OUR PROCESS
FROM GRAIN TO GLASS
As the first distillery to make bourbon outside of Kentucky, we at Garrison Brothers take pride in our authentic, corn-to-cork process. Each bottle of Garrison Brothers Bourbon starts with a sweet mash bill and is barrel-aged in the intense Texas climate, before being proofed to perfection with pure Hill Country rainwater captured at the ranch.
Grains
EVERY BOTTLE OF GARRISON BROTHERS BEGINS WITH THE FINEST, LOCALLY SOURCED GRAINS POSSIBLE:
Our grains are ground fresh every day and carefully cooked into our sweet mash – one batch at a time. When you visit the distillery, you can often smell the sweet aroma of fresh mash wafting from the cookhouse.
OUR MASH BILL IS
74%
FOOD-GRADE WHITE CORN
15%
RED WINTER WHEAT
11%
MALTED BARLEY
Fermentation
After the milling and mashing, the grain mixture ferments in our kitchen for four to five days. As the mash ferments, yeast is added – Garrison Brothers’ own strain of yeast (we can’t divulge all of our secrets!).
Yeast organisms are like hungry rednecks visiting an all-you-can-eat buffet. They spend all their time snacking on sugars and converting them into alcohol. After the feeding frenzy, they die off, forming a corn-based distillers’ beer. In Kentucky, a distillers’ beer might approach 12% alcohol by volume. In Hye, the beer is ofter 17-18% alcohol.
Distillation
FOLLOWING FERMENTATION, THE MASH IS DISTILLED IN OUR BEAUTIFUL, COPPER POT STILLS:
COPPER COWGIRL
This single 100-gallon hand-run copper pot still was purchased in 2005 and originally built for Wild Turkey and used by Elmer T. Lee and Jimmy Russell.
FAT MAN
Purchased in 2010, along with its brother, Little Boy, this 500-gallon antique, copper pot still first brought us our beautiful Spring 2014 Small Batch release.
LITTLE BOY
Fat Man’s 500-gallon workhorse twin brother, which since helping launch our 2014 Spring release, has produced an array of award-winning releases and experimental bourbons.
BIG JOHNSON
Purchased in 2018, this 2000-gallon behemoth was cut in half and reconnected, side-by-side (so we wouldn’t have to cut a hole through the roof of our Stillhouse)!
THIS IS WHERE THE ALCHEMY BEGINS.
The beer is boiled so that the alcohol in the beer vaporizes. As the vapors rise in the still, they start to cool and condense into a clear, fiery liquid known as “white dog” that will eventually become bourbon. Our white dog is proofed down with the delicate, pure rainwater that we harvest from the rooftops and filter with ultra-violet rays, before entering new, charred white American oak barrels, where the liquid will swell and breathe.
Barrel Aging
YOU CAN SAY BARRELS ARE PRETTY DARN IMPORTANT.
As it matures, the bourbon seeps entirely through the porous oak, while it breathes in the heat and cold. Just four relentless Texas summers may compare to twenty milder Kentucky summers. So while our bourbon may mature quickly, we can lose up to 40% of the original liquid entered into the barrels due to evaporation. In Kentucky, that number is far closer to 15%. This is called the Angel’s Share – you don’t get to drink it until you make it to heaven. Despite the annual losses, Dan Garrison maintains a cheerful outlook:
”When I do get to heaven, I'll have plenty of my own bourbon to drink."
— DAN GARRISON —
Toasting & Charring
We partner with cooperages around the country to create custom-built American white oak barrels. The staves used in our barrels are twice as thick as normal barrel staves so they can stand up to the Texas heat and still endow our bourbon with as much flavor as possible.
Every barrel is charred and toasted for the precise amount of time at the perfect temperature to open up the wood grain and allow for the tasting notes inside to fully escape into the incoming spirit.
As the nectar ages, the sugars from the sap in the American oak become one with the liquid. The spirit transforms into dark, amber bourbon, rich in caramel, butterscotch, and vanilla flavors – and the crimson liquid that flows from our workhorse bourbon barrels is ultimately unmatched in its magnificent depth of color, smooth mouthfeel and complex flavor.
Bottling
Once the bourbon has been tasted and declared ready for barrel removal by our Master Distiller, Donnis Todd, it’s combined with fresh, filtered Hill Country rainwater to lower the proof. Then, we call upon our faithful legions of volunteer bottlers to come down to the distillery and spend a glorious two days corking, dipping and sealing bottles of soon-to-be-shelved bourbon. Click below to learn more about Volunteer Bottling.
