Around the Barrel Ep055/Re054 - Matt Porter
Lucas: Our enjoyment of so many things in this life tends to come about as the result of happy accidents. Then again, the creation of so many things, like whiskey, came about the same way. They can also emerge from the putting aside of one pursuit, only to pick up another.
On this episode, we talk with Matt Porter, of the popular YouTube channel, ADHD Whiskey, about how putting down a fishing pole led to him picking up a tasting glass, about how chasing flavor isn't always the key to enjoying a new whiskey, and about how he's still not entirely certain Lynchburg, Tennessee, isn't a theme park dedicated to all good things Around the Barrel.
Welcome back to Around the Barrel, the official podcast from the makers of Jack Daniel's. I'm your host, Lucas Hendrickson.
Matt: Hi, my name is Matt Porter, I am the host of ADHD Whiskey, born and raised in Michigan's beautiful Upper Peninsula, now residing on Colorado's Western Slope near Glenwood Springs, but in a much less attractive town.
Lucas: Matt Porter, welcome to Around the Barrel.
Matt: Wow. Thank you for having me. This is super cool. I've never had so many cameras pointed at me in my life.
Lucas: Neither have I, and I'm not entirely comfortable with it.
Matt: They're way nicer than my camera.
Lucas: We'll do things right every once in a while.
Matt: Beautiful.
Lucas: Trying to take care of business here for Around the Barrel. But again, welcome to Lynchburg, and welcome to the Jack Daniel's experience. You've had a bit of a day from what I understand.
Matt: Yeah, it started with the tour ended with a barrel pick, well, actually was a barrel pick before this, ending with a podcast.
Lucas: That's how your trips usually work out, is started with a barrel pick and then ending with a podcast, that kind of stuff?
Matt: I don't know, not normally. This is a much cooler trip than I've ever taken. This is the best whiskey experience I've had.
Lucas: I'm glad to hear that. You can have fantastic experiences here in Lynchburg of all different stripes, so glad you've had fun. I'm interested, we'll get into your reaction on specific things here in a second, but talk a little bit about ADHD Whiskey. A, where did the idea for the name come from? And B, what was the origin of you starting your whiskey journey in front of a camera?
Matt: Sure. Well, I watched YouTube for a long time and then decided to start my own channel, and I wanted it to be something that I really, really loved, so I started a fishing channel. And it was a little bit all over the place, I do have ADHD, so I'd named it ADHD Fishing.
Lucas: There you go.
Matt: If you don't catch fish in fishing videos, viewers aren't happy.
Lucas: Right. Sure.
Matt: So they said, "If you're going to make fishing videos, then catch fish, idiot." So what I did was stopped making fishing videos and mentored something else I really enjoyed, which was whiskey. So that's how ADHD Whiskey got started.
Lucas: I gotcha. Okay.
Matt: So 100 subscribers, those are people from the fishing community, so super sorry.
Lucas: So you just made the pivot from fishing to whiskey? You're not still trying to build up ADHD Fishing alongside that, or you forget where your bread was buttered or your glass was filled for that matter?
Matt: Yeah, I do still enjoy fishing. Absolutely.
Lucas: Oh, sure.
Matt: I still can't catch fish though, so those videos are not going to happen.
Lucas: There you go. So again, I was looking at the numbers this morning as of, and we're recording in mid-January 2023, nearly 44,000 subscribers on YouTube, a little over five and a half million views. What has it been like to watch those numbers as they've moved up?
Matt: Unbelievable. Starting something like that, you never know if anybody's going to watch.
Lucas: Sure.
Matt: And then when people are watching, you wonder why. For a while, I thought the people just felt bad for me and they were like, "Let's watch him and cheer him on. Look. Way to go, Matt. Yay." And then 44,000 people have decided to do the same thing and I can't be happier. It's amazing, I love every single day. It's turned into a job and it's a job that I love because it's something I'm passionate about and something I get to share with friends.
Lucas: Sure. How did you get started enjoying whiskey and then obviously decided to make that pivot from the fishing to talking about whiskey in front of a camera?
Matt: Well, growing up my dad was a fan of whiskey, and I think just being around it a little bit, and just always kind of being familiar with it. He's come to Jack Daniel's before and he's come to other distilleries before, and Jack Daniel's being one of them, and it's just weird because I feel like I took a career that my dad would've really, really wanted. Because he told me one day he went to Jack Daniel's, did a tour and was talking about the tasting panel and was like, "How do I get on that?" Fast-forward and all of a sudden I'm tasting whiskey for a living and I'm at Jack Daniel's, so he's here with me this week, and we came in yesterday and visited the gift shop and stuff.
Lucas: Awesome.
Matt: It's a cool experience. But I think that's how it started, but I don't really know how to say that– When I first started enjoying it, I was between jobs, and I was like, well, what would my dad do? I think I'll just buy a bottle of whiskey, sit back and think about it. And then I was like, this tastes terrible. And I was like, what is a better whiskey? I think I searched for it on the internet and found videos and found things like that and just became aware of it that way, as far as an enthusiast community, and went from there. It's just grown and grown and it feels like it's been forever, but it started in 2017.
Lucas: So then how did it progress that you, again, developed the vocabulary, your own tasting notes and preferences and all that stuff, to the point of, in 2020, a well-known Kentucky distillery named you world's top whiskey taster? What was the progress through getting comfortable enough to throw your hat in the ring for a competition like that?
Matt: Sure. Well, as you'll learn throughout this podcast, Lucas, my vocabulary is what some people would consider to be some of the worst. But I appreciate you saying that. It is bad though.
Lucas: But I've watched your videos and it's very descriptive and I've laughed out loud many, many times. Not out of a lack of– But the way you phrase things on some of your tasting notes is just outlandish and great.
Matt: Oh, thank you.
Lucas: So I enjoy them. I'm definitely enjoying your videos.
Matt: That's just me just having fun.
Lucas: Sure.
Matt: As far as how other things have progressed, basically just throwing the hat in the ring. I saw that there was a competition and I was like, why the heck not? You can't win if you don't play. So I played. And after I destroyed three or 400 other people, I won. Am I patting my own back? No, I can't reach my back. But I think that it was just a fair competition that I won handily. World's top whiskey taster, no big deal.
Lucas: No big deal. But you can say that at the beginning of almost all the episodes you've done since then, so it's helpful in the overall branding of your pursuit.
Matt: But it's also, I do it out of– It's a joke, because obviously I'm not the best taster on the planet. It's just a competition that I won that I am– Would I be dumb not to say that I'm the world's top whiskey taster after winning the competition?
Lucas: Exactly. Yeah.
Matt: Yeah, of course I would. I'm going to use it as branding, but it was a lot of luck and it was a lot of fun and I was in the right place at the right time. Did I practice hard? I did.
Lucas: Responsibly, obviously.
Matt: Yeah, for sure.
Lucas: But yeah, as we've talked to whiskey influencers in this space, it's repetition, and being exposed to a lot of different kinds of products, and identifying when things aren't quite so good and celebrating the things that are, that's been seemingly the hallmark of your episodes is that you are brutally honest, in a lot of ways, but not for the purposes of just tearing something down to tear something down.
Matt: Oh, that's hard. And hardly ever tear anything down. But the tasting, everything we do in life, every memory we have, leaves an impression.
And we can say a vacation left a certain memory, our childhood, things we did as a child left certain memories. But if you consider things that we are doing on a smaller scale like tasting, everything you taste leaves an impression. And if you can remember what that impression is and leave that as fresh as you can in your mind, and then repeat it over and over again. And if you're able to pick up on that memory, on that repetition, then it becomes much easier.
Sometimes I do great, sometimes I don't, but at the same time it's just repetition over and over again. What does it remind me of? What memories do I have of what I'm tasting? And sometimes people are like, "Where are you getting tasting notes from? I've never tasted cherry and whiskey." Well, that's because you haven't gotten past the alcohol.
The first time you ever drink coffee, even as a kid. You sip it and it just makes you step back and you're like, "What in the world is that?" But if you drink black coffee every day, eventually you have preferences, you determine you like something more than something else. But why? Whiskey's the same way. Once you get past the initial burst of alcohol, then you can start determining what you like more. And then why.
Lucas: What kind of trends have you noticed? You've been doing this for close to eight years now, and what have been the trends that you have seen in the world of American whiskey that both interest you and infuriate you?
Matt: Well, there's a lot of trends. The trend is American whiskey in general. We're living through a boom and if you walk into a store, I always tell people this, if you go into a store and pick a random bottle off a shelf, you're more likely to be disappointed than happy, because there's so many different brands on the shelf that are unrecognizable, unknown. You don't know where the whiskey's coming from. If it's even whiskey, where it's sourced from, how old it is. It's like throwing something at the dartboard. What am I going to grab? That's why doing a little bit of research, knowing what you're buying is so important. So I would say that the boom of American whiskey is still happening, but then trends, we're looking at barrel finishes everywhere. Toasted barrels. Wine barrel. A finished whiskey is born every second and does that infuriate– You know what infuriates me is me trying to say that word.
Lucas: Sorry.
Matt: But does that upset me? Not really, but kind of. And I don't know why. But what upsets me, I would say, what's the word again? Say it.
Lucas: Infuriates you.
Matt: Me the most is the fact that we're seeing a lot of, I don't know, just lack of transparency. I don't mind a celebrity jumping into the game and being like, "Hey, I want to make a whiskey and I want to make it for my fans or my people." But again, that's totally cool. But if you tell people it's the best stuff on the planet and you're just selecting rare barrels that you've unearthed from Egypt, you're like, "Guess what? These came from Cairo." If that's in Egypt, I'm not sure. "And they're amazing." And then you get the bottle and it's very expensive and you taste it and you're like, this is not remarkable at all. What are you talking about? I don't like fibs. I'm not a big fib fan, and I will stand by that 100% of the time. Just be honest. If you're having fun, want to make whiskey, make whiskey. I want to make a whiskey, but I don't have the money for that.
Lucas: You released your list of your top whiskeys, number of videos recapping 2022, but your top whiskeys video and a certain product produced in this town was your number one pick. The Jack Single Barrel Special Release, otherwise known as the Coy Hill High Proof Small Batch. The thing that I really enjoyed about that video, because you're good about, again, showcasing the individual bottles and packaging and you were lifting everything else up. That one was the only bottle that you didn't have, and the only reason that you didn't have it with you in that moment is that you had sent it off to friends in Michigan for them to enjoy as well.
Matt: Absolutely.
Lucas: And so I found that really cool that you are still a fan of things and want to share those things with people you know, that would really enjoy it.
Matt: Yeah, so when I taste something that good, where I live currently, I don't have a lot of friends who are nearby close locally. So the people who I'm friendly with or are close friends with live far away. So I don't have the opportunity to invite somebody over and enjoy it with them. And I don't want to drink 375 milliliters of Jack Daniel's Coy Hill Small Batch by myself in my garage in front of a camera. I want to see somebody else drink it in front of their camera. So I sent it to some friends in Michigan, I watched them enjoy it. It was my Whiskey of the Year and their Whiskey of the Year.
Lucas: We're inside the Motlow House, the destination for Tennessee Squires from all over the world. A lot of Jack Daniel's memorabilia here that's been sent in and brought by fans of Mr. Jack from all over the world. Along with getting to bring your dad here, what's been your big takeaways from the behind the scenes look that you've gotten around here today?
Matt: What's really neat is, so before coming here, I knew that Lynchburg was a small town. But I didn't know how small. I don't know if this is Lynchburg or if it's Jack Daniel's, Tennessee.
Lucas: Well, there's that.
Matt: I grew up in a town with roughly 200 people in it.
Lucas: Oh, wow.
Matt: So I went to a school, kindergarten.
Lucas: This is the big city compared to.
Matt: Yeah, I went kindergarten through 12th grade was my school. We sourced kids from three different–
Lucas: Oh, wow.
Matt: Counties.
Lucas: Gotcha.
Matt: Just to come to one school. So coming to a town that I feel extremely comfortable in, this is home for me. This is what I'm used to. This is rural. I would imagine that everybody knows everything about everybody. You know what I mean?
Lucas: Probably so.
Matt: So coming here I was like, oh, this is amazing that something so worldwide, something so big, something so grand, and it reaches every edge of the earth. It's like the world is flat when it comes to Jack Daniel's. There's nowhere it cannot reach.
Lucas: Exactly. Yeah.
Matt: But the source of it is so small and so little, and it's just a tiny little town in Tennessee producing something so big. Where I come from, tiny town, but they milked a couple cows, I don't know, they made an all right BLT down in the corner, but nothing crazy, but–
Lucas: Don't have a world-class product that everyone everywhere knows.
Matt: That totally blows my mind. But coming from such a small town, I start to think about it. And I think growing up here, if you're a child in the area, this is just life. This isn't crazy, this isn't anything extraordinary or weird. This is life. And if you were to leave Lynchburg, it's just like, oh, no whiskey is made here, but it's not even a big deal. So coming from an enthusiast community who loves whiskey, coming to a small town and seeing that kind of blows my mind a little bit.
Lucas: I know you have a pretty active Patreon community. Were you able to interact with them and let them know that you were heading this way? And what was their reaction to that?
Matt: So we've been in talks about coming here for a while to do the podcast and then the single barrel pick. So all the single barrel stuff is available to patrons of mine first. So of course when I found out that this was actually happening, I was like, "Everybody listen up! We're going to Lynchburg!" So I was super excited about it. How could I not be? It's incredible. The single barrel program here, especially the barrel proof stuff, was like the bucket list single barrel pick, and then today I got to me with Lexie and Chris and do that with them. And just icing on the cake. It's amazing. I don't know, it's just an incredible experience and those two are great.
Lucas: They're fantastic. And their knowledge, for as infuriatingly young as both of them are, it's just off the charts as far as what they do, what they've been able to, not only just that consistency of the primary product, Old No. 7, the black label, whatever you want to call it. And then all of these new things, the innovation lens, the different expressions that have come out the out of here over the past decade and a half or so, and then really ramped up. These are all different kinds of things that I don't think people expect from when they hear the words Jack Daniel's.
Matt: For sure. So I mentioned to them earlier, and I had this exact conversation, I said, "For you, in this brand, you don't have to do anything weird or crazy or wild or out of the ordinary. You have Jack No. 7, you could sell Old No. 7 from now until you're gray and retired. Just make that and sell it." But instead, you want to have fun, you want to enjoy yourselves, get a little weird, like let's mess around with some malt whiskey. I'm like, for someone who doesn't need to do that, to want to do that and produce it and make it available to maybe not necessarily their core market, which is Old No. 7, but to people like me, an enthusiast whiskey drinker who's like, "What else is out there?" That's super cool. And they just said that they do it because they want to and it's fun, and why wouldn't they? Know they have the means to do it, so let's do it. And that's a perfect. That gets me going. That gets me revved up. I am at a red line right now. I'm so excited about it.
Lucas: What other things that are out there on the market from Jack Daniel's have you been impressed by, excited by? Last year, obviously the new Bonded products and the Triple Mash, that kind of stuff. Where did they land in your–
Matt: The grand scheme of things?
Lucas: Yeah, your universe of products.
Matt: Incredible, especially for the value. The Triple Mash is something that you don't know, like that's not a Jack Daniel's product. What are we doing? It's almost a maroon, that's a weird color. Let me try that. And then the Bonded is something that there's a huge market for. Bottled-in-bond whiskey in general is huge so seeing that come out of Jack Daniel's. They used to do, or they probably still do it, the gift shirt, not the gift shop, but the–
Lucas: Travel retail and all that stuff.
Matt: Yeah, the travel. But seeing that available domestically to the market, it's great, and it's a great product. Really enjoy that. The Triple Mash is something that's unique, something that's totally different and out of the ordinary. I enjoy that as well. The rye offerings lately have been just remarkable. The barrel strength rye stuff is just bonkers. From their Tennessee Taster to their limited special release stuff.
Lucas: Distillery Series stuff as well.
Matt: Super good. So I can't wait to see what they're doing with ryes coming in the future. It's just every time they come out with something, it's like, "I got to try that!" And even if it's something that I don't necessarily love, it's not going to stop me from buying the next one or trying the next one. You know what I mean? Not everything has to be my favorite thing.
Lucas: And even the near term future of the stuff that has been announced and hinted at for 2023, a 12-year age statement one, whatever they're going to finally do with this standalone single malt that has been in the Triple Mash and also in last year's Special Release, there's all kinds of things that are on the horizon that are just going to, again, light up that enthusiast world in ways that I think people probably don't expect when they hear those two words, Jack Daniel's. So it's an exciting time to be a fan of the brand and also just seeing the innovations that are happening from such a worldwide known brand name.
What's been unexpected for you here? Other than seeing a world-class whiskey operation in a really tiny town, anything that just delighted you in working through that process of doing that single barrel pick?
Matt: I don't know. So this is my first time in Tennessee. I've been all over the place. We visited Nashville, we visited Chattanooga. We've brought the kids to the zoo.
Lucas: Oh, nice.
Matt: Yeah, it was January. If you could find a 60 degree day in January to bring the kids into the zoo, best time ever. So we've been all over the place. Haven't spent a ton of time here in Lynchburg, just a little bit yesterday and today. But it's beautiful here, even for January. So as I'm driving down the curviest roads ever, so responsibly and slowly, I'm just imagining what it's like here in the summer and spring and fall.
Lucas: It's gorgeous.
Matt: When there are leaves on the trees and rabbits on the side of the road looking at you like, "Hey, Matt, welcome." I'm like, "This is a beautiful town you live in, rabbit." It's a great place. The hills, beautiful. I'm a man of, I have to have some sort of scenery or something to look at. You put me in Peoria, Illinois, guess what I'm going to do? I'm going to escape like it's Alcatraz. I need something to look at. Skyscrapers or mountains or hills or something. And it's beautiful here. Can't wait to come back. And I think it's going to be maybe in the summertime next time, just to get a little– Unless of course it's a thousand degrees and extra humid.
Lucas: Well, there can be that as well.
Matt: Well, then you can keep it.
Lucas: We have days that are all four seasons at once here sometimes. So yeah, you just got to pull the trigger and go, yeah, we're going on this date and making sure the AC works in the car, that kind of thing.
Matt: The other thing I said, and then I mentioned this I think maybe four or five times earlier today, just not to you until now. Here we go. On the tour today, I said, I kept saying, "This is Disney Whiskey or Whiskey Disney." Because when you go to Disney World, you're in a playland or make believe where you're walking through a fake town and into different buildings and experiencing different things that are almost magical.
This property feels the exact same way, but for adults, and it smells like mash, and I love it so much. It was snowing today and freezing, nobody was dressed for the weather, but I couldn't have been happier. This is, from the tour guide to just the overall experience, I'm like, this is Whiskey Disney. I know that Disney's probably like, "This is not okay to say this. We do not want to be associated," but guess what? Super sorry. You know what I mean? It's magical. It's a beautiful place.
Lucas: At the same time, everything that you saw is functional, and still a part of this overall process. Yeah, it's cleaned up and designed to maximize the guest experience, but at the same time, there's functionality to almost everything you saw, except for maybe the safe, walking through this process.
Matt: Also, I have to say this, and if I don't make it out here alive because of it, I got to say it anyway. I also feel like this town is maybe possibly a theme park. Because everywhere you go, there's someone who's in a random car on the corner going, "Y'all leaving already?" And I'm like, "Who are you?" They're like, "Hope you had a great time. Have a good day." And then I'm just dropping stuff at my car. So then I'm walking back and they're like, "Welcome to Lynchburg." I'm like, "Who in the heck? We just talked." I feel like maybe it is a theme park, but if it is, it's the best time ever.
Lucas: Sure. They're not officially cast members, I don't think. Let's talk a little bit about what you've got in front of you right there. Again, it's the single barrel for you and your Patreon folks. What kind of things were you looking for flavor profile wise in trying to select that particular barrel?
Matt: That's a great question. When I'm picking a single barrel, I do not care about flavor profile. That comes next. When I taste something, I try to completely forget about the exact flavors. Or if I came in saying, "I want a Nerds purple rope, with a finish..." It's like flavors are flavors, but a whiskey experience is an experience. And when it comes to Jack Daniel's barrel proof, a single barrel from Jack Daniel's at 130 proof, what I want is to take a sip and then let the whiskey take over. In about 30 seconds, I'll come too, and I'll be like, "Wow, that was fantastic."
Lucas: Well, and again, in watching your tasting experiences on your episodes, I guess you just leave the camera rolling and you do give yourself over to the experience of the things that you're trying in an attempt, I assume, to just, again, get all the aspects of that experience. The word wow gets used a lot, in the episodes I've seen at least. But that's, again, part of your process seemingly.
Matt: I say, "What the heck," a lot. If, during that process, something stands out as bad, or something unappealing or off-putting, something that I don't like, then that's, "Oh, okay." I push it aside. But I'm looking for something that's really a takeover whiskey, something that is well-balanced. When you taste it, you're like, "Wow, that's really good," from the front of the pallet to the back is just– What's the right word? I'm not quite sure what the right word is, but at the end, when it's done, you go, "That was pleasant. That's something I want to taste again."
What I don't want is something that's one of those whiskeys that's an occasion whiskey or a once in a while whiskey. Because, especially if it's very off profile, you taste it and you're like, "I like it. Ooh, that's got a barbecue note that is like, I've never tasted that before." Well, you might not want to taste that every– Or other people might just find it outputting. But if the overall tasting experience is good, then I can start being like, what does it actually taste like? But I'm looking for something that's just an overall great sipping experience because I think that's what Jack Daniel's barrel proof is about, is the experience. If you're looking at something low-proof, a little bit thinner, a little bit more approachable every day, sipper kind of thing, it's like–
Lucas: Like for cocktails.
Matt: For cocktails, things like that. Mixed drinks. What do I want to taste in this whiskey? But this is all about the experience, and I want it to be a home run, where we can talk about flavors later, but after we come back from wherever it sent us.
Lucas: What kind of advice would you give to, or do you give, to novice tasters? As far as, again, that whole experience and just how do you get started in, not necessarily doing what you do, but just enjoying individual whiskeys as they get in front of them?
Matt: Well, first of all, I would say I am a novice taster. I don't know. I hate to say that I'm even worthy of giving advice, but when someone is new, let's say somebody came to me and said, "Hi Matt, I'm Joe, and I'd like to start sipping whiskey neat." And I'd say, "That's strange, but okay." There's a couple different approaches for it. Some people say, start low proof and go from there. I am weirdly on the opposite side, and a lot of people disagree with me, and I totally get it, because I'm probably wrong. And I'm okay with it. But listen, the most flavor of any whiskey comes from a barrel strength offering.
Is it full of alcohol? Yeah. Is it going to blow people's palates away? For sure. But if you sip something low proof, there's more of water added. What happens when you add water to something? You get less flavor. So you taste more ethanol and less flavor. If you approach a barrel strength whiskey, like say this single barrel of Jack Daniel's barrel proof, and you took the tiniest sip, like you were drinking a scolding hot cup of coffee, like this is boiling. You want to take the small sip. And you just let it touch your tongue for a second. It's not going to burn your throat or hurt you, you're just going to go, "Wow." And then you're going to taste something that is the flavors of that whiskey. Will you taste it the first time? Maybe not. Maybe it'll just be a burning experience.
Lucas: Well, and that's what I was going to say. It certainly seems, from your approaches on the episodes that I've watched, that the first sip is important, the second sip, even more so.
Matt: Oh, yeah. Don't be fooled by the first sip. That's the first-sip-ivitis, you don't want to catch that. So second sip all the time. First sip, especially the day, is a tricky one. You have to push that aside and pretend like it didn't happen, but you also have to know that it happened because if you think it didn't happen, then you'll assume that your second sip is your first sip. And if you think that didn't happen, then it's a slippery slope, and you'll be 30 sips deep and wondering–
Lucas: Yeah, especially with something like the Coy Hill Small Batch, that was, again, such a– It was awesome to watch you experience that on that review video. I can't remember if it was that one or the top whiskeys one. You had the line that maybe just laugh out loud. It was as if the California Raisins were just standing there sweating whiskey.
Matt: Oh, yeah.
Lucas: I thought that was the greatest descriptor of how that, again, the dark fruit nature of that liquid was. I laughed out loud.
Matt: Well, I've referenced the California Raisins a few times in videos, but was it the one where– have you ever walked in, like when you were in college, you walk into a house party the day after?
Lucas: Oh, yes.
Matt: And you're like, good grief, open a window.
Lucas: That was another.
Matt: The Coy Hill was like, if there were California Raisins spent the night after a gig and went to a studio apartment together, and then you opened the door, you're like, "Wow. That is an incredible smell. You smell like delicious raisins and an overpowering amount of Coy Hill high proof Jack Daniel's." And they would look at you and say, "Why are you talking to a raisin?" I don't know.
Lucas: Now, did you get a chance to at least glance at Coy Hill when you were around here? Did they take you up around there? Obviously not into the barrel houses proper, but at least pay homage to the physical location from where your top whiskey of 2022 came from?
Matt: I saw a rick house on a hill. I said, "Is that Coy Hill?" They said, "It's over there." And I said, "Okay. That's what I thought." Just checking if you–
Lucas: You're in the vicinity. Yeah. You're within the GPS coordinates of all that. What can we expect from the channel coming up in 2023?
Matt: I don't know. Maybe a little bit of different things. It's weird because there are so many new whiskey channels every single day that it almost feels like doing the same thing is stale. So I try to keep things fresh. I do a whiskey tasting competition from other channels every year, it's called Matt Madness, it's during March. Does it linger into the summer months almost? Kinda. So I do that. That's a lot of fun. I try to just think of different things to involve other people. Whiskey blending, collaborations, some sort of fundraising things. But I don't know. I think that there could be maybe– Whiskey reviews obviously are something I do, I do live streams every Friday, but I'm always looking for something fun and different to do. Will I do, I don't know, a 10,000 calorie challenge where I eat a bunch of food? Probably not. But I keep an open mind. There's got to be things out there to keep things fresh. But at the same time, if it's broke, don't fix it. That mentality works as well.
But I don't know, I think that continuing, if I just stuck it and just made Old No. 7 every single day, then I would be disappointed in myself. I think I have the ability and the potential to do, I don't know, other things, cooler things. And I work through things every day in my head. Sometimes it feels like good ideas. Other times they feel like bad ideas, but we'll see how they work out. I think that if you just watch and see, then I guess we'll find out. It's just hard to say. But I'm excited about the future, that's for sure.
Lucas: Yeah. Well, and again, these days with social media and different forms taking, everything seems to be changing. The only constant is change, in the midst of all that, but I can say that I've enjoyed watching your episodes and was excited to get to come and chat with you while you're here.
Matt: That was the worst answer I've ever given. I'm super sorry. You know what? Vote for me in November. It was a very political answer.
Lucas: It's okay.
Matt: Feel bad about that.
Lucas: Look, I'm much the same way.
Matt: We're giving away a million dollars.
Lucas: Oh, wow. That's-
Matt: See, that's what happens when I just throw something out there that I'm not sure of. I say something like that.
Lucas: Fair enough.
Matt: It's not true.
Lucas: But certainly we appreciate you doing the things that you do, and glad you had a great time here in Lynchburg. Hope we can get to see you back–
Matt: Had a blast.
Lucas: Around these parts sooner than later. But again, Matt, thanks for joining us Around the Barrel.
Matt: Thank you for having me here. I know I will never be invited back. So before I go, I just want to say I love everybody, and maybe that'll get me an invite back. Thank you, Lucas.
Lucas: Thank you.
Matt: Thank you everybody. This is so cool. Jack Daniel's is the best. Come here if you haven't been here.
Lucas: Thanks for checking out this episode of Around the Barrel. You can find archived episodes of Around the Barrel on all major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and more. Plus on the web at jackdaniels.com/podcast. And if you like what you hear, please follow, rate and review while you're at it. Cheers y'all, and join us next time for more conversations Around the Barrel.
Your friends at Jack Daniel's remind you to drink responsibly. Jack Daniel's and Old No. 7 are registered trademarks. Copyright 2023, Jack Daniel's. Tennessee Whiskey, 40% alcohol by volume. 80 proofing. Distilled and bottled by Jack Daniel Distillery, Lynchburg, Tennessee. Around the Barrel is intended for listeners 21 years of age and older.
