346. Buzzards Roost on Whiskey Row

Welcome to another great episode of the Bourbon Road with your host, Jim and Brian, where they talk bourbon and of course, drink bourbon. Grab yourself a pour, kick back, and enjoy another trip down the Bourbon Road.

We're very excited to have Blanton's bourbon shop.com is a new sponsor for the bourbon road podcast. In fact, this podcast is brought to you by Blanton's bourbon shop. Blanton's bourbon shop.com is the only official merchandiser for Blanton's original single barrel. Looking for a unique gift. Blanton's bourbon shop has got you covered. Blanton's bourbon shop.com is your home for all Blanton's gifts. You know friends, it's never too early. Start planning your trip to the Bourbon Trail for 2023. We hope you'll join the Bourbon Road crew as we pull out all the stops this year at Bourbon on the Banks. So mark your calendars for October 6th and 7th and we'll plan on seeing you in Frankfort, Kentucky. Be sure to listen in during the halftime break for all the details on Bourbon on the Banks. Welcome back listeners to another episode of the Bourbon Road Podcast. I'm your host, Jim Shannon, and today we are out on the road once again. We're down on Frankfort Avenue, Louisville, Kentucky. One of my favorite spots. Actually, there's a couple favorite spots in Louisville. Frankfort Avenue is kinda near and dear to my heart. But today we are at Bourbon's Bistro. And we've got a guest on the show today, Jason Browner. Jason, welcome back to the Bourbon Road.

Thanks again for having me, Jim. Really appreciate it.

It has been a minute and I have to I have to say I have been watching from afar and you guys are my goodness, you're killing it.

Well, we're busy. Let's put it that way.

Busy is a good thing in this business, right?

Yes.

Well, we're actually out on your patio at Bourbon's Bistro, and we can hear some traffic going by, but the weather today is just fabulous. Perfect. So this is a great place to be. Got a glass of ice water, Glencairn with a little bit of brown water in it. Of course. And what do you say we get straight to this first whiskey? Let them know what we're sipping on. Let's do it.

I'll let you walk me through it. Let's do it. We're starting with our Char 1 bourbon. Now, if everybody kind of knows, or if you don't know, we can kind of get it from the beginning. We source our whiskey now. We'll get into all that, but just gonna explain the Char One name on the barrel. We secondary finish all of our whiskies in Char One barrels exclusively. Okay, so we source whiskey from our partners. We're very transparent about where we get our whiskey. We send it to Bardstown Bourbon Company where we re-barrel it. There we put it in some Char I barrels that Independent Staves helped me design, because they're the information behind all this. So we have heavily toasted barrels. We use a number one char exclusively. We feel that through all of the research that we've done, Char I is just the best way to go. especially when we're finishing whiskeys. They're all 53 gallon, you know, no shortcuts taken. The only difference we do is the char one and the heavily toasted barrels. So we buy aged whiskey, it'll sit in our barrels for anywhere for two months to could be up to a year. And that really is what makes the difference of us buying some, you know, some sourced whiskey. I do all the blending. We've got a team of people. My partner, Judy, helps out quite a bit with the blending. She's got a great palate. But, you know, that's kind of the story. We put Char One on the label. so we could be the first to kind of hey this is we're the first people to try to do this char one thing and we hope it goes over well maybe take a sip of the whiskey and tell me what you think absolutely so this is the buzzer truth char one straight bourbon whiskey it is 105 proof and in fact

You don't make anything under 105 proof.

That's correct. That is correct. Nothing under 105. If any avid whiskey fans out there, all you can add to bourbon or rye is water. That's right. And we feel that if you want to add some when you get it, you can do that. But we want to send our bourbon out with the best flavor we can. And we think 105 proof is really in a flavor wheelhouse. You can even make cocktails with this. These char ones are going to start to appear on a lot of cocktail menus. But it's also good with maybe just a cube of ice or the way I like it the best is neat. You know, that's why we put sipping whiskeys in the name. I absolutely love to have a sipping whiskey.

Well, thanks for having me out once again. Cheers. Cheers. That's nice. Today's not a hot day, but it's not a cool day either. It's kind of in between. Sometimes on a really hot day, you're kind of wondering, what's this whiskey going to do to me? Sure. This sits real nice.

Believe it or not, that's my first sip of whiskey of the day. Usually your first sip is going to be hot, hot, hot. And a little bitter sometimes. And a little bit bitter. I'm pleasantly surprised at this 105 and my first, you know, I always tell people you're going to take three sips and you're going to get acclimated after that. But I jumped right in after the first sip.

Yeah, I have to say though that, you know, I usually get hit with that bitterness note on my first sip of the day. And this is the first for me as well, but not so much here. This is nice. This is, and you know, that toasted oak, the heavily toasted oak, as you say, really brings just a tremendous sweetness to that.

Exactly. Each one of our barrels, we have 15 different proprietary barrels that we've developed with the help of Independence Stave. got together with their head guy down there, Andrew Rebrink. He's the Oz. He is the genius behind all this. But we have 15 different toast profiles. These barrels are mainly heavily toasted, but some are just toasted differently. But the main thing we do is the number one char. And that is, if you think about a number four char being so thick.

And they call that an alligator char, right?

an alligator char, and then the number one char is, you know, the least amount of char you can put on to make it legal. So we are giving, you know, when you char up to a four, you're burning some of those sugars you really bring into the surface when you're in the toasting process. So basically you're just burning sugar.

Yeah.

So if you burn it back to a char four, you know, we feel you're kind of you know, erasing that effort that you did bringing those sugar layers to the surface. So, Char I legally gets you there. Plus, it makes it easier for the juice to get back to those yummy toasted layers that we've drawn to the surface.

Now, in some of these barrels that you're putting in and you're blending some of these, these are For sure. Certainly blends of yours. But they've seen a number four char in their early life.

They have. They have. And that's all good and fine. I think at the end of the day, I think we might talk about this later when we have our own new make, they'll actually never see a number four char. They'll go straight into char one.

Now, do you expect that to produce a little bit lighter whiskey?

I do not. You know, a lot of people think that the char comes from the color and it really has nothing to do with it. Really? Char is mainly a filter. And if you think about, this is a little factoid that I learned of learning all this wood research is that one activated gram of charcoal has a surface area of a football field.

Oh my goodness.

So as a charcoal, as a filtering agent, a four is not really doing much better than a one because I think you're getting all you need of filtration.

A hundred football fields or 200 football fields. Exactly.

I mean, how many do you need to get the bad stuff out of there? So Once again, we feel that through the work that we've done down there at Independence Day, that it's just incredible the percentage of extractives you get from a char one and the same color. I mean, Andrew's done research to where char one, char four, one-year, two-year, three-year color's just about the same. So the colors coming from that red layer, those sugar layers that you.

So the toasting, I'm gonna get geeky here on the barrel a little bit because you seem to be a wealth of knowledge and I can learn something new every single day. So the toasting process. is a process whereby the wood is heated up but not burnt.

That's correct.

And then that's separate from the charring process which comes later. Totally. So you guys are first heavily toasting it. Yes. And then you're hitting it with that flash to burn the surface and give it a number one.

Yeah, we're all about the wood from start to finish. We actually dry age our wood in the yard for almost 18 months, which is twice as much as maybe the closest other distillery that does that.

And that's a big investment.

And what that does as well, yes, and what that does, it breaks down the wood. It's easier for the liquid to get inside. It breaks down the tannins in the wood. It also has these microbes that it picks up in being in the outdoors. It kind of helps give that wood a little kind of magic flavor. To me, it's like dry aging a steak, me coming from the restaurant side of it. dry aging a steak, if anybody knows if they've had any good dry aged beef, it just breaks all it down, you know, just breaks it down. And that's the same with really dry aging wood.

Well, nature kind of goes to work on it first. Exactly. So yeah, I mean, so like a mashbill is a recipe for your distillate. Sure. You've got a recipe for your barrels.

We do, and any master distillery talk out there, and I know a lot of bourbon people say, hey, how much flavor comes from a barrel? It's about 70% that we feel, at least. Some people say more, I hedge my bet, and I say at least 70. So that's a big, you know, that's a big make-up to a whiskey we're drinking. You know, a lot of people are using corn and rye and barley or corn and wheat and barley. Definitely some big differences in the yeasts. We all know that. But 70%, you know, if you talk about that, that's a huge factor that I don't know that a lot of people have addressed.

Yeah well I tell you sometimes when the when the temperature starts to come up in the spring and summer it gets a little bit closer it gets a little bit warmer outside you try to you back off unapproved just a little bit you know might even throw an ice cube in there some people do. All day sure. but this this sits real nice and drinks with a little bit of freshness kind of that and i'm surprised by it because you know a lot of times when you drink a secondary barrel bourbon that has been introduced to a toasted barrel you get a more of a heavy sweetness to it. This is a little bit lighter and refreshing.

I think so. Like I said, they're great in cocktails. With that proof, it makes a darn good cocktail. It just depends. I think it's very versatile. Once again, I always come back around to the sipping. If it's too hot outside, put some ice in it.

So when you get off the lawn mower out there, you're riding that zero turn of yours and you go into the house to get something to drink. Is it a whiskey or a beer?

I drink a lot of water. Let's put it that way. I drink a lot of water. When I'm mowing the grass, I don't really drink much, or even after that. In the evening, a couple beers, maybe a glass of wine or two. But there's always a good whiskey around.

Absolutely. I agree with that completely. Well, Jason, it's been a minute since you were on the show, and some of our listeners are new and haven't been introduced to you yet. Or the Buzzard Group's label. Can you can you give us a little bit of a background on kind of how this whole ball started rolling?

Yeah, well, you know, I've been kind of doing the whiskey thing for a little while. Been here at the Bistro for 18 years. I'm starting to kind of step away a little bit, definitely because getting the buzzard roost is calling a lot of my time. And just to mention, Bourbons did get Finally, Bourbon Bar of the World from Whiskey Magazine this year for 2023.

Congratulations.

I have 18 years to be an overnight success.

Well, this is a fine spot when you're coming to the Bourbon Trail, when you're visiting Kentucky and trying to make the rounds here. in addition to visiting your experience, which we'll talk about a little bit later. It's a great place to have dinner.

Thank you. It's a good place to start. And it's hard to mention how Buzzard's Roost got started without at least bringing that up to where, you know, I just didn't jump in, saw an opportunity and, you know, was in making widgets, you know, and had a lot of money and decided to start a whiskey brand, which there may be a few people out there that do that. But so I kind of got the history of it, you know, genuinely. A customer of mine coming in here, great friend of mine, Judy Hollis Jones, we met over a barrel pick. She loves some of the barrel picks we did here and just a big bourbon fan in her own right. We met through here and got to talking and decided She retired from the corporate world, needed something to do to keep her sane, and loved whiskey, and we decided to get together and start a company, start a whiskey company. And we did that several, several years ago. Here we are. We actually hit the market in 2019. We figured out we tried to start a distillery, you know, fell a little short. Things happened that we just couldn't get to the finish line. So we just decided to start sourcing whiskey and start a brand and then work our way up, you know, baby steps. We kind of tried to jump ahead, but things happened.

So looking back, are you glad it went the way it went?

I am extremely glad that it went the way it went. Growing this brand like we're doing, grassrootsy, state by state, bar by bar almost, it's a great experience for both of us. And I think we could have missed out on some of that if we had just started the distillery and maybe missed out on some things we could have made some mistakes back then that hopefully we won't make in the future.

So how do you guys divide the business between you? I get the feeling you're the production guy, right?

Well, yeah, I mean, she's in, she's got her hand in everything. Part of the production, you know, as she's ordering barrels and then, you know, it's a big, you know, she, her background is in supply chain. So we're expanding in the States. So that's one, you know, aspect of it. And then we have to order whiskey, you know, sourced whiskey, we have to source our whiskey, and then we have to order barrels for that whiskey to go in, and those have, you know, all this lead time, and then there's the secondary aging, so that's a lot of lead time. So once again, we're not just buying sourced whiskey, blending it, putting a label on it, there's a lot that goes into what we do, and we care, at the end of the day, You know, we both extremely care about what's in the bottle. But to answer your question a little better, I would say she's more of the paperwork desk jockey. She's the brains behind the whole industry. And I just go out and drink whiskey with people.

Let's see who got the better end of that deal.

Yeah, well, I don't know. Sometimes, yeah, it's good either way. She gets out too. We get her out behind the desk too. It can't be all work for her, so we can get out and do some fun and games. We do tastings and things.

Yeah. Well, with product in 2019, you've had, you know, four good solid years here where you've built relationships with distilleries who have whiskey. And I know that there's a big demand on available inventories now from distilleries who are producing for sale. Sure. So, I mean, having those relationships are important because a lot of people are standing in line and some can't get it. Right. Very important. And so I would assume that those early on relationships that you created are paying off in spades, right?

Touche on the lady with the supply chain experience. Like I said, Judy's the backbone of this business and we really wouldn't be anywhere without her and her expertise in what she does. So it can't be understated.

So let's talk about the, we don't have all your expressions here. We would be here all night if we did, but let's talk a little bit about the expressions that you do have that are not going to make it to the show today. I think if you go to your website and that's buzzardroost.com.com. Yeah, pretty straightforward. All your audio products are laid out there and it's pretty easy to browse and see what you have. They're certainly available for online. as well as in-store purchases.

Correct.

But what are a couple of the, let's say, for the more discerning burden?

Sure. Well, what we've tried to do is we're using a lot of this kind of innovation that we're working hand-in-hand with Independent Stave about. So there's a lot of new things that we're trying to do, a lot of experimenting going on kind of behind the scenes. But what we've tried to do is build our core brands, which are we have basically three rise and three bourbons. and a char one rye char one bourbon toasted rye toasted bourbon and then we have our barrel strength rye and bourbon so we've got kind of three of each and those are our core brands we try to base you know everything on that but what we were going to do is instead of you know asking stores to carry so many skews and let's take up all this room on the shelf let's have our core brands, if you can carry those, we've got something that's gonna come out every quarter. And we have done some specialty lines that people absolutely love. They fly off the shelves, and I guess before everybody's already said it that's listening is the cigar rye. So we toasted that beer, we charred it, and then we cold smoked the beer with some Kentucky tobacco.

Wonderful.

People love it flying off the shelves. We figured out how to try to manage that. It's definitely, we hate, it's never allocated. Nothing we do is going to be allocated. Kind of despise that word. That was almost worse than blended was back in the day, is allocation, right? Everybody knows they hate that word. So what we do is we have limited time offerings that come out once a quarter. The cigar rile come out once a year. It'll come out in the fall. We think that's the perfect weather for it. We're gonna do a batch because it's definitely labor intensive. So it'd be hard to do that all the time and keep it on the shelves. So we try to do a big bunch of it for all the states that we're doing, hopefully enough to maybe last us till we get to it next year, if not, It'll be back next year. It'll be our next batch, but we're going to do those. Those offerings will be once a year, once a quarter.

So each distributor gets a good supply of it so that he can take care of his customers and then it's gone.

Exactly. For a while and it's always coming back.

So anybody that's listening to this show, you are in 11 states and we'll get you to name those in a little bit.

Maybe if we were adding as we go. All the time adding.

So the last I checked you were an 11. So now you're probably in a lot more. So we'll get you to list those a little bit later, but they should know that they can go to that same website we mentioned a few minutes ago, buzzertroost.com. And because you're an actual distilling producer, they can purchase directly from you.

They can go onto our website and I think that gives us, there's 30 some odd, 32, 35 reciprocal states that we can actually directly ship to consumer.

Absolutely. Perfect. All right. Well, we're going to take a short break. When we come back, we've got another whiskey and a lot more to the story behind Puzzle and Druze. Looking for a unique gift? Blanton's bourbon shop has got you covered. All of their hand-crafted wood products are made in their in-house wood shop with authentic bourbon barrels. Specializing in barrel-age potent treats, they use Blanton's barrels to age their own maple syrup, honey, and coffee. Find the most unique gift ideas for your golf lover, cigar connoisseur, avid coffee drinker, and Blanton's fan. Want to win an authentic Blanton's barrel head? Make sure you sign up for the giveaway on the home page of their website. Blanton'sBourbonShop.com is your home for all Blanton's gifts. As we mentioned earlier in the show, we hope you'll join us this fall on October 6th and 7th for Bourbon on the Banks. The festival itself is from 2 to 6 p.m. on October 7th and you can pick those tickets up at bourbononthebanks.org for $65. They also have an early access ticket for $75. It'll get you in an hour early and definitely get you access to some special pours. But if you always like that VIP access, this year they're bringing in the VIP access tickets. We'll give you access to their VIP tent and all the great things that go along with that for $175. Be sure to check out bourbononthebanks.org. You'll get all the details on this year's event. All right, listeners, so we are back. We actually, you know, had a little bit of chance to talk about our vehicles during the break there. We're sitting outside on the patio here at Bourbon's Bistro and we're both driving forwards. Yeah. Driving forwards, drinking whiskey, enjoying the weather.

Doesn't get much better.

But we finished off that bourbon and you poured us a little bit of rye this time.

Yes, sir. Our char one rye, which has just won a double gold. San Francisco world spirits competition. We're really happy with that. And they also informed us that we are in the top three contenders for best of show in that category. Wow. So they're having the, um, the finals will be in Las Vegas, June the 16th and 17th, I think. So I may try to find myself out there. Hopefully we get a, first but you know a third in the in the in the best of show would be good too you know be great good as well just being in that top three is pretty amazing exactly so we're really excited about that real happy we're proud so uh as a whiskey drinker are you more a rye guy or a bourbon guy Being in my background, I'm a complete bourbon guy, but never was a rye guy until we started kind of looking at this barrel stuff and what I always call our ryes, and they're huge ryes that you would think I wouldn't like them, 95% rye, 5% barley. I'm somewhat young and high proof, you know, it's three strikes. You'd think that I would just not like it, but I call our rise bourbon drinkers rise. You know, we find those bourbon notes in the barrels and put those in those extra bourbony barrels. And it really, to me, it makes a huge difference. And, you know, like I say, for the double gold, you know, hopefully we're on the right track.

Well, I am I'm kind of a ride guy. That's kind of that's kind of my wheelhouse. And I do like ninety five fives and a young ride doesn't scare me because I know they can be beautiful. And what was the third strike? Hi, proof. Hi, proof. Well, I like that, too. OK, well, there's three. Yeah, this is three. Three hits, three hits and three strikes. So all right. Yeah, cheers. Oh wow. Yeah, so that has got a very nice back of the palate kind of puckery sweetness on it. It really gets a hold of the back of your tongue.

Right. And not in front so much.

I expect it to be super sweet up front, but you get that nice kind of Minty freshness up front and a little bit of that juniper. Juniper, pine, what do you call it? Cedar.

me it's a lot it's a little bit lighter you know for a rye as far as i mean it finishes well but yeah up front it's just it's not um ryes can be a little bit bitter to me and it's not not very bitter well thanks to your bourbon we've got to put that to bed yeah but this is really good this is a very nice we probably should have tried the rye first but I don't know. It's either way, they're interchangeable to me. I mean, even some of our proofs, you know, when I'm doing a tasting, our high proofs don't wash you out. And sometimes I like to go with a higher proof first, just so you get a taste for it before you dip into the other stuff.

Overall, always in the habit of doing that. We always put lower proofs before higher proofs, bourbons before rye. That's just kind of the nature of how we set up the show's tip.

I was actually at a bar doing a tasting one time and I put the stronger proof because I think we were doing the peated or something that's a lower proof. So I put the higher proof rye in front of the peated, which was lower proof, and the bartender switched it. made sure that I knew that they did hire proofs last.

Well, there are exceptions to that rule. Right.

I didn't want to say the reason I switched it in because this is going to hurt your palate a lot more than that.

I mean, if you're having a rye or a bourbon that's finished in an absence barrel, it needs to be last. Exactly.

And so that's the way that went down. And, you know, I understand what people But anyhow, I think ours are very sneaky. They're sneaky good for the high proof that they usually are, or even 105, even under 105.

So this rye is delightful. It's actually an easy sipper for me. It's nothing over the top. It doesn't get you by surprise. It's just, I call it a comfortable whiskey.

Very comfortable. You know, like I said, kind of coming up through the business, rise were always great for cocktails for me, but you know, I'm about sipping and never really dawned on me. And I tried to sit around and sip rise and it just doesn't seem like they're really meant for sipping. I don't know.

Well, my listeners would rake me over the coals if I didn't ask this question. For the Char 1 bourbon and the Char 1 rye, do you have bottle prices for us?

They, you know, depends on retail shops, but they should hit the shelves right around $50. Okay. You know, and we go up from there. We like to, obviously when we're doing this, even though it's a more expensive process, you know, I wanted to make sure that we were under $100. I didn't want to debut with anything like that. So we're trying to get the price down as we buy more whiskey and grow a company that hopefully we can get the prices down a little bit more to make it a little bit approachable. I want these to be somewhat every day, but we're also kind of a, I wouldn't say an ultra premium brand, but I think we probably hit that premium market.

Well, you're at 105 proof.

Right.

You're two for one on your barrels. So you've got to burn two barrels to get one. Exactly. And then your barrel proof whiskies are obviously going to be a little bit more.

Exactly. So we try to keep it between 50 and 80, $85, something like that, depending on what state you're in and what have you.

So your new venture, Downtown Louisville.

Just opened.

Whiskey Row.

the buzzard roost whiskey row experience.

So that's the heart of it, right? It is now.

We finally have a home to call our own. We've got a bar there, of course, tasting bar, big bar for cocktails and well, a tasting and cocktail bar. We have a little retail center there. And we also have an experimental still. We've got a doubler there. We're going to start running some new make through it here in about a month. So we'll have some new make going to Char 1 barrels this year. We're really excited about that.

So you're the master distiller.

Well, we have a distiller that we hired, Ethan Spalding. Great guy, young guy, but he's got some history, lineage in the business, but we have all the faith in the world in him and I'm going to work with him for sure. But I'm on the road quite a bit as well, you know, out promoting the brand, trying to help it go. So I will be behind the still with Ethan once we get her going.

You're looking forward to that?

Oh my gosh. Yeah. I mean, that's like, that's the ultimate.

Yeah. I mean, you can, you can buy all kinds of boy toys in this world, but a still is kind of at the top of the heap.

They ought to put that in a, what is that? A GQ or something. I mean, you can have your boats and you can have your cars and whatever. I've got a still finally. So that's pretty cool.

Yeah. Lamborghini or a 500 gallon Vendome. We've got a 70 gallon, 70 gallon Vendome doubler.

I'll take it. Yeah. Yeah.

Your brain's got to be like churning, thinking of ideas, things you can do with that still. I mean, what's the most craziest idea?

Well, you know, I don't know that we're going to get into so crazy stuff with the still at this point, but That'll come later. What we really wanted, what I really want to do, and I think the way the company needs to go is we're just focusing on this Char 1 maturation. You know, it's kind of our own lane in a busy, crowded whiskey world. And I think once we see the results, you know, in three and four years of what this product can do, And I really think it could be industry changing at some point. So to me, that is my focus now, is because I'm a traditional guy about how I like whiskey and what have you. We don't use smaller barrels. This is just technology, I think, that wasn't there or maybe overlooked. I mean, to get those compounds out of it, you really have to do analysis on the wood. So up until the last couple of years, Nobody's even done it. It just hasn't been available. So we're using the technology that's available with traditional old ways. You know, when I get behind this still, of course, I'm a big fan of Dusty's. You know, I'm going to make it the old way and it's going to be more expensive, I think. But hopefully the people who believe in us, our investors, will see it that we we can do it the old school way and really make the best whiskey.

So what are kind of the old school ways? That's a lower

Lower barrel entry proof. A lot of people are doing that these days, but it's also coming off the still a little bit lower.

Yeah, because when you come off at 140 or whatever it is, it's not the same as coming off at 125.

Yeah, you have to add a lot of water. I mean, there's a couple of different schools of thought about water reacting with the alcohol over the years. More water, less water. How does it react? Obviously there's a lot of people today say more, but me drinking old school whiskey, I say less.

So I can see you guys now, you can put up at this new facility, you can put up about five barrels a week. Is that about right?

Oh, just about. Yeah.

Yeah. So I can see a lot of one offs, two offs, you know, just things sitting back there, aging, just waiting to see what comes out and then releases in the gift shop.

Sure, we're going to have it stop only releases. And we also do tours and education down there. We're out to really teach people about the wood process of what we do that makes us different as far as maturation goes. We're doing cocktail classes, which are fun. We're doing chocolate pairing classes, which are great. I mean, it's just unbelievable. We're all about education and what's in the bottle and not just here to cash in on the bourbon boom. We're here to, we really care about what goes in the bottle and I can't state that enough.

Well, you're a good company down there on Whiskey Row. Certainly all the who's who in the whiskey world have a spot down there. And I imagine that real estate or that neighborhood is not cheap.

We've been looking at this space for a while. And renovation took a little longer than it should have. But you know, we're real happy where we are. We're what I call in the midst of the big boys. And this is a big boy game. I think we've come to play. We might be Some of the amateurs on the field, at least the freshmen, let's call it freshmen. I wouldn't say amateurs, but because we have a great team, a great staff. I think the freshmen, let's call it that, of some old timey players. We love to be right there side by side with them and show what the bourbon world has, what Louisville has to offer, and it's just a great place to be.

Yeah. So I asked you earlier in the show about where you are distributing. So I hope you got all of them states ready to go because you've probably visited them all here recently, right?

Just got back from Charlotte, North Carolina. So that was just a recent ad. So I think we're in 12, 13 states plus Alberta, Canada right now, mainly East Coast. We are in New Mexico. So, but mainly East Coast, we're gonna try to finish up the East Coast before we head West this year. We should be in about 20 to 25 states by the end of the year. If you're looking for your state, I think the best thing would be to go on the website. But I know Indiana just opened a lot of the control states because there's a lot more paperwork there. Yeah, we're adding those guys on the East Coast guys that I think.

Are you down south?

Well, we're adding Florida.

We're in Georgia. Okay.

Atlanta is a great market, but we're going to add Alabama, Mississippi. We're in New Orleans as far as Louisiana goes. I think we're adding Florida, North Carolina. We're gonna add South Carolina, Massachusetts. So we're gonna add a lot of New York, Delaware, all of those states up there. We're in Ohio.

You almost said Iowa there.

Yeah, I did. Iowa's actually coming. I think that's one of the next states to add is Iowa.

I was just going to say, you said you're trying to work your way into Florida and, you know, I vacation there a couple of times a year and it's like a bourbon desert down there. It's really rough. And if I saw a bottle of buzzard juice up on the shelf, I mean, I would be like tickled pink.

We're hoping for big things from Florida. It's a big state though, so we need to be prepared that we're going to be able to supply it. Because one thing, and we mentioned allocations earlier, me being on this side of the business and being on the other side is that nobody wants to hear allocations. We want to make sure that we can supply the states that we're in before we move to the next one. And that's kind of maybe not the way corporate world works. But, you know, like I said, we're grassroots and we want to take care of the customers that are taking care of us. And hopefully that'll never change with us.

Absolutely. Well, Jason, it's been a blast to have you on the show again today. Thanks for having me again. It's always fun.

It's always good to catch up.

I'm so excited about your new venue downtown. And so it's an educational facility. People can go in there. They can not only taste your whiskeys, but they can learn something. And that's pretty cool.

Yeah, taste it, learn it. Kind of like you can just be one with the whisky.

Oh, that's awesome.

Got some t-shirts and hats, but tasting and learning and getting to know the staff and you know that's kind of what we're all about.

I know our listeners have a trip to this urban country planned this year at some point and you know they're going to want to maybe stop in and visit your venue downtown in Whiskey Row. Maybe come out here and have a meal at Bourbon's Bistro. Go home with a bottle or two.

624 West Main. Yeah. We're right next to Morton's. We're caddy cornered. We're just up the street from Michter's. Right down the street from 21C and Proof. Everybody's down there. We've got BBC's going down there. We've got Angel's Envy, you name it, coming down the road, we've got old Forrester. I hope I didn't leave you by Evan Williams.

They're all there. I mean, there's a lot of people there and you know what, I just, it's getting to be very concentrated downtown and I just hope that people, after they visit all you people that are downtown on Whiskey Row, that they get out and they visit the people that are outside as well because There's so much to Kentucky Bourbon and so much to just this lifestyle in Kentucky. So hate to see anybody miss it. Well, next time we'll do a podcast from down there. We should do that. We should do that. And where can people find you on social media and the internet?

You know, our Buzzard Roost and we've also got a website for the Buzzard Roost Whiskey Row Experience website for that. We're on Facebook and Instagram.

I've seen your face out there just a little bit.

We're on there a little bit. I've got a face made for radio.

That's why the podcast works out much better than some of the YouTube things.

But yeah, come out and see us. Really appreciate you having me on and hopefully we'll see some people there soon.

Absolutely. Well, you can find the Bourbon Road on all social media outlets. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube. My goodness, we're even doing TikTok. No dancing, but we're having a good time on there. We definitely put out a show every single week. We used to do two a week. We're going to try and splatter a craft distillery episode here every now and then to increase the content for you all. But guaranteed every single Wednesday you're going to get a great show with good content. You're going to get somebody like Jason coming on with his fantastic whiskey and we're just going to have a great time. If you've got an idea for a show, if your hometown has a distillery that's doing it right and you want to shine a little light on it, make sure you let us know about it. We'd love to get out there and visit them, try their whiskey, bring them on the show. We're always having a good time. Reach out to us on our website, TheBurbanRoad.com. We've got a contact us page there. You can also send us an email at team at the bourbon road.com. We're very responsive. We'll get back with you. Make sure you check us out at all our upcoming events. This weekend, this Saturday, you're going to find us in Nashville at the Tennessee Whiskey Experience. We'll be down on the river and downtown Nashville will be drinking a little bit of Tennessee whiskey and yes, they do make bourbon. We had somebody on the private Facebook group, The Bourbon Roadies, going, I thought this was a bourbon group. Are you talking about Tennessee whiskey? Well, guess what? They do make bourbon in Tennessee. So we hope to see you all out next Saturday, May the 20th. in Nashville, Tennessee at the Tennessee Whiskey Experience. If you get to Louisville anytime soon or in this fall, make sure you stop in at Buzzard's Roost down on Whiskey Row or Bourbon's Beast Row here on Frankfurt Avenue.

Always a pleasure, Jason. We had a great time today. Thanks again.

We'll see you on down the Bourbon Road.

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