Cole Hauser of Yellowstone On Whiskey, Funniest Scenes and Drinking Buddies

Cole Hauser was in Arlington this past weekend, promoting not another blockbuster show — although he did mention he's working on one — rather a slow sipper that starts with an easy burn and ends mellow and sweet.

Hauser has had a long career in Hollywood. He was born into it: his great-grandfather, Harry Warner, was a founding partner of Warner Bros.; his mother founded Warner Sisters; his dad, Wings Hauser, was an actor; and his grandfathers were screenwriters.

Prior to his five seasons as steely, dark-haired Rip Wheeler in the neo-Western Yellowstone, he had roles in big films sporting curly auburn tufts, including Good Will Hunting, The Breakup and Dazed and Confused, just to name a few.

Hauser is working on a yet-to-be-named follow-up to Yellowstone, and is biding his time by launching a whiskey brand along with Lazy K Bar Ranch, one of the oldest cattle ranches in Montana. Lazy K Bar Straight Bourbon Whiskey is a blend of 8, 9 and 10-year-old Kentucky straight bourbons. This whiskey sits at 92 proof, a little lower than your typical bottle, which was something Hauser wanted. 

The whiskey comes in a rectangular bottle, an ode to ranch hands who can slide the slim bottle into their saddle bags more easily than a round one.

Lazy K Bar whiskey is available at some bars and restaurants around Dallas, as well as at Spec's, Total Wine, and many more spots. Personally, we liked it; the first sip delivers a nice bit of heat, followed by lovely vanilla and caramel notes. The mash bill is 74% corn, 18% rye and 8% malted barley. A bottle retails for about a hundred bucks.

We got to chat with Hauser at the Rangers game Sunday after he threw out the first pitch, and here's our conversation about why he got into the whiskey-making business, his involvement in choosing the blend, his favorite comedy scene with Vince Vaughn, and who he'd most like to have a drink with.

Observer: First of all, do you have any local restaurants you like to visit when you're in the area?
Hauser: [Del Frisco's] Double Eagle Steakhouse. They serve our juice there and they're great people and we get a cool little private room downstairs.

Why whiskey?
I've been dabbling in bourbons for probably the last 15 years. And being up in Montana for the last seven years, it's a big bourbon community up there; also Wyoming, Idaho and my home state. So I just felt like it fits my brand — the Western space.

Were you involved in picking the blends for Lazy K Straight Bourbon Whiskey?
Britt West [spirits industry veteran, Fort Worth native and a co-partner in the Lazy K] came to me, and he initially had this bottle design, which I love, and I was like, 'Wow, that's right up my alley.' And he was very intent on me being a part of the juice itself. And so Gallo [a global spirits supplier], obviously being the unbelievable company that they are, they have these great mixologists and people that come out, and so they basically sat with Britt and I, and we went through a gamut of different styles.

How did you settle on 92 proof?
Most of the bourbons are in the 111 and 112 [proof] and they burn. I didn't want that. I wanted it to be something that women like to drink, men like to drink, you can drink in the summer, you can drink in the winter. And so I went way down into the 92 [proof]. Personally, for me, when I drink, I want it that way.

Are there any unusual characteristics with the barrels or the techniques you're using?
We'll do that eventually, but we started with these amazing barrels of eight, nine and 10 years. Then, ultimately, we'll distill in Montana. So in eight or nine years, we'll have some unbelievable juice. It takes a long time.

If you could crack open a bottle with any two people, who would it be?
Dead or alive?

Either.
Well, my grandfather [Milton Sperling]. He was one of the greatest humans that I've ever met in this world, so it would be him and then my deceased father. Just let the two of them sit there and judge what I've created. It would be pretty funny. They would give me a lot of shit at first (laughing), and then they'd probably say it's actually pretty good.

One of my favorite scenes in a movie is in The Breakup, the acapella dinner scene (a four-minute sequence with Hauser, Vince Vaughn, Jennifer Aniston, Ann-Margret, Vincent D'Onofrio, led by John Michael Higgins, insisting everyone participate in an acapella version of "Owner of a Lonely Heart.")
Oh God. We shot that for two days. It was two days. And it was the funniest thing I've ever been a part of, and I don't do comedies, as you know, but Vince was nice enough to invite me to play his younger brother, Lucas Grabowski, and I got the opportunity to work with some comical geniuses. I was sitting at the table just trying to keep it together.

Was any of that improvised?
There was some improvisation — there always is with Vince — and he's so great at it. I say this all the time, he's like a silver-tongued assassin. He's one of the great improvisational actors I've even worked with; I've known him since I was 18 years old. But that was actually scripted. He wrote it, and it was brilliant.

It was probably my favorite moments when it comes to being that space with those kind of actors, but very serious at the same time. It was a whole different level of comedy.