you guys at?

Rick: 2:03

I'm coming to you out just outside nashville and murphysboro, tennessee all right all right and I'm in the navy town.

August: 2:10

I'm in virginia beach, virginia okay, I've been to both those places. I've been to murphysboro and I've been to virginia beach so, so all right.

Jamie: 2:18

So, rick, I just you gotta franco, it's just, it's just I. How does not everybody just call you franco? Does everybody just call you Franco? Is that just it In the old?

Rick: 2:27

days.

Jamie: 2:28

they did yeah, I got a buddy Frank and I was like Franco, but when I saw your name I was like just rattling around.

August: 2:35

It's a military name. It makes it work.

Jamie: 2:38

Rick comes from the experience with some crazy experience with the Marine Corps.

August: 2:46

Both you guys, your bios look like characters out of the Lioness show on Paramount+.

Harold (aka Dog): 2:51

It's impressive.

August: 2:53

Now they're making whiskey Damn.

Rick: 2:56

It doesn't really get better than that, does it?

Jamie: 2:58

Yes, Harold, in the Navy. Harold, you're one of the founders. There were a couple of guys that founded this. Harold, we're going. You're one of the Harold, you're one of the founders there. There was a couple of guys that that founded this. So, Harold, we're going to. We're going to start with you. Uh, Harold, tell me about your childhood.

Harold (aka Dog): 3:11

All right, well, hey um.

Jamie: 3:12

I grew up in a little town called Mount Holly, north Carolina.

Harold (aka Dog): 3:17

You know, you probably heard of Belmont, belmont, mount Holly, about 30 minutes south of 80 on 85 from Charlotte, north Carolina. Okay, grew up, and you know, in high school if you had asked me, you know, well, hey, you know I played football. You know I played peewees, midget ball, played baseball, little league baseball, and you know, growing up it was like, you know, just get through school, right, get through, get through high school. Then try to figure out what you want to do. And about the 10th grade or so, you know I figured, hey, I wanted to be a North Carolina Highway Patrol, you know, state trooper. So what I did was after I finished my high school, you know, graduated at East Gaston High School back in 79, which was a little while back. I started taking some courses and you know med tech type stuff. You know getting my my what is the EMT certification. And also I was in a community college, gaston College, doing a criminal justice degree. You know, associate's degree in that and hopefully that would help me ramp up to go into.

Harold (aka Dog): 4:33

You know highway patrol, you know law enforcement, but at the same time I was in the National Guard, so I had a little bit of time with my friends. You know, we joined, we had a recruiter come in and, you know, signed us up. We wanted to get out of town, you know, go see some places. So we went, you know, went into Army National Guard, did four years in Army Guard, went over to the Air Guard. They, of course, you know they had flight medics on the C-130s in Charlotte at the time. So I did that for four years in Charlotte at the time. So I did that for four years and I did the whole interview process, the physical test and all that stuff for the highway patrol. But for whatever reason they had like a full shutdown of the academy up in Raleigh, north Carolina because of you know, whatever the case, right, but they shut the academy down for about two years, two and a half years, and that was a time that I was ready to go.

Harold (aka Dog): 5:27

Right, I was ready to go do something.

August: 5:28

The one time in history they weren't hiring police officers. Yeah, right, right, right.

Harold (aka Dog): 5:32

Exactly so. With that being said, you know my patients were wearing a little thin. I read an article in a Sunday Reader's Digest type of magazine about. They said the caption was a Sunday Reader's Digest type of magazine about. They said the caption was are the Navy SEALs the toughest men alive? And I continue to kind of read that article and it has some pictures in there of guys climbing underneath barbed wire doing the O course on the beach. And I went, wow, let me check this out. This is in San Diego, coronado, where they do the basic underwater demolition school buds.

Harold (aka Dog): 6:06

So I, you know I was either going to go fly helicopters for the army or go, you know, go navy seal and it back. Then. You know, navy seals is not, oh no, people know about us a lot more, uh. So so I, I basically the wanted me to do that, but the Army was not going to send me right to Rucker to fly helicopters. They wanted me to go to Army Ranger School and then go.

Harold (aka Dog): 6:31

I had a buddy that was a Ranger and he says don't do it. He said, once they get you in a Ranger Battalion they won't let you go until about four years. So that kind of you know, give me the you know I give the heisman to the army and join the navy to be a seal. And back then they didn't have a program, you know we didn't have a, you know, a guaranteed contract. What you had to do is join the navy, pick a rate, go in and then you got to, you know, try out for the navy seal program once you get to boot camp, made it through the training right. So I was sent out to coronado, uh buds class 152 and uh started my navy career, you know, back in 87, going through, you know, buds.

Jamie: 7:13

So so you ended up being command master chief in the seals. That's uh, that's pretty awesome. So what brought you to there, to to team up and and and get into the into the spirits industry after you were done with your service?

Harold (aka Dog): 7:28

Well, you know, once I retired in 2015, you know, I started working in the security safety realm. I had a job out of Roswell, georgia, did that for about three years. The company that I was working for got acquired. I worked for the bigger company for about probably nine months and they said, hey, we're paying you too much money, so they let me go. I had a signed agreement where they paid me for a year or that, right.

Harold (aka Dog): 7:50

And then, as I was sitting home, I got a phone call from a retired Captain Seal buddy of mine. He said, hey, hey, dog, would you be interested in going to the Bahamas and working a project down there? It's a restoration project for a Baker's Bay uh resort, golf and resort down in, uh, bahamas, abacos. And I went well, let me go take a look at it. So I went, I flew down and checked it out, and that's when I met Rick.

Harold (aka Dog): 8:16

Rick was actually at the pier you know, running security for Baker's Bay at the time and me and Rick talked all the way across the water because we had to catch a ferry to get over to Baker's Bay. So, and then met Rick, we hung out, we lived in a house. This gentleman was nice to us. He wanted security to stay in his house because it was post, you know, dorian, the storm, you know the Hurricane Cat. All right, he wanted us in there to make sure his house was secure.

Harold (aka Dog): 8:47

And also, we lived there for what, rick? About a year, about a year, about a year. So so me and you know, me and Rick's been, you know, pretty good buddies and we realized that our paths, our boot prints, had probably crossed each other, whether it was in Iraq or Afghanistan, all over the world really. And and then whether it was in Iraq or Afghanistan, all over the world really. And it was Rick's idea, and I'll let Rick tell you how. We started Four Branches. But I met Rick down there. I met Mike Trott as well he's the Air Force CIA guy founder. And then we brought RJ in.

Jamie: 9:19

Yeah, so after the military Rick, you too went into the safety and security field.

Rick: 9:31

And then you guys. So what brought you? What brought you to the spirits, Rick?

Jamie: 9:41

Yeah, so you know, after after my time in the military, I then transitioned to CIA for a long time as a contractor Wow, thank you again.

Rick: 9:49

For a long time as a contractor. Wow, um, thank you again. Uh, geez, did about 12 years. Uh, over over there, lots of different areas, uh, in a unit and uh, I tell people you know you'll get. I tell people you know, look guys, when you hear voices in your head, I'm gonna tell you right now, please don't listen to about 99 of them. They're probably not good, but every now and then one voice is one voice will shine through the darkness and it'll speak. Uh, it'll speak some truth and that's the one you should listen to.

Rick: 10:16

So what drew me in was about, I guess, harold was. We're going on four years now, really since since inception. So about four years now, really since inception. So about four years. Um, driving home from the day job, still have one. Uh, one of these voices popped in the head and said hey, you should do a barrel of bourbon for the guys in the old unit right with the agency. I thought this would be. This would be the easiest thing in the world. I've got a really good printer at home. Put some stickers on some bottles and we can sell that on facebook. I'll be sold out in 20 minutes Apparently.

Rick: 10:46

Uncle Sam won't let you sell it on.

August: 10:50

Yeah, he can't do that on eBay who?

Rick: 10:52

knew right, that's what you get when a Marine starts coming up with ideas. The intent was to give back and honor what Harold has coined the unsung shadows, right. So this all started as a tribute the original tribute to a good buddy of mine, that we were cadets together at Virginia Military Institute. We were Marine officers doing stupid second lieutenant stuff down at Lejeune, and then I got out and got into the CIA and I recruited him in, I vouched for him and recruited Greg into the agency and then 19 years ago this year actually this month, december Greg went on his first mission to Iraq and saved everyone's life.

Rick: 11:40

But Greg didn't come home and then I had bring greg home and greg was given a star on the wall at langley. I once seen the star wall of the movies, if you haven't been there, and so that was a big deal, because up until then, no, no contractor we were contractors from our unit had ever been given a star on the wall, so it was rather significant. I had like 1200 people at greg's funeral um and, and so it was to honor these.

Rick: 12:05

uns had like 1,200 people at Greg's funeral, and so it was to honor these unsung shadows. Just like today is the nine-year anniversary of the Coast bombing, the largest loss of CIA officer and security life in one instance down the coast.

Jamie: 12:19

I saw you not being glib when I was saying thank you because you guys do hard, dangerous work. No, I mean, we need it, so thank you, thank you.

Rick: 12:29

Marine Master, sergeant, navy SEAL, another Marine, I mean. So it you know today, like I said. So I started this to honor those shadows, right, all right.

Jamie: 12:41

So when you figured out you weren't breaking laws, how'd you come up with the? How'd you come up with it? You're like, OK, we got to do this legally. How'd you? How'd you get the juice? Where'd you? Where'd you go for that?

Rick: 12:51

You know, if you're not afraid to pick up the phone, make some cold calls. Literally I cold called, first person I cold called or first place that would return. My call was, uh, I ended up talking to a guy at Barstown bourbon company. Yeah, Okay, he picked. Finally, finally someone answered the call, uh, as Justin, uh Harold, at Barstown bourbon company, and uh, I remember vividly I was sitting in the cell phone waiting lot waiting to get the in-laws at the airport.

August: 13:27

Right, so I not the call.

Rick: 13:28

You're expecting that. So I managed to get through and we started chatting and I kind of tell him a little bit of our story. I was like hey, man, and I was telling him I was a veteran and we're talking because I was a veteran too, and so he had been in the army. So, right, there's that bond, doesn't matter what whether you're in the Coast Guard, air Force, it doesn't matter. There's that bond of service that you can kind of lean on with one another. So I kind of pled the case and he's like, look, right now we're full, but if you call these numbers then they might be able to help you out with what you're looking for. So he gave me three phone numbers of bourbon brokers, secondary market bourbon brokers. The first number didn't pick up. The second number picked up and it was Jeff Hotmare from the Brandiamo Group. Jeff's probably the number. The Brandy Amagroup is probably the number one bourbon broker in the world, sitting on close to 250,000 barrels of bourbon. Crazy, right.

Rick: 14:24

So here I am in my home office on the phone with a guy I've never met. You know the world that Harold and I and RJ and Mike come from. Everything is really compartmentalized, right, come from that secret world. So here we think we have this amazing idea. So here we think we have this amazing idea and I tell Jeff, I was like well, hey, sir, before we talk any further, I'll send you over an NDA to sign. And he's like yeah, you know what I don't do NDAs, we can stop right now.

Jamie: 14:56

I was like why do you?

Rick: 14:58

mention that. Nor do we today. And then two days later he invited us I mean mean, this guy never met us invited us over to his house and adamantly tried to talk us out of going into the bourbon business uh talk you out of it, yeah, fair enough, but uh, so that's how we got started, right. So it started with jeff.

Rick: 15:14

He then helped us purchase our first barrels for our first blending 3 000, 3 000 cases oh, wow um, and then we uh, got in with barstown and we bottle and blend there and we actually this past summer laid down 500 new fill barrels of our own. That'll be fantastic in about five years yeah, okay long the short story is it was luck and maybe a little bit of fate going in there like that. We're on the right path. These doors keep opening I love this.

Jamie: 15:50

I love this story. I want to taste the bourbon. So, um, is this, uh, like the first iteration, or have you guys? How did you come up with? Because there's's, there's a four grain, right. So you got the, the corn, wheat, barley and rye for branches four grains. I like that symbiosis there. So what, what brought you to this Is this yeah, is this the first iteration that we have here? The we got the founders blend.

Harold (aka Dog): 16:22

That blend, that's right, go ahead yeah, I was trying to see the labels, uh, at the top, right up to the camera. Yeah, hold it closer. Yep, that's that's og we call it. That's original grains right there all right okay og original grains.

Jamie: 16:31

love it all right, coming in at 96 proof, which is nice. It's not your basic, basic 80, but it's not blowing your head off either. Right, right, I'm going to pop the top on the thing I'm a big fan of blended whiskey Like these.

August: 16:44

The single barrel, 114 proofs. They end my night a little too quick. The blendeds, they're always smooth. They always are the same right, because they have a master blender doing this stuff.

Jamie: 16:55

So I got the sound, the nice sound of the cork coming out. You feel, okay, you have to mix it also, it's not as bad. Yeah, so must approve. So how do you select the blend?

August: 17:07

actually, once you get with the broker, and how does the selection process go?

Rick: 17:10

so we knew. One thing we knew is we did. We wanted to go over four years so we didn't have to put an age statement on the bottom.

August: 17:19

Yeah, okay, okay, yeah.

Rick: 17:22

And then when we were at Bardstown Harold, myself, mike and RJ and we were there blending we had the fortunate really was very fortunate luck that the master distiller for Bardstown, steve Nally, who was a Hall of Famer, he was at maker's mark. He's the man he was, yeah, so you guys know where he has passed and his lineage. We've come up on the podcast before. Yeah, all right. So so we were up, we were in there and they were like guys, the blenders that we were with were like guys, steve is going to show up and he's just going to kind of say, hey, well, he comes in. I think Harold and I must have been jostling around or giving each other shit or giving the other, everyone else shit, and he's like who are you guys? And we tell him a little bit of the story in the background, kind of what we're doing, and he, you know, he looks at his assistant, who I was with and was like clear the schedule, and looks at us and says, rolls his sleeves up, says, boys, let's make some bourbon, oh nice.

Rick: 18:28

And then uh harold was actually the very first taster to approve our blend. The great story I'll let you tell it. You'll, harold, will tell the story of how it all came about and why four grains.

Harold (aka Dog): 18:44

Yeah, well, as we were. You know, standing there with Steve right beside us and he's looking and he goes. Well, hey, he says you've got a 70-20-10 blend right, Corn, rye and malted barley. He says you guys are four branches, so why don't we put four grains in it? So there's not that many four grains out there.

Harold (aka Dog): 19:03

So we kind of looked at each other and went you know, well, you know he's kind of like the, you know the master guy here, so that sounded pretty good to us, right. So he said okay, so let's move forward. He told Dan, Dan is the blender there there, barstown, and he he said hey, put five percent wheat in this. And he did five percent. And we were tasting that of course we had these little tiny, like little symbol size, you know glasses well, and we were taking the one that that's good, that's really good.

Harold (aka Dog): 19:33

And he goes, and then steve goes, well, let's bump it up to 10 percent of aged wheat. So what, what we have, our mass bill right now is 65 corn, 15 rye, 10 malted barley and 10 percent wheat, but the wheat is aged. So what we did was brought in around six to seven year old barrels that we got from wilderness trail to blend in with our mgp. You know 21 rye barrels and then, once we hit that, and then you, after you know, standing around in the chemistry room and he got to 10%, he go okay, this is nice, and they're working it over there, you know like, you know like chemists do, and they poured it out and they had it in a nice little glass and they they mentioned the fact that, hey, this is for all four of you to taste, and of course that went right in one ear and went out the other ear with me and he handed me the little glass, the little shot, smaller than a shot glass really, and I smelled it.

Harold (aka Dog): 20:30

I'm like boy, this is a really good boom. And then, you know, I just basically took the whole thing and then, you know, chewed on it right, chewed on the juice, and rolled back a man, that's really good. And all the other guys, you know, rick, mike, rj, looking at me like well, you just did. And then then, you know, dan looks at me and goes, well, I'm going to have to go back to the lab. I got to pull some more wheat, you know age wheat out.

Rick: 20:55

There was like man this is really good guys. Daryl was like man this is really good guys. We're all in a line. That's amazing, but we won't know.

Jamie: 21:12

We had quite a laugh, and we do have a T-shirt eventually that will come out with a Dammit Harold.

Jamie: 21:16

Dammit, harold, you were supposed to share that. I'm like I've been on the nose on this. It's like I'm getting that the vanilla I haven't tried it yet, but it's smell. It's not hurting my nose and it's like I the vanilla, but there's, I'm getting a little cherry, almost like a vanilla, not a strong cherry, but that's what I'm getting out of it, uh, and then a little you the vanilla, maple barrel vanilla that you get, but that smells nice.

August: 21:43

I got to get it in your mouth, I got to get it in my mouth. That's the next step. You know we're here to drink the stuff.

Jamie: 21:48

I got to taste it, gentlemen, thank you.

August: 21:51

Can I say Semper Fi, you can.

Rick: 21:53

There you go.

August: 21:58

I love a blend that has that vanilla bean smell to it right when you start. That's always one of my favorite things. It hit my nose when I'm bringing it in that hits all the right spots yeah. Is this on the shelves in Michigan?

Rick: 22:15

It is not on the shelves in Michigan.

August: 22:17

Okay, so this is an order. We've got an online order. We'll share all that action so that we can get that out. How many states are you guys on the shelves in Michigan? Okay, so this is an order. We've got an online order. We'll share all that action so that we can get that out. So how many states are you guys on the shelves in now? Seven, yeah, seven, okay.

Harold (aka Dog): 22:31

Tennessee, Kentucky, Arizona, Florida, Virginia, DC and Maryland, and hopefully in 25 will will expand. Did I see mail order to 32?

August: 22:46

states that's correct well, that is nice eventually you got to get to the point where you got to make enough juice to get it to all the states. So you got to. You got to grow before we jump into Texas or you know the bigger markets.

Harold (aka Dog): 23:03

What's the price point you're looking at?

Rick: 23:06

It ranges anywhere between $74 and $88.

Jamie: 23:12

Okay, this is like, really, there's like the crazy the legs on. This is crazy. It's like there's a lot of viscosity to it. It's hanging on, it's hanging on, it's hanging in there, not in a bad way.

August: 23:30

Yeah, I can, as I like to say, I'll fuck with this. This is something I can keep. I would open up and have the friends try One of the better ones we've had on the podcast. Honestly, I'm glad to hear that, yeah.

Jamie: 23:44

They're young and this doesn't taste young at all.

August: 23:48

You know what it's because they blended it and they knew what they wanted to do and they weren't trying to force a product out of the market that they were, you know, just put a label on and sourced it out of somewhere and said hey, it's this. They actually took time to blend it.

Jamie: 23:59

Everything in here is four years plus right. That's right.

August: 24:02

So not young.

Rick: 24:05

Harold will tell you, and so will the other guys. As a veteran-owned company, you can come out with something that could taste like dog shit. People will buy it once because, oh, we're supporting a veteran-owned company well, that was my experience in the past with veteran-owned spirits, right right.

Rick: 24:24

So they'll. They'll buy it once and then they'll never get bought again. You know, like you said about our careers. You know harold's got a career. He's very humble. That overshadows all of ours um, but we knew that what we were going to come out and put our names to had to be worthy of our names and our careers but, more importantly, had to be worthy of the names of those that didn't come home Right. So that's why we take it really serious to produce something that is super high quality, something people like I'm sure harold can tell you he's been done a gazillion tastings that you'll have a non-bourbon drinker come and start drinking it because they're like oh shit, I can drink this.

August: 25:08

This is really good yeah, this isn't some single barrel. Let's blow your taste buds out of your face. 114 proof. Yeah, you know, buy it once and never buy it again. Bottle this is a tasty sipper.

Jamie: 25:21

Yeah, which is what I look for something I'm going to buy twice and that, well, that's the thing we tell. We've talked to, we talked to a lot of people and that make a lot of things and the thing is, you're gonna sell one bottle. You're gonna sell that first bottle, sure that's the celebrity booze, all that stuff.

August: 25:34

You know they're gonna sell one. You know, crazy george clooney something or other.

Jamie: 25:37

Yeah, crazy bird on the. Yeah, cork stopper I'll never I'll never, buy a bottle of blends.

Harold (aka Dog): 25:44

Yeah, and you know that's that's why we didn't go. So, uh, military, military eyes with our logo. You know we spent a lot of time on that logo and uh, we can explain that. Um, that four is not just a number, you know. You look at that four and the bottom of that four has got an arch on it Right, that's the foundation mark. So that foundation mark is like what you would see on a ridge line on a map Right. So that's US Army. That, that, that foundation, is US Army 1775. First founded DOD right service.

Harold (aka Dog): 26:19

And then going up to center there, the big piece in the center is like what you would see from a shoreline on a Navy mast of a ship or a con of a submarine coming out of the water. That's US Navy Horizontally coming across. It's like a bayonet knife affixed to a rifle or a sword representing the US Marine Corps. The leanest and meanest, rick, I'll give you that. And then the swoop up from left going up is US Air Force, because the Air Force covers us down with all their air power Right. And then you see in the middle of it's got a black spear coming down, but you can only see a half of that spear. The piece that you can see is for our men and women, honoring our men and women that are still serving around the globe today for our freedom. And I've got two sons that are active duty navy and the piece that is missing is for our fallen.

Jamie: 27:15

So there, you go wow so I just threw the still up. So, if people because it's an audio podcast but it streams out on youtube and facebook too, so people can see that logo I was holding it up but I got that that that shaky, blurry focus, yeah I'm with you well, thank you.

Rick: 27:36

You got a great video on our site that actually pulls it all together, and it's filmed in like the old world war ii style. Okay, all right, it really lays it out.

Jamie: 27:45

I love that it builds out to four I see it now that you say all those elements, I totally see them in there. And I was like when, when I got the bottle, I was like, oh, that's a very cool font because I I teach journalism and it's all about fonts careful with with the fonts, right, when you're laying things out, and then the fonts are important. And I was like that's a very, very cool font for that four. Who knew there was that much of a story behind it? That's awesome.

August: 28:10

I love that, before we get you out of here, I've been sitting here playing with this, just fiddling with this challenge coin here. Ah, you guys sent us yeah, you sent us some swag along with the bottle, and I have some familiarity with Challenge Coins, having worked for US congressmen and driven in presidential motorcades and talked to some Secret Service guys. Where did the whole Challenge Coin thing start? Do you guys carry these Like your own branch Challenge Coins?

Rick: 28:38

So, if I'm understanding the question correctly, like are these ours quote proprietary to us?

August: 28:47

no, no, no, I mean the, the story of the challenge coins, how this kind of like people started carrying these around and using them and get people to buy them drinks and bars and stuff oh shit that's a generic.

Harold (aka Dog): 28:58

Yeah well, the generic challenge coin I think our coins was, you know, I think it was a, a piece of article that we wanted to have with our our, you know, marketing our merch, just because, you know military people love challenge coins, right, right, my, you know me myself, you know I had a seal team one coin back in a day and but we would, you know, I don't wear, you know, because SEAL, you know SEALs, you know we wore shorts and tank tops or whatever. Right, I mean, we didn't wear a whole lot of you know clothes, but the Army guys, the Special Forces guys we worked with, boy, they had them. Basically they were wearing them underneath their G-shocks, oh wow.

August: 29:40

So you go in a bar with those guys and they're gonna dime you out all day long.

Jamie: 29:44

You gotta be ready you gotta be ready, well, the the challenge coin history dates back to world war one okay okay is where it starts.

Rick: 29:51

So it's been in existence within within armed services since since the first world war and it's grown to where, if you don't have your coin slapped on the, you know. It's become a drinking thing like a kind of a unit pride, like, hey, when I'm on the bar, where's yours? Obviously you're trying to get a free drink. It's not the opposite of the kind of coin you get in AA.

Jamie: 30:15

It's different, but like not everybody knows that the whole challenge coin thing, these are little marketing gimmicks, but there was a history behind it.

August: 30:24

Now it's gone. There's police departments that make them now and they do stuff like that. I think it was a CIA. It was a Secret Service guy prior to 9-11 that first told me about it that I talked to. It was a long time ago back when I was a young staffer.

Harold (aka Dog): 30:40

You've got to flash that at the bar now. Yeah, this isn't going to do me any good as a municipal city clerk, who runs elections, I don't get a challenge point guys.

August: 30:47

It's advertising for the bourbon? Yeah, but that'll be around.

Jamie: 30:51

So you sent us a couple cocktail recipes too. We're going to do I do short videos and I'll make a cocktail and I'm going to do. Well, I'll do them both. But one is the quiet professional, and there's two reasons I love this. I love this so an ounce and a half or an ounce and a quarter of Four Branches. Founders Blend Amaretto and here's the thing Pure maple syrup. So instead of simple syrup, the okay I do.

Jamie: 31:21

I love that in the cocktails. I love that you got that in. I love that in the cocktail. I'm gonna do a thing and then, uh, lemon twist bitters, uh, and a luxardo cherry. They're deliberate about the luxardo cherry it makes such a huge difference. It really, it really really does. Uh, so I'm gonna do that one. I'll definitely do that one, then I'll let the other one. It's just the four branches, four by four. It's the Founders Blend on the rocks, or not there?

Rick: 31:47

you go Let me tell you, with the quiet professional for legal purposes, kind of like our disclaimer, we had to put an ounce in a quarter. I'm going to tell you.

Jamie: 32:01

I usually go two.

Rick: 32:02

Two, yeah, two ounces. There you go. That's how it makes it. Two ounces bourbon, one ounce Di Serrano. We use Di Serrano.

August: 32:12

Yeah, that's the only one to use, otherwise you get just a lot of sugar really so I'm going to do that one.

Jamie: 32:18

I'll do that one for sure. I'll share it out. I'll tag you guys in it.

August: 32:21

It's kind of like an old-fashioned with Amaretto yeah.

Jamie: 32:23

I've never had that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's our take. I like it.

August: 32:27

Good.

Jamie: 32:32

Good for you guys. I'm what's the website?

Rick: 32:36

fourbranchescom, wwwfourbranchescom. Bring it right to it the word spelled out f-o-u-r, f-o-u-r yeah all right why don't you uh tell a little bit about the messaging right and the give back of? Well why we're more than just a burger yeah, I mean our, our messaging.

Harold (aka Dog): 32:55

You know you can see it on the bottle right the top of the bottle. The smaller label going around the top is serve honorably. You know whether you've served in the military, you served as a police officer or you know, like Rick says a lot, you know everybody serves something right, you know, in their professional life or at church, wherever you serve, and then you know we've all four served honorably. And then we also have drink honorably, not to replace drink responsibly, but we're just trying to raise the awareness of that because we still have the 22,. You know, suicides in the military, which is a very sad, sad story.

Harold (aka Dog): 33:42

And I think, more importantly, our ethos, and you know, is we don't want you to drink to forget anymore. We want you to sip to remember, and this bourbon that we put in these bottles, these diamond bottles, is at the quality and the taste you know. You want to sip it, right, you don't want to, you know, use this as a Jack and Coke or whatever. So you know, we want you to sip to remember, and not just to remember the ones that we've lost, the ones that didn't come home, but think about sipping to remember all the good times in life, celebrations, you know, whether it's a promotion or a wedding, or you know someone having a grandchild. I mean all of this stuff we need to get locked away and you know thinking about sipping to remember just the people that we've lost, because you know, I believe, that we think about them all the time. But we want to also add that we all have victories in our lives and you know we want to celebrate those as well.

Jamie: 34:54

Gentlemen, you need to trademark that phrase, by the way.

August: 35:01

Yeah we actually have trademarked it I'm gonna be using that every time I put it on the bottle if they didn't trademark it yeah, but.

Rick: 35:11

But what I was going to say quickly was that message that Harold's put out has helped raise in what Harold, 20 months now, over $400,000 for veteran military first responder organizations that need it.

Harold (aka Dog): 35:30

And mostly these big dollar amounts come in when we donate our bottles and we have signed bottles. We have, you have, like a Folds of Honor event I was at in Florida. These big dollar amounts come in when we donate our bottles and we have signed bottles. We have, you have, like a Folds of Honor event I was at in Florida. We had 15 bottles and I asked all of the veterans that was at this dinner to rate the fundraiser at this gentleman's.

Harold (aka Dog): 35:49

This couple had a beautiful house on the water right there in Stewart Florida. They had four tents set up. They had each service Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard was there as well. All of them had civilian chefs out in town come in and prepare the food. But each one of the services had an actual service member chef working at that location. So we had Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, that, uh, that location. So we had army, Navy, air force, Marines, coast guard. So I asked them all to come over sign the bottles. And each one of the bottles was in a package where it was a $5,000 scholarship for students and they were all. They're all sold. So at the $75,000 raised, right like that. So that's, that's how we've been raising. You know we've hit over 400,000. And it's these events we go to and we get up and tell the story, we sign these bottles and, you know, a lot of times they go for big, big money.

Jamie: 36:50

I love you guys. I just can't understate that at all. Chris, you were asking a question about the picture Hold that up into the camera.

August: 36:57

I see four in here, you two are representing.

Jamie: 36:59

Who are the other two? Are they involved in the company?

Rick: 37:02

Yeah, oh yeah.

Jamie: 37:05

Who are the other four?

Rick: 37:08

If you're looking at it, it's Harold and I which you can see. And then the next gentleman next to me is Mike Trott. He was in the Air Force, security Forces and CIA officer, and then next to him is RJ, who we affectionately call our underachiever. He started as a Green Beret and then, age 39 or 40, he took the Air Force pararescue jumper selection, which is like the Air Force version of Bud's, and he holds the record for passing it at that age Still holds the record in the Air Force.

Jamie: 37:48

He sounds like an underachiever.

August: 37:49

Yeah, that is an underachiever.

Jamie: 37:51

Yeah.

August: 37:52

I mean you guys have four. I guess there just isn't anyone with your resume in the Space Force that could have joined you.

Rick: 37:59

Here's our disclaimer. It's not political, it's, I guess, our I can't think of the right word for it right now but you know we catch a little bit of grief from two of the other branches, right? So we say it just says four branches. Guys on the bottom, you pick your branch.

August: 38:18

There, you go.

Rick: 38:20

That's it. Four out of six, there you go. That's my diplomatic answer. That's what I was looking for. That's very diplomatic.

Jamie: 38:25

That's what I call razzle, dazzle, razzle, dazzle Guys, as I'm sipping this, it's like it's it's getting better. It's because usually after the second or third sip you're doing it, we're all doing it. Neat, we haven't tainted it? We didn't put any water in it or anything like that.

August: 38:42

Here you go.

Jamie: 38:43

I don't know if you noticed, while this was happening I poured heavy. When I poured my first one, you did pour heavy, august went in and he poured another. I did a little drab. I don't know if you noticed that happened while we were talking. He, he, wanted a little bit more.

August: 38:58

We saw. That's a good sign. We also learned that that that first sip and the second sip and the third sip are all going to be a little different.

Jamie: 39:04

Yeah.

August: 39:04

Yeah. We learned that it's not our first whiskey tasting, so I'm glad that I'm the third sip and the second draw there. I still really enjoyed it and you needed more.

Harold (aka Dog): 39:15

You know we just ran number two, right. We ran our second run. It was 2,500 cases. Then we just finished up our third run, which was 2,000, right, or 3,000 more cases, and those are a little bit, you know, of course.

Harold (aka Dog): 39:29

You know you're trying to split hairs when you know we're standing there with Bardstown and they're blending this founder's blend for the second iteration and the third iteration. We're looking at each other going, hey, you know, hold on, one of them was not there, right. We're thinking what in the world's going on? This is not, this is not, this is not founder's blend. And an older gentleman walked into the room and he goes guys, this is what you're looking for. And he had like a hundred, you know a milliliter bottle and he said this is this is. We turned to tanks, so the first, the first one, we were drinking that third iteration, it wasn't right, right, it just, it just wasn't right. Then he came in with the ones after they turned the blend, you know, they blended the stainless steel tank and he walked in and said taste this. And we tasted that and looked at each other and goes okay, now, now we're back.

August: 40:20

We're back on track. August passed it over.

Jamie: 40:21

Yeah, Chris is running out too.

Rick: 40:24

It's good guys, it is.

Rick: 40:26

It's great, it's a great pour, right? I mean, we've won Harold. I don't think maybe I don't know if we told you or it came in. So we, we want to. We want to double gold at the Sips Award, which is a consumer award. Right, that's what I say. That's really important because that means every day you know, every day Joe and Jane are out there drinking. They liked it. We want a gold at the Ascot Awards. We took silver at San Francisco and we just took a gold at the Proof Awards, which is the Food and Beverage Magazine Award. We just got that the other day.

Harold (aka Dog): 41:01

Yeah.

Jamie: 41:03

Did we cover the give back? Did we get everything about the give back? So whoever's watching, make sure you tell them about the give back. We covered that right.

Harold (aka Dog): 41:10

Oh yeah, that's it.

Jamie: 41:11

We got, there you go, gold and 94-point Pro of work. That's proof. Yeah, there you go. They're watching.

August: 41:19

Yes, your people are watching us. That's good. You should have known, considering who we're talking to. That's right.

Rick: 41:27

Like I said, we partnered with three official organizations Folds of Honor, the Third Option Foundation, cio, also the Memorial Foundation. But we've given back a lot more because we hit the Navy SEAL Legacy Foundation. We've hit just all the organizations that we, as founders and as a company, feel that they, you know, we can give back to you. We feel like you're hitting the mark.

August: 41:50

We were a logistics decision away from having my brother-in-law with us today, who works for Wounded Warriors out of Chicago. He's worked for Wounded Warriors for about 15 years now. He was going to be here just for this tasting, but he's like no, I got to go see my folks.

Jamie: 42:05

My favorite thing is the first comment that came in was damn it, harold.

Rick: 42:11

It'll be the hot new shirt of 2025, everybody that's like it.

Jamie: 42:15

Harold Rick. Thank you guys for one, the bottle, two, your time and three, most importantly, your service, what you're doing with this, you're continuing, just amazing work. Thank you guys. Thanks for a great tram. This is brilliant. Yeah, this is lovely.

August: 42:38

I like it, one of the better ones you've had on here. That, uh, I've taken a second pour of yeah, you know.

Rick: 42:44

Okay, we'll take that, yeah, no we go through some stuff.

Jamie: 42:48

So there you go, man cave things and all the podcast places, gentlemen, rick, Harold cheers to you guys.

August: 42:56

Happy New Year.

Harold (aka Dog): 43:00

Happy New Year, guys.

August: 43:01

Thank you for the time.