Howdy y’all – down here at the farm we’re overjoyed to announce that out Day Swigger Butter Pecan Flavored Bourbon Whiskey is nearly ready to ship. The first boxes will be going out to stores in Georgia next week.
However, if you want bottles shipped to your address, you can preorder right here on our site using the button below. Just set your quantity and press the button to place an order with our shipping partner.
This finely crafted flavored bourbon comes in a 200ml bottle – the perfect little sweet treat with a warm whiskey finish, ideal for all the old rascals out there who still swig from a flask. After a long day out in the fields, we find that Day Swigger hits the spot with roasty notes of pecan and smooth praline sweetness blended in with the spirit. Watch this space because we’ve got another flavor on the way soon called Hot Honey.
Y’all it has been a HOT old summer here in Georgia this year. A heat dome has been floating over our farm but, you know, when the mercury rises here in the South, we just add more heat to our cooking. We like it spiced!
So, we were delighted to meet our neighbors on the 180 Degree Farm, 10 minutes down the road, who are growing some of the hottest chili peppers in the world. And it gave us an idea – why don’t we make a hot honey whiskey inspired by the heatwave of Summer 2024? We looked into it, worked out all the logistics, and we’re pleased to announce that Day Swigger Hot Honey Bourbon is on the way.
American chili peppers
The Texas Bird Pepper plants grown at 180 Decrees are the perfect starting point. Its little round chilis are capsules of pure heat, measuring up to 480,000 units on the Scoville Scale – eight times more powerful than jalapenos. You need to double glove to handle them.
We love that heat, but we also love the history of this ingredient. The Texas Bird Pepper is the only pepper native to North America. It was and still is enjoyed by Native Americans in their cooking, by the Spanish, and later by the founders of the United States. In fact, the peppers cultivated at 180 Degree Farm can trace their lineage back to 1812.
Farm fresh flavors
Down at the distillery, we’ve blended extracts from these locally grown peppers with honey produced by the bees here at Doc Brown Farm. We are perfecting recipe that will roll in barrels of three-year aged bourbon whiskey for 30 to 45 days to impart that hot, sweet goodness. The spirit will then be finished to 88 proof and bottled.
And for those who like it sweet without the heat, at the same time we are making our Day Swigger Honey Bourbon, which is also flavored with our own farm fresh honey.
Y’all can look out for our Day Swigger Hot Honey and Honey flavored bourbons from September in our online shop.
Finally, God bless the folks at 180 Degree Farm – for the fine work they’re doing growing organic food to support people fighting cancer. Find out more, on their website.
Here in Georgia, we’re blessed with everything farmers need – sunshine, a mild climate and fertile soil. And let’s not forget Mother Nature. She’s here to help us farmers, which is something that’s been overlooked as farming has industrialized over the last century or so, here in America and around the world.
At Doc Brown Farm & Distillers, we use natural and sustainable methods to raise our crops. An industrial, yield-boosting approach wouldn’t work anyway, because our Jimmy Red Corn is extremely sensitive to chemical sprays. We gotta grow it the natural way in order to bring all of its rich, nutty goodness over into our bourbon.
The buzz about bees
When we planted our first rows of corn, we called up a beekeeper and asked him to put six hives at the edges of our field. Now, any farmer will tell you that you don’t need bees to grow corn or rye. Corn is self-pollinating – the pollen literally tumbles from the tassels down onto the silks and that’s how you get an ear of corn. The wind will take the pollen through the field.
However, our bees are all over those tassels when the corn flowers, aiding in the dispersion of the pollen across the rows for a healthier crop. All the other trees and plants on the farm benefit as well, including the kitchen garden where we grow our delicious tomatoes, squash, basil, mint, rosemary, potatoes, radishes, peppers and more.
We grow crimson red clover and wildflowers to keep the bees extra happy, and they pay us back. Let me tell you, the last time we took the honey from the hives it was a deep golden red with a sweet rich flavor. It’s unique to our farm, and we’re using it to flavor Day Swigger Honey Liqueur Whiskey which launches later this year. The more farm fresh ingredients we can use, the better.
Bats on the farm
The bats we have at Doc Brown Farm play a different role. Yes, they carry out a little pollination when they land on the corn and in the trees. However, their job is to eliminate pests.
We rely on our bats to keep the fields free of corn earworm. While many farmers use sprays to kill the moths and their eggs, we rely on little flying mammals to chow down on them, night after night through spring, summer and fall. When we sit out back in the evening and look out over the farm it’s like watching a crazy mini airshow. And did you know a bat can eat 100 mosquitos in an hour?
Most people don’t realize how important bats are to agriculture. When we first planted the Jimmy Red, we were reading about sustainable farming and article after article told us what an amazing contribution bats would make on the farm. So, we researched the steps you need to take to attract them and found instructions on how to build bat boxes. I got out the old saw and hammer, and some timber from the pile in the barn, and built homes for the little critters to move into.
We put them up south facing, as advised, and we crossed our fingers. Well, if you build it, they will come! Our farm is now home to hundreds of bats and every night the doom patrol (if you’re a corn earworm, anyway) is on the wing, protecting the fields. We oughta make a bourbon dedicated to bats. What do you think?
Dragonflies are good news
One afternoon, a few years back, we were sitting out by the pool after a long day in the fields, and for the first time we noticed just how many dragonflies there are on the farm. They were hovering and zipping around, coming and going, and I wondered what this meant.
So, I looked it up and discovered that, if you’re a farmer, dragonflies bring what you might call ‘glad tidings’. A thriving dragonfly population means you have a healthy ecosystem on your farm – which is exactly what we hoped to create when we set out.
Like the bats, our dragonflies catch pests like mosquitos and whitefly, and they might do a little pollination as well. They’re here to give us the thumbs-up from Mother Nature that tells us we’re doing something right.
God’s creatures
Alongside the bees, bats and dragonflies, our farm is home to hoverflies (aka Billy Bees), butterflies and even hummingbirds. We’re as proud of this as we are of the corn we grow and the bourbon we make. It was always our goal to respect the land and all the beings God created that we share it with. As a farmer, if you support them, they’ll support you.
We know that in the grand scheme of things we’re just a small farm and can only make a small difference. But we believe in making a difference, nonetheless. If you can do one small thing, then why not do it? So far, anyway, we believe that our sustainable, natural approach is part of our success and we’re thankful for it.
Here’s one of the bat boxes we mounted on a tree.One of our special rainbow beehives.
Down here at Doc Brown Farm we talk about our heirloom Jimmy Red Corn a lot – which is only natural, as we use it to make our bourbon. But there’s another Georgia crop we love almost as much, and that’s the pecan nut.
Our home state if famous for these buttery, flavorsome little guys and we already use them to flavor our Butter Pecan Bourbon Cream Liqueur. They’re pretty close to our hearts, so we decided to find out a bit more about them.
Six things you didn’t know about pecans
1 – Born in the USA The pecan tree is native to America’s southern states and our country produces between 80 and 90% of the world’s pecan nuts every year.
2 – Standing proud and tall The pecan tree is a species of hickory that can grow up to 140 feet in height, with a trunk up to six feet in diameter.
3 – Georgia is nuts about pecans The state of Georgia produced over 125 million pounds of unshelled pecans in 2022, nearly half the national output, with 144,000 acres devoted to the crop.
4 – The story of the South After Georgia, the leading pecan states are New Mexico, Arizona, Texas and Oklahoma, and the pecan is the state tree of Texas.
5 – Pecans are good for you Pecans are full of vitamins and minerals – good for your skin, eyes, teeth, bones, muscles and nerve system. They are cholesterol- and sodium-free, and low in carbohydrates.
6 – You say pea-can, I say puh-kahn Even in Georgia, there’s a debate over how to pronounce the name of the nut, which derives from the Algonquin word pecan, originally used to describe a variety of nuts that grow in the South.
There’s nothing like a good old Georgia pecan orchard.
Farm fresh pecans
Something you also might not know is that the Doc Brown family has a heritage growing pecan nuts that goes back a couple of generations and a few years ago we are grateful to have inherited a beautiful pecan orchard.
In fact, you could say that pecans, growing in the Georgia soil just like our Jimmy Red Corn, are part of who we are and what we do. And let’s not overlook the fact that they taste great.
This is why the humble pecan will take center stage when we launch our new Day Swigger whiskey. Coming this May, watch for our Day Swigger Butter Pecan Liqueur – the first in a series of tasty whiskeys. Coming in a 275ml bottle and at 40% ABV, it’s a blend of our Jimmy Red Corn bourbon with natural extracts of Georgia-raised pecans. It’s the perfect little treat for all you (over 21) whiskey-lovin’ rascals out there.
Our bottle, label and spirit are with the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax Bureau right now for approval and, once Day Swigger has passed, we’ll start bottling and shipping. We can’t wait to share it with you, so watch this space…
We’ve been sitting on this news for a while, but we couldn’t hold it any longer. At the beginning of May, Doc Brown Farm & Distillers will be launching a new line of spirits called… Day Swigger. These flavored bourbon liqueurs are a little treat we’ve been working on and the first one you’ll see will be a delicious butter pecan in a bijou 200ml bottle.
But let’s start with the name. Day Swigger comes from way back when we were all young rascals. Back then, Ma and Pa Brown were teetotal and when they entertained, well, let’s just say someone always used to sneak a hipflask of bourbon into the party. Some of us scallywag cousins formed a little group called the Yard Swiggers and, on the signal, we’d meet out back and share that flask. A little something to take the edge off.
We’re still fun-loving rascals, but today we’re the folks who make the bourbon. So we decided to create a line of liquors a little less serious than our Effie Jewel and Uncle Bogue bourbons – something you can enjoy as a little treat, or a reward after a long day.
Farm fresh flavors
In the bottle, we’ll bring you a blend of young whiskey that includes our Jimmy Red Corn bourbon flavored with all-natural ingredients from Georgia. First up is our Day Swigger Butter Pecan Liqueur made with extracts of Georgia-raised pecans.
A few months down the line, we hope to add a Hot Honey flavor, made with our own farm honey and southern spice. We might follow it with a sweet honey liqueur without the heat. It’s just perfect – the bees that pollinate our Jimmy Red Corn will also make the honey that goes into the Day Swigger bottle. As nature-loving Georgia farmers, we couldn’t be prouder.
Now, as we sign off, there’s just one thing we need to mention. We’ve called this line Day Swigger but that doesn’t mean we advocate daytime drinking, and we urge y’all to drink responsibly. For us Day Swigger is a little delight in a bottle – a gift for yourself or a friend. When a wink and a smile are what’s called for, us rascals down on the farm have got you covered.
