7. Lexington Bourbon Society - Pours Include Knob Creek Rye LBS/Wine+Market Single Barrel Select, Wilderness Trail Rye Bourbon Pick Sample

We love to do barrel picks. So we have gone on, I mean, this year alone. Don't we all?

So how many do you think you've done?

So this year, Ben, are we like at seven or eight? Seven or eight this year, easy. It's incredible. Just this year. And if you've never had the experience to go on a barrel pick, I do believe that those are going to, I'm hoping that we're going to be able to open those up a little bit more. And we take a primary importance of members. So if you're a member and you haven't gone on a pick, we're going to put you in a randomized list. And then if your number gets called, and then of course you can get off work.

Welcome to another trip down the Bourbon Road with your hosts, Jim and Randy. So grab a glass of your favorite bourbon and kick back.

We would like to thank Tommy and Gwen Mitchell from Log Heads Home Center for supporting this episode of the Bourbon Road. Find out more about their fine rustic furniture at logheadshomecenter.com. Hello and welcome to Bourbon Road. I am Jim Shannon. I'm Randy Minick. And we're here to talk a little bit of Bourbon. Randy, we had a great interview this week.

Yeah, we were down here at Base 110 with a couple of guys from the Lexington Bourbon Society.

Yeah, so Barry Brenniger and Ben McWhorter, both board members on the Lexington Bourbon Society, sat down with us for a little bit and talked a little bit about what it means to be a member of the Bourbon Society, how the whole society thing works, some events they've got coming up.

And you know what surprised me the most, I guess, and what I was most impressed with is they're actually philanthropic. Did I say that word right? You did. Rolled right off the tongue. Oh, wow. Okay. Miracles never cease, do they?

Now, you know, we have a few more of these, these bourbons and it might not roll off.

So maybe the bourbon talking, but anyway, I was just impressed at the. what they try to do to help society out. You know, most of the time you think about a society and it's a social club. And these guys, it is that, yeah, but they've got something more important in mind as well too. So, that impressed me a lot.

Yeah, and it was a little bit different today. Normally, Randy, you and I bring the first pour and our guest brings a second pour. We do make exceptions to that in certain cases, but in this case, you know, the guys from the Lexington-Burton Society wanted to bring both pours today. And who are we to argue?

Well, if they've gone on a barrel pick.

That's right. Hey, I have no problem with that, do you? Not at all. Well, Randy, it was a great day with these guys and I think it's time for us to sign off here and let's listen to our interview with Ben and Barry. All right. Sounds good. All right. Well, let's get into the first pour right away. We normally do that right off the bat. And we're doing something a little bit unusual today. You guys are going to bring both pours. So why don't you take a minute and tell us about what we're having first?

Well, Ben, why don't you introduce this one? I'll do the second one.

All right, so I'm holding a Knob Creek Rye single barrel select. This was chosen by the Lexington Bourbon Society in partnership with Wine and Market, a terrific little grocery and wine shop here in Lexington. And it is, we got some nice information on it, barreled on October 22nd, 2012, and then selected on October 4th, 2018. So just shy of six years old, bottled at 115 proof and

It's absolutely terrific. It is delicious. Love the Knob Creek Rye. That proof on it is kind of deceptive because it's a sweet flavor. And so you really, after you're into your second pour, you recognize, OK, this is a man's bourbon. So it's a little bit stronger. But I think most of us would agree that we really like that barrel proof over the 80 or 90 proof.

Yeah, and you can taste the sweetness right off the bat. You really can, yeah.

Boy, that nose is sweet, a little bit of fruit, but more of a kind of a citrusy fruit.

Yeah, I definitely get the citrus, especially on the palate, on that front end and on the mid palate.

But it's spicy enough, you know you're drinking a rye.

It's definitely not a bourbon. And the hug. I mean, you get a really good hug. But it's not as bad as I thought it might be at 115. And that's the deceptive part of it.

Yeah, I'm still on the nose. Ketchup, ketchup. Oh my goodness. Yeah. So, um, syrupy sweet candy. Yeah. Yeah. Pour it on my pancakes. There you go. But the citrus definitely comes out on the palate, doesn't it? It really does. Yeah. It's almost like, it's almost like a candy orange or something. I don't know. Um, Maybe at first I wanted to say kind of a cola orange, but more of a candy orange.

I don't know. Like those little orange sliced candies you used to get. Never mind. Okay.

Yeah, I'm in that age genre too.

Yeah, I love those candies. So guys, what does the bourbon culture mean to you?

You know, for me, I think the Bourbon culture is really regional. So as I think of those of us that are here in Kentucky that have really embraced Bourbon and America's native spirit, we're really diving into the history. So those of us in the Bourbon culture, within the Bourbon society, we're taking a deep dive. And we're looking at industry legends like Freddie Johnson. We're looking at some of those master distillers that have been around for decades and are passing down oral history to us. So for us, Bourbon culture is just community. It's history in a bottle. And, you know, I love what Freddie Johnson says is that, you know, bourbon's meant to be shared. And, you know, for us, that's true. It's a time to get together. It's a fellowship time. And it's really just kind of sharing your thoughts and your feelings with other folks over a poor.

Yeah. So what do you guys do for the Lexington Bourbon Society? What are your roles in the organization?

So we're both members of the board of directors and generally everybody on the board kind of takes roles where one of the things I do is work on something called the distillery series. Now we'll all do other things, but for the distillery series I'll find a distiller or kind of a distiller's person to come in, like a representative, brand ambassador, and they'll come, they'll bring in a bunch of different whiskey and talk about what they do differently, what makes them special. We'll have some dinner, hang out, talk shop with them. It's a blast. We've got one of those coming up in July with Old Forester. We did a barrel pick. actually with Wine and Market. And the guy was really kind of into the idea. And so he's going to be coming down in July and talking with us about what Old Forrester does and that kind of stuff. So we've had a number of different guests, everybody from New Riff to Peerless. And we've had Kings County come down from Brooklyn and talk to us about what they do. It's a very fun thing.

So you establish those relationships, and then you nurture them and build them over time. And there's obviously some turnover in that industry from time to time. So you've got to stay on top of that, right?

Yeah, sure. And I think that they kind of pass those contacts down as someone exits that position. That's really a big part of their marketing is reaching out to local groups, because we're their local brand ambassadors as well. They look at that and they look at us as an opportunity to get in front of some bourbon aficionados and even some novice folks that are bourbon curious that want to learn more. It's a good group for them to stay in touch with.

So what are day jobs like for you? Because I know this isn't your full-time job. This is just something you guys like to do.

Yeah, sure, sure. So I'm a local businessman. I'm a business consultant. I help small to medium-sized businesses reach their target demographic. And that's going to look different for each business that we work with. A lot of companies just need help with their local listings. They need help with their social media. They may need some help with their operations. We have a project manager that can do project management for businesses. We have an IT management piece that will help them with their IT solutions. We have a videographer. And so the videographer has actually worked with us and done some of the videotaping of some of our events. And the beauty of that is that you can really tell your story. It's easy to tell your story when you're bringing someone who is making a video and editing that. And then I utilize that from a targeting strategy online. OK, so that's cool. Well, what about you, Van?

Yeah, I'm a music teacher here in town. I teach fourth and fifth grade violin, viola, cello, and then I teach high school orchestra at a high school here in town. Wow, bourbon and cello.

That ought to go well together. That's pretty mellow right there.

It goes great together. So how long have you guys both been involved with the Lexington Bourbon Society?

You're the overachiever, I'll let you.

Well, so I've been involved with the Bourbon Society for about three and a half, four years, and on the board for a couple of years. That's about right for both of us. I was working at the time at a senior living community, and one of the things that I was trying to do is, it was a new community, I was trying to brand them, and I actually reached out to to Wilderness or Woodford Reserve and talked with Brown Foreman to see if we couldn't use their Woodford Reserve logo in our community room. And the residents really took to it. They loved it. And it helped us kind of brand that as, you know, an older person here locally that knows the Bourbon culture and really enjoyed that. So it's in the activities room. And, you know, so we got Bourbon memorabilia all over the place. So that kind of got me introduced to the Lexington Bourbon Society. And then I thought, OK, I've really found my niche here. Great group of people. And so that was really my introduction to the Bourbon Society.

Yeah, for me, it was I just kind of stumbled on them online and got involved. The president's a teacher and is a good buddy of mine. And it just happened that we were able to do a couple of events kind of back to back, actually preparation for the first Commonwealth Bash. We were able to go down to Barton together and do a private tour, pick up some barrel head and some art that we were able to use as a fundraiser for the first Commonwealth Bash. And he said, you know, we've got an open board spot if it's something that you think you might be interested in getting more involved with. And I jumped at the opportunity because it's just to be able to ... I'd always kind of plan little bourbon events on my own among coworkers and friends, but to get to do it around people who are just really passionate and nerdy about bourbon is a lot of fun.

We've been going about seven minutes now and I think this Knopp Creek is just now finishing. Really good.

Yeah, yeah. It's a great pour. And like I said, it's a deceptive pour because it's so delicious. It's sweet. But that proof, that higher proof, it really hits you about... It stays with you a lot. It does, yeah. It does, yeah.

So I have a question. Interesting story of how the Lexington Bourbon Society started. And so Matt, your president, is not here. So I thought maybe one of you might could fill us in because I thought it was a very interesting story. And I think some of those listening might want to hear a little bit about this as well.

Yeah. The way I heard it, Mary, you can kind of ... interject as you need to, that Matt is from Lexington. He and his wife Lori moved back here a number of years ago and kind of on a date night, they had a bunch of little airplane bottles of different whiskeys, everything from wild turkey to just a couple other, nothing super fancy, but They just did blind tastings and just to kind of see how one tasted different than the other. That led to some different distillery tours, just groups of people hanging out, going to distillery tours, just trying the tours, trying the samples of the distillery. Eventually, there were some opportunities to do some philanthropy with that. They took the bourbon and added a philanthropic aspect of it. That's kind of where we are today.

There you have it, ladies and gentlemen, bourbon and date night. There's no telling what might come of it.

You never know. And one thing I'll throw in there, and we're going to talk about this event a little bit later, but the very first event that the Lexington Bourbon Society did was for the Ronald McDonald House bluegrass. And so we're going to talk, I think, in our second segment here about that upcoming event. But it's kind of unique that here we're in the third annual event of the Commonwealth Bash, and we're bringing the Ronald McDonald House back to it as the charity of choice. So we'll talk a little bit more about that a little bit later.

Okay, so the Lexington Bourbon Society is obviously a philanthropic organization, but in addition to that, you guys are encouraging sort of the social atmosphere of bourbon enjoyment with your members. Does one take a top seat to the other, or is it kind of an even split?

Well, this is what I'd tell you. If you think of the Lexington Bourbon Society, think of three pillars. And the first pillar is going to be networking. It's going to be a social club where every month we get together for a social sipper. And that social sipper, you can go to our Facebook page. It's a public page, Lexington Bourbon Society, and we have those events posted. And so what we do is we have a director that manages the sipper. And so we go to local restaurants. The restaurants love to have us come out because we had an event at the Kentucky Castle. We had 70 people show up. And a lot of times we'll see non-members. We open that up for non-members. And so they give us some free appetizers. They'll make a signature cocktail for us. And then the other thing is they have a huge bourbon bar. So we get the opportunity to seek out some bourbons that we may not be able to find readily, but we come with our pocketbook and our billfolds. But more importantly, it's that networking aspect. And so if you consider that, the other thing is we really put a primary importance of bourbon education. So we have executive bourbon stewards that will educate and train us to take that test and help us learn more. So that's one pillar. The other pillar is that we're a 501C7. And so the difference there between a C3 and a C7 is we're not beholden to one nonprofit. So we're a conduit to raise money for various nonprofits. Since our inception, we've raised $54,000 to local nonprofits. This last year alone, we've raised $18,000 for local nonprofits. We kind of do this more as a grassroots effort, but the two main events that we do is the Commonwealth Bash that's going to come up here on June 1st. and then the Toys for Tots at the end of the year. Those are the two fundraisers that we've raised the most amount of money, but we'll do fundraising for local teachers that need help with raising money for their classroom. We'll raise money for local churches, for cystic fibrosis, for Alzheimer's. If you've got a nonprofit and you need some help with marketing and raising money, let us know. We'd love to help you. We'll talk later. Okay, great.

And the social aspect of it, I think, is very important, too. With the social sipper, getting that interaction with people, like I said at the beginning, just getting to know people is really important. And we've got everybody in the club from woodworkers to retired lawyers to teachers to businessmen and to national park rangers, just kind of all over the map. And it's a nice way that everybody gets brought together.

Yeah. And that last pillar is we love to do barrel picks. So we have gone on, I mean, this year alone. Don't we all? So this year, Ben, are we like at seven or eight? Seven or eight this year, easy. It's incredible. Just this year. And if you've never had the experience to go on a barrel pick, I do believe that those are going to, I'm hoping that we're going to be able to open those up a little bit more. And we take a primary importance of members. So if you're a member and you haven't gone on a pick, we're going to put you in a randomized list. And then if your number gets called, and then, of course, you can get off work. Typically, those picks occur Monday through Friday during the work week. So we have a lot of illness, it seems, as those barrel picks

I mean, definitely take the day off, right?

Oh, yeah. Definitely, yeah. Get a ride. Enjoy it. It's a great experience.

So how many members do you guys think you have so far?

We're, we usually float about two to 225. Sometimes it'll dip a little bit lower. Sometimes it'll get a little bit higher. We are a month to month organization. So I think I joined, I think I joined in March. So then every March my, I would need to re-up my, my membership. I know some, some organizations are just every, every July, that's when you pay in, but we're just whatever month you sign up, that's when you renew. And so it's kind of a moving target a little bit, Generally, about $2 to $2.25.

What does it cost a year to join?

Membership, if you want swag, and who doesn't want swag? Who wouldn't like to have a nice Glen Caron glass and a t-shirt that says Lexington Bourbon Society or a glass flask? If you want swag, it's $100. For an entire year. For an entire year. For one year. Now, if you're a person that you probably have like me, I've got probably 100 Glencairns. I'm OK without swag. And so it's $85 for the year. And what that gets you is Ben does a terrific job with that Distiller series. And so what we try to do is we try to make a lot of free events for members and then charge nonmembers a nominal fee to cover food costs and things like that. This is a nonprofit, so all that money is going back into the organization, and we're just trying to at least break even. And so we try to put a primary importance of members get a discount on any of the ticketed events, or it's free for members.

And I know that with the bourbon boom and the way things are going, some of the groups are actually closing membership. Your guys are wide open.

We're wide open. And the problem is scaling. The problem is that we're all volunteers. And so we've got several people that have a lot on their plate. And they still have to manage that. And so right now, it's manageable. I think once we get up to 250 and more members, we're probably going to have to look at creating some general ledger items where we're paying some people to do some nominal work, because it's a job. It can be really tough, but for right now.

So do you guys have any strategic partnerships with industry or local businesses?

Yeah, we've got a lot of really good partnerships. And I'll tell you, some of the local liquor stores and bars, and just an example, Wine & Market, Seth and Renee Brewer are just fabulous partners. They have a bourbon club themselves, and Seth is on the board of the Lexington Bourbon Society. And, you know, the benefit there is when you pick out a barrel of bourbon, you just can't have that shipped to your house. I mean, we have this thing called the three-tier system, and so there's a supplier. Well, some of our members might not understand. Yeah, go ahead and explain that. So a three-tier system means that there is a separation of when that liquor gets moved from the supplier, and then there's a distributor. So the distributor can't sell to the consumer. So the distributor takes it from the supplier to the point of sale. So that point of sale can be a liquor store. It can be a bar that has a package license to be able to sell that. I think this came about early around Prohibition where they wanted to make sure there wasn't a monopoly on the spirits industry and that they created the separation so that there was accountability for that commerce. we found here over the last year or two years is that the distilleries have a really strong lobby. And so they have now been able to sell point of sale at the distillery itself. And so what we're finding is that there's a lot more more sales happening at the distillery because it's creating tourism. And what I think is so beautiful about Kentucky is we kind of own bourbon. America's native spirit means that bourbon can only be produced in the United States, but all of the bourbon, 80% of that bourbon is produced here in Kentucky. And so we kind of own that. And so I think that it's important for us to really wrap our minds around that and create a tourism so that we're able to promote it and be able to create great experiences. So along that is the distilleries being able to sell at the distillery itself. So they've kind of put a crack in that armor of that three-tier system. It's starting to Yeah, so a little disclosure. I've got a little meeting going on right now. And one of the things that we're talking about is some relaxation of that three-tier system. Now, it's still enforced, and there's no going around that. However, I think that within the next several years, maybe five, 10 years, we might see a little bit of a shift. But I don't know what that's going to look like. So for right now, we have to comply with that three-tier system.

To be honest, I think that both the distilleries and the consumers and the retail, they benefit from that distributor in the middle, that effectiveness of scale, that they're able to move that product for them. So at the end of the day, I don't think we'll ever see that go away, but certainly the rules might soften a little, right?

I think the rules will soften, but there's no way. Let's take, for instance, a craft distillery. Let's look at a barrel house distillery here in Lexington, Kentucky. Look at Wilderness Trail. New Riff is fairly large for a small craft distillery. they would have a really hard time scaling. They would not be able to have the sales force to go out there and distribute their bourbon or their spirits. So it does serve a purpose. And I think that will never go away. But the difference between the exclusivity of maybe a distillery or a distributor not being able to sell to different classes, that may change. Who knows? But as a consumer, say I have a bunch of guys.

We're going to get together. We're throwing a party. We've got a special event that we do as our fraternity brothers or whatever. And we're just getting into bourbon. So we don't even know what we're trying to taste for. And that's where a group like you guys would come in, could help us out. Or if we go to a liquor store and go, look, we want a barrel, but we don't know what we're looking for.

I would totally agree with that. And I think that some of our members, and even Ben and myself, there's been times where we've been approached to say, hey, would you guys come and lead us through a tasting? And you recommend what kind of bourbon that would be good for us as beginners to come and be exposed to. And it's really, it's bourbon 101. Let's just talk about what makes a bourbon a bourbon and just kind of go through the tasting notes. A lot of people like to be able to appreciate, nose the bourbon, be able to taste it and tell you what those notes are. But at the end of the day, I hear a lot of people say, well, it's just smooth. And so I think that in order for you to develop that flavor profile and be able to perceive it, you've got to listen to an executive bourbon steward or someone that's tasted a lot of bourbon to really help you be able to pick out those notes. And sometimes it's a sensory experience where maybe you're pairing that with different with a sensory experience where you're bringing in food or maybe you're bringing in different smells and things where you can help you accentuate those notes. And so I think that's from Tim Nittle is a great person to really talk about that because he really dives deep. Tim Nittle is an executive bourbon steward who works, he has his own business and he also works at the Kentucky Castle. But what he does is he really helps immerse the participant into that sensory experience.

Now, these people who have this certification as executive bourbon steward, is there a particular place they go to to get that?

Yeah, that is, the website is Moonshine University is the website for that. They're based out of Louisville. And that is the industry accepted certification for being knowledgeable in bourbon. And there's two different levels as of now. There's a certified bourbon steward, and I believe Barry, you're also a certified bourbon steward. I'm a certified bourbon steward. And then we have a number of our board is a number of our members are with an executive bourbon steward. An executive bourbon steward involves going to a day's worth of classes. You actually distill, you distill grain, you see the grain, you learn about the different parts of what the heads and the hearts and the tails, what they smell like. when you need to transfer all that over, really getting into the kind of the gritty of how to make the whiskey. And so you actually make your whiskey and then there's a test at the end of it and you get your little pin. And so that's the executive bourbon stewards. Sounds like fun.

So if I fail the first time, do I get to taste more my second time through? How many times can I take this test?

As many times as you got the money to afford.

They've got lots of different classes, everything from a one day to if you want to start your own distillery to like a five day thing. Like if you are starting your own distillery, you know, you want as much information as possible. And so there's lots of different ranges and stuff like that.

So interesting. That is interesting.

Moonshine University. Moonshine University. And if I could give one plug to the local bourbon groups, the one thing that's really exciting is how people kind of come together. And so we've seen several bourbon groups kind of emerge here over the last little bit.

What would you say here, you mean in Lexington?

In Lexington, Kentucky, and that would be the Kentucky Black Bourbon Guild. And so what I love about the Kentucky Black Bourbon Guild is that they are coming together and they want to help recognize minority inclusion as it relates to bourbon's history and bourbon's future. And so I love their nonprofit. Another group is the Whiskey Chicks, and they're based out of Louisville, Kentucky. Linda Ruffinac, she's the CEO and she is just a charm. I mean, this lady, she's written a book, she's writing another book, she's got a couple of different businesses that she works with and just a real treasure to work with. And so we've got another event, we'll talk in our second pour about another bourbon event coming up that we're merging and mixing all of those bourbon groups together. Wow, I can't wait. What a fun time.

Whiskey Chicks and what was the first? Kentucky Black Bourbon Guild, KBBG. We'll make sure that we enter those on our show notes and certainly on our blog and the website.

We may have to have them on the show.

Absolutely. I would encourage you to. Let's take this point and let's finish our Knob Creek and take a little break here. When we come back, we'll see what you brought for the second pour and we'll take it from there. Great.

Talk about these events you got coming up. Awesome.

Sounds good. Thanks. We would like to thank Tommy and Gwen Mitchell from Log Heads Home Center for supporting this episode of the Bourbon Road. Log Heads Home Center, nestled in the hills of Kentucky, is an industry leader in building handcrafted rustic furniture. Family owned and operated, they take pride in offering only the very best for their customers. The Log Heads, and that's what they like to call themselves, are skilled wood crafters who are passionate about creating rustic furniture for people who appreciate the beauty of natural wood. Owners Tommy and Gwen don't just sell the rustic lifestyle, they live it. And you can be sure that Loghead's furniture will always be handcrafted in Kentucky by artisans who embrace the simple way of life. Loghead's rustic furniture is made from northern white cedar, a sustainable wood that's naturally rotten termite resistant. Its beauty and quality will add warmth to your earthy lifestyle for generations to come. Be sure to check out everything they have to offer at LogHeadsHomeCenter.com. And while you're at it, give Tommy and Gwen a shout on Facebook or Instagram at LogHeads Home Center. Okay, we're back. So Barry and Ben, what have you got for us for the second pour?

Well, I've got a really good treat for you guys. We just recently went to Wilderness Trail and we were number two on picking out their barrel select. Wine and Market and Whiskey Bear and a few select members and friends got to go down and do this pick. And so what I've got for you today is a single barrel pick from Wilderness Trail. It's a high rye bourbon and it was barreled on May 2nd of 2015. And this is 115.4 proof. And it is absolutely delicious. The group, we kind of sampled six different samples. And this was the number one out of two blind tastings that we did. So this is really a good pour. And so let's nose it and taste it and tell me what you think.

Oh, that really has a nice nose. Time needs to stop just so I can nose this for just a moment more.

These guys always have this nice light, a little bit of a honey nose, but you get the rye on it. But you get the rye. It's not like the rye, but it's definitely different than their weeded bourbon.

And for me, this is really unlike. I mean, you're not tasting any immature notes here. You're not picking up cereal. You're not picking up the alcohol, that strong alcohol flavor. You're picking up some really good notes here. I'm enjoying it. How many years? This one is for just a little, right at four years. Wow, that's great for four years.

So they're normal four-year weeded bourbon. It does have just a little bit of brightness to it. It's delicious, don't get me wrong. I love it. It's a wonderful profile. But the rye content in this has caused it to maybe be a little bit more I don't know. Act a little older. Act a little older.

Act a little older than it is, perhaps. I would say a lot of people would agree with you there.

Okay, yeah, because I tell you, I'm not getting that brightness, that brittleness that you get in a younger bourbon, and sometimes it's not bad. And certainly their weeded bourbon was delicious. Wow. They have a new fan. All right. Yeah. But I'm not getting any of the butterscotch on this.

No, not like that rogue sample that we pulled out. We're not going to talk about that, are we? Maybe we should talk about that. We will.

The wood character definitely comes out on the finish a little bit. Sure. That's a good bourbon.

We'll have this available to purchase. Wine and Market and Whiskey Bear both will have a release, and we'll let you guys know so that we can send that out online. These bottles will be available. This is a really delicious one, and we're really fortunate to be one of the first groups to do a barrel pick with Wilderness Trail. Yeah, it's great.

I'm going to interject here. Do we know if this is going to be bottled at barrel proof at 115, or will it be bottled at their bottled and bond?

That is a really good question, and to be honest with you, Ben, at that point in the conversation when we were doing the pick, I'm not really sure I picked those notes out. To be determined, I'll let you all know.

A lot of times the distilleries, they kind of strongly move you towards the direction of taking it at the advertised proof. Yeah. And this would still be, I think...

Even at Bottle and Bond, I think it would be good.

I think it would. And I think that for most younger distilleries, they may be okay with doing a barrel proof release just if you're doing a pick. But I think if you look at Wild Turkey, they're going to make you go with their advertised proof.

Well, isn't it all about the TTB and the labels and all that kind of stuff? You got to kind of be careful with that. But they're handwriting the proofs on anyway, aren't they? Right. That's true. All right. Can you tell us a little bit about the member events you've had in the past, like some, you know, you've mentioned a few of them, but some of the bigger events?

Yeah. Well, let me just talk, you know, right now about our signature event. And, you know, the signature event coming up is our Commonwealth Bash. The Commonwealth Bash is celebrating Kentucky's birthday. And so we do this every June 1st. And this year it's going to be at the K Club and that's located at 1398 Sports Center Drive. And any of this information you can look on our website, you can look on our Facebook page. We've got an event page right now that you can sign up for tickets and It's a fun event, and what we're doing is we're raising money for the Ronald McDonald House. Some of the notables here is Fred Minick is going to be there, and he's going to be talking, kind of guiding us through the evening.

So he's emceeing the evening?

That's my understanding. That is my understanding. We're really excited to have Fred there. We're going to have Barrel House Distilling Company, Bourbon and Toulouse, Carson's Food and Drink, Kohl's 735 Main, Elkhorn Tavern, just to name a few. The one thing that I can tell you is our social sippers lead us into those relationships where When we do a signature event like this, we want to pair distilleries with restaurants. And so it's really that pairing of food and distilleries so that folks that come out, they get a full experience of a fun time and raising money for a great cause.

So if I went to one of these events, what would it look like? How's the agenda go? What's the evening like?

Well, so the agenda, the way it's going to go, I mean, we're going to have a cooperage that's going to be there. We're going to put together a barrel so that you kind of get the experience of that, of the barrel itself. We're going to have cocktail events.

Wait a minute. So they're going to actually assemble a barrel using staves and rings and all that?

I think they're going to take it apart and then put it back together. That's what they've done before. It is fascinating.

We just took one apart and we had to cut the metal rings. So how are they going to take this thing apart? They're the pros. Yeah, that's why they're the experts.

We just have to go and find out. We had a grinder.

They've got the right tools.

Absolutely. And so the other thing is that we're going to have auction items that folks can come and bid on to be able to, again, raise money for the Ronald McDonald House. We're going to have local restaurants, so you're going to be able to get a bologna sandwich from Epping's and pair that with one of the local distilleries. So, you know, I can't really think of too many events where it's going to be on such a local level that we're going to have the pairings of what we've got. Food pairings with that. Yeah, okay.

Every restaurant brings a small plate and partners with a distillery for a cocktail.

Oh, so they had their own specific distilleries, not just random.

Yeah, so Alcorn Tavern is going to be there. We're going to have Four Roses. We're going to have Jay Render's. OBC Kitchen, Renata's Bistro and Bar. Russell's Reserve is going to be there. Wilderness Trail Distillery is going to be there. Woodford Reserve, Zim's Cafe, Weed-O-Michael, 1792. I mean, we're so excited.

What a big list of stuff.

How do you decide what you're going to charge for something? I mean, this is pretty big stuff.

Well, it's big stuff. But the other thing is we want to make it to where people can afford to come out. And we've got some folks that love to support a great cause. So that's why a lot of the money that we raise is going to be on the silent auction items. So we want to make it affordable for people to come out, but yet also raise money for folks in those silent auctions.

Any sneak peeks on the silent auctions? Anything I might want to be on? What do you think, Ben?

I can tell you we're working on some we're working on some potential baseball tickets, a potential Cincinnati package, stuff like that, where there's going to be a whole kind of go up to Cincinnati and hang out and have a bunch of different things to do. So we've got some definite things in the works. I'm not 100 percent sure on the I know there's some bourbon like lamps made out of bourbon bottles, there's some woodworking and stuff like that. So there's a really wide variety of stuff. Enrique Gonzalez, who's a local artist, he always does a lot of stuff with us. In the past, he's auctioned and sold off some of his art, where all the proceeds would then go to our charity. And we've got a lot of great stuff.

So who's the auctioneer who's calling it out?

We're having Fred do that? That's a really good question. I don't know the answer, whether it's going to be Fred or it's going to be somebody else, some other local dignitary. I know that there's a silent auction aspect of it too. I don't know about the live auction as well. But also remember, we're the bourbon society, so there's probably going to be some good bottles that are going to be there. Maybe some of our really choice select barrel picks, as well as oftentimes we've had Al Young come to events and bring some of the really good Four Roses bourbons. So what I would say is there's probably going to be some really good bottles to bid on, and you don't want to miss out on that.

And some of the rock stars of the bourbon world will be there. Yeah.

And this event is obviously not just for members of the Lexington Bourbon Society. This is open to the public.

Yeah, we want as many people from Lexington and surrounding areas to come as possible. It's a really fun evening. If you're into bourbon, it's fantastic. If you're not into bourbon, it's a great way to celebrate the history of our state. It's the 228th anniversary, 227th anniversary of the state of Kentucky. And what better way to hang out than party with a bunch of bourbon?

So all of your events aren't necessarily just centered around bourbon?

They're not. A lot of them are. But I'll tell you, a great event that we just had, we brought Cantara Negra tequila down for Cinco de Mayo. And one of the things we like to say is bourbon is not the only thing we care about. But we love bourbon a lot. However, we recognize that Cinco de Mayo is an American holiday. But we partnered up with Canterra Negro Tequila and brought them in. We had bluegrass catering that catered a wonderful meal. And I'll give a plug to Base 110. Base 110 is kind of our home base for doing events up on the fourth floor here located on Bond Street. And it's just a wonderful location for us to host those events. So that was a Tequila Forward event where we had the owner and their executive team come in and talk about their unique tequila spirit. And I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that I'm hoping that the Lexington Bourbon Society does a barrel pick of Cantara Negra tequila in the future here. Wow.

It wouldn't hurt your feelings at all.

It wouldn't hurt my feelings. And what they like to say is it's the bourbon drinker's tequila. And I would kind of agree with that. It's delicious. Do they finish any of their tequilas in bourbon barrels? So they do. Their extra agnejo is finished 48 months in the barrel. It comes out, it looks like brown water. It's aged in that barrel. It has a much more sweeter flavor profile, a little smoky flavor, but it's delicious and it's a sipper. I enjoy it.

Hey honey, I found your new margarita mixer.

Yeah, yeah, a lot love their tequila.

We've also got some other members who are really big into the scotch world. We had a small group just recently kind of put some feelers out on our member Facebook page about creating like a subgroup of, hey, we're going to get together and do scotch tastings and nothing fancy, but just let's, you know, hang out and drink scotch too. So it's not even, it's not always even official events. It's always just, you know, let's get together and hang out. Sign me up, sign me up. Drink what we like.

Well, let me tell you, Dr. Alan Ward, he's a local dentist and he is a wealth of knowledge and he's also a member of the Bourbon Crusaders. But one of the things, I was part of that Scotch tasting.

Bourbon Crusaders.

Bourbon Crusaders. Finish your thought. I want to go back to bourbon. So we came around his house. We assembled. There was about eight or nine of us. Very intimate setting. But we got to taste pretty much all the regions of Scotch. And he pulled out, at the end of that night, a 100-year-old sample of bourbon. It was put in the barrel in 1912. Incredible. You know, so what I love about, you know, you talk about bourbon culture, it's the generosity, it's the fellowship, but, you know, how often are you going to get the opportunity to drink a bourbon that's a century old? It was amazing.

Yeah, you could sit at home and drink that by yourself or you could share it with good friends, right? Yes, thank you.

Yeah, we only drink on two occasions, by ourselves or with somebody. Cheers. Cheers. Yeah. Well, I want to get back to the Bourbon Crusaders, sorry. You mentioned that, that sounded cool to me. I want to know what they are. I've never heard of the Bourbon Crusaders.

Bourbon Crusaders is a private group, not dissimilar to Lexington Bourbon Society. Based out of? Not really sure. I know that there are members, a lot of members here in Kentucky. They have an event every year up in Louisville. and they raise a lot of money for charity. One of the big things that they do is this big event. And in the past, they've had an event where they would auction off tastes of the famous Red Hook rye that came out of Willet a few years ago. They had a bottle and it was, I think it was $100 a pour or something and all that money went to charity. This year, they partnered with, or a couple of years ago, they partnered with the Willet. distillery, and Willett hadn't done a barrel pick in years and years and years. They partnered with Willett to do the first barrel pick of Willett in a very long time. And I think that was $40,000 that that went for.

Per barrel.

Per barrel. And it was such a big deal that Willett said, all right, anybody else who wants to pay this much can also pick a barrel. And I think they almost raised, they got two extra ones. It was such a big deal that I think Fred Minick did a big article about it, about raising the money.

I mean, it was a huge thing. So $120,000 was raised on three barrels. How incredible is that? That's amazing.

And we got to try one of those.

I may or may not have a sample of those.

Yeah, Doc. We're gonna have you back on.

My friend. I just want to tell you my friend. Doc had a fundraising for one of the local schools that his daughter works at and there was a mystery pour and it was the barrel pick that Bourbon Crusaders picked as part of that Willett And it's not available to the public, it's just available to the members of that group. And they have some phenomenal Fort Roses picks, some phenomenal Willett picks, some phenomenal Russell's Rye picks. I mean, it's kind of an underground thing, but they just do some phenomenal stuff. Willingness to share.

I love that about the Bourbon Society. So how does somebody become a member of Lexington Bourbon Society?

So if you would go to our website, LexingtonBourbonSociety.com, there's a location there to sign up as a member. I would say join our Lexington Bourbon Society Facebook page, the public page. Come to some events. Don't just sign up just by hearing this podcast. But look at when we're going to be out at an event that's open to non-members and come and really get a feel for what the Lexington Bourbon Society is about. If you're a local person to central Kentucky and you want to get around other people that enjoy networking, that enjoy getting together and talking about urban or business or sports or the weather or whatever, I would say come and do that first. And then on our website, there's a form to download and to fill out. And you could pay through PayPal or any number of those sites. But really, it's identify if this is the right group for you, then come out and check us out and join up. It's as easy as giving us your money, $85 or $100 for a year, and then enjoying the benefits of membership. Some of the benefits of membership are going on barrel picks, enjoying being able to buy some of these bottles that nobody else can get, you know, a single barrel is kind of like, John Coffey says, it's kind of like a snowflake. You know, it's its own flavor profile. You're not going to get the same flavor profile anywhere else. And so the benefit of membership is that you're going to be able to do these things. You're going to be able to meet other like-minded people. And you're going to be able to raise money for a good cause, but just enjoy people here locally. And they can participate in your Advent calendar, right?

OK, all right.

Ben, you want to tell us? OK, so let's talk about the Advent calendar.

The Advent calendar is one of my favorite things we do. Um, every year, uh, usually about mid November, we have a big event. Uh, we'll bring in, everybody brings in a bottle. Uh, you can't reproduce the bottle. So it's, you know, if I bring in a Russell's reserve, nobody else is bringing in a Russell's reserve. And I'm going to divide that bottle into 24 sample, one ounce sample bottles.

So you're going to do that at home before you come in.

Do they provide, do they provide the bottles or do you have to come up with sample bottles yourself?

But then you also get the calendar back. you get a calendar with 24 sample bottles in it as well. So you're getting 24 sample bottles back, but each one of them is filled with a different whiskey. And so on December 1st, I'm going to open up and it might be a bottle of anything from Old Forest or Store Pick to we've had William LaRue Weller, we've had some stag, we've had just some phenomenal whiskeys and it's been barrel picks, it's been hard to find stuff and it's been everything in between. And every night you're drinking a different one out sample.

Let me back up and go through this again just so I understand correctly. So you get 24 people with 24 bottles. Yep. They all sit at home in their own little homes and they divide their own bottle into 24 little bottles. Yep. They bring their 24 little bottles in here and they exchange with each other until everybody has 24 different bottles. And then they go home and on the same day, 24 days before Christmas, they all drink the same thing and share notes.

And then I drink the leftover on the 25th.

Really, the nice thing about that, a couple of things, is that you're getting to experience maybe some bourbons or whiskeys that you ordinarily might not. Or have never. Have never, and then get to identify, I really like that. or maybe that's not really my flavor profile. But the other thing is that you get to experience this with 24 other people. And what we've seen on social media is we've seen hashtags for the Advent calendar, you know, 24 days of Advent with bourbon. And it's really fun. And I'll tell you, I'm chatting Sarah with It's Bourbon Night. Three years ago, when we first did this, they started promoting this, and we started getting inquiries from across the country. You know, Michigan, Louisiana, California, people saying, hey, we want that advent calendar, and the problem is you can't ship.

Yeah, what do you do when you have 50 that want to end?

You do two calendars. Or three. We did three this year. What we did this year was, and I've got to give props to my Australian friends, Chris and Lilith, and what they did, they came this last year and they said, wouldn't it be nice if we just did straight barrel picks of an advent calendar. I thought that is brilliant. That is so awesome.

Because there'd be some people that want to do barrel picks who might not want to do just, yeah.

Exactly. So what we did, we ended up having two calendars of barrel picks and then one calendar of just straight bourbons or whiskeys that were just off of the shelf. Yeah, it was awesome. But what we found was, There's a lot of administrative tasks involved in doing this. And we recognize some of our shortcomings. And this year, we're probably going to back this up. Instead of November, we're probably going to back it up into September or October. to really start organizing this because every year we've added on another calendar. And I anticipate as we continue to market this a little bit earlier is that we're gonna have people to say, I wanna do it and just let me know what I need to do. And so we're hoping this year we have three or four calendars and we're excited. Bourbon Advent is just a fun time to experience Bourbon with your other friends and talk about it online. Yeah.

You still got plenty of time to get your membership before that time of year comes.

My nonprofit does a national art contests. And so we've had to back stuff up. You guys, let me just tell you, are going to end up having to do this Christmas in July thing. So you're going to have to start in July. putting it out there because it's going to take you six months to get your administrative stuff done for this thing.

I'm going to leave you with this, is that the board has already talked about, we're setting aside a couple of bottles of every barrel pick we do. So what you may see is you may see an LBS barrel pick advent calendar, which is kind of cool. I'm not going to go on record here as I just already have and say that that's going to be available. But I would say that you're going to see some really unique things coming up with Bourbon Advent.

So there are a few bottles of Warehouse Delicious floating around out there somewhere? A few. Mostly in Mary's basement.

How would you get involved in this? In the Bourbon Advent? Yeah, the albius, no. You guys have already got these bottles.

Details are TBD.

Thanks, Ben.

Well, guys, we've had a great time talking with you, and we want to give you the opportunity to let our listeners know how to reach you. How to get in touch. And how to reach you on social media, on the website. If they're interested in becoming a member, how do they do that? If they want to come to the Commonwealth Bachelor, this show is airing on the 29th. Okay. And then your Commonwealth Bash is on the 1st, which is the Saturday after Wednesday. Just a few more days. A few more days. So on that short notice, we want our people to be able to get some tickets. What do they got to do?

Yeah. So what they've got to do, we would welcome anybody to walk in and and pay at the door. We'll have the capacity to do that. We have an Eventbrite that you can click on. You can make your payment online and get an electronic ticket. It's for a great cause. And not only this event, we have a lot of events going on. And the way to find out what is going on is just look at our website and look at We've got some really good folks that volunteer their time for our website, our user experience, our social media. And so we update our social media profiles, our Instagram profiles, as well as our website for any of these events. So if you're kind of bourbon curious or want to find out what's going on with the Lexington Bourbon Society, you can look up online on lexingtonbourbonsociety.com and identify what events are coming up and pay for those. for the June 1 event, pay at the door. Come on, come on, show up, pay at the door, have a great time. If you're coming and you anticipate that you're going to be drinking a little bit, the social responsibility would be do an Uber, do a Lyft, have a designated driver. You don't want to be drinking two or three or four or more pours and getting behind the wheel. So from a social responsibility, drink responsibly and plan ahead.

And for those who are coming from out of town, this is on the UK campus. So there are hotels nearby. Of course. Yeah. Yeah. Good.

And Instagram, Facebook. Yep. Lexington Bourbon Society.

Lexington Bourbon Society has an Instagram. We have a public Facebook page. And then members also have access to a private Facebook page where we get information. There may be somebody's got a bottle they're looking for or something like that. And we've got lots of good options.

$85 or $100 a year, depending on which package you want. That's right. All right.

Great, guys. Well, thank you so much. It's been a pleasure having you on.

It's been a pleasure. One more thing, if I can. We've got an event coming up on June 14th. It's celebrating National Bourbon Day. And it's going to be at the Speakeasy down on Manchester Street. It's at the Grand Reserve, if you all know where that's at. And so we're going to bring together the Whiskey Chicks and the Kentucky Black Bourbon Guild and the Lexington Bourbon Society. And this is a super fun event where we're going to have elevated cocktails. We're going to have three different cocktail expressions with different spirits, including bourbon and other spirits yet to be determined. But that's going to be a good opportunity. If you want to come out and you're not really sure what this bourbon thing's about, come on out to that event. It's open to the public, and you'll be able to find more information online about it. But the benefit there is that you'll get to mix with some of these other bourbon clubs and identify what really, what is this bourbon thing all about? That's awesome. June 14th. June 14th.

National Bourbon Day. National Bourbon Day. OK. Mark it in your calendars.

All right, guys. Well, thanks a lot. We really had a great time. Thanks for sharing your bourbon with us. Yeah. All right. Cheers. Cheers. We do appreciate all of our listeners and we'd like to thank you for taking time out of your day to hang out with us here on the Bourbon Road. We hope you enjoyed today's show and if so, we would appreciate if you'd subscribe and rate us a five star with a review on iTunes. Make sure you follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at The Bourbon Road. That way you'll be kept in the loop on all the Bourbon Road happenings. You can also visit our website at thebourbonroad.com to read our blog, listen to the show, or reach out to us directly. We always welcome comments or suggestions. And if you have an idea for a particular guest or topic, be sure to let us know. And again, thanks for hanging out with us.