283. Bourbon on the Banks

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.

Hey this is Big Chief and you're listening to The Bourbon Road. You know what I love to pour in my old fashions? Is a little maple syrup. It can't be just any maple syrup. It has to be from seldom seen farms up in Ohio. He takes bourbon barrels. pours his syrup in there and ages it for six to nine months making for some delicious just some delicious syrup that you could pour on pancakes you can pour on waffles chicken waffles like this fat guy likes but seriously you want to make a delicious cocktail with some maple syrup and not that old simple syrup check out seldom see maple.com pick up some stuff from there today we'd appreciate it

Hello, everybody. I'm Jim Shannon. And I'm Mike Hyatt. And this is the Bourbon Road. And today, Mike, we are at Jeptha Bend Farm. We got some charcuterie boards out. We've been drinking a little bit of bourbon, a little bit of rye, a little bit of everything. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of whiskey over here, so might as well drink it, right? Well, you pull out all the stops when you get some guests. And today, we have some pretty great guests with us.

Yeah. Who's with us? Well, we got the fine folks from a great festival here in Kentucky on October 1st, Bourbon on the Banks. We got Diane Strong, Anzi Winning and Renee True with us in the house. They're representing Bourbon on the Banks. They went about 15 minute drive over here for 20 minutes.

It may have taken a little longer than that.

33 minutes. 33 minutes.

You guys drive slow. Maybe my red truck just knows the way to Frankfurt.

Well, they probably came all the way down to exit 35 instead of cutting through. Oh, they didn't take the waddy, the waddy way.

Yes.

You did. Yeah.

That's where Google Maps told me to go.

So you ain't.

We only bottomed out once.

You ain't back. You ain't back country roads drivers.

I love country roads. I enjoyed it.

It's beautiful. It's country roads as it gets, right? Yeah, it absolutely is. It's beautiful. You get to drive under a train trussle.

Yeah.

Pass some barns, pass a couple of murder sites.

I'm bringing my road bike next time.

That's a different podcast. Well, we've got a lot of great things to talk about today. Mike and I have been chatting up Bourbon on the Banks now for what, about four months?

Well, I think since last October when we went, we talked about it because we had such a great time there and I think all of our listeners had a great time that came. We were just amazed at how many people actually knew about us and our tent was the place to be.

It seemed like it was. We had a great time there last year and you guys did pull out all the stops for us as well. I mean, it was really great. We had a wonderful time. Our listeners enjoyed themselves. Man. I'm really excited for this to happen again.

Yeah, I am too. I think me and Diane have had about 15 conversations about it.

At least.

About bourbon on the banks and it is going to be grander and bigger this year, right Diane?

It sure is. It sure is. And after last year, I sent out several surveys on my distilleries, my attendees and my volunteers and the city and any issues, we try to correct them and make it even better this year. So that's the goal.

A big chief's still coming.

Yeah.

I didn't have any complaints about you.

Whatever. Diane, I think it was the big chief that said we need to have this at the beginning of October instead of the end of October. And he said that and that's what we, it was you.

Oh my good.

All right.

So if anybody can't make it this year, because it's the first of October, you can blame Mike, right? Yeah, I mean, hey, I think anytime in October is a fine time to have it. Weather's a little cooler here in Kentucky. There's some football going on, right? But it's that main thing is that weather where sometimes in the dead of summer like now, it's hot. It's hot outside, Jim.

It is hot now. Today was a lot better. Yeah. You know, that humidity is down a little bit. It's in the 80s. I can deal with that. But man, I tell you what, when it's 98 degrees outside and the dew point's 78, that's a problem. You just can't even hardly go outside.

Well, let's talk about whiskey, what we got in our glass right now. Because we do got some whiskey. And listeners are like, man, these guys ain't going to drink no whiskey on the show. Hell yes, we're going to drink some whiskey on this show.

So what do we have in our glass today, guys? And I should say that we also have the Frankfurt Bourbon Society in the house, right? That's right. Because the Bourbon on the Banks organization and the Frankfurt Bourbon Society are closely bonded.

You've got Amzie, myself, our board members of both of those boards. And we do work closely together. And Diane, if she needs something Bourbon Society related, she lets us know.

And I'm a member, have been since, I don't know, the beginning kind of.

So the bottle is here courtesy of the Frankfurt Bourbon Society, right? What we're drinking on?

Yeah, we've got a Yellowstone pick and AMSEY went on that pick even though he didn't get to drink anything. AMSEY?

Yeah, like I said, this was one of the most terrible barrel picks I've ever been on. Nothing Yellowstone did other than make us have a designated driver and nobody else wanted to volunteer for that. I'd like to touch real quick, probably a little bit on that relationship, I think, with Frankfurt Bourbon Society and Bourbon on the Banks Festival. At the very beginning, Frankfurt Bourbon Society was sort of a placeholder until we could get the new 501c3 nonprofit set up. Then also, I think it makes sense because the event is in Frankfurt and we are a good source of like-minded bourbon enthusiasts so we can rely on those people for assistance sometimes as volunteers at the festival, but also just to have some other people come and enjoy the festival. What I would say on this Yellowstone pick was that I was pleasantly surprised with it. I didn't really get to taste anything that day, and so I tasted it when everyone else did when we finally got the barrel. Yellowstone, a newer place. I think some of their stuff, this is a four-year-old now. Early on. wasn't 100% sure about it. I tried this. I really liked it. I've become a fan of more of their stuff now. We were all talking about their minor case rye earlier. I really enjoyed that one too. But also for people who haven't been to Yellowstone and done a pick, something that I thought was interesting they do is you taste three barrels, but you actually taste those three barrels at three different proofs. which was kind of interesting. And as I watched everyone go through the selection, the same barrel was not picked at each different proof. And so they basically picked their favorite at each proof, then they blinded those, picked their favorite overall, and that's how they ended up with this one.

Yeah, they have a pretty good barrel guy there, right? Stephen Fonte.

He's all right. If you've ever met him, he is a character. He's probably, uh, I don't know. He's one of the best, uh, best showman in the business. I think so.

Yeah. He was just a guest of the bourbon road. Not too long ago.

Yeah, we did have a couple of their expressions on there. Now, this one in particular, this is a single barrel.

Well, it's a single barrel, but our group selected this one at 109 proof.

And what is the barrel proof of those whiskies more or less? I mean, it's like 105. What would you say this one was?

This one is 109. I want to say that the highest option was maybe 112 or 115, something like that. I could be wrong, but I think this was the middle proof that was offered.

It's got a little bit of like anise or licorice on it for some reason.

Yeah, and actually someone the other day said it was four years old and I was like, no, it's got to be older than that, but it is a four-year-old bourbon.

So Renee, you guys got a bunch of new distilleries coming this year, right? Absolutely. I was looking through the website you guys got, which is just so much information on there this year compared to last year. I could tell there's been major improvements. How many distilleries are total?

We're at about 53 right now.

And growing every day?

I got a new one today. I'm excited about, so.

Tell us who that new one is.

Balcones, Attawaco, Texas.

Awesome. Well, that's the home of the world's largest pot stills. I think they're a little over four stories tall. Pretty amazing place. I've been there personally. Jim didn't get to go on that.

I didn't get to go there.

An old warehouse, fire safe warehouse, one of the only buildings to survive the Waco tornado in the early 1900s. Pretty amazing place. I was looking at your list, several of our family or guests that I see coming. Old Dominic out of Memphis, Tennessee. I'm hoping Alex comes up with them. That would be pretty awesome. A whiskey we just reviewed, Jim. Hard Truth is coming from Indiana.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. So hopefully they're bringing their Indiana rye, right? Yeah. I'm hoping, yeah. They did like their rye.

I might as well tell everybody this, but our sponsor for Bourbon on the Banks and going to be in our tent with us is Leapers Fork. April Weller Cantrell will be inside our tent pouring their whiskey. Um, you know, we love that. I see that that list is just, it's amazing. Obviously you're going to have the big boys on there, um, like Buffalo Trace and Jim beam and four roses and maker's mark. Um, but I seen horse soldiers coming. I'm really excited about that. They've already broken ground on their Kentucky distillery, but right now their whiskey comes out of Ohio. Yeah. I don't think a lot of people know that comes out of middle west, right? Yeah. Yeah. Pretty amazing. Um, the list just goes on and on and on. I'm just so spirits of French leaks going to be there. Bullet right here in Shelbyville, Jeff, the Creed, obviously, um, our sponsor last year, Woodinville whiskey company is going to be there.

Um, is they're all going to make it this year?

I don't know. I don't know. That's a good deal. Miner Twin Brewing Company for those that drink beer is going to be there. And you got some stuff for some wine drinkers too, right?

We do. We have a handful of wineries and our local liquor store is going to have several wine tastings as well.

Awesome. So even if you don't drink bourbon and you like to tag along with somebody who does, there's going to be beer, there's going to be wine, there's going to be other things to sip on while you're there. That's good.

Yeah. One of the best bourbon festivals I've been to, we've been to quite a few. And I think Frankfurt, the location is just perfect right on the river. Yeah.

Yeah, it's really good. So that area you have down there, Diane, it can hold a lot of people. But is there going to come a point where it won't hold everybody? Are you going to grow? Are you going to continue to grow this or are you going to try and keep it small?

That's a really good question. I have to report to a board, but to me, I really love the intimacy of the environment. I think I'd rather see it extend to a second day than have more people. I don't envision, like I keep saying, a Lollapalooza of bourbon festivals. It's not about getting as many people there as possible. It's about keeping that experience of feeling like you actually get to talk to these distillers and you're not standing in line for an hour to get a sample. So and we have this, it's a linear park, so we can expand in the other directions, like go down a little bit farther and make the footprint a little bit longer, which we're doing this year, we have to, but we have more merchandisers coming as well out of popular demand. But yeah, I think we'd add on a second day before we did cap it at more than 2,000 people.

Wow. You know, Diane, if we grow enough down that trail and down the river, we can actually bump right into Buffalo Trace.

That's right.

It'd only take about another two or three hundred distilleries to get there, you know, 10 foot by 10 foot, but we could do it.

Well, there's enough of distilleries in America to do that. Exactly. It's just getting, they say, what's that old saying? If you build it, they will come. Yeah. You know, I don't know, this might hold true for bourbon on the banks.

Well, I mean, with 53 distilleries already going to be there, your average non-big chief is not going to be able to drink every one of those. Yeah. Right. I mean, you're going to be limited to probably 10 or so, 15 or so tastings and your day's going to be done. I don't see how you can go past that. But Mike, you might get a few more of us in.

I'm probably good. We'll have plenty of bourbon at our tent though, so.

Well, we expanded it this year, too. It starts at one and it goes until six. So if you got an early access ticket, which those are limited to 300, you have five hours. You can take a break. You can go shopping, get something to eat. You know, there is time to calm it down and then go for a second round.

To be honest, last year, I might have had two or three pours that entire day. Um, and I know you, it was hard to get away and do anything. I don't think we left our lounge at all. It was just so slam packed. Um, which is good for us. I'm not complaining in one bit, but I think I'd like to drink a little bit more whiskey that day. I think we are both our feet were hurting at the end of the day. Our wise feet is hurt. Uh, We almost all four fell asleep eating a steak that night.

Yeah, it was a hard day, but it was a good day and one that we fondly talk about on the show over and over again. I think we'd love to see a repeat this year, certainly amp it up a little bit, take it to the next level. Can you give us an idea what the whole weekend's about? The whole weekend's more than just bourbon on the banks, right?

It is. It starts on Friday. We've got the VIP reception and bourbon auction. We're super excited. This year we're featuring women in the industry. It's limited to 250 tickets.

You guys were there last year, right? For the auction? Yeah. So, we had over 30 items. We had two or three charities. All the proceeds go to some kind of nonprofit and all the bottles are donated. And I wish I had a list for you like I did last year, but we're cutting this tape a little bit earlier. Yeah. We don't have any actual commitments other than a big one that I want to make sure I mention. But Buffalo Trace has been the cornerstone of our auction even before there was a bourbon on the banks. And they've committed to providing some bottles. So they always do some wellers, some of the weller family. Sometimes a whole flight of the wellers, not necessarily, I'm not going to hold them to that, but you know, the full proof to CYPB, some of that. And then they usually have a couple of the bottles from the antique collection. We don't know what we're going to get. It's different every year. And then we always get something from Jim Beam. Last year, we had an experience with O.H. Ingram, River H. Bourbon. It just happened on the fly. right there at the event, went for a thousand dollars. So we're going to try to get some more experiences. And I think Diane's got some, we might have what a bourbon barrel or something. Oh yeah, we're going to get all the women distillers and guests to sign that. But the big deal is at the end, oh, we have an EH Taylor barrel pick. The whole experience, Buffalo Trace, for seven or eight people to go over there, they lay out the red carpet for you, as they always do, and you go home, or you go home a couple of months later with $192, $200 bottles of E.H. Taylor. Wow. Not $192. No, not $192. 190, 200. We don't know how many bottles are in a barrel. And it will be exciting. Wow. Because it will go for a pretty penny.

Yeah, you got to have some deep pockets for that. Yes.

We've got people coming from all over the country for that already.

I don't think so. Man, what an experience to get to do a barrel pick at Buffalo Trays for an EH Taylor barrel. It's just... Jim, you would freak out. So you're going to bet on it.

I don't know, man. I might have to work the rest of my days to pay it off. You get that first, you get the first bid in $1. I'd feel good about that anyway.

It goes for a local charity called Yes Arts, and they deal with using arts to help people overcome addictions and to stay busy and to get involved in other things in their life besides addictions. And so that's where the proceeds go. So every year they say, well, let's put a reserve on this. And I just laugh at their reserve because it's like, the first bid is higher than the reserve every year. And I'm like, yeah, go ahead, put a reserve on it if you want to. I'm not even worried about it, but yeah, it'll be exciting.

So how many people typically show up to, or in the past, they're showing up to that Friday night auction?

Two to 300, but this one's limited to 250. We've tried to make it a more special event, more intimate event. And so we've capped it at 250. It's at the Kentucky History Center. And we're going to be inside for the auction this year, right? Yes, we are. Last year, it was a little bit tough on me because I'm not that tall and I was on the same level as all the bidders and I couldn't see everybody. And they got mad at me because I missed a bit or two. I'm not going to miss any bids this year because I'm going to be up on the stage. I'm not going to be as tall as Mike. even on the stage, but I'll be able to see everybody this year.

Let's talk a little bit about this event. Now, last year, I remember you did a fantastic job putting that on. We had about 10 or 12 different vendors out there, distilleries, porn samples in the garden. Yes. And you had a nice spread of food under the tent. And then the auction came a little bit later. But it was a good chance for a lot of the bourbon people to rub shoulders. and talked to some of the master distillers. I think Brent was walking around out there. There was a lot of good people walking around out there. Yeah. Pat Heiss was out there.

Brent Elliott from Four Roses. It's just amazing to see that they're just regular people there. They just want to talk about bourbon and have regular conversation.

So, if you want to be part of a special event, come out on Friday. This is the day before Bourbon on the Banks. Come out to the auction event that night. Enjoy some pours from some great distilleries. Enjoy some great food.

We'll open the doors at 5 o'clock. We're going to introduce all of our superstar guest women. I think Jane Bowie from Makers Mark is going to be there. She's in charge of their innovation team. And then the auction will start around 6 or 6.30. Auction will take about an hour, hour and a half. It's just according to how many auction items we get. We don't know how many we're going to get because it's all donated. And then we're done. And then you get to go on to the other events. We're holding earlier this year so that people can participate in the other events that are happening downtown. And I'll let Diane talk about that when y'all are ready.

Well, let's go through the list of those women that are here.

So Ashley Barnes, the co-founder and master blender of the Spirits Group is going to be there. Jane Boyd, Renee already mentioned her. Jennifer Brandt, the master blender at Luca Mariano Distillery, which they were there last year. I heard a lot of really great things out of that one. Victoria Edie Butler, I'm super excited about her. She's the master blender for Uncle Nearest. And she's also she's she's the only woman to have won. OK, I got to read this to you, because I think it's so cool. It's Whiskey magazine's American Icon of Whiskey Awards. She's the first female to win it, and she's won it twice in a row. And she's the only one to have won it twice in a row. So pretty cool there. Lori Karsic, is that Karsic?

Yeah. Thank you. Country smooth.

Yeah, founder and CEO of Country Smooth Spirits, Ariel John, and she is the development manager for Wooden Bell, which she was a part of your guys' tent last year, right? Yeah. Joyce Nellerly, she's the founder and master distiller at Jeff The Creed. Peggy knows Stevens. Everybody knows Peggy knows Stevens. She's master bourbon taster, but she's also got a book she'll be bringing. We're super excited about that. And I'm working on a couple more ladies. I have not had any more commitments, but those eight ladies will definitely be there. So we're super excited.

Well, that's an all-star cast. No doubt about it. There's some great folks there. So they're going to be there for the event on Friday evening. And then that carries over to something else that follows?

We've got Bourbon Street on Broadway, brought to you by EXPRI Credit Union. And it's a free event for the community, even though it's supposed to be. It says Bourbon Street. It's really a kid. friendly event. We want families to come out and have a good time. We've got aerial artists and circus and fire and performers. It's music. It's just kind of a nonstop eye candy event. You. Sorry. It starts at 6 o'clock and it goes until about 10.30 and there's going to be lots of food vendors out there. You can also eat at the local restaurants that are right downtown. It runs on Broadway Avenue and St. Clair. And it's great. You'll come out of the VIP and you can just walk right into it. It's literally a block away. And we're working on getting KSU Marching Band back again this year. They believe they can commit. They're waiting on their football schedule.

Possible. So we're talking about restaurants. I'm not calling you out about being a big guy. Where would you recommend people if they come into town Friday night and they're not going to go at the VIP dinner event, where would you recommend they eat at?

Yeah, so we've got a lot of great places right there in downtown Frankfurt. We've got Goodwood. Some people are familiar with them being a brewery. They have a great restaurant there. Nice seating on the back porch that overlooks the Ohio River. You've got Bourbon on Main, another great restaurant right next to that. Serafini downtown, a little more of an upscale type environment.

trifecta barbecues right there.

Yeah, trifecta barbecue is great. Yeah, lots of good places downtown. Yeah.

What about Rick's White Light Diner? That's what I'm wondering about.

He closes it at three o'clock, I think. Oh darn.

But also there are some great little places. Mortimer Bibs, a little Irish bar has some food. We've also got the Coopridge. Not really food, but great place to stop and get a nice cocktail as well.

And then we've got the Mexican restaurant.

My Fiesta. My Fiesta. Yeah.

And almost all of these locations are participating in the Pub Stroll this year. It's the O.H. Ingram River Aged Pub Stroll. They're sponsoring it this year. And so if you go in and get a little selfie and take a little hashtag and post it, you'll have a chance to win tickets to next year's event. So it's kind of fun.

So the Pub Stroll follows the Permanent on the Banks event.

No, the pub stroll is on Friday.

It's on Friday night. Yeah. Okay. I'm just making sure a lot of information coming at us here. So we've got at five o'clock, we've got the auction event starting. Yes. It's going to finish a little bit earlier.

About eight o'clock. Yes.

Okay. And then we've got the pub stroll and...

and Bourbon Street on Broadway, which go on at the same time. So you can pop into these different locations, get a special drink made with OH River or OH Ingram Riverage whiskey. And yeah.

We did that last year, Jim. I had that white shirt on and I got something on it and I tried to wipe it off with a black napkin. I remember that. It ruined your night. Well, that shirt's like a... I make sure my wife's not listening. I think that shirt's like $150. And it ruined the shirt. I can't get that bike stain out of it. We've tried.

We had a really great time. We planned on spending the entire weekend in Frankfurt. We built our entire weekend around Bourbon on the Banks. We got a place to stay. We planned our restaurants out. We knew which pubs we were going to go to on the stroll. We enjoyed the auction event. We went to Bourbon on the Banks the next day. We made an entire weekend out of it. I think we stayed until Sunday around noon, didn't we?

We did. I know there's got to be some breakfast places because the event doesn't start till one o'clock on Saturday. So where's the best place somebody could grab a brunch or a breakfast at?

Well, you mentioned Rick's White Lightning, Kentucky Coffee Tree.

Let's see. A little bit of a walk over to South Frankfurt is the new bakery. Oh, Andy's Bakery.

Yes, it's great.

I guess people could really take a 15-minute drive and drive down to Millville and go to the stave if they wanted to.

They can, yes. Absolutely.

It would be a nice place to eat. I would recommend you make a reservation, though, if you're going to try to go there on a Saturday. It gets quite busy between three distilleries right there.

Well, you can walk down to the Kentucky River. I know Amstie mentioned the Ohio River. Just catch yourself a catfish. But though there's a riverboat grill.

Yeah, I think they do breakfast.

They do breakfast. That's a beautiful place to have breakfast.

All right. Well, it sounds like some great ideas, Mike. I think we should probably take a short break here. Fill up our glasses with something new. Yeah. We think. Yes, sir. And when we come back, we'll have more about bourbon on the banks.

Man, Jim, you know what I've really been enjoying lately? Oh, you're going to tell me. some of that seldom seen farms maple syrup that's been aged in bourbon barrels. It is absolutely delicious. Not only in a cocktail, but you can cook with it, right?

You can, you absolutely can. Now Mike, Kevin just sent me a new shipment. So I got a little bit more and I've been making some beef jerky lately. Really? Yeah. Now I know you're the meat master, but I tried my hand at it. I said, you know, I want to make some beef jerky and I've got a pretty decent beef jerky recipe and it's got a little bit of soy sauce, a little bit of Worcestershire, a little bit of, you know, onion powder, garlic powder, those kinds of things. But I always put brown sugar in it. Well, this time Kevin sent me a bottle of his granulated maple sugar. Wow. And I decided that I was going to substitute the maple sugar for the brown sugar. Oh, game changer. Let me tell you. Total game changer. Total game changer. Some of the best beef jerky you've ever had. So I'm going to make another batch here in about a week and I'll be sure to get you some.

Man, that sounds delicious. Vivian took and we just got an air fryer like most people got these days, right? And she took and soaked fresh pineapple in that maple syrup and then put it in the air fryer and it kind of crisp up a little bit. Oh, sounds good. It was just magically delicious. And people probably wonder why we love it so much. Kevin competed in the Maple Festival last year, 2021, and he was named grand champion. That's saying something.

So Salem Seam Farms. grand champion of the 2021 Maple Syrup Festival.

Yeah. Wow. That's saying something. Yeah. You're going up against some heavy hitters in maple syrup. And I know we're talking about just the syrup, but you know, that's something to be proud of. Hats off to you, Kevin. Kevin's also competing in a couple other competitions. Make sure you check out his website. Check out his social media on Instagram and Facebook. You won't be disappointed. If you want to buy something from him, where can they go, Jim?

You can go to seldomseenmaple.com. and kevin and his crew they've got a great website very easy to navigate they've got all their products on there you can buy their maple syrup by the bottle you can buy by the case uh you can buy that sugar oh my goodness mike that stuff is so good and they've got some other gift sets there too so you definitely want to check it out

Well, he's also going to be in some distilleries pretty shortly here. Some distilleries that I love and I know you love. He's going to be down Leapers Fork. You could find his syrup down there, aged in their barrels. Trudy Oak down in Dripping Springs, Texas. I was just out there. His syrup's going to be there. Awesome. And at Garrison Brothers in Texas. If you think you love some maple syrup, make sure you go into Garrison Brothers and pick up a bottle from them also. Kevin appreciated it. I know he loves people. You're supporting a local farmer, a local product, a small family. This is no factory place that's putting out maple syrup, right, Jim? This is a good man doing good work. Yeah, gotta love it. Well, make sure you check out his site. Like Jim said, seldom seen maple.com. Pick up a bottle. All right, listeners, we are back and we got to find folks from bourbon on the banks in the house over here at Jephthah Bend Farm. Woodrow, I had to put him up, Jim. He was getting wrapped up in cords. Well, we got a lot of cords here today. There's five people on the show.

There's microphones going everywhere. There's whiskey everywhere. There's glasses everywhere. We have to be careful not to knock stuff over. Yeah, yeah.

He just gets too excited some days. But our glasses got filled up magically. in the middle of the break. What did you guys pour for us?

Well, this one is Frankfurt Bourbon Society, once again, our restoration rye single barrel pick from Castle & Key Distillery. When they first opened, they let some people go out, pick some new make barrels. This one was a little special for us. They said they wanted to support some local groups. And this one, when we first tasted, it was about a year and a half old. It's four and a half years old now. Honestly, at a year and a half old, I was ready to buy a bottle of this one, and I think it's just gotten better every year.

Awesome. Well, I'm ready to check it out. What's the proof on it?

This one is 112.9 proof.

Awesome. It's got a little earthly nose on it, as most rise do.

It's candy sweet. It is candy sweet, Mike. You got that all right on the nose. This one's kind of, it's got that dripping syrup, candy sweetness that you get. Now, I don't remember what the right content is on this.

Yeah, I don't know if they listed, I don't think they're a really high rye. I want to say from memory, maybe like 60 something percent rye, I believe.

Yeah, so there's some corn content in this, but you're not getting any of that corn sweetness. That's kind of aged out of it already, which is good.

This has got that, if you took a jolly rancher and left it in a hot sun and melt and you could eat it, this is what that is right here.

I like this. I think I get rye from this one. It tastes like a rye whiskey and I like when rye whiskey tastes like rye. But also I do sometimes get some fruit from this one, some dark fruits and things like that.

Yeah, I think you're hitting it on the nose there. I'm getting a little bit of, uh, kind of raisin, but at the same time and getting a niece and raisin together, which is kind of a nice, nice pairing.

I don't think everybody would think. You don't think so? Whiskey nerds is like, that sounds good.

Diane, what do you think?

I think I'm overthinking it. That's what I think. I just got my little bourbon steward title from the basement rick house. And I got my little wheel of all these different flavors and stuff. And I'm overwhelmed. I'm like, I can't even pinpoint anything now. You're saying things. I'm like, yeah, I can agree with that. And I really thought I was going to win this contest about describing bourbons tonight because it's a contest, right?

Yeah. So did they tell you, the first thing to decide is whether or not you like it, right?

Oh, I love this bourbon. I love this bourbon. Absolutely. I'm a huge Rye fan and I'm a huge Castle & Key fan too, I gotta admit.

We've got two big Rye fans in the house at least. Can I hear three, four?

I'll tell you what, I like rye. I'm not a bourbon snob. I don't have to have bourbon all the time. I'll go with the rye whiskey and this is one of my go-tos. I have already purchased several bottles of this from the Bourbon Society. I may be our number one buyer actually, I'm not sure.

So you still have a few bottles of this left?

We still have some bottles left. We have about 39, 40 bottles left.

So if somebody wanted to Go online and sign up today.

They could join the Frankfurt Bourbon Society at frankfortbourbonsite.com. And then once they're a member, they could go to the store and they could buy a bottle.

They could buy all 39 bottles if they wanted to.

There's not a limit right now.

That's correct.

We usually limit right at the beginning sometimes to make sure all our members have a chance, but it's been out there a couple of months, so.

Better hurry up before Diane gets over and buys them all up.

I've bought several already.

Diane, I was going to tell you, you know, you got your nice bourbon wheel. My bourbon wheel looks like a flat tire on I-64. That's what my bourbon wheel looks like.

You guys, your descriptions are way better. I mean, you have nothing on this bourbon wheel. I'm telling you right there.

You know, I think I've just enjoyed this rye so much that I've tried it a few times because normally I'm that person. You hand me a glass and I nose it and I think it smells like whiskey. And then usually I taste it and I think it tastes like whiskey as well. Those are usually my descriptors. So don't be intimidated by the flavor wheel.

Well, just, I think the best thing to do is to, like I said, first determine whether or not you like it. And once you've done that, half the battle's over, right? The rest of it is, does it remind you of anything? Does it remind you of anything you've had before, anything, you know, under your mind? Does it remind you?

Big red gum, a little bit.

Yeah, actually, that's a good note. I like that. I like that a lot. That's a big chief call right there.

And somebody you're describing, you're taking a drink of that whiskey, you know, I really like this. It tastes like big red gum. That tells somebody that's listening to you a lot, right?

And if you don't know what big red chewing gum is, shame on you.

Yes.

I have to say there's a lot of notes we call out that people don't know what they are, right? What, like whorehound? Well, the ones that date us that say how old we are.

Like whorehound? Yeah.

Jim, I was down in Tennessee at the Hermitage, which most people probably don't know what the Hermitage is, but it's Andrew Jackson's farm down there. Old Hickory. Old Hickory, yes sir. And Viv's like, Mike, there's a whore hound bush right there. That's a whore hound bush. And I was like, dang, sure is. If I could have pulled that sucker up out of the ground right there, the people watching though, I think they might've got upset if I just start pulling trees out of the ground. Yeah.

Well, this is a, this is a great ride. I have to say, I agree with you guys completely. This is an excellent bottle. You're very lucky to have chosen a bottle young in its life and have it turn out this, this nice. So congratulations on that. I would love to add one of these to my bar, maybe one of these days.

Well, we might, we might be able to do that somehow. I don't know, twist some arms or something. I don't know. Who knows what's going to happen in the future, Jim? Who knows? Do we have any fortune tellers in the house?

So, Diane, tell me what it's like to put on an event the size of Bourbon on the Banks. I mean, it must take an awful lot of your time.

It does, but I love it. I love every bit of it. I pride myself in the fact that I spent a lot of time and take the time to answer phone calls personally and deal with attendees and my distilleries and my volunteers. And it takes a village to put it on. I couldn't do it by myself, but I do. I'm a bit of a control freak, so it fits me perfectly as far as...

It kind of needs that, doesn't it? Yeah. It kind of needs that. And do you actually start right after one year's over? Do you start on the next year right away?

I do. I mean, there's a lot of- You take a little vacation, right? Well, first off, you have to get your surveys out right away to get feedback. And I think that's really important to improve the event and to figure out what needs to be tweaked here and there. And I'm always ready to keep going. And my board is like, can we just stop for a minute?

Is that true, guys? Well, you know, we are volunteers. We do need a break. Right.

A lot of it I can do without them, but you know, they're awesome. The board's wonderful. They trust me, I think, to do what needs to be done and they show up for the board meetings and they give me what I need.

It is hard to get Diane to take a break. But also, I do not think we would have the success we've had with the festival without Diane. I agree. 100%. I agree.

You know, I have to concur with you guys. And I know she doesn't take a break because I get some texts from her saying, hey, what do you think? And I'm like, I'll give her my thought process on that stuff. But I've also dropped her name to several other people that are either thinking about having a festival or trying to improve their own festival. Even last year, um, we're at bourbon on the banks and I saw some fine folks from the Kentucky bourbon festival walking around. I was like, what are you guys doing here? And they're like, we want to see how they're doing things here and see if we can improve Kentucky, uh, bourbon festival. So kudos to you guys. Um, and the, you know, you gotta have, somebody's gotta be the leader, you know, for everything. And that that's you, Diane.

I guess.

Let's put it this way. If Diane walks out the door, I'm going with her. Yeah. Well, don't leave, Diane.

That's a lot of pressure.

Yeah, I know. My goodness.

That is a lot of pressure.

I think that's a good thing.

Yeah. It's great. I enjoy it. As long as I enjoy it, I'll keep doing it.

So we had the first bourbon on the banks was in 2019. That's correct. And then 2020 was kind of a bust, right? Yeah, pretty much. And 21, that was pretty great. It was great. We enjoyed it. So you took a year off, but it gave you time to really think about what you wanted to do, right?

Yeah, and we learned a lot in that off year when because we started planning in 2020, but we just had to cancel. And we did have to take some of the lessons that we learned about planning to put on a festival during a pandemic. And, you know, we were able to tweak the event to make it work with our VIP. That's why it was all outside in a tent and things like that worked out well. But we still We had a 27% increase in attendees, which we were pretty proud of. We went from 45% of our attendees being from out of state to 55% last year, which I love that we're drawing people from around the country into Frankfort, Kentucky, of all places, you know? And why not? Because it's the heart of urban country. So we're playing that this year. I'd love to get every state represented. It's kind of a goal of ours, but we're still missing just a small handful of states. Do you know anybody in Utah?

Well, I know we have listeners in all 50 states and 40 countries, so maybe we can get some international people here too.

Well, Utah listeners, you heard it here first. You need to come to Kentucky. Go ahead and just book your flights right after you listen to this episode. Well, heck, just pause it and go ahead and get your flights.

I'll give them two free tickets if they want to come from Utah.

That's pretty amazing. Anybody from Utah, Diane, how much are the tickets worth?

For general admission, it's $65.

$65 tickets, two $65 tickets if you're coming from Utah. So reach out to Bourbon Road, right? Yeah. Heck yeah. I got Diane on speed dial.

I'll take care of you.

Well, we'll get Utah in the house, and we'll get those Utah people to stop by our Bourbon Road Lounge, and we'll treat them extra special when they get there, too. Yeah. Well, let's talk about that.

You know, what kind of, you sent surveys out. What do people say about the Bourbon Road Lounge?

Oh, they loved it. They loved it.

Now, did you two guys get to come and stop by and see us last year?

I watched you from across the road. I had a episode and I drank zero whiskey at the event and I was so disappointed. So Diane's going to let me enjoy it again this year because I did not get a chance. to enjoy it at all. But I watched your tent and it was packed and people were having a good time. Unfortunately, I couldn't taste a whiskey at all that day. It was a sad day.

He requested to not have to volunteer that day of and he worked his butt off all the way around it and then he couldn't even taste it.

And, Andy, you were working last year.

Yeah, I was. It's kind of hard for me to not be working and be on the board. I feel like I need to. Now, I may occasionally sneak off and have a little sample here or there. And I did walk through year 10, I think, maybe before the festival even opened or right as it opened. Yeah, I think it kind of stole the show. And I wonder if everybody will try and have some kind of lounge this year.

I welcome him to, you know, because Rising Tide raises all ships and it'll just make the festival even better, won't it? We believe that very much. And we certainly hope that all the roadies who missed it last year, and I think we had 150 roadies last year, was signed up, I think. Yeah, 150 new roadies signed up, but we had, our tent was full of people that we knew and had listened to the show and were listeners of the show. And we'd love to see that double this year.

Well, what I'd like to see people wearing, Jim, is either that bourbon bullshitter t-shirt to bourbon on the banks. So you could go ahead and pre-buy that now. Or our bourbon road black shirt, if you don't want to rock the profanity shirt, go ahead and order that now and we'll see you in it. Um, and then we'll know you automatically.

And that's, that's automatic free admission to the bourbon road bar. So, so we have two bars in the bourbon road lounge. We have the, we'll have the, uh, uh, the sponsor bar, which is going to be, uh, leapers forked distillery and they'll be pouring all day long. And then we're going to have the bourbon road bar.

Yeah, we both, uh, You know, I gotta say distilleries have treated us very well this past year, and I'm sure more distilleries will treat us well. And we like to share those bottles that nobody else can get. They haven't seen before. Introduce you to things that we get to try. Our bars are just overflowing with whiskey. I don't know if I could get any more. I think it was almost a thousand bottles this year. That's a lot of whiskey. But you guys have some pretty kick-ass shirts. Amzie's wearing a new one this year.

It was voted on.

It was voted on.

That's the one.

We had several designs and that was the winner.

I like it a lot. I think that's a great choice. I think your people who voted on it picked a good one. I didn't see the others. These are from...

Yep, these are from 2021 and they're still available this year.

They are, okay. I like them. I like that one better.

These will be at the event, that one you have to actually order from the website.

Okay.

At the merch store.

And the website is?

bourbononthebanks.org.

You can't say that enough, right? Yeah. So you got the VIP dinner. You still have tickets available for that.

We do. We sold over 20% without even launching that event. So if you're wanting to go, I would suggest getting those tickets sooner rather than later. There's only 250 and we are at 26% sold. And it just launched the last week.

Okay, so the price of the ticket?

Those are $100 a piece. You're not going to walk away hungry. You're going to get to sample a lot of really good bourbons and be a part of a really exciting auction.

Yeah, and it was very, I remember from last year, it was very intimate. Yep. Even though you had a couple hundred people there, it was still very intimate. You were on a one-on-one with key people in the industry, those working with the Frankfurt Bourbon Society, with Bourbon on the Banks, and also the distilleries. You had a lot of media personnel there, and they were out and about, and they were shaking hands and talking to people.

Well, let's talk about those folks that are going to be there besides us, right? It's Bourbon Nights going to be there?

Yeah, and Basement Rick House will be there.

Logan and Mack.

Yeah.

They're TikTokers. And then what about Bourbon Life's going to be there also? Our good fun friend Mark Rucker and ourselves.

Yeah.

You got it covered.

The best of the best.

Well, we'd like to think that, that Mark's, he's great.

We love our social media partners.

Yeah, it's a lot of fun. You know, again, you know, we, we like, um, we, we do episodes with other people. We've been on Mark's show. Um, we've certainly been on a couple of other podcasts. I think we're, we'd like to do something with, uh, um, basement Rick house.

Yeah, we're actually going to one of their events this Wednesday. It was going to be fun to see them do a barrel pick, release their barrel pick. If you haven't seen them on TikTok, check them out. They're funny. They got some great history going on. A husband and wife that made an amazing bar in their basement. You just got to see it. Pretty fun. And then it's Bourbonite, you know. Chad and Sarah. Yeah. Giants in the industry.

They are. They've been doing it a long time. In fact, you know, I got my inspiration from them. So I have to give them credit where credit is due. Yeah. So check those places out.

Yeah, they've been with Run on the Bank since the very beginning. They were there in 2019 and they've come back every year.

And then obviously we're going to be there this year at Bourbon on the banks with the Bourbon Road Lounge. We've got our good friend Rhett that's making us some furniture to put inside of our lounge. We've got our bar. Same size tent? Same size tent? I just wanted to make sure you weren't going overboard. Well, Ringling Brothers had a tent they needed to get rid of. No. Diane would kill me, I think. She'd be like, what are you doing? Well, we've got to bring in a crane to put this thing up, Diane. Yeah, we had trouble getting two trucks in there last year, much less a crane, Mike. Yeah, I think it'll just going to be an amazing event. I like being tired at the end of the event. I love seeing 2,000 whiskey nerds come through and say hi, try to give us hugs and drink whiskey with us. It's an amazing event. I can't wait to see this year's October 1st. There's an event after though, right?

There sure is. It's the Goodwood after party and this year we've got a live band coming. We just decided who it is and it's two lovely ladies. One of the gals, her name is Audrey McLaughlin. She was on season six of The Voice. She's pretty phenomenal. And then Taylor Hughes, they're gonna put on a pretty decent show I'm pretty excited about, so.

Awesome. So the Goodwood after party, and man, it's just a full weekend. I mean, it just starts Friday at dinnertime and just goes all the way through until past bedtime.

Yeah, yeah. And you know what? We're really lucky. We've got Happy Trails this year, again, helping with transportation. Very soon, we're going to have them up on the website so you can make a phone call. If you're staying at a hotel, you can call them up. It's literally five bucks to get you down to the event and five bucks to get you back to your hotel. And you schedule it now so that it's all taken care of. You can leave your car. You don't have to worry. I mean, for 10 bucks, you're getting a ride to and from the event. And it doesn't matter if you're going to the after party or if you want to go home at six o'clock, you can just take care of it.

And that doesn't just include the downtown area, that includes greater Frankfurt out towards the interstate as well. Right.

And if she needs to take you to Lexington or the surrounding area, it'll be a little bit more. But she's so reasonable and she works with us and it's a great opportunity. We don't have Uber and Lyft as reliable as you might want to see in a town. So we do have Happy Trails helping us. And I've got Uber and Lyft drivers from Lexington that are working for her that night. So they know how to get you there and get you home.

That's awesome. I'm getting so excited. We already got our rooms. Yeah, we didn't get room. We got houses. We already got our VRBOs. And so we're all set. We plan far in advance. I highly recommend that our listeners start planning now. I know it's just now the end of June, but October 1st will come pretty quick. And to get a place to stay without paying an arm and a leg for it, it's better to get early on it.

Yeah. We have several hotels that have special rates just for Bourbon on the Banks people. So when you call, those lists are on the website. Just let them know that you're there for Bourbon on the Banks and they'll give you a great deal.

Awesome. Or they could just stay over with Renee and Anzi, right? Hey, we got an extra room.

Last year, I lived five miles away from the site. I stayed downtown. Yeah, and it was great. I actually hung out with probably a few other bourbon roadies, I believe. I had a hotel room across the street that, as I mentioned, y'all was the weirdest hotel room ever. Had a conference table with about 12 chairs, which was great for some bottle sharing.

You couldn't ask for better than that. Do you have 12 chairs and a conference table?

That's how we do it in Frankfurt.

Well, it is a state capital. So, you know, there's a little bit of business that goes on there. So you got to imagine that. But how responsible is that of you to understand, hey, I'm going to be consuming alcohol. Number one, bourbon on the banks has set up rides for people. Ten dollars, ten dollars beats a DUI any day.

Heck yeah.

Or worse. Or worse, yeah. Or you hurt somebody or kill somebody. So we're always promoting responsible drinking. We always have a plan when we go somewhere. So we hope listeners out there, you coming, make sure you plan way ahead. Like Jim said, get your hotel room, get your ride set up. Don't call big chief that night. I'll probably be trying to hydrate my liver.

And don't bring any bourbon. There's going to be plenty of bourbon there, right? Yeah. Ain't that funny how that works?

I tell people don't bring bourbon to my house. They still bring bourbon. Still bring bourbon.

Well, we're selling bottles this year, too. We probably should mention that.

God dang, you're selling bottles this year?

We sure are. Thanks to House Bill 500, the Kentucky distilleries are allowed to sell bottles at festivals. And for the out-of-state, we're teaming up with capital sellers here in Frankfort, Kentucky. And they're going to set up a tent. And they are going to do their darndest to try to acquire as many of the out-of-state distilleries bottles to sell on site as well. So and I'm working right now trying to get a bottle bag sponsor. So I can't say that who it is until I get a verification, but hopefully we'll be able to hand you out a bottle bag if you're interested in buying bottles so that you're carried around with you. Right.

Yeah. So you've got 53 distilleries. You're not full up. I mean, if somebody else calls you right now, if we've got one of our guests that have been on in the past, one of our distilleries is listening to the show and they think, I might want to do this thing. You want to reach out to you? You got room for more?

Yeah, I can definitely talk to them and make it happen.

What's kind of the deadline? If they're just kind of on the fence, they're not sure, what would you say kind of as a cutoff date for them?

We really, you know, we need to start, especially because we're getting bigger, we need to sit down and look at our logistics plan and make it happen. I have a great guy that does our logistics for us. I would say August 1st is probably about a good deadline.

Not October 1st.

Sorry. Well, actually, you know what? September 1st. I'm going to push it to September 1st. We could make it happen until then. Like I said, our park, we can expand longer. We can go longer in each direction. We can probably fit them in. But realistically, we have to get it all mapped out well in advance.

So a distillery would need to come in with enough bottles to pour. some sort of a tent and a table and a couple of chairs for their people there. Is there any cost for distilleries to come in?

There is not a cost for distilleries to come in. And they are allowed to sell merchandise if they would like. We ask that they have people to pour in to talk about the product and someone else to sell the merchandise, obviously. But yeah, it's... That's awesome. We try to take care of them. We don't want to keep out a little distillery or somebody small because of a vendor fee.

There's some pretty good ones out there. We might have to talk to our friends down at Dueling Grounds, see if they want to come up. That's some pretty good whiskey down there. Have you had it?

I believe I've had some of their stuff before.

Yeah.

I saw you eyeballing a bottle up there.

Yeah, yeah. It kind of surprised us too. That bottle up there.

I wouldn't say it right now, but if there was, if they could mass produce that, that would have been bourbon of the year for this year for us. And we're still early in the year, but it's that good. Yeah, it's really good.

Surprising because you know, they do make their own whiskey and they do it in that very small place down there. So hats off to them. Great job. But little distilleries like that that need a little light shined on them, you know, that are doing good work. that need to step up to get the word out to the public, that would be great to have somebody like that show up at your event.

So is there anything that we've forgotten to bring up here today?

Probably Community Trust Bank. They're our title sponsor and we could not do this without them. We are very indebted to Community Trust.

Are they paying for the porta potties?

The city of Frankfurt is a huge sponsor. They support us and the manpower that it takes to put on these events is huge. So they also give us the stage and they take care of us. They support us and the community trust bank, not only do they Obviously, our title sponsor, but they help with the VIP. They come out and do the money for us so that we're not having to do all that stuff.

They're on our board. They're on our board. John Center is the president of Bourbon on the Banks, and Billy Dollins is also on the board. And so they have money in the game. They also have their skin in the game, too, literally.

Sure. Now, as in the future, you know, let's say next year, because we're talking about, could it get bigger? You know, could it be two days? Could it expand out from where it's at? Could we see bourbon on the banks doing some barrel picks maybe in the future?

We're hoping to do one this year. Tell them, Amzie.

Yeah, that's something we're working on one right now. I'm certain we're going to have one this year. Just trying to finalize a few things there and trying to see if we can get something special from the distillery as well.

Yeah, we're going to an event. We'll talk about that another time because it's another event. But it's kind of interesting because they have a premium ticket that comes with a bottle, which is kind of cool, right? I mean, hopefully you could do something like that. Is that what you're thinking?

Yeah, we are. We want something we can charge a premium for because this is a fundraiser. We're trying to help some local charities and things like that. And it's a little easier to charge a premium depending on what's in the bottle.

Sure, absolutely.

Oh, we probably should talk about that, actually, what the proceeds. So Diane, I'll let you cover the ones that I don't. So in the past, we have offered scholarships to the Kentucky State University Fermentation Distillation Program that they have. And then this year, we decided that We will offer scholarships for that. So we actually created a scholarship program that we're going to administer and actually give the funds directly to students as opposed to just giving the money to the university to disperse out. We're going to kind of do that in-house. And then we're going to open it up to Franklin County students. that want to take a certified secondary school, college level course in fermentation or distillation at any university, whether it's Kentucky State or not. So, somebody coming to Kentucky State, They can apply for a scholarship or if they're a Franklin County graduate that wants to take a program at say Midway College or University of Louisville or University of Kentucky, because almost all of them have some kind of program now. And then Diane, tell them about the, I think we agreed the White Oak program.

Yep, the White Oak Initiative. It's dedicated to the sustainability of the white oak, which is the primary wood used for our bourbon barrels.

So it's something that people don't really think about, but with all the barrel production that's going on, it must put a big demand on the forest, right? So this is meant to try and help preserve that?

Absolutely. And when you think about It has to be a virgin white oak barrel. Do you know how long it takes a white oak to grow?

No.

To reach much, it's 80 years.

I was about to get you there. 80 years.

Do you know how many barrels they can make from one of these 80 year old trees?

No.

Three.

Oh my goodness. She's paying attention to that bourbon steward class. Yeah, thanks.

Well, that was the one that shocked me. So it is a big deal and it takes planning, lots of planning in advance. So anyway, they work with the American Forest Foundation and the Forest Service. to teach the sustainability of the trees. And what I love is that some of their biggest supporters are Sazerac and Jim Beam and some of these distilleries. I mean, that's I love to be a part and be a part of those supporters, have our name on that list. I think it's it says a lot about who we are. We don't, you know, we're aware of this industry. Gosh, and it's exploding, too. when you think about the direction that we're going. Although I did learn that back in, we're nowhere near like the explosion that's happening now is nowhere near what it was when our dads were drinking bourbon. Have you heard that?

Yeah, I mean, if you ever go to Castle & Key and look at the size of their stills, you can just see how big it was back then, right? I mean, it was amazing. They said the average 15-year-old man, because that's what you were at 15 back then, consumed 18 gallons of whiskey a year. That's a lot of whiskey. Now, Mike and I might be getting close. We're doing, you know, how many podcasts a year? Yeah, that's a lot of whiskey.

You look at distilleries, a historical distillery like Nelson Greenbrier down in Tennessee, they were producing more whiskey back then than Jack Daniel's, I think, produces today.

Yeah, so we got behemoth distilleries today, right? Making a lot of whiskey, but it's nothing compared to what was produced in the late 1800s, 1890, 1880s. Unreal. Because you had every adult male, 15 or older, drinking 18 gallons a year.

We didn't have much tea totalers. We had 15-year-old men back then that You know, they go out and work all day and then they come home and, you know, you didn't have a bottle of Motra and you had a bottle of whiskey.

That's what I was going to say. The pharmaceutical industry wasn't as far along and you had to have something to cure what ails you.

That back pain from holding that plow up all day long. You might have to have a little snort of whiskey. And over the year, that's 18 gallons. That's 18 gallons. That's a lot. That's more than three, five gallon buckets. You know where I learned that.

You know where I learned that number from. You guys ever seen the movie Neat? Yeah, that's where I learned that from. Pretty interesting stuff though.

So the White Oak Initiative is one of our beneficiaries. And then we've got the Bluegrass Foundation, which is it's kind of neat. It's more of a local thing where we could put our money. And as we have special projects that we'd like to see done to help, whether it's the park where we put on our event, it needs new signs or it needs something, we can apply that money to specific things in the park through that foundation. Or if it's something that's going to benefit our tourists, whether it's wayfaring signs or a kiosk or something, we can apply it to that. And the goal with that fund is to do anything that improves the experience of our people who live in Frankfurt, in the downtown area, or people who visit downtown Frankfurt. So that includes our people who come to Bourbon on the banks.

Yeah. Well, there you go. It's a great, it's a great thing that you guys are doing something for the community with the proceeds that come from this great event.

And people certainly appreciate that. They love to see that happen.

Mike, do you think we might be able to get them to give a little something away this time? I don't know. We might be able to just keep them here until they give us something. That's fine.

You got lots of bourbon. We'll stay here.

So we already have. One lucky listener that's going to get from Utah from Utah. Yeah. It's going to get free admission to the bourbon on the banks. Yeah. So you just make sure you reach out to Mike or I will tell you at the end of the show how to do that. And we'll make sure Diane gets your information so that she can get her Utah people in like she wants.

So Diane, what do you, what do you say? What do you got for our listeners out there?

Well, I think we definitely need to start with two tickets, right?

Heck yeah.

Cause who wants to go alone?

Well, you got to bring another whiskey drinker with you, a wine drinker, a beer drinker.

Yeah, absolutely. And we can probably do a couple of t-shirts, right?

Awesome.

But if you come, you have to wear the t-shirts and we'll hook you up with a couple of hats. Yeah.

Yeah.

And some, what did we say? Maybe some sample glasses.

Yeah. Some coasters.

And some coasters for when you get home so you don't stay in those pretty tables of yours.

Awesome. Awesome. Well, listeners, this is how you're going to win this, right? First off, you got to follow Bourbon on the banks, on Instagram and on Facebook. We really appreciate that. You got to follow us. You probably already following us though. So not a big ass there, right? But what we'd really like you to do on the day of this release on Instagram, from the time I post it till nine o'clock at night, because that's what time I got to go to bed because I'm an old man. But what we'd like you to do is comment on that post Hashtag bourbon on the banks and then tag three people in your comments. We'd really appreciate it at that nine o'clock hour Do a little randomizer gym. Uh-huh pick a winner. Yep. I'll give the winners name All their information to Diane and they'll ship them something out

Absolutely. Well, make sure you get yourself on that contest that day. It would be great to have you come by and visit us at the Bourbon Road tent. You and those people from Utah.

I tell you what, whoever wins that gym, if they come to the event, they get their tickets to get in, they come to the Bourbon Road lounge. We'll give them a bourbon bullshitter t-shirt that day. Oh, wow. Bonus, bonus, bonus. Awesome. But you got to come to the event to get the t-shirt. I mean, that's we want to make sure they're going to meet everybody. Jim, I'd like to say that if you come to the event. You know, make sure you stop by the bourbon realm lounge, obviously. But if you see Diane, Amzie or Renee walking around, stop by, shake their hand and give them a big thank you for putting on this great event. Introducing people to the capital of Kentucky in a right way with some whiskey. I mean, there's not a better way to be welcome to Kentucky.

Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Well, Diane, how can people find out more about bourbon on the banks? Okay, so they've done listen to this episode, they go off and do their thing. They want to come back later and try to figure it all out. What's the best thing to do?

Go to bourbononthebanks.org. It's filled with all the information you need. It's got every event. It's got the ticket access. Shortly it will have a place to schedule your ride to the event. So it's all there. Bourbononthebanks.org.

And if they follow you on Facebook or Instagram, they'll get updates all the time about what's going on.

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, and once they buy their tickets, we give them, you know, updates on stuff going on the day of and everything too.

Awesome. Frankfurt Bourbon Society. You guys are a big part of this, too. How can people find out more about that?

Well, again, go to the web, frankfortbourbonsociety.com, and learn a little bit more about us. We've been around for five years. 2017, we get about 240 members right now. We do a bunch of barrel picks a year with Mr. Amsie's guidance. Amsie is the president of Frankfurt Bourbon Society now. So we'd love to have some more members. We actually have some members that want to get in on the barrel picks that aren't from Frankfurt. We actually have members in other states. We're not trying to grow our membership in other states, but I mean, it does happen.

Yeah, also you can find us as far as social media, just Facebook. That's about as technologically advanced as we get. The other thing I would say is barrel picks. That's something a lot of people would like to do. Frankfurt Bourbon Society, we do not have a tasting panel or anything like that that picks those. We normally send one board member. send out an email and our other members who are interested in going on the barrel pick sign up and we run that through a randomizer. So great chance to go on a barrel pick.

Awesome. I know what you're going to ask, Jim, but I got to give a shout out to our listeners in Poland today. All right, Poland. Nice. Poland, we made us the number one spirits podcast in Poland this past week. We're also number one bourbon podcast or spirits podcast in Australia and Hong Kong. Awesome.

Nice. That's great.

Love our members in Australia and Hong Kong. Yeah. You got to say thank you to everybody in those three nations. We really appreciate you listening to us. Hang with us and stuff. You never can tell. We might pop up in your country. I'm definitely wanting to get out and down under sometimes. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. another Australian whiskey on pretty shortly in a future episode. So listeners, stay tuned for that. We're pretty excited about it. Always liking to drink some other country's whiskey out there, kind of compared to what we got here in America.

Absolutely. Well, We really appreciate you guys coming on the show today telling us all about bourbon on the banks. I would have to say our listeners have definitely put something in the back of their mind that they need to be thinking about that October the 1st. I hope they don't sit on it too long. I hope they go ahead and start making their reservations and get their tickets. Things can fill up quick. Tickets can sell out quick. And specifically for that event on Friday evening, 250 tickets won't last long. Jim's going to buy that barrel of whiskey. I know he is. I wish I could. I wish I could. All right. Well, thanks again for being on the show. We really appreciate it. We appreciate you coming out to Jeff the Bend Farm and sitting down and sharing your whiskey with us. It's such a great time to sit down with good friends, share whiskey. and talk about Berman in general. Thank you so much.

Thank you very much.

Thanks for having us. Thank you.

Mike, where can people find us? Well, you know, we're all over the place. We're more just we're on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter. I don't even know where else we're going to be. We're going to be at Berman on the Banks. We'll be at several other events this year, too. So make sure you're checking us out, checking out our social media. The main place you can find us though is on our private Facebook group called The Bourbon Roadies. A bunch of whiskey drinkers in there that just like to have a good time. Three easy questions to get in that group. Are you 21? Do you like bourbon? Hell, who doesn't like bourbon? I bet I could get somebody like bourbon if you don't like it. And then, do you agree to play nice? Because we don't tolerate any rudeness. Meaning that if you drink from the very bottom of the shelf where I started out, that old tin high, all the way to that top shelf, like Jim likes to drink it at George T. Stagg, wherever you're at on that shelf, we want you to come in, celebrate birthdays, retirements, even a loved one's death, raise a glass to their life and celebrate it the right way. Nobody will cut you off in there, will they, Jim?

That's right. If you've had a bad experience in another group, we certainly encourage you to come check out ours. We've got three moderators that are walking the streets like Wyatt Earp. They won't let you get away with anything, but that means a good time. That means a good, honest time and nobody's going to chop you off at the knees for what you're drinking to serve. So definitely come in and check us out. We do two shows every week. Every Monday we do a craft distillery episode where we'll take one craft distillery, one expression. We'll shine a little light on them. We'll let you know whether we think it's something that you ought to add to your bar. We usually have a pretty darn good whiskey on every week.

I've really been surprised lately. There have been some winners.

Every Wednesday, we do a full-length episode like today. We'll give you about an hour long. We'll go about a half hour in the first half, half hour in the second half. We'll get you to work and get you home. We hope you listen to both episodes every week. Mike, what can they do to make sure they don't miss a single episode of The Bourbon Road?

You know what I'm going to say? You scroll up on top of that app, hit that check sign, that plus sign, that subscribe sign. That app will let you know, hey, these two jokers have an episode that came out today, and you need to listen to it. And what you need to do is scroll on down to the bottom of that app, hit that five star review, and leave us some comments. You know what's going to happen if you don't. The big bad booty daddy of bourbons is going to come to your house, bring in some restoration rye and some Yellowstone bourbon with him. You drink all night long. By the end of the night, you'll have a big old smile on your face, leaving us that five star review and some comments, but seriously, those reviews, those comments. Get great guests on our show, like the fine folks from Frankfurt Bourbon Society and Bourbon on the Banks. Get great whiskey in our hands to review. We really appreciate it.

Now, Mike and I are very approachable. If you see us in a liquor store, you see us at Bourbon on the Banks, make sure you come up to us and say hi. We'd love to shake your hand and tip a glass to you and have a drink of bourbon. You know, you can also send us an email anytime you like. I'm jim at thebourbonroad.com. He's mike at thebourbonroad.com. But like we always say, probably the best way. Hit up our DMs on Instagram. I'm jshannon63. I'm Big Bourbon Chief. And we'll see you down. The Bourbon Road.

And we'll be there someday