359. Bourbon on the Banks Preview

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 was 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. about 20 miles down the road here in Frankfort, Kentucky. We've got a great show for you today. We've got a couple of guests here and we're actually in their house today drinking their whiskey and we're gonna talk about Urban on the Banks. So let me welcome Diane Strong.

Hello, thank you for having us.

Welcome back.

Absolutely. We love this. We love the podcast. We love having you guys involved in Bourbon on the Banks.

And Diane, you're the director of Bourbon on the Banks. I am. Okay. And Amzie Wenning with the Frankfurt Bourbon Society. Amzie, welcome back.

Yeah. Thank you for having us again. Yeah. President of the Frankfurt Bourbon Society. I am a board member also for Bourbon on the Banks Festival and have been since the beginning.

And we're going to drink through some whiskeys today. And the whiskeys we have for the show are all bottles that are tied to the Frankfurt Bourbon Society. They're bottles that have some relationship with bourbon on the banks. And we'll talk a little bit about that. But what do we have in our first class today?

Well, the first glass we're going to have will be one of the barrel picks that we'll have available at the festival this year from Spirits of French Lick. It's called Hindostan Falls. I was really excited about this one. What makes Hindostan Falls different is that it is made with a corn called Amanda Palmer. It is a modern land race corn would be the proper term for it. Alan Bishop, the distiller or head alchemist as he likes to call himself. also engages in breeding plants and garden plants. He has developed breeds of tomatoes. Corn is something he's really interested in. And Amanda Palmer is a corn that he bred over a 20-year period as a corn for distilling. The Frankfurt Bourbon Society, we have actually used this corn for some of our proprietary bourbons that we have distilled with whiskey thief distillery here in Frankfurt. It's a corn that I just absolutely love. I think it has some different flavors. When you're looking at corns like this, some of the heirloom corns, it's different from the common number two yellow dent corn. And I like to liken it to a modern chicken breast at the grocery store. It's a source of flavorless protein for the most part. And I think to some extent, modern field corn is mostly flavorless source of starch or carbohydrate for the yeast to turn into alcohol. I think with these heirloom varieties, Amanda Palmer is a multicolored corn. The different color compounds actually add some unique flavors as well. I think it really shines through in this bourbon.

Well, let's try it. Cheers.

So I've never tried this before. This is, Amzie just got this for us. So this is exciting. He's tried it.

It's been a minute since I had any spirits of French leg too, so.

Then for this pick, we had various distilleries and distillers representing those producers. We had Jason Holligenberg from Starlight, Brian Smith from Hard Truth. Of course, Alan Bishop was there at French Lick. We also had Kelly Tenille and Hunter Coffee from Whiskey Thief here in Frankfurt.

That's cool. Wow, it's got sort of a, I don't know, it's a fruity, but jammy kind of nose on it. It's really interesting. And you know, it reminds me of some other whiskeys that I've had that have used some of the heirloom corns. You get some different flavors. The corn really comes through, but it comes through in a different way. And there is that sweetness there, but it's got something else.

Yeah. And I think the sweetness, I think, if you look on the back of the bottle, I think the mash bill is on there. I think this is something like 80% corn, maybe, with kind of minor rye and malt components. So I think it's 80 corn, 10 rye, 10 malt, maybe.

Unfortunately, my eyes aren't good enough for that.

Allow me.

But that's okay. Well, I'm going to go in for the taste. So cheers, y'all. Oh, that is nice.

I don't see it.

Yeah, and this barrel, I think not only, so really every expression we tried of this, I think did showcase the Amanda Palmer corn. This barrel was to me just a little darker, a little richer, a little more complex than a couple of the others.

This is right at 100 proof. I think it's at 100.7. really kind of a dark, has a very dark appearance to it, very, I don't know what you'd call that, deep amber.

No, it's aged five years.

You know, and I think that was also interesting because this did lose proof. I believe entry proof there is one 105. Um, Alan did say this barrel would probably based on location be, um, a little lower. Um, the, the way their, uh, their, their warehouse is situated and some of the vents are this barrel probably would get rained on occasionally. And, um, he said they tend to lose proof where this one was located.

Oh, wow. I never even think about that, you know, barrels getting rained on, but I guess it does happen from time to time, right? And certainly barrels can leak onto each other. That does happen. Well, if you ever go into a rick house and you look at those barrels, there are stains dripping down them everywhere and they're constantly going in and patching.

So, Andy, are you saying that it actually absorbs the rainwater and dilutes it?

You know, I don't really know. You know, positions in a normal rick house, at least here in Kentucky, a lot of them have earthen floors. Those lower floors do tend to sometimes lose proof, and maybe that's moisture coming from the earth, whereas higher floors tend to gain proof. You know, their warehouse there is sort of a single story. This one was towards the top. But yeah, where their vents are, he said rain would occasionally blow in. So perhaps that is part of it. Maybe it cools the barrel more. I don't know.

I bet you somebody listening knows this answer and they're just dancing around.

Some barrel expert out there knows exactly what's going on. I'm sure it has something to do with the size of the molecules between water and alcohol. They're certainly different sizes, right? Yeah. Because we've always heard that if you take like a gallon of water and you add a gallon of ethanol to it, that the result will be a gallon and a half of liquid. Or where does the other half a gallon go? It doesn't make sense, right? Well, what happens is that alcohol molecules fit in between the water molecules, and then they hide themselves. That's the answer.

Yeah, and I have also heard that when it comes to wood, it's an osmotic process. Now, I've got another good story, kind of an embarrassing story I'll tell on myself. Ooh, do tell. Since you talked about barrels leaking on themselves. And when we first moved here, one of the first distillery tours I went on, You know, you could see that, you know? I mean, almost like stalactites or something hanging off of some of those. They said, oh, yeah, that's called barrel candy. And so, you know, the tour guide's not looking. I sneak over, and I kind of touch some of that, and I taste it. And that does not taste like candy. Don't do that. The stuff that drips down on the barrels and forms on them tastes horrible. Does it taste like? It was extremely bitter.

Was it salty at all?

No, just bitter and tannic. They should not call it candy.

I was just thinking if there's some sort of salt component, it's going to draw that water into the barrel or something, but that doesn't explain it.

It's probably a trick they have just to lure people like me into trying a chunk of it and then they record the faces we make.

Well, this is a surprising little drink. I would say that it's causing me to pause a little bit and say, why haven't I been to Spirits of French Lick in a little bit of time? He is quite the inventive person, right? And there's a lot going on there. And it's not that far away.

I've heard it's a great little town. Amzie goes there with his family, right? And stay at some really nice hotel.

From Frankfurt, it's just about two hours. And then, you know, French Lick, the town has an amazing history. The two resorts there are just absolutely world-class, and I do enjoy going there.

Yeah, I took my wife. We stayed at the Bodden Springs Hotel, and we went over to the casino. The French Lick Resort, yeah. The French Lick Resort and saw Air Supply. Oh yeah, Air Supply. I'm dating myself here. Sorry, guys.

You know, I just got a newer truck last fall and it came with the trial of XM radio and it hasn't left the 80s channel in a while. Why not? Yeah.

It was a special time.

It was a good decade.

It was. Well, Diane, the Bourbon on the Banks has been around now for a few years and it's grown each time and gotten bigger and bigger. And can you tell us a little bit about kind of where it started and sort of the things you've learned along the way that's going to make this year so much better?

Well, like I said before, it was kind of the brainchild of Wendy Kobler. She was working for Kentucky State University. And I think she was kind of a transplant here and looked around and saw bourbon and how important it is. And maybe those of us who lived here for a long time were taking it for granted. And she's like, we have got to do something. I helped her that year. I was involved. I was just in charge of the free event on Friday, but did get to work a little bit with her and stuff. But I feel like she looked at a lot of festivals and took all the great ideas and tried to do them all in one year. And it was a successful year. She did a great job. I think there was 700 people that year, but it was a four day event. There was a lot going on and she got her dream job and she left right after the festival. And so we kind of went into some transitions and had one person that was going to run it and they left. And anyway, I jumped. I was asked to do it, and then the pandemic came. But it gave me an extra year to rethink everything, look at what took place, what worked, what didn't work, what should we keep. And so my first year being the director of it was in 2021. and that year it grew by 35 percent and I think or actually that may have been 37 and then last year it grew by another 33 percent so it's growing and it's I mean I learn something all the time where I'm always taking notes and writing things down and I send out surveys to my attendees, to my distilleries, to my volunteers, to the city, the community, everybody that has some input. What needs work? What did you like? And always trying to improve it. That's what I've learned over the years.

And it's gotten bigger, and it's going to be even bigger this year.

Yeah, we're actually implementing some more things this year. We've added the VIP access tent, which is a tent inside the festival that's catered. And you'll have some extra samples in there. It comes with our barrel pick and a little bit of swag. We are also adding an event on Sunday, which is a bourbon pairing with Chef Weida Michael on the Bourbon Bell, which is really neat that there's only 36 tickets available. They're just released. But that's going to be a really unique experience for anybody who's able to stay until Sunday. I know the whole world doesn't know Chef Weida Michael, but they should. She's like an ambassador to the president and I mean she's phenomenal.

I mean any real foodie is going to know who Weeta Michael is I think. But she owns a couple of restaurants nearby but she is tied to the Woodford Distillery or was at some point kind of really tied with the Woodford Distillery and she is in that top tier of chefs in the U.S. and you can't mention her name to anybody in that world without them knowing who she is. So definitely a good representative for our area, a great representative. She's out of, what, Frankfurt?

Yeah, she's local. I would say that the original restaurant would have been Holly Hill Inn in Midway. She has Walla Station, Wendy Corner, Smithtown Seafood.

She just opened something in Versailles, a teaching.

Yeah.

facility.

And she's at least been, I think, a James Beard Award nominee. I don't know if she's won or not, but yeah, I mean, excellent food. I wish I could go on the boat ride, but because of the limited space, we have decided that board members cannot buy tickets to it.

Yeah, you can work outside of the boat and collect tickets, though. No, but what she's doing is she has micro samples and she's taking her knowledge and she'll walk you through this process where you're tasting the bourbon and taking these micro samples. It's not a dinner or anything. It's an educational experience. We've got O.H. Ingram River Aged Whiskey, who is going to provide the drink to go with it, which is appropriate. Kind of makes sense. Yeah. And there will be some appetizers afterwards and some extra pours. But it's about a two hour long excursion on the river with Kentucky River Tours. They have the bourbon boat. It's new this year. It's a two story, fully enclosed on the bottom and then sheltered on the top. And they'll be taking us out with Nathan. It'll be It's going to be neat. I'm super excited about it.

So tell us a little bit about your relationship with the Frankfurt Bourbon Society and the local area businesses and how they support what you're doing.

Well, the Bourbon Society has been phenomenal. And, you know, I can't say how much you guys participated in the first year, but I know that every year they help more and more and more. And it's I almost feel like They're the Bourbon on the Banks family, if that makes sense. But we really are teaming up even more this year with the production of the Undressing Bourbon series that we have going about doing some educational videos and interviews. So they're great. They promote us. They help us. The majority of them volunteer at the event and help out. If they don't volunteer, they buy tickets and bring their friends. And, you know, it's...

Sometimes it's hard to tell where one starts and the other ends. It's like you are one family and you work together for this event because this is your hometown.

Yeah, and I agree, and I think it makes sense that there's some overlap because most of the bourbon enthusiasts or whiskey enthusiasts in Frankfurt are members of the Frankfurt Bourbon Society. Like Diane said, we also tend to have a lot of our members volunteering. Yeah, and so there is definitely a lot of overlap. And I would like to add that last year, and we'll continue this year, inviting other bourbon societies as well. We have several that are joining us. To set up tents and participate and invite people in to talk about their organizations and sample some of their products, help educate people about bourbon a little bit. So also thankful for those other bourbon societies and their participation.

It's awesome. It's a great event. And for those who are listening who haven't been to Bourbon on the banks before, you know it's a big deal for the Bourbon Road. We kind of go all out for this. What a wonderful day to set up and enjoy Bourbon along the river. And it just seems like it's about a half a mile of Bourbon there. I don't know. It just seems that.

I don't know if it's really... We need to measure that, don't we?

Yeah, we do. Yeah. I think by the time you walk down and back, you've done a half a mile at least, maybe more.

Yeah, I would say at least. The park is probably almost a half mile one way, I would think. Oh, right.

So for those of you that aren't aware, it's in a park and it's a linear park. So it's right along the banks of the Kentucky River. And we've we've worked on the park this year, you know, we're a nonprofit and $50,000 went towards our beneficiaries, $25,000 of which was specifically for the park and doing some improvements and trying to get rid of some of the invasive species along the river so that you can actually see beyond the trees. And so so yeah, we're It's a beautiful location. You just can't beat it.

Yeah. Well, that would be nice to be able to see through the trees a little bit better and see the Kentucky river out there. And that's just, it's just gorgeous. And what is it a half a mile down the road to Buffalo Trace? And so you can actually smell the discoveries on a good day, right?

Absolutely. Yeah. And if you, if you come early, you can, you can jump on the bourbon boat. They have some tours that actually go to Buffalo Trace. They go right through the lock, the lock there. So.

Well, we're going to get into a lot more detail in the second half, but I do want to try the second whiskey that you have poured for us. What do we have in our second glass?

Yeah. So, Jim, the second pour, I will say really the only tie-in it has with Bourbon on the Banks or the Frankfurt Bourbon Society is probably me. We have actually, the Frankfurt Bourbon Society has done a couple picks. with Spirits of French Lick. This was just something else that is sort of unique that they have done. It's called the Lost River. It is, I tried to count, I believe it is a six grain bourbon goodness. I think it's got corn, oats. I think it was rye, rye malt, maybe kasha, which is a toasted buckwheat, and then barley. I don't know if that was seven or not, but I tried to remember what was in there. So Alan, he does do a lot of experiments there. The owners, they let him do a lot of these experiments. And one of the better six grain or multi-grain whatever bourbons that I've had. I was very impressed with this one. It's like it's health food. It's a multi-grain.

That's right.

This is very healthy stuff. We're doing our part to eat healthy, drink healthy.

Part of a delicious and nutritious breakfast.

This is six and a half years old. It's 114.2 proof. It smells really nice. It's nice and dark, just like the last one.

I think to bring together this many grains into a cohesive drink is something hard to do. I really do like this bottle. That's why I wanted to share it.

So the last one, the nose was very easy to pick up some dominant notes on. This one's a little bit lighter on the nose.

Well, you know, I think that Amanda Palmer in the previous version, it's the fruit that comes out in it, the kind of almost like cherry type notes. Yeah, this one's more grain, more caramel.

Yeah, yeah, definitely so. This is a little more, yeah, bready kinda.

This is so weird, because I'm having the opposite experience. Maybe I drank the wrong one. This one smells very fruity and very sweet to me.

You might have got them backwards there, because they look very much the same in the glass.

Yeah, this one has a very corn-forward, Not the first one. Sorry. So I may have mixed them up.

That's all right. They're both good.

Yeah.

Cheers. That's got a lot more viscosity to it. Wow.

So did that one. I have to find out. I've got to know now.

You know, and I think sometimes that viscosity, the oats can really change the mouthfeel of a whiskey as well. And I wonder if that's

Yeah, I've had a couple of whiskies with oats and I think I remember them being very kind of heavy on the mouth, you know, very viscous.

That's really nice. Yeah, it is. It is really good.

Yeah. He's just a mad scientist, genius kind of guy. And that's what craft distilling is all about, right? I mean, I love these bottles that are just off the wall and different and out of the box. And it's not an easy task to come up with a match bill like that, take a chance on it, see it through the distilling process, put it into a barrel, baby it for six and a half years and then put it in a bottle and it's a one-off. You know, I mean, that's pretty amazing stuff.

Yeah, this specific bottle was a barrel pick from Big Red Liquors. And I think specifically the location they're in, French Lick. And so they were almost out when I finally made it back to French Lick and only had a few bottles left. And luckily I snagged a few of them. Good stuff.

Good stuff. The event is October the 7th. That's the main day.

Right.

But really, it's more than just that. There's a lot more going on.

Yeah. Actually, I forgot to tell you, we're going to have a kickoff event on Thursday out at Whiskey Thief Distillery, which is here in Frankfort.

So we're starting Thursday this year.

Well, it's kind of like a, yeah.

A lot of people do come in on Thursday. Yeah. Actually, I've got some people that are joining us. They're coming in on Wednesday.

Yeah. I mean, we don't have the details hardcore yet. I think there's going to be a pig roast and a fire and some sampling and stuff going on there. They are the sponsor for our Friday VIP event. So it was very fitting for them to host that. And it's great. That'll be nice. Hopefully, I'll have some more details soon. Then we have the Friday VIP reception and bourbon auction, which we have had every year. That's from five to eight, but we also have the free festival going on if you want to party a little bit in the streets with some circus people and performers and fire acts and all that good stuff.

Then a pub crawl.

We got the O.H. Ingram Riverage pub call. Yeah. So they're helping out with that. They're our sponsor. And so you can go to all of the area bars and restaurants, and they each will have a feature drink with them, including the new one that just recently opened, the House of Commons of Urban Library, which is just now available. And they're going to make something special in there. You should check out the pictures we're going to be posting soon. We have an undressing bourbon that was filmed there. You get a little sneak peek.

So what's going on in Frankfurt? I mean, it's really like coming into its own. It's always been a great city, right? But I mean, it's really trying to put itself out there as a destination with restaurants and other things. related to bourbon, but not just bourbon stuff. Kind of cool.

Yeah. And I think we should have at least one other new bar in town before Bourbon on the Banks. There should be another one open by Derby of next year that are really going to be bourbon themed and bourbon focused establishments.

Some speakeasies coming along. We've got some boutique hotels that are going to be opening. Unfortunately, they won't quite be ready this year, but next year definitely.

An explosion of VRBOs. Unreal. Yeah.

Yeah.

Wow.

But they're all full.

Yeah, right. They're all full. There's still hotel rooms, folks. You can still come. But the VRBOs filled up pretty quick.

Yeah. I would also say, going back to Diane's comment, House of Commons, the new place that's on the corner of

East Main and St. Clair?

Yeah, St. Clair Street and Main Street right downtown. Great bourbon-focused place. Now, they are only Kentucky bourbon. They do have a lot of dusties available as well. It's a fun place to go.

Every pour comes with a good story. It's very interesting. It's a different experience for sure.

That is so awesome.

And also I would say for our Thursday night event, for everyone who hasn't been out to Whiskey Thief, what an amazing place. An amazing place just to go on a tour and then you can hang out for a while. They've got chairs. They've got a fire pit. They usually have corn hole. I think one of these days they're going to have a bocce ball pit. I think they've bought everything but don't have that yet. Hopefully our event out there, especially by October, it should be a wonderful time to go. Hopefully have the pig roast, have the bonfire. It's such a comfortable place.

It really is. And we had an episode with them just a few episodes back. And listeners, if you didn't listen to that, go back and listen to it. But I think you got the feeling that we were just at home. We just felt like we were at home. There's no pressure. You enjoy yourself there. You kick back in an easy chair, have a drink.

They've got a little food out there. They've got a bar. If you bring your friend that doesn't even like bourbon, they've got beer. It's nice. It's a little something.

Definitely a place to just hang out and have a good time.

It's a place that has now been open more than 10 years, distilling their own product. They recently just won double gold at the San Francisco Spirits Competition for single barrel under 10 years, beating out some pretty big brands there. So their product is just amazing.

And you have just a few barrels there, don't you?

We do. The Frankfurt Bourbon Society has worked with them and they have distilled proprietary mash bills for us. For a few years, we currently have 24 barrels aging there. Hopefully, we'll have four more after the end of this year. The other thing is Whiskey Thief is donating a barrel, a barrel pick experience at our Friday night VIP auction event. So whoever wins that will be able to go out there and pick their own barrel of some amazing whiskey.

Wow. That's pretty amazing. All right. We're going to take a short break and when we come back, more about Friday and Saturday at the event and all the things going on.

Great.

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So the first glass will be our barrel pick from last year, which was Wilderness Trail. And it was kind of a special one. As we went through the barrel pick, There were two favorites. One happened to be their weeded bourbon. One was their traditional rye recipe bourbon. So McCully Minton, the bourbon swami down there, he said, hey, these are both bourbons. Do you want to try a blend of those two? And we did. And it turns out we all preferred the blend. And, uh, so it was technically a four grain, uh, so kind of a, a one-off, uh, micro batch, I guess, uh, that was available last year.

Um, so did you buy both barrels and put them together or did you get half of each?

So we got a little more than half. Uh, they sold the remainder at the gift shop.

Okay. Well, that's pretty cool stuff.

You know, I liked this enough that, uh, I was actually, uh, lucky enough to be down there and they had some for sale and I snagged a few more bottles for myself. So there you go. All right.

Well, let's check it out. Wow. They make some fine whiskey down there. What's the proof on this?

This is a 111.01 proof.

Okay. Well we're staying north of a hundred tonight. That's good. That's good. Is our last one above a hundred?

Yes. I don't really know. It's not a whiskey.

Let's just be fair. But this is pretty cool stuff here. Now we're getting back into kind of the baking spice arena a little bit. This is a little more traditional.

Do you get vanilla on the nose?

Absolutely.

So there's something that I have occasionally run into some single barrel picks from wilderness trail that have a very strong vanilla note. And I don't know if they've tried to figure out what that is and recreate that, but I absolutely love it.

It's got to be in the East.

If there is a place that can figure that out, I'm sure it's wilderness trail, you know, with their lab next door.

Yeah. And then they have some pretty good barrels there too. And I guess they fill so many barrels that they're literally unloading barrel trucks every day there, aren't they? It's just amazing. I can't even imagine that kind of volume.

And they're just over 10 years old. So when they first started to the volume they produce now is very impressive.

Very short period of time. They were able to get to that. Cheers.

Cheers.

That is so good.

Yeah, it really is. I really think this was a very special bottle.

A little bit of cherry in it, vanilla. Vanilla and cherry. You know, the traditional kind of caramel note to it, but a little bit of nut.

There's a little bit of cinnamon in there, like a fireball.

On the back end, yeah.

So when we picked this one, the weeded bourbon was the one that was super vanilla. And it was almost too much of this, like buttercream frosting. Okay.

I think there are people who would say there's never too much buttercream frosting.

I'm just saying. Yeah. But then when we added in the traditional Rye bourbon, it added a little bit more of that, you know, spice, the baking spice notes. Um, yeah. And I think just turned out absolutely.

Yeah, this is a well-rounded whiskey. It's very, um, yeah, I would say it's, it's not like, it's not like poking me in one place or another. It's kind of nice and balanced and, and just, I think that was a wise move. I didn't get to taste them individually, but together they taste very nice. Yeah. Awesome stuff. Awesome stuff. So Friday is bourbon on the bank's Eve more or less. And, and you've got your VIP event that night.

We do. It's at the Kentucky History Museum. And last year, last minute, they had some kind of emergency renovations they had to do. So we were kind of squashed into that front room. It's a beautiful room. It turned out to be a nice night. But we were very limited in capacity. And initially, our goal for last year was to be in the back. garden and in the Brown Foreman room. So that's where we are this year. And this year, we have access to the old governor's mansion backyard, which has a fountain and string lights. It's gorgeous. I've already spoken to the weather gods. It's going to be beautiful weather. And all of the sampling, we have about 10 to 12 distilleries that we'll be sampling, many of which are local. and then we'll have a live podcast going on there with some interviews with some really interesting people. We've got Brian Hara, the author. Of course, local celebrity, Freddie Johnson. He's coming back again. Everybody loves Freddie and I always say this, I'm a little bit of a Freddie stalker because I'm just, I'm his biggest fan. I think he gets scared when he sees me, but that's okay. We've got Matt King. He's the, general manager of Leapers Fork Distillery in Franklin, Tennessee is going to be there. Danny Potter. I don't know that he needs an introduction. He's got quite a history with Heaven Hill and the other one, Maker's Mark. He'll be there. And Kelly Tenille, Whiskey Thief. Amzie has worked a lot with Kelly. She's fun. She was a season six winner of

Yeah, I don't recall exactly. So Kelly, at one point, she was a distiller at Heartfield and Company. Where is that? Down in Paris, Kentucky. She's been on the the show Master Distiller twice.

The Discovery Channel. She won the great championship. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, that was a really interesting episode. It was legal versus outlawed episode four. Yeah. Legal versus outlaw. And so they had twice as many distillers on there. And yeah, she won that one and... She's making their gin now, right? Yeah, botanical spirits there at Whiskey Thief.

She brought me a glass of that during the break and it was really good. Yeah, it is.

It's really good. She's also made a limoncello out there that is pretty amazing. Good deal.

I'd like to get her on the show at some point, but I talked to her about it. She's supposed to talk to Walter and let's see what happens. Right. That'll be fun. Fingers crossed. Fingers crossed. She's quite a character. Yeah. Kelly's great.

Yeah. Lisa Wicker is going to be there.

Yay, Lisa. She's a rock star.

Yeah, she is.

So Lisa, at one point, master distiller at Widow Jane left there to go to Pierce Lyons town branch, which included their Irish whiskey distillery. And I think she left there and is sort of doing consulting again at the moment. Yeah.

She's very humble. I asked for her title and she, I don't remember what she said, but it wasn't worthy of, of what she actually is. And then Andrea Wilson is going to also be there, Kentucky Hall of Fame.

Andrea Wilson. She's cool. Yeah, she's great. I remember Lisa Wicker's son, didn't he? Wasn't he the chef down at Micker's Mark?

Yeah, I believe so. Yeah. And, um, Her fame, I don't know. There's a family tie into a bar down in Bardstown as well. A new bar that's opening. I believe it is called Mr. Suds maybe. I think it was a laundromat and they're turning it into a bar and keeping the original name. And I don't recall if that's her daughter and son-in-law maybe that are doing that, but I haven't been there. I'm gonna have to go check that place out. Oh, so great. So great.

And then Walter, is it Zoosh? Zoosh. I would just call him Walter, but he'll be there with Whiskey Thief as well. And that's going to be interviewed by Mike Hyatt.

Yay. Big chief.

The big chief is going to do that interview. So that'll be fun. We're gonna have dinner, obviously, and then we're gonna have the auction. We don't have a full list of our items for sale, but we do have that barrel pick experience with Whiskey Thief that's going to be auctioned off.

Now, if anyone sees me bidding, don't bid against me on that barrel pick.

I know, right?

Well, there's always a lot of big bottles.

Yes.

There's always great bottles there for the auction. So you may not have the list yet, but I'm sure your donations will come through and there'll be some pretty dark bottles.

Right, right. And with the auction, some of the proceeds go towards Bourbon on the Banks and our beneficiaries, but the Downtown Frankfurt Incorporated They are the one who manage the auction and they get the proceeds from a lot of those things. They are dedicated to improving and helping the downtown area, which is great. And then there's also, we accept some auction items from some local charities like Life House for Animals and No Kill Shelter. They have some items that they'll put in that auction and they get the proceeds. Tourism has got, I know it's the full Blanton's collection.

Wow. I think that's been one of the great things is that, you know, these other local charities, if someone donates bottles to them, they can include them in the auction. It gives a larger audience so that they can make more money for those charities as well.

Exactly. Exactly. So. So yeah, but you want to stay tuned to the website. It'll probably be the 1st of September when we'll really start listing all of those things on there, but it'll be worth it.

Well, we'll tell everybody again at the end of the show, but let's tell them now, what's the website?

It's bourbononthebanks.org.

You can't beat that. If you just search for bourbon on the banks, it's going to come up.

And if you accidentally type in .com, it'll still come back to us.

Yeah.

Well, good deal.

You took care of all those possibilities, right?

Well, yeah. I can't think of a guy who let us do that. I wish I had his name, because he makes some really cool bourbon leather stuff out of Lexington, and he allowed us to reroute to that.

Awesome. Well, it sounds like it's going to be a great night, so there's still tickets available.

Yep, there are some tickets, and they did sell out last year.

And they will sell out this year, too.

Yes, they will, for sure.

And so what's it cost, and how do they get them?

It's $150, and it's all of those tickets for all of everything we're offering are on the website, bourbononthebanks.org.

So the day before Bourbon on the Banks, there's a lot going on, actually two days. You start Thursday with an event out at Whiskey Thief, and then on Thursday, we've got the VIP event, and there's also some things going on in Frankfurt to keep you busy.

Right, the pub stool, the O.H. Ingram pub stool, and then Esprit Credit Union is the sponsor for the Friday Free Festival. And that, you know, it's a great time. Every bit of that sponsorship goes towards making that just a phenomenal night. And there's lots of things. We've got the whole old Capitol lawn is dedicated towards different entities who are providing free activities for kids so you can get your face painted and they can have a balloon creation made and and you know jump on tumbling blocks and it's the whole nine yards the kids are going to have a blast it's really fun for adults too it's you know we've got lots of beer sellers there and food trucks and we have the inebriated baker who she does some cupcakes that are good for kids and then she has cupcakes that are good for adults. So yeah, I mean there's a lot going on. Like I said, fire performers and circus performers and people hula hoop dancers and all kinds of fun stuff. Lots of eye candy is what I like to call it.

Absolutely. So there'll be people out on the streets. There'll be people wandering all over. It'll be a lot of fun. Yes. And people are completely free. Completely free. You're going to be able to walk. You got a couple of breweries in town. You got Sicklusher. You've got Goodwood. So if you need to drink some beer, there's plenty of places to drink beer in town.

Absolutely.

Craft beer, or you can go to Any number of bars.

It's the mixed district. So you can take drinks out of the bar and walk in the street and go into another bar. You've got that mixed district.

We do also have another new little craft brewery called Stainless right there on St. Clair.

They have a chocolate beer and a pickle beer.

They have some very, very interesting beers. some more fruit forward beers, as well as some nice barrel aged beers that I recommend you try. And then of course the pub stroll as well going on Friday.

What about transportation?

Well, we team up with a place called Happy Trails. And she has got a whole fleet full of vehicles. I have to tell you that Lyft and Uber are not necessarily reliable in Frankfurt. It's easy to get a ride into Frankfurt from Lexington, Louisville, some of the larger cities. But getting picked back up to return can be difficult. So we really encourage people to contact Happy Trails. That contact is on our website. She can go as far as two hours away and get you where you need to go. We also, there is some groups that are coming from, from Louisville and there's a place called Wild Thoughts and she has spots available. She also has packages available where you get a ticket and a ride. So there's, there's a couple different options for sure.

And all of that information is on the website. So if somebody, let's say somebody's staying out at the Hampton near, near the highway.

Yep, Happy Trails will take care of you.

You have a little too much to drink here, Happy Trails will run them out there.

Right. And if you're staying in the downtown area, south side or downtown, those are free rides on a golf cart. They'll get you back where you're going and tip the driver.

Wow. There'll be golf carts running people over.

Yeah. The other rides, you can schedule in advance. And I highly suggest that you do that because she has some buses and she'll go around to the hotels and pick you up and get you there in time.

That is so amazing. That is so great that you're doing that, especially for us who just had a knee replacement.

I did not know that.

Yeah. I'm going to walk a little bit, but I won't walk too much that night.

Yeah. Yeah. We're very fortunate to have them and she does a phenomenal job. She takes care of everybody.

Fantastic. So that takes care of Friday. Folks, get your tickets. They won't last forever. $150. That's the entire VIP event that night. There's going to be a VIP auction with all kinds of great bottles. There's going to be a lot of VIP people there. You're going to be rubbing elbows with everybody. There's going to be a podcast recorded out in the courtyard. Are they going to record out in the courtyard?

Yes, they are.

Oh, that'll be great.

And you never know who you'll run into because, you know, we do invite and a lot of people show up for the event.

Absolutely. And, you know, last year it was kind of crowded inside, but I'll tell you, it forced people to to interact.

So it was good.

It got a little warm in there, but we had a great time. It was such a wonderful time.

Yeah.

All right. Well, now let's talk about Saturday. Saturday is the big day.

Yes, definitely. The early access gets in at 1 o'clock. Those obviously are all sold out. We're down to general admission. But the event goes until 6 p.m. We have over 60 distilleries. If you include some of the breweries and wineries that are coming, we have over 70 places to sample from. Several bourbon societies. We've got vendors. All of our vendors are bourbon related. Um, so you, you've got your bourbon gifts and we've got some great new ones this year. I'm super excited about.

So AT&T is not setting up their cell phone booth. It's all about bourbon. Thank goodness.

No, it's not a craft festival and it's, it's all, you know, really neat different bourbon related items. And, and I, I'm, I really want my vendors to do well, so I don't allow for overlapping. You're not going to have, you know, three bourbon candle vendors. There's one. And she's been with us since 2021 and they're phenomenal. I own her candles and they're phenomenal. And then we've got the food court, which my Casey Pribble, she's on the board and she's the food vendor coordinator and she does a great job of making sure you have a little bit of everything. everybody's happy. This year we're trying to do some small bites, like one-handed small bites. You can have a tasting glass in one hand and food in the other, and it doesn't require a fork kind of thing. That's not the only option, but we did encourage our vendors to do that. And of course, a lot of the vendors that are selling, like the barbecue sauce, they'll have some free samples of little things along the way too.

That's good. That's good. I'm really looking forward to it. This is the highlight of my year. Good. It is. It really is. I have such a good time there. And the staff is phenomenal, so helpful. And you guys work so hard. And actually, I feel sorry for some of you because you're so busy during the day. You don't get a chance to enjoy the festival. Do you get a little bit of a break?

Oh, we've got the best volunteers, I'm telling you. I don't have to hardly worry. I just have to call them or text them and be like, you back in this year? Of course I am. And I love that. I feel like we must be doing something right, taking care of them. But they work so hard and they don't, I don't know. Local pizza, they provide food for us and they feed them. That's all organic and local kind of stuff. And so they get good nutrition. A lot of them, they will work until four and then they'll go experience the event. And if they're still wanting to hang around, they'll help us break down. Amzie, what did you work like eight to eight last year?

Maybe longer than that last year.

That's your annual exercise. I think so, yeah.

But they have fun. And you know, it's, I don't know, the distilleries, they're always so appreciative. And I try to tell the volunteers that, you know, they're bragging about you guys. You know, they're great. We've got a great lineup of volunteers.

I'm really looking forward to it. We're going to have a 30-foot tent again this year. We're going to have all of our swag in there. And we're going to have a Lawrenceburg bourbon company. It's going to be pouring from our tent this year. We're pretty excited about that.

Yeah. He's come to the Frankfurt Bourbon Society to talk to us.

Yeah, they've got some great stuff. Yeah, he's got some really good stuff. And we're going to have a couple of barrel picks there. So they'll be able to pick up some barrel picks in our booth as well. Great thing about the Bourbon on the Banks is the fact that distilleries, Kentucky distilleries can sell directly from their tasting area.

Yes, we should have lots of bottles for sale there.

And those distilleries that are coming from out of Kentucky can actually offer their bottles through Capital Cellar.

Correct, correct. So Capital Cellar is a local wine and liquor store and they will have all of those items for sale in their tent. So you can still go home with your favorite samples.

Perfect. Amzie, it's a big deal for Frankfurt Barber Society. You guys really get involved in this. Do you still accept members?

Yes, we do. Just frankfortbourbonsociety.com. You can go on there and join. Of course, any of the Bourbon Roadies are also free to visit us anytime. We probably will have an open house that night after the event on Saturday as well. Fantastic.

Now you've done that before.

We have, yeah. 121 Bridge Street here in Frankfurt. So like I said, any Bourbon Roadies are welcome to come join us.

That's fantastic. Bridge Street is by the old bridge and it's the singing bridge and we're about four blocks from St. Clair, three blocks from the...

So this is kind of St. Clair. So St. Clair turns into Bridge Street when you go across the singing bridge. So really from downtown, from places like the House of Commons, Bourbon Library that we mentioned, we're two blocks, you know, not very far away.

Perfect. Definitely come by and visit. If you're going to have an open house that night, they'll stop by and it'll be a good time.

But first, you need to go to the after party.

Yeah.

And this year, the after party, we've actually set it right next to the event. So you don't need to go down four blocks to Goodwood. Goodwood is still the sponsor, but they're bringing other food and beer and drinks to you at the event at Ward Oats. So you'll go underneath the Broadway Bridge train trestle and you'll be right at the Goodwood after party. And it's actually going to start at four. So a lot of people who get there at one, you know, they're they're ready to move on earlier. So they'll get to enjoy the after party and it'll go until eight o'clock. We've got Tyrone and the Kinfolk. I believe they're out of Bowling Green. They're really great band, very entertaining. I think it's a five or six piece band and that'll be good. So before you hit the road, we want you to enjoy some music and some food and good time.

And so to kind of clarify there, Ward Oats Amphitheater, it is on the same path that all the distilleries are set up on at the festival. It's the opposite end away from Buffalo Trace direction.

And it is open to the public too. It's completely free events. So people from Frankfurt or anywhere is welcome. They're welcome to go to that. They just can't get into the event.

Right. And that's very near where the parking is down at the far end, right?

Well, that is the parking for our vendors and our distilleries. Our main parking source is at the Mayo Underwood building. And so that's the other direction.

Okay. Well, all this information is available online.

Right, right. And we've got, the city provides the trolley and some bus services that will pick you up right there and take you back to your car. It's, you're not going to get lost. There's lots of, there's lots of transportation. There'll also be the golf carts that'll take you back wherever you need to go.

All right. Well, I've been nosing this glass of what's not urban and I really like it.

So yeah, this last one I acquired when we were doing the barrel pick down at Spirits of French Lick. So they will be releasing this very soon. This may be a gift shop only release for them. but it is a bonded gin. They took their old Tom gin, aged it in a barrel. I think it's either five or six years in a barrel. A lot of your barrel-aged gins are in there for three months, six months, something like that. This one's been in there for a while. I think it's a Amazing.

It's lime zest. That's all I can't get beyond.

And there's a lot of people out there saying right now, wait a minute, gin can't be bonded. Come on guys.

Well, that's what I said.

Four years in the, at least four years in the barrel and a 100 proof.

Yeah, 100 proof, four years in the barrel, one master distiller, one distilling season and in a bonded warehouse. It doesn't say it can't be gin.

Right. So there is a, uh, the first time I had a bondage in, um, was from Atelier V distillery in New Orleans. Uh, Jed Haas, the distiller down there makes one that's amazing as well.

Wow.

I love it. I love this.

On the nose for me, I get like a, like a green sassafras twig that has just been snapped. You know, I get some of that.

Yeah. Like a, like a cedar tree. You grab it off, you break it, you know? Yeah.

Sprink a little lime on it.

Yeah, there's definitely lime. We got to give you lime. Thank you.

Give me my lime.

Cheers.

Oh, wow.

That is phenomenal.

I, the only gin I think I've ever tried is from Castle and Gate.

And it's very, you know, so many times I think a barrel rested or a barrel aged gin, it really just subdues the botanicals. It's kind of all you notice, but at some point that oak now becomes a major flavor component. And really to me, it's more like cedar. This is crazy good. That oak kind of mixes with the juniper and it just tastes like cedar.

That is, so I, I say this often and the listeners are probably tired of hearing it, but Jen is my other bourbon and I do, I do love Jen's and I like to try different Jen's and I loved it. I love the craft of Jen. Uh, it's so far from bourbon that, you know, and I've had a lot of barrel-leash bourbons and a lot of times they don't spend enough time in the barrel and they just, they take on the barrel notes, but they don't really. The gen doesn't get changed. This is changed. This is transformed. I would love to have some of this. So gift shop only, French Lick.

Yeah. So I know they have it bottled. I think they were waiting on labels. I managed to acquire this sample. It's quite the sample.

It's literally a football.

You know somebody. Their Old Tom gin by itself is amazing, but I do absolutely love this bonded version.

Well, it's quite a commitment to have a gin sitting in a barrel that long. Did, do you think he knew? He never knows, right? He never knows. He just takes a chance on all this stuff.

You know, Alan, he probably read enough transcripts and distillers logs from ancient times that he knew how it would turn out. Probably did. Yeah.

Hedged his bets just a little bit. Well, that's fantastic. I'm really, really, really looking forward to this fall. I'm so excited. Have you got everything done? Are you like on pace?

Oh yeah, I'm just sitting around doing nothing these days.

Really? No. No, I didn't think so.

This is the time of year when, you know, I'm fortunate to be able to work on it all year long. And for like the very, sorry, the very beginning, it's like, oh, I've got 12 months, I've got 11 months, oh, I'm good at 10 months, you know, but now it's like less than two months. And this is when I spend a lot of hours awake at night thinking about all the things that need to be done and, you know, it'll all get done. It's just, it's very, lots of different balls going up in the air.

Is your daughter still helping you? Yes. Well, thank goodness for their help.

Yes, and my husband helps, too, during the event. And of course, my family puts up with me all year long. In case the listeners don't know, I have a black guy from walking into a pool, but I joke that maybe my family beat me up.

Yeah. Well, they wouldn't beat you up before bourbon on the banks because then they would have to pick up the load. Yeah, yeah. No, they'd wait till after.

They work hard. But, you know, it's great. It's fun and this is an exciting time of year. There's lots of stuff coming together and wrapping stuff up and we've got the city support, you know, they really I think in general, the community and the city is very, you know, they love we're on the banks and they support us and the city steps up and helps with transportation and the police officers and making sure everything runs smooth and the parks department takes care of us. So it's good.

Well, you're fortunate to be in Frankfurt, and I say the same for Louisville and the same for Bardstown because in those areas, it's not hard to get bourbon enthusiasts into your town, but it is difficult to get them made aware of what you have going on. So your whole year is spent promoting coming on podcasts, making posts on social media, just getting the word out.

Yeah.

And what's the count going to be this year? What's the goal?

Well, I think our cap is 2,000. That was just kind of a number that we threw out and decided that I don't know that we can handle much more in a single day. I think we are going to come very near that. We've surpassed our numbers from last year already at this point. And by next year, we're going to have to decide if we're going to extend it for two days or keep that hard cap on there. We don't want to change the integrity of the event. We want it to be that more intimate event where you don't stand in line for a long time and you're one of the few that get to experience it. We don't want to change that. We're a nonprofit. We don't have to really worry too much about all of our profits, paying people off and we can make decisions that are based on the best situation and not other things.

Awesome. Well, it's been so much fun. So fun to come here and hang out. What do you call this place?

This is the Frankfurt Bourbon Society Corner Rick House.

Corner Rick House. And this will be open during the event for an open house.

Well, it'll be after the event on Saturday.

Depends on how late Emsi has to work. Yeah, well, I mean, I heard an invitation to Rhode East to stop by on Saturday evening and check this place out. You do have open membership now, so if someone's interested in becoming a member of the Frankfurt Urban Society, go to frankforturbansociety.com. Very good. And then on Bourbon on the Banks, it's bourbononthebanks.org. Correct. You can buy your tickets there. There are still tickets for the Friday night VIP event. They're going fast. They won't last long.

Correct. And that Sunday event probably won't last long either. So if you are interested in hanging out with Chef Weedemichael on a boat, I mean, better get those.

So we're Thursday through Sunday this year. That's amazing. A lot going on. But there's plenty of tickets. Plenty of availability to actually attend the event. So make sure that you get your tickets and Come see us on October the 7th, right? 6th 7th 8th. Yep

Yeah, the Plaza Hotel, you know, last year they had pre-booked a conference or something and this year they reserved some rooms for our attendees and it's a special rate so you can literally walk across the street. So I'm not sure if they have availability still.

Is there a secret passcode?

Yeah, if you go on the website, we have participating hotels that are giving discounts. You want to make sure and tell them that you're here for Bourbon on the Banks Festival, but I do suggest you book quickly.

Absolutely, because it can get pretty hairy in the last week or two if you're trying to do last minute stuff. Yeah, absolutely. All right. bourbononthebanks.org. You've got social media channels, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, all that. Not YouTube, but Twitter, all that stuff, right?

We don't have Twitter. We're on thread.

You're on thread?

Okay. We're new to thread, just like everybody, but it is.

I don't even know what that is. I know. Well, here's what I do. On Instagram, I hit share to threads.

I know. Oh, is that an option?

Yeah. Let's see.

It's so new. But yeah, Instagram and Facebook is our main social media.

No TikTok.

No, but we have social media partners who are part of TikTok.

OK. I was going to say, I think your daughter was kind of like an expert in that area, right? Yeah.

Yeah, I thought so. You know, Jim, one thing I would also like to share with Bourbon Road is we do have one other barrel pick. Oh, yeah. It didn't arrive in time. It should be here next week. So we weren't able to taste that. But we did a Knob Creek Bourbon barrel pick. It was a short barrel, only yielded 90 bottles.

So it's rare. It is.

Don't sleep on that one. As soon as you can, grab your bottle.

Well, once again, thank you folks. We really appreciate it. It's nice to have this preview show every year and then maybe we'll get together and do a post-mortem, but we're usually so busy and you're probably taking your vacation, Diane. I mean, you probably plan your vacation for November.

Yeah, it usually takes place very shortly afterwards. There is a lot of little packing up when you're done, of course, but yeah.

Well, you can find The Bourbon Road on all social media outlets. You can find us on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, threads, TikTok. My goodness.

We need to hire you to help us out with that then evidently.

We're so busy with all that. It's crazy. It's a full time job. But you can find us in all those places. You can also find us on our website, thebourbonroad.com. That's where we have our swag. That's where we have our episodes, our blog. Heck, if you got an idea for a show, if you got an idea for a guest, if you think your hometown distillery is just doing it right, let us know about it. Hop on that Contact Us page on the website, theburbanroad.com, let us know. We'll get back with you. You can also send us an email. We're team at the bourbonroad.com. We do an episode every single week. Every Wednesday, you'll hear us come out with a new episode. Sometimes it's a great group of people like Bourbon on the Banks and the Frankfurt Bourbon Society. Sometimes it's a music artist, a distillery. We're always drinking whiskey. We're always having a good time. We hope you'll join us every single week. But until the next time, we'll see you down the Bourbon Road.

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