395. Bourbon on the Banks 2024 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 as a new sponsor for the bourbon road podcast. In fact, this podcast is brought to you by Blanton's bourbon shop. Blanton's bourbon shop.com is the only official merchandiser for Blanton's original single barrel. Looking for a unique gift? Blanton's bourbon shop has got you covered. Blanton's bourbon shop.com is your home for all Blanton's gifts. The Bourbon Road is excited to have pintsandbarrels.com as a sponsor of this episode, as well as our official custom apparel provider. Be sure to check out pintsandbarrels.com and browse their ultimate online store for bourbon lovers. Hello listeners, and welcome back to another episode of the Bourbon Road Podcast. I'm your host, Jim Shannon, and today we are once again in Frankfort, Kentucky, downtown, beautiful Frankfort, Kentucky, just off the banks of the Kentucky river. And we're at the corner Rick house, home of the Frankfort bourbon society. We've got a great show for you today. We've got three guests in the house. Uh, they've all been on the show before, but this is our summer kickoff show for bourbon on the banks. Let me welcome everybody here. I've got Diane Strong, Director of Bourbon on the Banks. Diane, welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me.

Todd Ritter, board member, both of Bourbon on the Banks and the Frankfurt Bourbon Society. Welcome, Todd. Correct. Thank you. It's good to be back. I'm like a bad penny. Yeah, you were just here a couple of weeks ago, weren't you? That's all right. You do such a good job. Thank you. And AMSE winning. AMSE also on the board of both the Bourbon on the Banks and the Frankfurt Bourbon Society. AMSE, welcome back. Thank you. Glad to be back. So today we're dedicating this show to get all the information out for this year's Birdman on the Banks. And we do this every year. Actually, sometimes we do it more than once, but definitely want to do it early enough in the year where our listeners get an opportunity to gather all the details, make their travel plans, get their tickets. Get them early. Get them early. Make that plan to get to Frankfort, Kentucky and hang out. It's our grand time of the year.

Yeah.

So we do want to get straight to the whiskey. We are drinking a whiskey today. That means a great deal to bourbon on the banks. Can somebody give us a little background on why we chose to drink this particular brand?

Well, we are thrilled to announce that Limestone Farms out of Georgetown, Kentucky is our title sponsor this year. This is the first time we've had a new title sponsor and bringing on a distillery is really fun. I got to tell you, we love Community Trust Bank. They're wonderful for us. But when you It's hard to sample, you know, bank stuff on a podcast and we get to sample some, some bourbon here.

I mean, they could just hand out money. Right. Well, they wouldn't do that. That was the problem. I know. You tried.

We tried negotiating with them.

Just offer you a car loan.

But yeah, so yeah, Limestone Farms are, they're brand new and they're really getting their name out. They've, they've got something really great going on in Scott County. And so we're sampling some of their product today.

All right. So what's in our first class here? Which one are we trying first?

So we're going to start off with the select batch. This particular one we have is 111 proof. It's not age stated, but unlike their other products, it kind of gives you an age range on some of their select stock and their Small batch. And, uh, so this one's 111 proof, like I said, and I believe it's sourced from, um, Claremont, Kentucky. So. Yeah.

All right. Well, let's check it out guys. Wow. It's got a, it's got a little bit of a nip on the nose, doesn't it? Yeah.

I got fireball on my nose. Is that what it's called? The fireballs, those red hot?

Yeah. Yeah. A little cinnamon. Yeah, cinnamon and a little bit of ethanol. That's sweet though. Kind of an ethanol push to that cinnamon, right?

I'm pretty sure, uh, This is their weeded matchbill, according to Robbie Dowling of Limestone Farms. We got to spend the day with him one day recently. So that was really cool. And we got to meet a bunch of the other folks and they gave us a grand tour. So yeah, it is pretty exciting to have them a part of this.

Yeah, you know, it's kind of interesting that they're very open about sourcing and they have sourced from several different distilleries. And of course they have some grand plans to distill on their own.

Yeah, I do believe this, the mystique, the quietness, all the things that used to be part of sourcing whiskeys for your main brands, for your flagship products. It used to be kind of taboo, and now it's just like, who cares, right? Who really cares? It just needs to be good. Now we do respect somebody who makes their own, no doubt about it. There's a certain craft in making your own, but by the same token we found, we've been educated so much on how maturation and blending play just such a huge role.

So this one retails for about 150.

So these are premium whiskeys. These are top shelf whiskeys. Yes.

I mean, they're not for everyone, but I mean, it'd be a good pour to have at the bar if you're a little afraid of jumping to a $150 purchase. It's very understandable.

So if you go to the Limestone Farms, I guess it's limestonefarms.com, I'm guessing, limestonefarmsdistillery.com, this would be their white label. Correct. All right, I'm going to take a sip. Cheers. Cheers. Yeah, I really like their stuff.

I do too. I was very unsure when Diane told us that, you know, there's this new place and I was like, that's my first thing I did was went and Googled them.

I'm like, what do they do?

So I was really impressed.

I mean, if on the nose, it was cinnamon and sugar, a little bit of ethanol, kind of a nice spicy nose to it. But on the palate, I'm getting that soft up front, but I'm getting a cherry. Cherry zing. Yeah. That's a good way to say it. Yep. Because it definitely is like, it's not like you have to figure it out. It's like right there, you know what it is. Wow. But it's got a great deal of texture to it and body. What did you say the proof was again?

This one's just 111. I think from when I read on their website, it ranges from about 110 to 115 or so. That is a very, very good bourbon.

I'm getting some butterscotch.

Yeah.

The kind that you put on the liquid stuff you put on your ice cream, not the hard candy. Is there a difference?

I get that.

Nice.

Cool. Good call. It's got a good dark color to it, and it also carries a bit of oak with it. I mean, a good amount of oak with it. And it's not new oak. This is mature oak flavor with it, I think.

Yeah, with that color, I mean, just looking at it, you got to think it's probably like Maybe like five to nine years, maybe some older, older blended with some younger. Good stuff.

Now, you know, you said weeded mash bill, correct? And I think you're right on that. And so from Claremont, I'm trying to think of something they do with a weeded mash bill.

And I can't think. It's not really in their DNA.

Yeah. Well, and if I recall when we visited, they mentioned that this wasn't a match bill currently used by the producer, correct? I believe so. It's been a while since we visited, but I think they said that. I don't know if I would guess that's where it came from.

Oh yeah, this blind, I'd be lost.

I would never call out Beam. No. No. No. I don't think it tastes like a Weed. This technically isn't Beam. This is Claremont Farms or Claremont something. I can't remember what it is, but they have another name for their business unit that produces whiskeys on contract.

Well, they've got some pretty big plans out there. Their visitor center is supposed to be open this summer. And they've got plans to have eventually a restaurant out there, a hotel. I mean, big plans. It's gonna be worth getting off the interstate for. And correct me if I'm wrong, they're gonna be the second largest pot still. These are behind Oroses?

Yeah, no, Woodford. Woodford, yeah.

Sorry.

I don't know, there's some big pot stills in Texas.

But I think they were talking about, was it five, 2,500 gallon pot stills? Oh wow. And he's got a column up there already. And then they were going to have a couple like thousand gallon. I mean, they're- Oh my goodness. This is serious.

Yeah, they're jumping in with both feet.

Well, I would really love to see a distillery that talks about having a destination

It is, it's going to be a complete destination.

Because a lot of times they don't quite get that far, right? We all know about the Kentucky Owl destination experience that has not happened yet.

Has anyone gone on with Blue Run?

No.

I know they got purchased, but they have plans.

They are also in Scott County, and from what I understand, it is on hold.

That's a Molson Coors collaboration. Right. Yeah, I mean, I would love to see it. I mean, it's exciting. The concept's exciting to me. This destination, much like a hard truth, it's kind of a destination distillery, right? There's a lot more there than just the distillery itself. But yeah, the idea of hotels and restaurants and all kinds of side things to do just really gets me going. I really would love to see it.

Right. Well, my biggest question was how's the city and how's the county treating you? Because at the end of the day, if they don't allow for the planning and the zoning and all this stuff to take place, you know, it can really get pushed back. But it sounded like Scott County was really doing a good job for them, so.

All right. Well, I'm excited. I'm behind them 100%. I'd love to see it. That's something that, I mean, even if it's only 45 minutes from my home, I would still go spend the weekend. There you go. How awesome is that? Because Barstown Bourbon is another place that was supposed to have the hotel thing going up and they just haven't got to it yet, I think, is the deal. I don't know.

They've been too busy making. Rick houses, yeah.

Although I think they've, I just drove by there last week and I don't think I saw one going up. So maybe they're on hold for now.

Well, they do have their priorities, right? I mean, they do know the first thing you need to do is lay down barrels. So that's good. All right. So back to bourbon on the banks. So last year was kind of a record year for you guys.

Yeah, we sold out last year. Yeah. First time ever. We've continually grown about 25, 30% every year. It's just a nice steady. And it topped, we kind of assumed we were going to sell out last year finally at 2000 and we did.

Do you feel like the space you have along the river, the downtown area, the support system that you have for 2000 to 2500 people, is it sufficient?

Um, we can't handle anymore. I mean, in my opinion.

Well, the good thing is now I've been to some events and I'm not going to name any, but I've been to events before where they bring in so many people that you stand in line at each of the distilleries for 10 plus 15 minutes. We don't want that. It's not like that at permanent on the bank.

No, not at all. As a matter of fact, I had a gal come in for, we were at the Bourbon Society and she couldn't wait to tell me about a Bourbon event she had just gone to. She said the lines were so long, she couldn't even see who she was in line to see or to taste. And when she finally got up there, she had to go to the back of the next line. She loves Bourbon on the Banks and she loves it more after going to an event like that because we really do It's we don't want to change the integrity of the event just to make a couple extra bucks because that nobody will come. You know, we want to stay who we are. And so, you know, I think Logistically, we can maybe handle a few more people, but the way we are right now, 2000 is comfortable and I don't want to breach that right now. We can expand a little bit longer along the banks of the Kentucky River, but it gets a little weird and then logistics get hairy for getting our distilleries in and getting our people in. So it's tricky. We want to keep that. We don't want to throw you in a convention center or in a big hotel room. We want to keep it on the banks of the Kentucky River and the history and the ambiance.

I mean, being on the banks of a river, I mean, that property is kind of a unique format. It's very long and very narrow. So when you're trying to get 70 distilleries in there to set up their tents, they all have to travel down one center road down the middle to set up their tents on either side of the road.

We've got it down to an art though, thanks to Eric.

So when you guys first started that, I bet it was kind of tough in the beginning, wasn't it?

Well, you know, another thing is that even though we sold out last year, we have increased the number of tickets available every year. So it was a bit smaller the first year. Um, and, and I do think it went remarkably well because, you know, anything of that scale first time, um, It still turned out great. Um, what was that? 2019 was the first year. Um, great event, great momentum. And then something happened in 2020, uh, COVID, you know, which put a halt on things. Um, so then we were kind of worried about coming back in 21, afraid we'd lost some of that momentum, some of that steam, but we grew.

Yeah. People were ready to get out of the house and permanent events were a good excuse.

Well, and I think that's what also helped us being the outdoor event too, is a lot more people were comfortable coming to it.

So Diane, you kind of start planning this thing immediately following closing down shop the year before. So you don't really get to take much of a break. A little vacation and then back at it.

Yeah. Well, you want to capture as much information as you can right after the event. Lessons learned. What went right? What went wrong? What needs to be changed for next year? Well, it's all fresh in your brain. And that's why I send out the surveys right away to my distilleries and the volunteers and, of course, the attendees and try to get the feedback on each event so that we don't. Forget all that stuff. So there's a lot of scrambling right after the event.

Sure. So let's talk a little bit about that because it's always good to look back on the prior year and talk about what went great and what maybe you can improve on. Where some of the comments, well, I'm sure most of the comments were constructive, but where some of them, or a lot of them were pats on the back, but some of them were also, hey, you could do this part a little better, that part a little better. What do you think? Were there some things that stood out to you?

Yeah, there is. It was the porta-potties. Was it? Oh my God. It's really embarrassing because that was something that was the easiest thing to not mess up, really. We had basically talked with the city and we consulted with the logistics coordinator and myself and we thought we had enough porta-potties. It didn't take much time to realize that we had failed. I wonder what kind of other constructive criticism I would have gotten had that not been the one thing. They're like, everything was awesome, but you need more porta-potties next year. Just to let everyone know, we are more than doubling this year. Everybody's going to... We're paying special attention to the bathrooms.

Do you have any VIP bathrooms this year?

We are going to have special VIP bathrooms. Yes. They're going to be on the little trailer. They get the fancy ones. It's not VIP. It's the special access ticket who gets those.

Got it. Okay. Well, let's talk a little bit about the attendance last year. How many people came to Bourbon on the Banks?

It's 2,000.

2,000 people. Now, are there people that come to Frankfurt and attend the events surrounding Bourbon on the Banks in addition to, so maybe the greater attendance is more than 2,000?

Oh, it has to be well beyond that, especially considering the Friday night Bourbon Street on Broadway event.

Oh, yeah, definitely.

Yeah, yeah, we have I don't think anyone has tried to estimate that crowd, but.

Right, and that crowd, you know, we advertise that to basically the surrounding 50 miles, you know, that's the free family-friendly event. And so we expect people to drive in and go home, but we, about five, 6,000 people sometimes at that event.

Just gonna say a lot of locals, a lot of kids.

Yes, it's a great event.

Awesome. But also, even though don't let, You know, some people that are in town without their family, you know, without the kids, don't let that scare you away. You know, you've got all the food trucks there. I mean, a lot of great food trucks, the pub stroll is going on at the same time. So.

Yeah. And it's the mixed district. You're going to have a good time. And it's not just a kids event. It is, it is an adult.

Yeah. I honestly don't see a lot of the kids, even though I know they're down along the one street there. You guys will have to help me out. What street?

So most of the free kids activities are on the Capitol lawn.

Yeah. That would be off of Broadway.

Yeah. So you're not tripping over kids.

I feel like I'm adulting the whole time. I don't feel like there's kids everywhere. No, not at all. But I think if you go over there towards the Capitol lawn, you're going to see all the kids and the clowns and the jugglers and whatever else you've got going on over there. Trapeze artist. I don't know. You've always had something really cool over there. But no, I feel like if you're on St. Clair or towards Goodwood, you're fine. You're definitely adulting.

Yeah, for sure.

Yeah. Well, what do you guys think? Let's give a couple of final notes here on this whiskey before we jump into the next one. I will say that now that my glass is empty, the nose is just phenomenal. I'm getting all that butterscotch that you talked about, Diane. The cherry just is kind of not there anymore. It's gone.

It's just the kind of the caramel and like the baking spices cabinet with a little bit of oak.

Yep. So the cherry notes are definitely coming off the liquid and, uh, you know, the empty glass has given me all the oak and butterscotch.

Yeah. And, and I don't know if Limestone Farms has done any additional finishing or anything other than like the way they blend this, but yeah, I'd like to know who else uses that mash bill. Cause I mean, that is a, that's a really, really good whiskey. It's a really good bourbon. I enjoy it.

Well, they definitely know how to make whiskey in Claremont. Surprise though, that if they've tasted this, why they haven't chose to put something out with their, with their label on it. But okay. Well,

Maybe this was something- Limestone Farms Gang, I guess.

Yeah, absolutely. All right. Well, let's move on to the next whiskey. And what do we have in our second glass, guys?

This is the small batch. This particular version we have came in at 113.6 proof. According to the website, and I'm pretty sure, definitely in this bottle, but this has nine, yeah, it even has a little sticker that says nine-year-old product on it.

So this is a nine-year-old small batch from Limestone Farms, 113 proof. And this one retails for 190-ish. And this is a sight darker than the other liquid. It does have a darker label, so maybe that's playing into it, but I think it is darker. Just a hair darker. This doesn't have the kind of the cherry notes on the nose. This is a little bit more kind of a plum or raisin. I was going to say a darker fruit thing.

Yeah, definitely.

Maybe you can even go black cherry type thing. Yeah, sure. Almost even a jam or like a plum jam or something. That's just a hint of mint on it. Cheers. Cheers. Oh.

I wish I could thank him. Oh, that's so good. Like I've got all these great tasting notes and they're, they're on the tip of my tongue and I can't think of what it's called.

It's called that one thing that tastes like that one thing.

What are the things that come in the, they're, they're mints, but they come in the little tin.

Altoids. Altoids.

Is that strange? But like a sweet, maybe like mixed with that.

Yeah. I mean, I got a mint on the nose.

Well, you said that and that's what you said mint. And I think that's why that came to. I've not had one of those in a while.

The flavors coming off the palette are diverse. I mean, there's a lot of stuff going on there.

You keep doing this bourbon on the banks thing for a few more years, you'll be a veteran. You got it.

I need to practice more.

You just need to drink more, Diane. I think that's the problem. You're not drinking enough whiskey. She's a big rye fan, though.

I am a big rye fan.

Join the club. I love Rye. Cheers.

I like space and I like complexity. And that first one that we sampled had a lot of that. This one. It's not as spicy, I don't think.

See, I feel like these two whiskeys we just tried are for kind of two different kinds of people. They're really, they really meet two different kinds of drinkers. One's a little softer with a more fruity note to it. The other one's a little bit, not quite as soft, a little bit more bold. It's got a much deeper, richer palette to it. Yeah, a little more refined.

Is that pecan?

There's a nuttiness to it. I am not good at picking out specific nuts. I like pecan.

Did we talk about Mash Bill on this one?

No, but it's on there.

Yeah, on their website. This one says 78 corn, 13 rye, and 9% malted barley. It's a decent malt content.

It's good.

It is good.

I kind of like the texture on the first one a little bit more. Even though this one is still viscous, this is still a nice viscous liquid, but this one has a little bit more of that oak component to it. I like it. This could easily be a cigar whiskey. You could drink this with a smoke. You could drink this with Spicy heavy meats. Fire pit whiskey. Fire pit whiskey. There you go. Yep.

You need to make a t-shirt of that, Jim. Yeah.

It's good porch whiskey too, right? You sit on the back porch thinking whiskey.

Especially if it's foggy out.

What's the fog got to do? You need to explain to yourself. I don't know. If you have enough, you can kind of get in the fog.

No, no, no. It can handle a heavy stake. It can handle the fog too. That's where I'm going.

There you go.

I'm pulling stuff straight out of places.

Is that an adage? It's going to warm you up on that cool foggy morning. That's it.

I don't like the atmosphere.

Hey, don't let them get to you. You just say whatever you want to say. I'm going to buckle up. I want to put that with my plant your beans early, I guess.

There's a fog, drink some bourbon, something. Well, I know it's been a while back we had limestone farms on, and we had their full line of expressions. And at that time, I was very impressed with them. But as I come back and I revisit them now, I don't remember my particular tasting notes on them or anything. But what I do remember is that their individual expressions differ significantly from each other. They're all quality, they're all well-aged, they're well-constructed whiskeys, and they taste very good. I mean, they're just, yeah. They're pricey, but you know what? You don't have to buy them if you can't afford them. We're not telling you to go empty your wallet and buy a $150 bottle, but if you did spend the money on this bottle, you would not be disappointed.

Yeah.

Say something else on this one, kind of towards the back end as you're getting into the finish. To me, it's kind of heavy. It's a resinous syrupy kind of there at the, at the end is, you know, towards the finish. And it's kind of the little bit of that darker fruit, that kind of plum that something that's in there. I really like this little sticky. Yeah. And that's where you mentioned like going good with like a cigar or something or like a steak. It's like, this is definitely going to stand up.

Yeah, it's definitely getting out the smoker season. Have you guys got your smokers yet? I know you just had this New Orleans deal. The crawfish boil. Crawfish boil, yeah.

I'm just a boring old grill. I've got a gas grill and actually I'm bringing it down. Monday we're having a cookout for the Bourbon Society.

I grill all winter long, but we did some smoking for a while. It was fun. And then I tried to do some ribs and they were like burnt toothpicks by the time I was done with them. And I gave up. I lost too much money in that one try.

I haven't fired up the smoker. I'm trying to think about, well, I have used the smoker this year, but it was very early in the year.

I was going to say you did some Chex Mix for an event, didn't you?

I did. The smoked Chex Mix. That was really good.

Well, I didn't know we could do cereal. This is opening up my... Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Chex Mix on the smoker. And then you actually put some barbecue rub on it. as like the seasoning sort of, it's really good. It was really good.

Yeah. I mean, I like smoked mac and cheese, but I haven't had that in a while, but I haven't broke my smoker out this year because my thermostat went out last fall and I haven't ordered it yet, but I'm ready to, I've actually already been buying ribs whenever I see them on sale. So I'm ready with the meat. I just got to get my thermostat.

I went on a pheasant hunt. early. I mean, it was, well, it was a, what's called a tower shoot, uh, for pheasant. I think that morning it was something like two degrees when we got out there, um, very cold. Um, but actually I smoked a couple pheasants and, uh, one of the best things I've ever had. And, uh, that was good. But also I was thinking I hadn't, but I'm getting ready to fire up the smoker. I don't know if this will come out in time. But I saw Kroger has a deal here locally, buy one, get one free on Porkbutt. So the smoker is probably going to get fired up this weekend again. Because they're making me drool a little bit. Yeah, I'm ready. We can move on from this conversation.

None of us have had dinner yet.

None of us have had some free dinners. All right.

Well, I'll tell you what, this for me is my favorite because I like the spicier, um, oakier, heavier kind of whiskies. The first one was delightful. Don't get me wrong. It was wonderful. Uh, but this one's a little bit more up my alley. What do you guys think?

I kind of lean towards this one as well, but I do like the first one because I think it is a fairly unique whiskey that I would kind of like to add into the collection.

All right. Let's recap on this. The first one we had was what Todd?

It was the Select Batch and no age statement, 111 proof. Yeah, that was the one we thought had a lot of cherry, butterscotch. We're going to guess it's seven years plus, though. Or six plus. I think all their stuff is. Probably a little five, seven, nine, maybe even more. I believe you talked to Robbie Dowling, so he would probably know more about the specifics on that.

Well, people can dial back a couple of episodes when we have limestone farms on and listen to the details. We went through everything in very excruciating details.

And then this one we're drinking right now is the small batch. And that one was 113.6 proof. And yeah, a lot of dark fruit notes, a lot of oak. And yeah, that's right up my alley. I like that one. It's just kind of a little bit darker, a little bit heavier.

The first one was a white label. How do we describe this label?

Leather.

Chocolate brown leather. I was going to say, yeah, it looks kind of like chocolate leather. And this one's a nine-year-old product, too.

The farm is actually a cattle farm. And so they kind of have a leather theme and a farm theme going on.

All the labels are kind of leathery.

Yeah, they have a texture on there.

It's a really nice label design.

All right, Limestone Farms. We definitely appreciate the bottles we have here on the table and the opportunity to sip through them and talk about them. We certainly appreciate the sponsorship of Bourbon on the Banks.

Heck yeah.

We're going to take a short break, folks. And when we come back, we're actually going to talk about this year's Bourbon on the Banks. We're going to go into detail. Diane's going to lay out all the specifics for us. And we're going to drink through a couple more whiskies. A lot more coming. Don't go away. 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. If you're a bourbon drinker, and I bet you are if you're listening to this podcast, you need to head over to pintsandbarrels.com and check out the ultimate online store for bourbon lovers. Pints and Barrels Company was started by bourbon lovers for bourbon lovers, from spices to t-shirts to find the perfect bourbon gift. Pints and Barrels proudly supports the bourbon road and invites you to visit pintsandbarrels.com. You need a custom apparel or swag for your bar, distillery, maybe even your bourbon society. They can do that too. As a matter of fact, they print our apparel. We're so happy with the quality and fast turnaround. Pitesandbarrels.com, the ultimate bourbon lovers gift shop and branding specialist.

Hey listeners, welcome back to the Bourbon Road. We just refilled our glasses with a couple more pours and we're going to tell you all about what's coming up this year's Urban on the Banks. Hey Todd, how'd he do guys?

He did all right. Yeah, he did all right.

Not bad. Yeah, that's pretty awesome. So anybody who's wondering why Todd brought us in on the second half here, Todd is now in the plus five club. He's done more than five guest appearances on the Bourbon Road. We have a few people in that group. Rob, I'm just telling you, Rob Carter, the next time you're on the show, you're going to have to bring us in on the second half. So start practicing. You did a great job. Thank you, sir. It was awesome. And I bet Rob will do fine.

He's on podcasts all the time. This is like nothing for him. These guys are pros.

These guys are real pros. And they know their whiskey to start with. And now they're getting to be like broadcasters. Like Don Pardo of podcasting.

Whoever that is. You're on different. I don't know who Don Pardo is.

Should I?

Never mind. Got that, Jim? Well, yay, Todd. Good job.

Thank you.

I'm going to Google that.

The Roadies appreciate you bringing them in on the second half. All right, so before we get talking about the details of this year's event, let's talk about what's in our first class here. We have transition from bourbon to rye. Is that correct? Correct.

This is a rye from our good friends at Whiskey Thief Distilling. This is their Mayday rye. It was just released probably three weeks ago or so. I think it was 117 proof. Exactly. And an eight year rye. This is in the 375. It cost 80 bucks. Yeah. This is the, I got last year's version and this is the 2024 version. So, yeah, it's always exciting to see this drop because.

Fantastic. And just remind me why Whiskey Thief is so important to Bourbon on the Banks.

Well, they sponsor our Friday VIP reception and bourbon auction by providing a barrel pick experience in the auction. So it's huge. I mean, it's a really cool opportunity. You get your, what is it, 10 friends together and you gather up and go to Whiskey Thief and you get to pick out a barrel and bottle it and take it all home. I mean, it's cool.

Hey, Walter. Hey, so they also have the kickoff party, right?

Oh, yeah. Yeah, Thursday night.

We're going to talk about all those details here in a minute. But first, the whiskey, folks. Yeah. And this is the Mayday Rye, 117 proof. It's a May release from Whiskey Thief Distilling.

Yeah, they don't say the match bill on this one, but I'm sure if we asked Walter, he could probably give us the details. But yeah.

So to clarify, They've created this whiskey and then every year it gets a year older and they just bottle a certain number of them?

I don't know that for certain, but they do their black cat rye every year around Halloween and they take a limited number of these smaller 375s from that barrel. Um, and they do more every year. And so I don't know if they're doing the same thing on the Mayday rye, but last year it was a seven year. So I don't know if it was a separate barrel or they're just pulling a little from the same barrel every year.

I'm not sure.

Walter's been on the show, but he didn't talk about the Mayday rye. So.

And if I was to guess, I'm sure this is at least 90% rye. If you go all the way back to the original owner and founder, Ross Cardwell, that's a lot of what he did, somewhere between 90 and 95% rye. And usually a good portion of that is malted rye as well. And then the five to 10% malted barley in there.

I'm a big fan of malted ryes, no doubt.

All right, well let's check it out.

Love the nose on this. So unique. Citrusy and bright. Yeah. Reminds me of like magnolia. Like a floral, like if you walk past some magnolias, it gives you like this citrus charmkins.

Remember charmkins? It's kind of the right time of year. This is the kind of nose you get when you go outside. If you've got some flower gardens around your house and We do have a couple of magnolia trees and they are, they're blossoming and it's just, just wonderful. It's wonderful. It's got to stay away from the front of the house because we've got lavender and other things up there that are just totally throw you off. But on the backside of the house, this is what I get right here.

Man, I've never thought of a magnolias and rye before, but here it is.

When I first smelled this, I got sass fresh and a little bit of cola. It's just so strange, but you know, the longer it, it's pretty complex.

Yup. That's frass. I get mint. It's a light mint, like a spearmint.

And just like this all the way in the back, hiding behind everything else is just this light licorice note. But I got this feeling it's going to jump out on the palate.

I think I may have wore perfume. I'm like, okay, now what am I smelling?

Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. That is really, really super good.

There's some black licorice on there.

There is definitely licorice. It was barely noticeable on the nose, but it just jumped out on the palate. And the funny thing is, that happens a lot. With licorice rise that display a lot of licorice, you'll just barely pick it up on the nose. And when you get that, you're like, oh my gosh, guess what?

You know, and this is a limited release. I don't know if it's still available, but run out and try and get a bottle, kids.

I would definitely do that. Now, when you go to Whiskey Thief, their 375 is around $80. I mean, typically. So, you know, they, at Whiskey Thief, they provide an experience. They provide, you know, this very unique experience that I have to tell you, probably one of my favorite places to attend on the trail. When I go there, I don't want to leave. I just want to stay. I want to kick back in one of their chairs. I'll bite around the fire pit and just keep visiting the barrels and tasting.

Such a great place. Such a great concept. And if there's music going on, it's even better. It's even better.

And you go around, you know, just like the Rare Eagle bar has a Tata bus, so does Whiskey Thief. So you go visit their Tata bus and get a cocktail if you want. But I usually just drink the straight whiskeys when I'm there.

Yeah. You know, uh, Fridays and Saturdays, uh, during the summer, like, so now what's going on, um, live music Friday and Saturday evenings.

They've got their food truck back up.

The food truck. And I think they're running the food truck starting earlier in the week now. Um, and the food's great. You gotta eat.

Yeah. They got a new chef not too long ago. And I went for a, uh, chocolate pairing and he had some hors d'oeuvres that were

out of this world. They're really, really good. And all these listeners are like, what's this Whiskey Thief thing? I'm just telling you, if you come to the trail, you got to go to Whiskey Thief. Plan for a couple of hours and just relax.

They have a fire pit out back, chairs, cornhole boards. I mean, it's a place where you can go there and spend a whole day, honestly.

Yeah. They've got eight barrels tapped in two different locations and you go back and forth and take pours out of those barrels and just enjoy them. It's just... Man, it's just such a great format.

It's a relaxed atmosphere. Very relaxed.

It's very welcoming, which is nice. And the people that they've hired to work in there are just really very personable. And I mean, Rob and Pam will call Melody and I up and say, let's go. We're going to Whiskey Z. And we'll just go up there. We'll go up there probably at least once a month and just hang out. It's a lot of fun.

There have been a, you know, we haven't met yet this year, but everyone's on a Friday, Todd and I. See if each other have lunch plans. We'll go out there and grab lunch and stay there for dinner. Sometimes it'll make it back to work. Um, but also if anyone hasn't been there after you taste the barrels, if there's one you like, you can fill your own bottle, um, with an actual copper whiskey thief.

Um, do three 75 millimeter or seven 50.

Yep. And they will all say, if you don't want to do it, they'll do it for you. But it's actually fun to do unless you wait until that barrel is almost empty. And I learned that the hard way when there must have been like two inches of whiskey left in that barrel. And it took me 35 minutes to fill a 750. So if it's low, ask them to do it for you. And I hope none of their barrel tenders are listening and they'll hate me when I say that.

And if you want some of their product, you have to go there, correct? They do not have distribution. It's just in the good shop.

They have a very, very unique format. And I love it. I just love it.

I will tell you, I've never tasted anything I did not like.

Yeah.

I think our friend Mike, what's Mike's last name? Out there.

Mike.

out at Whiskey Thee? Murphy?

Murphy told us they had actually joined up with a place so, I guess, a distributor they could sell out to other states now. Oh, my. Cool.

That's exciting.

Yeah, and then maybe someone limited on the stats. I'm not sure.

It wasn't a seal box or a keg and bottle or anything like that, but It may be out there to where you can buy it.

I know Melody, my wife, she filled a bottle when she was there and she was so proud of it. She had such a good time doing that and they just had a blast. It was at the house and she hadn't touched it for a while and I kept looking at it sitting there in the pantry and I was like, okay, we'll try a little bit. I probably drank half the bottle. Because it's a 375, that's only a few pours, right?

It doesn't even count.

And she looked at that and I was in so much trouble because I drank her bottle.

You just got to go back out there. It's not a big deal.

She would have shared it with me openly, but I didn't ask. That was the problem. That was wrong of me. So guys, be careful.

How long have you been married?

Almost 14, 15 years.

And you didn't know better.

I know, it's terrible. We never learned, do we guys?

Maybe one of these days. Repetition. Fingers crossed.

We are trainable, it just takes a very long time.

In your defense, women like to keep you on your toes. Yeah, that's true. They change the rules every now and then.

All right, so let's talk a little bit about, let's start with Thursday.

So Thursday, we have a bourbon tour on the boat. It's called Mixology on the River. We've got Heather Wibbles. She is an award-winning mixologist. And O.H. Ingram River Aged Whiskey, which is perfect for being on a boat, right? And she's going to teach you how to make some drinks with bitters.

And she's the cocktail Contessa.

Yes, she is. It's very limited. It's only 30 seats that we're selling. It's over half sold out. So if you're wanting to do that, which I really do encourage you to do it, it's going to be a really nice.

And you'll be on the river between Bourbon on the Banks Festival area and Buffalo Trace, that area along the river there.

Yeah. And you'll go up the other direction as well. With this tour, you're gonna be making cocktails the whole time, sorry. So yeah, and you'll also get three full drinks. I mean, you're gonna have, it's not just sampling. You're gonna go home with Heather Wibble's book, and you'll go home with a Tumblr. So it's great. And those tickets are $100, $100, I believe.

Oh, that's a bargain. Her book is something else. Yeah.

Yeah, it's a great book.

Yeah.

I shouldn't know that.

But they go to bourbononthebanks.org.

Yep.

And the tickets are for sale there.

Right. And like I said, that's over half sold out, and there's only 30 available. That'll be a great one. And when you are done, you can get off of the boat, get something to eat for a minute, and head out to Whiskey Thief, where we're going to have our official kickoff party. They're gonna have fire stoked up and they're gonna have, you know, the cornhole and music and food and sampling. I believe they're gonna do free tours.

At Whiskey Thief? Yeah. Yeah, tours, gonna be food available, cocktails, fun event. Yeah, I did... Check Diane, the mixology on the river is $125. I still think it's a bargain.

I still think you're going to get a boat ride on the river, you know, along the river in Frankfurt. And you're going to get an evening with Heather Wibbles, several cocktails.

And her buck.

My goodness. What a great deal.

It's like traveling back in time. That's the way the barrels got to where, where they needed to go. Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, it's a great event. O.H. Ingram is sponsoring it. And honestly, like if you were to, we're not making a lot of money without a sponsorship, we wouldn't make any money on that event. So it's a good value and it's going to be a great memory.

And you're definitely going to pull into the dock important time to head over to Whiskey Thief.

Oh gosh. Yeah. Yeah.

And sample some of their whiskeys like we're drinking right now. And also the pretty goods are going to be there.

Yes, they are.

They were just on our show. Yes. What a great band. We're going to have a good time there that night.

Yeah.

All right. So that's Thursday night, plenty going on. So if you're planning your trip to Frankfurt for bourbon on the banks, it's the fifth is Saturday. Is that correct?

Yeah. The big event was on Saturday.

Third. It would be good to get here on the third.

Yeah, definitely. Definitely.

Thursday night, Friday night, Saturday night, three nights in a hotel, bed and breakfast. There's still some availability. I just checked by the way.

Yes, we've got several hotels that have room blocks for us. So if you look online and there's hotels that says they're sold out, be sure to go online and make sure that they don't have a block that's set aside for Bourbon on the Banks. You'll get a discount and the details are on bourbononthebanks.org.

All right.

Under visit.

So we finish up at Whiskey Thief. We take our Uber or our shuttle back to Frankfurt. It's not that far, 20 minutes. Probably less than 15. From downtown Frankfurt, less than that.

Less than that. 10 to 15.

Back to Frankfurt and then get maybe a midnight pour somewhere. What are some places they can go to Thursday night when they're done, if they got to have that one last pour?

House of Commons is a hard spot to pass up. That would be my recommendation. A friend Dave Sandlin down there. The Coopridge.

Dicey Riley's. Goodwood's going to be open probably. I don't know how late. Bourbon on Main stays open. I mean, we've got several places, but decent bars.

The Hauser Tavern. Newer spots.

The Hauser, absolutely.

You know, and I think that's something that has changed the last couple of years here in Frankfurt. Especially the last year.

It's just absolutely blown up.

You know, because really House of Commons, I'm sure a lot of roadies visited there. I hope they did.

They just happened last year, right?

Last year, yeah. And they were open in time for Bourbon on the Banks. You know, what a great time there. Houser Tavern has opened since then. That is a bourbon themed bar. They have a nice little boutique hotel above. You know, things are improving here.

We've got some great little boutiques and brand new boutiques that have opened record shop.

We have a new restaurant and bar.

Yeah, the Brown Barrel. New restaurant that opened up and Dicey Riley's just opened up, which is an Irish pub.

And you know, kind of a place, a little higher end for lunch or dinner, of course, Limewater.

Right.

You know.

Limewater is catering our Friday events with Peggy Noseven. Steven's the bourbon pairing.

Well, let's talk about Fridays.

Oh yeah, let's talk about Friday.

Friday's a big day because that's the day leading up to the big event segue.

Yeah, so Peggy has been involved with Bourbon on the Banks for many years now. She's come to our VIP and we are thrilled to have her doing an event for us this year. It's a bourbon pairing, you know, she's She's amazing. She's just, I can't even begin to say how amazing she is, but this is something that she loves. She loves teaching and teaching about things that she loves and bourbon pairing is one of those things.

She's the first female master. Yes.

Should I go and do her credentials?

Yeah, do her credentials.

Bourbon Hall of Fame, she is the founder of Bourbon Women. She is the author of three books. She writes regularly for Bourbon magazines. Oh, boy. Let's see here. She is one of the founders of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, believe it or not. I mean, she's a marketing mastermind.

She's designed a lot of experiences, distillery experiences.

Yeah, I think she said 60 over 60. She's had her hands on over 60 different distilleries. So she's had a business for 17 years and that is what she does. She comes in. helps you develop your story and design your visitor center and the whole nine yards. And wow, she's just, she's mind blown when it comes to what she's done, not just as a trailblazer for women in general, but just everybody. I think we all have a lot to learn from her.

A true southern lady too.

Oh gosh, she's just as sweet as can be. And so she is going to do this bourbon pairing at the Kentucky History Center at 1 p.m. on Friday. You're going to get three very large appetizers, and you're going to get three pours from Buffalo Trace. We don't know what the pours are going to be, but they're going to be matched with these appetizers that are going to be provided by lime water. So they should be really good.

Wow, fantastic.

Yeah, and Freddie Johnson's going to be joining her for this. Which we're thrilled. We love Freddie.

Oh my gosh.

He knows I'm a stalker. I mean, it just, I really, I'm his biggest fan and I say that all the time, but he's, he's joining and I know he's excited to hang out with Peggy. They, they know each other well and work together. And so that'll be a really fun event.

Sure.

Yeah. And that one's a hundred dollars.

Is there anyone out there who doesn't know who Freddie is?

I would be surprised, but let's give a little background here.

I think Freddie is probably the most famous bourbon tour guide, and he is a third generation employee at Buffalo Trace Distillery. His father and grandfather both work there as well.

And he gathered a little bit of fame with his appearance on Neat and his endearing stories about his family and his father and his coming up in Buffalo Trace. He's got a root beer named after him. He has a root beer named after him. He has a lot of quirks about the way he does tours that are unique to only him. And people come for just that because he's quite the draw.

And some of the best bourbon-related advice I've ever heard from Freddie. If you've got that good special bottle, what are you supposed to do? Share it. That's right. Open it and share it with friends. Absolutely.

Yeah, you know, when I first moved to Kentucky in 2019, I mean, I didn't give anything about bourbon, but I knew that when I had guests come visit me, I had to take them to see the horses at Keeneland, and I had to take them to Buffalo Trace Distillery, which is when they first opened up. And, you know, he guided some of those tours, and when I saw him on Neat, Oh, the memories of family being in Kentucky with me just flooded back. And when he talked about sharing it and the nostalgia that comes with all of it, he nails it. He nails the heart of what bourbon is.

So, on Friday, this is day two of your Kentucky Bourbon on the Banks experience.

Yes, we haven't made it through Friday, have we?

What's after that?

So, at five o'clock, we have our VIP reception and bourbon auction. And that is the one where you can get yourself or bid on a whiskey thief. a barrel pick experience or a four roses barrel pick experience, but we've also got a lot of silent auction items. The VIP reception is from five to eight. It's a great event. It's at the Kentucky History Center. You'll be out in the beautiful garden in the back and you'll be sampling from several different distilleries. There'll be a lot of experiences this year. Last year we had a live podcast, and this year I'm really focusing on interactive experiences. So you're going to be there.

I'll be there.

We're kind of waiting to see what you come up with for your experience. But we're going to have several people in the industry that you'll know. We haven't finalized the whole list yet, but it'll be a great, great event. There'll be great food. Fork, knife and spoon catering is going to be doing that. Food inside and out, kind of like we did last year. Yeah, we'll have lots of silent auctions. We team up with DFI for that event, Downtown Frankfurt, Inc. They really specialize in trying to make the downtown Merchants better and trying to bring people into downtown Frankfurt with lots of really great events. So they've been a part of that that event since 2019.

We're going to have the same same chocolate tasting. Yes.

It's Elon's raw chocolate. They're going to team up with Whiskey Thief there. That is some good chocolate.

I mean, you know what? I like chocolate. They're chocolate. Whole different level.

Best chocolate I've ever had in my life. Wow. I like chocolate. I don't eat it on a daily basis, but when I have really good high cacao chocolate, I love it.

You know, what got me on theirs was it just really the way it just melted on your tongue and then it just dissipated quickly. It was just gone. Very clean like they, yeah. Make sure you have some of their chocolate. Talk to them.

So, but that, you know, the night's not over when the VIP events over, right?

Oh, no, it's at six o'clock is when we start our free event that we talked about the free family friendly downtown. It's and it's a great event that circus themed. You have performers everywhere. It's just I always say it's eye candy everywhere you look and you we've got our mixed district. You can go in and out of the bars and restaurant with your drink and or you can just purchase it on the street. We've got our pub stroll. Four Roses is sponsoring the pub stroll this year. So all of the downtown restaurants and bars are participating in that. They will all have their own special drink that they make with Four Roses bourbon. And if you go in and you get a selfie, tag us, tag them, and tag Four Roses, you'll have a chance to win some tickets next year. And I don't mean just one person who does it. I mean, we'll give away several tickets if you just do it. It's like pulling teeth to get people to remember to do that when they go in.

They're having so much fun.

I know. It's okay. Well, if they want to pay for tickets, that's all good. Our beneficiaries appreciate that too.

It's going to be a long night, Friday night, but everybody needs to get a good night's rest because Saturday is a big day.

It is a big day.

So what do we have first thing in the morning?

Well, you wake up, take a shower.

Somebody told me there's donuts to be had.

Donuts?

Donuts to be had in Frankfurt.

Well, you know, so we've got a couple of things. Of course, got donuts at Bee's Bakery. Great place to visit. We also have Andy's Bakery, which is a little bit closer to the Capitol. They don't make my house. Yeah, very close. I don't know how Todd doesn't go there every day. Blessing and a curse. No donuts there, but croissants that I don't think they make better croissants in Paris. And you can get a great coffee there too. Bake goods. My daughter will be there working. Scones, cookies, muffins. Get a nice coffee there, a tea, a latte, whatever. And hydrate.

And hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. When you wake up that morning and you eat your donuts after you have your donuts and coffee, that's when you start the hydration routine, right? Because you need to be drinking water until noon.

And we're going to have plenty of porta pots this year, so don't worry about being over-hydrated.

We have lots of water, too. We provide a lot of water. There's the water monsters out there, limestone water. They provide a whole bunch of water for our attendees. And so does Wildcat, the moving company, who is a sponsor. They provide a ton of water. hydrate throughout the event. That's all we're saying because we've got, when I say over 70, it's, I wait until I have a solid 80 before I'll say that. You always have a distillery that for whatever reason, somebody gets sick or they can't show up. And if I say, if I say 70 and there's 69 and somebody actually counts, I don't want to let them down. So I'm, I'm safely saying 70 right now. And by that, I mean we hit 80.

Well, between you, me and my bourbon on the bank's glass, I'm not going to be able to visit 70 distilleries.

Well, I hope you don't.

I mean, I would never make it through the day if I did.

No, no.

But there's a lot of variety there.

There's a lot to choose from. We encourage people to think thoughtfully before they just don't start at one end and go to the other. Think about where you want to go and take a break.

It's not a coverall. It's a, It's a bingo, right? You're just trying to pick out the few that you really want.

You can't cover all of those ones. It's just a few battles. Don't go for the war.

You're guaranteed to come across something new, something that you're going to keep on your shelf from here on out. And we love it. We encourage people to not just send a brand ambassador, but somebody who's passionate about the brand so that you're going to have time to talk to them and learn about the product. You can take a break, go to the food court. I got a lobster truck this year.

Wow, that's cool.

Just saying. And I got a mini donut truck. For whatever reason, there was a little bit of request for some mini donuts, so we finally got that going on too. We've got a lot of good variety of foods out there.

Well, I know three tents for sure. I mean, obviously you want to visit the distilleries, but there's three tents for sure you definitely want to go to. One is the bourbon on the banks VIP tent. If you can get your tickets.

Well, it's the V it's not a VIP. There's a little confusion when we say VIP with the Friday VIP. So it's called the special access tickets. Those are gone. Those are sold, but you know, next year, you know, you get your tickets early. Um, but yeah, they, they have a catered tent. They have private bathrooms. They get a specialty staying from the lions, limestone farms.

All right, guys. Well, we're actually doing this show in May. The event's not till October, and the VIPs or the special access already sold out. It did. You've got to be on your game.

Right. Every now and then I'll get people who will request to be on a waiting list. If I get a refund, I will call them.

But the Frankfort Bourbon Society will be out in force. We will. We will. Big volunteer staff for the event, but you also have a tent there.

We will. So stop by, visit us.

It's a nice place to literally lounge for a little bit and take a break and talk to folks. Yeah. It's cool.

Lexington Bourbon Society will be there and Sewell Louisville Bourbon Society, the Bourbon Society.

You guys will have some barrel picks?

We will. We're going to do something different this year instead of selling them like we did. We'll probably have a few this year and they will be at the respective tents for the distilleries. We'll get out some more information on that and then we will also make sure we're directing people to know where they can find those barrel picks.

And that's the bourbon on the bank's barrel picks. Yeah.

Got it. Yeah. Perfect.

Well, we hope you've come to the Bourbon Road 10 as well. We'll be pouring in there. We haven't chosen our distillery this year, our partner distillery, but we're still looking. We're still trying to figure it out. Who knows who it might be, but yeah, definitely a great time. And even after The great event of bourbon on the banks and everybody's had an opportunity to taste through those whiskeys and experience that wonderful event.

There are some things going on that we have the good wood after party and we're moving them again this year. So, so this year, our, our ticketing is all going to take place in that farmer's park. market parking lot instead of along the road there. And that is also where we're going to end the event. That's where the after party is going to be. So as you leave the event on your way out, you can stop and listen to music and hang out for five minutes or, you know, 50 minutes or a couple hours. It's going to be from five to nine.

Well, one thing's for sure, there's no time to sleep. Well, there's a little time to sleep, six hours maybe, but from Thursday through Sunday, you're busy.

Right, exactly. And, you know, I know a lot of people come early and you should, there's, gosh, we're so close to all these distilleries. If you want to do some distillery tours, there's just a ton of them. You know, just here in Frankfurt, we've got several distilleries now, Buffalo Trace, but we've also got Jay Mattingly, Whiskey Thief. You can also easily get out to Castle & Key, Woodford Reserve. It's just- For roses while turkey just- I mean, we'd go on forever.

No, no, no, no, no. Lawrenceburg-Berbin, I mean, this,

Come for two weeks. Come on, people.

All right. Well, we do have another whiskey in our glass. We do want to talk about it really quick. I don't want to drag the second half out too long, folks.

It's all right. We don't know much about it.

This is a mysterious bottle.

This is a mysterious bottle. Again, it's a whiskey thief rye that I bottle myself. Somehow I've lost the proof on it, but I think it's probably a little more than the one 17 we had. So I'm thinking like one 20. It's a little darker. Hey, we're pretty good. Let's proof it. But it's, but it's, uh, an eight year as well. And, uh, yeah. So an eight year, right. You're right. Don't know the mash bill. I didn't write down the mash bill or anything, but one 18, but little, this is a little darker getting into that. Like it's true. Rye bread, uh, spicy.

Like dark chocolate, a little bit of chocolate. A little bit of chocolate, definitely a very, yeah, bready rye, like a rye muffin. A little bit of butter, buttered rye muffin.

I love it. Yeah. Even a little oak on the nose here. I mean, this one's just dark.

Have you heard that one of your nostrils smells better than the other? Is it more functional than the other?

Is it true?

I'm going back and forth and I think my left nostrils got like a game going on right now. I have, I read that or heard that somewhere.

Yeah. You see a lot of people do the tasting from like, uh, start with one, one side, then go to the other with my allergies.

I don't notice it for me, but I guess it could be.

It looks like your right hand, your left hand, your right nostril, your left nostril. Why not? Yeah. A little better vision at one eye than the other.

Yeah, I mean.

There's a little bit of cake mix in there.

I want to say apple butter, but it's not apple butter. It's more like plum butter. If you were to make apple butter out of plums. Plum butter. A rye muffin with plum butter on it. How's that?

This is really good, Todd. It's reminiscent. I know you're a big pumpernickel.

Yeah.

I don't think there's any pumpernickel in this, but it's just got those really dark notes on it. The Betty Crocker boxed cake mix. Middle West. Middle West, yeah.

Wow. Yeah, like a Betty Crocker chocolate cake.

Yeah, like you open up that plastic bag, and there's like that smell. God, that's amazing. That's some really good whiskey.

Have you tried it?

Yeah, I just did. Sorry, guys.

Cheers. It's a ride. Jim puts on those focus glasses. Oh, it's a ride.

Wow.

It's a ride. Yeah.

Wow. That is so good. Damn. Yeah. Super, super toasty cereally. Like you've got it. And when you said the right toast or right muffin. Yeah. Wow. Got a lot of like a lot of barrel char. Yeah.

I tried for a Frankfurt Bourbon Society event last year to make some chocolate chip cookies with bourbon in them and rye flour. This is what I wanted to happen. It did not. It was a terrible failure, but that's what I was hoping for.

Well, Todd, I just wish I could tell somebody how to get this, but we can't tell them how to get this. It's a one-off and it's long gone. But to keep their eye on extra aged whiskey thief fries.

Yes. Anytime you go there and you like a barrel. get your bottle, don't sleep on it. They sell out quick.

Yeah.

Typically stuff out there is like five to seven years, but every once in a while, something eight years old, eight years old pop in there. So it's really good. Wow. Well, guys, it's been amazing. Such a fun time here. We've actually drank through four really, really good whiskeys. There's nothing here that I wouldn't recommend to my very best friend in the world or my most loved family member. These are great whiskeys. Absolutely tremendous. And all tied very closely with bourbon on the banks. So we look forward to seeing everybody this year.

I should remind everybody that we are a nonprofit. And so we return our profits, well, a large portion of our profits back to our local community. And we've proudly done over, we did 50,000 this last year and 50,000 the year before. So we're well over 100,000 returning. First couple of years, we didn't have much to get back, but each year we're giving back more and more. And we're really proud of that. And I think, I think it's great. We give back to the White Oak initiative. We understand how important it is to preserve those White Oaks for the future of Bourbon. I know that this year we're adding Swim with Purpose as one of our beneficiaries. no longer has an indoor swimming pool. So our high schools don't have a place to practice with our teams. They have to go outside of Frankfurt, sadly. So Swim With Purpose is working with Kentucky State University to rehab their pool and make it available to not only their students, but the public and the local students. Fantastic. Yeah. We're excited to add them. And specifically for the bourbon tasting with Peggy Ngo on Friday, the net proceeds from that event go to them. So.

All right. So bourbononthebanks.org. Yes. Everything you need to know about. And really, if you're hearing this episode, it's time. It's time. You better do it.

You better do it. And especially get your hotels early. Get your place or your stand. We have lots of Airbnbs and lots of boutique. type hotels.

They will fill up. Tickets will sell out and hotels will fill up. So it's May, you still have time. Sorry, the special access tickets are gone. You really need to plan for those the year before.

That's right. And if you're listening to this episode and you're a bourbon roadie, we do have 10% off for general admission tickets. They just need to put in the promo code roadies10.

R-O-A-D-I-E-S 10 with a capital R. Capital R. Got it. And 10, the number.

Yeah, the number 10, 1-0. Yeah.

And the Frankfurt Bourbon Society is a big part of this. You guys form a large part of their volunteer staff. You're also members of the board.

We've got great volunteers. We love our volunteers at Bourbon on the Banks. We could not do it without them, and absolutely.

And how can people find out more about the Frankfurt Bourbon Society?

Social media, Facebook, Frankfurt Bourbon Society, frankfortbourbonsociety.com. The other thing I would like to go ahead and extend an invitation to all the roadies out there. Again, if you're in town during Bourbon on the Banks Festival, you can probably come back here to the Frankfurt Bourbon Society Corner Rick House Friday night or Saturday night and find some of us here. Sharing some pores feel free to show up if you have anything you want to share bring that to We'll have some food some snacks

And it's just a few minutes to walk here from all the events. It's pretty close.

You're going to bump into lots of bourbon lovers that weekend. Everywhere you go.

For example, though, if you go to House of Commons, walk down across the singing bridge on Bridge Street, we are at the end of Bridge Street as it tees. And you can't miss the front of our corner Rick house here. It looks like bourbon barrels.

Fantastic. Well, folks, thank you so much for coming on the show today and sharing all this information on Bourbon on the Banks. I hope all our listeners will immediately, after listening to this episode, make their plans for attending this year. We always have, I think we had an estimate one year, there was 150 roadies in town, so that's pretty good. That's awesome. That's pretty good. We love the roadies. I mean, you have 2,000, but okay, 150 is not too bad.

No, that's not too bad at all.

Well, things considered, that's a nice percentage. Yeah, we'd love to see you. It's a blast. We always have a good time and we hope to see you again this year. But you can find the Bourbon Road on all social media outlets. You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, threads, all the social medias. Every week on Wednesdays, we put out an episode. We have great people on like Diane and Todd and Amzie. We're drinking through some whiskey. We're having a great time. We never fail to have just a few laughs and a lot of fun. And you might even learn something. Every now and then, we come across some whiskeys that are pretty amazing. And you might want to add them to your library.

Drink them in the fog. You might even want to drink them in the fog.

I love it. But we hope you'll check us out every single week. The way you don't miss a show is to scroll up to the top of that app you're on, hit that subscribe button. Every week you'll get a notification that Jim has dropped another episode of the Bourbon Road podcast and you will not miss it. But until the next time, we'll see you down the Bourbon Road.

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