Cookin’ up something HOT!

Posted on August 30, 2024 by Garrick Webster

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.

The secret to the BEST bourbon with Hoss

Posted on June 18, 2024June 18, 2024 by Garrick Webster

The other day, we had the pleasure of hosting Greg Key from Hoss down here at the farm. Hoss is a company that encourages people to get their hands into the earth and grow their own food, and they supply everything you need to do it – garden tools, supplies, seed stock and more. The team at Hoss also posts loads of useful information on YouTube and social media helping people get the best results.

As farmers, their message chimes with our own – nothing tastes quite as good as food fresh from the farm, or from your garden. Like us, Hoss is based in Georgia and we think of Greg and the gang as neighbors.

Why were they down on the farm? Well, one of the corn stocks Hoss sells is heirloom Jimmy Red and, as a matter of fact, we bought our original seeds from them. The corn in our fields today is descended from those seeds. So, we showed them around, introduced them to our crops and talked about how we turn those beautiful red pearls of corn into bourbon with a difference.

Greg is the nicest guy and he truly gets the farm fresh ethos and our seed-to-still process. You can watch the video below, and check out the Hoss website here.

A big thank-you goes out to the team at Hoss for taking the time to come and see us, and for spreading the word about our farm, our distillery and our bourbon.

Bees, bats, dragonflies and our Jimmy Red Corn

Posted on May 23, 2024May 23, 2024 by Garrick Webster

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.

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Bee photo by Dustin Humes on Unsplash
Bat photo by Paige Cody on Unsplash
Dragonfly photo by Mehdi MeSSrro on Unsplash

Why we’re nuts about pecans

Posted on April 17, 2024April 17, 2024 by Garrick Webster

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…

DBF in the media: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Posted on January 10, 2023August 17, 2023 by Garrick Webster

A big thank-you goes out to Angela Hansberger and the editorial team at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for the feature article they published about Doc Brown Farm & Distillers on Sunday, January 8, 2023. It’s exciting and rewarding to see our names in print, and in the largest newspaper in the state on top of that.

Below you can read the article which provides an illuminating summary of what we’re doing here on the farm. (There’s just one update you need to be aware of – we are now working with a different distillery partner and not R.M. Rose.)

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Meet the bourbon farmers of Doc Brown’s

Georgia partners grow heirloom red corn that is turned into whiskey.

Amy Brown calls herself a bourbon farmer. For that to make sense, you only need to learn how Doc Brown’s Farm & Distillers came to produce a line of bourbon creams that local liquor stores can’t seem to keep on their shelves.

Born and raised in Buford, Brown bought a farm in Senoia in 2018 with her partner in life and business, Paige Dockweiler – the “Doc” in the company name. While Dockweiler grew up on a farm in Cordele that grew corn and soybeans, she, like Brown, never thought farming was her future. Both had been in the professional world for 30 years – Brown in banking, and Dockweiler in oncology nursing and hematology.

During a beach trip, Brown’s son, Daniel Williams, who is her other business partner, passed around an about Jimmy Red corn and Charleston’s High Wire Distilling. They all agreed it would be a fine idea to grow the rare heirloom corn, helping preserve not just the heritage of the Native Americans who first farmed it, but also of the bootleggers who made moonshine from the deep-red kernels.

Brown got in touch with Andy Sudderth, master distiller and CEO of R.M. Rose Distillery in Dillard. After a year of growing and milling, Doc Brown’s delivered heirloom gorn to Dudderth to distill. His response: “I think you’re onto something – how much can you grow?”

After extensive research, Brown discovered that there are not many people who grow corn, distill it and bottle whiskey. “Hardly any do it all in the same state,” she said. A business plan was born.

“And, here we are, going into our fourth year making whiskey, and having an absolute blast,” Brown said.

There are 13 barrels of Jimmy Red bourbon aging for release after May 2023, the four-year mark. New oak barrells are sourced from Gainesville Cooperage, the only cooperage in Georgia. While Doc Brown’s bourbon is aging, the company also makes bourbon creams. Each flavor – butter pecan, coffee and peppermint mocha – is made with bourbon that has been aged for two years.

Brown and Dockweiler grow the non-genetically modified organism corn on their 20-acre farm, as well as 100 acres they lease, using only organic methods. There are numerous bat houses around the property, both for pollination and fighting corn earworms. They also brought in beehives, and a beekeeper to manage them.

“Even though corn is wind-pollinated, we brought in bees to help with it,” Brown said. After doing that, their second crop yield increased by 30%, both in the size of the ears and the number of kernels. In addition to buying bees, they also planted pollinator shrubs to attract the bees and bats.

Once the corn matures from yellow to deep red, it is harvested and ground to a consistency somewhere between cornmeal and grits, to carry the rich, sweet flavor to the whiskey.

The corn is trucked to Dillard, to be distilled in a hand-made copper still. R.M. Rose Distitillery has “good water,” Brown said, adding that Sudderth “dug a deep well,” and the limestone-filtered water is from the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and doesn’t need any treatment.

“That matters,” she said. “It’s the secret ingredient in Kentucky bourbon, the same limestone ridge.”

But, without good grains, Brown said, “you are not going to get quality bourbon.” Their bourbon’s mash bill is a secret, but it has a high mix of corn, as well as locally grown rye.

Their butter pecan bourbon cream, made with pecans grown by a local farmer, pays homage to Dockweiler’s family, who also grew the nuts, a Georgia favorite.

While you wait on Doc Brown’s straight bourbon, the three varieties of bourbon cream (39-proof, 750-millileter bottles for $34.99) are available at retailers in Georgia. Find out more at docbrownfarm.com.

Tag: Farm