Welcome to Forty Creek

	TALES FROM THE CREEK

	Welcome to Tales from the Creek! This is a section of my site that contains various ramblings and thoughts that come to mind. It is a journal that I share with you as I make and introduce my whiskies and relate some of the experiences that I have along the way. Hope you enjoy the read and as always I welcome your comments and encourage you to contact me at jhall@FortyCreekWhisky.com John K. Hall Whisky Maker

	Friday, April 27,2007 - The weather is finally coming around. Spring has been teasing us with a few wonderful warm days, followed by chilly rains. But spring is certainly on its’ way. I want to share with you an e-mail that I received from Russell Green in Bandera, Texas. As Russ explains, “Your Whisky Inspired Me Bro”. Russ got together with a few of his friends one afternoon recently, along with a bottle of Forty Creek and decided to lay down this tune. He calls his song “Floating on Forty Creek”. I can’t think of a better way to spend a nice sunny afternoon than floating on Forty Creek especially with a fishing rod in my other hand, if you catch my drift. Russell, thank you very much. Your tune “Floating on Forty Creek” is #1 on my music chart. Let the amber current take you for a long sweet ride, my man! If you would like to hear Russell’s tune just download and play it. There is also a copy of the words. Happy listening! Back to top

	February 14 to Feb. 24, 2007 Grimsby Heading South! It’s February 14th, Valentines Day! And it is -30 degrees C (-22 F) with 3 feet of snow on the ground in Grimsby. My whiskies are nicely snug in their barrels so the thing to do is catch a plane to Phoenix, Arizona. In Phoenix, it’s 29 degrees C (85 F) and there is no snow on the ground! I thought this would be a good time to visit my distributor in Arizona and perhaps visit a few liquor stores and bars. Again, another first, never been to Phoenix before. What a fabulous place, you don’t need a winter coat, you don’t need to shovel snow and to top it off they have 2 growing seasons a year! It would be a great place to grow my tomato plants! I met up with some great liquor stores: Beverages & More, AJ’s Fine Foods, Magnum, and Sportsman. Spent some time introducing Forty Creek and soaking in the Arizona February sun. There is a great bar in Phoenix called Michael’s Hang Over and they serve Forty Creek Whisky. If you’re ever in Phoenix, check it out.
	February 18, Phoenix to New Orleans It’s still cold in Canada, so instead of heading back I thought I would follow the sun to New Orleans. It’s 78 F in the Big Easy and it’s Mardi Gras Time! Any excuse to avoid the cold & snow for a couple more days! Also thought it would be great to see many of my bartending friends and bar owners down on Bourbon Street. Party time in the Big Easy! It is a blast, attendance is back and the bars are swinging with beads galore. Checked out the Old Opera House, Crazy Corner, Bourbon Blues Club, Razoos, Johnnie Whites, Cooper Monkey, and the bar at the Royal Omni Hotel. Most popular drinks: Forty Bombs, Forty Red Snappers and of course Forty Neat. Discovered a new one called the Grand Forty. With my suitcase filled with beads it was time to move on, but it’s still cold in Canada!
	Feb. 21 New Orleans to Houston I checked the weather channel and its 80 F in Houston, Texas and they are just gearing up for the Houston BBQ & Rodeo event. What should I do? BBQ sounds good! So it’s off to Houston, Texas.
	Feb. 22 Houston What an event! There were over 300 BBQ teams. My BBQ team, the Desperados, had a tent the size of a high school gym and held 500 people. They BBQ’d over 2000 pounds of meat in 3 days! I can’t tell you how much Forty Creek they went through. We had a live band every night. Great people, great food, great drink! Hats off to the Desperados for a very great time. Also if you are ever in Houston you must check out Armadillo’s – a fabulous bar & restaurant and you can order a Forty Creek. Some of you may remember Darin Jordan. He played for the San Francisco 49ers culminating with a Super Bowl championship in 1994. I met Darin at the BBQ and he and his wife Andrea just built a new bar in their home and the only whisky stocked in the bar is Forty Creek Whisky. Darin, thanks for being a Forty Creek supporter. I also met Kelly Maguire, singer & songwriter from Galviston/Red Fish Island area of Texas, and introduced him to Forty Creek. Perhaps there is a song there. Well now it really is time to get back to Canada. Hope to see some of you in Chicago at the Whisky Fest April 13. Back to top

	Thursday, Februray 01, 2007 – Epicurean Weekend at Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge, Alberta, Canada Jasper Park Lodge is deep in the heart of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, on 903 acres of wilderness, about a 3-hour drive west of Edmonton. This annual event was developed by Rens Breur, the Director of Food & Beverage for the hotel. It was my first time in Jasper, but won’t be my last. Chef Michael Smith and the Thirsty Traveler, Kevin Brauch, from the Food Network were two of many featured guests. The weekend program included wine tastings & seminars, an interactive theatre luncheon, receptions and an elegant gala dinner with 150 guests sitting at one massive dinner table. I was honoured to conduct a Forty Creek Whisky seminar as well as co-host Kevin’s Thirsty Traveler seminar. Usually I drink Forty Creek neat, but Kevin’s cocktails made with Forty Creek were so tasty, I may just have to re-create them at home. This weekend was an extraordinary event. I took some time to stroll the town and was astonished to look up at two enormous elk. At first I thought they were statues, but then they began to move! If you have an interest in epicurean delights, you should consider this one. My very best regards to Rens Breur, Patrick Turcot, Executive Chef at JPL, and all the JPL lodge staff for a great weekend in Jasper. Back to top

	Thursday, December 20, 2006 - Angels I spent some time last night shopping for gifts. Yes, I confess, I’m one of those last minute shoppers. I could not help but notice the holiday decorations and the preponderance of angels. In fact, there are brightly lit angels hanging from all the lamp posts on the main street of our town. It got me thinking about the “Angel’s Share” and if the angels didn’t take so much whisky from my barrels there would be more for you and I to enjoy. Some of you may be aware of this phenomenon. Whisky is aged in 40 gallon oak barrels. Since oak is porous, the barrel breathes and the whisky begins to disappear into thin air. We call that the angel’s share. We lose about 2% to 3% every year to the angels. I don’t mind giving the angels the first 2% but they take it every year! So if I have a whisky that remains in the barrel for 10 years, the angels will have consumed about 8 gallons of high proof whisky from that barrel, at normal proof that’s about 100 bottles of whisky! It just doesn’t seem right that they should take that much. But looking on the bright side, if I ever meet any of those angels I think they will probably be nice to me. (JKH) Back to top

	Tuesday December 12, 2006 – Tasting Barrels I have been spending much of my time going through another round of barrel tastings. It’s a tough job…but someone has to do it. This part of the whisky making process is very important because no two barrels taste the same. It is important to make the right barrel selection to make a good tasting whisky. That’s why you see “Barrel Select” on the Forty Creek Whisky label. When I taste my barrels every now and then I come across a barrel that is totally unique. I have set these ones aside and perhaps next year I will bottle them up. (JKH) Back to top

	Sunday, December 4, 2006 – A Tale from Doug I was going through some of my emails today and I thought I would share this one with you. I continue to try to expand the distribution of Forty Creek Whisky so that everyone can enjoy it. If Forty Creek isn’t in your area one thing you might want to do is ask your favorite liquor store to bring it in. I have found in my travels that liquor store managers are very receptive to customer requests and most of them will try to bring Forty Creek into their store. Your request also helps me out a great deal in expanding distribution. If they can’t find it, ask them to send an email to me and I will direct them to the right distributor. Ok, enough about that. Let's get back to Doug and his tale of finding his favorite whisky while on vacation. It is very amusing and certainly surprised me! (JKH) Hi John. You have a winner with your Forty Creek Whisky. It is truly a fine whisky at a reasonable price. It has won over all my Crown Royal drinking friends. Now for the reason I am E-mailing you. We recently returned from a cruise up the B.C. coast and then an extensive land tour of Alaska. We visited the tiny village of Chicken Alaska, population of maybe 12 residents. It consisted of a store, a bar and a cafe and busloads of tourists. I felt I had to order a drink in this unique, rustic bar with 4 bar tools, 3 tables and a decor that you have to see to believe. I looked up at their liquor shelf which held 6 bottles. Two of those bottles were Forty Creek Whisky. I was amazed that I could get a shot of my favourite whisky in the middle of nowhere. I expressed my glee to all present and proceeded to brag that it was distilled near my home. Just a note John, bragging is not the wisest thing to do in Chicken, Alaska. Lucky for me though, the bartender said Forty Creek has become very popular with his customers. I hope you enjoyed my true story John. Please keep providing quality products at fair prices and your loyal customer base will only expand further. Yours truly Doug Thanks Doug for sharing your story and cheers to the folks at the Chicken Creek Saloon in Chicken, Alaska. Thank you for supporting Forty Creek Whisky. (JKH) Back to top

	Monday, November 6, 2006 – The Whisky Fest Malt Advocate New York Whisky Fest. Over 2500 people attend with over 200 whiskies to taste and whisky makers from all over the world pouring their finest. The Malt Advocate presents several awards at this event. For a full list of the awards and more on the event you can visit their site at www.MaltAdvocate.com. One of the awards is their Pioneer of the Year Award, as John Hansell states “These awards recognize exceptional feats in the field of whisky. Individuals are chosen as the greatest contributors to the industry this past year and our Pioneer Award recognizes innovation.” Well to my astonishment, this year’s award went to me! WOW! I was truly honored to receive such a prestigious award. There are some remarkable whiskies being made in Scotland, Ireland, and Kentucky. It is nice to know Forty Creek sits on the top shelf with them. The Whisky Fest was a great event and if you like to try various whiskies I highly recommend attending. John Hansell also has a Whisky Fest in Chicago and San Francisco. I finished my visit with the Broadway show “Fame Becomes Me” with Martin Short. Martin grew up in my neck of the woods, just 20 minutes from my distillery so I thought I would take in his show. Certainly was entertaining and funny. New York is a wonderful city and I must make a point of returning to take in more of the sites. (JKH) Back to top

	Sunday, November 5, 2006 – in the Big Apple Well I’m in the BIG APPLE. The Whisky Fest is being held at the Marriot Times Square. The good folks at Malt Advocate managed to get a group rate for all the whisky makers and so that’s where I am staying. What a vibrant city! The New York marathon is on, so I walked to Central Park and watched some of the runners come in. Must be gruesome, I’ve never done a marathon and it looks painful but I congratulate all the runners. I think it is great that you set yourself a goal and work towards it and if it happens to be the NY Marathon then so be it. It’s all about the process. The destination or finish line is a bonus. Seems like everyone in New York walks. The streets are filled with people and they are courteous and helpful. As a small town guy in the big city I am impressed. Great restaurants too. If you are ever in NYC you might want to check out Tim Love’s new spot called the Lonesome Dove named after his place in Fort Worth Texas. Tim is a great supporter of Forty Creek Whisky. (JKH) Back to top

	Wednesday, November 3, 2006 – heading for NYC Well, it’s Nov. 3rd and I am heading to NYC on Sunday to attend the New York Whisky Fest on Monday, Nov.6. The festival is hosted by John Hansell who also is the publisher and editor for the Malt Advocate Whisky Magazine. I’ll be pouring samples of Forty Creek Whisky. It promises to be a good show as I hear all the tickets are sold. I haven’t spent much time in NYC so I am going to take a few days to explore the city. I’ll let you know how I made out. (JKH) Back to top