Bourbon Pursuit

Many of us understand Bourbon 101 and 102 knowledge, but what about level 400? Dr. Pat Heist of Ferm Solutions joins the show to explain what is chemically happening when you're producing bourbon and gives an in-depth look at yeast and how it becomes one of the most critical components of the process. You will learn all about the breakdowns of enzymes during mash cooking and species of yeast for distilling. If you're a science buff, this episode is for you.Show Notes: What does Ferm Solutions do as well as how big Wilderness Trail Distillery? What was your first real job out of college and how did that get you into spirits? Are you tailoring yourself to craft whiskey or do you help with big names on the market as well? Talk about the science behind corn Is there really a difference between red corn or blue corn vs the traditional white/yellow corn? Difference in flavor? Economical? Talk about pesticides and GMO for the grains What about barley, rye, or wheat? Is the breakdown of the pathogens different or the enzymes? Go a bit more in depth about what the scientific differences between sour vs sweet mash How does yeast compete? What about the sanitary levels and how that contributes? What are the differences in the species of yeast and which ones are typically used in beer and spirits production? True or False. Does yeast contribute 15% to the flavor of a bourbon? What are the differences between low-gravity and high-gravity fermenters? What is the cause of a mutated yeast? Jim Rutledge discovered it at one time when it was a part of some limited edition offerings at Four Roses When you're monitoring the yeast during fermentation, what are you looking for? When I was at Castle and Key they talked about doing yeast forensics to find a closely resembled strain. Is this actually possible or just marketing hype? Gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. What does this even mean? When does the yeast stop playing a roll? When it's in the barrel? out of the barrel? in the bottle? Is yeast like a fungi where it can reproduce when it get puts back into a normalized environment? What about beers that go bad? One last question about corn, how long do you age corn in a silo to dehydrate corn and remove moisture? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Retailers need an edge to stay competitive in today’s market. Listen to Louis Dachis of Ace Spirits and David Driscoll of K&L Wine Merchants on how technology is making their business grow on national level and you get a lesson on distribution and why there are shipping restrictions to different states in the US.Show Notes: Talk about your stores and the markets you serve How have you seen the bourbon market effect your business? What's the good what's the bad? How does having a very prominent online presence given you an advantage? Do you see your barrel picks making its way out of state because of online orders? Do you feel that impacts locals? We know allocated items in bourbon are coveted right now. How are you dealing with this surge? Do you reward continual shoppers, even online shoppers that are out of state? Is there a better way to get products into the hands of consumers other than the three-tier system? Why are there so many law restrictions on shipping alcohol across state lines? Why can't we have a uniform federal ruling that allows shipment across state lines? This goes into global shipping. For example: A Malt like Springbank 21 (700 ml) at Masters of Malt retails for $220ish. Even if I bought only one bottle and paid $40 for ship on the 1 bottle, it is still cheaper than purchasing the 750 ml US version for $390ish. Where do you think a savvy consumer would buy? How will US retail stay competitive in the global marketplace at this rate? In an ideal world where you can sell more volume online, what do you want to see changed? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

With the current climate of overpriced rare whiskey, how do you turn that into a profitable business? Matt Landan talks about pivoting his coffee shop into Haymarket Whiskey Bar, a staple of bourbon country and Top 40 whiskey bar.Show Notes: Everyone who has visited Louisville probably knows but we are going to talk about the history of the bar Do you think this is becoming a new landmark on the bourbon trail How are you appealing to the local bourbon community? You also do something unique with the price of your Van Winkles too People on the forums also thought you ruined bourbon for maybe 30 minutes last year too Talk about the new Vintage spirits law and what that means You’re keeping up with it. what’s the latest news with it and where are they? What are some potential pit falls? How do retailers or people like yourself protect themselves from frauds? What mistakes have you made trying to run a whiskey bar? What advice would you give to someone? How do feel about increased competition? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Recent whiskey news has really been depressing. There hasn’t been much good that’s come of it so the roundtable spends an hour and complains. We hit on everything from the sadness that is EH Taylor Four Grain being named Whiskey of the Year to the depressing news of no more Eagle Rare store picks in 2018. Read more sorrowing news we talk about in the show notes belowShow Notes: Whiskey Of The Year according to Jim Murray is the EH Taylor Four Grain Did anyone actually like it? Is this a ploy to sell more books? How is this going to effect next year’s release? There is a new Woodford Reserve Master’s Collection Kerry isn’t a fan but Eric does like it. They discuss David J Montgomery from Professor Cocktail is a moron. He tried selling his BTAC samples on the Secondary Market. Will Buffalo Trace change their sample distribution process now? Do relationships matter when you live in a control state? There will be no Eagle Rare store picks in 2018. Kerry explains. What are UofL fans going to do now with their Pitino and Jurich Maker's bottles? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is the madness ever going to end? Are those unicorn bottles going to continue to climb in price for the future? How did we end up here? Past guest Chuck Cowdery, a bourbon authority, enlightens us to how the history of bourbon being an unwanted commodity created stocks of well aged whiskey that led us to the market we see today.Show Notes: Let's talk about the past and the bourbon, crisis, was it an overall understanding that bourbon might be extinct? At what point did you come in to see some of this first hand? How did advertising work for bourbon? How did you get it into the hands of elders? How did no one see this coming? Like literally no one. You talk about the resurgence of bourbon was partly because of the lack of drinkers because it led to the unintentional benefit of very well-aged whiskey What were distillers doing with this better aged whiskey? Do you think exports are the biggest benefactor? What were bourbon brands doing at the time to appeal to the Japanese and European markets? So people are buying whiskey again, how are distillers ramping up production? Was there a surge of more NDPs and independent bottlers buying sourced whiskey? Why do you call this a “not so attractive” trend? At what point did we start seeing the “shortage”? or is there really a shortage? Have NDPs died off because they can’t source or contract distill now? Will craft distillers put a dent in the market or are they just looking for their piece of the pie? Do you think any of these companies will be "under water" on their investments when the bourbon matures for sales in 4-12 years? Especially when they have to compete with the big boys as they are expanding. Do you think we are going to see people drop off because we don’t have a lot of well-aged whiskey now? We have distillers and craft distillers removing age statements. How will that effect the future? What’s the key to making this trend last? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Have you ever visited the Bourbon Heritage Center in Bardstown or the Evan Williams Bourbon Experience in downtown Louisville? It's time you meet Jeff Crowe who is the General Manager of Visitor Experiences for Heaven Hill. Jeff takes us through what each locations have to offer and gives some insight into how he can fairly distribute Parker's Heritage and William Heaven Hill releasesShow Notes: Did you come from a hospitality background or whiskey? Was life a bit less hectic in 2013? How has bourbonism grown since you have been around? Has it put more stress on your job Talk about each theEvan Williams Bourbon Experience EWBE and theBourbon Heritage Center BHC and what you will see in each Heaven Hill is unique that you don’t actually ever get to tour where the majority of the bourbon is made. Is there plans to open up Bernheim for visitors? I’ve always told people that they need to visit EWBE to break up the distillery visits because it’s more like a mix of a museum with video projectors. Most distillery visits get pretty repetitive but this breaks the mold. Do you know whose idea it was to build it this way? Talk about the history of this building because it was owned by the Shapiros at one point too. What is the wildest thing you’ve seen happen at either location? Someone trying to dive into the large glass of Evan Williams at the entrance? You also spend time at the BHC in Bardstown. Even though these locations are only an hour away from each other, is there a different vibe or feeling the visitors get from each? Is there something one offers that the other can’t? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Freddie Johnson has a long resume. Previous guest on episode 59, 3rd Generation Employee at Buffalo Trace, and Tour Guide Extraordinaire. He joins to talk about Bourbon Pompeii, who was Thomas H Handy (THH) and other tidbits of random knowledge you only get from Freddie.Show Notes: What’s been going on since the last time we talked? You haven’t been getting a bigger head by reading all those 5 star TripAdvisor reviews have you? Lets give everyone a little refresher about you and your family history at BT So who’s going to continue the family tradition and be the 4th generation? What are the ABCs of bourbon? What is the origin of “the shot”? Who was Thomas H. Handy? Alright, this Bourbon Pompei, lets talk about it. For some other geeks out there besides whisky geeks, you also took part in a new Buffalo Trace virtual reality tour. talk about that. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The bourbon community roundtable does a blind tasting with samples sent in by a fan of the show. The best bourbon bloggers out there are put to the test to see if they can figure out where it came from. You won’t believe what happens. Show notes below…Show Notes: We’ve got a full house tonight with Blake from bourbonr.com, Nick from BreakingBourbon, Kerry of subourbia.com, Brian of SippnCorn, and Michael with @flightofbourbon as our special guest Blake talks about tasting blind all the time What do you do about wanting to sample limited releases, but you may not get the opportunity if you only have that 1 shot to buy the bottle? Throughout the show we try samples A, B, C, and D. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fred Minnick, multi-appearance guest on the show and author of the new book Rum Curious, educates us bourbon drinkers on why rum isn’t so bad and how the rum industry needs the passion of the bourbon community. Back in February you had a article named “For Rum’s Sake”, an open letter to bourbon drinkers. Was it a plea? Why rum? There’s lots of other spirits Name a few brands that are accessible in parts of the US that are trustworthy. So what’s wrong with Captain Morgan and those typical ones we all think of? We know bourbon has 3 main ingredients, but what are some of the main ones going into rum? We also have corn whiskey, rye whiskey, etc, any variants? So people want to learn more about rum, besides your book, where are the rum fanatics? Talk about the laws and labels for rum producers What do you think about those companies that say they can create an aged rum in less than 7 days using technology? Thanks to Emmet Klocker that sent us some samples from Lemon Hart, Havana Club, and 1931. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Beau Beckman, Barrel Select Manager at Buffalo Trace, is now a 2nd time guest! We talk about how the program has matured, why you only get to taste 4 barrels rather than more, how the barrels are chosen for the program versus the regular blend, and how you can get your own.Show Notes: So what’s been happening since the last time we chatted back on episode 009? You’ve managed to stay off the news radar it seems like except there was a good article Forbes put out recently and our good friend Bourbon Truth was talking about good private barrels and said you basically had to lick someone’s balls (especially Beau beckman) to get anywhere So we just did a pick and you said you can have the barrel or we can send it off to Mexico For anyone that doesn’t know and didn’t catch them up to speed on your family heritage that you bashfully don’t like to talk about I was actually out here today doing a barrel selection of Buffalo Trace, talk me through the process of what I experienced today The numbers have been dwindling at every place for barrel selections. Where it was once fruitful to try 12 or more barrels, sometimes it’s down to three. Is this just lack of mature whiskey? Or is it lets dwindle down these remaining barrels for single selections and then we will pull out new ones How often does it happen someone will pass on a barrel and then the next group or the group after says something ridiculous like “oh man, that’s the honey barrel!” speaking of honey barrels, do you really believe there are such a thing and how often do those go to single select? how are the barrels chosen for single select, randomly? by a group of tasters? I've had some very off profile barrels too Coming and doing a barrel pick for new whiskey geeks is like the ultimate experience. What do you attribute to the success of a single barrel program? Any advice for those stores who are itching to get on the program or know of a shortcut? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices