373 - Bold Innovations And Not Following Trends with Will Schragis of Barrell Craft Spirits

Bourbon Pursuit

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4.9 • 866 Ratings

🗓️ 1 September 2022

⏱️ 68 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

It's only been in the past 10 years that we have seen bourbon go through true innovation. Barrel finishes and blending different distillates weren't as common as they are now. Barrell Craft Spirits has been a pioneer in this space. In this episode we're joined by Will Schragis the Chief Product Innovation Officer for Barrel Craft Sprits. Will has been around since the beginning of Barrell and he tells how they approach innovating new products and the stories behind some of their most highly acclaimed and in-demand product extensions like Dovetail and Seagrass. Show Notes: Above the Char with Fred Minnick (@fredminnick) talks about blending subpar whiskey What were the early days like trying to establish the Barrell Bourbon brand? How do you deal with UPC code sprawl? What challenges do you experience with this business model of doing so many unique things? How do you scale Seagrass from a finishing standpoint? How do you determine what factors go into process innovation? Does constant customer education play a role with innovation? How can American whiskey move beyond blend being a dirty word? How can you be transparent when barrels need to be reconditioned? Do the micro-blends serve as a training ground for new products? Why has there not been a specifically toasted product yet? Can you explain why $500 gold label demanded the price? Was Stellum a way to introduce a lower price tag into the line? @barrellbourbon Support this podcast on Patreon

Transcript

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0:00.0	What are the curse word rules?
0:02.3	It's fair game.
0:03.2	We have the explicit rating.
0:04.5	We have read no on one, so we couldn't turn back after that.
0:19.4	This is Bourbon Pursuit, the official podcast of Bourbon, bringing to you the best in news, reviews, and interviews with people making the bourbon whiskey industry happen.
0:28.8	And I'm one of your hosts, Kenny Coleman.
0:30.7	It's only been in the past 10 years that we've seen Bourbon go through true innovation, at least in my opinion true innovation.
0:37.2	And that really looks
0:38.1	at barrel finishes and blending different distillates. They weren't as common as they are now.
0:42.7	And barrel craft spirits, they have been a pioneer in this space. And for this episode, we're
0:47.4	joined by Will Shragis. He's the chief product innovation officer for barrel craft spirits.
0:52.3	Will has been around since the beginning of Barrow, and he tells
0:54.8	how they approach innovating new products and the stories behind some of the most highly
0:58.6	acclaimed and in-demand product extensions like Dovetail and Seagrass. Well, enjoy this week's
1:04.4	episode, and now here's Fred Minnick with Above the Char. I'm Fred Minnick, and this is Above the Char.
1:13.5	This week's idea comes from Scott Pearlman, a longtime listener, who writes me on
1:18.2	Fred Minnick.com.
1:20.0	Basically, he wants to know, can you take two different barrels that you feel are subpar,
1:25.1	and blend them together with the results being very good.
1:29.1	You know, that's the thing about bourbon is you can taste the sum of the parts is often better
1:37.9	than a part by itself. And I've seen this time and time again. I remember doing an exercise with Jim Beam, I want to say, geez, 12 years ago. And they had us taste like all of the different components to a small batch product that they were coming out with. And I was just like, yeah, that's no good.
2:02.3	That's no good.
	...

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