309. Bourbon on the Banks 2022 Wrap-Up

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 it on waffles, chicken and 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 dot 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're kind of wrapping up the 2022 Bourbon on the Banks Festival. Kind of an epic weekend for us. And we've got a couple of roadies on with us today. Actually, not just roadies. Longtime OG roadies. moderators, good friends. Yeah. They're like, they're OG bourbon bullshitters is what they are drinking buddies, uh, bottle sharers. I mean, just, we need to get you all the patches like a girl scout or a boy scout gets, you know, you guys get all the patches, bourbon share roadie moderator, wider.

can't be replaced, right? Isn't that right? Adam, you can't be replaced.

I think that's what you told me the other night.

Hey, what a great event. If you listeners, if you're missed out this year, 2022, man, it was amazing. And I actually just got a text message from Diane Strong, the director of the festival. She said that there was 1,400 people there. 300 of them last year. I think some of the attendance numbers were probably a little skewed with travel. I know some people were supposed to fly in from Florida and flights on the East Coast were delayed and people just had to cancel. So that might have hurt numbers a little bit. The 1,400 people for a five-hour event, that is a lot of people.

You felt it there. The amount of people just roaming around and just the aura of the whole event.

At times, it felt like 1400 people in the Bourbon Road Lounge.

That it did. You know, the Bourbon Road Lounge, we had a different distillery in there this year. We had a Leapers Fork from Tennessee. You know, we got great love for those folks down there. April Weller Cantrell came up with her husband, Mark and Talisa, and she had some good friends to come in there and work their bar with us. Man, Just so many people, right?

It was a lot of people. I mean, uh, I would say that, you know, so last year we had a fairly large tent. I don't remember the size of it, Mike, but it was a big tent this year. And you brought, you brought the jumbo, the big, the big, big tent. And I'm going to say right now, next year, it's not going to be bigger. We have to stop because that was a, that's like putting up a Ringling brothers circus. I'll tell you.

You don't think if we put a bigger tent up and there's a little Volkswagen bug drives up there and bunch of clowns jump out of like 50 clowns and put the tent up.

Well, I mean, we had enough room in our tent for two full bars, uh, an entire bourbon road gift shop, the bourbon road lounge itself, which was a big carpeted area with all the bourbon barrel furniture and everything. And plus all the standing around room we had for people, you know, just to hang out and chit chat. That's like a three bedroom house. You know, I mean, it was kind of, it was epic. Definitely epic for sure.

Yeah. And I'll tell you what else was epic was the bottles on the bourbon or lounge bar. I'll tell you what the roadies roadies ran for a treat.

Jim and I always say we'd love to share our bourbon. We want to show everybody that's what we really are is about sharing our bourbon and stuff. And it's not just about sharing those average bottles. It's about bringing some big bottles too. You know, there was a 2021 birthday bourbon there and I drew, you know how much I love that bottle, right? I shared it before down in Tennessee, but It really just lightened my heart, you know, for people to come up there and say, hey, man, I can't believe you're sharing that with everybody. And that's what bourbon is about. That's what our bourbon community is about. So that's what we wanted to show everybody that, hey, Jim and I are going to come up off some bottles ourselves and we're going to share them with people and share our whiskey. You guys share whiskey with us. So we want to share it back.

I was going to say, I just think that's the other greatest thing is you brought an essence of the bourbon roadies, the private Facebook page to bourbon on the banks. You know, it's that whole, that whole essence of sharing with other people and sharing with each other and everything that we see the bourbon culture about. And I think Drew, Big Chief, to get to your point, some of these people were coming up and they saw that birthday bourbon back in the center of all the bottles. And it was probably the first one to go, the first bottle to go. But almost everybody who came up, one of the things we asked them is, have you tried it before? And so it was a unanimous no. So the opportunity to share a bottle that people haven't been able to try before, I think, again, that's the essence of the bourbon culture and what we want everybody to experience.

Yeah, for listeners out there that think that, you know, old Forrester sent us a bottle of birthday bourbon, they did not. Those big bottles came out of Gemini's collections off our bars. We just felt like, hey, we talked about it and we're like, man, we're never going to drink all the whiskey we have. Never. You know, and it's for sharing is for opening, open that down bottle. We say that all the time. Don't let it sit on that shelf and be an antique piece. Um, I just, I just love that. Let's, let's talk about what everybody has in their glass from, you know, I try to get a bourbon from the, uh, The lineup on the row there, what I'm drinking is some eight year old wilderness trail. One of my favorite distilleries out there. Um, bottle and bond or I, you know, you can't go wrong with it. Right.

Mike's going to the right every now and then I'm loving it. You know, he's coming off, he's coming off an epic Weider. He just had, and now he's, now he's tasting a ride. That's great. I love it. Yeah. Conversion in progress. No doubt.

I don't know about all that. What about you? Let me guess what Drew's drinking is some maker's Mark.

Not this time, but I, I can't speak for, uh, for section two of the show. I'm drinking Russell's tenure.

Respect. That's a good choice. Absolutely.

One of my favorite sub sub $50 bottles on every shelf.

Uh, it's really hard to beat.

Yeah.

I hear you. I'm drinking a Chattanooga whiskey, single barrel, weeded mashbill. So this is one that they distributed local. You know, having come home from Frankfurt, I thought I'd celebrate being home with a nice single barrel Chattanooga whiskey.

What about you, Jim?

And Jim now big chief will not be completely assimilated to the right side.

Yeah. Well, I am drinking a ride, but, uh, there was, uh, there was a, uh, distillery at this year's event who wasn't there last year, which was the hard truth distillery out of, uh, Brown County, Indiana. And they had their sweet mash right there. So that's what I'm drinking on today is the hard truth, sweet mash, right. Uh, it's a barrel strength, right? Very tasty. Um, and you know what? I'll, I'll just let you know that these guys have been in very close conversations with Pat and Shane to formulate their switch, their sweet mash recipe. And, uh, they've, they've hit it spot on. It's pretty darn good.

You know, if they've been working with Pat and Shane, that, that, that's gotta be, uh, it's gotta be a tasty end result and they're right.

Brown County in general is a pretty cool place to go and visit. So if you ever get a chance or any of our listeners get a chance to go to Brown County, Indiana, Nashville, Indiana, actually, uh, that distillery is an amazing place to visit. They've got some great whiskey and while you're there, your wife can actually do other things other than whiskey. So.

That kind of sounds like Buffalo Trace. You know, we got into town, Drew and I met up at Buffalo Trace on Friday for a little bit of a distillery tour. And while we waited on Drew, Sarah and I went up and hit the botanical gardens and they got a kid's playground up there and everything else. And I thought, you know, that's brilliant for the wives of the family members that just don't enjoy a distillery tour. They've got a few other things to do. It was a, I love, I love the landscapes and what they've done for people up there.

Let's talk about wives for a second because all four of us are married and Drew and Adam, both of your wives, Sarah and Heather, man, what a phenomenal job. They came inside the Bourbon Road Lounge and they slung some bourbon, they slung some merchandise. They helped us out tremendously with a great smile on her face. They got to sip on some stuff, but wholeheartedly we just love them to death and we're glad they're part of our family.

for Heather, but I know Sarah, she just loved me right in, you know, she saw a chance to jump in and help and not just help the Bourbon Road, but help friends, you know, and friendships that she's created and give Vivian Mel a chance to kind of go roam off through the festival for a while because I know they worked their butts off here and didn't really have a chance to get out and roam around. So, you know, it was great to see them jump in with Drew and I and and just help out. And, you know, they loved it, enjoyed it. They made some new friends themselves. And, you know, it was I know you guys appreciate their help. But I think Drew and I too, it's just it was fun to see, you know, our other halves jumping in and enjoying and participating in what we're doing. Absolutely.

And then we had our own wives. You mentioned Viv and Mel. They, they, you know, without them, you know, Jim and I wouldn't be a podcast, wouldn't have all this right here that we have. Uh, they give us great support, but they were there and it was nice that they did get to go enjoy the festival. Right, Jim?

They did. And I think it was nice, you know, that they were able to come in and work a little bit and they did work quite a bit actually, but they were able to go out and enjoy a little bit of time. Mike, you and I, we just don't get that opportunity. We need to be there and we need to spend our time with our listeners, which is absolutely perfect and fine. But our wives, I was glad to see that they got to go out and do a little shopping and do a little browsing and tasting. And I mean, they actually found the beer and the wine and the bourbon. So there was a little bit of all of that at this year's festival, which was a good thing, right?

Viv found Woodrow the whiskey dog, a $300 dog bed.

My wife saw the little Yorkie sitting in it and we almost had to go buy another dog along with the dog bed. So I'm glad Viv took advantage and grabbed the dog bed.

Well, she didn't grab it. She took a photo and she's like, can you make this? And I was like, I can definitely make that myself or I know somebody that'll make it for me. So, but she found out that was my dog bed. Yeah. So, you know, Woodrow wouldn't fit on just a, if you just cut the top of one off, he wouldn't fit in that way. So it's laid on the side and cut in half. Yeah. That way he can sprawl out, you know, like a lab should be able to do. So, um, that was good. I just, you know, all the help we had and Drew, you have a list of people that helped us. All right.

Yeah, so we had and forgive me if I don't mention everybody, but we had we had several people working the roadies bar and the merchandise. Bethany Pinalba, Brittany McIntosh, Scott and Jean Eversole. Of course, our wives, uh, Matt Jamison, uh, there was, there was so many other people that just helped us to jumped in right away. Uh, we, and we can't thank you roadies enough. And so many roadies came in and helped us set it up and take down, you know, I think Mike, we had the tent and everything broken down and what almost an hour. And then everybody had a good time after.

record time taking the tent down. I can't say enough all that back behind the scenes work that goes on because it does take a lot to put on a production like that. It is a production, right? Put up a tent and put everything inside of it and put the planning and stuff. Me and Jim are like running around like crazy men trying to get stuff at last minute, getting stuff printed, buying a couple extra things for our tent. But we're getting better every year, right? That's that's our goal is to make sure, um, we're adding to it, not adding a bigger tent, but adding to, uh, the experience and stuff. And next year it'll be a little bit different in our, the bourbon roll downs. We already got invited back. Uh, Diane said she wasn't going to have the festival if we weren't going to be there. I don't know if that's true or not, but Hey, take the compliment.

So I think we have become kind of the de facto, Lounge location at the, at the bourbon on the banks where people kind of every year they're looking, where's the bourbon road lounge going to be? What are they going to have on the bourbon road East bar? Who's going to be porn from the tent? You know, I think that, um, people look forward to it every year. We hear a lot of people come up and tell us, Mike, they had a great time last year and they're glad to see we're back again this year.

Yeah. Lots and lots and lots of people. I just, you know, some of the people at the festival there that helped us out, uh, Eric, you know, he's the event coordinator there, like making sure stuff is getting set up properly, the outload and stuff, making sure there's ice porta potties and all that. He was a great help this year. Obviously Diane strong. Um, You know, she was amazing. They let us park our trailer right behind the tent, which was super helpful and stuff. We could keep some stuff in there locked up and help throughout load. Amzie and Renee from the Frankfurt Bourbon Society. Hey guys, we love you to death. Give you a big shout out for helping us. If we needed something, if we needed that barrel pick at the bourbon roadie bar, so guys and gals could taste it. We had it there, it got emptied. People like that, you know, that go seeing those festivals, we want to give you a shout out. So thank you so much.

Yeah. Big Chief, I'd add on to that too. What we're praising people is just all the volunteers that were there. All the people in the orange jackets and everything and driving the carts around and helping people around and carrying bourbon barrel furniture off for folks who bought it. To everybody who was trying to help clear out the festival when it was closed. It was just an awesome group of people and you could stop and talk to them and ask them questions. I think It's the biggest overlooked piece of any kind of festival that you put on, you know, bourbon on the banks definitely had some great staff out there.

So for those people who didn't get to come this year and they're thinking, man, I missed something really special and I want to definitely plan on coming next year. What were some of the kind of lessons learned that we all had about how to, how to do. I mean, I think last year, Mike, you and I stayed at a hotel near the interstate. And this year we chose to actually bed and breakfast downtown. What do you think about the contrast there?

Yeah. The hassle of trying to get out of there with a trailer and everything was hard on us. Uh, and it was later in October. So the weather wasn't as perfect as it was this year. So that was a little hassle and stuff. And then you can't enjoy the. the after party downtown if you don't have a room downtown. So make sure you plan early. We already know the dates for next year. The tentative dates are the VIP auction and dinner. And our gathering will be on October 6th and then October 7th will be the festival. So make sure you go ahead and mark those calendars. Now we'll be there. There's going to be this big guy there and it's going to be his 50th birthday on the 6th. So we'd like you to come that VIP dinner and celebrate with him.

I think there's actually two people with a birthday on the 6th is going to be there.

Yeah, yeah. Heather shares a birthday with me. So Heather is going to be there. Hopefully we were talking about that today. We're hoping everybody's going to come back. But that's the tentative dates right now. Maybe on the second half, we can talk about some things that maybe could get better. We'll talk about the distilleries that are there and stuff like that. What do you think, guys? All right.

Yeah, sounds great.

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. Sounds good. It was just magically delicious. Um, 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. Uh, that's saying something.

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 that's something to be proud of. Hats off to you, Kevin, for winning that. Kevin's also competing in a couple of 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 seldom seen maple.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 it 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 a syrup down there aged in their barrels. Trudy Oak down in Dripping Springs, Texas. I was just out there. His syrup is going to be there. Awesome. And at Garrison Brothers in Texas, if you think you love some maple syrup, make sure you go to Garrison Brothers and pick up a bottle from them also. Kevin appreciated. 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 see maple.com. Pick up a lot of good things. We're talking about the 2022 Bourbon on the Banks in Frankfort, Kentucky, but we're also talking about 2023 and what you need to do to make sure your trip is perfect. So we're going to go through some of those things and then we're going to talk about what maybe will be better next year. Hopefully, if we can give them some recommendations. So guys, what are you drinking on this second half, though?

I went with Adam's favorite for the Parker's Heritage Heavy Char Tenure.

That's nice. It is. It is my absolute, in my top three. I'm sipping on, and this is actually another one, I brought all of these to Frankfurt with me, knowing if we all get a chance to spend some time together on a back porch and not an event or an after party, but it's the Widow Jane Tenure Overproof. So it's the, you'll never walk alone at a hundred proof. Um, just another one of my kind of nice favorites.

Awesome. Jim, what do you got? I got a little bit of Thomas handy rye, uh, 2017 vintage, uh, just a little bit to continue the ride that I was on in the first half. So that's one bottle that I didn't pull from my bar to take to the roadie bar this year, but maybe next year I'll take it.

You guys are all beating up on me bad here, man. I just. I got a bottle. I got about that much left in this old thing right here. This is a Woodinville store picked, uh, that was handed to us from the West port whiskey and wine pick. That's all I got left. Yeah. That's it.

Wow. And that's a fantastic bottle. That's probably one of the best Woodinville bottles I've ever had in my glass for sure.

Jim got to see one of my dirty secrets today, guys, when he helped me unload, uh, the bar down here in our basement stuff. He walked in and there's just empty bottles everywhere. I'm sure he was like, what, what is going on down here? Mike's just hiding in the basement drinking bourbon by himself down there.

He's been drinking that Woodinville. You know, it was nice to see Ariel and her Woodinville team down at, uh, at bourbon on the banks this year. They were super nice and enjoyable to talk to you and have a little selection of their whiskey.

So how many distillers do we have this year at bourbon on the banks, Mike?

So there were 50 plus, they said. Some, I think, backed out at last-minute honor. I think travel plans, again, other whiskey festivals and whatnot. There was a whiskey festival going on down in Nashville. There was also the bourbon chase going on and the bourbon run. So there was a lot of stuff going on this weekend in Kentucky. Yeah. 50 plus, plus all the vendors, some awesome vendors, a couple of those vendors that we know personally right next to our tent. Cause that's a popular place to be. Right. Jim.

I understand from Diane that they, uh, they requested to be close to us. Right.

Yeah. So we had a barrel proof, smoke your bourbon, Susan Jackson and Dan, uh, they're over there. They had some of these amazing pecans. Did you guys get to try some of those?

Oh, she was pushing those pecans on us and they were fantastic.

Yeah, they're just, I know, Jim, you had a couple, right?

Well, she kept handing them to me. I finished your cup and she'd bring me another cup and they are amazing. They're really, really good. And, and, you know, I think I told her, I said, you need to go on shark tank with these daggum pecans because they're, they're amazing.

Yeah. And then on the other side, to add to those pecans, we had a seldom seen farm. We had Kevin Holy there. He had his bourbon aged maple syrup. He also had his cotton candy. He had all kinds of stuff, which was just I love seeing that kind of stuff, those vendors that want to be next to us and stuff. Hopefully next year we'll be in a different spot where we can have some vendors across the street from us instead of the food. That way those vendors kind of help that pool from the bourbon road helps those guys out too. I love seeing that. Yeah, the only thing I'd like to see change next year Is the distilleries put the same love into this festival as they put the Kentucky bourbon festival? That's what I'd like to see.

Yeah. I think that the two festivals are very different in their formats. One's kind of a three day event where you, it doesn't really change from day to day. They've got special events like the Kentucky bourbon festivals, kind of a three day event where each day it's the same thing, but with different special events. But bourbon on the banks is like, you got to get it all done in one day. Right.

Yeah. And maybe next year rumor has it that it may be two days. Maybe it'll be a Saturday and a Sunday, uh, with a VIP event still on a Friday night. So I'd like to see that. I think they could definitely get the people in here, you know, whether pending, you know, it's, it's not in September. If you've listeners, if you've come to Kentucky in September, it's hot. It's real hot. Come in October though, you get that 70 degree weather like we had yesterday. You know, you're not sweating too bad. Uh, the bourbon kind of tastes better, I think in that cooler weather. What do you guys think?

It was fantastic up there. It was absolutely beautiful. You know, you got up in the mornings and it was nice and cool and you're looking forward to an afternoon of sipping some whiskey and perfect weather. You can't beat it.

What about you, Drew? Did you kind of agree with that or?

Oh yeah, so you wake up at 45. You got a crisp morning to walk to the coffee shop downtown Frankfurt and you get started drinking bourbon early that afternoon. It's not too hot and you can end the night. It cools down a little bit. You might end up with a with an Irish coffee or a bourbon coffee. It's just the weather is fantastic.

You know, listeners, we're talking about this and we're trying to talk to you about 2023 too. So we're sitting here. If you're going to go ahead and go, I would suggest you start looking at those Airbnbs, those VRBOs and make sure you try to get rooms. They are limited, but they're trying to add stuff this year to Frankfurt. They're trying to make it a tourist destination besides just going to Buffalo Trace, the downtown area, Cobblestone streets. It's just beautiful. It's all within walking distance, right?

Yeah, you know, that was one of the greatest things about about staying downtown, you know, and an Airbnb or, you know, whatever you can get is everything is walkable to the riverfront of the festival itself. Being able to walk back still enjoy that downtown area for the mornings, the shops and the you know, things like, like bees that was open, you know, you can get some some great pastries there and to general stuff that's going on. It, it made Frankfurt feel quaint small enough that you could really enjoy it. And I got to say that all the people in the shops there, everybody was so friendly and amazing. It, uh, it's worth staying in that area and just knowing that it makes the event accessible on Friday nights.

They have the VIP auction, which is a pretty special event where you can go in and, and you get the chance to. to rub elbows with some of the bourbon elites. Some of the people in the industry, you get a chance to visit a few, uh, select distilleries. And then they have an auction. They've had some, they had some pretty good bottles this year. What'd they have on the auction this year? They had some pappies. They definitely had a few wellers. That's bottles from a number of premium distilleries. They had a barrel pick that barrel with that barrel pick go for.

I heard it went for 20 something thousand dollars. That's, uh, that's some good money right there.

Did you bid on a EHT, uh, barrel pick gym?

I didn't Mike and I, we have a limited budget on the bourbon road. We have to watch our money just a little bit. Not that we wouldn't want 200 bottles of each Taylor, but, uh, no, we had to pass on that one for sure.

We both got to buy dog food. Yeah, the the the VIP dinner was good. They had a bunch of women from Bourbon there this year, and they went through their backgrounds and stuff. Some of those names are like Ariel Yon was there. Peggy, no Stevens, Heather Wibbles, Jane Bowie was there. She brought Danny with her, which was pretty damn cool. What an Odie's I know we promised you guys that they would be in our tent this year. Something came up for both of them, uh, with our children and they felt the need to go do that stuff. So you can't blame them for that. Um, so they both promised that, uh, they would be on our show as soon as they can talk about some things. So, uh, we're looking forward to that though. Country smooth was there. Jeff the Creed was there. Susan Regler was there. Just these names of women in bourbon just stand out. One of our all-time top podcast guests, Ashley Barnes was in there with her brands, with the Spirit Group, which that was cool to see that she's getting recognition that is deserved. Mary Ann Barnes, she showed up there.

Talked a little bit with her. Well, represented women and whiskey like owned the room that night, didn't they?

Oh, most certainly. Most certainly. You know what? It was cool though was, you know, some of these people that we interview, uh, drew it at them. You know, we will interview them once and it might be two years before we get to speak to them again. And, uh, it was nice that people would say across the room, come running up to us and say, Oh man, it's so nice to see you guys here and meet you in person. Cause we'll do a lot of stuff virtual. That was nice to do and that VIP dinner listeners, if you can get to it, I believe it'll even be better next year. The VIP auction goes to great causes. They pick a couple of charities and they donate to that. That's what that money goes to. It's just a great cause. And then even the bourbon on the banks, part of the proceeds not only go down to help beautify downtown frankfort make it a tourist destination give you other things on the kentucky bourbon child to do but also goes to schools on there to help them out so it's going to a good cause so you can feel good about coming to kentucky and drinking bourbon that's what you need to tell your significant other we're gonna go help a charity out you know hey is that what adam and drew is that what you guys told your wives

No, I told them I said, I'm going down to enjoy some whiskey. It's great. You guys are talking about, uh, you know, bourbon women and all that in the VIP auction, but even Sarah noticed, you know, they, the bourbon women was had a, had a tent down there, uh, at bourbon in the bank. So in, in whiskey, uh, whiskey chicks also had a tent. Um, you know, and that was one of the first things she noticed is that it was great. for her and other women to be included in knowing that, you know what, they enjoy whiskey too. And, you know, I think you guys would probably agree half the time their taste and their ability to taste whiskey is a heck of a lot better than ours. So, you know, she enjoyed that and I loved seeing it down there. You know, there was really just, it was whiskey for everybody. So I love seeing those kinds set up down along Bourbon at the banks too.

Was there any distilleries that you didn't see that you're like, why didn't they show up?

Oh, I would have loved to have seen, you know, heaven Hill and maybe Lisa with widow Jane and all that, you know, they're all kind of a part of that heaven Hill family. Now I would have seen that down there. Um, some of those distilleries, um, you know, it was great to see Castle and Key with their, uh, their, uh, pull up down there and, and, uh, uh, wilderness trail being there, you know, those are some of my favorites. Absolutely. Um, but I definitely would have liked to have seen a little bit presence from, from heaven and hell and maybe some of their, uh, their subsidiaries and some of the bourbon and whiskey companies they have.

Yeah. I think those companies starting to get word of it, but go ahead, Drew.

Well, I was going to add on to that, and especially talking about fervent women, I would have loved to have seen old Dominic there. Granted, I'm from Memphis and have made a little bias, but, you know, old Dominic and then would have really liked to see Lux row, especially with their recent buyout, just kind of really like to see what's changing and see what may be coming with their big changes.

Yeah. You know, on the flip side, there were a lot of, you know, smaller distilleries and some distilleries I had never heard of, you know, with their whiskeys and options. So that was a great part of it. You know, while I can say, hey, here's something I might have liked or seen, there were a lot there that, you know, I hadn't had exposure to. So having that exposure was, I think, was wonderful because, you know, the more I know about the whisky industry and what's available to me, you know, and things that I can taste and try is a wonderful thing. And I think that's a part of what these festivals represent for people.

Yeah, yeah, I agree with you. Jim, what do you think, man? You think that they were missing a couple?

Yeah, I think there were, there were a few, well, obviously, I mean, when you have 3,500 distilleries in the U S and 50 distilleries show up for an event, there's always a number of distilleries that you can name off that you wish were there. But I think there was a good representation. I think there was a nice splattering of distilleries from not only in Kentucky, but from outside of Kentucky. The nice thing this year was bottle sales, right? Kentucky distilleries were able to actually sell their bottles at the show, which was kind of cool.

Yeah. I think these, they weren't getting a sale, but I still don't think they worked all the bugs out yet. And that's, and I see that same thing at the Kentucky bourbon festival. Where the craft of salaries are still having those issues out of state. People are still having those issues. And I think eventually we're going to get this ironed out. It's stuff takes a while. You know how that red tape is, right?

Well, I think the laws are clear, but the problem is it takes a while for everybody to catch up with what the laws are. Right. So yeah, the distilleries definitely weren't able to distribute their whiskey unless they had an in-state distributor. Right. But what did they have that capital sellers there?

No, capital capital was there offering some bottles for people. Certainly they had some spirits of French lick and actually had some fueling station drew. So, you know, they had some options to purchase, but it was really more from the capital lickers. It was I think the store down there in Frankfurt.

So this year, Mike, you know, some of the distilleries were able to actually sell their bottles at the event. Now we know there was a recent law in Kentucky that changed that allowed distilleries to actually sell their bottles at special events where they have a tent and they're doing tastings. I think it's the law is kind of young. It's new. Not everybody's figured out all the nuances of the law yet. Uh, but some, some had figured it out and there were some bottles for sale. I'm hoping by next year that that'll be fleshed out a little bit and everybody will be able to, to actually sell their bottles from their tasting rooms at the tents. I know it's difficult for out of state distillers who don't have distribution in Kentucky. There's really no answer for them, but if you've got distribution in Kentucky, you have an opportunity. So maybe next year. there'll be a lot more bottles available and you can come to this event and you can walk away with a few cases.

Yeah, I think somebody figured out a lot happened. It's just stuff takes time. Uh, you know, it's, you know, it doesn't happen overnight and paperwork takes a while and it's unfortunate. It happens that way. It just doesn't happen, you know, like the old next tail. I'm talking on a walkie-talkie, but it'll happen. It'll happen. Hopefully it is next year and people can walk away with more bottles and stuff. But heck, it's not like you couldn't try whiskey while you're there. If their distilleries didn't have enough whiskey bourbon, you surely could have came down to the bourbon road lounge and got yourself a taste. That's for sure. The one thing that I just am flabbergasted by is that we're in Frankfort, Kentucky. I woke up that morning. First thing I walked outside, you know, that nice cool air. I could smell the mash cooking. Oh, could I smell it? It smelled beautiful. We were down there putting that tent up, Jim, that morning. And I was like, man, it smells good down here, Jim. I just had drool just just drooling like a Woodrow does. But that's all coming from Buffalo Trace. And then we we get there and they got this rinky dinky tent with a table. Now, Buffalo trace, if you're listening, somebody from Buffalo trace, you guys have got to put on a show there for some people. They came to see you. They can't visit that distillery. SAS rec, whoever we need to get the word out to, um, that event should be sponsored by Buffalo trace. That's my rant now. That's my rant. That's all I got to say.

I think that, I think they did come on strong for the VIP event, right? So they're, they had quite a few bottles on the VIP event. that were up for the auction. They do, they do great for that, but, but the actual bourbon on the banks, uh, event, they just had the small tent. And I think a lot of people are looking forward to Buffalo trace. Right. I think you're right. They're looking for it. Yeah.

Well, heck, I mean, what are the lounge more bourbon from there?

Well, I think maybe next year, Buffalo Trace ought to pour from the bourbon road tent and then, and then they could get all the recognition that they need. Right. I think we will all drink to that.

Yeah. If we can get them to sponsor us, we could buy whatever we need to buy. Yeah, we'll be good to go. But, uh, no, that just, that's just one of the, that, that's probably the only thing I thought the salaries could have built better, but what a great event. Um, we did, we'll just give a shout out to a guy that helped us tear down. He stayed there till the end. And first, I don't know how he did it, but for some reason he latched onto us. Who's that guy?

That Jordan Lester.

Yeah. Oh, Jordan, Jordan, if you're listening to this while you're banging that nail as a contractor, man, hats off to you for helping us load that trailer, helping us take stuff down. That's off to your wife for letting you stay at that whiskey festival. Now listeners, Jordan has only been married two months and I tried to give him some like old man, married man advice and said, listen, when your wife wants to leave, you just leave. Uh, You know, and she says she's ready to go. She's ready to go. Jim and I can put that knowledge down like that, but he didn't listen. I don't know. He stuck with us. Right.

And he actually got to go on the, he actually got to go on the castle and key tasting event with us, which was a big bonus for him, wasn't it?

Yeah, not a whole lot of people get those experiences. Jim and I get Adam and Drew, you know, they're like family. They're part of the bourbon road, which is that's cool that we all got to go to Castle and Key's house they have there. And we got to sample their weed bourbon release before anybody else, really. And me and Jim had already had it before, but it wasn't finished. Right. Yeah. There's two batches out there. Oh, my God. Um, but this Jordan, he got to experience it.

That's too bad.

They're both getting me too. Go ahead. Yup.

Listen, listeners, they're, they're lying to you batch one for you. People that love candy corn for Halloween. You go ahead and buy yourself that batch one, buy yourself a big old bag of candy corn and just have yourself a field day. That's I'm telling you, that's, that's what it is.

That's one was those cow tails. It was that creamy center of cow tails, that candy, right?

But batch two was just spot on amazing. That's to have that, that finished that you don't forget. There was something about that finished, the creaminess, the spice that, that kind of term of vanilla, you know, five-year weeded bourbon. And there was seriously something special about that finish.

And it hung around too. It wasn't, it wasn't a shorter medium finish and being only 98 proof, man. It just, it just hung there. Get, get you wanting to sit there and think about it. It was a thinking man's whiskey. Yeah.

You know, people are, people are going to, people are going to ask us questions now guys, because, because we're talking about a, a release that's not out there yet. So, you know, are we allowed to talk about that?

Actually, Adam, this, this episode is releasing on Wednesday, the same day as the release of that weeded bourbon at Castle and key. So yeah, I think it's okay.

Fantastic. You know, and while we sit here and we argue about both batches, both batches one and two are going to release it pretty much at the same time. Right. That's right. That's right. Yep.

I went ahead and scheduled myself a dentist appointment after I drank that batch one because I had a second glass of it. I thought I might have a cavity this morning or something. It's so sweet. I mean, it's sugary. Sugary. Yes, sir. I loved it. No, but batch two was, batch two was great too. It had that spice to it. It had that, that mouthfeel you're looking for. Um, it did have that, uh, long finish to it. Just stuck with you. So, um, I'm looking forward to both of them. Hopefully Jim and I are supposed to get, um, bottles to do a dual review. Oh, we promise you that, uh, we haven't did that before. I haven't seen anybody do a side-by-side dual review. So that'll be something new to the, uh, bourbon road podcast. We hope you check that out.

You'll be able to see if you can change each other's minds, which I doubt is going to happen, but you're going to have that opportunity. You know, we're sneaking in a little something into the bourbon on the banks for everybody in the middle of podcasts.

There's a little surprise.

Yeah. I think that's one of the strengths of Mike and I is that we like different things. So when we review them. Uh, we have different opinions and those opinions sometimes oppose each other. Sometimes they're in line, but you know, people get an honest representation of what two different palettes like. Right. So that's good.

And I think we've got to give a shout out to the guy that invited us. John Newton, his wife, you know, it was past their kids' bedtime and they just invited us there and then, and we just had the best time and I just, I can't thank them enough. Yep.

You know, uh, Jim and Mike, I think of the next bourbon in the banks. I want to see you guys get out and roam around. Um, we, we got to get you out of that tent and roaming, you know, we, we had a lot of the other vendors coming in, visiting the tent and having some drinks from the tents. I think we got to get you out roaming around. I was like, uh, where's Waldo? We're going to have people hunt you down in the festival. Not that they can miss you, but.

Well, let's give a shout out to some other social media that was there. Um, so it's bourbon night. They were there, um, doing a great job. And then our great friends, uh, Logan and Mac from basement Rick house on Tik TOK. They were there. Uh, both of them, both couple said, we appreciate you guys. And, uh, for sending people to us, um, you know, that's too. venues that you can go watch whiskey on YouTube and on TikTok. We want you to go check those people out. They were there. There were several others, though. I could just keep naming them off. Whitetails and Whiskey, Bourbon Life was there. He was walking around with his son. We also had guys from Ohio up there, Scotchy Bourbon boys. They were walking around out there.

We ran into them at the festival and we ran into them at pizza afterwards, too.

They were eating pizza.

Yeah, they were eating pizza with us. Yeah. In Buddy's pizza shop.

Well, listeners, make sure you go ahead and plan for next year. If you need to know what you need to do or where you need to go, you can always check out our webpage. There's always great content on there to check venues and stuff out, check where to stay and stuff. Reach out to us. Heck, we'll let you know some people that you can hook you up with Airbnb or VRBO. All four of us had different VRBOs, right? Or Airbnbs.

Yeah. Yeah, we didn't coordinate with each other this time. We just all did our own thing, but we all ended up downtown within probably three blocks of each other. Right.

Well, hopefully next year there will be a bourbon road house. Uh, hopefully we can make this happen. Um, where whiskey will just be flowing and, uh, there'll be great laughter coming out of that, um, that place. Another couple that hung out with us was, uh, Mark and Amy Ratliff. Uh, they hang out, hung out with us the whole weekend, right? Um, they were funny.

Yeah. Yeah. It was a lot of fun.

roadies if you we missed your name new roadies new podcast listeners if we missed your name make sure you hook up with us keep listening keep watching the bourbon roadies facebook group as it grows we still got those rules right guys adam drew what do you guys say about those rules

Yeah, they got to follow the rules and please answer the questions because there's a strong opportunity if you're going in to join the roadies and you decide not to answer those questions. I'm just going to delete your request because if you can't answer three simple questions, especially about being polite and being friendly with other people, you know, it's just, we're not going to let you in the group. You know, it's simple. It's easy. We want you to come and enjoy yourselves, but we want you to come and enjoy it with others too. All right. We don't tolerate any bruteness.

That's our great thing about the bourbon road, right? That, uh, we keep all that other stuff that other groups have issues with, um, out of that group. Uh, and some people were like, Oh, your group's still small, but it's small for that reason. It's, it's people that really, really just want to talk about whiskey and I enjoy that stuff.

So yeah.

Well guys, man, it's been great having you on getting to hang out with you this weekend. What do you think, Jim?

Absolutely. What a great opportunity we had this weekend to meet. I mean, Mike, you and I get one real big chance every year to give back to the roadies, right? To actually thank our listeners for listening and helping to build our podcast. And Bourbon on the Banks is that event. They came out in masses. We had a lot of bourbon roadies out this year. It was a great time. We saw bourbon bullshitter t-shirts and bourbon road t-shirts everywhere in the event. I would say that we poured probably at least two thirds of the whiskey we brought got poured, which is good. Absolutely good. Got a lot more burden out there this year. A lot of new people signed up. A lot of people subscribe to the podcast. Um, it's a great event for us. We had a wonderful time and, uh, I look forward to 2023. I think it's going to be even better.

Well, Drew and Adam, where can we find or where can our listeners find you guys on let's say Instagram? Where could they find you at?

Yeah. Instagram is a D Boothby. Um, pretty simple. Just, uh, my first initial middle initial last name on Instagram or Adam Boothby on Facebook.

What about you, Drew?

Yeah. And I'm Drew a 19 on Instagram and just drew Alan on Facebook. I'm sure you can always find us through the roadies. We pretty active in there.

Yeah, that's the place to find them. The bourbon roadies. All right, guys, we appreciate you coming on, spending the evening with us, talking about whiskey, drinking some whiskey and stuff.

Thank you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Cheers. And thank you for, you know, having us and letting us be a part of bourbon on the banks and allowing us to help out and, and talk to people and, you know, just be a part of that family. You know, we love it too. So thank you, Jim. Thank you, Mike.

It was a lot of fun. We had a great time this year. We, it was really wonderful to meet everybody. You can find us on all the social medias. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, you can find us on tick tock Mike's dancing every night. Guaranteed. Uh, not really, but you can find us in all those social media finds most importantly on our private Facebook group called the bourbon roadies. We've talked about that several times tonight. That's our private Facebook group of our, really our core listeners, people who really love what we do. It's a good place to share photos, share events in your life, share whiskey, uh, share good times. We don't tolerate any rudeness in there. We don't allow anybody to, uh, Get on anybody else for what they're drinking. Just come in and have a good time. You're bourbon your way. Well, we do two shows every single week. Every week we do a Monday episode called our craft still re episode. We'll feature a single expression from a craft distillery, sometimes a big boy, but we'll focus on that expression. We'll taste it. We'll talk about it. We'll give our tasting those. We'll let you know whether or not we think you should add it to your bar. Every Wednesday we'll do a full-length episode. Uh, we'll deep dive a subject. We'll have a guest on, we'll drink through several expressions. Mike and I'll give you 30 minutes to get you to work 30 minutes to get you home. Two episodes every single week. Mike, what do they have to do to make sure they don't miss one?

So listeners, what you need to do is scroll up the top of that app, hit that check sign, that subscribe sign, that plus sign, whatever you got to do to let that app know you. So listeners, scroll to the top of that app, hit that check sign, that plus sign, that subscribe sign. The app will tell you, hey, these two jokers have a show out today and you need to listen to it. Then you need to scroll on down to the bottom of that. Hit that five star review. Leave us some comments because you know what's going to happen if you don't. The big bad booty daddy of bourbon is going to come dragging his bourbon wagon. He would have it loaded like he did on bourbon on the banks. We'll drink all night long. By the end of the night, I guarantee you, he'll leave us that five star review and some comments. But seriously, those comments, those reviews, open up doors to distilleries. It gets great whiskey in our hands. Do great reviews for you. Tell you what you should have on your shelf. We'd really appreciate it.

So Mike and I are very approachable. You can reach out to us, you know, on our website, if you've got an idea for a bottle or a guest or a topic for a show, make sure you jump onto our contact us page, send us a message, let Mike and I know what you're thinking. We'll, uh, we'll get right on it. You can also send us a email. I'm Jim at the bourbon road.com. He's Mike at the bourbon road.com. But like we always say, probably the best way hit up our DMS on Instagram. I'm Jay Shannon 63. I'm big bourbon chief. We'll see you down the bourbon road.