Firestone & Robertson in Ft. Worth, TX - tour

[wadewood]

I recently toured F&R in Ft. Worth Texas. I had traded some emails earlier this year with their head distiller, Rob Arnold, and he said if I made it up to DFW he would be glad to show me around. I contacted Rob and let him know of my plans and when I would be in area. I caught him just as he was leaving on some vacation time. Rob agreed to show me around that morning as he had plane that afternoon (I don't think he would have even come to work that day other than to meet my group, so very kind of him).

They are located just south of downtown Ft. Worth, next to a Justin Boot outlet and manufacturing plant. It was easy to spot as they had a 53 gal barrel hung up on outside of their building. They have been distilling bourbon since March 2012. Some facts:

-making a wheated bourbon, using Texas corn and wheat

-use a roller mill (like SW) to crush grain

-captured and propagate their own yeast

-only using standard 53 gallon barrels

-have 2 Vendome 500 gal mash, 50 gpd copper column modified pot stills

Based on the above I had high hopes and I was not disappointed. I had a couple of friends with me that were newbies. Rob walked through the process of making bourbon for a beginner. They were fermenting & distilling that day so it was a complete tour. He let us taste the fermenting mash as well as the white dog. They target proof off still at 135 and into barrel at 120.

Rob's background is a degree in microbiology and studied biochemistry on doctorates level. He grew up in Louisville, KY and had family that worked for Brown-Forman. He developed their yeast strain by capturing and isolating several strains. He narrowed these down in lab then tested by making bourbon with several different strains. Rob fully described this process to us. I could tell this was his area of expertise and he was excited about it. Of course, at least half of it was well above my knowledge level! This means for each batch of bourbon they also have to propagate liquid yeast. The selected a strain found on a pecan, which also happens to be the Texas State Tree. They have also made some bourbon using standard commercial strains. This is so they can taste the differences from the yeasts as it ages.

I asked if we could taste some of the older aged product. Rob said he was due to pull a sample, so we proceeded to barrel storage and popped a bung on one of the 1st barrels. At this point it was just shy of 18 months and has gone through 2 summers of aging. Although it still had some young notes, It showed much promise. It is very sweet (think Elmer T lee and cotton candy) with nice caramel notes.

So when will it be for sale? The answer is when it is ready. Rob thinks it needs at least 3 years, but I think they could sell it sooner.

This brings us to the question of financially how can a craft distiller start up wait 3+ years to start selling product? The answer is in the meantime they are selling a sourced product. In their case it is a blended whiskey called TX Blended Whiskey. It is a blend of 4 to 6+ YO straight bourbon and a non bourbon whiskey. If I had to guess (and no I did not ask Rob, so this is just a guess) I would say its LDI/MGP 6 YO bourbon blended with Brown-Forman Early Times whiskey (or something similar). They do disclose the fact they are selling a sourced product on their website and are very clear about that when asked. I still wish that the bottle label would disclose this as well. For a blended whiskey, the TX is a nice product - lots of Vanilla in the nose and well as taste.

Edited September 12, 2013 by wadewood

[z327]

I wonder if they don't use Old Fitzgerald’s 1849 in their blend. It has that same strong chocolate note to me.....

[squire]

That's a good report Wade, were any production figures mentioned?

[wadewood]

I did not ask direct, but not too hard to calculate. They are running both stills a batch a day, so filling 2 barrels a day (which if I recall correctly was also mentioned).

[jaycamm]

Great report Wade.

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