Podcast appearances and mentions of brent elliott

Send us a textHighlighting Master Distiller Brent Elliott, we delve into the inspiring journey of a bourbon enthusiast who made a remarkable transition from a background in chemistry to a pivotal role at Four Roses. Growing up in the heart of bourbon country, his passion for the spirit, sparked by a transformative tour at Woodford Reserve, led him into the world of quality control and blending. His story is one of dedication, collaboration with industry icons like Jim Rutledge and Al Young, and playing a key role in the resurgence of Four Roses in the American market. With anecdotes from the early days of the brand's revival, listeners gain insight into the intricacies of blending and barrel selection that are crucial to crafting exceptional bourbon.Explore the complexities of bourbon production as we discuss the nuances of barrel aging, blending, and tasting. Our conversation reveals the challenges distillers face in achieving the perfect flavor profile and how different yeast strains and mash bills contribute to a whiskey's unique character. Learn about the excitement of experimenting with new mash bills and how personal preferences influence one's choice of bourbon. From the dynamics of blending to the thrill of special barrel picks, this episode invites you to appreciate the craftsmanship and passion that define the world of bourbon. Join us in this exploration, and who knows, you might just discover your new favorite pour. ad for Rosewood bourbonLegally VegasLegally Vegas! Our podcast where Bighorn Law attorneys dig into all things legal and...Listen on: SpotifySupport the showhttps://www.scotchybourbonboys.com

Send us a text Picture yourself in our virtual tailgate party, gearing up for a Green Bay Packers game while we showcase a treasure trove of Scotchy Bourbon Boys merchandise—perfect for any bourbon enthusiast. Excitement brews with upcoming events featuring bourbon luminaries Brent Elliott at Four Roses and a spirited gathering at Old Homestead Distillery. And don't miss out on our festive Scotchy Bourbon Boys Christmas party, promising camaraderie and fine whiskey at Gervasi Stillhouse.Join us as we promise a deep dive into the magic of Maker's Mark Cellar Aged whiskey. Discover the secrets behind its mash bill and aging process, all while navigating the unique barrel bashing rating system that scores the whiskey's nose, body, taste, and finish. Amidst a bit of technical turbulence, we manage to unfold the rich historical tapestry of Maker's Mark aging practices, transforming our tasting experience into an aromatic delight. Prepare for a sensory journey likened to the invigorating aroma of freshly ground Starbucks coffee, balanced with flavors of caramel, cherry cola, and toasted cinnamon.Finally, our bourbon adventure concludes with an exploration of a high rye bourbon graced by a chocolate mint finish akin to the beloved Andy's candy. Accolades are bestowed upon Jennifer and Antonio for crafting such a delightful experience. Engage with us on a smorgasbord of Scotchy Bourbon Boys activities—from Glen Karens to bourbon balls—and connect with us on social media and podcast platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Spotify. As we raise a glass, remember to savor good bourbon in the company of great friends, drinking responsibly and embracing life with an uncut and unfiltered spirit. ad for Rosewood bourbonSupport the showhttps://www.scotchybourbonboys.com

Join Nick and Jason as they chat with Brent Elliott--Master Distiller at Four Roses.  We hope you enjoy the show!

Send us a textCelebrate the vibrant world of bourbon with us alongside our esteemed guest, Super Nash, as we navigate a spirited evening of camaraderie and stories. This episode bursts with updates from our recent bourbon adventures and personal triumphs, including a heartfelt shoutout to our friend CT, whose insights continue to enrich our discussions. Tune in to discover our thoughts on the Old Louisville barrel bashing segment and the much-anticipated Booker's 2024-03 Master Distillers batch, as well as a sneak peek into the newly released 2024-04 Jimmy's Batch.Join us on a whirlwind of events hosted by bourbon enthusiasts Walter Zausch and Stacy Pritchard, where familiar faces like Mark Carter, Christy Atkinson, and Amzy add to the charm of gatherings at Whiskey Thief and the Kentucky Bourbon Festival. From the comfort of the Distill Inn to the unique flavors of a bourbon pancake at Mammy's, we recount our travels and look ahead to exciting plans, including a tasting session at my cousin's bar and a podcast rendezvous with Brent Elliott at Four Roses. With each tale, we pay tribute to the legacy of master distillers and the artistry behind Booker's Master Distiller Batch 24-03.Explore the nuances of bourbon tasting with our special focus on Booker's 2024-03 Master Distillers batch, celebrated for its unique flavors reminiscent of sweet root beer and vanilla frosting. Our Scotchy Bourbon Boys Barrel Bashing Rating System provides the framework to appreciate and compare this exceptional high-proof batch against giants like Buffalo Trace and Elijah Craig. As we toast to the lasting impact of bourbon camaraderie, this episode promises insight, laughter, and a shared appreciation for the rich, evolving flavors that make each bottle a celebration of tradition and community. ad for Rosewood bourbonSupport the showhttps://www.scotchybourbonboys.com

Send us a textReady to explore the world of bourbon like never before? Join me as I promise an unforgettable journey into bourbon tasting,  Plus, a dive into the art of blind tasting as we navigate through affordable bourbons under $30 and reveal how our evolving palates shape our favorites.In this engaging episode, explore the nuances of flavor and aroma with industry insights from esteemed guests Aaron Harris and Brent Elliott. Our blind tasting session brings to light unexpected favorites like Early Times and Jim Beam Double Oak, showcasing their unique qualities. We'll also share exciting updates from the Scotchy Bourbon Boys' adventures at festivals and our famous bus tours. This episode offers more than just tasting notes—it's a celebration of the bourbon community and the role of social media in bringing enthusiasts together.Finally, let's explore the fascinating world of whiskey finishes and the events that highlight them. From the rich, chocolatey notes of Green River 1885 to the innovative techniques of Chicken Cock Double Oak, each bottle tells a story of craftsmanship and creativity. Don't miss our insights into the importance of promoting whiskey events and the power of social media. And remember, good bourbon equates to good friends and good times, so we encourage you to enjoy responsibly and join us for our live sessions for more spirited discussions.voice over Whiskey Thief If You Have Gohsts Add for SOFLSupport the showhttps://www.scotchybourbonboys.com

Send us a text. We share our exhilarating adventures at the Ohio Craft Distillery Festival and an exclusive night at the House of Spirits in Marysville, Ohio, where Wendy from Penelope whisked us away on a journey of blind tastings and delectable food pairings. This chapter is a celebration of whiskey wonders and the camaraderie that binds us, the Scotchy Bourbon Boys, and our fellow enthusiasts.Picture this: you're at the Kentucky Bourbon Festival, and Brent Elliott hands you a taste of the Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch Barrel Strength 2024. It's a moment to savor, a moment that ignites the passion of bourbon collecting. We recount the thrills and determination involved in acquiring such rare gems, from late-night escapades at bottling facilities to the intricacies of the Four Roses OBSK mash bill. With whispers of past encounters and plans for future podcasts with Brent Elliott, this chapter is a tribute to the dedication of true bourbon aficionados.Bringing the episode to a crescendo, we engage in a lively session of barrel bashing as we rate Brent Elliott's remarkable creation. The bourbon's vibrant flavors—creamy vanilla, honey, and ripe berries—dance on our palates, while its fresh aroma tempts the senses. Alongside our discussion, we shout out to Amin from the Old Louisville Whiskey Company for the rich experiences at their distillery tours. As we round off, the joy of sharing bourbon with friends and family takes center stage, underscored by a musical homage to the never-ending quest for the next great whiskey bar. Join us in this spirited celebration, where every sip is savored and every bottle tells a story.voice over Whiskey Thief If You Have Gohsts Add for SOFLSupport the showhttps://www.scotchybourbonboys.com

We continue our coverage for Bourbon Heritage Month as we explore Four Roses Bourbon, including their new Limited Edition Small Batch release for 2024.  We are joined by Brent Elliott, Master Distiller for Four Roses Bourbon Distillery.  We discuss Brent's process for crafting this limited edition bourbon, the 10 different recipes of Four Roses Bourbon, the distillery's commitment to quality and tradition, and the recent announcement of an expansion of the Four Roses Bourbon recipe lineup.  What is your favorite Four Roses recipe or release? About Four Roses: Established in 1888, Four Roses combines two mashbills with five proprietary yeast strains to distill and age 10 distinct bourbon recipes, each with its own unique flavor profile. With distilling and warehousing operations in Lawrenceburg and Cox's Creek, Kentucky, respectively, Four Roses is available in all 50 states. This past year, Four Roses has received 54 awards, including 2 Double Platinum medals, 3 Platinum medals, 9 Double Gold medals and 22 Gold medals from esteemed competitions such as the American Whiskey Masters and Whiskies of the World. About Brent Elliott, Master Distiller for Four Roses Bourbon Distillery: Brent Elliott became Master Distiller at Four Roses in September 2015 and has been involved in producing award-winning premium Bourbons since he began working with the company in 2005.  As Master Distiller, Elliott ensures that each bottle of Four Roses is handcrafted with the same passion and quality that the brand has maintained since 1888. Elliott's years of experience with Four Roses include everything from applying his Chemistry degree in production, to formulating Four Roses' 10 distinct Bourbon recipes and hand-selecting barrels for award-winning bottlings that the brand has become known for around the world. Elliott also frequently travels on behalf of the brand, sharing his deep industry and brand knowledge through tastings, seminars, training sessions and events. Named Master Distiller/Blender of the Year at the 2020 Icons of Whisky America award ceremony, Elliott is particularly proud of Small Batch Select, the distillery's newest permanent product-line extension since 2006, and the biggest addition to the storied history of the 132-year-old brand since he became Master Distiller. Since its release, Small Batch Select was ranked No. 3 in Whisky Advocate's Top 20 Whiskies of 2019 – the highest-rated Bourbon on the list – and also earned Category Silver for Kentucky Bourbon at the 2020 World Whiskies Awards.  A native of Owensboro, Kentucky, Elliott resides in Frankfort Kentucky with his wife, Amy, and their two children.

Send us a Text Message.Ever wondered how a simple glass of bourbon can forge lifelong friendships? Join us as we uncover the powerful bond within the bourbon community, featuring the incredible camaraderie of the Scotchy Bourbon Boys. From the heartwarming stories of Randy Sullivan's dedication to suicide prevention to the group's support for children with learning disabilities, this episode shines a light on the deeper connections that bourbon fosters. We also discuss the buzz around the upcoming Kentucky Bourbon Festival and invite you to join the conversation on our social media platforms.Get ready to be inspired by industry icons like Brent Elliott of Four Roses and Gregg Snyder of Chicken Cock Whiskey. Hear firsthand accounts of heartwarming gatherings in Mansfield, Ohio, and the genuine hospitality of families like the Dants. We'll reflect on the inclusive nature of bourbon culture, where differences fade away over shared pours, and celebrate the friendships formed at distilleries and bourbon events. It's a testament to how a shared passion for bourbon can unite people from diverse backgrounds and create unforgettable memories.We'll also take you on a flavorful journey through different bourbon picks, from the sweet wheat profiles to the standout Weller 107 and Knob Creek store selections. Personal stories of overcoming life's hurdles, like wisdom teeth surgery and broken wrists, highlight the dedication to keeping our bourbon passion alive. Plus, we'll share our experience at Brad Bond's new shop in Elizabethtown and a tasting of the rich and complex Booker's Cheers Nash 2020-2021. Join us in celebrating the essence of the bourbon community—great whiskey, lasting friendships, and the joy of shared experiences.ad for Rosewood bourbon Add for SOFL Support the Show.https://www.scotchybourbonboys.com

Another week and another great podcast episode with all three guys in attendance welcoming on Four Roses Master Distiller Brent Elliott! Please subscribe and review on all major social media and streaming platforms! Cheers! Brent was the 2020 Master Distiller of the year and has played an integral role in the growth and continued acclaim of Four Roses. His most notable addition to date in the storied history of our 132-year old Bourbon brand is the introduction of Four Roses Small Batch Select. Launched in spring 2019, the non-chill filtered, 104-proof Bourbon was our distillery's first permanent product-line extension since 2006. Since its release, Small Batch Select was ranked No. 3 in Whisky Advocate's Top 20 Whiskies of 2019 (and was the highest-rated Bourbon), and also earned Category Silver for Kentucky Bourbon at the 2020 World Whiskies Awards.

Episode 117 features Four Roses. Bottled in 750ml at 40% ABV, or 80 proof and it retails for about $25.Enjoy this episode with a pour of Four Roses however you like.Four Roses official website: https://www.fourrosesbourbon.com/ Brief Historical Timeline:1860s - Paul Jones Sr. and Paul Jones Jr. get into the whiskey business in Atlanta, Georgia 1883 - Paul Jones Jr. moves to Louisville, Kentucky and builds his whiskey business there.1888 - The brand of Four Roses is founded with a legend of a southern belle and a corsage of four red roses.1894 - Paul Jones Jr. makes his nephews Lawrence Lavelle Jones and Saunders Paul equal partners in the Paul Jones Company.1895 - Paul Jones Jr. dies.Circa 1910 - Lawrence buys his brother Saunders out of the business1922 - Lawrence buys the Frankfort Distilling Company during Prohibition and securing a rare license to sell whiskey for "Medicinal Purposes Only."1941 - Lawrence dies, leaving the company to heirs would almost immediately sell it.1943 - Seagrams headed by Samuel Bronfman purchases Four Roses and Frankfort Distilling Company for $42 million.1950s - Seagrams converts Four Roses to a blended whiskey for the US market, reserving straight bourbon versions for export markets.1990s - Master Distiller Jim Rutledge convinces Seagrams to bring the straight bourbon back to the USA, in Kentucky only.2001 - Seagrams goes bankrupt and the beverage alcohol brands are sold off. Kirin Brewery Company, Ltd., Four Roses' Japanese distributor buys the brand.2002 - Four Roses Straight Bourbon Whiskey is bak on US shelves.2015 - Brent Elliott is named Master Distiller and a $55 million expansion of the distillery begins.2019 - Distillery expansion is complete, doubling capacity to 130,000 barrels a year.Key Cocktails:Drink Four Roses as you like, it mixes well in any cocktail calling for bourbon.References:Book: Four Roses - The Return of a Whiskey Legend by Al Young, copyright 2013Wikipedia Article on Four RosesWikipedia Article on the Language of FlowersWikipedia Article on the Pure Food and Drug ActWikipedia Article on V-J Day in Times SquareFour Roses History ArticleFour Roses History Article on SippingHistory.comDifford's Guide Listing for Four RosesContact Information:Official show website is: www.liquorandliqueurconnoisseur.comJoin my mailing list: http://eepurl.com/hfyhHfFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/liquorandliqueurconnoisseurInstagram:

While we are usually talking all things Pursuit Spirits or the backstage of the business, today we are taking a rare opportunity to taste through this year's Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch, and each of the 4 components that make it up, to see if we can peel back a bit of Brent Elliott's brain on how he put together this year's annual bottling. Aged 12-25 years old, and bottled at 108 proof, we taste through a 12-year-old and a 16-year-old OESV recipe, which features notes of delicate fruit and caramel; a 14- year-old OESK recipe, with notes of baking spice; and a 25-year-old OBSV recipe that boasts delicate fruit and rye flavors. Did you enjoy this episode? Would be interested in us doing more like it? Let us know! For questions or topic requests on upcoming episodes, email us at podcast@pursuitspirits.com. Learn more about the Four Roses recipes at the link below.  https://www.fourrosesbourbon.com/our-recipes Is there anything better than sitting next to a campfire with a bourbon in your hand? Absolutely not. Here's your chance to win a Solo Stove Bonfire 2.0 to accompany that bottle of Pursuit United. Sip on Pursuit United, roast some marshmallows, and enjoy the evening. https://brbn.at/win

Four Roses is releasing their 2023 Limited Edition Small Batch Bourbon on September 15th.  The bottle celebrates the brand's 135th Anniversary and includes 25 year old whiskey.  Four Roses sent over a sample of Brent Elliott's newest creation for me to review.  I can't wait to taste this one, so let's just get right into it.This is my review of Four Roses 2023 Limited Edition Small Batch Bourbon.Call or Text the show at 941-301-8503!Get your official Whiskey Straight Up Merchandise: https://whiskeystraightup.com/shop/View all our videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUfOZSqSw1U2HGAy7Jz_uSgOur website: https://whiskeystraightup.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whiskeystraightupInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/whiskeystraightup/

Brent Elliott has been master distiller since the legendary Jim Rutledge stepped down in 2015. Brent was hired as a chemist 20 years ago, when Four Roses was only available overseas and in Kentucky. Because it was a skeleton crew, they needed help everywhere, so he was able to learn about multiple facets of production. Four Roses Small Batch Select Kentucky Straight Bourbon  Four Roses Elliott's Select Limited Edition Barrel Strength Single Barrel  Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch 2022 Release Barrel Strength  Four Roses 135th Anniversary Limited Edition  If you have a question for the Barrel to Bottle Crew, email us at comments@binnys.com, or reach out to us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. If we answer your question during a podcast, you'll get a $20 Binny's Gift Card! If you like our podcast, subscribe wherever you download podcasts. Rate and review us on Apple Podcasts.  

In this star-studded episode, we take you on an extraordinary whiskey journey at the iconic Four Roses Distillery in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. Joined by the 2020 Distiller of the Year, Brent Elliott, and actor Graham McTavish, get ready for an unforgettable experience!We begin by exploring the complete range of Four Roses whiskeys, savoring their distinct flavors and aromas. But that's not all – prepare to be amazed as taste seven limited release expressions that will have you jealous you're not with us. But it's not just about the whiskey; we dive into a lively discussion, covering a variety of unique topics that shed light on the brand's rich history and captivating stories. Laughter and entertainment are guaranteed throughout the episode as we share anecdotes and tasting notes that is sure to make you laugh. So, grab yourself a glass of Four Roses, sit back, and join us on this delightful journey through whiskey excellence. You won't want to miss this incredible episode!Follow us on Instagram @bwfpodcast

In this Episode of The Bourbon Life Podcast, Matt and Mark spend some time hanging out with Brent Elliott, Master Distiller of Four Roses Distillery. Brent was previously a guest on Episode 57 on March 12, 2021. The guys talk with Brent about his education and work background and how that led him to his career with Four Roses, the incredible history of the Four Roses brand including its return to the US market in the early 2000's, and some BIG changes for the Four Roses brand that were just announced earlier this week. They also taste and review several different Four Roses Single Barrel expressions including a Brent Elliott OBSF Distillery Pick, a BHG OESK Pick, and a Liquor Barn OBSQ Pick. This Episode of The Bourbon Life Podcast is sponsored by Liquor Barn, The Stave Restaurant, Three Chord Bourbon, and District 7 Social. Check out all of our amazing sponsors online at: www.liquorbarn.com  www.thestavekentucky.com  www.threechordbourbon.com

In early 2021, the Mash Up Podcast made it's debut. We've come a long way since are celebrating a milestone 100th episode this week! Join us as we welcome back a very special guest and review the 2022 Four Roses SmbLE release. Produced in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky at the Four Roses Distillery, this annual limited release showcases the blending talent of master distiller Brent Elliott and is highly sought after by the bourbon community. This week we reflect on 100 episodes, bourbon gift shop experiences, and of course, the liquid in the bottle that we review. We want to thank each of you for the support over the past two years and hope you will enjoy this 100th episode of the best bourbon conversation that you'll hear all week long. -------------------------- Socials IG: https://www.instagram.com/themashupky FB: https://www.facebook.com/themashupky TW: https://twitter.com/themashupky Music: All the Fixings by Zachariah Hickman Thank you so much for listening!

 On this episode of Whiskey Straight Up, we are joined by the Brent Elliott of Four Roses.  Brent is the Master Distiller and is directly responsible for some of the best whiskey in the world.  We dive into many topics that range from him taking over after Jim Rutledge retired, planning beyond the current bourbon boom, the current experience at the distillery and gift shop, and so much more!YOU can text the show at 941-301-8503!Get your official Whiskey Straight Up Merchandise: https://whiskeystraightup.com/shop/Get better help with BetterHelp! For 10% off your first month: https://betterhelp.com/whiskeystraightupFor 15% off AND FREE SHIPPING, use code "WHISKEYSTRAIGHTUP" @ http://www.liquid-iv.comView all our videos: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUfOZSqSw1U2HGAy7Jz_uSgApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/whiskey-straight-up/id1634977533Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1ZOacL3PuxXxzoTnqxHYRjGoogle Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5idXp6c3Byb3V0LmNvbS8yMDE2Nzk1LnJzcwiHeartRadio: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/269-whiskey-straight-up-99517397/Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/39a0119f-da42-469f-a47c-b754105c3698/whiskey-straight-up?refMarker=null&Our website: https://whiskeystraightup.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whiskeystraightupInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/whiskeystraightup/#whiskey #whiskeytube #bourbontube #bourbon #top5 #topfive #toplist #best #picks #good #choice #collaboration #collab #2023#new #fourroses #fourrosesbourbon #interview

The guys are back to review Four Roses Single Barrel Strength - OESF Recipe! They picked this bottle up on their trip to Louisville last month. This is a 20% Rye Mashbill with herbal notes. Master Distiller, Brent Elliott picked this one and the guys couldn't be more excited to try it!

Chuck Sexton, CEO of Next Move Group, talks with Brent Elliott, Master Distiller for Four Roses Bourbon. Listen now to hear about how bourbon is made, what qualifies as bourbon, and much more!

In honor of National Bourbon Day, Torg & Elliott speak with Master Distiller of Four Roses Bourbon, Brent Elliott, who gives the guys a little history lesson about bourbon, how he became a "Master Distiller," and more.

In this REMIX Episode of The Bourbon Life Podcast, Matt and Mark spend some time hanging out with Brent Elliott, Master Distiller, of Four Roses. This Episode was originally broadcast as Season 2, Episode 11, on March 19, 2021. The guys talk with Brent about his career before joining the Bourbon industry and how the move almost didn't happen, the incredible history and people of Four Roses and how the brand has seen phenomenal growth since returning to the U.S. in the early 2000's, and how he and his team manage 2 different mashbills and 5 different yeast strains to create 10 total unique recipes and the challenges (and advantages) that juggling act presents. And they also taste and review the entire Four Roses Small Batch lineup, including their signature Small Batch, the newest addition to their lineup – the Small Batch Select, and the 2020 Limited Edition Barrel Strength Small Batch. This Episode of The Bourbon Life Podcast is sponsored by Liquor Barn, The Stave Restaurant, Three Chord Bourbon, Spirits of French Lick, and Davidson Reserve. Check out all of our amazing sponsors online at: www.liquorbarn.com www.thestavekentucky.com  www.threechordbourbon.com www.spiritsoffrenchlick.com www.davidsonreserve.com

Being Master Distiller is something Brent Elliott says is hard to call a job because, to him, “it's a privilege and a passion to be a part of Four Roses.” A native of Owensboro, Kentucky, Brent became Master Distiller at Four Roses in September 2015. He is uniquely qualified for this role… after all, he's been involved in Producing Four Roses premium Bourbons since he began with the company in 2005. As the Distillery's Director of Quality, Brent's years of experience with Four Roses include everything from applying his Chemistry degree in production, managing barrel inventories, production planning, to selecting barrels for special Single Barrel bottlings and Limited Edition products. Brent applies his on-the-job experience to his role of Master Distiller, ensuring that each Four Roses product has the fruity, smooth and mellow character, along with a hint of spice, that the brand has become known for around the world. Every stage of the production process is critical, and you'll find Brent's heart and soul in every one of them. Named Master Distiller/Blender of the Year at the 2020 Icons of Whisky America award ceremony, Brent Elliott is particularly proud of Small Batch Select, the distillery's newest permanent product-line extension since 2006, and the most significant addition to the storied history of the brand since he became master distiller.

In this episode we set up Four Roses Master Distiller, Brent Elliott, in a blind tasting with 3 Four Roses offerings. One of them is from 1938. Can he pick it out? If you like this content, or even the discussion of this subject, we would like to personally invite you to join our free member community.   #whiskey #bourbon #fourroses #masterdistiller #blindtasting #vintagewhiskey #vintagebourbon #dustyliquor #dustywhiskey #whiskeyadvice #whiskeytips #top10bourbons #bourbonlife #bourbondrinking #bourbonlover #bourboncollection #whiskeycollection #whiskeylife #whiskeybusiness

Brent Elliott is the acclaimed Master Distiller at Four Roses Bourbon, taking over for legendary Master Distiller, Jim Rutledge in 2015. He drops in with the Black and Brown team to discuss the industry, what's new at Four Roses and what he gets on the ear on his favorite pour. It's one you don't want to miss. Pour one up and vibe with them. Stay Black and Keep it Brown. Instagram @dablackandbrownpodcast @my_government_name_is @agbk06 @delvinj33 @fourrosesbourbon Twitter @dablackandbrown --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/dablackandbrownpodcast/support

Four Roses is releasing its 2021 Limited Edition Small Batch Bourbon this month, and Master Distiller Brent Elliott joined us on the latest #HappyHourLive webcast with the details. We're also joined by Darryl McNally. who stepped down as Master Distiller at Ireland's Dublin Liberties Distillery recently to start his own Limavady Irish Whiskey brand and revive his family's distilling heritage in Northern Ireland's County Antrim. Whisky Magazine editor Christopher Coates makes his first appearance on our Friday night webcasts, too. Join us each Friday at 5:00pm New York time for our live webcasts on the WhiskyCast YouTube channel, our Facebook page, Twitter, and Twitch!

Four Roses Master Distiller Brent Elliott join Bourbon expert Tom Fischer for a tasting of the 2021 Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch Bourbon Whiskey. With Kentucky Bourbon whiskeys aging in range from 12 to 16 years old, Elliott talks about his process for creating each new limited edition Bourbon. He also talks about other updates at Four Roses Distillery in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky. Subscribe to this channel and also find id on YouTube.com/Bourbonblog. Feeling thirsty? We host Virtual Bourbon Tastings. Visit BourbonBlog.com/Tastings. Have a guest you'd like to see on our show? Email bourbon@bourbonblog.com. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/bourbonblog/support

Steve and McNew share some behind-the-scenes insight and present their interviews of Brent Elliott and Stephen Fante on The Bourbon Talk Show. Watch these interviews as well as any others from this series right here: https://bit.ly/3i3keXB TBD music is by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Important Links: ABV Network Shop: https://shop.abvnetwork.com/ Our Club: https://www.abvnetwork.com/club Challenge Coin Challenges: https://www.abvnetwork.com/coin Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theabvnetwork Check us out at: abvnetwork.com. Join the revolution by adding #ABVNetworkCrew to your profile on social media.

Welcome to the Season 3 premiere of The Bourbon Showdown Podcast! Today we are talking to Brent Elliott, the master distiller of Four Roses bourbon! We talk about the history of Four Roses, its resurgence in the early 2000s, what led him to the whiskey world and what Four Roses has coming up in 2021 and beyond. It's a great conversation that is very befitting for the season 3 premiere, and this is just the start! This season promises to be the best season we have had so far, as we prepare to welcome not only Brent Elliott from Four Roses, but Jackie Zykan, Nick Offerman, Eddie Belfour, Eric Bischoff, Marc Cuban, Andrea Wilson and so many more! So keep tuning in every week because we have so much show to offer in this third season of The Bourbon Showdown Podcast! (Photo courtesy of Four Roses)

Four Roses is an iconic distillery producing some of the world's most sought after bourbon.  Their limited edition bottlings and many of their single barrel bottlings that gain notoriety trade on the secondary for many times their retail value. The head of production is the Master Distiller Brent Elliott. What makes Four Roses different is that they have two mashbills and five different yeast strains that produce 10 different bourbon recipes. Brent is arguably the world most experienced expert when it comes to yeast's impact on the flavor of bourbon. Yeast is a tricky little organism that loves to mutate, which is terrible if you are trying to maintain consistency of flavor.  Every whiskey nerd has a drive to understand why our whiskey tastes the way it does.  This short but information packed episode  is a must watch for every whiskey enthusiast.    Please Subscribe, Review, Like, and Comment!

In this Episode of The Bourbon Life Podcast, Matt and Mark spend some time hanging out with Brent Elliott, Master Distiller, of Four Roses. The guys talk with Brent about his career before joining the Bourbon industry and how the move almost didn’t happen, the incredible history and people of Four Roses and how the brand has seen phenomenal growth since returning to the U.S. in the early 2000’s, and how he and his team manage 2 different mashbills and 5 different yeast strains to create 10 total unique recipes and the challenges (and advantages) that juggling act presents. And they also taste and review the entire Four Roses Small Batch lineup, including their signature Small Batch, the newest addition to their lineup – the Small Batch Select, and the 2020 Limited Edition Barrel Strength Small Batch. This Episode of The Bourbon Life Podcast is sponsored by The Stave Restaurant in Millville, KY and Three Chord Bourbon. Check them out online at www.thestavekentucky.com and www.threechordbourbon.com.

Join us as we speak with Brent Elliott--Master Distiller at Four Roses. Brent is a fantastic storyteller and one of the most down to Earth guests we have had on the show. The team at Four Roses is producing some of the best bourbon out there, and this is a must listen!

Steve, Miss Beka Sue, Royce, Alan, Lenny & Adam talk about Brent Elliott of Four Roses. TBD music is by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Important Links: ABV Network Shop: https://shop.abvnetwork.com/ Our Club: https://www.abvnetwork.com/club Challenge Coin Challenges: https://www.abvnetwork.com/coin Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theabvnetwork Check us out at: abvnetwork.com. Join the revolution by adding #ABVNetworkCrew to your profile on social media.

There are hundreds, if not thousands of species of trees around the world. Why is White Oak - whether from America or Europe, the preferred wood to use for whisky barrels? What makes it so special, and how do we protect the resource for future generations of whisky lovers? Forestry scientist Tom Kimmerer, PhD. is one of the leading experts on White Oaks, and was a guest on our #HappyHour webcast earlier this month. The reaction was so positive that we've brought him back to discuss White Oaks and their preservation on this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, US-European trade talks on whiskies and other exports could be delayed by a Covid-19 scandal in Ireland, while that country's pubs remain closed with no targeted opening date in sight. We'll hear from Brent Elliott of Four Roses about this year's Limited Edition Small Batch Bourbon and the rest of the week's new whiskies, too.

We talk with Brent Elliott, master distiller for Four Roses Bourbon, on how Four Roses got its name, being named Master Distiller of the Year, watching bourbon grow, differences of the brand's bourbons and what's next. (Chat with Brent starts around 17 min mark) Also, Boys are from Marzen host Kindsey Bernhard joins for a 6-Pack of Questions.

Master Distiller Brent Elliott joins us from Kentucky for an all encompassing, bourbon fueled conversation about Four Roses Distillery--Follow us:spiritguidesocietypodcast.comfacebook.com/spiritguidesoctwitter.com/spiritguidesocinstagram.com/spiritguidesocyoutube.com/c/SpiritGuideSociety/?sub_confirmation=1--About Brent: (fourrosesbourbon.com)Being Master Distiller is something Brent Elliott says is hard to call a job because, to him, “it's a privilege and a passion to be a part of Four Roses.”A native of Owensboro, Kentucky, Brent became Master Distiller at Four Roses in September 2015 and he is uniquely qualified for this role… after all, he's been involved in Producing Four Roses premium Bourbons since he began with the company in 2005.As the Distillery's Director of Quality, Brent's years of experience with Four Roses include everything from applying his Chemistry degree in production, managing barrel inventories, production planning, to selecting barrels for special Single Barrel bottlings and Limited Edition products. Brent applies his on-the-job experience to his role of Master Distiller, ensuring that each Four Roses product has the fruity, smooth and mellow character, along with a hint of spice, that the brand has become known for around the world.Every stage of the production process is critical and you'll find Brent's heart and soul in every one of them. Named Master Distiller/Blender of the Year at the 2020 Icons of Whisky America award ceremony, Brent Elliott is particularly proud of Small Batch Select, the distillery's newest permanent product-line extension since 2006, and the biggest addition to the storied history of the brand since he became master distiller. Cheers.--A Q&A With Master Distiller Brent ElliottWe know you don't like to toot your own horn, but what makes you an ideal Master Distiller?In many ways, I am somewhat reserved. I think that aspect of my personality and my interest in science are what led me into the field of chemistry. But, after coming to Four Roses, leaning more about Bourbon and interacting with visitors to the Distillery, I began to realize that I never felt reserved when it came to Bourbon. I think the key is the excitement that surrounds any conversation about Bourbon…from both sides!What is your responsibility as Master Distiller?My focus will always be what got me to where I am, and what got the Four Roses brand where it is today, and that's quality. It will be a challenge to be as involved in Quality as I always have been and to promote a brand that I love, but it's a challenge I welcome!If we maintain the same quality that has come to define Four Roses and I successfully share my experiences and passion with the growing number of Bourbon enthusiasts, then I will be doing my job. This brand speaks for itself, and I'm committed to maintaining the product and sharing Four Roses Bourbon with as many people as possible.What's been your favorite thing about working at Four Roses Bourbon thus far?If you look at Four Roses, you can see the tremendous growth over the past 5-10 years. In that time there has been a surreal feeling of excitement surrounding the brand and the industry as a whole. As Four Roses has grown, this excitement has attracted more wonderful and passionate people to the company. Working with them and sharing in the excitement is my favorite part of being here.What can the fans expect in years to come?More Bourbon of the same quality they know and love. And, with our recent investments to increase our capacity, even more people will have the chance to enjoy Four Roses.What gives you the most satisfaction at Four Roses?I'm happiest either when I am so deep into a project or task that I lose track of everything else OR when something is finally complete and I can take a big step back and take pride in the finished project. One thing that comes to mind is the first sip of a Limited Edition after all the barrels are dumped. That's satisfying! Describe a typical day in the life of Brent Elliott.Fortunately it is impossible to answer that question. Every day is different for me at Four Roses. I enjoy that there is no real routine. I mentally prepare my daily goals on my way to work every day. If I'm lucky, my day resembles my plan. Usually, it doesn't.Do you remember your first taste of Bourbon?I remember my first drink of unmixed bourbon. Years ago, a good friend of mine introduced me to Bourbon on the rocks. I was very excited and grateful at the time. I'm even more grateful now, and I've told him so.Where did you grow up?Owensboro, KY.UK or UofL?I graduated from UK. That's all I should say.Do you have a favorite Four Roses recipe?I can't even say what my favorite Four Roses product is. It changes depending on my mood and even on the time of year. I seem to lean toward Single Barrel in the cooler months and the Yellow Label and Small Batch in the warmer months.Are you into music? Favorite band?I love music. Picking a favorite band or genre is similar to the question about my favorite recipe. There is a whole world of rich, wonderful music out there. There are a million tangible and intangible factors that at any particular time make a certain sound “perfect”.How did you feel when you were named Master Distiller at Four Roses Bourbon?Of course Joy and excitement, but more than that I felt honored thatFour Roses was putting their confidence in me.What's the perfect meal to accompany Four Roses Bourbon?Because I am from Owensboro, KY, I was recently asked about pairing Bourbon with Western Kentucky Barbeque. Honestly I have not tried to pair these, yet, so I could not properly answer. However, I promise that on my next trip to Owensboro I'm going to have fun getting to the bottom of this question.How do you prefer to drink Four Roses?Usually I drink my Bourbon on the rocks or neat. However, when I get the chance for a talented bartender to make me a cocktail, I never pass it up. The creativity and skill of many bartenders is amazing.--About Four Roses:In 1884, Paul Jones Jr, moved his thriving business to Louisville, Kentucky, where he opened an office in a section of historic Main Street called, “Whiskey Row”. Four years later, he trademarked the name Four Roses, claiming production and sales back to the 1860s. In 1922, the Paul Jones Company purchased the Frankfort Distilling Company.In 1943, Seagram purchased the Frankfort Distilling Co. primarily to acquire the most noted and recognized name in the business at that time – Four Roses' Kentucky Straight Bourbon. Even though Four Roses was the top selling Bourbon in the U.S. in the 30s, 40s and 50s, Seagram made the decision to discontinue the sale of Four Roses' Kentucky Straight Bourbon in the United States, and Four Roses was moved to the rapidly growing European and Asian markets where it quickly became and still is a top-selling Bourbon in both Europe and Japan today.In 1966, a young man named Jim Rutledge, who would later become one of the world's most legendary Master Distillers, joined Seagram in the Louisville Plant's Research and Development Department. In 1975, he was transferred to Corporate Headquarters in New York until 1992, when Jim asked to return home to Kentucky to help with the Four Roses brand. In 1995, he replaced Ova Haney as the Master Distiller. For the next several years, Jim worked tirelessly to return the Four Roses brand back to the States – a dream that would become a reality in hands of a new owner.In February 2002, the Kirin Brewery Company, Ltd. purchased the Four Roses Bourbon brand trademark and production facilities. The new acquisition was named the Four Roses Distillery LLC. Shortly thereafter, Four Roses was once again sold in the United States and quickly earned the reputation of being one of the most notable names in the Bourbon world.In August 2015, Jim Rutledge retired as Master Distiller and Brent Elliott, who had worked alongside Jim for 10 years, became the company's new Master Distiller.The people who work at the Four Roses Distillery in Lawrenceburg, KY and at our warehouse facility in Cox's Creek, KY continue the legacy that began with Paul Jones in 1888. Their passion for quality and pride in handcrafting an award winning Bourbon is evident in the smooth, mellow taste that has become the signature of the Four Roses Brand.--Samba Isobel by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4316-samba-isobelLicense: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Brent Elliott is the master distiller for Four Roses Bourbon. He has been the master distiller for Four Roses since September of 2015. He was named master distiller/blender of the year at the 2020 Icons of Whisky America award ceremony. This week he is here in particular to talk about the distillery’s newest permanent product-line extension since 2006, Small Batch Select. Make sure you never miss another episode of our brand of drinking fun by visiting  WeLikeDrinking.com/Subscribe  Panel Introductions And What We’re Drinking Tonight we’re joined by most of our usual panel members, we have our California Sustainable Winegrowing Ambassador, and recovering Wine Blogger, Jeff Solomon, our commercial brewer and snake wrangler, John Ruyak, and I’m your host and certified specialist of wine, Jeff Eckles. Wine, Beer, Spirit, or Pop Culture Reference Solomon - Cencibel Brent Elliott Interview iTunes Reviews Towny in CO says Fun Show -5 Stars- I am cheating because I know 2 of the 3 clowns and won 2 of the early giveaways, but the show is fun. Lots of down to Earth knowledge without sounding like dicks. Cali Jeff is clearly the smartest because he is a Giants and 49er fan. I recently started from the beginning and am 84 episodes in. Have found each one entertaining. Keep it up guys! AlexandraWPB says So Much Fun! -5 stars- The podcast is the best! My husband and I look forward to listening every Friday night. Last call That’s right, it's time to break out your phones and give us a hand. Follow us on the socials, Twitter, Instagram and our private group on Facebook known as the Tavern. Brent Elliott, where are the best places for our listeners to find you and/or Four Roses on social media? Search up the show on Apple Podcast and leave us a big fat 5 star review. And, if you enjoyed this episode in particular, share it with a friend. And, visit We Like Drinking dot com slash pledge to find out more information about becoming a patron of the show and help  You can also find the show notes for this episode with all the links to the stories or mentions we had at http://welikedrinking.com/episodes

A fabulous talk and tasting with Chateau Minuty Provencal Rose and Master Distiller Brent Elliott of Four Roses Distillery

Today's episode has it all....gator stories, close encounters with a bear, some epic whitetail stories and some lessons on raising kids. These all come from today's guest Brent Elliott from Florida. Hope you all have a safe and fun week.

The HRN crew is joined by Brent Elliott, the Master Distiller of Four Roses Bourbon who was recently awarded the title of Master Distiller of the Year by Whiskey Magazine. Brent shares his unexpected journey, which put his chemistry degree to use in the world of spirits. He also talks about what avenues he has for innovation while working at a company that prides itself on a 100+ year history. While the team sips on two different expressions of Four Roses, they chat about aging, tasting, and their favorite whiskey cocktails.HRN Happy Hour  is powered by Simplecast.bourbon, kentucky, master distiller, whiskey, four roses bourbon, brent elliott, spirits, chemistry, tasting, happy hour, cocktails

You could probably call this the bourbon edition of the Access Louisville podcast.On the show we talk about Louisville area bourbon attractions — distilleries, visitors centers and so on. This discussion is timely considering Business First recently published its list of local bourbon attractions. Digital Editor David A. Mann and Design/Multimedia Editor Brooke Timmons talk about the best and worst area bourbon visitors centers and provide some recommendations. Data Editor Allison Stines also gives us some numbers on several attractions. We also talk about and rate some of the products we keep on hand at the Business First bourbon bar.And we speak with Reporter Sarah Shadburne about some of the people she's met since taking on the bourbon beat late last year.Here's the timestamps, if you're the skipping around type:1:06 — What bourbon are you sampling4:32 — Rating bourbons on the Business First bar11:43 — Ranking bourbon distillery attractions27:55 — Local bourbon people, including Brent Elliott and Peggy Noe Stevens

On this episode, we touch on three topics. First, we look at how bourbon producers can reach new consumers. Then we take on the new celebrity craze. Over the past year, there have been about half a dozen music artists and TV personalities that have come out with bourbons. While we don’t see this trend stopping, we ask ourselves if this is good for bourbon as a whole. Lastly, we examine the current state of the secondary market. It’s a group consensus that we all miss it, but how has it affected value, store pricing, and distributor allocation? Show Partners: The University of Louisville has an online Distilled Spirits Business Certificate that focuses on the business side of the spirits industry. Learn more at uofl.me/bourbonpursuit. Barrell Craft Spirits enjoys finding and identifying barrels that contain distinctive traits and characteristics. They then bottle them at cask strength to retain their authentic qualities for the whiskey enthusiast. Learn more at BarrellBourbon.com. Receive $25 off your first order at RackHouse Whiskey Club with code "Pursuit". Visit RackhouseWhiskeyClub.com. Show Notes: This week’s Above the Char with Fred Minnick talks about celebrity whiskey. How do bourbon producers reach new customers? What about new label designs? What do you think about celebrities getting into bourbon? Are celebrities helping or hurting bourbon? Let's discuss the current state of the secondary market. 0:00 Have you held a bottle of bourbon in your hand and wondered how was this made? sure there's the grains in the barrels and all that science that goes into it. But what about the package design, class manufacturing, shipping logistics, or purchase orders for thousands of cork stoppers. These are only a handful of things that you need to know. But what the University of levels online distilled spirits business certificate, you're only a few clicks away from learning from industry experts from renowned spirits businesses like brown Forman, jack daniels and more. Learn more about this online six course certificate at U of l.me. Slash 0:35 bourbon pursuit. 0:38 Carey is fashionably late for his returns. 0:41 I said he's making a big entrance right 0:45 see, I like this new platform because I hold the power like I actually don't have to put them on the screen. 0:50 Perfect. really sing as actually it's kind of cool how this works. Yeah, 0:54 it is cool. Yeah. Alright, he's here now should Adam 0:57 Can you can you like put his head face like behind a curtain kind of thing or voice? I can I can kick him 1:03 from the studio. He will do that. 1:06 I'll put him in. And then I'll take him out. 1:21 Everyone, it's Episode 241 of bourbon pursuit. And if it's your morning drive, good morning, if it's your daily run, break that record. And if you're sitting at work, let's make this day go by one hour faster. Last week, whiskey magazine presented their 2020 icons of American whiskey awards in New York City, and I'll be damned if we weren't even considered in the running. Who knows maybe next year, but here's some of the names that you might recognize. Brent Elliott from four roses was named master distiller the year Buffalo Trace as the best distiller and visitor attraction. peerless distilling companies small batch Kentucky straight bourbon was named the best Kentucky bourbon While Rebel Yell took home the best Kentucky single barrel bourbon and iron Republic out of Texas as the best non Kentucky and eh Taylor ride took home the best rye while to 91 Colorado whiskey took home the best new make award. And lastly Peggy no Stevens accepted and induction into the Hall of Fame as well. winners from the icons of American whiskey and world whisky awards. 2021 now go head to head and their competition across the globe to figure out who will be the best whiskey in the world. Now we presented in London in March of 2020. The Kentucky distillers Association announced that the famed Kentucky bourbon trail and Kentucky bourbon trail craft tour destinations Welcome to 1.7 million visitors in 2019. And now is celebrating its anniversary with its 21st birthday. Now, let's get into some bourbon economics beam centuri self solid sales growth in 2019. posting a revenue increase of six and a half percent for the Year and beam centaurs flagship brand, Jim Beam had a strong year in the US, where depletions increased eight and a half percent to 5.7 million cases. That also includes flavors variants of Jim Beam, according to impact databanks estimates. Now basil Hayden was another dynamic performer estimated up 37% to 345,000. cases in the US last year in Japan became the largest export market for Jim Beam last year, driven by the high vol craze, Kentucky Governor Andy Bashir announced that Kentucky is leading the nation in whiskey exports, which shouldn't be much of a surprise. The governor made the announcement while filling the 16th million barrel of Jim Beam at Jim beam's American steel house in Claremont, Kentucky, and Kentucky led all states in whiskey exports in 2019 at 480 $5 million. That total marks a 326% increase since 2004. While Canada united Kingdom, France, Brazil in Mexico make up the Commonwealth top five export destinations. Alright, today we've got the roundtable, a show where internet friends gather and discuss a bunch of bourbon popery. And On this episode, we touch on three topics, we look at how brands and distilleries can start reaching new consumers, and what are the best ways of getting your product in the eyes of them today? Then we take on the celebrity craze. Over the past year, they've been on a half a dozen music artists and TV personalities that have come out with Bourbons on the market. While we don't see this trend, stopping anytime soon, we ask ourselves, is this good for bourbon as a whole. And lastly, we examine the current state of the secondary market. It's a group consensus that we all miss it. But what has been the effect for pricing store pricing in distributed application, since this is all happened over six months ago. And if you're a Patreon supporter, you got the email yesterday that we're going to be doing a new pilot episode called Extra pursuit. This is a new kahlan radio show format that we're going to test out that is exclusively available to our Patreon community. We hope to see you all mine soon and make it successful to see how this thing's going to turn out. And speaking of things that are happening in the Patreon world, we have two barrel pics that are happening a Buffalo Trace this week. So if you want the opportunity to get your hands on one of these bottles of these private selections, as well as even possibly join us on the pic, go to patreon.com slash bourbon pursuit. It's this community that funds a lot of the things that happened with this podcast, and we're happy that we can bring these experiences like this to so many of our listeners. It's showtime. So here's Joe from barrel bourbon, and then you've got Fred minich, 5:45 with above the char. 5:48 Hey everyone, Joe here again, we enjoy finding and identifying barrels that contain distinctive traits and characteristics. We then bottle them a cast rank to retain their authentic qualities for the whiskey enthusiast. Next time Ask you bartender for barrel bourbon. 6:04 I'm Fred MiniK. And this is above the char. Right now we're seeing a plethora of celebrity whiskies come out. Most recently Jason Aldean, and Terry Bradshaw have announced their whiskies Of course, last year we had slipknot and Metallica, Bob Dylan, and I got to tell you, there's going to be a whole lot more coming. I'm even familiar with a few of them, that some of which I cannot disclose at this time. But let me just tell you, we should not think of celebrity whiskey as something that is the end of times or a sign that the bubble is about to bust. Rather, celebrity whiskeys just mean that we have right now the attention of all those who are interested in making money. And basically celebrities are like any other business. They're all about trying to make money. And whiskey is one of the hottest games in town right now. course it doesn't help that George Clooney actually made a couple billion dollars off of a tequila a few years ago. And so with the rise of spirits come more celebrities, I believe we should actually reward those who make good whiskey or at least put their name on good whiskey. Here's the thing, this is what we don't want. We don't want whiskey to become the next vodka, where celebrities galore just kind of sign up and they just put their name on it. We want the celebrities to actually be involved. We want them to be involved with good whiskey. And you know, the Matthew McConaughey project with wild turkey is a good example of how a celebrity can be used to improve a brand. Now, we'll see if that ends up working in the long haul, but I kind of liked the idea of more celebrities coming in to the game of whiskey. And that's this week's above the char Hey, if you have an idea for above the char hit me up on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook, just search my name Fred MiniK Pape Until next week, cheers 8:03 Welcome back to another episode of bourbon pursuit, the official podcast of bourbon. This is bourbon Community Roundtable number 41. So we've been doing this quite a while and we've got a whole lot of good topics lined up tonight. And it's usually the Wrecking Crew that we have here. We talk about some, some culture things that are happening inside of Bourbons, and that, you know, latest news and we kind of give our, our best informed opinions and I guess that's maybe what you call it. 8:29 You know, maybe sometimes it's maybe simpler. Sometimes they're right, sometimes they're wrong, but that's just part of the process. But yeah, most of the time I get my comments, you know, decided right before the show, just research the topics and I'm like, okay, that's how I feel. I don't even know. 8:49 Yeah, 8:51 yeah, off the cuff. 8:54 That's part of the fun, you know, we've done this enough by now. And I think that's also funny for Ryan and I when we go and we're we're interviewing a lot of people nowadays. They're all like, hey, um, can you all send me like a list of questions that you want to answer ahead of time? 9:06 We're like, No, 9:09 we don't have any questions. 9:13 Like we're just gonna show up and ask questions. This is how we do it now. 9:18 I don't think we had an agenda the first time did we 9:20 forget roundtable? I don't remember. It was very first one that was so long ago. 9:24 That's too long ago. 9:27 I know. I know. But you know, let's go ahead and I think we can we can kick it off. So you heard some voices already. We'll save the our new special guest tonight for last you've heard his name on there before but I'll start with the guy who's always on here, Blake. You can't 9:41 get rid of me of the bourbon Roundtable. I'm Blake from bourbon er. Yeah, always fun to be on. You know. Still, this is one of the one of the highlights of the month to jump on here and talk with you guys. So thanks for having me. As always, you can find me on all the social medias, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook. Bo you are Bo nr as well as my, I would say newer, or new site that's kind of just newish at this point. That's seal box calm, so es el ba ch s. So thanks me guys. 10:13 Absolutely make sure you go check it out for all your craft whiskey needs as well as pursuit series needs. You can go and get everything ordered right to your doorstep. We always need it. So Jordan, you're up next, buddy? 10:25 Sure. This is Jordan from breaking bourbon, one of the three guys from breaking bourbon calm. You can find us on all the socials at breaking bourbon and make sure to sign up for our newsletter. We're always sending out our latest calendar calendar releases. Is that starting already? Oh, it's it's been going already for for a few weeks now. 10:43 Oh, gosh. You feel 10:44 like it feels like it's it's a good time right now because you're like, oh, like we don't have to worry about anything crazy coming out like stag Junior bash 13. Like that came in when already now we can just relax for a minute but like seems like you guys just want to keep the energy going. 11:00 It'd be nice if we got a break, that's for sure. But the bourbon Gods demand it. 11:04 Yeah. Hey, we got Brian. How you doing, buddy? 11:07 Hey guys doing great thanks for having against Brian with sip and corn on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram is sip and corn. You can find me online at either sipping corn or bourbon justice calm looking forward to it. 11:19 Absolutely. And we have a familiar face of the Round Table making his return. 11:25 Carrie 11:26 How are you buddy? Hey guys, thanks for having me back on here if if Blake is Cal Ripken of baseball, I'm Fernando Rodney. I'm the reliever that you call in once in a while and you're really nervous because you don't know what's gonna happen. 11:43 Yeah, I could either be strong or not, but at least I'll look good with my hat turned a little bit to the side. 11:50 It's all a matter it's come sprinting out. Yeah, sprinting out of right field. That's right, people. Yeah. 11:57 This is awesome. 11:58 Well, Ryan as two people still watching Baseball I I certainly have paid zero attention to it but I don't know about you all. Then again, Louisville is not much of the amazing that we get the Louisville Slugger museum. We got the basically the biggest names with baseball here with the equipment yet. Like the city just really doesn't care that much about baseball because we don't have a protein just got to go an hour and a half north to be able to do that. 12:20 Yeah, they stink. Yeah, there's no point. 12:23 baseball's hot right now just because of the controversy. like everybody's talking about it now. 12:27 It was just the astralis conference. 12:29 Yeah, for sure. Which is crazy. If you look in depth at all of the stuff that's come out and then consider like the latest evidence where the guy was holding his jersey when he was crossing, homeboy. I know things like definitely a made for TV movie coming out ridiculous. Lifetime movie come 12:45 Yeah. But it keeps it fun. keeps it interesting. I think maybe like every once in a while, like sports have to do these things like they gotta create something to hype it back up again. Because as soon as it starts hitting this little plummet, you're like, Oh, am we're back up again. 12:58 Yeah, they said this is actually good for baseball bat for the Astros? 13:02 Well, that's true, as somebody's got to be a pawn in the game at the end of this right. So, all right, 13:07 so let's go ahead and start hitting some topics tonight. So the first one we want to do is we're gonna start looking at marketing and trying to figure out really how our bourbon distilleries and producers, how do they reach new bourbon drinkers? And I know that we've we've thrown a few different ideas around here. And I know Jordan, you had had some thoughts coming into this. So how do you kind of feel that distillers or bourbon, distilleries and marketing like how should they be reaching new consumers nowaday? 13:35 Yeah, so I think there's two parts, right? I'll make this short, but two parts. One is through people of the industry and making sure their products get out in their hands and making sure that we're highlighting them right. So for example, heaven Hill just sent out the whole latest batch of Elijah Craig. Right, which was great and everyone's posting bottles up and doing reviews and honestly, that's okay because usually it's a slam dunk bourbon, right for Most part, but other distilleries don't do that right Buffalo Trace released that press release for stag bash 13 they didn't send out any bottles, they just sent a press release. So, you know, I think the distilleries that are getting smart are making sure that bottle is getting hands of different review sites or different people on social media and making sure it gets out there. And then from just a standard consumer standpoint, right i think it's the people that are doing a lot of just non distiller producers right it's who is a fun label, who has a backstory good, right wrong and different, whatever your opinion may be on it. That's the people who walk in I have so many friends who go into liquor store they'll text me Hey, this looks really cool the labels cool fun backstory, you know anything about it? Like yet it's difficult. So is every other thing in your hand on the shelf, right? And they don't know what that means, though. They're just looking for a fun bottle to give us a present or Don't be. But there's nothing there's nothing wrong with decal, either. It's just you have to know kind of who's picking and who's selecting Right. I mean, we all know we've had some fantastic decal barrels coming out of there, but it's just, you know, that was just an example. So it's It's the people are doing it right or making sure they're getting out to the influential folks and talking about it. And then the rest are trying to just whatever the consumer with fun packaging. And that's kind of been tried and true throughout the years. 15:10 So you think they're doing a better job now then? I mean, Fred's not here. We can poke a jab at him then, like buying another Magazine Ad or something like that. But 15:20 I think they got smarter with the dollars and how they do stuff right. And I'll go back to heaven Hill, for example, right? They could just as well put up a billboard and global or anywhere else or they could have put out a huge news spread and bourbon plus or another magazine right whiskey advocate, announcing Elijah Craig barrel proof. Instead what they do, they got smart. Instead of sending a sample that people are viewing, they sent a bottle and you know what it's popping up all over social media, all of our websites and that cost them a fraction of what it would cost to a major advertising campaign. They smartened up the truly half 15:51 I didn't get a bottle 16:00 After bourbon and beyond and like a nice couple week run of, you know, really being on and things like 16:05 that, even years back, right? I mean, 16:10 bourbon blogging is two hobbies. It's the love of bourbon as a hobby, and the love of writing as a hobby. And I've come to realize that only like one of those two hobbies a lot. I like talking bourbon and I liked hanging out with people, but bourbon, but it's just the writing thing. It just inspires me for a while and then it it goes away. But if I finished the unfinished stuff that I have in my blog, I mean, I'd have like, I have like two and a half posts, it'd be amazing. So someday, we'll get back to it. But my question about the marketing stuff, are you referencing celebrities? marketing that or just how they're trying to reach consumers? 16:48 Yeah, I mean, we'll get to that in a little bit. I, you know, I'm kind of looking at, you know, how do we reach new bourbon drinkers? Right. And I think we'll get into the celebrity thing in a little bit because that's kind of like the second segment of the show. But you know, there's another thing that that I think brought up in our kind of private chat and that was, you know, I kind of want to stay on this topic a little bit before I start switching gears a little bit, you know, as we start looking into the clinical influencer realm, right, it's kind of a it's kind of like, I don't know if you guys like the word I feel like I'm like, nasty when I call myself an influencer like, 17:19 yeah, hundred percent. 17:21 Yeah, not good. 17:22 Yeah. Well, but that part is it's true. Right guys 17:24 are influencers though. I mean, you are like, when? Yes, the 17:30 batch 12 17:31 that you can't find anymore and the price went up. Do you know why that one went up? It's because of that guy right there. Jordan? Yes. Why? Yeah, that was definitely a breaking. 17:41 Breaking, but we'll certainly take credit for that. But you know, in our book, and I agree with what Kenny just said and you know, I we don't like the word influencer, I think to us, right? We put a ton of work into breaking bourbon. It's more than just a hobby, right? It's it's almost a full time job at this point is the job of planning job and we work our butts off for that. I think of influencer I think it's somebody out in a beach with a bottle and they're taking a picture. And that's, that's all they're going to put into it right? They're looking at their latest filter on Instagram. And that's how they're influencing folks. For us. It's truly a love and a passion of making sure we get out our thoughts to consumers that when they're new consumers are old consumers going to liquor store, we're able to help them pick out the right bourbon that's right for them. Right. And that's more than lensing. That's that's going out and doing a job to show in your love for the hobby. 18:27 Exactly. 18:28 I think it you know, kind of what Jordan said with how far is the influencer taking it, like, all right, you know, are they writing posts and had this conversation with, with with Josh from whiskey jug about, you know, you can have an influencer who do an Instagram story that's there for 24 hours, what does that really get you you know, is there really an ROI on that, but if they put an Instagram story, if they do a post, if they do a blog post, then you have SEO, SEO, you have backlinks, you have all this other stuff that's kind of building around it and So, you know, I think you almost have to be hitting all those areas to have some kind of influence. 19:08 But as far as which brands 19:09 are doing the best, I mean, you think about I know somebody mentioned this in the chat I think beam does a really good job of this barrel always does a good job about getting beer bottles up to people who are gonna, you know, have an audience and can post them. Heaven hills, come on strong. I mean, I don't Did anybody receive anything from heaven Hill until about two years ago? I know I didn't. So those are a few that I think definitely pop up. And Buffalo Trace seems to be taking the opposite approach of you know, we don't need as as much of this so, you know, used to if there was something you could get a sample it'd be two ounces or something like that. Now, even that seems pretty limited. 19:54 What they're doing, they get so many pictures 19:58 of just normal people. 19:59 Yeah. 20:00 Well wait one day. Yeah. Why would they send to really anyone when just some Joe Biden it has to take a crop shot crop shot just because he found Eagle rare or something like that? Yeah. 20:12 It was revolution that sample bottles too. So there's that. 20:18 I don't know that that sample size really makes a difference in terms of marketing. Because the people that are using you guys, your opinions probably are already into the hobby, right? So you've got the, the new people that they're trying to market to. And then you've got the people who are in the bourbon world who might not look at their brands, who they're trying to get them to switch. So I don't know. I feel like some of it too, is the marketing by us. And I guess we're getting into that part. But the marketing kind of gets into trying to influence young people, right, because you have people who in my mind people in college, first try bourbon if they haven't already, you know, but when you're 21 and you're in college, and you try it and then you know you're having Evan Williams had a full ball game or something and then you graduate and you wanted a nicer bourbon to move to I feel like that's kind of, I really don't know if that's where they're targeting, but it would seem like that would be your market. 21:09 Maybe I'm gonna disagree just a little bit and at least I'll speak for us and not a humble brag, but you know, we have millions of unique people come to breaking bourbon every year. And I guarantee you that the indepth crowd that we get caught up in on social media, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, nowhere near is that high, right? So that means to us, there's a lot of folks who are invested in the bourbon world who go to breaking bourbon. And I guarantee you it's probably the same thing for bourbon pursuit. They're probably picking up a ton of new people who aren't deep in the bourbon sphere. Right? And same with Brian and his book. I bet you have a lot of people are just really into largest into Kentucky history picking it up that part that have no relation whatsoever and who don't know what bourbon pursuit is we're breaking bourbon as. So the audience we reach is actually much greater than than we actually realize. And it's not everyone who's viewing this, you know, round table right now. It's much greater than that. So 21:56 they have discovered that because they realized they love bourbon. Or they're just trying bourbon and saying oh you know I like bourbon I'm gonna find bourbon and people on the internet 22:06 I don't know we ask we ask a lot of folks who write into us for the first time for the emails we say hey how'd you hear breaking bourbon said honestly I was in a liquor store trying to find more information before I dropped 40 bucks on bottle never heard of you guys before but you know it's good so they probably search the brand he searched the brand or the bottle totally don't know about breaking bourbon they're just searching for bourbon they're trying to get into it they're trying to make sure that their dollars right to us. We get so caught up just $200 bottles are in our bottle. Right The average consumer we you know, you need to remember 3040 bucks a lot of money drop on a bottle of bourbon. Right? So that's what they're looking for. Make sure they're spending their dollars wisely. 22:41 Your joke your points really good. Jordan, the people that I talked to in a lot of the presentations that I've been doing now, I don't know they're they're not the bourbon enthusiasts. They don't really don't know anything and I'm having to explain to them when we're doing a bottled and bond tasting what in the world bottled and bond is and they've never had the three that we've got on the tasting. So I think you're right there, there's a lot of new people coming into it. And that's, that's really what the brands are after I think. 23:08 I compare it to, like, you know, picking up other hobby. So if, if I'm looking at wine accounts, I may be falling for a complete marketing gimmick, but because I saw something on Instagram, so I want to try a bottle of wine or like, you know, some golf tool that is not going to help my game at all. But that's I don't know the difference. So I try to find the accounts that I think I can trust and that are giving good feedback. And, you know, just going from there and, like, kind of both y'all alluded to I think we really just, you know, don't give enough attention to the fact that the majority of the bourbon market is not guys like us. It's it's not guys that know what what mash bills are made aware or even care about it. You know, it's like, Hey, I got $40 to spend. I don't want to feel dumb. Because I get this bottle home and it tastes terrible. Where do I go? in you know, I think that's that's probably 80% of the market at this point. 24:10 Yeah, for so another big thing that makes me happy that this is all happening as well as that, you know, shout out to heaven Hill and a few other ones that that sends you full bottles, right? I mean, that gets you a much better Instagram shot than like a little two ounce sample a little cup that you know, kind of comes in and stuff like that. So I'm always happy to get the full bottles. I think that's fantastic. 24:32 I remember loving all bottles because they know I'm just going to like, review it, take a few pictures and then they get the bottle so they think it's the greatest thing ever. 24:42 I remember when Kenny used to get shafted, and now he's, he's on he's he's all the way to Mini. 24:50 I'm saying that. 24:51 Nothing wrong with that. 24:54 Absolutely not. Yes, yeah. So 24:57 go ahead right. 24:58 Do I get to get a point or not? We've had some 25:02 remember, I can put you on mute now? 25:04 Go ahead. No, my first right. No, I totally agree with what Blake says. And I've talked to you about this Kenny before, like we to get bourbon and expanded, we got to go to fringe audiences, like people that are interested in food, or cigars or wine, or like even cooking with green eggs or, you know, smoking food, you know, as there's just, that's where they got to start allocating their money to because people that are nerdy about something, they're going to be nerdy about bourbon, they're going to dive in to whatever they're interested in. And that's who you want are those people that are passionate about their hobbies. And so if you can get to those fringe audiences that kind of tie into what you got going on. 25:42 So the other part of this about looking at, you know, how are they reaching new customers, is we look at label designs and sort of what's happened in the market and on the most recent things that we can think of, of course, is like the new Baker's redesign, right? taking something that was a flagship product, redesigning it, giving it a Basically a face facelift of a label some new bottle new tops and everything like that. Do you all anticipate seeing this as a another trend forward where we can expect more brands to start saying like okay let's let's keep the brand but let's give it a whole new facelift let's break it so you look more younger more energetic anything like that. 26:20 Is that kind of part of marketing one on one anyway is is rebranding your image if if sales are hurting a little bit I feel like that's kind of kind of a standard especially in the bourbon world where it's just a label it just changed the label up in it you know people it sells out and fever like I got pre label stuff for sale and people go crazy and you know the fear FOMO sets in 26:42 or change the you change the proof or double the price to you know that 26:47 I think that's a lot of it too, right? I think it's a good excuse and I'm not justifying this at all, but I think brands are looking for a way to increase price right? One easy thing to do let's relay let's not really what but let's rebrand it right new bottle, different labels. Get a little more upscale 510 15 $20 mortars cost to the price. Right and I think you've been seeing that a lot of brands doing it. Or let's switch from screw top to cork. Let's do little things that make it feel more high end, same bourbon, right but now they're gonna start charging more and somehow people feel it's okay because now seeing the same model with a new increase price they're seeing a new bottle with an increased price. 27:22 Yeah, and there's some people in chat that are talking about how wild turkey is going through a yet another one. I think we've we've touched on this before, like, haven't they done like two or three of them in the past like five or six years of like, just suddenly changing things on the wild turkey one to one label? 27:36 Well, now it looks like they may switch the bottle up completely based on the last one I saw is that 27:42 I mean, I don't know if that's confirmed yet. But they they change everything. They're probably too much. I mean, look at what Rare Breed has six years. And I mean, they, it's it seems pointless. A lot of them are small changes. And then you've got the ones that do the big changes. I think that's where people notice A lot of people aren't going to notice that rare breed has changed four times in the last six years. 28:06 Yeah, I think there's a lot of thoughts on this one, but you've seen a lot over the last few years. You know, Weller had a overhaul, 17 9200 overhaul. lizer crack had an overhaul. And now you know, Baker's been the most recent and I would say probably Baker's was the most successful with it, because I can't like I've loved Baker's for a long time. And I don't know why more people didn't drink it. And all of a sudden, like it comes out in the cool bottle and people are like, Oh, man, have you tried Baker's like, this is not a new product was it 28:39 was it was not 28:40 a single barrel. So that did change. But, 28:43 um, 28:44 but it's, I mean, go back and taste it against some older bakers. And you'll be like, wow, this is really good. I love the new stuff. But I mean, that's a huge win, I think for being because people now love it. It looks so much better on the show. There's more people buying it people realize how good it is. And all they did was change the label, you know, call it single barrel. 29:08 Marketing one on one, right? The wine world taught me how to do labels and we got new bottles and they sell. 29:15 Yeah. You know how many? How many screw caps do we have on the market today? As opposed to just you know, five years ago? No, no, not a whole lot. You know it. There's something about that, that value of pulling off a cork instead of unscrew it. You know, even Weller antique, even after the redesign went to a cork instead of the screw cap. So 29:40 very old Barton. That's all I can think of. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. 29:45 And now What's the next one? benchmark benchmarks about to get a 29:49 overall that's doing a whole new line 29:50 of benchmark bourbon, too. Yeah. There's a whole new line extension. 29:54 I mean, Buffalo Trace just moves down the line. Right. Let me 29:57 let me assure you we've talked about done in a roundtable been over a year ago, I think that we talked about how they kind of go in the cycle of like finding something and re reinvigorating or reinventing it. You know, like 1792 was a very good example of that in the past a year and a half of maybe even two and a half years now, of what they've done to actually bring out new line extensions, repackaging everything like that, to really uplift the brand from what it had actually been before. So as we kind of continue down this path to and trying to figure out well, what how people are they going to be reaching new consumers and we look at something that we've talked about before and that's celebrities, celebrities getting into whiskey, notably bourbon, you know, there's there's a lot of things in whiskey but you know, this is bourbon pursuit. I think we'll focus on bourbon. And so in the past year, you know, we've had Bob Dylan, there's been Slipknot, Metallica, Matthew McConaughey, and now, Florida, Georgia line and Jason Aldean are now teaming up to create their own. And then also in the past two weeks, I think one that maybe took us all by shock was Terry Bradshaw. 30:56 Like Yeah, 30:56 I was I was I saw that too. And I was like, wow, I mean, Captain Kirk like I understood that one like, but like Terry Bradshaw like really? That's a new one. Did you watch 31:06 the Super Bowl? Pretty sure he was drinking it live during that. During that 31:09 broadcast. We'll talk about best advertisement you could. There's freakin terrible tiles everywhere you look at like watch every Steelers game no matter where they are. It's like there's just everywhere. It's the Anima when you buy McDonald's here run. 31:22 Yep, exactly. I think you know, a lot of its going to be back to right George Clooney is tres amigos. Right? So if you're another celebrity, you have any influence whatsoever and you have a name recognition. If you realize three guys can pull off a billion dollar brand you're gonna try and get in. Right? I think what people fail to realize or maybe not people, right? I think people realize what celebrities fail to realize is that isn't always the case like lightning. That was a lightning in a bottle type situation like Dan ackwards had Crystal Skull Baka since 2007, right and like people know what that is, but by no means is that a billion dollar brand? Right? So I think everyone's trying to cash in on their fame and do it think they're probably not going to see a huge payout, right, they may get a kick out of seeing their name on a bottle of whiskey on a bottle of alcohol. But if they're looking for a payout like the other folks had good luck. I think Ryan Reynolds is the next track to really take a very Jen super far right. I think he's Yeah, 32:16 I think that's a smart move to with the gin route instead of, you know, sure you're targeting a cool market, which I don't know, maybe we're just all wrong. And we're still like, over or under estimating the amount that people care about, like what's actually in the bottle. 32:33 But 32:34 now, I mean, I was texting with Oj leamas about this. And he said, Nobody wants to buy my shoes from a guy or basketball shoes from a guy who can't dunk. But it's kind of different in the bourbon world. You know, it's like you know, what is actually dunking in the bourbon world. So if Slipknot comes out with a bourbon or whiskey, whatever they came out with, like, people buy it, I guess I don't know. 32:58 I don't they buy it though. I mean, yeah. It's growing 33:02 like crazy. There's more 33:03 for me of what I want if they're gonna leave my four roses single barrel alone and I can actually find it on the shelf again great, you know sell it out 33:13 they'll come back and buy more. 33:15 I think I'm a little more indifferent on this one because it's like if that's what what people want to do and that brings more people into the industry and to buy you know hopefully they come in because they want to buy whoever Terry broad shall bourbon and then they're like, Oh, hold on. There's actually people who make this who make a lot of other good products. That's just one more consumer in the door. So 33:39 you're speaking as the guy you know, was sealed box here as the guy who already walks into total line and there's people around the corner and you know, you just want to check out and they all want Blanton's and you're like, sorry, you know, just you guys are driving me crazy here. And they they you know everything is impossible to get nowadays from that standpoint. You know, you don't want more people hobby. But I get where you're coming from too because it's from our standpoint of people who love hobby and love to talk about, you know, love bourbon and talk about bourbon. It's good for us, for them to bring more people in. 34:11 Yeah, I think there's one thing that I really wish that we were able to see in this world is like, if these celebrities really love whiskey and love bourbon as much as they do, like, I wish there was, like, if they were promoting it themselves, like if they were if they were drinking a bottle of Buffalo Trace or wild turkey or whatever it is, and we got, you know, we saw that more often then we're like, oh, my, like, these guys are really into bourbon. Right? Yeah. And making it versus somebody that like, you know, I don't know, maybe a picture service to like somebody drinking a four roses, and they're like, Hey, now I'm gonna start a brand, right? Like, I just, I just wish there was just something more like that was deep into it. They're like it was able to tell a story that would get people like us excited. Right? And I don't I don't think it really gets people like us excited because it feels it feels bad. Like I feel like we're just so naanum a little bit, but the thing is, is like they're not really trying to reach us per se. Right? And and I wish that there was a little bit more something that appeals to the whiskey geek in this category that says like, oh, like, this is why we want to do it because we had so much enjoyment of doing this and this and this, which, you know, you take this and you look at what Fred has done by interviewing the guys at Slipknot, same thing with Metallica. And actually like getting the story of you know, they're like, basically them and why they started the brand and really like what whiskey means to them. Like, I just don't want this to snowball to the point where every celebrity starting to come out with some type of liquor. I mean, everybody's talking here in the chat. Like I know the rock is getting ready to come out with a type of tequila. And it's it's going to continually growing, you know, it's going to grow more and more. However, I just want to make sure that you know, I it sounds bad. I feel like I'm on a bachelor Bachelorette like hope they're in it for the right reasons. 36:01 battlers, which I did have to sacrifice and DVR The Bachelor tonight so y'all are 36:05 well, man. No, 36:08 but I mean like overall like in, you know, Brian, I'll kind of go to you first like, do you see this is like good or bad for the whiskey world. 36:21 With the careers of master distiller spanning almost 50 years, as well as Kentucky bourbon Hall of Famer and having over 100 million people taste his products. Steve nalli is a legend of bourbon who for years made Maker's Mark with expertise and precision. His latest project is with Bardstown bourbon company, a state of the art distillery in the heart of the bourbon capital the world. They're known for the popular fusion series, however, they're adding something new in 2020 with a release named the prisoner. It starts as a nine year old Tennessee bourbon that is in finished in the prisoner wine companies French oak barrels for 18 months. The good news is, you don't have to wait till next year to try it. Steve and the team at Bardstown bourbon company have teamed up with racket Whiskey club rack house whiskey club is a whiskey to Month Club on a mission to uncover the best flavors and stories that craft distilleries across the US have to offer. Their December box features a full size bottle of Bardstown suffusion series, and a 200 milliliter bottle of the prisoner. There's also some cool merchant side. And as always, with this membership, shipping is free. Get your hands on some early release Bardstown bourbon by signing up at rack house whiskey club.com. Use code pursuit for $25 off your first box. 37:32 Do you see this as like good or bad for the whiskey world? 37:36 I think it's indifferent. I mean, the the people who know what they're doing and the people who who look at look at you guys for reviews there, they're going to be picking the ones that are worth buying. And I can't imagine that a lot of these are worth buying. So I don't see it as affecting me too terribly much. 37:55 Anybody else? You guys are awful quiet on this 38:00 I feel like I don't know, I gave my opinion of I don't think it's bad to bring more people into the whiskey world. Like, are we pushing it to jump the shark even further? I don't think so, because there's going to be so much whiskey. And, you know, Drake released his own whiskey a few years ago and you know, it's just something that constantly happens if there's money to be made, you're going to have these people who say hey, let's let's throw a big name on a brand you'll be the face of it and we'll handle the back end so I don't think of it as a bad thing you know, if that means that there's more bottles on the shelf when people walk into a total line and maybe they see a name they recognize it they buy it, good for them, but i don't know i don't i don't think see it as something that like kind of interferes with our lane of the bourbon nerd world. 38:53 I know any of it is gonna be good. Is what I'm more. 38:57 How many how many bottles of actually Bad bourbon Have you had four major distilleries? And I'm talking about like, 39:04 stuff you can't drink. Our major dealer is doing rock and roll band releases, though. 39:12 I mean, I think they're sourcing through somewhere. I don't think definitely. 39:18 Do we ever sure any? 39:20 Well, I mean, I mean, 39:21 no, I don't think it's any race. But I can tell you right maybe it will maybe some MGP maybe you know, Barton's and 39:30 usual suspects. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I mean, and you know, the Terry Bradshaw bourbon, it's all from Ozi Tyler right. And I believe it's gosh, it might be a three or just a four year old or something like that. So that might be one of the first brands that are gonna be coming out of OC Tyler and Brian and AC or they're making some faces but you know gotta gotta get understand about like Ozi Tyler like sometimes it gets a bad rap because the only like people pin Ozi Tyler repair tear up here like that's what that's what people my head one yeah. 40:00 Exactly I was a big mistake on their part because they there that Jacob McCall is actually a really good master distiller there and he makes an outstanding product, but they have that black eye on them because of this like Tara peer thing, because it's like, I mean, it's a, everybody thinks it's a gimmick, and nobody's gonna get a fair fair shot. So they're just I think they're actually trying to rebrand and come out with new brands that you know, aren't Ozi Tyler so they can get away from that. But back to the celebrity thing, I think it's good. The more you get it to the, if you will, it's good. If you want bourbon to grow, if you don't want it to grow, then it's bad. The more you can get into common people, it's just the natural progression of any product, the more appealing it is to the mass audience celebrities do that, whether you like it or not. Yeah, that's just that's, 40:44 it's I'm interested in a little bit of bourbon history and bourbon law. And so I've got a 40:51 great book that they can check out 40:53 and really get into it. I'm right there with you guys. I think the more people drinking bourbon, right, whether that's good or bad for people Trying to find bottles it is what it is. But the more people are drinking up, the more money that producers are willing to invest in it right? Big or small, and more. So the more legs and bourbon has to go a long time before there is a, you know, it's a boom and bust cycle. So before there's a bust, and honestly, if they can keep this up, then it's just ingrained in the American culture, right? And then you'll see bourbon out there. Let's be real. You don't want to see a bus like flavored vodka, what, 15 years ago and everyone's drinking flavored vodka 20 years ago. Let me tell you how many of you are walking through the store. Like I think I'll pick up some bubblegum vodka to drink tonight. just doesn't happen, right? If you drink bourbon now and other people see you drinking it for 1015 years have a hold on long enough. That's cultural that's generational. Right? And then we actually have bourbon taking off and just becoming more mainstream, which is fantastic. I mean, I mean, this 41:47 is this is a good discussion, because I think you know, as we it, there's a lot of things that are happening in the comments as well. People were saying, you know, like, basically there's Who was it? That was Hank Williams Jr. Our Booker was in a hurry. Williams jr music video with Dreamhouse say that there's I forget I saw something else but basically saying whoever was was was pushing dickhole a lot back in the day as well. And so I think celebrities do have a role in this right as as an advertising mechanism and stuff like that getting into it be I mean, in Mila Kunis has been doing it for a while. And that's but that's just the advertising side of it. I mean, we're talking about actually like having a hand at creating something that is a product, which is completely different, in my opinion, right? Where I think they probably have a lot more skin in the game, they've got their dollars invested into it. And so it becomes something that is a cornerstone for them that they've got to make. They've got to make successful and so if they don't, then it could end up being like Trump aka right who knows right? Where it just is no longer on the shelves or something like that. 42:54 But latronnik baka 42:57 you're sitting on it. I think it's worth something nowadays. And speaking of worth something now, I guess that kind of leads into a it's, it's always a topic we love and we hate it the second at this at the time, but that is the secondary market. 43:10 Nice transition. I know. 43:13 I try to find ways to make it fun and interesting without like Ben and myself is like, oh, they'll go people that always talk about the secondary market. But it truly is like one of those things that we're now Gosh, five months, almost six months since the since the kind of smack down if you will, yeah, really had this still exist? 43:33 No, I'm kidding. 43:34 Well, that's kind of what we're going to go into. 43:36 July. July was when the group I was running went down. So it's been over six months. 43:41 Yeah. 43:42 So there we go. I was 43:44 I was thinking it was like sometime like September timeframe or something like that, but it was before then then then we're definitely over six months. So I guess we're going to kind of talk about the current state of the secondary. Me personally, I made I made a prediction on our last of 2019 episodes saying that 2020 was going to be the kind of rebirth of it where a new Facebook groups going to come up this whole thing was just going to fly over like blah blah blah blah, who cares? And so far I've been completely wrong that has not come to fruition it is continuing to groups either be shut down, or there's just new rules and saying like no posting of dollar signs or anything like that, but there has not been a group that has started to break you know, really come up and make a name for itself. at the same exact time bottle spot has suffered a casualty, which was something that I did not see coming which I don't know I kind of took me by surprise. I don't know about you all but right now, I would say I would, I would say the current state of the market is if we're going to go like red yellow green like it's gonna be in the pink area. right it's it's an innocent a no bueno. State still, 45:01 you know, it's certainly maybe not life support but close to life support, right? It's nothing's really popped up. I think two things. One, Facebook got really good about shutting down groups where you saw a bunch pop up right after the secondary, the bugs shut down and they just kept smacking down other ones. I think a little bit of Facebook doing better about patrolling things. I think it was a little bit more of people out there saying, well, Now's my chance to report everything right. Little bit, a little bit Facebook heroes going on, we'll call it. But I think it's a loss. I think it's lost the community whether or not I mean, I never bought or sold on the secondary. But what I love doing was just seeing the latest trends, what people were really after, right? I love seeing new consumer to consumer supported caeser to a different bourbon. They just decided to get into the week before, but it really showed what people were after and what brands were becoming hot, what brands were pulling down what was coming and what people were really looking forward to. And that's just gone from just a pure, you know, gamesmanship just a fly on the sidelines watching that's gone and that's a shame. You know, and I think it's also a shame to for everyone who now Bye cases and cases of bourbon they just started get into thinking they flip it easy. Sure. Hope they like drinking it for sure. A lot of parties torn up you 46:09 still got all those diamonds? Yeah, 46:12 I'm good. I do diamonds. 46:16 I don't think the markets really that much. It's still there. It's just more spread out. There's more places there's more rules. Let me win one market goes down another one comes back up. It 46:28 it still exists. And you can't stop it. I mean, it's not going to exist is the thing and and it'll, whether it's Facebook or someone finds another platform or whatever it it'll exist. I mean, I wish it to Jordan's point. I wish you could kind of see it from the sidelines, but it's still going to exist in so 46:50 I think 46:50 it actually has been affected way more. You know, I'm kind of with Kenny where it stopped and slow down way more than I thought it would you know, I thought it would always exist. Didn't it does to an extent, but it definitely took a big hit. You know, I think just the fact that all these massive groups were shut down. I don't know if there's a group that is in the, you know, is their group in the six? Well, not in the six figures in the five figures or, or even 10,000 plus members that hasn't been shut down? Probably not. So, you know, it definitely takes a big hit. Now, it's like, you have all these, you know, people just selling well or 12 or bottles that really shouldn't be sold. nobody's doing that as much anymore because it's not open. It's not as big of market so all in all, I think it was a pretty surprising change and how it all went down. So I still think it's a detriment to the bourbon world because whether you love it or hate it, that was a big part of just watching, you know, what was getting sold, what were the trends, you know, older bottles, and Yeah, it was just kind of fun to see that stuff be sold. You know, I'm kind of with Jordan like I didn't participate, but I liked seeing that what was going on so a little disappointing. 48:11 I guess. I'll go ahead Carrie. Sorry. 48:14 No, no, no, go ahead and do that. 48:16 Okay, okay. 48:18 We need our Ryan Come on. 48:19 I know we didn't need more Ryan. 48:21 I'm talking about the secondary market I'm kind of relieved about it because like, I'm not doing like mega balls and all this crazy like, gambling and stuff like in trying to like, but it's also because it is a bummer like you used to you know, that was my night like scrolling through seeing what people are buying what they're selling what they're going for. I do love the yard sale stuff. Oh my god, it cracks me up like that keeps me entertained. But uh, yeah, I think it's, you know, I'm indifferent about if it's detrimental to bourbon. I mean, it's detrimental to us. But as a I think bourbon is just like we were talking about earlier we forget about the common consumer and they have no idea that's exist. Still. It doesn't affect them. It's still growing. Besides that, but I do think some brands like really valued from the secondary market Buffalo Trace being one of them, I'm not really sure that they would be what they were without it, and I don't and there's brands like old Scout, there's no way they would be anything without the secondary market Vlogbrothers all these MGP brands, nobody would have gave us, you know, two flips about them if there wasn't a secondary market out there. And so, I think it it does hurt us but I think people got in it early enough to where they got educated about brands that they didn't know existed and now it does suck for the people that bought bottles, but I don't know do you think like so? I'm gonna give a shout out to my boy Guthrie at toddies. I know he's listening in but do you think like liquor stores that can sell that stuff now? Does that help them? You know, with pricing or does it hurt pricing? 49:52 Well, I think in my opinion, this is this has become a basically a guessing game right? Somebody says, Oh, I got this bottle what's it worth? I mean Blake we had this conversation the other day he came across some some pre pros and he was like, Hey, what is this worth? I were like shit I don't know we don't have a database there's no there's no information and so it's like there's no way that we can really like pin a price down any of this stuff anymore. You know, and thankfully the is the even though I mean I think the bottle blue books still there because it's ran by some of our really really good friends of the show as well. But that might be the only indication of the value of the anything that's even out there in the market anymore. And even at that is still like it's a varied range, right? Like a each Taylor tornadoes anywhere from like 1300 or 2000. Like that's that's an all over the place, in my opinion. 50:46 Yeah, but if you look at it's still what's what blows my mind is that if you look at Pappy 15 despite everything that has happened to all the markets, it's established value is still the exact same as it was before all of the markets crashed. hasn't changed. It's still the exact same. 51:02 Again, I think that'll be 51:04 better too though. That's the one you can talk to anyone who knows nothing about bourbon but they might know they might not even know a bourbon is but they know that Pappy is a whiskey and that they want it. Right. It's just something that people want that they can't have bottom line. 51:16 Well, I think that's where I think you have like your your solid, you know, cornerstones of the bourbon bourbon secondary that won't change, you know, antique collections never going to change. mixers are going to change. 51:30 You know, where 17 changed a lot. 51:33 Well, yeah, no, no, I'm saying that they're, they're always going to have that secondary market. But I think it's the lower ones. You know, it's the Weller, twelves it's the victors 10 years, it's, it's those that will just kind of say, Go away, and maybe that's a good thing. Maybe that just means that more available. Market is more available, so 51:51 means you can go to the store and actually find it. 51:54 Not unlovable. I 51:56 think I still can't find it here. 51:58 Well, I think we still have a lot time until that goes into, you know, into Karis point as well, there are still smaller sex where this is happening, right, like just smaller groups and just spread around a little bit more. And you can't be in a mall. And if there's only 500 people in it and you get a good deal on something, then that's what it is. And maybe you drink it, and you hold on to it and you find somebody else you try to sell for the same exact price. I don't know, whatever it is, this is just it's been basically a collapse of the Empire, if you will. And so now you've got all these, these little armies that are trying to I wouldn't say try to take anything over, but they're definitely trying to keep something alive. 52:35 And the one point I would agree with Ryan about the part that I think hurts the average everyday person is if you wanted to trade a bottle, you know, used to be easy to kind of figure out values of what you had, and what you wanted and make a very similar kind of trade. You know, you're staying in the hobby, you're not trying to make money from your stuff. You're just trying to trade to try different stuff. And I think from that aspect, the limited secondary market definitely makes it harder to do that to reinvest in your hobby? 53:02 So I think that is that is one drawback of it. 53:05 Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, miss those trades. 53:08 Yeah. Well, that's, that's for sure. But so there is also another thing that I kinda want to bring up and this was a an article that Chuck Cowdery actually had written I think, Jordan or Blake, whatever kind of took me on to this as well, because I know I read it. However, you know, this was this was Chuck's sort of summary is that saying that really the the secondary market doesn't matter. There's no objection to it or anything like that. He's just saying that basically, all it's really doing is just helping out a small limited subset of brands. But if you want to just go find larceny or anything else, then it's really not a big deal. And so, really, if you wanted something that you want to find good to drink, there's plenty of stuff on the shelves. But if you want to go ahead and play that game of what it takes to get there, then you know To find these limited bottles, then you get to play that game. 54:04 So I I'll chime in cuz I think we might have thrown that out there. I appreciate. I appreciate Chuck having his own viewpoint, right. But what I found ironic about that article is Chuck said, that's a setup for like, you're a moron. 54:20 Don't say it, I will. 54:23 But here's, here's what I found super ironic about that article. You know, he says it doesn't impact but a small few brands and he lists out a bunch, right? And then he's like, but there's other good bourbon and drinks such as this that you know, they're good weed and Bourbons or stuff like this. And he lists larceny and other things. And you know what? I think that takes into account what Chuck may like, right? He might think is good, but there are truly people out there who've been drinking Blanton's for 20 years or Waller you know, well, there used to be my house bourbon, I would buy a case at a time, right? Just to make cocktails or throw parties and put it out just regular Weller and now I can't find it and that's a shame. Right? And you know what, I liked it that bourbon. I know other people out there like plans They weren't selling or flipping and they just like to drink right? So the people who truly like to drink the brands now the secondary market didn't make a big difference right? And I'm glad that Chuck things you know, there's other Bourbons that might replace it but for some folks they don't get replaced even drinking the same brand for 20 years and it did impact them in a big way. So again, I respect Chuck having that opinion Dr. Ruth unknown now one debt whatsoever, but you know, it's he threw it out there so I'm gonna throw back and say, you know, it's that's a false that's a fallacy. 55:26 Well and the other reason he's wrong as he points out Rittenhouse is you know, why would Rittenhouse be $11 a few years ago and why is that gone up? It's because with bourbon all all ships are rising when you when you increase the ceiling on what people will pay for a bourbon that is popular or the people want to get that gives you room to raise the price of the lower ones and that's why we don't have heaven Hill six year bottled and bond anymore. I mean, it just doesn't make sense to have that anymore. When a distillery can make so much money, so much more money on it or so much more money from Rittenhouse it's it all rises. And that's that is a direct relationship to the secondary market. 56:11 I was gonna say we do still have it, we just have it at 30 bucks more, right? 56:15 Well, that's right. It's there. But it's it's because it's it's you've got secondary market that has increased demand. And it has increased ceiling of what people are now willing to pay. I mean, 10 years ago, I could get seven different Bourbons for about $25 that were fantastic that are now all over $100 on the secondary market and you can't find at least in lieu of on the shelves. 56:41 Yeah, speaking of that marketing, heaven Hill, bottle and bond six here. Yeah, got a new label. And now you can't find it on shelves anywhere. That's right. 56:51 Man, that's because of the secondary markets a direct relationship. That's where I think it 56:55 I think, where we probably we undersell You know, the the vast majority of the market a little bit with with not bringing them into some of the decisions that we're talking about. But with this, I feel like there is a small percentage driving the market and prices and distilleries are looking like that. We have countless examples of them looking at the secondary, and bumping prices up to that. And you're, you're trying to tell me that that doesn't drive a lot of like these rebrand names we're talking about and all this other stuff, like there's no way like, that's exactly what's behind it. Because ultimately, for a lot of us, this is fun. We enjoy it's exciting. But these are businesses they're trying to make the most money they possibly can. So, you know, I, I would have to disagree with Chuck on this one to say, No, you're kind of missing the point that while the the rudder may be a small part of the ship, it's still what steer it. 57:57 Right that metaphor down, say that one over and write 57:59 it They're very true. 58:07 Yeah, so 58:08 I'm gonna leave it at that. 58:12 No, I think that's those are all really good opinions because I and I tend to agree with the group here that I really wish that it was still around only because of for that sake of either seeing trends and everything like that the other side of it actually going away is I feel like I have a lot more time on my hands I feel like I can scroll through Facebook I I find myself getting into like high end watch groups now instead of like that's on my feed, and then somehow also joined like a hype group. And so there's like all kinds of like shoes that are coming on. I'm not a sneaker I'm not a sneaker person at all, however, 58:45 and this is 58:46 all kind of I'll bring this up because I find this fascinating, right? Like, we talked about flippers and everything like that, and how they're the scum of the earth and Battleblock in in the shoe world. It's like hey, that's just par for the course man. Yep, 58:58 yeah. Ended amazing. A world where it's par for the course. I hate 59:03 to promote another podcast on this podcast but go listen to the it's a podcast called business of hype and it's the guy Jeff staples who's like, big into the streetwear world and in the it's produced by hypebeast. But then you start to realize like, oh, like we're not doing anything new. This is in so many other like industries and like small niche communities and like the bourbon secondary market isn't something new. But But yeah, it's, it's crazy. If you look at all that stuff, especially with sneakers, like there's a whole other world there's like stock x which tracks the price of them and all this other stuff and like we're actually a little bit behind in the perfect world. And when you look at some of these other industries, so 59:49 so Kenny you looking a

Conor O'Driscoll is beginning to make a name for himself. After spending part of his career at Brown Forman and Angel's Envy, he was recruited to fulfill the role left behind by Denny Potter. Conor is now the seventh Master Distiller in Heaven Hill's 84-year history. We spend some time getting to know Conor's past, what the recruitment process is like to find a master distiller, what his role is going to be with the operation side of things, and how at the end of the day he just doesn't want to screw anything up. Show Partners: Barrell Craft Spirits enjoys finding and identifying barrels that contain distinctive traits and characteristics. They then bottle them at cask strength to retain their authentic qualities for the whiskey enthusiast. Learn more at BarrellBourbon.com. Receive $25 off your first order at RackHouse Whiskey Club with code "Pursuit". Visit RackhouseWhiskeyClub.com. Distillery 291 is an award winning, small batch whiskey distillery located in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Learn more at Distillery291.com. Show Notes: This week’s Above the Char with Fred Minnick talks about dry January. Where are you from? How did you end up in Terre Haute, Indiana? How did you get into bourbon? Tell us about your time at Woodford. What was difficult to learn about the distilling process? Talk about working at Angel's Envy. Is distilling rum the same process as bourbon? Are distillers in charge of blending? How did you end up at Heaven Hill? Did you have to give up anything to move into this role? Are you looking for ways to improve the legacy brands? Was there a learning curve coming to Heaven Hill? Who determines the increase in production? Were you involved in forecasting at your other roles? How did you learn the Heaven Hill portfolio? Do you have a favorite brand? What was it like to sign your first bottle? 0:00 Perfect timing. Luck of the Irish again, right? 0:03 Yeah. I get to say that one every day. 0:19 What's up everybody? It is Episode 231 of bourbon pursuit. I'm one of your host Kenny and we've got just a little bit of news to go through. Four roses, like every other distillery out there is trying to figure out what do you do with old barrels and there are all kinds of breweries across the nation just want to gobble them up. And four roses is collaborating with Brooklyn Brewery for a new limited release beer called Black Ops. Now I've seen it before, but this one's a little bit different because this vintage of Brooklyn Black Ops was aged for four months in four rows of small batch barrels that were then selected by master distiller Brent Elliott and re fermented with champagne yeast. This Russian Imperial stout comes at 12.4 ABV. raises a fluffy dark brown head combines big chocolate and coffee notes with a rich underpinning of vanilla like oak. Brooklyn Black Ops will be available in limited quantities wherever Brooklyn Brewery is available. A new development is happening in downtown local with a new website that offers an interactive map. a whole list of attractions featuring downtown distilleries like old forester angels envy Victor's plus a whole gallery of pictures. It's called the bourbon district. There are flagpoles and Information Science going up around downtown around the city that gives information history and directions to all the bourbon related happenings in downtown Louisville. You can check it out online at bourbon ism.com that's like tourism, but bourbon ism.com Ryan and myself we traveled down to Lynchburg, Tennessee this week to go and pick our first ever single barrel of jack daniels. We've heard so much about these single barrels being stag killers that we just had to go out and try it. ourselves, we're really looking forward to bringing this barrel selection along with many others to our Patreon community in 2020. And right now our goal is set at 20 barrel selected for the Patreon community in the next calendar year. With the holidays approaching, it's a good time to think about how fortunate we are that we get to enjoy this great hobby of bourbon. With the help of the bourbon pursuit Patreon community and the fellows on the round table. We've kicked off our first ever Christmas charity raffle, go to bourbon pursuit.com slash Christmas to see all the packages that we have lined up. There's bottles of pursuit series, Episode 17, which was our collaboration with willet distillery of Maker's Mark 46 private selection that we did a Russell's reserve from rare bird one to one a victors barrel strength right Elijah Craig barrel proof the old label, Traverse City collaboration from bourbon or as well as breaking bourbon and even more bottles. There's also apparel glassware tasting sheets, a complete signed copies Of all the books that have come from Fred MiniK, as well as a signed copy from sip and corner, Brian Harris as well. Every dollar raised is going to the USO in pets for vets. Both of these organizations do incredible things for our veterans and their families. Every entry gives you a chance to win any of the prize packages that we have. And of course you must be 21 year old or older to enter entries are accepted until midnight of December 22 2019. So please go visit bourbon pursuit.com slash Christmas to get in on the action and help out veterans in this holiday season. Now for today's podcast, Conor Driscoll he's beginning to make a name for himself in this bourbon world. After spending his career at Brown Forman and angels envy, he was recruited to fulfill the role left behind by Denny Potter. Connor is now the seventh master distiller in heaven hills 84 year history. We spend some time getting to know Conors past, what the recruitment looks like. Even like that whole process. Even Find a new master distiller and what his role is going to be with the operation side of things and how the end of the day, he just doesn't want to screw anything up. Alright, let's kick off the podcast. Here's Joe from barrel craft spirits, and then you've got Fred minich with above the char. 4:17 I'm Joe Beatrice, 4:18 founder of barrell craft spirits, we enjoy finding and identifying barrels that contain distinctive traits and characteristics. We then bottle them a cash rank to retain their authentic qualities for the whiskey enthusiastic next time. Ask your bartender for barrell bourbon. 4:34 I'm Fred MiniK. And this is above the char I as a journalist, I get pitched a lot of stories and over the past 15 years, you know in covering the booze business in one shape or another, I have received about every pitch you can possibly imagine from celebrities, to new nightclubs, you know to the fads like white club and every kind of Vodka flavor you can imagine, and yada and on and on and on and on. One of the latest trends in the booze industry is is one of the more fascinating trends that I have ever seen. And that is dry January and this entire belief that the alcohol industry needs to start preaching and talking about not drinking. And what's interesting about this is that you would say, you could take a step back and say, Well, if you encourage people to not consume alcohol, wouldn't that hurt the industry, but the counter to that is take a look at what happens when you drink too much. People die, people die of liver poisoning. There's certain types of cancers that are linked to drinking too much alcohol. There's all kinds of problems that can be linked to over consumption. And by overconsumption I'm talking five to seven drinks a day. You know, getting drunk. Every day, binge drinking to the point of where you have to get your stomach pumped on a regular basis. I mean, these are real issues that people face and to counter that the alcohol industry has been promoting mocktails and dry January. Now, I'm torn, because I'm a firm believer in drinking moderation. And I'm a firm believer in just being responsible. And it's something in our there's something in our country's DNA that we don't allow ourselves to really have a conversation about what is responsibility, even the brand's they're all saying yada, yada, yada, drink responsibly, don't drink and drive all this but what is drinking responsibly? Well, they'll say, well, it's having two drinks, but but again, what is it? Is it you know, drinking, not drinking when you're emotionally, you know, inspired or connected to something? Is it not drinking on anniversary? Is it just having one drink? And, you know, maybe you just got married or you're celebrating something? Can you have five drinks, then? I mean, no one really talks about what drinking responsibly is. They just have their taglines. And now this whole effort about, you know, mocktails and dry January, it makes me question if we truly know what we're trying to do in this business when it comes to encouraging moderation, because if you ask me, getting people to not drink during January has the opposite effect. That's teaching abstinence. That's not moderation. And that's this week's above the char Hey, if you have an idea for above the char hit me up on Twitter or Instagram at Fred MiniK and check out my new YouTube series on YouTube. Just search my name Fred MiniK. Until next week, cheers 7:58 Welcome back to that episode of bourbon pursuit the official podcast of bourbon, Kinney and Ryan here and this is the this is the first time I think Ryan might have been to this office in this conference room, because no 8:09 you haven't. You've been here. I've been here Barney lovers. We were We were not in this conference room. Yeah, I remember when this read 8:14 Yeah. Cuz I was like we had we had Larry on last time. And, you know, so we're at the the, I don't call it the marketing offices. It's the business offices of heaven hill that are located here in Louisville, Kentucky. It's catty corner to the Maker's Mark offices, so they're always spying on each other to kind of figure out what's happening over there and stuff like that. I guess 8:34 bar sounds just not good enough for him. 8:37 I don't know. I mean, I totally get it. There's way more lunch spots and place to take people. Yeah, 8:42 there's more than maybes. But you know, the other thing is, you know, I also feel bad for a lot of the people that that do have to work in these multiple locations because you are, you're driving a lot back and forth to whether it's distillery whether it's the offices because, you know, we're not going to Bardstown. We all happen to be here and global. So it It made sense to come here but I know that you know our guest today he's got to go. He's got to go to the Bernheim distillery. He's got to come here. He's got to go to the Heritage Center. He's He's all he's making the trifecta of all the places he has to hit up. I guess we'll find out if that's one of the perks you know, your mileage, your mileage gas reimbursement, 9:19 or company car when your masters dollars. Absolutely. Yeah. 9:23 So with that, let's go ahead and introduce our guests. today. We have Connor O'Driscoll. Connor is the newest minted master distiller at heaven Hill. He is also the fifth master distiller that's been crowned at heaven Hill. So congratulations. 9:36 Thank you very much. I think I'm seventh seventh. Is that what it was? Okay, then the era era 9:41 fifth and superior than the heaven Hill. 9:43 See what happens? We get Wikipedia information. Yeah, they're right 9:46 in Google food just wasn't on my side this morning. Yep. So Connor, welcome to the show. It's great to be here. honored to be here. Yeah, I mean, we've we've met before we talked and and 9:57 yeah, we did is we didn't wanna Whiskey and dine with getting Daya 10:01 What was that? Was it was that raw? 10:03 Yeah it was what was it a long time it was that was my debutante get to get to know Connor Connor night is what it was so yep. 10:10 And and you know estimate impression and vice 10:14 vice versa yes yeah 10:16 and I could understand like it's got to be difficult coming into a situation like this and and seeing a product portfolio that's the breath in front of you and saying like okay, now I've got to be 10:27 the face of this Yeah, don't screw it up. I mean, that literally was the the guiding mantra the the first one still is don't screw it up. But you mentioned the portfolio. You know, the other place I've worked or you know, great whiskeys, but it was like one whiskey maybe two or three. And now you come to heaven Hill, and there's a lot and honestly I'm I'm still learning the portfolio. But what a fun facet of the job to learn the portfolio. 10:52 Yeah, well, not only bourbon you have like in I'm not sure if you know that all the different brands are 10:58 wearing well. We're making I'm on the I'm still learning the whiskey anything so yeah, we got our five mash bills that go into multiple different skews. And you know everything from the mellah, corn, corn whiskey all the way up to heaven hell 27 with all the fantastic products in between there. Sure. 11:17 So before we get sorry, not the products that we want to kind of get know more about you because I can't pin it down exactly what region from Texas are you from? 11:26 Very, very far eastern Texas. So Far East across the Atlantic, I grew up in Dublin and Ireland. So the joke is they put an Irishman charged with whiskey. Am I living the dream or I live in the stereotype to be determined. So yeah, I grew up in Dublin, went to school there, got my degree in chemical engineering there and actually started my career with Pfizer pharmaceuticals, in Cork on the south coast of Ireland. 11:52 I've been with them for forgetting quite a year and they asked me to go to Terre Haute, Indiana. I have a 12:03 word for john deere. Yeah. 12:05 They had a actually was kind of cool. You know, for a guy straight out of college the we were using a genetically engineered and our genetic genetically engineered bacteria to make the enzyme to make cheese. And it started was a fermentation based process. So you know again for a kid straight out of college This was bleeding edge technology. And it's amazing that you're like this was exciting like 12:28 these were excited on time product 12:29 was exciting. The process is exciting. Yeah. And it was 12:35 it was supposed to be a six month assignment four months and they asked me to stay and six years later I quit. So it wasn't so awful that I couldn't stay there for six years now the people I worked with the fantastic still friends with some of them. You know, the, the, I guess the real thing that kept me there was I reconnected with some friends from Louisville. I started coming down here on the weekends and probably had enough Been for that the the lore of Terre Haute would not have been strong enough to keep me there but you know gotten older level very well got to know the road from Taro to local really really well. And you know like i said i for six years and Taro and I quit 13:15 and spent that summer riding my motorcycle across the country. Oh, it's interesting. Yeah, still still have it's a 93 CEO Harley guy and I haven't heard they said 93 superlight 13:26 spent seven weeks that summer writing 11,098 miles. As I was heading back towards Indiana, I realized it was gonna be very close to 11,000 miles. I said if I don't make 11,000 miles I'm riding around the block. I do make 11,000 13:42 ended up being 11,000. That's like me with my Fitbit every day. I'm like, all right. Yeah. 13:48 Yeah, it's kind of same thing. But I was in Mexico, Canada and 23 states in between. Wow, the week so it's pretty cool. It's quite an epic road trip. It was epic. It was really cool. 13:57 So So kind of talk a little bit more about the road. Trippler were it was there any like other sites that you're like amazed to see, I know for me personally, people always thought about going and seeing like the Grand Canyon. And for me, I remember going to see in the Grand Canyon and you look, you get there and you're like, Alright, let's get out of here like we've seen it. 14:14 Well, so the the genesis of the trip was 1996 was the 75th anniversary of Route 66. So Harley organized is rolling rally, they call it start in Milwaukee for hardware parties are built, came into Chicago picked up route 66 and then followed it west to Santa Monica. There's not much left to route 66 but they had a historian with us who every evening would talk about, you know what we'd seen today what we're going to see tomorrow and it was 400 and some bikes did it and and I was one of them and it was thousands you could join anywhere along the way. So remember riding into like touken Karina Mexico, and just as far as you could see in front as far as you could see it behind double line of Harley's. So that was Very cool, but you know, got to see, you know, all kinds of the US and especially you mentioned the Grand Canyon. I mean, I've been to the Grand Canyon three times twice on my Harley and one the first time was was on this ride. And yeah, it's it's pretty stunning to see it. 15:17 What did you learn about the US on that trip that like that, you know, before I get to our country, you know, you probably have preconceived notions about 15:26 it and like, I know, I'd been in the, in the, in the states for six years and have taken multiple road trips, you know, West and wherever, but to see it from the back of a Harley and to see it for that long. You know, I wrote every inch of highway one Pacific Coast Highway, you know, from the Mexican border, the Canadian border. I wrote over independence pass road across the desert in Texas, you know, there's one stretch of highway there were, you know, it's 100 miles between gas stations. And Mike's got him out of 30 moderating yeah yeah. So I just I mean the vastness the variety you know to go from you know sea level to 14,000 feet that's not four to 12,000 feet anything's past go from the Pacific Northwest Texas desert yeah just stunning 16:20 was a little bit different than than Ireland to because at least in Ireland if you do that kind of driving least you see castles 16:27 across the US like, not really Oh Harris castle is a Hearst Castle just holiday. 16:31 Just holiday. 16:34 Yeah. 16:35 So kind of talk about what's that that next evolution of your journey? How did you get into I mean, you were doing the cheese thing you stopped. 16:42 What I wasn't, I was a pre chorus. I was doing the the enzyme thing the enzyme is I know it sounds really bad. I'm like, I'm gonna do that cheese thing. Yeah, we were we were. We were in the cheese supply chain. But yeah. You know, the process I worked on in Ireland was fermentation based. This one in Terre Haute was fermentation. And after I Well, after the motorcycle trip, I ended up in Colorado, skied all winter, and then got my career going again. And it's an awesome severance package. I had to save smart I know Sarah respects bed safe, smart. And I learned to live cheeping. And so when I got my career go and again, I said, well, I've tried this production thing, I'll try engineering. And I put the design and things and did that for another six years and that was that was less fulfilling. Let's say it was very deal. bertina is that a word? It is 17:35 already me. I will take the take the new terminology, what it was, you know, sit in a cubicle, that type of thing. 17:43 By this point, I was married and I'd always said that, you know, I was going to stay in the US as long as it was fun. And yet once it was no longer fun, I leave but of course, you know, you're still here. It's still here. It's still fun transcontinental motor motorcycle trip. Pretty fun winter skiing. Pretty fun, you know, I've still fun 18:04 20 years later 18:06 21 years later So, you know, I said it quit being fun, I would go back to Dublin and try and get a job making Guinness because that would be fun. And once I realized that wasn't leaving, and like I said it was getting tired of this, the engineering end of things. So I gotta go What's next? You know, where where should I? Where should I take my career and like I said, the biggest thing was in the back of my mind was that it's not the closest thing but you know, kind of along that arc, this bourbon thing seems kind of cool. So that was in 2002 when I really started thinking about it but you know long before any boom long before you know any any even hint of the boom you know, Woodford had been in existence for what six years at that point. That's That's how long ago it was. So I started knocking on doors and it literally Two years before Geico Leo reading or who had run, what's now the brand form of his salary he retired and ever read ratcheted up one and opened position. And I was lucky enough to get hired into that. And the previous person hired into that. That job was my boss who had been hired 26 years prior to that. That's how slow the industry was that but brown Forman hired me and it was like whew, dream job. And I spent five years in Shively, you know, learning how to learn how to run into Syria how to make whiskey and in 2008, nine runner up then they sent me out to Woodford and again Woodford was tiny then but the boom was probably that's, you know, it was probably starting that our had started and was starting to pick up some momentum. 19:50 Yeah, that's when you kind of start seeing a lot of the uptick and rise of people just visiting, distilleries and stuff like that. Not so much the the craze we see today of bye Just flying off the shelf, but definitely a more of an interest from the average consumer. And probably nearing the time to when a lot of distilleries are thinking like, Oh, we probably need a visitor center. 20:12 So when for did have a visitor center, which is kind of cool, but you mentioned the uptick and visitors that literally was the first thing we saw. You know, Hank, at that point, the visitor center had been designed for maybe 30,000 visitors a year and the bourbon trail came on right around then and really kick things up and you know, there weren't that many visitor centers and Woodford had the newest nicest one. And you know, so to that wasn't quite the ground for the Woodford but it was pretty close to it. So to be there at that point in in the industry's growth and in Woodford growth was just well, perfect timing. Look at the Irish again right. 20:50 Yeah. album to get to say that one had bed every day. 20:56 So the I said from 2009 till What was it say? Two years ago 17 was at Woodford did. Most of that was, you know, running the distillery Did you know Did a lot of cool things were worked with a lot of cool people learned a ton. Kind of was part of it was you know, it's just it was gratifying, Exciting, thrilling to be part of the growth of that brand. Like said when I went out there, it was tiny. By the time I left, we were shipping over a million cases a year. And you know, it had become what it is now. Or, 21:29 you know, yeah, you still had a hand and a lot of the product that's still coming out today, anything like 21:34 that. When I left there are people who said, you know, are you going to do it all the person you've told them what fruit you have? And I was like, what a drink it 21:42 and it's good for at least seven years. Yeah, I have confidence. It'll be good for a long time. It's still a good team out there. So 21:47 yes, what to say speaking of the team, I mean, talk about a relationship or time with Chris Morris or anything like that, because I know that you you probably had some sort of interaction with him and we 21:57 worked very closely together and what a cool guy to work with. I mean His his knowledge of the industry and, you know, he he was clearly the tip of the spear in the in the in the growth of Woodford and in the guidance of its growth you know the Masters collections you know I was lucky enough to have a hand on those and you know make several of those but they are all his brain children and you know to work closely with him and the rest of the team as well. And you know the you know, Elizabeth Nicole who's now the system master sitter, she worked with me for a while Woodford and that was that was a lot of fun. She's She's cool. Yeah. 22:36 A little tight knit family. You guys yeah, Christmas cards. I go back. 22:40 We just exchanged bottles. Yeah. So I'm curious when you get into you know, distilling, like you said you you know you came from the end zone fermentation like, Is there like that when you show up as like art? Here's the training manual. And let's 22:52 go No, no, no, their age or there really isn't. And especially back then because you know, when you haven't hired someone for 26 years, there's no onboarding manual, y'all know new guy manual. So it was you know, kind of seat of the pants stuff, you know, I followed my Glen Glaser was my boss learned a ton from him followed him around every day, like a lost puppy, you know, work with the operator is kind of sadness them quite another, those are the guys who turned the vows and, you know, run the show, so, you know, sit with them and learn from them and just kind of be a sponge, soak it up. 23:27 So it was a kind of like station. So like, this month, I'm going to be focusing on how to turn these valves next 23:33 month. It's guys, it's, it's, it's all inclusive, it's kind of in depth. And I remember, you know, by time I joined bra form, you know, I worked in production for six, seven years, I've done design engineering, you know, across multiple different interest industries for another six years. So, you know, hired in and, you know, Glenn said it's gonna take good two years to really understand this process. And I was like, has 24:01 And literally two years to the day, I was like, I think 24:04 I'm starting to get this. Yeah. But it's just you know, it's, you know, you think about making whiskey you know, you get granny mellet mash it from Anna distill it put in the barrel, five easy steps, but you get a distillery and everything's scheduled on top of itself. And there's you got to do this first, but you got to wait for that. And then you got to worry about byproducts and is your East up to speed and blah, blah, blah, blah. So getting the integration of all those parts and the timing of all those parts and just getting everything to work in concert and understanding all the multiple nuances of flash. That's where the, those are the details and that's what the devil is. 24:41 So it's like Malcolm Gladwell, his role of 10,000 hours. So you gotta do yeah, is 24:47 when I read that book, a lot of it. A lot of it rang true. Yeah, for sure. 24:51 I don't I'm not familiar with the book. 24:53 Oh, it's just had that to be an expert. Really, they've, if you have 10,000 hours, like that's where your achievement mastery in any subject, but so, well, that's good to know. So if you do 40 hours a week, there's, you know, 2000 working hours in a year. So if you're just doing the bare minimum, you know, take you five years. Yes. So, I'm sure you're working more in that accelerated. 25:19 So we got a while until we figure out this podcast. Yeah, 25:23 we're only like 500 hours. 25:26 Well, I mean, that's, it's, it's, it's, it's a good way to kind of see how you grew up in and you learn the industry from the inside with inside of brown Forman because a lot of people we take tours and you go through and they really dumb it down. And exactly as you said, they take the five steps and like this is the process. However, there's so many intricacies with inside of that process that that you that you had just talked about, you know, during your time there what was what was one of those intricacies that you said like, Okay, this is this is going to take more time to figure out Like this is where this is where the variables tend to change a lot, that sort of thing. 26:04 So the, the easiest example of that is, you know, the optimizing the easting mashing fermentation at Woodford, you know, when I got there. They were running for mentors that we were making whiskey, everything was trotting along just fine. And like we talked earlier, this is kind of as the boom was starting up, and I was looking at ways to increase productivity and the and the distillery so one of the easiest ways to increase productivity is to put more grain in the fermenters and still doing everything exactly the same way. There's just more grain in there, therefore, there's more food for the east, therefore, they can make more alcohol therefore, you can fill more barrels. So talking with my colleague, Kevin Smith, down at jack daniels, who for every five minutes that I could talk about Eastern he could talk for five hours and and just he's a fascinating guy and just Fanta knowledge, but remember having a casual conversation with him about you know, increasing The beer gallonage and the amount of grain in the fermenters. And he says, Well, before you do that, thanks very polite about before you die, you're going to have to fix your easting was like nothing wrong or easting that's embarrassing. I spent a lot of my early curriculum. And as I, you know, we, we set it from enter and hours later at bubbles and then days later, we get whiskey out of it. And, you know, he very politely disabuse me of that. And that was step one in a two year process to get from where it was a very crude way of managing East that was actually doing more to hamper the East than it was to optimize it. But I said two years into it, and the fermenter productivity was up for you know, 25% the whiskey quality was off the charts the rates of ferment for metric content. We've had zero, you'd walk in the distillery and just smell how good it was. And from a initial notion of, let's put some more grain on the from Enter to two years later, again, I think we're finally turning the corner here. Yeah. And then of course, there were, there was some short term gains that are immediate gains, like, All right, we're on the right path, but to really, you know, get it from a system that might have been that's got 85% efficient to 90% efficient and 95% efficient, the 98% efficient, you know, to really start tweaking into details there. 28:33 Yeah, so East I mean, I guess you probably have a good idea what it's going to do based on experience, but it's a living thing. So are there times that you're just like, what the hell is going on? Like I did everything right. And it's just like, on the ship. 28:46 If you do everything right, it won't. So if it goes to shit, then something's gone wrong. Okay. Yeah, is the bottom line. You know, the the easiest way to think about it, I mean, the East makes all the alcohol and a good chunk of the flavor. So if you treat the strike, she'll treat you right back. And best quote on that. I was doing a camp run amok group at Watford and I had to give a 15 minute masterclass and easting mashing fermentation three times a day, one of the groups the young lady on it after I gave my East HBS as she said, so Randhir East is queen. I was like, Yes, that's exactly it. That's a perfect way to put it. So again, you treat the stride and she'll treat you right. Right back. And, you know, that's, that's, that's kind of the goal. 29:36 So let's move to the next stage in your journey here. So brown Forman, your time there was done in 2017. And you had a little bit of stint at angel's envy as well. You did talk about that. 29:45 Yeah. So I was kind of plugging along doing my do my thing at Woodford and you know, by this stage, I was running the warehousing and processing so another chunk of the industry learning something new. We were building the new warehouses Woodford So, you know, kind of overseeing that and understanding how to operate these giant warehouses. But once we got that system down, it kind of became road and I was like, all right, you know what else? What else is out there? You know, I've had 14 really fantastic years at Brown Forman. You know, is there anything within brown form? Is there anything without and right as I was thinking these things a former brown former former Woodford colleague who's now an age as me, she called me and said, Hey, we may have a position Are you interested? So I went down there on a Saturday morning, various repetitiously and kind of looked around and they heard they were, you know, less than a year out of startup and the brand new facility but in an older building, you've been to them? 30:44 Yeah, yes. Going to say ran into a lot of issues getting that thing up and running, and they got through them all. 30:50 But just everything about it kind of resonated with me. You're like yes, 30:55 I don't want to drive for sales since I was a 30:57 significant part of it because by this point, we had warehouses in midway so my commute was from level two midway check in with the gang there then come back to sales and generally spend the rest of my day ever sales but occasionally we bump between the two of them and then come home so getting close to three hours a day in the car wow yeah audio book time 31:21 have to say I was like I know people in like LA and they do all those commutes every day in San Francisco I'm like, how do you sit in the car for an hour one way every single day like 31:30 I mean, I was doing highway speed so it was it was relatively benign and for most of that time I was driving to Woodford to make whiskey you know it's not that bad. Yeah. But the you know, the the first several months that I was at angel's envy and I would drive home in 10 minutes, I'd literally sit in the garage and I What do I do? 31:50 How did I get 31:50 here? Like 31:52 What Did you take a walk to listen to? That podcast 31:55 way that are better? It's like I better go to the bar home or go to the bar real quick is my wife's can make me do a lot Georgia 32:02 dinner ready so 32:05 that was that was a big one there but you know love being part of a party. It's interesting that the three companies I've worked for in this industry are all different facets of family owned. But 32:17 was angels me family and when you started I was like I'm a car dealer car. I got, of course the Hendersons to 32:21 ride. But it's you know, it was it was fully owned by Bacardi. Gotcha. And Bacardi bring a ton to the table. I mean, they've been there, truly a global company. I mean, we reported up through Geneva, accounts payable were in Costa Rica and sap support was in the Philippines and stuff like that. So, you know, some timezone juggling, but that global perspective was was pretty cool. And just the cultural diversity within the I was at a meeting in Puerto Rico and I was the closest thing to a Yankee in the room and that way any yo You don't get that very often. Yeah. And those like, they're all speaking English for me, because I'm the only one here who doesn't speak Spanish. Yeah, that's kind of embarrassing. But anyway, that was, you know, lots of lots of positive things. Yeah. And again, just a different way of running running the same industry. But Bacardi have a lot of cool things they do, you know, worked with a lot of really smart, hardworking, fun people there. And of course, you know, see an angel, you know, I think the, when I came in, they were just coming out of that startup mode. And, you know, I was tasked with kind of taken out of that wild west, just run headlong at the prop problem till you fix it. All right, let's slow down. Let's think about it. Let's get a process in place. Let's think about where we want to go and how we're going to get there. And just start, you know, like slapping a process on stuff. 33:53 This is an amateur question, but a is distilling around the same process as Barban, but just different ingredients. Different agree it's basically the same. You ferment molasses Sure, Ryan. But then of course it's it's a shorter faster you don't have to mail anything you don't have to necessarily mash anything. 34:12 And then the aguar DNA 34:16 the letter that I guardia day, what is that? It's funny 34:21 to say it's it's the the new make sense. Gotcha. And then you know it's aged in general use barrels for shorter period and of course it's the heat of the Caribbean versus, you know, the seasonal cycles here. Sure. But I know it's I kind of left before I really could deep deep dive into that process. But you heard the word Bacardi and you're like, 34:44 I got a question, but 34:46 let me throw a curveball over the other. I mean, the fermentation and distillation are 34:50 very, very slowly never talked around distilling. 34:54 I've never been around the city. I saw it on TV. 34:58 But no the gang There are there. The Joe Gomez the master Blender down there is just he is one of those icons of the industry. The nicest guy you'll ever meet will talk all day long about it and just he, he wants to be your friend. You want to be his friend. And to spend time with people that can was cool. But then, like the biggest difference, I guess, is the aging. 35:23 Gotcha. So you talked about how he's the master Blender did do distillers here are they in charge of blending as well. 35:32 With the careers of master distiller spanning almost 50 years, as well as Kentucky bourbon Hall of Famer and having over 100 million people taste his products. Steve nalli is a legend of bourbon who for years made Maker's Mark with expertise and precision. His latest project is with Bardstown bourbon company, a state of the art distillery in the heart of the bourbon capital the world. They're known for the popular fusion series, however, they're adding something new in 2020 with a release named the prisoner. It starts as a nine year old tennis bourbon that is in finished in the prisoner wine companies French oak barrels for 18 months. The good news is, you don't have to wait till next year to try it. Steve and the team at Bardstown bourbon company have teamed up with rack house whiskey club rack house whiskey club is a whiskey the Month Club on a mission to uncover the best flavors and stories that craft distilleries across the US have to offer their December box which will ship in time for Christmas features a full size bottle of Bardstown suffusion series, and a 200 milliliter bottle of the prisoner. There's also some cool merchant side. And as always, with this membership, shipping is free. Get your hands on some early release Bardstown bourbon by signing up at rackhouse whiskey club.com. Use code pursuit for $25 off your first box. 291 Colorado whiskey aims to create a one of a kind, bold and beautiful Colorado whiskey, rugged, refined, rebellious owner and founding distiller Michael Myers built the original still from copper photo gravure plates, which you use to create enduring photographic scenes. From what landscapes to the Chrysler Building. On September 11 2011 10 years after 911 changed his life and the lives of so many others. He pulled the first whiskey off that's still building a future in whiskey off his passion for photography. What defines 291 Colorado whiskey is it spirit passion permeates every sip, find a bottle near you at 291 Colorado whiskey calm, right like you stole it, drink it like you own it. Live fast and drink responsibly. 37:32 So you talked about how he's the master Blender did do distillers here are they in charge of blending as well or generally speaking, so that's you know, it's interesting. You know, in Rome, it's all about the blending. 37:45 And that's why the the focus is on master blenders and you know, if you look at the history of Bacardi, the Bacardi founding members have generally come up through that. That that that supply chain, I guess what do you want to call it? Through that right? beams, you know, yeah, exactly. I mean, so the the people running the business know the business. 38:07 But then on our side of it and the bourbon 38:12 you know, blended bourbon is kind of it's still got that post prohibition nasty connotation. So we're not set we don't focus so much on the on the blending side of things. Although, you know, there that is that is, you know, one stave to our barrel as it were. 38:30 Absolutely. So, I think we're going to see a common theme here because I think this is a, probably an inhibitor to a lot of people that that work in your type of scenario in this type of industry. It's hard to maybe make upward progression, because there's people within these roles that are there for 38:50 10 2030 and there's only a handful of them. 38:54 That or you're in a situation where is it as a family legacy? You Got the nose, you've got the Russell's odds are they're not going to let some outsider come in. Cecil come in. And so you have this sort of like this cap on upward mobility. And so you had your your time at angel's envy. So kind of talk about how this process came to be of interviewing at heaven Hill and making some connections and kind of making your way into this role. 39:28 So I known Alan through the industry on lattes or co I known him for several years, just through the industry, like I said, and you know, I was I was happy at angel's envy. I was planning on going nowhere. I was not planning on going anywhere, whatever. And then the news broke that Danny had left and I mean, I was stunned as everybody else but I never I didn't even think like hot there's an opportunity for me. was like, wow, Danny left. So many Alright, so you were all your agent 40:03 start negotiations, 40:04 maybe I should. But actually, it wasn't long after that. That was Danny reached out to me. And because again, I'd known Danny as long as I've been in this business. And he said, he'd been asked to find some suitable candidates and you know, thought me and I was like, wow, I'm so flattered. You know, I hadn't even thought about that. But 40:26 Wow. 40:28 I thought about it. I was like, You know what, I've got a really good job here. I just made a big move and 18 months ago. I'm gonna stay here. And we chatted some more. Thanks very much. That was really flattering. And it's kind of one of the things as soon as I hung up, I was like, 40:43 Damn, it probably wasn't the right 40:45 answer. And then went home told my wife about it and she goes, Yeah, that wasn't the right answer. So 40:53 I forget if Alan call me next or if Danny call me back or what it was, but either way we got back in touch again. I was like, yeah, let's let's see. Let's talk. And the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. What were the hesitations? The fact that I just made a big move and I liked what I was doing that changes me. I liked being part of a party. 41:15 Yeah, it's it's always tough to be put in a situation like that you feel like you're going to burn a bridge by coming in. It's like 41:21 coaching in basketball. You know, somebody had a mid major, they're happy. They're doing well. And then you're like, but the big leagues you're feeling Exactly. 41:27 And it's funny. You said the big leagues. You know, that was kind of the the catchphrase we will but I bought it down by my office at angel's envy overlooked slugger field. So as I'm thinking through this, it's like I'm, I'm pitching AAA and doing fine pitching AAA and the Boston Red Sox, the New York Yankees just called I just said no to the New York Yankees Don't say no to the New York Yankees. Yeah. So luckily, the New York Yankees were upset that I had said no the first time and you know, we talked back to the forwards and the more 41:58 you played hard to get Wherever you go, you go by 42:03 the throat whatever cliches you want that the more I thought about it, just the more it made sense. So this is a you know, the the legacy of heaven Hill the career progression, the whole thing just kind of came together at that point I was like this is this is a once in a career opportunity. If I turn this down, I'll never get this again. And you know if this if I'm truly going to take my career to where I think it should go, this is the opportunity and so far so good. 42:34 It's kind of like it's kinda like you're also in a position like you're a Supreme Court Judge like you've been placed in a position where like, unless you really screw up like you're pretty like there's unless this this whole thing like tanks and there's a nuclear like breakout like you're going to be pretty well set when it Are you having a good there was a nuclear war. We got bigger things to worry 42:58 Yeah. I'm sure yeast will survive right now it's it's it's not quite I haven't kind of docked the ship and I'm done you know there's there's a lot of work to be done a lot of cool work to be done and I'm not gonna I haven't reached a point where I can you know glide into retirement or even I want to rest on my laurels or anything I don't know just sit on the shoulders of those who came before me there's there's a lot left to be done. 43:24 What are some of the like sacrifices or I guess parts of the job that you know you're I guess when you're working at Brown for and you're kind of behind the scenes you're not having to deal with a lot of stuff 43:34 that hard was 43:37 showing up with these idiots taking up an hour Monday 43:42 samples right now yeah, 43:43 I guess talk about that. Like, you know, cuz when you're you like you said when you go to the big leagues, you're giving up a lot. What what are some of those things? 43:51 I'm so 43:54 much giving up i think but you know there. 43:57 I think in any career as you as you Move up the food chain you've gotta gotta learn to delegate and either hope that you've got a good team behind you are engineered a good team in this case, I don't have to hope I do have a great team. I mean, this is Tara has been running for a long time before I got here making award winning whiskey for a long time. So my job is to kind of slide in pick up the reins and keep that going and on that upward arc. 44:27 Yeah, there was a time period between you and and Danny so seems like York it was still running I mean, that doesn't stop Yeah, 44:36 and nothing good stop and as I say the you know, the supervisors that are there on every shift the the team members on on the shift the maintenance guys the the whole crew, I mean, you know, we're we're lucky enough to have, you know, a painter and a janitor, they're young, they work hard to keep the place look and clean and the air is as important to the operation. him probably more important than I am. But yeah, you know, it's it's they're, they're a good team. They work hard they care and I was I was, you know, when Alan took me in to show me around the salary on a Saturday morning everything was done Saturday mornings, very surreptitious. You know, it could pick up I mean, the crew members who were there that day, we're happy to see him. And, you know, they, they clearly were into what they were doing about me. I went, we run seven days a week, and they they work seven days a week. And they were happy to do that. You know, like I said, so they're, they care, they're passionate. They want to make continue to make award winning whiskeys. 45:40 Yeah. When you when you have said, distiller like heaven Hill, he said, it's such a legacy, great brands, incredible products. And like you're like, All right, here's my baby. And they've been doing it so great. But do you look for ways to like, improve the process or look for ways like to put your own fingerprint on it, or at least two years before it changes 45:58 to do the 10,000 hours Again, hopefully it doesn't reset zero. Now Hey guys, like I said it's pick up the reins and keep things going. There's always opportunities for improvement. You know, go back to what I was talking about Woodford I mean Woodford is making good whiskey before I came along. And I had the opportunity to, you know, start optimizing. 46:22 You know, where the Bernheim distillery now is obviously, further ahead than where Woodford was in those days. But there are still opportunities to, you know, just to continuously improve. And speaking of opportunities, talk about what was that that learning opportunity and learning curve of coming in because Ryan and I, we've we've been to the Bernheim distillery, we've we've toured it and we know like the massive scale of what it's what happens there. And so kind of talk about was that sort of like a bow. This is this is pretty big, because I know it's it. It basically makes angels me look like a dwarf at that point. Compare that to word for that. 46:58 Yeah. So it's actually Talk about that. 47:00 So I mean, the the scale of the Burnham disorder is stunning. I mean, we have 17 fermenters that are 124,000 gallons each. We fill four of those a day. And obviously we empty four of those today. So that's the bones of a million gallons of liquid. We're pumping around every day. We're mashing over 16,000 bushels a day, which is over 900,000 pounds of grain a day. That's about 20 ish loads of grain to unload every day. No, no others like 650 thousand barrel warehouses eggs. Yeah, we have 58. Whereas with over 1.6 million barrels, you know, at the Burnham side, we have 480,000 barrels, and we're building a new 50,000 55,000 Bioware has about every six months. You know, we're we're laying down 1300 barrels a day, and we're probably dumping we I know we're dumping less than that. We're probably dumping the order 1000 maybe a little more than that per day so we're continuing to grow our inventory who determines that the numbers I guess of how like how to increase who determines to increase or decrease numbers very finely calibrated crystal ball so it's a it's a dark art you know as you see the sales are this today they look to be that six months 12 months whatever from now we have this much an inventory of things continue this way we should have that much. So we look at we look at that big picture probably, you know, indeed now we're looking at continuously but in detail for twice a year and make adjustments as necessary. 48:42 Was this this role your first time of actually looking at forecasting Did you do that previously in other roles, um, I would, I was involved another role that the other sites as well. 48:53 Brown Forman, have a have a guy called bill Dietrich and he runs the model and And he would bring out the serie production plan, but I worked fairly closely with him and you know, it changes MV was you know, we were so small, so new, there was no existing data to build on. So I built this very complex spreadsheet that was, you know, I ended up calling it the Wonder file. Okay, they kind of got that nickname but, so yeah, I've been involved but it's it's, you make guesses. You make projections. You know, you hope you got it. 49:32 Right. And it's not just a general longer. Yeah. 49:36 Yeah, hopefully you don't have to age a little less. Right? We plan for x, but you know what, it was actually 1.5 x so like, Oh shit, what are we doing now? 49:45 So to also talk about coming into heaven Hill, and we talked about the, you know, the breadth of portfolio of just the Bourbons and whiskies that are in front of it. And I'm sure that as as the master distiller like that as your that is your front, front line of things. That you, you talk about and you're the face for. So where is there like, like a week long boot camp where somebody sat you down and said, All right, so we're going to go through everything you've got to remember every little nuance and the history of them. Like how did that process go? It was a little bit of that. So I spent a fair bit of time with the brand teams and they gave me the PowerPoint decks and the swag and whatever else been 50:23 flashcards. 50:26 In here, the real learning though, gotta get 10 in a row. 50:29 We mentioned Bernie lovers are here. Yeah, you know, I've traveled a fair bit together already. And, you know, go to the whiskey fest and stuff. And, you know, we've gone and done, you know, trainings at restaurants and bars, and, you know, learning it from him and seeing some of his his presentations. That's that's probably where I did most of the learning. 50:51 Oh, he is Yeah, he's the whiskey professor. Any 50:53 fun to learn. 50:54 He already does. Yeah. 50:56 Well, he was up he was playing stump the chump with us. 51:00 I know he made us look like gentle Yeah, no, he 51:02 is asking us questions we were like we weren't paying attention 51:06 he's he's really good at what he does and but of course tasting the portfolio matter way to learn it. Yeah. Anyway, the the funniest one is Pikeville rye. My neighborhood liquor store on Frankfort Avenue. I'd walk by and see Pikeville rye and I read it as Pikeville Ryan I was like who's making rye whiskey and Pikeville Kentucky and then a month later on the master distiller for that brand and I go 51:30 Yeah, I 51:32 know that and I tasted that I was like holy crap This is good. Yeah, and I known Rittenhouse for a long time I love written as but pikesville kind of takes it that takes the next level the next level. 51:44 Yeah, absolutely. I mean it is so you talked about Pikeville is like is there any other like bourbon line that you kind of look at as like yeah, this is this is gonna be like my staple like this mean you gotta kind of give everyone their level. Like is there one that is there a favorite child out of the group? Well, I mean, the main And she left older children. 52:03 So you know you think about we got five Nashville's, you know I think we're the only ones making those five Nashville so the five American whiskey styles and they go into all the different brands so when we make the our bread and butter is hh reg or rye bourbon and that goes into Evan Williams, Greg Hunter mccanna whatever it might be. So learning that progression, you know, Evan Williams is you know, it's a 2.7 million case brand is the second largest selling barber in the world. And it's a you know, if you look at it, if you compare it to the competition, you know, it's age longer, it's higher proof. I think it tastes better. You know, and I that kind of to see how that, you know, ages out and becomes either mccanna are Elijah Craig and how good they are and either on the rocks or I've had some fantastic cocktails lately with our portfolio. It's It's It's It's been a fun journey but even like the I hadn't had much weeded bourbon in recent decades. When I started when I started drinking bourbon by the first one of the very first ones I had was old fits. So find out the way on offense and then we've got larceny and you know been so used to ride a Suburbans and to realize that you know, these leaders are actually they're pretty good on in their own right they're just not just like a light whiskey they are a really good you know, subset or you know, that different side of the same coin type of thing. And so to and of course the the old fits the the specializations that we bring out that are, you know, 1213 years old are just spectacular. Yeah, 53:47 and that's what I think is probably, you know, everybody always always get there's, there's so many brands inside heaven. Hell, we've been in a label room before. I mean, there's there's hundreds if not, maybe they're 53:57 they're literally dead. 53:58 So I mean, it's, it's it's mind blowing but then you know the as you'd mentioned there's an old Fitz relates there's the heaven Hill 27 year releases and people go crazy for the William 54:07 heaven Hill 54:08 and the partners but you're in a unique position because you get to try and sample and taste all these at barrel proof and you get to choose which ones that coming from so I 54:17 get to be part of the 54:18 Yeah, so it's it's that's always a fun experience because like I said, you get to do like the real unicorn part of it right you know, you don't get might not get to see the empty or the the final packaging of it but you get to see the process from really like where it started up until that point to now it's really good like we were doing a barrel selection for hotels liquors yesterday and to you know, we were tasting some the 12 year old at 151 proof now, 54:47 you gotta change the barrel pics two barrel proof pan. We gotta do. Yeah, it kills me. Let's see, we'll start there. And every time I go to a lot of the correct there's three right like it's always the hardest barrel pick because there's three like yeah, stoners from dedes Phil or whatever. You know, and you're like, gosh, I don't want to water this down. But you know, 55:04 I understand you, you, you, you take it to 94 proof and you're comparing apples to apples, right? You know that it's not just like the proof for the color, right? So you're kind of changing your mind. It's like, all right, I know that. I'm comparing the same thing, the same thing for the same thing. So you're getting, you're getting honest whiskey. 55:21 Yep. And so one of the last things I kind of want to wrap it up with is kind of a fun question. Because I want to understand like what your thought process was when this first happened, so you're going to be in front of a lot of people and I'm sure you've you've gone and you've made your rounds at the whiskey fest. And there's always it's a it's a responsibility of a master distiller or brand ambassador, whoever's the face of the brand to sign the bottles. 55:44 Yeah. So, 55:45 so kind of talk about what it was to like, sign your first bottle and go, okay, I've been here for like two weeks. So yeah, like what was that? Like? 55:54 So? It was it's kind of mind blowing to be honest with you. 56:00 Whiskey fest Chicago, I think it was, you know, we have that partnership with Goose Island. So me and Bernie and Mike Smith from Goose Island were doing a presentation on basically barrel aging and better that and afterwards somebody came up and asked me to sign their their ticket or their program or something. And you know, my first reaction was like, seriously, by the cross, I was in my head. But you know, you play the role and that's this person has spent their hard earned money to come and listen to me yap about whiskey. So like, thank you so much. I'm honored to sign it, but it's it's pretty cool. 56:38 You know, our Evan Williams 56:42 HERO program where we recognize veterans, you know, we were down with Chris cruise at cruise customs flags last weekend, he asked me to sign a bottle and he's put a ton of pictures of it on Instagram. And I'm like, anyway, you're the coolest guy. Stop making me look, I just I just scrolled on the bottle, you know, but so it's It's honestly it's gratifying. But at the same time it's it's a little shocking that right? This year Really? 57:07 Yeah. Because I remember it was, it was at the heaven Hill select stock 18 year release, and I'd saw you there. Yeah. And people were aligning, aligning to get your signature. And it was it was just kind of dawned on me. I was just like, he wasn't here 18 years ago, but it's so funny that like people, they gravitate towards you and they want that as sort of like a recognition of it. Yeah. 57:28 And that's that's the role and it's you know, and I kind of enjoy playing it Yeah, it's pretty fun but like the your celebrity 10 years ago, the What do you call it the two weeks after I start Henry McKenna wins best whiskey in the world. And you know, all these people are interviewing me and say watch it liked him. I was like, I had nothing to do with whiskey. But it's very cool that I'm writer and of course, the original mechanic was Irish and I'm Irish, so maybe, maybe maybe smiling down and look at the Irish there. It is. 58:00 always come back to it. Absolutely. 58:02 It's a great way to kind of wrap that up there. So Connor, I want to say thank you so much for coming on the show today. It was a pleasure like I said just to get to know you i think i think it's it's an opportunity for people to really see the the real personal side of you. You know, we just talked before we start recording we all live in like the same neighborhood. Yeah, we all we all drink the same whiskey now too. So it's, it's always fun. And let's 58:24 go to Red Rock and have a cocktail. Yeah. 58:27 Seriously, once again, thank you for coming on and doing this and you know, Ryan, I think this is a great opportunity for us to a get to know Connor and understand really his background and you know what, he brings the table here? heaven. Hell, too. 58:39 Yeah, it's a cool story. I mean, like, from Dublin to Bardstown. You know, who would have thought? Who would have thunk But no, I mean, it I'm, I'm heaven Hill is like, in my heart, because I'm from Bardstown. My fam ton of family members work there and like just that for me and Todd with the I know, it's in good hands. And, you know, that's, that's it reassuring and so I'm glad that they chose you and you decide to call him back and appreciate you taking the time to spend with us. And yeah, if anyone has show suggestions, comments, feedback, we love hearing from our listeners. So just let us know and we'll see you next time. Awesome. Thanks, guys. Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Brent Elliott is the Master Distiller behind one of the most iconic bourbon brands in the world - Four Roses Bourbon. We got to chat about the dramatic journey that Four Roses has had since 1888(!), how they were one of the few distilleries in America to survive Prohibition, and how Seagrams nearly destroyed the brand in the 1950s. I also got a chance to taste the "Fourth Rose" in their lineup - Four Roses Small Batch Select. This week's cocktail recipe is the Gold Rush: Gold Rush  2 oz Four Roses Small Batch Select 3/4 oz Honey Syrup 3/4 oz Lemon Juice   Shake all ingredients over ice until chilled. Strain into a rocks glass with ice. Lemon peel garnish is optional.   Four Roses Bourbon Links: Website Instagram Facebook Twitter   Bit by a Fox Links: blog: http://bitbyafox.com instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bitbyafox/ facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BitByAFox/ twitter: https://twitter.com/bitbyafox   music: https://www.humanworldwide.com

Steve & Jeremy interview Brent Elliott about the 2019 Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch, his career and his company. The Bourbon Show music (Whiskey on the Mississippi) is by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com).  Important Links:  ABV Network Shop: https://shop.abvnetwork.com/ Our Club: https://www.abvnetwork.com/club  Challenge Coin Challenges: https://www.abvnetwork.com/coin Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theabvnetwork Check us out at: abvnetwork.com. Join the revolution by adding #ABVNetworkCrew to your profile on social media.

Peter reviews Brigantine Restaurant in Del Mar, CA. David reviews the Nano Cafe in Siera Madre, CA. Southern Slang Swear words..too funny...Brent Elliott Master Distiller for Four Roses Bourbon. other shenanigans with David and Laurie..

This week we film our first off site episode with Brent Elliott, Master distiller of Four Roses and Local Hero, Nicholas Talamantes. We talk about the addition of the newest item in their core range and the impact the brand has has the last few year in American Bourbon.  Whiskey Neat is a podcast and Radio show on iTunes and ESPN 97.5 FM in Houston and is brought to you every week by Terlato Distell Artisan Spirits. Leader in premium artisan products like Bunnahabhain, Deanston, Ledaig/ Tobermory, Bains, Black Bottle and Scottish Leader.  You can pick up the entire line at your local liquor store, or if you are a retailer reach out for your United Wine & Spirits rep. You can find the show on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Podcast arena, IHeart Radio, Spotify, YouTube and Facebook. Or follow us at IG @MyWhiskeyNeat Twitter @MyWhiskeyNeat  www.MyWhiskeyNeat.com

A better mediocre @4RosesBourbon @Ardbeg @TheBourbonMafia @FineSpirits_FL #whiskey #whisky #bourbon Co hosts : Good ol Boy Harmeet, Good ol Boy Justin , Made Man Maury , and Made Man Bob SIPS Episode – Some new stuff just got released. This is the first recurring new product added since Brent Elliott took the Master Distiller role at 4R. Ardbeg creates a unique version of Drum each year and this one is very unique.   We cover a good lineup of products that you can find widely available:   Four Roses Small Batch Select SIPS – 4 Ardbeg Drum SIPS - 4     Sips, Suds, & Smokes™ info@sipssudsandsmokes.com @sipssudssmoke Sips, Suds, & Smokes™ is produced by One Tan Hand Productions using the power of beer, whiskey, and golf. Available on iTunes, iHeartradio, Google Play, PRX, TuneIn, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and CBS Radio. This episode is sponsored by: Fine Spirits Wine & Liquors, home of the Enomatic machines. www.finespirits.net More information on the Bourbon Mafia, a fraternal organization of whiskey aficionados. https://www.facebook.com/thebourbonmafia/   Ft. Lauderdale Whiskey Society gets together monthly, more info at: http://www.ftlauderdalewhiskeysociety.com/ Enjoying that cool new Outro Music, it's from Woods & Whitehead – Back Roads Download your copy here: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/woodswhitehead2    The easiest way to find this show on your phone is ask Siri or Google, “Play Podcast , Sips, Suds, & Smokes Podcast” 

A better mediocre @4RosesBourbon @Ardbeg @FineSpirits_FL (https://twitter.com/FineSpirits_FL) #whiskey #whisky #bourbon Co hosts : Good ol Boy Harmeet, Good ol Boy Justin , Made Man Maury , and Made Man Bob SIPS Episode – Some new stuff just got released. This is the first recurring new product added since Brent Elliott took the Master Distiller role at 4R. Ardbeg creates a unique version of Drum each year and this one is very unique.   We cover a good lineup of products that you can find widely available:   Four Roses Small Batch Select SIPS – 4 Ardbeg Drum SIPS – 4     Sips, Suds, & Smokes info@sipssudsandsmokes.com (mailto:info@sipssudsandsmokes.com) @sipssudssmoke Sips, Suds, & Smokes is produced by One Tan Hand Productions using the power of beer, whiskey, and golf. Available on iTunes, iHeartradio, Google Play, PRX, TuneIn, Stitcher, Soundcloud, and CBS Radio. This episode is sponsored by: Fine Spirits Wine & Liquors, home of the Enomatic machines. www.finespirits.net (http://www.finespirits.net) More information on the Bourbon Mafia, a fraternal organization of whiskey aficionados. https://www.facebook.com/thebourbonmafia/ (https://www.facebook.com/thebourbonmafia/)   Ft. Lauderdale Whiskey Society gets together monthly, more info at: http://www.ftlauderdalewhiskeysociety.com/ (http://www.ftlauderdalewhiskeysociety.com/) Enjoying that cool new Outro Music, it’s from Woods & Whitehead – Back Roads Download your copy here: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/woodswhitehead2 (http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/woodswhitehead2)   The easiest way to find this show on your phone is ask Siri or Google, “Play Podcast , Sips, Suds, & Smokes Podcast”    

I don't know a bourbon enthusiast that doesn't love Four Roses. But this one goes into the depths of expert level opinions behind mash bills, hype behind certain runs, single barrels, mutated yeast, and more. Brett Atlas and Travis Hill join the show to talk about their experiences with Four Roses, their 10 recipes, and how they blend and create their own Limited Edition Small Batches. Show Partners: If you love Eagle Rare Bourbon, go support the causes they stand for at Eagle Rare Life to vote for the 2019 nominees that most inspire you. Voting ends December 5 Barrell Bourbon Batch 016 was project that took over a year. 9 to 15 year old barrels were selected with similar profiles from different distilleries. It’s deeply concentrated, but not too oaky and finishes with a toasted orange note. The Duo glass is the most versatile whiskey and cocktail glass around. Use code ‘pursuit’ to get 15% off your order and free shipping at agedandore.com Show Notes: Farewall to Dave Pickerell. Enjoy our podcast with him http://bourbonpursuit.com/2018/03/29/man-behind-100-distilleries-dave-pickerell/ The Lounge with Will Chambers - https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-lounge-with-will-chambers/id1440284845 This week's Above The Char with Fred Minnick reflects on the past of Dave Pickerell. Was it cask strength that got you hooked into Four Roses or was it a standard offering? Give a break down of how to decipher the recipe for something like OBSQ vs OESF Do you think the tasting notes on the back of the hang tag is inaccurate? How often have you tried all recipes side by side? Do you have a favorite 4R recipe and why? Have you ever had a bad barrel? Does the hype factor just play into a particular recipe? How come everyone thinks OESK is the best? What do you see as the typical recipe selections at a private barrel pick? Have you ever walked out and never picked a barrel? What do you think is a misconception of larger stores and their selections? Do you think picks done by Brent Elliott are better or worse than ones done by a store? Some words for Brent How do you go about trying all 10 recipes? Talk about trying to create your own Limited Edition Small Batches Why do you think Four Roses doesn't put out barrel proof Small Batch? The ages of barrel picks have been exponentially decreasing. Can they still keep this pace? Would you lose your mind over a Four Roses pick? Do you think the tags on the bottle showing the rack and details of the barrel are for the distillery to trace back anything for quality purposes or is it for the bourbon geeks? Are higher aged Four Roses that are 17 or 23 years old any good? Can you talk about the mutated yeast that contributed to the 125th anniversary bottle in 2013? Has the ME warehouse fad passed?

It's not every day you get to sit down with a master distiller, especially not the master distiller of the legendary Four Roses distillery. While with Brent Elliott, Joshua and Jason are sure to discuss the nitty gritty of what goes in to making Four Roses taste like Four Roses; mashbills, yeast, fermentation, distillation, maturation, and, of course, Karaoke. So, as usual, have a seat, have a pour, and listen in. Unless you're driving. If you're driving, be smart and stay sober but be sure to listen into the conversation! Special thanks to: - Weigh Down for allowing us to use their song "Wooden Monsters" as our theme song- Moana McAuliffe for designing our Podcast Logo- RØDE for making *really* great microphones- Focusrite for making awesome USB receivers- Olympus and Tascam for making fine mobile recording devices- Joshua Hatton for producing and editing

Steve, Jeremy, Andrea, Seth and McNew check-in from the 2018 New Orleans Bourbon Festival Grand Tasting. A “who’s who” from the bourbon world. Guests include Eddie Russell, Maggie Kimberl, Bernie Lubbers, Steve Beam, Brent Elliott, Christine Riggleman and many more surprises. Today’s show is sponsored by Steve Akley’s book, Mules and More (https://goo.gl/EN3wEj). The Bourbon Show music (Whiskey on the Mississippi) is by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Check us out at: abvnetwork.com. Join the ABV Network Revolution by adding #ABVNetworkCrew to your profile in social media.

Steve, Jeremy, Andrea, Seth and McNew check-in from the 2018 New Orleans Bourbon Festival Grand Tasting. A “who’s who” from the bourbon world. Guests include Eddie Russell, Maggie Kimberl, Bernie Lubbers, Steve Beam, Brent Elliott, Christine Riggleman and many more surprises. Today’s show is sponsored by Steve Akley’s book, Mules and More (https://goo.gl/EN3wEj). The Bourbon Show music (Whiskey on the Mississippi) is by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com). Check us out at: abvnetwork.com. Join the ABV Network Revolution by adding #ABVNetworkCrew to your profile in social media.

Steve and Jeremy sit down with Four Roses Bourbon Master Distiller Brent Elliott to talk about his life, career, Four Roses and the 2017 Limited Edition Small Batch Bourbon being released today (Saturday, September 16, 2017). Be sure to check out Flaviar, the ABV Network’s newest sponsor. Flaviar (flaviar.com) is a club where you can enjoy many great benefits and sample some increidble whiskey, rum and gin offerings on a quarterly basis with their unique tasting boxes. The Bourbon Show music (Whiskey on the Mississippi) is by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com).

Download Brent Elliott, Master Distiller at Four Roses, takes us through the creation of Al Young’s 50th Anniversary bourbon at an exclusive session during WhiskyLive. We are looking for partnerships to help support the podcast. Get more information at http://bourbo.nz/partner Show Notes: Listen as Brent talks about every individual bourbon and how it blended all together to make Al’s commemorative bourbon. Listen to Al Young’s podcast and all the past Four Roses episodes at http://bourbo.nz/4R Special Thanks to WhiskyLiveUSA for letting us share this information with you during WhiskyLive Louisville. Show your support for WhiskyLiveUSA by liking their page and attending one of their events.

Brent Elliott, Master Distiller at Four Roses, talks about how he never owned a bottle of Four Roses until he interviewed and how the conversation went when he was tapped to be the new Master Distiller. Talk about growing up in Owensboro, your history and education What made you want to get into bourbon? Were you a Four Roses bourbon fan when you applied to work here? Was Four Roses the first place you looked at working? How long have you been working at Four Roses? Talk a little bit about working with Jim Rutledge under his tutelage. So talk about that phone call, when it’s usually depicted in the movies as being called up to the CEOs office on the 33rd floor to get that big promotion Why is there not a rye whiskey offered by Four Roses? What about the rage of barrel finishes or cinnamon whiskey? From Kevin Ragland on Facebook - How was the process for selecting 2016 LE went since it was the first time you would have done it without Jim. Why did you come out and call it Elliott’s Select instead of just the normal 2016 Limited Edition Single Barrel? From Travis Roberts on Facebook - Will FR continue their barrel selections in the future and if so, will they eventually be able to offer barrels aged 10+ years again to consumers? Talk about life outside of bourbon  

We grab Master Distiller Brent Elliott of Four Roses for a quick conversation during the Kentucky Bourbon Festival.

The fascinating history of gardening and horticulture in Britain. Brent Elliott will take us through some of the library's unique collection of manuscripts, scrapbooks, archives of designers, photographs, portraits of gardeners, magazines, nursery catalogues