Bourbon Pursuit

John Kowalczyk reveals how he started a Bourbon Christmas Gift Exchange that grew from just a handful of friends to an event that is sponsored by liquor stores and distilleries.Show Notes: Overview of the past few bottles to come out and Ryan is becoming a dusty hunter after attending Whiskey Pig at Willett Distillery. What’s your bourbon story? How did you get into it? Tell us about your Bourbon Gift Exchange Are there rules to your gift exchange? Throw out some of the names of the brands you had your first year How did more people find out about it and spread? Is there a certain bottle that stands out among the crowd? How did you get sponsorships from local stores and even distilleries? What are the plans for this year? Are you trying to step it up? After the exchange is over, do people just immediately open their bottle and start sharing? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Matt Jamie, Founder and Owner of Bourbon Barrel Foods, talks about how he started a company with Bluegrass Soy Sauce into a brand that does everything to promote "Eat Your Bourbon".Show Notes: We’ve taken a hiatus and we apologize. Sometimes life just gets in the way… and bourbon hunting. lots and lots of bourbon hunting. What's your bourbon story? I know you are a Louisville native, has bourbon always been in your blood like ours? Tell us the story of Bourbon Barrel Foods and how it got created. Talk about some of the products and what makes them special I notice that you also have a lot of products from Woodford Reserve. Can you talk about their products or the partnership you have with them? Talk a bit about Kentuckiaki and Bourbon Vanilla Extract I was also reading about a sponsorship you received in 2013 to help build a Kitchen Studio. Can you talk about that? Do you have any of your favorite recipes? If people in louisville and traveling for the bourbon trail want to find a retail store, where do they go? What entails the Eat Your Bourbon Class and the Chef Series? If you want to learn more, you can visit the online at bourbonbarrelfoods.com or follow them on twitter @bourbonbarrel Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dixon Dedman, Owner Operator of Beaumont Inn & Partner in Kentucky Owl, joins us to talk about his family history and how they revitalized a brand that died during prohibition.Show Notes: Fantasy teams are now using high valued bourbons as entrance fees Let's talk about you. Who are you and what have you been doing up to this point? Let's talk about your bourbon. What got you into dealing with the brand? Why the tag name “The Wise Man’s Bourbon”? What made you go with a barrel proof bourbon? How many barrels went into the particular batches? So you take the barrels, and you dump them and put them into new charred barrels? Is there a big difference between Batch 1 and Batch 2? What about Batch 3? This is a KY only release. Why only KY? How does it feel to have this craze happening? Talk about the Old Owl Tavern on your property Where do you sit on the Bourbon Trail? For anyone still looking for a pour of KY Owl, can they get it at the tavern? Adam Johnson asks, What is the secret to the General Lee cake? How can people get in touch with you? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Mikael Mossberg, Co-Founder & CEO of Distiller, talks about his whiskey recommendation app and how his whiskey passion led him to be in the startup world.Show Notes: Kick off the show talking about Parker's Heritage Collection #9, The Malt Whiskey Release What has your past been that led you up into Distiller? Tell us more about the app, what would you categorize it as? How did the idea spawn? We really like the "trending bottle", how did that idea come about? Walk us through the recommendation engine Where do you find your expert reviewers? The reviews are like Amazon reviews, short and to the point. What sort of glasses do you drink out of? I found a good tidbit of information from Marianne Barnes about density and nosing. How many people are on the platform? How do you get all these bottles and samples for reviews? How did you come up with the tagline "The Whiskey Companion"? Shout out to our new audio engineer David Isreal Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Nino Marchetti (@WhiskeyWash), Founder at TheWhiskeyWash.com, joins us today to announce a new partnership between us. We talk about his news outlet, the authors, products, and most importantly, his bunker!Show Notes: Starting the show off by drinking Kentucky Owl Batch #2. Add it to the collection if you have the money to spare Talk to us about the TheWhiskeyWash.com We’re proud to announce a partnership between our two brands Nino has an offsite, undisclosed location, for his bunker Talk about the authors on the site Talk about some of the most popular articles One of the most popular articles is about the $75,000 Whiskey In regards to reviewers, what walks of life do they come from so we trust them? There are lots of reviews on food pairings Your apartment is on fire, what’s the one bottle you grab? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kris Comstock, the Bourbon Marketing Director at Buffalo Trace, talks about how he made his way to Kentucky and gives us insight into the brands and even the new 2015 Buffalo Trace Antique Collection (sorry about the horrible audio on this one).Show Notes: Firenado/Bourbonado Tell us your bourbon story What led you to Buffalo Trace? What do you do in your current role? Give everyone a bit of insight on how you do forecasting for production? Since you are in charge of packaging let's talk a bit about some of the labels we see today. Can you talk a bit about some of them and perhaps some backstory. Maybe even give the listeners an understanding why Buffalo Trace is even called Buffalo Trace? Now I know Blantons has the collector series of caps. Am I right? You’ve also had a hand in developing some of the other brands like EH Taylor, Experimental, Stagg Jr and Single Oak. talk about each one of those a little bit and the roles you played The Antique collection was just announced. Talk to us about it a bit Follow Kris on twitter at @BUFFALOCOMSTOCK Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Carol Perry, or just Perry, is a legend in his own right. Perry has worked at the Stitzel-Weller distillery in Shively for 45 years. He has held about every job you could possibly have and is currently working security and head greeter for the Bulleit Frontier Experience.Show Notes: Give us an idea of what you have been doing here for the past 45 years Talk about what life is like working at the warehouse Why did they have windows open only during the day? What other kinds of experiences did you gather from working at warehouse? Drinking your own product on the job probably wasn’t uncommon back then How automated were the processes back then? What do you mean by dumping the glass? Did you ever have any interactions with the Van Winkle family? Wasn’t there a break room incident with Julian? What were you doing when the distillery closed its doors? Any security incidents in your time? You’ve seen the ups and downs, is this the craziest time you’ve ever seen? Is there a best memory that sticks out for you during this time? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Your hosts, Kenny and Ryan, take a look back on the past 21 episodes. We talk about the guests and what is still to come with the remaining part of the year.Show Notes: Have we had some guests that have stood out more than others? Great history lesson with Brian Haara of Sipp'n Corn Learned a great deal about pot still vs column still with Brent Goodin of Boundary Oak Have you had any favorite bourbon releases this year? Lots of distilleries are having unique and rare releases for big money If you think you are going to visit Louisville for bourbon hunting, you've come to the wrong place Did you ever open your EH Taylor Cured Oak? Are people looking to get price for proof now? Take a look back on the Orphan Barrel releases with Ewan Morgan What other guests did you find interesting? We also get to visit some interesting places such as mansions to record our podcasts Jim Rutledge's retirement made us thankful he recorded a show An Easter Egg... you have to listen to find out!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brent Goodin, Master Distiller at Boundary Oak Distillery, discusses his new startup distillery and how his first bottle of bourbon off the line sold for $28,000.Show Notes: What’s your bourbon story? Do you have an earliest moment with bourbon? Are you picking up the family lineage of getting back into the bourbon industry? What led you to becoming a Master Distiller? Any influencers along the way? How long have you been practicing your trade? Where does the name Boundary Oak come from? Where is your location in relation to the Kentucky Bourbon Trail? I don’t get to use this word very often, but What’s it mean to be the first distiller in Hardin County after a “centennial plus some”? There was an Insider Louisville article lately that talked about a record being broken for the most paid for a first bottle of bourbon. Talk about that Most consumers think 2 year old bourbon is under-aged. Are you doing something different to age your bourbon to make it more appealing? How big is your operation? and how many barrels can you age? Are you thinking you are going to have multiple brands or mix them all together to have a consistent flavor? What price point are you targeting? As with most distillery startups, you already have a product for sale, Kentucky Amber, talk about it a bit How can people get a hold of you and learn more about the distillery? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Brian Haara (@SippnCorn), Attorney and blogger at Sipp’n Corn, joins the podcast to talk about the history of the bourbon industry through the lens of lawsuits. Listen to find out how Colonel Taylor loved getting himself into trouble as well as the real story behind Ezra Brooks.Show Notes: Do you have a favorite office bourbon? What’s your bourbon story? How did you get into bourbon? The one thing I love how blog is such an interesting angle into the past. You stumbled upon this, now are you going through archives in Lexis Nexis to search for keywords like “EH Taylor”. Do you think more people are looking to become educated consumers? You have an article on your blog on how to read the Four Roses single barrel label Talk about Copycat Whiskey with Jack Daniels and Ezra Brooks Who is the most notorious for being in legal trouble with bourbon? Talk a bit about Taylor and the bottle-in-bond act What about the lawsuits between George Stagg and Taylor? What did that mean about the brands and the distilleries? Is there more legal trouble about Taylor’s Signature? You’ve got another article called Kentucky Isn’t Big Enough for Two Colonel Taylors. Talk about that. Did you see a lot of cases based off copyright or brand infringements? Churchill Downs Distilling vs Churchill Downs Inc. Were there any cases involving Stitzel-Weller? Are there any recent laws or cases that are interesting? Give me your favorite bourbons you have reviewed recently Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices