164. Introducing Log Still Distillery

Welcome to another trip down the Bourbon Road with your hosts, Jim and Mike. So grab a glass of your favorite bourbon and kick back.

We would like to thank our friends at Premium Bar Products for sponsoring this episode. If you're ready to step up your game at your home bar, check out premiumbarproducts.com to choose from their wide selection of glassware, all of which can be custom engraved with your personal message or logo. And there's no minimum order. So after the episode, head over to premiumbarproducts.com and check out everything they have to offer. Now let's get on with the show. Hello, everybody. I'm Jim Shannon. And I'm Mike Hyatt. And this is the Bourbon Road. Mike, we are on the Bourbon Road, are we not?

We are. We traveled about an hour and 20 minutes south of our house. Nice country drive. We kind of took some back roads, didn't we?

You know, I'm so glad we drove those roads and didn't take the interstate. Absolutely beautiful. So we're, I guess we're in southern Nelson County.

You are indeed.

beautiful country roads, winding hills, passing rick houses along the way.

Yeah, we're down in New Haven. I was about to say New Haven, Connecticut, but we're in New Haven, Kentucky.

Yeah. So this is the home to the Kentucky Railway Museum, right?

Yes, it is.

Well, we hear somebody in the background who's sort of answering our questions. Mike, who is it?

So we got some Dan family in the house. We're actually in their house. We are at log steel distillery, New Haven, Kentucky, and we got Lynn Dan with us on the bourbon road. Lynn, welcome to the bourbon road.

Thank you very much guys. Really nice to be with you, Jim and Mike.

Yeah, it's great. It's a pleasure to have you here. And it's so amazing to walk into a distillery site that is just bustling. I mean, bustling with creativity, bustling with construction, and an absolutely beautiful architecture. You guys have really got something fantastic going on here.

Thank you very much. A lot of Dant family and good friends have helped us get this far and we're excited to keep going.

All right. So we're going to get straight to the whiskey, Mike. We like to do that. And then we'll talk about the whiskey and we'll talk about what you have going on here and the, and sort of the project, your family's in the midst of, but, uh, we want to get straight to the whiskey and give somebody something to smack their lips about. Right, Mike? Sure. I'm waiting. I can't wait. All right. So then what do we have in our glass?

You have here our very first release of Monks Road bourbon, Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey. It is a high rise, similar to the Dant family's history in the business. We are calling it our fifth district series. Fifth district is a nod back to the Kentucky tax district that represents this area of Southern Nelson County. Our family has a very long history in this area. And one of our main goals with this distillery in general is to give back to this part of the county that has done so much for our family over centuries, literally. And so this particular bourbon, we have Fifth District Cold Spring Distillery, which is named after a distillery that was just a little bit further south here from where we sit in this conference room on D. Head Road.

All right. So this is a, and high rye straight Kentucky bourbon. It's a six year old, six year old bourbon. It's got some great color, Mike.

Yeah.

That nice dark golden Amber to it.

Um, man, that smells just absolutely delicious.

Oh, and then they add, I'm ready.

Don't let me hold you back guys.

I get that. Definitely that sweet caramel is just popping out, right? Um, even a little butterscotch, maybe a little butterscotch for you. I get a little bit of floral note on this and that's kind of strange for a high Rye bourbon, but I get a little bit of floral note. Maybe it's just the spring day and everything's green down here.

Yeah. That Rye is peeking through though. And it's not too much for a hundred proof. There's not too much ethanol in the nose. No. All right, I'm ready to taste it.

Cheers.

That's popping with that butterscotch you were talking about, Jim. Yeah. And I'm getting these pop rocks a lot lately.

How about you?

Yeah. Well, I tell you what, I can tell this is a high rye. That pop rocks on the tongue slid right back. And I got that old Kentucky hug. Just welcome to me to the log steel distillery.

How was that finished for you, Mike?

It is a little dry to me, almost not as dry like as a red wine, but a little dry for me. And I typically get that out of high-ride bourbons a lot for me. And it's weird because whenever you're distilling your eye, it's sticky, right? Yeah. But I like it, it's sitting there with me. I still get that, you always say the buttery popcorn, Jim. Kind of get that buttery popcorn, that, Kettle corn. That's the word I was looking for.

Kettle corn.

I always liked that old school kettle corn.

Yeah. So not too sweet upfront, but it's balanced really nice with the back of the palate. So I don't get this overwhelming sense that the flavors are concentrated more in the front or more in the back. They're kind of well distributed. So a well balanced whiskey. That second sip, to me, was excellent.

Just a little bit sweeter on that second sip. That oak is starting to come out. I could see it in that six years working its magic. And I can tell this is a nice bourbon. Now, Lynn, why Monks Road?

So Monks Road is the road that you guys drove in on. It's the road that leads to our distillery from a little bit further north. There's an abbey that sits up the way. that our family has a history with. My forefathers, Wally's, my and Charles' forefathers donated a big chunk of property back to the Sisters of Loretta, actually, in order for them to build a school for girls back in the, I think, 1800s. the property has changed hands over the time, but it's always led to this area, which is where our distillery is. So Monks Road's the road you drive on to get here. And it's just kind of a nod back to our history in this area as a family, as well as our faith-based traditions.

So a lot of our listeners may not really know where Southern Nelson County is, so I'm going to try and work on the geography here a little bit. So, Northern Nelson County is Bardstown. Right.

It's where Bardstown is.

So we're south of Bardstown, about 10 miles or so?

Probably about, yeah, 10 to 15, slightly west, southwest.

And then to our west is kind of the direction of the Jim Beam Distillery, right?

Yes, the Booker No distillery. The Booker No distillery, yeah.

And then to our east would be closer to like Loretto.

And Maker's Mark.

And Maker's Mark. So you're right in...

In between the two.

...God's country, let's just say.

Yes, yes.

For several reasons. Well, they got a Abbey here.

They did?

That's right. So Lynn, let's talk about the history of southern Nelson County. How many distilleries were here back before Prohibition?

There was about 11 in this general area, and it was certainly my great-great-grandfather Joseph Washington had one over in Marion County, but my grandfather also had one here on the exact same property where we are. And one of our main objectives as a family to come back to this specific property was to give back to Southern Nelson County. This county supported and gave a lot to our family over the last couple centuries, really. and has really hit an economic tough spot after prohibition. There were zero distilleries as of two years ago in this part of Nelson County. It's not an area that people would have selected to build a distillery. The infrastructure was really lacking. My cousin Wally, who's the visionary of all this, really has been supportive in putting in everything from sewers to upgrading some of the infrastructure in the township. It's really neat to be able to support this community in a lot of ways, not just with the distillery.

And with the distillery buildings that are on site that are part of your grandfather's original distillery here, when was the last time that whiskey came out of those buildings?

So the distilleries were sold and I believe it was in the early 60s was the last time there was any bourbon produced here. The rick houses were around and it was in the 70s, early 70s where I think probably the last couple of cases were shipped off site. So it's been half century pretty much since there's been any activity in the bourbon world.

So are there a lot of dances? Is it a big family?

Yes. Yeah. So, uh, so Joseph Washington had, um, 10 children and, uh, from those 10 children, he had 53 grandchildren of which my grandfather was one. And, uh, we just had a reunion with my, just my grandfather and grandmother's descendants, uh, a couple summers ago and it was 170 some odd of us. So, and that's just from one of the 53 grandchildren.

So let me guess, future reunions will be held here?

That is the plan. I would think so. That is the plan and the frequent request, I will say.

Absolutely. What a great heritage and what a great site to actually have those family members come and teach their children about the legacy.

Yeah, Jim, and you know, it's not, you know, just our family. We were a pretty close family given our size, but that's really what we want to make this site is not just another distillery, but really a place to bring families and to be able to sit back with family and friends. And, you know, we're building a restaurant and I showed you guys where it'll be going. It's a 200 seat restaurant. We have an event center where future family reunions will be held. It's, you know, 350. person capacity, you know, with eight top rounds. So, you know, just conference center could hold a lot more. But, you know, we'll have that. We have the amphitheater that'll be done by the end of this summer. Outdoor seating, you know, 200 directly in front of it, but 2000, you know, in this general area. The train will be able to bring folks here. So, you know, we have a 12-acre lake where folks will be able to fish. We stocked it with fish a couple months ago. So the fishing should be good. We have several B&Bs in the area. So it's really, certainly want to have a lot of nice whiskey pours for folks when they come on site, but we want it to be for families, really a place for families to be able to gather.

Also noticed in the tasting room, you know, you got some other stuff over there too that for people that don't like whiskey or they're not into whiskey yet, I noticed you had beer taps also.

We do. Again, we want it to be a place where all can gather. And certainly our preference would be that folks would have a pour of our bourbon when they're here, but certainly recognize that that's not everybody's beverage of choice. So we have a fully stocked bar in the tasting room, which will also serve the amphitheater for all of our outdoor events.

Well, I really want to dive into some of that in the second half, but right now, Mike, I'd like to hear a little bit more about how you and your cousin and the rest of those involved in this venture kind of got that spark, decided to resurrect this business. I mean, you're, you're actually going to be producing under DSP 47, right? That's a very historical DSP number.

Yes, the DSP 47, thanks for pointing that out, Jim, was my grandfather's DSP. And we really had to work through some, shall we say, red tape to be able to get a historical DSP. They're in the 20,000s right now, as far as DSP numbers go. But DSP just build spirits plant. It's a license number that every distillery or beverage provider, spirits provider has to have. in order to be able to do business in this country. And for us to be able to get my grandfather's DSP was very special. So as you can see, we're now selling t-shirts with the DSP number on it. But to answer your other question, Jim, on how we started. So really, all kudos go to my cousin Wally, who I know you've met. He, like a lot of the dance, at many a family reunion we say, oh, it's a shame. The business got sold out of the family. Certainly my grandfather, when he distilled here, the oldest of his children, Wallace, Wally's grandfather, worked here and just lived on site down the hill in the green roof house. But the rest of Wallace's younger brothers, of course, he had some sisters too, but they didn't work in the bourbon industry at that point. But the rest of them served either in Korea or World War II. And so we're kind of off around the world serving the country. Eventually, as happened with a lot of distilleries, man retires, no sons there to pick up the mantle, and so it got sold out of the family. For many years, we also thought it'd be cool to get back into the business. Wally has had a lot of success in the healthcare business. and always kind of had that dream alive probably more than any of the first cousins to the point that he lives in Nashville and he had a liquor distribution business. And it was a fellow distiller that said to him, Wally, you ought to really think about doing this yourself. Why just distribute it? You ought to make it. You got the family history and it really planted a seed with him to the point that he came down here and started exploring if granddaddy's old land was available. And right before that big family reunion a couple years ago, he had reached out to me and said, hey, you want to run a distillery? And I said, sure. with my background in the chemical industry and distilling. And our cousin Charles actually was working on site and Wally and I had not met Charles at that site, but he's become like a brother to us. And so the three of us really have kind of worked together. Well, really, truthfully, Charles and I have worked with Wally to get his vision off the ground and it's just been a heck of a ride.

I think it's just amazing when you drive out here and you can see when we were talking to you before about how you're taking care of preserving that history, like the water tower here. That's a beautiful thing to see when you're driving up. How old is it, 60 years old?

Uh, just about as I think for it goes back to the thirties. So a little bit older than that, closer to 80 years old.

It's still a beautiful part of history and the Quonset huts that were the old bottling rooms, right? You guys saved part of those and made that into your tasting room. Um, I just, I love that that you guys are taking care of that and preserving your history and bringing it back. So people understand, Hey, the damp family was a major player in Kentucky. Um, about 60 or 70 years ago. Yeah, certainly. And now you're here again. And what a great memberhood I have on team as an engineer at a distillery.

Yeah, I think, well, it's fun because we all, our family being as big as it is, we all have something to offer. I mean, Charles That water tower wouldn't still be here if it wasn't for Charles. He really worked hard to make sure it was preserved. He talks about as he worked at the truss factory that was on site before the land was purchased by Wally. A lot of folks stopped by and wanted to scrap that thing and take the metal as scrap, but he was really a big advocate of making sure it stayed there. Thankfully, thank God, because now we are able to just kind of restore it a little bit. I mean, it's still in very good structural condition. I have a cousin, John Dant, who's been an architect. Uh, for many years and his firm Dean and Dean has done the design of all the buildings on site. Um, certainly Wally with all of his entrepreneurial and, you know, business acumen, um, has really just put together a really great team with family members and others. And, uh, um, yeah, it's, it's been great to kind of live the dream with cousins. That's a unique experience.

Do you remember as a little kid or a teenager hearing about your family and knowing that, Hey, we are a whiskey family.

Oh yeah. Yeah. I think, uh, I was talking with Jim right before the show and I think, you know, as a young Dan, you kind of learn the alphabet, the numbers and, and that it takes 51% corn to make bourbon. So I think those were early on facts that you learn and that, and just, um, You know, kind of hearing the stories and coming out here to New Haven and New Hope, Wally spent a lot of time out here as a, as a kid with his grandparents, my uncle over on the house growing up. And of course, Charles has spent his whole life out here. I'm probably the three of us, certainly the one that spent the least amount of time, but, you know, certainly grew up hearing my dad and mom talk about New Hope and New Haven and the country. And so, yeah, just special.

Well, let me ask you, when was your first sip of whiskey? Do you remember that?

Um, I was going to, I was going to say, I take the fifth on that one. I may have been under 21, but, uh, yeah, no, it's, uh, you know, like, uh, probably college is when I remember, uh, making it a more common part of my beverage repertoire. So I say,

You'd be surprised how many people would ask that question. They'd be like, Oh, I'm gonna get in trouble. And I'm like, you're adult now.

Yeah. I think it's past the statutes of limitations, right?

Yeah. Mike, any, uh, any last comments on this? Any, any newly evolved tasting notes and now that you've been sipping on it for about 20 minutes, it gets sweeter and sweeter as it sets in the glass.

Uh, I do know that, uh, that finishes coming out more, sitting on my paddle a little bit more. I, You know, some other day I said, uh, stuff on the show, stuff, stuff. Um, but I won't say stuff today. I, it still has that spice, that pop rocks you were talking about, but at the same time it keeps that kettle corn sweetness to it. And I like that.

Yeah. And so I tend to agree with you. I think you probably couldn't have said it better. It does. The sweetness does build over time with it. I'm also noticing that the rye is kind of, uh, developing the right, the rye on is developing a little bit and I'm getting a little bit of that aromatic menthol off the rye. The kind of, uh, but just, just a little bit, but it's more of an aromatic, it's more of a menthol kind of airy. I really enjoy that. I like it a lot. And, uh, The Oak is not overpowering on it for a six years, just about right. That that, that I would say the finish on this is medium to long.

This is a perfect early spring where it's still kind of bitter cold outside or a late fall to where you could football season and it's chill in the air. Um, this will warm me right up. Yeah.

That is a nice vision right there, Mike. I like that early fall football season. Yeah. All right.

Well, we're going to take a short break here, pay homage to our supporters, and we'll continue sipping on this six-year bourbon. And when we come back, you've got some more expressions for us. Sure.

Yeah.

And we'll talk a little bit about what's going on and what's in the future. Sound good? Great.

Sounds great. Thanks.

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So listeners, we are back. We're down here in Kissimmee, Kentucky, at Log Steel Distillery, and we still have Lynn in here with us. DSP 47. She's rocking their t-shirt. The engineering mastermind behind the distillery, I guess.

Well, maybe the distillation part of it.

Well, that would be the engineering part, right?

There you go.

So in the first half, we had your six-year-old bourbon, your Monks Road bourbon, and I have to say, very nice. Job well done. Thank you. That's definitely a bottle if you're coming here to visit the distillery, you're going to come to the gift shop. That's a bottle to leave with, no doubt. That's my recommendation. What about yours, Mike?

Yeah, I'd definitely pick up a bottle, help the Dant family resurrect this place. They're already going to have it resurrected, but probably somebody needs to be paying the bills. Yeah.

So to start off the second half, you have poured a weakling Karen for us. That's right. But this is special stuff. You pulled out a bottle and this is something that I didn't see readily apparent in the tasting room.

Correct.

Okay. So what do we have?

So this is our eight year limited release Rattle and Snap, which will be available in bottles in the fall.

Okay.

And it is, Rattle and Snap is our second brand that we will be releasing. Obviously Monks Road, we talked about it in the first half. That's more kind of our premier bourbon line. But Rattle and Snap is a brand that we're going to have a little bit more fun with, play around with. We will have a line of Tennessee whiskeys, a base offering, and then this is a sample of our limited release eight-year Tennessee whiskey. And then we'll also have some liquor-infused bourbons, honey flavors, etc. But Rattle and Snap goes back to the 1800s game of chance. It was a dice game, not dissimilar from craps. Um, and really kind of speaks to, you know, the experimental fun side that we are planning on having here on the distillery. We'll, we'll play around with several, uh, different mash bills and probably some, some of those will come out under the rattle and snap label, but we'll certainly have some base Tennessee whiskeys using the Lincoln County process. And what you have in front of you is, uh, one of our first releases again, available in the fall. That's a eight year.

All right. Let's check it out. I can almost tell now that this is a that Lincoln County process, that Tennessee whiskey, a little bit sweeter of a nose. Almost a honey, honey tea.

Yeah, it's subdued. It's not, uh, it's not overly aggressive. It doesn't, um, attack the nose. It's very light and very, um, subtle. I think it's probably a good word for it. Honey and tea, you say? Yeah, I would say that's probably a good one. Honey and tea.

You know, I'm a nut on my honey. So I'm ready to taste it.

Let's do it. Cheers. Cheers.

That's really nice. It's got a little bit of a kind of a mineral note to it, but, um, Oh, what is that? I'm trying to come up with it up front. What is that?

I'm actually, it has a little bit of spice to it. Not just almost that white pepper spice and it's just kind of flows across your palate. That sweetness of the honey is there for me. Maybe that tea, some tea you get a little bit of spice with. It's like an herbal tea though. Yeah. What's that? Chamomile? Chamomile.

Yeah. You might be right on it there. I was trying to come up with what that is, but that sort of a spicy But this is not a fire spice. This is more of like a potpourri spice.

Yeah, that kind of just warms you up a little bit. That's pretty dang good, that Lincoln County process.

You know how you say, all bourbon is whiskey, but not all whiskey is bourbon? That's right. So all Tennessee whiskey is bourbon, but not all bourbon is Tennessee whiskey. It works the same way, right? Well, that's a good saying, Jim.

I like that. I really like that. That's nice eight years, a little bit more aged, but like you said, it's got softer notes. It kind of rounded that spice off a little bit and just gives that camomile tea, honey, warming effect to it.

Yeah, there's really no bittering effect on the back end of this at all. It's more of a mid-palate bourbon for me. It's got a nice finish on it, but it's a little more subtle. Just like the nose was subtle, the finish on this is subtle. Pleasing, nice, but not, I mean, I get a big hug. Are you? No, not at all. Like none. Almost none at all. Yeah.

I'm no, um, I would almost think that this, it could have been a weeded bourbon almost. Um, cause it's got those softer notes to it. Um, and if somebody was a weeded bourbon drinker, this probably brought up their alley for, uh, from, from log steel distillery.

Well, that's really beautiful. And I personally, I can't wait till fall to be able to lay my hands on a bottle of that. It's nice to have an early taste. I think we can file that one away in memory. And when we come back in the fall, we'll make sure to grab a bottle of that.

Please do. And just to be clear, so we'll have the eight year limited release, but we'll also have our standard rattle and snap Tennessee whiskey, as well as a couple honey infused versions. So it'll be an additional product line to look forward to in the fall.

You know, maybe the bourbon road guys would get a special honey one that's cast-straight honey. Cast-straight honey. Yeah, that'd be really good.

We all keep in touch and we'll see what we can do for you. So when we came in this morning, I should say when we came in this afternoon, we entered into your tasting room and you've got a, I don't know if you call it kind of, you said it's a scaling system or a prototyping system that you use.

Yeah. So it's a 50 gallon mini still. It's a hybrid pot column still. And I call it our playground.

Okay.

So it's obviously our official distillery that we got our DSP off of. Certainly we'll be building a much larger distillery just to the northwest corner of that mini still. But it's really going to give us a very unique opportunity that you don't have in the industry to really play around with a lot of different mash bills. We're playing with malts and heirloom varieties and we'll age everything in a 15 gallon barrel, which has kind of the same surface area volume ratio as a standard 53 gallon bourbon barrel, but it ages much quicker. in a smaller barrel to age 18 to 24 months. Certainly it won't be something that we use to produce on a large scale, but it'll give us directionally the ability to say, yeah, we like this heirloom variety of corn, or we want to play with this kind of malt, and we're playing around with different toasts and char on a small scale. level. You know, I worked in the chemical industry for a long time and, you know, work with large, you know, chemical reactors and in that process, you know, you have labs, lab bench scale, then kind of a pilot scale and then a kind of intermediate scale. And this is really our pilot scale distillery. That's how to think of it.

So you're, you're going to produce these barrels, these 15 gallon barrels. This is not how you plan on producing whiskey when you're up to thousands of barrels a year or many thousands of barrels a year. But for the moment, this helps you to narrow down your process, narrow down your recipes, try to make a termination of what your still is installed, what you're going to do.

Sure.

In addition to that, you guys have, I've entered into some contract distilling, have you not?

Yes, we have. So obviously, you know, our first bourbon release is a six year and we certainly still don't have our columns still done. So we have done some contracting, but we also, we have a, you know, the dance have always been a high rye kind of bottled and bond. urban is where our family history lies. And so we have a very specific initial mash bill with proprietary yeast that we know we'll start with. And we've already done some contract distillation through some local distilleries. And we have a two-year new make and a one-year new make aging in local rick houses. So we'll actually go from this fifth district series to our mashbill just not produced here to eventually our own mashbill produced and are still here.

So when we did come in, Jim, I noticed there's a red bearded wizard over there, crafting up some magic right now in that little mini-stick. Tight-lipped red bearded wizard. He was. We were trying to pull that, that potion out of him and see what was going on there. He didn't want to say though.

Yeah, Chad is our first distilling employee and has done a great job for us. But knows that, you know, he knows which variables I'm having him play with right now. And he's not going to tell you which one, which one these vary, you know what, but, you know, again, we're controlling for a lot of different variables, whether it's the way we add the grain or, you know, the type of small barrel we put it in or temperatures that we're running at. He knows how we want to try things out and he's a great distiller.

Well, now he's got a nickname, the red bearded wizard.

All right. I'll tell him that.

We're going to get a name tag for sure. Well, tomorrow's a really big day for you guys. Pretty important day. Let's sort of frame that a little bit. So just in case people... So this episode will release on Wednesday and tomorrow is Tuesday. Yeah.

So you missed the grand opening by one day. Yeah.

So if you're listening to this episode right now, yesterday was the grand opening. Right?

That is correct. So our first tastings to the public is starting tomorrow, Tuesday, May 18th. You can get on our website, www.logsteel.com, logsteeldestillery.com, and make your reservations. And we have some bourbon specialists that'll educate you on our product, give you a virtual tour of the site. and can have a little taste of that Monks Road that Mike and Jim like so much.

All right. That's not that far of a drive. If you're already in Bardstown, you're listening to us. You're on the Bourbon Road out there searching for other things we've talked about. 10, 15 minutes down the road, get online, set up that tasting, come on down here and check out this place. You will be amazed at what they have going on. A lot of construction, like you said before, right, Jim?

Yeah, but it's great to see. I mean, if you come into this place right now, you're going to see a place that is being set up for the future. I mean, there's a lot going on. There's a lot of buildings being built right now. There's a lot of construction going on. You can sort of see the lay of the land here as they start to raise the buildings and everything. But the tasting room and the distillery, at least the pilot plant distillery, is complete. It's ready for guests.

It is indeed. We had some soft opening events this past week with family and friends. We had our big ribbon cutting. The governor of Kentucky, Andy Beshear, was here with local mayors. to Keaton of Barstown and Tessie Cecil of New Haven. And we've just really had a lot of support locally, which we're very grateful for. And the public will be able to come in and taste the bourbon starting Tuesday, the 18th.

So how big is the campus?

It's about 300 plus acres.

OK. Yeah, so you pointed to off yonder in the distance a bed and breakfast.

Yeah, so we have two bed and breakfasts that are open now. There's a more traditional one, a larger home we call the homestead that has five rooms. And then we have a cottage that has its own kind of standalone units with each of them have their own little kitchenette that's right on the 12 acre lake.

And there's, so there's going to be a road that runs through

So we're on D Head Road and then there's a private road, Dant Head Road, which is a nod back to the Danton Head Distillery that was my grandfather and another gentleman, Mr. Head. So there will be the Dant Head Road that will lead past our amphitheater and we'll have a train depot down there where folks can get off the train and come visit the site. And it winds around to the event venue, which is a 350-person event venue with another B&B on that side of campus.

Now, Lynn, will all this be done by the Urban Festival?

That is in, what's the dates for that this year?

Third week in September or so?

Yeah. So we will, uh, we have two of the BNBs, um, are ready. I think we'll have a third one actually on this side of campus on the east side of D head road that y'all haven't seen. Um, and the amphitheater will be ready by then the, uh, distillery and the restaurant and the event venue will be, um, still under construction at that point.

And what about those little cottages you were talking about?

The cottages are open now.

They are open. So do you know if they're all booked up for that?

I do not know that. That would be our head of hospitality that would know that, but certainly can go on the website.

Also, New Haven has the railway museum and they're going to be running, as you said, they're going to be running to a rail stop here on the property. When will all that start?

The train depot should be ready I think late fall. And so as soon as that, when the governor came for the ribbon cutting, we rode in from the railway museum, but we had to have a temporary platform that the museum furnished for us. But certainly, safety of our visitors and guests is of primary importance. So the train station where folks can disembark from should be ready by late fall. I'm not, I'll have to check on that one for you guys to see if it will be ready by the September date.

I think, you know, late fall down here, it'd just be stunning because when you look out the tasting room and you look south of here, you just see this large Vesta in the hills, kind of rolling hills in the background and it's all green right now. But in the fall, the leafs here will just be popping.

It is beautiful. It really is God's country around here. And just as it's beautiful to see all the greenery and the trees kind of come alive with spring, it's just as beautiful to see it in the fall. So hopefully we get some good color this year.

Well, then you've got one more special pour for us here.

Yes.

What do you got for us?

This is our barrel finished gin. It's Monks Road product line. We have two gins currently available. One is a more standard dry gin. that has a really unique botanical mix, a little bit more high on the citrus kind of fruity side botanicals. Whereas the barrel finish we're getting ready to taste right now is more of a juniper forward botanical mix. Got some little bit of a spice in there. I won't lead you too much. We'll see what you guys pick up on. But it's finished in a bourbon barrel for six months.

So is the barrel finished gin more along the lines of a London dry that's been barrel finished?

Probably as far as the pure botanical mix. Yes. Yeah.

Okay. Yeah, I'm ready to try. So we're supposed to try and identify the other botanical. Is that right? See if you can. All right. Well, I'll give it my best shot. I'll let you do this, Jim. Gin is my other bourbon.

Okay. Well, cheers.

Cheers. Cheers.

Oh, that's nice.

It's really soft, buttery, very buttery.

It's got a little bit of juniper berry to it. Yeah. That spice. I think that's what I'm getting.

Yeah. I don't know what that other botanical is. It's not real citrusy though. I don't get it. Do you?

I do. I get a little bit of like tangerine on this citrus.

The citrus is not as forward in this one as it is in our dry gin, but there is a little bit in here.

Maybe that's where I'm getting that, like that orange instead of like a lemon zest or something.

Yeah. I wish I could nail it and impress everybody, but I don't think I'm going to be able to.

I would encourage your listeners to see if they can get you to the punch there, but they're certainly a little bit of spice and a little bit of dried fruit in there as well.

Now in the future, Lynn, besides the two gins and the high-ride bourbon, are you guys going to have a rye whiskey?

We will have a rye whiskey. We will also have a weeded. You are going to have a weeded. Yes, we will have a weeded bourbon as well.

Oh, you just warmed my heart.

I would say you need to come back and visit us soon, Mike.

I might start crying right now. I tell you what, their first distillery, say that, Jim. I am so proud of them, man.

Yeah, like I said, we, you know, certainly I think my cousin Wally, when the governor was here and we did our ribbon cutting, talked about standing on the shoulders of giants. And, you know, we really do feel like given the family history that we have that there's a lot to, you know, come up to as far as what we offer. But we really want to kind of create a blend. And I think, Jim, you said it in the in the first half, but really, you know, have a sense of respect for our forefathers and the legacy that they've created for our family, for the Dant family, but also really kind of take it the next step, right? And be innovative and play around with some new mash bills. Certainly, Hai Rai, like I said, is very traditional in the family and something we will stick with, but certainly won't be the only type of bourbon we offer here.

Well, it's nice because somebody's going to, you know, most people go to the celery, they stay a couple of hours, they take a couple of pours, they buy their bottle, they go home. Right. But here, you're going to be able to come here, stay here, eat here, enjoy the grounds. You had fishing, um, see a show, see a show. What kind of stuff can we expect at the amphitheater?

Well, Wally lives in Nashville and certainly has a strong connection to the country music industry. So we're hoping to get some good touch of country. Certainly we have some, even some of our employees pick a little bluegrass here and there. And so we hope to have a variety of accents. And really, again, it's all about family for us, family and friends. and being able to come and kind of sit back and relax.

Tell me you don't have a fire pit.

We do have a fire pit. It's branded actually. We have a local craftsman, a good friend of Charles. I'm sorry, I don't know his name offhand, but if you drive over behind the homestead, we have a nice fire pit and actually a bunch of us sat out there the other night and had some nice bourbon by the fire and you can kind of see the Monks Road and log still logos come through. Yes, we try to think of it all.

Train ride in, bed and breakfast, good food, restaurant here on site, drink some whiskey, back by the fire, listen to some country music. This is the destination.

Glad to hear you say that. That is really what we're going for.

Do you know what kind of food you guys are going to have at the restaurant?

Uh, you know, uh, we haven't nailed down the menu, but I know, um, Wally's quite the chef and has some good country, you know, greens infused hams and family recipes, um, that we'll have. So some very traditional, you know, Southern American cuisine. Um, but not like other, you know, the other part of our distillery will probably play around and try to have some innovative dishes. We. Charles and Wally are both big gardeners. We've already had a whole season of vegetables. We've got some salsa and tomatoes and all kinds of things, bread and butter pickles canning over in one of the old B&Bs, or the B&Bs to be. down in the basement aging and I'm sure we'll have a lot of farm to table salads and vegetable dishes offered there as well.

I just can imagine in my mind, right? You're saying destination. We ride into the train with our wives. We come down there. We wake up that morning. You know what I like to have in the morning, right? With my breakfast, Jim, a bourbon mimosa. Yeah. This Muck's road would be perfect in that.

Yeah.

Um, my breakfast, have dinner here, listen to some music, like you said, maybe even get set around the old fire pit with a damp family.

Yeah. Well, right now, you know, many of the, many of the distilleries are still, uh, close to the public. You know, everybody's still taking it slow, trying to adjust to the changing times. You know, just recently we've had the mass mandate lifted, uh, Kentucky's following suit here shortly. And, uh, we perfectly, we expect things next six to eight weeks to open up in Kentucky. But right now you guys are opening tomorrow.

Yes. And, you know, I mentioned, uh, encourage your listeners to go on to www.logstilldistillery.com. Um, that is really kind of how we're managing the crowd size in the tasting room. Um, you know, we are still very much aware of the, you know, restrictions on percent of capacity. And so we have limited our reservations specifically to allow that, you know, walking's discouraged for the moment. Yeah, I mean, it's interesting. We already have, you know, a pretty decent size capacity. I'll say that we are percent of capacity that we're hitting for this first week, certainly. But, you know, until things are a little bit more settled down on the pandemic side and things are truly open, Uh, and things are quote unquote back to normal. Uh, you know, we are going to kind of manage the flow of traffic, uh, using our website and reservations. You can, you know, certainly stop in and walk, walk up, but, uh, you know, obviously the priority will be given to those who make reservations.

I think the, the current promise from the governor is that on June 11th, we'll go back to a hundred percent capacity. I think that's the.

That's, uh, that is my understanding. I'm not sure, uh, you know, how, what the, all the milestones that we have to meet to be able to do that on June 11th, but, uh, certainly we're up to 60% and that was, uh, welcome news.

Sure. Absolutely. So are you guys also, uh, on social media?

Uh, we are, we are on Facebook, uh, LinkedIn, Instagram, uh, Twitter, I believe. I'm not sure we have a TikTok feed yet.

In all those places, it's a log still distillery.

Log still distillery and also dantcrossing.com is what we're calling the larger campus. So to make reservations at the B&Bs, you should go to dantcrossing.com. Okay. And you can certainly find all the B&B openings there.

So on logstilldistillery.com, I guess, and dantcrossing.com, they both link to each other. Yes. So that if you get the one, you'll see links for the other one.

Yes.

Okay, that's great. Well, Lynn, we really appreciate having you on the show today. We love the invitation down here. It's so great to see something that is a vision that is coming to fruition.

Well, thank you so much. We, I loved having you guys, Mike and Jim, and I really hope you'll be back, especially Mike for our, we did offerings and, and both of you guys bring your families and we'll sit out and by the fire pit and have a pour.

That's awesome. And Mike, where can people find us on social media?

So you can find us on TikTok, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, I don't know, all these other ones, YouTube, YouTube, all that stuff, right? We're not on LinkedIn. But we're on everything else, so you can find us on those. Check out our photos, check out our posts. We try to post once a day. On Facebook, we also have a private Facebook group called the Bourbon Roadies. Got three questions you gotta ask to join that. Are you 21? Do you like bourbon? Yes, everybody likes bourbon. You just don't know it yet until you've had this Monk's Road. Once you've had that, you're gonna love some bourbon. And then do you agree to play nice because we don't tolerate any what Jim? No rudeness allowed. Yeah, so what that means is if somebody wants to post up a bottle of this Monk's Road right here. We want to be able to post that up, tell their tasty notes and share with our other listeners out there what they think of it. So let them do that.

Without, without no bourbon sharks coming out and chopping them off at the knees.

Yeah, we don't, we don't like that night group. So 1700 members strong in there. I actually think Wally's a bourbon roadie. Check that out. Join that group. We do giveaways in there. A lot of people sharing some whiskey in there. There are master distillers in there, distillery owners, musicians, chefs. There is the walk of life in there. And people post photos like retirements, bursts, celebrations of life. That's what we like to see. Whiskeys from around the world are in there. People are buying them. Other stuff like gins too. People will put stuff up there like that, like this Monk's Roast.

Absolutely.

So let's see those photos, join that group. If you're a roadie, you also get how much off our swag? 10%, 10%. One-tenth off. Now where do they find our swag at, Jim?

So the bourbonroad.com is our website, and on that website you'll find, in addition to our swag, you'll also find articles written by Mike and Adam, and every now and then me, but not too often. I'm not much of a writer. I'm more of an editor kind of guy. But you'll find our articles on there. You'll also find our swag, glasses, shirts, hats, all kinds of great stuff. We'd love to have you check it out. We also do two shows a week, right, Mike?

two shows a week. We do a craft distillery on Mondays, a review of it. It's just me and Jim on there. We talk about the whiskey, talk about our notes, what we think every once in a while we'll throw in a big boy, big boy distillery on there. But most of the time we're trying to lift up the craft distillery movement across the United States, across the world. We want to have those, those, uh, those folks on there. We also have our long segment. We have great guests like Lynn Dant on. It's about an hour long. Enough for your car ride to work.

Kind of a deep dive, right?

Yeah. And we've definitely did a deep dive on this Monks Road bourbon and their gin. You want to check that out. Make sure you pick up a bottle. It'll help you kind of figure out your bourbon road. Absolutely.

So both shows, we'd love to have you listen to them every week. In the meantime, if you have an idea for a show, you have an idea for a bottle that we need to review, a person we should have on, we encourage you to reach out to Mike and I. You can always find me on Instagram at jshannon63. I'm OneBigChief. And we will see you down.

Bye!