363. Bourbon Festival Pre-Show 2023

Welcome to another great episode of the Bourbon Road with your host, Jim O'Brien, 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. Hello listeners and welcome back to another episode of the Bourbon Road Podcast. I'm your host Jim Shannon and today Brian Hyatt's in the house with us. We're hanging out at the Bourbon Road Bar, getting ready for a big couple of weeks here and we've got a number of whiskeys we want to go through today.

Brian, are you excited about this? I am very excited. These are, it's a great lineup.

It is a great lineup. So for those of you who are not familiar with the bourbon roadie bar, the bourbon roadie bar is always outfitted. with whiskeys that were, um, given us samples to the podcast for us to review. And we make sure that we fill out the bourbon roadie bar with all these samples. I don't know how many we have. We've got a lot, but the roadie bar will be active and available at bourbon on the banks this year, just like it has every single year. So we invite all our listeners to come out and visit us and, and take a peek at all these bourbons. that we've been able to accumulate over the year doing podcasts. But today, we're going to drink through a number of those, Brian. You've got one in your hands. I've got one in mine. Then for the second half, we have a couple more. And this is just a sampling.

That's right.

So there will be bourbons on there from all parts of the US, from all the distilleries here in Kentucky, or at least most of them anyway. We'll have all the big boys there too. So don't worry. There'll be a few select bottles to check out. We'll also have our good friends at Lawrenceburg Bourbon Company pouring their whiskey inside the booth as well. And they will have the barrel pick for sale as well that Brian and I chose. And they're going to have another barrel pick there as well. So there's plenty of bourbon in the Bourbon Road tent this year at Bourbon on the Banks. I hope everybody can make it.

Yeah, I can't wait to be there. This will be my first time obviously with the Bourbon Road. So really looking forward to it.

So this week though, we're getting ahead of ourselves. This week is actually the Kentucky Bourbon Festival in Bardstown. And Brian, we're, we're ready to pull out all the stops for that one as well, aren't we?

I know, I can't wait. We were just discussing our travel plans earlier, how we're going to get down there. Are we riding together? What are we going to do? So I'm excited. I am very excited to have the day off Friday. Hopefully no work will come into play, and we can just bump into people, talk to folks that we know, meet some new folks, and have a great time.

Well, it's always been a lot of fun down there in that the Kentucky Bourbon Festival has gone through some changes over the past few years. So prior to COVID, the, it was more of a kind of a country fair event. And it was always great, always fun, more homey hometown. Now it's become this big bourbon event. I mean, really big bourbon event now. and it's definitely at a new level. Much more attendees, much more bourbon focused. Before you would have craft people there and all kinds of non-bourbon related things, but now it's all bourbon. And you've got all the big guys there. You've got the little guys too, and they just, every tent's got bourbon in it. And there's no way on God's green earth that you're going to be able to taste all the bourbon that's available there this year. There's just no way.

Yeah. Yeah. It's, I mean, it's going to be exciting and I'll just, uh, I know we're going to focus on bourbon on the banks here in a few minutes, but, uh, for the Kentucky bourbon festival, uh, there's some pretty cool things going on and, and even, you know, I see, uh, Lawrence Burke bourbon and BWBX. or teaming up for bourbon and barbecue. So that's something that's going to be unique. Always love to give a shout out to Lawrenceburg Bourbon Company, support those guys. But there's a lot of really cool things here that, you know, we're all going to get to experience on some different twists from year to year. So it'll be fun.

Now, A little bit of sad news. If you're hearing the show now and you're thinking, you know what? I might just want to go. Let me get some tickets. Well, I have to tell you, unless you're going to find them from a scalper, you're not going to get them this year because they are sold out. And if you go to their website, they're advertising for 2024. That's right. So just do yourself a favor. Go ahead and get your 2024 VIP tickets now, stick them up on a shelf. They'll be ready for you next year. And, uh, this year, you know, just going out to bourbon on the banks. Cause you're not going to get into the Kentucky bourbon festival.

And if you buy them and you can't go next year. I'm pretty sure we can help you find somebody that'll take the tickets off

all the days of the event. That's just a lot. We're not actually going to have a tent this year. Last year we had a tent at the Kentucky Bourbon Festival and I'll be honest with you, we didn't go there. We put our things out and we left and we wandered around and met fans and met friends and just had generally a good time. But Brian, we've got a couple of Bourbons, like you said, for this first half and I'm going to start us off. All right. I think I was supposed to start, right? Yes. All right. Well, so what I'm drinking and I guarantee you, Seth and his crew from Broken Barrel will be there at the Kentucky Bourbon Festival this year. You will see them. They, they, they pull out all the stops and they've got all their, all their whiskies out there and they always got something really cool and new to surprise everybody with. But today we're drinking the Broken Barrel Small Batch 95. This whiskey is out of California. Seth's out of California. These guys literally take sledgehammers and break barrels into pieces and use it to age their whiskey. It's some tasty stuff. This is a 70% corn, 21% rye, 9% malted barley on the mash bill. And one of the things that they do a little bit differently than everybody else is they do what's called an oak bill. So in addition to the mash bill, they also tell you what kind of oaks have been introduced to this. And this one's got 40% ex bourbon barrels broken up with a sledgehammer, 40% new French oak and 20% Sherry cask oak. So nice little, yeah.

I always check them out on YouTube or Tik Tok or wherever, cause I love watching them smash the barrels. I don't, I don't know what it is about it, but it's a lot of fun to see that.

Now I'm pretty darn sure that that's, you know, they don't smash all the barrels with sledgehammers. That's just what they do for fun. Right? I love it. They've got a more efficient means of breaking the barrels apart, but it's always fun to watch that.

I'd be worn out after one.

Yeah. I think I would be too.

Well, Brian, what do you say?

95 proof broken barrel. Small batch bourbon whiskey. Cheers. Other stuff is so good. It's so, um, so easy to drink, but it's got to just a, just as massive oak presence on it. But I get a little bit of that fruit coming out of the Sherry casks.

That or two.

I think 95 proofs is a good number for this. They have their cast strength to this as well. We have a bottle of that. Thank you, Seth, for sending those things over. Um, but we're going to make sure that all four bottles of broken barrels on the bourbon roadie bar this year.

So that's going to be a treat. I mean, they are, they're all so good.

They are very good. Brian had another rough day today. It seems like every day where we're recording a podcast, it's at the end of a pretty tough day at work.

So it's always time for a good drink.

It definitely makes that bourbon taste really, really good and welcoming. I was right up until, actually we were setting up the equipment. I still had to run back upstairs and get on the computer and do something real quick. And I think you did too.

I think we lived the same life that we're on computers and we work a lot. We put in a lot of hours. We're always available. So that's a good thing. But, uh, when it's time to put it down and have a drink makes it that much, much better.

And I remember it was years ago. It didn't Miller used to say it's Miller time, right? The end of the day when the work is done, they always showed the, the factory worker with the sweaty forehead when the day is done, when the work is over, it's Miller time. Oh yeah. They don't use that anymore. Do they?

You know, I don't think they do, but maybe I'm wrong. I don't know. Yeah. It seems like everybody, you know, as far as the Miller lights and the Bud lights and Coors light, everybody's jockeying for their position on, and what they're going to say right now. you know, how do they capitalize on different things and what they're not going to say. And so I think it's an interesting time for those, uh, for those companies to market. But I do remember Miller time. And of course she had Reggie Miller that played for the, uh, the Indiana Pacers and you know, he had a play on that as well. So.

Yeah, we were a big Miller town growing up and here we're off subject. We're supposed to be talking about bourbon and, and, and events, but just, just a little, one of those little side roads we take every now and then I grew up in a sort of a rural town just outside of Cincinnati. And we're a one high school town and country school out in the middle of the cornfields and soybean fields. But. Miller Brewing came in and basically bought the town and took it over, basically bought one big farmer out with like 35,000 acres and built a huge facility there. It's Molson Coors now, I think, but I think at that time we were all Miller drinkers, you know, but I think we got a sour taste in our mouth because it kind of took over our town just a little bit. Well, I do like this whiskey a lot. It's, it's unassuming. It's, uh, you know, it's got this nice heavy oak presence on it. Uh, but it has no youthful notes whatsoever. It's just a nice smooth sipper, a little bit dry on the back, but it's got a bite to go along with that.

So I was going to say, I, I feel like I have some good spice or maybe some cinnamon, uh, something with a little, little heat or a little tingle on the tongue.

It's just, it's got that nice subtle. fruit note. I'm sure it has to do with a sherry, a little bit of a kind of a grape raisin kind of note to it. It's not dark in any way though.

Just a good solid bourbon.

They make a great rye too. Their heresy rye is phenomenal. Their Americana whiskey is really good stuff. Like I said, all these will be at the bourbon roadie bar at bourbon on the bank. So keep your eyes open folks. Now at the Kentucky bourbon festival, where we're going to be this Friday and Saturday, we're not taking any whiskey. There's enough there already. You and I are just going to be walking around. We'll just help drink it. We're just going to help drink it this time. If you're at the festival, make sure you hunt us down. We'll be sporting a couple of them black bourbon road t-shirts out in the hot sun. I don't know if that's a good idea or not, Brian.

For day one, I think we can, and the temperature is supposed to be pretty, pretty decent. You're going to have cooler nights down in the fifties. So I think we can swing it for one day, maybe day two, we might want to wear something.

Well, I'm not going to wear a bourbon Easta t-shirt. That's the only colored shirts that we have.

Yeah, no.

Might have to wear a PFG shirt. Yeah. So September is Bourbon Heritage Month. It's a big month in Kentucky and in and around the Bourbon Trail. It's kind of where there's a lot of releases going out. There's a lot of new distilleries who are releasing for the first time in Kentucky this month. And so keep your eyes open folks. Uh, if you are a resident of Kentucky, it's a great time because you're going to get to taste some whiskies you haven't had before. We do know that a couple of the bourbons that we have on the show today are releasing in Kentucky this month. So we had last week too. Oh yeah.

13th colony.

Yep. That's right. It's a big month to release it.

It really is. Now there's, if you just go and you Google, uh, bourbon heritage month, I mean, you'll see. There's so much out there. People have giveaways, and they have the 30-day bourbon challenge and all these really cool things. So it really is a good time to celebrate. And you can learn so much about different distilleries and things out there that maybe you don't have a lot of knowledge on. But it's going to be a really fun month. And I feel like it's going to be a fast month. It's going to be over in the blink of an eye.

It's going to go pretty quick. I've got a couple of things going on in addition to that. So I don't know if I told you or not, I'm going to be doing that outdoorsy thing. Did I tell you about that? No, you didn't. There's this, it's kind of like an RV system where you can rent RVs from other people who have them. So instead of going out and spending 60, 80 grand on an RV, you can rent one for $200 a night for the weekend. And then there's this other thing and, and, you know, insurances and all that stuff's all paid for. You go pick it up, you hook it up to your vehicle and you drive away and you can do a weekend without having to the burden of owning. And then for the people that do own it and use it all the time, they can rent it out.

Sort of like VRBO for pretty cool deal. Like all those sites where you can, oh yeah, I love it.

But. That's not the only thing. There's also this thing called Harvest Hosts. Have you heard of that? So Harvest Hosts is a website that coordinates with distilleries, breweries, wineries, places like that to allow campers to spend the night. So if your distillery is a member of Harvest Hosts, then people can call up and make reservations and spend the night in your parking lot or somewhere on your facility. And we're going to be doing that. So that's something else we've got going on this month. We're doing a Harvest Host expedition. We're going to hit a couple of spots. We're going to rent a camper. We don't own a camper. We don't No, any campgrounds. We're just, we're just going to say, we're just going to go. We're going to spend two nights and, uh, see what it's all about.

I love it. Actually, uh, pulled up harvest host.com and, uh, I gotta tell you, it's pretty cool. If you have a camper. Or if you're interested in doing what Jim's doing, I mean, I would say check it out. I've been working on some campaigns lately for a large- That's right, you have, yeah. You know, camper company and all that, if you want to call them a camper company. But I mean, it is so interesting, that lifestyle and being able to travel and get up and just stop in different places around and Of course, if you love bourbon and you love breweries and you love wineries and all these spirits, like what a great way to do it. I mean, this is a super cool website.

Yeah, it's pretty cool. And again, here we are on another side road. Are we ever gonna get through talking about the events? I don't know, but I'm gonna report back on that. Cause I think probably we've got a lot of listeners that do camp, do have campers or whatever. And certainly we have a lot of listeners that love to go to distilleries, wineries and breweries. Put the two of those together. How awesome is that? It's free by the way. You don't pay to stay there. All they expect you to do is come in and buy a few beers or buy a bottle of whiskey or buy a t-shirt or, you know, just spend a little money while you're there and you get to spend the night. Wow.

And there's 3,500 of them in the U S. And this is the perfect time of year to start moving towards that. You know, the heat starting to, to settle a little bit, at least in some areas of the country, not maybe everywhere, but some areas. And I love, I love to do camping and all that. You know, once the temperature starts to drop into the fifties and wow, what a great time. You're going to have a blast.

Yeah. We're going with some other friends. Now this particular trip, it's the breweries because they're beer drinkers, but we'll get on the next trip. We'll get them to, we'll get them to some distilleries. I'm sure. Super cool. Awesome. Yeah. You know, I noticed that when we went to whiskey thief, distilling, they had people stay in there in a big old motor home. Wow. And when we went to dueling grounds distillery to do a show down there, they had people parked in their parking lot, spending the night. Okay.

So yeah, pretty, pretty cool stuff.

Well, Brian, I have to say, this is a good one. Folks, when you come to bourbon on the banks, make sure you try the broken barrel 95 bourbon whiskey, the small batch. You're definitely going to like it. It's a good one. We're probably going to have 50 or 60 bottles on there, so I don't think you're going to get through all of them, but if there's been one on the show that you just really wanted to try, that'll be the time to do it. And these are all donated from our distilleries, so they're meant to pour for tastings.

That's right. And I mean, you know, we love it. We love the opportunity to share and to talk through things. What a better way to do it. You have a huge lineup folks that maybe they haven't had some of this before. We get to walk through it together.

Absolutely.

Well, Brian, number two on the list today. What do we have? Number two. So we have the Legends of Georgia Heritage Series small batch, and this is an eight year. So I haven't had this one before. This will be my first first run at this one. So I'm excited to see what this is all about. And I know that you have and you visited there and had some time.

So yeah, actually Michael, uh, Michael and his wife and her mother were just phenomenal people. We managed to spend pretty, pretty much a weekend with them down there. Uh, great hosts just had a great time, did a great podcast. But his whiskies are phenomenal. They're so good. I mean, Fred Minnick basically said, these guys are the jam. So I mean, he loves them. I love them. We, we, the weed at bourbon is just phenomenal. Their process they use, the filtration process is just phenomenal. Produces one of the smoothest whiskies I think I've ever had in my life. So. Always happy to have a bottle of this. It's a good chance. They are releasing in Kentucky this, this month. I actually think in October, but there's a very good chance that Michael and his team will be there at Bourbon on the bank. So, but I guarantee you, if he's not, his bottles will be because he loaded us up to make sure that all our roadies get to try it. So what's the proof on this one, Brian?

So the proof on this one is a hundred proof. Okay. Yeah. So I'm excited.

I'm ready. Let's do it. I made that last one disappear by the way, to make room for the next one.

I did as well.

Oh, wow. Yeah. I, I smell that. I swear. I swear. I smell well or 12 when I smell that.

Wow.

Don't you? I do. I do a little bit. I mean, I definitely get the sweet candied.

Man, that just reminds me of well or 12. And it's only eight years old, but, and I'm sure it's not going to follow with a 12 year old profile, but it's got that nose to it. What a great nose on that. You know, it's been a minute since, since I had this one. Okay. And I kind of forgot about it. This is the right year.

Right. It is. Yes. So I was looking to see if I could find the release date, but I couldn't. Yeah. Couldn't find the actual release date. All right. I'm ready to give it a taste.

Let's taste it. Oh my goodness. That, that just tastes like a Rick house, doesn't it? It does. Wow. So smooth. So mature. That is such a mature whiskey.

I mean, it really is to me. I mean, it's just sweet.

These guys have got, they've got the secret. I'm telling you, they've got the secret sauce. They know what they're doing.

Their whiskey is just phenomenal.

And I know it has something to do with his ultra pure process that he does when he, and he's not adding anything to the whiskey. He's just filtering it. Right. You know, he's just filtering it just like anybody else does. Some people filter it lightly just to get rid of the char chunks. Some people filter through filter cloths and charcoal beds and all the other stuff. You know, it's just another filtration process. He's not changing the whiskey at all. He's just pulling out things that, uh, it shouldn't be there. And wow.

I mean, it is.

Man, I don't understand why I let this one. I've got a couple bottles of this. I don't understand why I let this one sit on the bar for so long. I didn't go back and visit it. I guess we just get so many that I just try to get through everything and I just forget about them. This is delicious.

No, it is. It is. It's very, very good. And you know how I am. I like the sweet. I like sweet and I like it really hot and high proof. This is so sweet. It is. Wow.

It's got a little bit of Walnut to it too. It's so good. Wow. Michael, you're killing it. You're just killing it, man. You're killing it. All right. So if you get down to Georgia, I'm going to say probably an hour, maybe not quite an hour outside of Atlanta up towards coming George up towards Lake linear, actually right almost on Lake linear. Great little distillery called legends. It's a party spot. Definitely a great place to hang out. Oh yeah. Yeah. Wonderful little town. Great people. And man, just beautiful, beautiful whiskey coming out of there. So if you're going down I-75, you're passing through Georgia. You're about ready to hit Atlanta. You thinking you want to spend the night somewhere? I would head over to coming. just spend the night in Georgia because wow, this is good stuff.

Well, and that's a popular place when you're driving south, you know, whether you're going to Atlanta, you're going to Florida somewhere, Disney, whatever it may be. A lot of folks do stop before they get to Atlanta or right after Atlanta. So probably not a bad, bad spot if you can talk your wife and family into dropping into somewhere and spend the night.

Yeah. When we were on our way down, we stopped and visited him and we recorded a podcast and then we said, we're going to go on to Florida. We've got a couple more to record down there. On our way back up through, we got to stop at another distillery in Atlanta. And we were told Michael over at Legends that we're going to be stopping in Atlanta for another distillery. He said, those are great guys over there. You're going to love them. But when you come back through, please don't get a hotel. Please come stay at my house and we'll hang out and drink some whiskey and talk about good stuff. So that's what we did. It was such a blast. Made new friends, good people. Brian, I almost don't want to move on to another whiskey just yet. I just want to sit here and savor on this one.

I'd agree with that. I, uh, I poured myself a little bit lighter than I normally do. Did you? Well, you're driving tonight. And I probably shouldn't have picked that one to pour light on.

Yeah. Well, guess what? We're going to be at the bourbon on the banks. That bottle will be on the roadie bar and you've got all day. You can visit as often as you like. And guess what? You're going to have people asking what they should pick. You can walk them right to that bottle. We're going to be pointing.

Now it's going to be a great time. There won't be a single bottle in that lineup that we couldn't say, you should give this a shot.

I truly believe that. I am always surprised by the fact that, you know, the people we have on the show, their whiskeys are just out of this world. And everybody says, how could every whiskey on your show be good? Well, that's because every whiskey we get doesn't make it to the show, right? That's right. Everybody tries really, really hard out there. Everybody's doing their best to make good whiskey. But it's a learning process and some of the distilleries are younger and they're not necessarily they haven't reached that point yet where they're producing Whiskeys worth talking about I guess some have different goals than others too, you know, I mean, I won't mention any names but

I talked to one last Thursday and their goals are a little bit different than goals of other folks. So they have a very specific idea in mind, more focused around mixers and stuff like that. Where some distillers have other very specific goals where they... They're really going after that premium look and taste to it.

Well, the Bourbon Road has never been the show to listen to, to find out what not to drink. That's right. It's always been the show to listen to, to find out what to drink. Because you and I screen the whiskeys before we bring them on the show. And that's why all the whiskeys that make it to our show. are damn good. Let's just face it.

And keep it positive. We're not here to make anybody look bad or talk bad about anybody.

So when somebody says they can't all be good, yes, they can. Because those are the only ones that make it to the show.

And good to me is sometimes different than good to you. Right. You know, we have different flavor profiles and different things. Again, no secret. Rye is not my go-to. I'm working on you. But everybody, you know, Greg at Lawrenceburg, you know, he's working on me, you're working on me. A lot of folks are working on me and I'm still, you know, I have a great appreciation for it. But if someone was to ask me what is my go-to, it's going to be a little different than yours. So we keep that in mind too, but we really do want to highlight the ones that we feel like are ready.

All right. Well, Brian, I want to savor this a little bit longer. I want to enjoy it during the break. And when we come back, we've got two more whiskeys in the second half. We're going to talk a little bit more about Birdman on the Banks and some other events that are happening in the area during Bourbon Heritage Month. And yeah, we'll be right back, folks. Looking for a unique gift? Blanton's bourbon shop has got you covered. All of their handcrafted 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 will 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 folks. So we're back, man. It was a great break. We got to finish off that a hundred proof, eight year old legends bourbon.

Wow.

Great stuff. So good. And I let you take a sample of their 115 weeded bourbon. That's right. What'd you think about that?

I thought it was phenomenal. And it's always great to have a break to taste something that's not really on the, on the list today. Yeah. So that was a nice treat.

We do that every now and then we get over there in the middle of a show. We have a little something. It's always nice to have a break, period. It gives you a chance to hydrate, although I didn't hydrate. We did not hydrate this time. I'm terrible at that. I need to get better at hydrating because I pay for it the next morning.

Oh yeah. Yeah. It's terrible.

Folks hydrate, make sure you hydrate, especially if you're going to walk around at the bourbon festival. Oh yeah. But we've got another bourbon inner glass here, and these are some fine folks who've been on the show before. And they have agreed to help supply the bourbon roadie bar with a number of their bottles this year so that all our listeners can try their stuff. And I would say these guys are a little bit more on the premium side. For sure. And their bourbons are hand selected. They're very meticulously crafted to meet a need in the market. They definitely don't apologize for price. They do such a great job and they're good friends of the show. For sure.

And they, of course they partner with Bardstown bourbon company and just, uh, I think that's always a really smart choice.

I think so too. So who do we have in our glass? So we have 15 stars. 15 stars. Now we've had, we've had this on the show a couple of times. Um, they did sit down here at the bourbon road bar with us one night and we had popcorn and all kinds of good stuff. It was fantastic. We had such a wonderful time. But we did invite them to join us at Bourbon on the Banks. And we typically do invite our guests on the show to become a part of the Bourbon roadie bar so that our listeners can enjoy. Because I mean, let's just face it during bourbon on the banks. We have a lot of listeners that come out. I mean, a lot. It's like a big, it's like the event of the year, even though the Kentucky bourbon festival is also a big event. Urban on the banks is kind of our, our gathering call for us. That's where we say roadies. Come on, come on, come join us. And, uh, they'd really look forward to, you know, getting their Glen Karen, getting their t-shirt and spelling up to the bourbon road bar. And this year, this is the first this year, you're going to be able to buy bottles right out of the tent from Lawrenceburg bourbon company. So cool. So cool. All right, Brian, tell me a little bit about this 15 stars bottle we're sipping on.

So this is the seven and 15. So, uh, I can't remember how many podcasts ago we had this on, but it's been a little while. Uh, but this is, this one knocked my socks off. I really, really, really loved this bottle.

And this was a marriage of a seven-year-old and a 15-year-old whiskey, right? That's correct. Yeah, these guys, I mean, here's another crew that just, I mean, really just, they really know what they're doing, right? And they have good partners.

Yeah, they sure do. So you ready? I'm ready. I don't, I don't like to wait on this one.

Yeah, it's a good one. And it's going to be hard to beat that last one, but I don't know that this will beat it, but this will definitely be at the same level.

Oh yeah.

Here we go. Cheers. Cheers.

Wow.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. I mean, it's hard not to say caramel. Yeah.

I mean, it's just like, oh, where there's all day long dripping brown sugar. Where there's wow. But you can't mistake that nose has got a little bit of a singe to it, right? Just a little bit. It is a little bit darker, a little bit, uh, it's a meteor bourbon, I would say a little bit more meat on the bones. If that makes sense. Great cigar bourbon. Oh, great barbecue bourbon. Definitely a sipping whiskey. I would not be mixing this into a cocktail. Absolutely not. This, this is definitely something that would be, uh, in a Glencairn or in a tulip glass or in some kind of a, you know, a nice nosing glass where you can just really enjoy it.

Somebody may want to put a drop of water in it, maybe use a big rock with it, but, uh, what was the proof on it? This one is a 107. Okay.

So we're working our way up the chart. We started out with 95 and then 100 and now 107 and we've got something big for the ending. That's right. Awesome. Well, cheers, Brian. Cheers. Yeah, that's so good. That is right there with the legends. Maybe even just, it's got a little bit more of that ultra-aged bourbon. A little bit of a note that just says, Hey, I've been on this planet just a few years longer. I don't know what the percentage is of that 15 year in there, but it's enough to show up.

No, it really is. I get, uh, like cocoa powder.

Yeah. Yeah, I think so. Definitely. Um, you know, cocoa nibs, they call them, whatever it is.

Just, just, oh yeah. Yeah.

Wow. You know, I was, I was drinking a, I was drinking a whiskey last night from our six distillery. It was their, um, their malt whiskey. And it's really a great whiskey, but I thought, you know what? I'd like to have a little bit of ginger ale in this, just a splash, because I was working on the bathroom downstairs. I was hot and I was sweaty and I was trying to- Maybe a little frustrated. A little frustrated, didn't have the right to run in and out of the barn a couple of times. And so I made myself, I made myself basically a mule, but I made it with malt whiskey. from R6 to celery and put a little splash of lime in it, some Canada dry ginger ale, and the malt whiskey. And I swear to God, the combination of the three made chocolate. Oh, really? I was surprised by it. It was actually delightful. It was really surprising. Individually, they don't taste that way. Right. But when you put the three together, I got chocolate. I said, what? This is supposed to be a mule. It's not supposed to taste like chocolate, but it did. I was like, oh my gosh.

That's awesome.

Isn't it amazing? Sometimes you discover things like that. Now I'll try to remember that. I'll forget it. I'm sure. But at least it's been committed to infamy on the podcast.

Hey, it's here.

So if you get, folks, if you get your hands on some R6 Distillery malt whiskey and you. want to mix it with a little bit of ginger ale and a splash of lime, you might just find some chocolate. But this is definitely a star. This is a shooting star.

It is. I mean, it, you know, we've, we've had a lot, I guess, several expressions that they have and I like them all. I mean, I really do. And I think they have a unique process. And of course, uh, you know, the black corn, a smaller, I feel like the, the, the corn was a little bit smaller, but it's black corn.

You pop some of that up yet.

I have. Yeah. How did it turn out? I like it. Yeah. I really do. And I think it's a really cool story. It is a cool story. You know, just. up there in Indiana growing some corn and some popping corn and here they are and Ricky put together a great idea and what a great father son combo.

Definitely. So they have committed to send a bottle of their platinum whiskey to us folks. You definitely do not want to miss out on that. So the platinum is going to be at the bourbon roadie bar. We'll also have some other whiskeys from them. We've got a number of them here and they're sending some more bottles. So, wow, lots of fun. Lots of fun. Brian, this is phenomenal whiskey. This is the third time we've drank the seven and 15 on the show. No wonder it keeps coming back. Are you going to be able to finish that off or we need to move on to the next one? What do you think? Oh, I can finish it. You can.

I'm just. I'm really enjoying it quite a bit. And, uh, you know, this, going back to what we were talking about a minute ago, these guys have a very specific goal. They want to have high quality premium bourbon and they're doing a great job with it.

Unapologetic. That's right. Absolutely convinced that what they're doing is the best thing they can do. They're not going to cut any corners. And they're going to produce these just phenomenal whiskeys that they do. I haven't had anything from them that I haven't thought is not top shelf.

I agree. And it, you know, it's all again, you know, it's all what we like. And some people may like one thing or another, but they put forth a lot of effort to make sure this is good stuff.

Rick and Ricky. I wonder if they had a discussion about who gets to be Rick and who gets to be Ricky. I don't think there's any doubt that. Dad gets to be Rick. That's right.

No, they're phenomenal people and, you know, hopefully some of our listeners will have the opportunity to meet them. You know, whether it's at the Kentucky bourbon festival, which I don't know if they'll be there or not. I didn't ask them, but, or bourbon on the banks, but I mean, they're, they're just really, really cool folks.

Yeah. They did say they won't be able to make it. They've got a prior commitment. They won't be able to make it to bourbon on the banks, but that's why their whiskey will be there for sure. So you won't get to meet Rick and Ricky at bourbon on the banks, but. By golly, their whiskey will be there and you'll get to try it. Oh yeah. So Brian, the Kentucky Bourbon Festival, we've already talked about this. They're kind of sold out. But a lot of information has come out about, you know, the event and all the information surrounding the event. You got any tidbits for our listeners?

Yeah, for sure. So, uh, anybody that's going to be going there from Louisville. So you don't want to drive down to Bardstown. You don't want to have to worry about parking, all those types of things. Maybe you have a hotel, you know, up here in Louisville, uh, there will be a shuttle that's going to go from, uh, downtown Louisville, the Louisville Marriott on second street. So you can jump on there. It will run on Friday. From Louisville to the festival, 9.30 AM is the first shuttle that leaves. 11.30 AM is the second and 3.00 PM is the third. Now returning to Louisville, you've got 2.00 PM. There will be another at 4.00 PM and another at 6.30 PM.

Now we all know that the event is, I think it's noon, right? You can get into the event. That's right. Early access is at 11.00 AM. But if you take the early shuttle down at nine 30. Don't worry about it. You get there a little bit early, not a problem. Go to Mammy's, have some breakfast.

Should be 10.30 ish, 9.45, 10.30, something like that.

Go get you some breakfast. The city fathers host a breakfast just maybe a block or so away from the event where you can go in and have some bourbon mimosas and some breakfast for 10 bucks.

You don't want to miss that.

My goodness. And you get to sit around there and chit chat with locals. It's a pretty good deal. All that's going on, you can definitely always go to Mammy's and there's always, you can always walk up and down the main drag there and there's plenty to do. So don't worry about getting there early before the event opens. If you are driving into Bardstown, you might have to park all the way over near main street. I mean, it's parking stuff.

Yeah. Yeah. So this shuttle is a great, great way to help you out a little bit. They'll have the shuttle running on Saturday and Sunday as well. Uh, Pretty much the same times with the exception of Sunday, the return back to Louisville will be at one 30 and four 30. So that's really the only change in schedule from each day. Um, but folks get there. I feel like I kind of want to get there a little early to have that breakfast.

Yeah. Now we can't not mention bourbon and beyond same time. Right in Louisville at the fairgrounds. Uh, they're competing events that are happening at the same time. That doesn't mean you can't do one and go to the other. Um, I guess tickets for both are going to set you back just a little bit, but some people do both. We're not doing both this year, so we're not going to bourbon and beyond. We'll be only at the Kentucky bourbon festival. I don't know. Maybe we're getting a little bit older. It's just too tough to make the track.

You know, I have to tell you, I, uh, I have had several folks reach out to me. Can you get me tickets to bourbon and beyond? I just want to see Bruno Mars in concert. I'm sorry, I don't, I don't have any real way to get anybody tickets to that. Uh, but they, they do have a great lineup. You know, they've got Brandy Carlisle, they've got the killers, Duran Duran, the black keys, the black crows. The black crows. Oh, the black crows are good. Yeah.

No doubt about it.

So there's, there's some really good, uh, really, really good bands in here. And last year, uh, was equally as amazing. Uh, I'm a big Chris Stapleton fan, had a great time on Sunday night listening to him. What a way to wrap up the year. But of course they have, you know, the, the culinary and everything. So you've got folks from, uh, the food network, Amanda Fry tag and If you're a foodie, like I am, you know, all the, all the names from the food network. So that is a really cool event. And I probably had a little too much fun last year.

Yeah. So I went, I went the inaugural year. I haven't been back since. And here's my reasoning. So the Kentucky bourbon festival is like 100% about the bourbon and bourbon and beyond is about 40% about the bourbon and about 60% about the music and the lifestyle.

Entertainment.

Entertainment. And if we have to choose as a bourbon podcast, which one to go to, okay, do both. I mean, maybe if I was 20 years younger, I could do both, but I'm going to go to Bardstown.

Yeah, I think Leslie definitely would prefer that I go to Bardstown. I had a great time last year, went for three days, played golf before the first day that I went to Bourbon and beyond. So it was a very long weekend of me and the guys. And so we had four days of guy time and, uh, that may push the limit just a little bit. He was pushing the limit. What can we do?

Yeah. The first year I mean, sticks in my mind, never forget Stevie Nicks. I'll never forget Stevie Nicks at the first year, but. I had a great time, had a wonderful time there. I think it was a rain out year two, pretty, pretty rough. That's when they moved venues. Right. Uh, but I don't know. It's just, I think for me, folks, I'm 60 years old this year and, uh, I think my speed is more parts down bourbon festival. Although I love music. I love Joe Badamasa.

I mean,

I love Joe Bonomas. He was phenomenal. And I would love to see him at bourbon and beyond, but man, I just, that show wore me out. It wore me out. And you're, you're a bit younger than I am.

I am, but I still felt, felt like I needed about a week to recover. It was just so many days in a row and it really was an amazing time. And, and they do a great job. Like I don't want it to come across that at some just huge wild party that that's not it at all.

I mean, there's well executed event, very well executed.

They've got great seating, depend on what tickets you get, what passes you get. You know, take your lawn chairs and relax. If you want to be really up close to the stage, like I chose to be, um, things are a little different up there than they are a little bit further back where you can put the lawn chairs down. The food was phenomenal. Uh, just, it was a great time all the way through.

Absolutely. Well, Brian got another whiskey in our glass. I'm going to, I'm going to give you a two thumbs up 15 stars, seven and 15 absolutely wonderful whiskey folks. We've given you three now we've told you about three, you know, the, the broken barrel. The legends and now the 15 stars. All of them are definitely big winners. You want to grab them when you're at the roadie bar. This one, this one won't, this, this particular bottle won't be poured in the tent, but there'll be some siblings that will be coming out. So this one here is from Lawrenceburg bourbon company. This is actually a rye whiskey. I chose this one for tonight. This is a 90% rye, 10% barley, cask two. It's a seven-year-old rye from Lawrence Burp Burpin Company, 116 proof, just a phenomenal rye whiskey. And we're going to taste it here on the show today. I guarantee you folks, there'll be a rye and there'll be a bourbon being poured in the tent and you'll be able to get barrel pick bottles from them. So.

Yeah. And these, you know, Greg, uh, he's a great friend of the show and opening a new facility, opening a new facility. And, you know, I can't wait to hopefully bump into him this weekend.

I think we will for sure. We'll see Greg there. And, uh, you know, we'll see a lot of old friends in Bardstown at the Barbstown bourbon festival, but, uh, you know, we're specifically going to have Greg porn in our tent. And, uh, what a treat. Yeah. What a treat. Definitely bring a little bit of extra cash with you so you can pick up a single barrel.

Do you think he'll have any Vegemite with him? I hope we have a jar just back there for us to smack on.

Should we bring some Vegemite? We absolutely should. And some toast crackers or something. What did we eat it on the last time? I can't remember what we had it on crackers or something.

I think it was just a, it wasn't a Ritz cracker. Um, I don't know what it was, but I'm a fan. Let's do it. I like it. Let's do it. You're in charge. We, after saying it on here, we may have to pick up 10, 10 jars of it just to make sure in case people haven't had it and they want to taste it.

Vegemite. Oh man. Can you imagine getting a poor Lawrenceburg bourbon company single barrel pick from the bourbon road and having a little bit of Vegemite on a toast cracker? Oh, so awesome.

And Greg's such a unique guy. He has, he has some phenomenal stories and just, just sees things in a really good way.

Yeah, definitely.

All right, Brian.

So here's the rye. Seven-year-old, 90, 10 rye, 116 proof, uncut, unfiltered, good stuff.

Cheers. Cheers.

Man, that's all rye all day long. 100%. I'd say all rye, all rye, all rye, but that's already, that term's already been coined by a 291 distillery. That is such a good rise. So warm. And it's almost like, I just pulled like this big fleece blanket over me. Right. And I just cuddled under this warm fleece blanket in my lazy boy recliner.

I don't know what I'm getting on the finish there, but it is so pleasant. Just so pleasant.

Yeah, I definitely get the spice gumballs. You know, one of the things you can always be sure of is there is a jelly belly to match whatever whiskey you're drinking, right?

Oh yeah. Cause they have so many great flavors. Oh, they've got a million.

But there's always a jelly belly that fits the bill, but you can't always come up with the name of it. This is such a great whiskey. He had a 10 year old Canadian rye whiskey that we tried over his place a couple of weeks back and it was phenomenal. I had to buy a bottle of that. It seems like every time I go into his shop, I have to buy a bottle because he's really, he really has just this, this keen ability to choose barrels that are just phenomenal. And he's, he's built a new facility now. They're moving into a new facility. You know, they're moving off of main street in Lawrenceburg. They're moving out a little bit closer to wild Turkey. They're going to have a multimillion dollar facility out there. I'm so proud of him. Such a great job.

So cool. And I can't remember when he was telling us about it, uh, you know, all of his plans and the vision. And that's something that I love. I love when we get to talk to folks that. They're in those beginning stages. It's like they're planning, here's what I want to do. And I had the, their privilege of talking to somebody last week that I knew what their vision was. Didn't know the timeframe of when they were going to be able to start achieving those things. And when you go to visit and you see that, wow, Like they wanted to do this, they had it planned out, they executed and it's amazing.

Yeah. Yeah. It's something I'm really looking forward to coming to fruition as well as bluegrass distillers. I mean, this is like a destination distillery that's being built right in front of our eyes. And man, I, I can't wait to see it happen. It's going to be so much fun. Oh yeah.

And they're, they're doing some good things. Like I really like, um, a lot of what they've been focused on. They have some unique, unique bottles with the Midway collection that's been released. And all of that, of course, with the coin on top, we had that back in the early summer, probably. But good stuff.

We're surrounded by greatness. No doubt about it. We really are. We're not great. We're just regular guys.

We just get to talk about it.

We just get to talk about it, but we're surrounded by greatness.

And we get to make amazing friends, you know, meet new folks. We get to, like I said a minute ago, it's all about hearing what their vision is and can they reach that goal. And I feel like a lot of times they really do, but I think that speaks to the bourbon industry and how A lot of the big guys that have been out there forever, they really do show people support. They help them along the way. I'm sure there's some cutthroat parts to the industry. Very little though. But so many of them actually care and they want to see other people succeed, which is I think pretty unique for any industry.

Yeah. In the bourbon world, I think they all believe the same thing and that is that a rising tide raises all ships. So they're all interested in helping each other out. And, um, you know, if a small distillery calls a big boy and says, I need help, I'm having a yeast problem. Chances are they're going to get help. They're going to get a helping hand.

It's kind of like farmers. You know, you see a lot of times you see farmers helping other farmers out. They kind of go in to, to help them address whatever major issues they're having. And I just think it's so cool when that happens.

It is cool. Well, Brian, it's been a great show. Kind of a preview to those things happening during September and October on the bourbon trail. We're going to be a big part of it. We're going to be there all the way. We hope our roadies can make it in. We hope our listeners can find a way to make it to Kentucky during this time and enjoy a little bit of what we call bourbon heritage month. But where can people find us on all things internet?

So yeah, you can find us on Facebook and Instagram and Twitter. Uh, we haven't really done a whole lot on tech talk, but who knows? Maybe we'll have some fun this weekend and get some tech talks, uh, shot. Maybe we can edit those out a little bit. That'd be nice. Yeah. You can, you can definitely find us in those places. And I know that, uh, we've got some good activity within the bourbon roadies group.

Absolutely. Yeah. So 3000 members strong. These are just good, solid people that love to drink bourbon, love to talk about bourbon, loves to, you know, they love to share their bourbon with each other. And, uh, you know, we've got samples going back and forth between people all the time. And if somebody gets a good bottle, they're happy to share it with somebody else. So it's a great group of people. Let's go on Facebook, search out the bourbon roadies. Join up, answer three questions. You'll be a member. Hang out in there and talk with the folks. You'll have a good time. Then when you come to bourbon on the banks, make sure you walk in and say, I'm a roadie belly up to that bourbon roadies bar and, and try one of these whiskeys. We've talked about today on the show. We do show every single week on Wednesdays. You'll hear us talk about, uh, great new whiskeys that are available in the market. Brian and I will sit down. Sometimes we'll have a distillery on the show. Sometimes a musician or an author or a chef or some other kind of need to get some more chefs on here. So I think I do.

I, you know, that's in that part of my life.

I'm kind of a foodie too. And I feel we had like a string of musicians on there for awhile, but we haven't had a chef on for awhile. I think it's time.

So let's, let's make that happen for sure.

But we've always got a great show for you every single week. We hope you'll tune in and Brian, what do they have to do to make sure they don't miss a single episode?

So you just want to go to YouTube, Spotify. Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, any of those places you want to click subscribe. And each time the podcast is released, you'll get a notification.

They'll get that bell notification. We'll say, Hey, these jokers have released another podcast. You don't want to miss it. One more coming. Any time that you've got an idea for a show, if you've got a bottle in your hometown, if you've got a distillery in your hometown, if something has caught your attention and you just think the bourbon roadies need to know about it, make sure you hop on our website. Go to that Contact Us page. Let us know that we need to get busy and talk to some people. We'll make it happen. We'll try that bottle. We'll talk to that distillery. We'll get those people on the show. We'll have, make a good show of it because everybody needs a little bit of light shined on them from time to time. And bourbon is not only made in Kentucky folks. It's made all across the United States. That's right. It's America's whiskey. And, uh, you know what? It doesn't matter if you're Alaska or Hawaii or any of the other 48 states that you can make bourbon and you can, you can make damn good bourbon. We've got some really good bourbon from all across this USA. So if somebody is doing it in your hometown, make sure you let us know about it. Brian and I are very approachable. You can reach us through email. You can reach us on the website. Like we said, if you want to email us or team at the bourbonroad.com that comes to Brian and I, one of us will get back to you. But until the next time we'll see you down the bourbon road.

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