Balcones speaks? Winston Edwards joins the Project

Post by **Capn Jimbo** » Fri Oct 24, 2014 1:30 pm

Now the whole story can be told...

Way back when (prior to August) when the Bear and I were discussing corn whiskey (at least 80% corn and in the case of "Mellow Corn", 90%), the subject of Balcones Baby Blue came up. Natch, this later led to a discussion of craft distiller Chip Tate.

Back then Tate had been on a roll inventing novel whiskeys (eg fig-based) and had collected a large number of awards; however, due diligence revealed some very mixed reviews among both the experts we trust, and the public at large. As this debate was progressing Bear advised me that the brand ambassador wanted to register and comment. No problem, I said.

But then all hell broke loose, with Tate being led out of the facility with a TRO soon to follow, and most of you know the rest. The amabassador was a gentleman named Winston Edwards, handpicked by Tate, but then remaining with the company.

Long story short (is that really possible?)...

Edwards recently did register, and state he'd been following for some time, and stated "I, for one, have enjoyed your posts regarding our situation so I thought I might chip in my $.02 (no pun intended)., lol. You have to admit he shares my sense of humour, so why not, I thought, and his registration was approved. Was this a mistake? Perhaps, but I think not.

Unfortunately, the whiskey media so far has treated Tate with kid gloves, as the do-no-wrong boy genius, while the company is generally presented as ravenous vulture capitalists who couldn't move fast enough to toss him out. Pretty one-sided. Even taking a relatively neutral view got me tossed out of the STR8-boyz hangout.

Stay tuned for?

Winston · Post by **Winston** » Wed Oct 29, 2014 1:46 pm

Howdy y'all,

I'm in the middle of a three city tour promoting a collaboration beer Balcones did with Prairie Ales out of Oklahoma, so apologies for not posting sooner. I promise once I get past this week I'll be much more active and will post a full introduction. Feel free to lob any questions about Balcones my way in this thread and I'll answer them when I have time!

Cheers,

Winston

bearmark · Post by **bearmark** » Wed Oct 29, 2014 3:16 pm

I'll see you tomorrow at Holy Grail Pub.

Winston · Post by **Winston** » Wed Nov 05, 2014 11:01 am

Of course, it never slows down, but I think I have a few minutes to chat!

So, where to start? As you all know I'm the sole Brand Ambassador for Balcones Distilling, a small distillery in Waco, TX that makes rum that tastes like whisky! I've been employed at Balcones for a little over two years, and before that I was a good friend of the distillery and did a few things for them on the side. I had always intended to work here, from the day I heard the story and learned about the products, it just took a while before they could afford to bring on another full-time employee. They certainly hired based on enthusiasm

For the first year and a half of my employment with Balcones I continued to live up in Dallas where I'm from. But, as you can imagine, the weekly 2-hour commute started to wear on me after a while, so about 6 months ago I moved to Waco where I currently reside. It was certainly a change of scenery but I've come to appreciate the small town life here. And there's a lot of potential in this town, which is great, because now I get to be a part of its growth.

At heart, I'm a whisky and beer lover, but I have branched out to many different types of aged spirits over the years. While I do enjoy rum, and have had plenty of opportunities to try all kinds of exotic varieties, it's never something I studied so intrinsically as I did whisky. While I could tell you the vintage of a discontinued bourbon from the 80's based on its font embossing, I can hardly remember where the Bacardi distillery is

So, partially in an effort to enhance my knowledge of this classic spirit, I have registered here.

I know everyone is foaming at the mouth to get the lowdown on the legal drama. There isn't much I know beyond what's in the papers, but I'll do my best to answer the questions that I can. More so I hope you will ask questions about the distillery, our products, philosophy, and so on.

Winston · Post by **Winston** » Wed Nov 05, 2014 11:03 am

Oh, want to mention, on Monday Jared went to the liquor store to beef up our library of rums and used the guide on here to make selections on a variety of styles

bearmark · Post by **bearmark** » Wed Nov 05, 2014 11:13 am

Winston wrote:Howdy y'all,

I'm in the middle of a three city tour promoting a collaboration beer Balcones did with Prairie Ales out of Oklahoma, so apologies for not posting sooner. I promise once I get past this week I'll be much more active and will post a full introduction. Feel free to lob any questions about Balcones my way in this thread and I'll answer them when I have time!

Cheers,

Winston

I have to say that Brimstone Bomb! was quite good as many of the Prairie Bomb! offerings have been. It was nice to see a young distillery and a young brewery get together on a collaboration like this and even better to see such good results. Unfortunately, the event was very crowded and Holy Grail Pub's service really suffered. After waiting more than 90 minutes for our flight of Balcones whiskey (including Brimstone Resurrection), we were told that it was gone. Having arrived early and put in the very first order, our group was greatly disappointed. The combination of a great Balcones whiskey and a beer aged on its more available "cousin" would've been quite special.

Winston · Post by **Winston** » Wed Nov 05, 2014 11:30 am

bearmark wrote: I have to say that Brimstone Bomb! was quite good as many of the Prairie Bomb! offerings have been. It was nice to see a young distillery and a young brewery get together on a collaboration like this and even better to see such good results. Unfortunately, the event was very crowded and Holy Grail Pub's service really suffered. After waiting more than 90 minutes for our flight of Balcones whiskey (including Brimstone Resurrection), we were told that it was gone. Having arrived early and put in the very first order, our group was greatly disappointed. The combination of a great Balcones whiskey and a beer aged on its more available "cousin" would've been quite special.

Unfortunately for HG, they were short a couple of servers. Couple that with the busiest happy hour they've ever had (according to the owner), and it's a recipe for a small disaster. This was also the case at Easy Tiger in Austin. I don't think anyone anticipated the kind of crowd this would draw ultimately. We now know better for next time.

Post by **Capn Jimbo** » Mon Nov 10, 2014 8:41 am

Speaking of tight underwear...

...allow me to wedge in this quick tug of a question... Yes, I know you're not in a position to speak out specifically on sensitive legal matters, at least if employment suits you, but do answer this...

There was a hearing scheduled (and widely announced) for November 7th. Yet as of this moment not a word that I can find from the Court, or from Waco Tribune who has faithfully reported the developments.

My questions: did the hearing go forward or not? Or was it postponed? And as always I stand alone again in having made a series of predictions that so far, have been idiotically accurate. Here's another:

The lack of news - just like the last time - would be consistent - just like last time - with a postponement. If so, this would only be true if both sides together convinced the Judge that the "mediation" was going simply swimmingly well, and that an agreement was imminent.

Winston?

And one more thing. You stated:

"Oh, want to mention, on Monday Jared went to the liquor store to beef up our library of rums and used the guide on here to make selections on a variety of styles"

And what rums and styles did he purchase?