By—just a fella who knows his way around a mash bill and a tall tale

Dawn in Hye, Texas, doesn’t sneak in—it stretches wide across the hills, rattles the cicadas awake, and washes the bottling room windows in warm, amber light. Inside, a line of volunteers—many of them veterans—are dipping bottles of our Small Batch Bourbon by hand. First blue wax. Then white. Then red at the tip. No drips. No streaks. Just clean, crisp lines that seal each bottle with pride.

When the wax cools, some of those bottlers—the ones who are veterans—hang a small metal tag around the neck of the bottle they just finished: HAND-DIPPED BY A VETERAN. A quiet mark of respect that carries more weight than any label ever could.

If you’ve been following our Red, White & Bourbon journey, you know where it started: May 4, 1964, when Congress declared bourbon a distinctive product of the United States. Then we honored the men and women who gave everything so the rest of us could lift a glass. And now comes the final chapter—June 14—when the United States Army, the American flag, and bourbon all share the same birthday. One day. Three cheers.

June 14, 1775 to 2025 — 250 Years of the U.S. Army

Picture Philadelphia, humid as a boiled shirt. The Continental Congress votes to raise an army and hands command to a tall Virginian named George Washington (and America’s first commercial distiller at Mount Vernon)—the kind of fellow who could make a musket think twice. The pay was miserable, the powder scarce, but those first soldiers signed on anyway, betting everything on a newborn idea called liberty.

Two-and-a-half centuries later, the Army’s rally cry still rings plain and stubborn: This We’ll Defend. On June 14, from Fort Cavazos to Fort Wainwright, cannon salutes will thunder, ceremonial cakes will be sliced, and Washington’s official orders to his troops on June 14, 1775 will be read aloud.

June 14, 1777 — Old Glory Takes the Stage

Exactly two years after birthing an army, that same Congress stitched together a symbol: thirteen stripes and thirteen stars arranged in “a new constellation.” They never spelled out the pattern, leaving Betsy Ross to improvise the heavens.

Flags have flapped over Garrison Brothers since the stillhouse went up, but on Flag Day we plant them like bluebonnets. The Hill Country wind snaps the cloth so hard you’d swear the stripes are cracking like a coach’s whip.

Why cling to thirteen stars when we’re fifty states strong? Because history hides in the folds. Those first thirteen remind us that a scrappy baker’s dozen of colonies bet the farm on sticking together—a notion we honor every time we marry Texas grain, Hill Country water, and American oak.

And here’s the kicker: that spirit now travels far beyond our ranch gate. What started as one stubborn Texas distillery has made its way onto shelves in all fifty states—from Maine to Hawaii. The way we see it, those extra thirty-seven stars just gave our bourbon more places to roam.

June 14 — National Bourbon Day

Bourbon didn’t snag an official birthday back in the 1700s. It rambled across the frontier in dented canteens and coffee-tin flasks until 1964, when Congress finally declared it “a distinctive product of the United States.” Somewhere along the trail, bartenders and bluegrass pickers started tipping their hats to June 14—linking the spirit to Flag Day and the Army Birthday—until the date itself tasted like charred oak and warm caramel.

This year, we’re marking the spirit’s big day with Red, White & Bourbon—our flagship Small Batch Bourbon, heat-forged in the scorching Texas sun and now hand-dipped in red, white, and blue wax. Proofed with Hill Country rainwater, it rolls across the palate like backyard peach cobbler swiped at midnight.

Come on Out

If you can, come on out to the distillery June 14—bring a lawn chair, shake a soldier’s hand, and watch Old Glory snap above the front lawn. Chef Jack will be cooking up something special and Kyle and Whitney will be making cocktails worthy of the day.

Can’t make the trip? Pour whatever bourbon graces your shelf, raise it at 7 p.m. Central, snap a photo, and tag #NationalBourbonDay, #RedWhiteBourbon and #GarrisonBros. Tell us who you’re toasting—a drill sergeant, a history teacher, a grandma who folded the flag with the same quiet care she used to mend a Sunday shirt. We’ll read every story. We’ll clink along from Hye.

Lights on the Horizon

After the sun drops on June 14, the Hill Country sky turns velvet blue, and the cicadas trade shifts with the crickets. The flag lowers with ceremony, folded into that tight triangle—stars out, stripes in, edges sharp as a banker’s crease. Somewhere beyond the tree line a coyote cries—lonely but alive—and the barrels exhale the day’s warmth like tired horses.

Here’s your invitation and your reminder: on June 14, three birthdays share the calendar—Army, Flag, Bourbon. Wherever you are, pour a salute. Let the glass catch the porch light, lift it high, and taste the stubborn sweetness of a country still knitting its stripes, still chasing its better angels, still raising good bourbon like a promise whispered into the night.

GOOD BOURBON CAN CHANGE THE WORLD isn’t a slogan here. It’s a belief—and on mornings like this, you can feel it in the air.

Salud!