Bourbon Pursuit

The Bourbon Community Roundtable #9 talks about the recent news of one man who has defrauded the secondary bourbon market with counterfeit bourbon. We wrap up the show talking about the Weller 12 craze.Show Notes: The biggest reveal in secondary market history. A seller with 2+ years worth of building up sales reveals that he's been counterfeiting bottles. Hear the story unfold How does this impact bourbon going forward? How do you trust you seller? How can you trust anything in bars? What has happened with Weller12? It’s madness Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Charlie Downs, Artisanal Distillery Manager at Evan Williams Bourbon Experience (a part of Heaven Hill Brands) talks about the operations, his mentorship with Parker Beam, and the recollection of events that took place at the Heaven Hill fire of 1996.Show Notes: Before we dive into it, people have to know about you. As most people may know, my wife works at HH and I was at the company Christmas party this year where you were honored by spending your 40th year at HH. What has this business taught you? Talk about how you carved your path in HH and who was your mentor and who gave you those lucky breaks? Do you have a favorite memory with Parker? Lots of people like to just call this a tourist center, but this is actually a functioning distillery as well Is it just Evan Williams or a different mash bill are you distilling? How many barrels a day? And you’re about to hit that 4 year mark, what’s the plans for the first few barrels? Talk about the fire of 1996 and where were you Other than amount, what the difference between you here and Denny over at the Bernheim plant Do you often feel like a hamster in a cage? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fred Minnick, Bourbon Author, Pundit, and Expert, joins us to discuss the San Francisco Spirits Competition, asking if bourbon is just a gimmick when it comes to experimentation, how the new vintage spirits law will effect Louisville, and if pricing has gone out of whack!Show Notes: So what’s new since the last time we chatted? What are you doing for the Bourbon and Beyond Festival? I hear there is a Bourbon Cruise? You’re also going to be at Forecastle Let’s talk about the new Dusty law So lets talk about San Francisco. Lets talk about the upsets. Who doesn't get a golden medal or a star? Is bourbon turning into a gimmick for releases? Can we stop it with the experimentation? At what point does it go to far? Pricing is out of whack. How do we as consumers fix this? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Campbell Brown, President of Old Forester Bourbon, is interviewed by Fred Minnick at the Kentucky Derby Museum's Legend Series.Show Notes:Fred gets more information about the corporate side rather than the distilling side. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Bourbon Community Roundtable #8 is back for a Derby special to talk about their lack of desire for ORVW25, a surprise twist with Bulleit Bourbon, and results from San FranciscoShow Notes: It’s Derby, who has plans So Pappy25 is out. Who actually cares? Interesting bulleit scenario that was posted in a significant bourbon group out of houston… Bourbon Barrel Batch 011 Wins Best Bourbon WhistlePig Boss Hog wins best Whiskey Quinn English: Has anyone had Four Grain? Thoughts? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

JK McKnight, Founder and Captain of Forecastle Festival, talks about running a music festival and how their Bourbon Lodge has become a festival of itself.Show Notes: If you’re a music lover, you’re going to enjoy this episode. We’ve been to forecastle a few times and we’ll talk about why our guest is here talking about Bourbon a bit later, but music festivals are just fun. There’s no better way to put it than that. Explain to everyone who isn’t up to speed on music festivals, what is Forecastle. I went to Forecastle back in 2008 to see Counting Crows and 2010 to see Widespread. What’s the history? Why did you start it, what was the idea? How big has it grown? I know you also are starting to get a little bit of growth in the EDM tent. I believe this is the 5th year in a row you all are featuring the “bourbon lodge”. talk about what it is. What was the idea behind drinking bourbon in 100 degree weather in the middle of July? How has the lodge progressed from when you first started it? - It seems like you’ve got everyone on board now. There’s bulleit, woodford, four roses, jim beam, larceny of heaven hill, maker’s mark, michaels, old forester, and wild turkey. pretty much all the big guns. Instead of a beer garden, you all have a bourbon garden. Cocktails sound more up my alley in the July heat. i see there is a mixology station and signature cocktails. Talk about the food because you have a friend of the show taking care of that for you. Lastly is a rarities bar sponsored by Liquor Barn. forecastlefest.com/bourbonlodge Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Beth Burrows, Kentucky Bourbon Ambassador for Beam Suntory, gives us all the history behind Jim Beam and the different expressions. We even get the chance to learn how Baker’s Bourbon got its name.Show Notes: Tell us about your history with bourbon Do you miss bartending? What has the passing of Senate Bill 11, allowing producers to serve cocktails and more whiskey going to do for Jim Beam? Jim Beam is really pioneering and doing all flavored whiskey like the Apple and Honey, Black Cherry, Fire, Maple. Thoughts? Who’s your target market with these? Then you’ve got Jim Beam white label, black, double oak, devils’ cut, rye, bonded, single barrel, Tell us about the Jim Beam distiller’s masterpiece Names behind Knob Creek, Baker, Basil Hayden, OGD, Old Crow, Booker’s Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Bourbon Truth, the infamous blogger and twitter persona known as Lloyd Christmas, gives a Bourbon Pursuit exclusive where no one is safe. He tells it like it is and let's you know not everything smells like roses.Show Notes: What made you start blogging? (spoiler alert, he has bone to pick with the Van Winkles) Let’s talk about distilleries and their non-sense tactics. Which ones stand out the most and why? Your latest blog post talked about the issues behind private barrel picks. Let’s talk because people are moving to these as the limited edition market is now flooded with people. Let's talk about marketing over the value of the bottles. What do you see consumers continually falling for? Distillers are continually pushing the envelope of cost. Bottles are increasing in price and even limited editions that were once $50 are now $350 at retail. These were always 15 year bourbons. What’s the long-term effect? Should a person that never drank Bourbon before 2017 take the precious bottles from those drinking it for 5 or 10 years? Are they worthy? Is there a problem with people “collecting” bourbon? Does Craft Whiskey stand a chance? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fred Minnick interviews Tom Bulleit of the Bulleit Distilling Company for the Kentucky Derby Museum's Bourbon Legends Series.Show Notes:Listen as Fred tries to pry information out of Tom about family history, stitzel-weller, age statements, and more Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We are going back and revisiting episode #056 about building the barrels at Brown Forman. This is a great to wrap up back to basics month. Michael Nelson, Plant Director at the Brown-Forman Cooperage, gives a step-by-step and inside look to the barrel making process. Give us your bourbon story. Before we dive into the ins and outs of technicalities of barrel char. give us a history lesson about where we are. So this is my first encounter being at a cooperage. give me the 101 We saw one barrel that was cross cut. Talk about that. What’s the average number of discarded barrels that don’t meet some sort of quality assurance? Talk about char levels for a bit because it’s something that is always said, but never really explained about in depth. Is the barrel making process getting more expensive on a yearly basis because of demand and material supply? For everyone that missed the episode with Chris Morris where we talked briefly about the cooperage, talk about what it means to have a cooperage dedicated to their private whiskey The release of Cooper’s Craft happened recently. And it was named after the location of where we are recording today. What does that mean to you?   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices