The Subourbon Dads Club. Rooted in Family. Bound by Whiskey.
SDC: Where being a dad is the best job in the world, but that doesn’t mean we have to stop having a damn good time.
Who We Are
Not Just Another Whiskey Group
ROOTED IN FAMILY. BOUND BY WHISKEY.
Welcome to SDC — the SUBOURBON DADS CLUB.
Let’s get one thing straight: we love whiskey, but we love being dads a hell of a lot more.
SDC started in June 2021 because I wanted something different from the typical whiskey group. There are plenty of places to argue about allocated bottles, secondary prices, tasting notes and who has the most impressive shelf. That’s never been what this is about.
SDC is dad culture with whiskey in the glass.
We’re husbands, fathers, coaches, grill guys, golfers, fishermen, lawn warriors, professional child embarrassers and the guys trying to figure out this whole dad thing as we go. We work hard, love our families fiercely, give each other shit constantly, and understand that sometimes a couple hours around a barrel with other dads is pretty damn good therapy.
The mission of SDC is simple: create real friendships, make great memories, support our families and communities, and remind dads that there’s still room to have some fun along the way.
Whiskey just happens to be something I know a little bit about.
I’ve been selecting private-barrel whiskey for more than 25 years, long before barrel picks became the cool thing to post on social media. I’m a Certified Bourbon Steward, lifelong student of the craft, and someone who genuinely loves everything that goes into finding a great barrel—from the people who make it to the dads who eventually gather around and empty it.
That experience allows SDC to do some pretty cool things. We’ve built relationships throughout the whiskey community, selected our own private barrels, created SDC whiskey collaborations and turned plenty of those bottles into experiences that go far beyond what’s inside the glass.
But I’ll tell you something after 25+ years around whiskey:
The best bottle you own means absolutely nothing if you don’t have good people to share it with.
That belief is at the heart of SDC.
Around here you’ll find private single-barrel selections, golf and fishing, dinners and date nights, charity events, ridiculous dad adventures, whiskey education, our podcast, and probably a healthy amount of questionable decision-making among otherwise responsible adults.
Most importantly, you’ll find a community that believes being a good dad, husband, friend and neighbor still matters.
So look around. Check out the barrels. Meet the dads. Come to an event. Learn something about whiskey. Laugh at something stupid. Maybe even make a few lifelong friends.
You don’t need the biggest whiskey collection.
You don’t need to know what the hell non-chill filtered means.
You just need to understand what matters most.
Family first. Good friends. Good whiskey. Give back when you can. And never take yourself too damn seriously.
Welcome to SUBOURBON DADS CLUB.
ROOTED IN FAMILY. BOUND BY WHISKEY. 🥃
Private Single Barrel and Blended Selections
SDC × LIQUOR KING
40+ Barrels. Years of Friendship. One Hell of a Partnership.
Some partnerships are created in a conference room.
Ours was built around a barrel.
The relationship between SUBOURBON DADS CLUB and Liquor King of Dallas/Fort Worth goes back to the early days of SDC, when both of us were a hell of a lot smaller and simply shared a belief that whiskey drinkers deserved something better than whatever happened to be sitting on the shelf.
A lot has changed since then.
SDC has grown into an incredible community of dads, families, friends and whiskey lovers.
And Liquor King?
They’ve become a force in Dallas/Fort Worth.
What started as a much smaller local operation has grown into a massive DFW footprint, with Liquor King becoming one of the most recognizable destinations in North Texas for serious whiskey selection, private barrels and the bottles enthusiasts are actually hunting for.
And we’re damn proud to have grown right alongside them.
Together, SDC and Liquor King have now selected more than 40 private barrels and unique whiskey releases.
Forty-plus.
That’s a lot of whiskey.
And probably an irresponsible number of tasting glasses.
But those 40+ selections represent something we’re incredibly proud of.
With more than 25 years of private-barrel experience behind SDC’s selections, we don’t pick barrels just because somebody offers us one. We taste. We argue. We go back and taste again. We look for character, value and something that makes a barrel worth putting our name on.
Sometimes that’s an absolute flavor bomb.
Sometimes it’s an overlooked barrel that punches way above its price.
Sometimes it’s the weird bastard sitting in the corner that tastes completely different from everything around it.
Those are usually our favorites.
We’re not interested in chasing a famous label just so we can post a picture of it.
We want whiskey that makes you stop after the first sip, look at the dad next to you and say:
“Holy shit. Taste this.”
That’s the SDC × Liquor King standard.
Over the years, we’ve had the opportunity to work with outstanding distilleries, producers, barrel programs and some incredible people throughout the whiskey industry. Liquor King’s growth has opened even more doors, while SDC brings decades of tasting and barrel-selection experience—and a group of dads who aren’t afraid to tell each other when a barrel just isn’t good enough.
No egos.
No pretentious whiskey bullshit.
If the juice isn’t right, we don’t pick it.
That’s why this partnership works.
Liquor King has grown. SDC has grown. Our access has grown. Our experience together has grown.
But the philosophy hasn’t changed.
Find exceptional whiskey.
Offer it at a fair value.
Have some fun doing it.
And ultimately put a bottle on somebody’s table that gets opened and shared instead of collecting dust as a trophy.
Because around SDC, we’ve always believed the bottle isn’t the experience. The people you open it with are.
More than 40 barrel selections later, we’re incredibly proud of what SDC and Liquor King have built together.
And we’re nowhere close to finished.
Here’s to the next barrel. 🥃
Rooted in Family. Bound by Whiskey.
The Whiskey Blendery
THE WHISKEY BLENDERY
SDC is damn proud to partner with The Whiskey Blendery, an award-winning, family-owned craft distillery right here in Oak Point, Texas.
Owner Tim Huels and his team have built something that is becoming increasingly rare in the whiskey world: a place where what’s actually inside the bottle matters more than the name printed on the label.
The Blendery has earned a reputation for hunting down and hand-selecting exceptional barrels from MGP, one of America’s most respected whiskey producers, along with outstanding whiskey sourced from some of the country’s most respected legacy distilleries. That includes some phenomenal Kentucky whiskey—the kind of mature, high-quality juice that, wearing a different and much more famous label, could command hundreds of dollars or more on a liquor-store shelf or secondary market.
And that’s part of what makes this place so damn fun.
Tim and his team aren’t interested in chasing hype. They’re chasing great whiskey. Every barrel is selected on its own merits, and if it doesn’t meet their standards, it doesn’t get bottled.
Even better, The Whiskey Blendery lets you get your hands dirty.
Their private blending experiences give whiskey lovers the opportunity to taste individual barrels, experiment with different combinations and actually build a completely unique whiskey around their own palate. You can also taste whiskey straight from the barrel, fill your own bottle, name it, label it and hand-dip it in wax.
For SDC, this partnership makes perfect sense.
We both believe whiskey should be experienced, not collected like baseball cards. Great whiskey creates conversations. It brings people together. It teaches you something. And every once in a while, you stumble across a barrel that reminds you why you fell in love with this ridiculous hobby in the first place.
If you consider yourself a whiskey enthusiast and haven’t experienced The Whiskey Blendery yet, put it on your list.
Come for the whiskey. Stay for the people. And don’t be surprised if you leave questioning everything you thought you knew about the label on the bottle. 🥃
We all scream for Boozy Ice Cream
SDC × COCKTAIL CREAMERY
Dads Supporting Dads. Local Supporting Local. Whiskey Meeting Ice Cream.
At SDC, we talk a lot about supporting your people.
We mean it.
We believe some of the best businesses aren’t built in corporate boardrooms. They’re built by regular people with a crazy idea, a ton of passion, long nights, hard work and a family at home wondering when Dad is finally going to stop talking about his latest creation.
That’s exactly why our relationship with Cocktail Creamery means so much to us.
Cocktail Creamery is a local, artisanal business built around one beautifully ridiculous concept:
What if your ice cream and your cocktail were the same damn thing?
We were obviously interested.
But what turned a cool product into a real SDC partnership was the person behind it.
He’s a fellow dad. A small-business owner. A craftsman. And someone willing to bet on himself and turn an idea into something people genuinely love.
That’s our kind of guy.
From the beginning, SDC has believed strongly in supporting local mom-and-pop businesses whenever we can. These are our neighbors. They’re raising families here, employing people here, spending money here and putting everything they’ve got into building something of their own.
When we find somebody doing that exceptionally well, we don’t just want to buy from them.
We want to help them win.
That’s how our partnership with Cocktail Creamery grew.
We started bringing together two things we take pretty damn seriously: great whiskey and great ice cream.
Using select SDC private-barrel whiskeys, Cocktail Creamery has created exclusive alcohol-infused flavors specifically for our community—taking the character of barrels we helped select and turning them into something completely unexpected.
And somehow, it works ridiculously well.
These aren’t novelty scoops with a splash of booze dumped into them. They’re thoughtfully crafted desserts built around the whiskey itself, balancing sweetness, texture and the individual character of each barrel.
It’s another way to experience whiskey.
More importantly, it’s another example of what SDC is supposed to be.
Dads supporting dads.
Local businesses supporting local businesses.
Friends finding creative ways to build cool shit together.
Years later, we’re still proud to work with Cocktail Creamery, still finding opportunities to collaborate, and still trying to answer the most important scientific question of our generation:
Exactly how much whiskey can you put into ice cream before it stops freezing?
We’ll continue conducting the research. 🥃🍨
Because SDC has never been just about whiskey.
It’s about community. Family. Friendship. Supporting good people. And having a hell of a lot of fun along the way.
So when you support one of our partners, you’re not feeding some giant corporate machine.
You’re supporting somebody’s dream.
You’re supporting a local business.
You’re supporting another family.
And in this case, you’re getting some damn good boozy ice cream out of the deal.
That’s a partnership we can get behind.
Rooted in Family. Bound by Whiskey.
Meet Our Founder
EJ Escontrias, The Subourbon Dad
MEET EJ — THE SUBOURBON DAD
Founder. Certified Bourbon Steward. Barrel Hunter. Professional Dad. Occasional Bad Influence.
Meet EJ Escontrias, better known around here as The Subourbon Dad and the Godfather of SDC.
EJ has spent more than 25 years tasting, studying, selecting and sharing whiskey—long before private barrel picks became social-media trophies and grown men started camping outside liquor stores for bourbon.
As a Certified Bourbon Steward, longtime private-barrel selector and unapologetic whiskey nerd, EJ has developed a palate and philosophy built through decades of experience. He’s tasted a ridiculous amount of whiskey, selected exceptional barrels, built relationships throughout the whiskey community and learned from the distillers, blenders, retailers and fellow enthusiasts who make this industry special.
But ask EJ what he’s most proud of and whiskey won’t be the answer.
He’s a dad.
More specifically, he’s the extremely proud father of an 11-year-old daughter who keeps him humble, makes him laugh, occasionally questions his intelligence and reminds him every single day what actually matters.
That relationship—and the beautiful chaos of fatherhood—is ultimately what created SUBOURBON DADS CLUB.
EJ founded SDC in 2021 because he believed dads needed something beyond another Facebook group dedicated to pictures of expensive bottles. He wanted a community where whiskey could be the handshake that started the conversation, but fatherhood, friendship, family and giving back would be the reasons people stayed.
Today, SDC represents exactly that.
It’s whiskey without the pretentious bullshit. Dad life without pretending we’ve figured it all out. Great barrels, golf, friendships, charity, questionable jokes, ridiculous adventures and a group of guys who genuinely show up for one another.
EJ also hosts I Drink Because I Have Kids, where whiskey and fatherhood collide and conversations can wander anywhere from barrel proof and mash bills to marriage, raising kids, work, mental health and the daily insanity of being a middle-aged dad trying to keep all the plates spinning.
And while he’ll happily spend an unreasonable amount of time explaining why one barrel drinks better than another, EJ believes the most important lesson he’s learned in 25+ years around whiskey has very little to do with whiskey:
The bottle isn’t the experience. The people you open it with are.
That’s the philosophy behind EJ.
That’s the philosophy behind SDC.
Be a good dad. Love your family. Show up for your friends. Give back when you can. Laugh at yourself. Open the good bottle.
And every once in a while…
Drink against the grain. 🥃
Rooted in Family. Bound by Whiskey.
Because you don’t always drink Whiskey!
903 Brewers, The Official Brewery Partner of SDC
SDC × 903 BREWERS
Texas Made. Family Built. Community Driven.
If you’ve figured anything out about SDC by now, it should be this:
We like supporting good people who build cool shit.
And our friends at 903 Brewers check every damn box.
Founded in Sherman, Texas, by Jeremy and Natalie Roberts, 903 wasn’t dreamed up by some giant beverage corporation looking for another brand to stick on a grocery-store shelf.
It was built by a family.
A husband and wife with a dream, a ridiculous work ethic and a genuine love for creating something they could share with the people around them.
Sound familiar?
That’s one of the reasons SDC and 903 have always made so much sense together.
Jeremy isn’t just the guy behind the beer. He’s a husband, a dad, a creator and one hell of a talented brewer who has spent years obsessing over his craft.
We respect the hell out of that.
Since 2013, 903 has built a reputation for refusing to make boring beer.
They’ve created everything from approachable everyday favorites to massive, ridiculous, dessert-inspired creations that make you wonder whether you’re supposed to drink them from a pint glass or eat them with a spoon.
And they’ve got the hardware to prove they know what they’re doing.
Their Sasquatch Imperial Chocolate Milk Stout earned silver at the 2015 Great American Beer Festival, and Kilt Switch Scotch Ale brought home bronze in 2018.
But awards aren’t really why SDC loves these guys.
It’s the people.
Much like SDC, 903 has always understood that what’s inside the glass is only part of the experience.
A brewery should be a place where friends meet.
Where families hang out.
Where somebody brings the kids, somebody brings the dog, somebody orders another round and a quick afternoon beer somehow turns into several hours of stories and laughter.
That’s community.
And that’s something SDC will support every damn time.
Our relationship with 903 is another example of something we’re incredibly passionate about: supporting local, independent, mom-and-pop businesses whenever we possibly can.
Because when you buy something from a business like 903, you’re not helping some multinational corporation hit its quarterly earnings target.
You’re supporting Jeremy and Natalie.
You’re supporting their employees.
You’re supporting their families.
You’re supporting Sherman.
You’re supporting another Texas business that had the balls to bet on itself.
And that’s worth raising a glass to.
Over the years, SDC has been fortunate enough to collaborate with some incredible local businesses, and our friendship with the 903 crew continues to be one we’re damn proud of.
Because ultimately, whether it’s whiskey, beer, ice cream or whatever ridiculous collaboration we come up with next, our philosophy stays the same:
Find good people.
Support what they’re building.
Bring our communities together.
And have a hell of a good time doing it.
We’re whiskey guys at SDC.
But we’re not stupid.
Sometimes you need a beer. 🍺
And when we do, we’re damn proud to drink one brewed by our friends at 903 Brewers.
Here’s to Jeremy, Natalie and the entire 903 family. Keep making weird shit. We’ll keep drinking it.
Rooted in Family. Bound by Whiskey.