Third-generation Florida farmer Doug McCormack never set out to become a moonshiner - he became one because he had a blueberry problem. With an overabundance of organic blueberries on his family's Lake County farm, Doug partnered with a friend to experiment with winemaking, and those backyard experiments evolved into something much bigger. Today, Yalaha Bootlegging Company at Blue Bayou Farms is an award-winning craft distillery where Doug and his family distill small-batch moonshine, brandy, and rum using organic blueberries and cane sugar grown right on their farm. The McCormacks have been farming in Florida for nearly 150 years, and while Doug is the first in his family to officially make moonshine, he's building on generations of agricultural tradition.
This is a true family operation nestled in the countryside of Yalaha. When you visit, you're likely to meet Doug tending the farm, his wife Amanda, daughters Grace and Emily, or other McCormack family members working in the country store or baking homemade pies. Doug even fought to change Florida's antiquated distillery laws in Tallahassee, testifying before the legislature to allow distilleries to sell more than one bottle per customer per year. His award-winning spirits - including bronze medal-winning moonshine and Southern Pecan Moonshine - are crafted from fruit to glass and cane to glass, all distilled and bottled on-site at their farm just a short country drive from Orlando.
Episode Transcript
Cal Evans: Hi, my name is Cal Evans, and this is Hearts and Tails. Hey, I'm here with Doug McCormick in Yahala. Yalaha. I, I knew I was gonna mess that up. Did it? It's all right.
Doug McCormack It's six letters.
Cal Evans Bootlegging company in Yaha, Florida. We're just, um, northwest of Orlando.
Doug McCormack Yeah, about 45 minutes right at the turnpike.
Cal Evans Yeah, it's a yield. It was a beautiful drive up here. Beautiful day. Gorgeous. Hey. I'm so glad that you've, um, taken the time to, um, spend with us today and talk about your operation. Uh, I, I keep wanting to say bootlegging. It's not bootlegging. You pay taxes on it technically, you know?
Doug McCormack Yeah. I do pay taxes, so a lot of them too, trust me.
Cal Evans But now your family's been in farming you your third generation Florida farmer, um, who then became a distiller and. You distilled with blueberries. We'll go get into that for a minute, but walk us through the moment when you realized, Hey, I should make moonshine from these.
Doug McCormack Well, I'm a small organic, you pick farm and I have four acres.
Cal Evans Mm-hmm.
Doug McCormack And I had two farms going down the road. There were 40 acre farms, so I'm, no, it's the riding's on the wall folks I can't compete with the big farm with, they had a lot of money behind 'em. So I'm, I'm just a little guy. Well they, one of 'em started to copy my U pick and put signs everywhere and I'm like, really?
And even in front of my house, he put a sign right in front of my house on our rural road. I'm like, I'm not liking this. So I decided, Hey, my buddy and I always made wine with blueberries. Maybe I can take it a step further and. Well, let's just say it worked out and my wife said, you better get legal.
'cause I like our house. So that's how it all starts. As a farmer, you have to adapt sometime.
Cal Evans Yeah. I, I, um, lived in Nashville and started, um, toying with the idea and my wife basically had the same conversation with me. She says, no, we like this house too much.
Doug McCormack So, exactly. It is illegal to do it yourself. You can make wine or beer all you want to, but if you start distilling Yep. Uh, the feds show up.
Cal Evans I totally understand that.
Hey, um, something fascinating. Your family has had this moonshine recipe for 150 years, but now you're the first one to make it legally. Um, how did the recipe pig get preserved through all this time?
Doug McCormack My grandfather passed away at 94, about six years ago in the nursing home, and, uh, he, he never would admit to doing this.
He was a good Southern Baptist, but going through his belongings, we found where him and his uncle Oscar, which is my. Great grandfather's brother. Mm-hmm. Made corn liquor in Alabama. Huh. But if you replace the corn with blueberries, hey you might have something.
Cal Evans Yeah.
Doug McCormack And the blueberries have a higher sugar content than corn.
So, and I had an abundance of them, they were following, hitting the ground because once you picked season, gotta where kids got outta school, nobody wants to come out and pick blueberries. They have other stuff to do. Go on vacation. Which I understand.
Cal Evans Yeah.
Doug McCormack But you know, so I had all the ground was blue with blueberries.
I put 'em in five gallon buckets and started to. Mess around with it and it worked out.
Cal Evans Very cool. Now. Moonshine, you know, historically comes from corn. Yeah. Or, or any kind of a grain. Mm-hmm. But you're using organic blueberries. Mm-hmm. From a distiller's perspective, what does the, what does that do to the spirit that the green wouldn't do?
Doug McCormack Um, what's happening in that, um, still that makes blueberry moonshine different?
I kind of look at it when I was in computer class. Garbage in, garbage out.
Cal Evans Oh yeah.
Doug McCormack If you start with chicken food, guess what you get at the in cal. And it's true. Blueberries are a cleaner. Base for everything and there is a higher sugar content.
So you, I'm only allowed so much sugar per each mash batch. I have a federal recipe that they had to improve, approve. Mm-hmm. And so I can, I'm only allowed to have so much sugar in a 55 gallon drum. Mm-hmm. But blueberries has a lot of natural sugar. So that's what kicks it up a notch. Mm. And it's kind of a, a loophole a little bit, but I can't taste the, I can't test the sugar and all the blueberries, the bricks and everything like that.
Yeah. And typically years ago, if somebody had a corn, a wagon load of corn, you're just feeding your animals.
Cal Evans Mm-hmm.
Doug McCormack But if you have a wagon load of blueberries, I'm like, Hey, what, what's going on here man? What's this guy making a lot of jelly?
Cal Evans Well, now, does it affect the flavor at all, or does it still come out 180 proof?
Doug McCormack 180 proof.
It comes out clean. Now, people don't understand that you can't carry flavor because there's a slight hint maybe. Mm-hmm. But you've gone through a chemical transformation from a liquid to a steam back to a liquid. Okay. So how are you gonna carry flavor? Now the other thing, if you make an A gin, you have spruce berries in the stack.
Yeah, I'll give that to you. Then you can, then you can carry flavor or a basket with, you know, certain things in them. But
Cal Evans Yeah, so you're not running a gin basket or anything. It's just straight column still.
Doug McCormack No.
It's straight column still. Like we have right here. Exactly. This is a much bigger one and a lot fancier one.
And as you came in, you saw this morning our 50 gallon still is, uh. Kicking off 180 proof as we speak. We'll get a hundred, we'll get six gallons today between 180 and 160 proof.
Cal Evans That smelled so wonderful. I mean, I walked in the front door and Oh yeah, I knew I was at the right place.
Oh yeah.
Cal Evans Now you've got this one. You called a, um, fat man and little boy. Yep. When will Fat Man start kicking in?
Doug McCormack He's gonna start here pretty soon. I've been hesitating because he's fired off of 4 2 20. Burners. Mm-hmm. That's like having four dryers going at one time and our energy out here costs is a lot of money. Ah, that propane little boy, it Plus there's something about making moonshine with open fire.
I'll be honest with you. Oh yeah. It's, it's, it's got that element of danger, but it's the way it's always been done. This right here, you got gauges and digital stuff and I don't know, man, I'm kind of old fashioned.
Cal Evans I love when I walked in and, and I saw it, I'm like. Wow that because it, it is not pretentious.
Like this is, you know, this has got the column and everything and the plates. Um, that's just. What you think of when you think of a still running out in the back woods. Yeah. And um, so I, I, I loved seeing that, but you know, it's always impressive to see one of these things up, you know, up close and you got this one all shined up for us.
It's, it's a work of art.
Doug McCormack Yes, it is.
Cal Evans They really are.
Doug McCormack But I mean, the other one is been functioning well since 2015.
Cal Evans Yeah. Yeah.
Doug McCormack So, you know, and that's kind of, it's close to my heart coming down here in the morning, firing it up, turning on the news, drinking coffee, waiting for it to heat up to 200 degrees.
Yep.
Doug McCormack Get the heads off then let her go, man.
Oh, regulate it.
Cal Evans You had that bottle of heads. Yeah. Um, this morning you said, here, smell this. I'm like, man, this, this is acetone.
Doug McCormack Exactly, exactly. About the first three ounces is. Really bad stuff, but we take 24 ounces at least off, off that 40 gallons of mash that's in there.
Yeah. We wanna make sure that stuff's gone. Yeah. So I donate it to the local fire Aunt Mound. I'm not very popular with them because I, I control it naturally. And of course it doesn't hurt the environment and, yeah, they're gone.
Cal Evans Now, for those of you who are not from, um, the south, fire ants are a serious problem, and they're are, they're our natural enemy.
Doug McCormack Mm-hmm. Okay. We hate 'em. So anytime you run across 'em, you do everything you can to get rid of 'em.
Cal Evans exactly.
Hey, now Florida hasn't always been a place where you could just say, I want to, I want to get a license and distill, you actually helped change the, um, the laws here in Florida so that. Small craft distillers could operate here.
Tell us about your journey through that whole fight in Tallahassee.
Doug McCormack That was, that was very interesting. I was literally down here one day and somebody helped me out, said, Hey, um, the owner of St. Augustine Distillery is on the phone, Phil McDaniel, and we must have talked to you about going to Tallahassee.
And I answered the, called him back and said, Doug, Phil McDaniel, I know we hadn't met, but we'd like for you to come testify before Congress in Tallahassee. Will you come up here? Mm-hmm. It was like the next day or so, and I'm like, yes, sir. And um, we had to lobby several years. This started off as I could sell one bottle per year.
Per person.
Cal Evans Wow.
How you gonna make a living doing that?
Cal Evans Yeah
Doug McCormack You can't. So we lobbied 'em to say, Hey, why one bottle? Well then it became one of each variety. Well, so. I say in Augustine, started doing gen Run number one, gen run number two. So we're, we're, we're just hitting all these loopholes we can, changing the label colors, doing everything we can, so I can sell you more.
Mm-hmm. Because at the end of the day. All the big distributors were holding us down like, no, we don't want you to be able to sell out there. You have to sell to us. So we make 30% or whatever you sell. Yeah. Well, I can't do cases. I can't do pallets of liquor here. Mm-hmm. I mean, so I'm, what am I gonna do?
I'm restrained. So it was, it was antiquated laws back from the 1930s and forties and all this. And it was time for them to change.
Cal Evans Yeah.
Doug McCormack And one of the, actually one of the members of the Ways and Means committee said, are you guys gonna come back every year? We are like, yes, we are. Until you give us what's fair.
And we came back the next two years. Mm. And finally, they didn't make us take your ID anymore, which people didn't like that. I'm like, I don't want your identity. I have to do this for the state.
Cal Evans Mm-hmm.
Doug McCormack So we, we didn't do well. They got rid of that one. Then they eliminated how many you could purchase. The only thing we still cannot do is self distribute.
Cal Evans Mm-hmm.
Doug McCormack And that'll probably never come to fruition because you got the big guys out there and then you got the A, b, C liquor actually was against us the whole way, really. And I'll talk to their lobbyists and everything, and I'm still the only craft distiller. It's not distributed. Hmm. Nobody's ever offered to distribute me.
I don't care how many metals I got.
Cal Evans Yeah.
Doug McCormack It doesn't matter. They don't care. I'm, I can't make cases and pallets and, but you know what, that's what makes me unique. Yep. Because you come to my distillery and you meet me, I'll shake your hand and say, I'm made, you're liquor. I labeled your bottle. And I do.
Cal Evans Yeah.
Doug McCormack I'm Doug. Nice to meet you.
Well, and you know, I called you up. I just, you know, pick a phone call. Yeah. It's just, and you were the one that answered it's, oh, I, think, um. You, you called me back. Yeah. Called me back. Somebody else. Yeah. And I mean, we, we hit it off. Of course, we got a lot of things in common.
We're both from L.A. Yep. For those of you not in the area that's Lower Alabama. Okay. Uh, but we got,
I got relatives from LA I was born in Apopka, so I'm a rural redneck,
Cal Evans But yeah, I was from the, the, the metropolis of Chickasaw, Alabama. Yes, sir. So, um, and you know, we got a lot in common. We just, we kind of hit it off.
Yeah. And you know, I've talked to a lot of distillery owners. And set up a lot of, or set up several of these things. But, um, it, it's fun when you get somebody that you just hit it off with. Yeah. You know? Yeah. So I love the fact that you make it, you distill it, and. It, it, looking at how you're doing it, it's almost art.
Doug McCormack Yeah. The, the way you're doing it, it's not, I, I run into some of these that it's science, you know? Yeah. And you and I, I respect that. Mm-hmm. Okay. I respect the science that goes into it, but I also respect the fact that some people are just in it for the art. Yeah. You know? And that, that is wonderful. Hey, um, we are sitting in your brand new Stillhouse and our story, or our tagline is stories from the Stillhouse.
There you go.
Cal Evans Um, and you were telling me that you, you had put this together, you bought. Siding from an old barn and there's actually bullet holes. Yeah, there's bullet holes right behind it. They came with the siding. They came with that. I couldn't believe. I'm like, wow, that's cool. I'm gonna put that right behind the new still.
Cal Evans Now you are the second smallest in Florida with 500 square feet total for your still house. Yeah. And yet you're still winning gold medals. Yeah. Is, is there something about working at this scale that actually makes the product better or, yeah, you just work harder.
Doug McCormack I can, I'm not micromanaging, but I watch everything that goes into the mesh.
Cal Evans Mm-hmm.
Doug McCormack And I have the recipe and I will make the mesh. My future son-in-law's been helping me because I have 50 pound bags of sugar starting to get heavy when you deadlift 'em off the floor. I'll be honest with you. I,
Cal Evans I can understand that.
Doug McCormack And then we, he helps me out with that too, but I'm always around.
But it's, um, it's nice because it, you can control everything that happens.
Cal Evans Yeah.
Doug McCormack I don't want people helping me label the bottles that put labels on crooked. I'm very. Particular about that. And I've had sometimes look like a fourth grader did it or, or, or somebody. I'm like, really? Come on. I take pride in this.
This is my, this is Doug's moonshine. Mm-hmm. And I want you, if you're paying $35 for a bottle of moonshine, I want the label to be straight.
Cal Evans Yeah.
Doug McCormack And I don't have a labeling machine. I got one here and there, that's it. I just take label by hand, bottled by hand, everything by hand. Trust me.
Cal Evans Now you mentioned your future son-in-law.
Doug McCormack Yeah.
Cal Evans Um, this is a family operation now. I met Mama Glenda.
Doug McCormack Mm-hmm.
Cal Evans And she's almost worth her own episode.
Doug McCormack Oh, she's a patriarch buddy. I'll tell you.
Oh, let me tell you. She's got stories that little rattlesnake don't cross her. Those little Alabama women will cut you from here to here.
Cal Evans And I, I tell you what. Next time I come up here, I will be in my Jeep. I will not be in my Tesla. I tell you.
Because now Glenda don't like Teslas.
Doug McCormack No, she does not.
Cal Evans My wife drives a Tesla. Okay. I just happen to be driving it to the day,
and I'm sure she's a great person.
Doug McCormack Oh, she is. We don't judge her, but sometimes the cars bother us.
Cal Evans But when people visit, they're likely to meet your wife, Amanda, and Yep. She's pouring samples. Or even your little daughter, grace, and she's help here out the store. Yep. And my youngest daughter, Emily, who just got engaged to Frank, my future son-in-law.
Cal Evans That's your future son-in-law.
Doug McCormack Okay. And he'll, uh.
They'll all be down here helping you at any given time. Somebody can jump in and help anybody.
Cal Evans But your brother, Tim.
Yep.
Cal Evans And um, Sandy helps. They make pies and Tim makes pottery.
Doug McCormack Well, yeah, Tim does the pottery. I do. We do the pies now in-house and Sandy does the pottery full-time. 'cause it's a lot of work.
Cal Evans Okay.
Doug McCormack My brother is a outreach minister at Real Life Church in Claremont. So he's a pastor.
Cal Evans Oh, okay. Yeah. Well Mama Grace was, or Mama Glenda was telling me that um, she's got a pastor and a moonshiner.
Doug McCormack Yeah, exactly. We got one angel on each shoulder. One angel, one guy's wearing black. I know what that is. But you know, at any given time you'll be able to see a member of the family down here working.
'cause that's the way we always were. And my daughters thank us to this day for making them work down here because they, they have a very, very, very good work ethic.
Cal Evans Yeah.
Doug McCormack Yeah.
Cal Evans That is awesome. Um. But you'd rather just keep it family than, than hiring out.
Doug McCormack It's just, I'd rather, because it, it's a lot of drama with employees and a lot of tax.
This is a lot of this and that. Yeah. I'd rather keep it simple. And we've always worked together in every business, the nursery, the outdoor, the farm, we've always done it.
Cal Evans Mm-hmm.
What do you wanna do? I'd rather work with somebody I love than somebody. I don't
Cal Evans No, I, I get you. I grew up in a family business.
Yeah. So I totally understand. My grandmother, um, they in Chickasaw owned a flower shop.
Doug McCormack Oh, yes sir.
Cal Evans And then my dad started a business that sold, um, music to churches.
Wow. And, um, you know, it was, it was, I was the first packing and shipping person at 14, so that's cool. That's, that's so, yeah. I, I grew up in this kind of environment and yes, I do agree.
Um, it instilled a work ethic in me that, that I, I love to this day and I think mom and dad for the, to this day, for that, hey. Let's, let's talk a little bit about the craft, because, um, you're actually very good at this. Mm-hmm. You've won gold medals, uh, gold medals, silver medals, recognition from major competitions.
Which award or moment of recognition actually meant the most to you? And tell us why.
Doug McCormack Well, the, the big one, uh, I got a silver medal in San Francisco, American Distilling Institute, and we're talking folks, we're talking major international competition. Mm-hmm. The judge's notes were. Never heard of anybody making moonshine outta blues, would love to see more from you, this and that.
And, and it was nice. But my first gold was American Craft Spirits Association in New York. Hmm. And, um, we donated like six bottles and you pay like a hundred dollars entry and they make craft cocktails and sell in Manhattan. It all goes for children's charities.
Cal Evans Oh, that's nice.
Doug McCormack So I'm like, that's cool.
And um, I got my gold medal and it was white. I didn't know why. And, uh, the next year I won another gold. And I asked my medalist, they said, well, we don't give physical medals anymore. I said, well, I gave you physical cash. Where's my medal? And my, I gave you pretty booze. I mean, it's just, and then after that I said, you know what, folks?
I'm done. I got medals. And I'm like, I'm not gonna be the guy with the bottle of 50 freaking metals on it.
Cal Evans Yeah.
Doug McCormack Once you win it, it's like, okay, been there, done that, bought the T-shirt.
Cal Evans Yep.
Doug McCormack Next year they call me back, so we're giving physical medicals again. I'm like, no, sorry, it's too late now, but I'm not doing it.
Cal Evans Yep. I, I totally understand. And, you know, liquor for kids, how can that be wrong?
Doug McCormack I mean, that, I still do that one. I'll send them some if they want it, but you, it's for, you know, in Manhattan they sell these craft cocktails for 30 bucks a piece. Oh, yeah. And that those bottles of liquor make a lot of money for kids.
And I'm, that's what it's about. Yep. Pay it forward.
Cal Evans I totally agree. Paying it forward has been, um, one of the, the things I, I love doing in my life. Yeah. Um, helping other people, um, do things. One of the reasons I started this Yeah. Was um, because I knew that there, especially here in Florida, we got a lot of good craft distillers.
Doug McCormack Oh yeah.
Cal Evans Like you
Doug McCormack Yeah.
Cal Evans That nobody knows about.
Doug McCormack Yeah. I think I was number 13.
Cal Evans I just wanna help people understand that, you know, you, you don't have to go and buy the stuff that's on the shelf. You can go look around your own area, you're gonna find them. Yeah. I, I worked for a company out in Utah and last time I was out in Salt Lake City. I did a distillery tour and discovered a gin that I absolutely love.
Doug McCormack Mm-hmm.
Cal Evans And, you know, I, I pay a quite a bit to, to ship a couple bottles in every time I get low, because that's some good stuff.
Doug McCormack Yeah. And it's, it's nice because they, that they recognize that, you know, us smaller guys are very important.
Cal Evans Yeah.
Doug McCormack You know, and out there, but we, we, we can't play by the same rules as Jim Beam. 'cause Jim Beam makes millions of gallons a year. And I, I, I'm not that guy.
Cal Evans No. And I, I, I respect those people. Yeah. But I, I also love this. So Yeah. Um, this is wonderful.
Hey, during the pandemic, all of us had to do something different.
Doug McCormack Oh boy.
Cal Evans And trust me, you did a pandemic, what I call the pandemic pivot. Um, in 2020, you got an email from the federal government asking distilleries to help make hand sanitizer. Yes. Now, that can't be a huge leap for, for you with, with little boy making hand sanitizer.
Doug McCormack Mm-hmm.
Cal Evans But what was the big challenge you ran into?
Doug McCormack Big challenge was you had to use your best moonshine because by the time you added peroxide, so nobody will drink it and then lain or whatever for the moisturizer. You had to still be at over 160 proof. Well, dang, I had to use my 180 proof.
Cal Evans Oh yeah.
Doug McCormack So I didn't have any moonshine. And people would come and like, oh, thank you for the hand sanitizer.
So where's your moonshine? I'm like, oh, come on folks. Gimme a break. Do you wanna be, you wanna be safe now or you want to get a buzz? And we, we could drink after this is over. You know, so that, that was challenging. Yeah. And I had calls from New York and all this and that, and I'm said, I'm sorry I'm keeping this local.
Cal Evans Mm-hmm.
Doug McCormack I'm so, I would love to help everybody in the world, but I had Lady Lake Police Department and all these police departments call me, we need 'em for officers. I'm like, okay, you guys. Then I limited people to like two flask of hand sanitizer. You don't need more than that to last you two or three weeks.
Okay. Yeah. So, but, and I was just, it was a pivot. It was interesting. But I'll tell you the most interesting fact.
Cal Evans What's that?
Doug McCormack After this got done, they were gonna charge me the FDA was gonna find me $1,400 or $4,000. Mm-hmm. For not having a license to make hand sanitizer. And one of the last thing that President Donald Trump, when he was leaving office the first time said, no, that's bull.
Cal Evans Mm-hmm.
Doug McCormack These guys stepped up, they helped us a lot. You will not be finding them. And he. We called the dogs off.
Cal Evans That's good.
Doug McCormack Because I, that would've made all the profits that I made. I was like, really? You're gonna fine me for helping people out? Only the government.
Cal Evans Only the government.
Okay. You make several different flavors.
Doug McCormack Yeah.
Cal Evans Um, you actually, you make seven different varieties now.
Doug McCormack Mm-hmm.
Cal Evans Um, maybe going back to that, you can only sell one bottle for variety.
Doug McCormack Correct. I'm like, what am I gonna do next?
Cal Evans Um, you make, um, your original blueberry, you make apple peach, cranberry, watermelon, and of course one of my favorites.
Doug McCormack Mm-hmm.
Cal Evans Southern pecan.
Doug McCormack Mm-hmm.
Being from LA Oh yeah. You gotta love the southern pecans.
Oh yeah.
Cal Evans Um, which one turned out completely different than you expected when you created it? Either better or let's just say more challenging.
Doug McCormack Well, this one, this is my southern pecan right here.
Cal Evans Okay.
Cal Evans And, um, I'm proud of it.
Doug McCormack Now, part of this. Thing we do with the federal government, we have to have a cola, which is a certificate of label approval. Mm-hmm. But in order to get that, you gotta have a recipe. So you gotta go through the recipe. People first, I put this in there and they could not figure if I add pecan wood chips, I don't add a flavor.
It's getting it from the pecan wood. I'm not adding. And after 90 days of going back and forth, I'm like, okay, just tell me. So they made me put flavors added on the bottle. We do not flavor this. We put southern pecan wood in and it gets the color and the flavor from that. But I'm so surprised 'cause I put it in the barrel at 100 proof.
And it, um, comes at about 94. The angels take about six, but I say 90 on the bottle. Mm-hmm. But this is a very good sipping drink over ice, trust me. And it's got the wittiness of a little bit of a scotch or a bourbon. Mm-hmm. Of course, we don't make any bourbon here. Our brandy is reminiscent of it, but, uh, we don't make whiskey either.
But this is some good stuff, trust me,
Cal Evans that. Uh, to be clear, the pecan flavoring comes from the fact that you age it in pecan barrels?
Doug McCormack No, no, no, no. They're, it's aged in oak barrels. Okay. 'cause you can't get pecan barrels. Ah, that'd be sweet though, wouldn't it? Um, but no, I don't think the woods for, it's always oak barrels.
Cal Evans So you, you so wood chips in Well,
Doug McCormack I put 'em, I just put 'em right in the alcohol.
Cal Evans Oh. Oh, okay.
Doug McCormack It's kind of like when you, you, if you smoke meat outside and you've got a solo cup, you put it on your grill, you know the wood chips. Yep. And this is the way it happened the next day, my wife said, clean your mess up.
And I look in my pecan chips and I'm like, why is the water red? I wonder if I can do that with, well, let's try it. And it worked. And that's the, that's exactly how that happened.
Cal Evans Wow. That is so cool. I, I, I can't wait to taste that. Yes. As usual, I wait until I finish the interview before I do a tasting.
I've learned.
Doug McCormack No thick tongues around here.
Cal Evans Yep. Um, and, uh, you also make a rum.
Doug McCormack Yes.
Cal Evans I can't wait to taste that. Yep. I'm, I'm a rum guy and I'm also. I, I, I'm a bit persnickety. Yeah. Okay. If somebody has taken the time to age it,
Doug McCormack yeah.
Cal Evans I drink it straight. Mm-hmm. Or over rocks. Mm-hmm. I'm not gonna mix a cocktail and I, I got friends of mine that will mock me for that.
Yeah. But if you've taken the time to age it, I'm gonna taste the flavors.
Doug McCormack Well, I, we don't age our rum here. That'd be a different recipe.
Cal Evans Okay.
Doug McCormack What we have is a blueberry mash that we do with dark brown cane sugar. Oh. And then we add molasses. Okay. And the yeast won't digest molasses, but they'll digest the cane sugar.
And so it's, it's a clean, very clean light, clear rum. Ooh. And that's the way I used. To like, to drink my rum with the Diet Coke.
Cal Evans Yeah.
Doug McCormack No, and I drank too much of it one time, and I've never touched rum since. Except I, I'll sample it, but I'm like, man, I just can't do that. The old cotton mouth days college, you know?
I'm like, I shouldn't have done that.
Cal Evans Yeah, no, I understand. But, um, and there are some rums, um, light rums that I'll just, I I'll steer clear of. Yeah. And I'm not gonna name any brands. Oh, yeah. Because I'm not trying to shame anybody, but there's some commercial brands that I'm like, even mixed in stuff.
Doug McCormack You can't, you can't, you can't rush. Alcohol making. And that's part of the problem is the big guy's rush it.
Cal Evans Mm.
Doug McCormack I understand that, that you can get a $15 bottle of rum all day long.
Cal Evans Yeah.
Doug McCormack It is not gonna be good, but you can get it.
Cal Evans Oh, I've been to some of the, um, commercial distillers with continuous stills Yeah. And stuff like that. I'm like, you know, I get because you gotta produce so much 'cause you're so popular. But that's not what I'm looking for.
Doug McCormack Yeah, exactly.
Cal Evans Um, okay, last question. You could have put this distillery basically anywhere. Mm-hmm. But you're. Basically out in the middle of nowhere, just northwest of Orlando. Yeah. Um, in Orlando's, you know, lots of touristy stuff. What kept you in the rural yaha farm and what is it about this place that makes this where you want to, um, preserve how you're doing this?
Doug McCormack Well, it's all about the farm. This, although we've owned this place for 23 years of property. Mm-hmm. It's been in farming since the 18 hundreds or probably before. Hmm. Because there were steamboat ports at the end of the road where all the vegetables went out. With Steamboats up Lee Aaha to St. John's, which flows north to Jacksonville where all the ships went to New York City.
Cal Evans Yeah.
Doug McCormack So this is where all everything happened. And when we bought this place, it was an older orange grove that we transferred it to the organic blueberry farm. Mm-hmm. We have thornless, blackberries, and we're pretty much a U pick operation now strictly, but why not do stuff here? I'll tell you one thing.
After a hard rainy day, you can walk out in the field and behind my old barn, I have horse equipment that I've found. I've found all kind of implements. I've got a, a drag line cable in my blueberry field that goes, gosh, nos. I don't know where it goes. I don't wanna find out what's at the other end because the cable's over an inch thick.
Cal Evans Wow.
Doug McCormack And it's, you never know what you're gonna find out here, but it's like, man, people have been doing the same thing I've been doing out here farming for fricking over 150 years probably. Mm.
Cal Evans That's amazing.
Doug McCormack It's, it's, it's a nice little thing, you know, it's like, okay, I'm keeping the tradition going.
Cal Evans Well, this is a beautiful area.
Yeah. And, um, you're right next to a, I turned into the, the German Bakery Uhhuh earlier. Yeah. When I was coming here. And, um, you know, it's just a, it's a gorgeous little area, but it's close enough to Orlando, so if you gotta run into town Oh yeah. You. But you're not in town here, so you don't,
Doug McCormack it's it's getting more crowded now.
The villages moved right down the road and a lot of homes are coming in and we can't stop it. You, you, you want to say, man, I don't want this to happen, but it happened in Apopka.
Cal Evans Yeah.
Doug McCormack My family owned 3,500 acres out there and lost him in the Great Depression. Mm-hmm. All full of citrus.
Cal Evans Oh.
Doug McCormack And, and my great granddaddy had a roadhouse.
I found that out later too.
Cal Evans Get out.
Doug McCormack He had a three story roadhouse on McCormick Road, which is named after him. Mm-hmm. And he, uh, one of the old, old men came by and said, your granddaddy had. Liquor without the tax stamps and women, I'm sorry, some, but he owned a roadhouse. I'm like, well, that figures after he's been gone.
And I mean, all these, all these little things start popping up. I'm like, okay. That explains it. That explains it. That explains why you're a moonshiner. Okay. I'm not ashamed of my family's history. We all did what we had to do.
Cal Evans Yep. Oh, I, I come from sharecroppers down in Andalusia, AL.
Doug McCormack Yeah. So it's all good.
Cal Evans So I get or up in, in Andalusia.
Doug McCormack Yep. I get it.
Cal Evans So, um, Doug. Thank you so much for taking time outta your schedule to, uh, be with us here today. This has just been fascinating to me. I love just hearing these stories and, you know, talking to owners and, uh, master distillers like yourself.
Audience, thank you for taking time to, for being with us here today. I hope you've enjoyed it. Hey, if you're watching on YouTube, do me a favor. Hit that like and subscribe button so you see every episode because we've got more coming up. I've got two or three more already stacked up, ready to go. Thank you so much and we'll talk to you next time. Right here on Hearts and Tails.