My Favorite Mistake — 11: Whiskey Making (and Selling) Mistakes with Dan Garrison & Donnis Todd

Owner and Master Distiller from Garrison Brothers Distillery

Show notes: ⁠http://www.markgraban.com/mistake11⁠

We have two special guests from ⁠Garrison Brothers Distillery⁠ joining us for Episode #11. They are ⁠Dan Garrison⁠, founder and CEO of the distillery and ⁠Donnis Todd⁠, their master distiller.

I’ve known Dan and Donnis since I first had the chance to visit their distillery in Hye, TX back in 2013 as part of an MIT alumni group visit. I’ve visited many times and I’ve volunteered as a bottler, ⁠as I’ve blogged about⁠. I love the people, the place, and the product — their Texas Straight Bourbon Whiskeys, many of which are ⁠award winners⁠.

In the episode, Donnis tells a story about a time when he let some whiskey age one year too long… and what he learned from the mistake (and how Dan handled it). Dan talks about a mistake he made with one of their key national retailer relationships and what he learned from that. They both talk about how they’ve created a culture of “fessin’ up” to mistakes when you make them and why that’s so important to their company.