Today, we talk to one of the biggest up and coming distilleries in Bardstown…and that’s the Bardstown Bourbon Company. We covered the business side in a past episode, but this time we look at operations and the two guys responsible for filling thousands of barrels per year. Steve Nally and John Hargrove sit down with us to talk about their background in distillation. Spoiler alert, Steve Nally is kind of a big deal. We also touch on what the process is like for a customer to work with them as they choose a mash bill, yeast strain, barrel location in the rickhouse, and where they see the market in 5 years. If you are on the bourbon trail, be sure to stop at BBC for lunch and a dusty pour.

Show Notes:

• Jim Beam Cheat Sheet: http://bourbonr.com/blog/jim-beam-distillery-production-cheat-sheet/
• This week’s Above the Char with Fred Minnick talks about Bolivia.
• What was your first taste of bourbon?
• How did you get into working in the bourbon and spirits industry?
• How was it going from Maker’s to a start up distillery?
• Do you have a formal education in science or did you learn on the job?
• How did they convince you to come to BBC?
• What was the initial BBC strategy?
• What is your distillery capacity?
• Did you see the need for contract distilling?
• Is it difficult to produce so many mash bills?
• Do clients have a mash bill in mind or do you help coach them?
• Walk us through the process.
• Can you pick your own yeast strain?
• Can you sample the yeast strains?
• Do you guide customers on wood?
• How long is your wait?
• How do you allocate floor levels in the warehouse?
• What’s the craziest demand from a customer?
• Is it more efficient to have a contract distiller?
• What are you distilling for BBC?
• Talk about the risk of experimenting with products.
• Where do you see bourbon in 3-5 years?
• Any plans for other spirits?
• Tell us about the decision to allow customers to customize the process.
• Do you bottle and help with packaging?

 

Transcription:

0:00
Have you ever thought about a career in the whiskey industry? I’m not talking about being the next master distiller. But if you want a leg up on the competition, you need to take a look at the distilled spirits business certificate from the University of Louisville. This six course program will prepare you for the business side of the spirits industry like finance, marketing and operations. This is 100% online, meaning that you can access the classes at anytime in anywhere. So what are you waiting for? all that’s required is a bachelor’s degree, go to U of l.me. Slash bourbon pursuit.

0:35
Well, at that time barrels were worth virtually nothing. So when they dumped them, they would just pile them up pyramid style on their property course riding around the bicycle. I was inquisitive and I would venture and to see what I could find and sometimes I would find a see up here there that was left in the barrel. So how are those bike rides home? A little wobbly. Some of my remember so much.

1:12
All right, this is Episode 239 of bourbon pursuit. I’m Kenny, one of your hosts. And here’s your bourbon Weekly News RoundUp. In 2019, the TTB approved 180,400 products. That’s quite the amount of work. This is a four and a half percent increase over 2018, with wine being the largest at 123,000. Beer having 41,300 in spirits at 16,100. And now we know why they’re always so busy. recent poll suggests that over 5 million adults follow a vegan diet in the United States alone. vegan diets exclude all animal products including meat, dairy, eggs, and honey. And most of them also eliminate any byproducts that derived from animals or insects including ones use during food processing.

2:00
So the question really is, is bourbon vegan health line calm, investigated alcohol and if it’s vegan or not, since manufacturers aren’t usually required to list ingredients on their beer, wine and spirits, so what is not vegan? Well, that’s dairy products that are added to things like beer and liquor stores to give a creamy or rich texture. These are things like bourbon cream that everyone is starting to crank out. Other non vegan options are things like honey, eggs, eyes and glass which is a finding agent derived from fish bladders, gelatin coach Neil and carbine, which is a red dye made from the scales of insects used for red coloring. So by and large bourbon is vegan. Angels envy has announced the second release in their seller collection, a Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey finished in Tawny port wine barrels. I had the opportunity to join Wes and Kyle Henderson during the media preview day. Next month, the distillery is releasing their Tawny port wine finished bourbon and this whiskey

3:00
end with a 10 year old straight Kentucky bourbon whiskey that was then finished for 10 months in Tawny port wine barrels. They added just a little bit of water before it was bottled to end up at 111.6 proof now being 10 years old, the color is significantly darker than their standard offering and has a different taste profile as well. There will only be 5400 bottles released in the purchases will be able to begin on February 8 at select retailers in the states of Kentucky, California, Florida, Illinois, New York and Tennessee, as well as at angel’s envy distillery downtown Louisville, and has a suggested retail price of around $249 and 99 cents. Members of angels envy is 500 main. We’re also given the first option to purchase bottles, and you can look forward to hearing our view on an upcoming whiskey quickie. Our good friend Blake from bourbon er calm has released his Jim Beam production cheat sheet. It is an easy way to start digesting the Jim Beam Nashville’s

4:00
They’re proof coming off the still and what proof they go into the barrel. So you can see things like old granddad basil Hayden, and how they all stack up and how they’re all little bit different. There’s more unanswered questions as to where the barrels are placed in the warehouses, but this is going to be a great reference, and you can get the link to the cheat sheet in our show notes. Last week, we ventured out to old forester to pick a barrel for our Patreon community. This was our first time coming there. And now we’re looking forward to doing even more when that barrel strength and 100 proof options start kicking in around the May time frame. If you want to read more about our experience, go to patreon.com slash bourbon pursuit and you can check the public posts to read our recap. You can also look at our spreadsheet for you can see all the barrel pics that we have coming up to schedule in 2020. Today in the show, we talked to one of the biggest and upcoming distilleries in Bardstown and that’s the Bardstown bourbon company. We featured the business side on the podcast previously

5:00
They’re doing a bunch of contract distilling, but also launching their own brands. However, this time we look at the operation side, and you get to hear from two of the guys that are responsible for filling thousands of barrels per year. Steve nalli and john Hargrove sit down with us to talk about their background and distillation. And spoiler alert, Steve nalli is kind of a big deal. But we also touch on what the process is like for a customer to work with them, how they choose a Nashville choosing a Ustream, where the barrels are going to start being aged in brick houses, where do you get to choose them, and where they both see the market of bourbon in five years down the road. I should also mention that if you’re on the bourbon trail, you need to stop at the Bardstown bourbon company for lunch and a dusty poor. Alright, it’s that time again. Let’s go hear from our friend Joe over a barrel bourbon. And then you’ve got Fred minich with above the char.

5:52
Hey everyone, Joe here again. We work with distilleries from all over the world to source and blend the best ingredients into America’s most

6:00
Curious cask strength whiskeys use the store locator barrel bourbon calm.

6:06
I’m Fred MiniK. And this is above the char when I wrote my book bourbon, the rise fall and rebirth of American whiskey. I found most of my records through old government testimony and Treasury transcripts and all sorts of hearings in the Senate and Congress. And that’s how I basically formed the history of bourbon, or at least my interpretation of the history of bourbon. I didn’t necessarily listen to distillers. Sure, I quoted distillers and I included their stories, but to me, the real story of whiskey has always been around the government’s because the government’s are the ones who choose to define them. They’re the ones who kind of like, tax them and push them to go into one proof or another. You know, to me, the government system of the world.

7:00
dictates what we drink. And we have another incredible story to tell. Bolivia in the United States just entered into an agreement to recognize bourbon and Tennessee whiskey as unique American products as long as America recognizes sing Gani, which is a unique to them. Brandy made from Muscat grapes, mostly in the Andes Mountains, you know, but about 5000 feet or 9200 feet above sea level. So as long as we recognize their brandy, they’ll recognize our bourbon as unique to our respective countries. Now you can look at this and say, Wow, this is this is something that they should already be doing and for the most part luck, they they are no one’s out. No one in Bolivia is is you know, hooking up corn and mashing it and fermenting and distilling it and then putting it in a

8:00
They’re not doing that. And they’re not trying to call it bourbon. And if they are they mean they have the audience of probably their small Township. Really this was about Bolivia, getting the opportunity to stand out on the world stage to talk about their brandy, and bourbon help bring that to the stage because if it Bolivia had entered this agreement with China over buys you to have a joint recognition of like what their particular spirits are. Nobody would care, but because they did this with the United States of America, and they chose to honor and respect the codes and systems of bourbon. The whole world knows about sigani now, and I can’t wait to go find a bottle, pour myself some and celebrate this historic moment in American whisky history. Well, the bad news is I’m probably gonna have to go to Bolivia but

9:00
I’m going to go look at Expedia right now for two tickets to Bolivia. 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, YouTube, my website, Fred MiniK, calm wherever just hit me up. I love your ideas. I listened to them and I often record them because I frequently run out of ideas. Until next week, cheers.

9:25
Welcome back to another episode of bourbon pursuit the official podcast of bourbon, Kinney and Ryan here today. As you probably hear, we’re not in a recording studio for today. We’re in our mobile recording studio. At the bottled and bond kitchen here at the Berks number but company. Yes, we have full bellies and had some great cocktails. I think they were trying to get us to take a nap so they could get out of this podcast. What would you have would you have for lunch, man, we had some great putos some cured meats and cheese and bread and then we had brussels sprouts had the fish

10:00
tacos had a gin cocktail metal all sip of a carrot and bourbon cocktail a barrel aged fat not I didn’t drink them all myself

10:10
maybe maybe but yeah shout out to Dan for for hooking us up with the cocktails too because that was it’s quite the experience here and I know we’ve we’ve talked about bottle of bond kitchen and really what it is here because it’s it’s a really an elevated experience here at Bardstown bourbon company, and even for Bardstown in itself Yeah, I think it’s just a true representation of the brand and the company like their innovators and like they they really have me excited about the future of bourbon because we met john at burn beyond 10 you know, like, you just, you just tell these guys get it, like, who the new bourbon consumers are what they want. They’re doing some really cool stuff. So yeah, I’m really excited about the future of this company and like, and they’re killing it right now. They’re absolutely and and hopefully, you know, after all that meal, we don’t want to take a nap on ourselves. And, you know, well, hell they they doubled up and got more dream

11:00
Our guest showed up. They’re like, well, let’s let’s pass new now I guess we can get ourselves another cocktail, Don Draper lunch.

11:07
So yeah, so if you do hear some background noise that is because we are around, probably around 150 people that are eating lunch here as well. So you get to get to experience that and hopefully you’re not getting hungry stomach as you’re driving down the road or however you’re listening this podcast. But let’s go ahead and introduce our guests today. So today on the show, we’re talking about the operations side of the Bardstown bourbon company. So we have Steve nalli, the master distiller from Bursa Bardstown bourbon company, as well as john Hargrove, the VP of manufacturing operations. So fellas, welcome. Thank you. Well, I mean, we’re excited to have you all here. A because, you know, they’re excited to have us here. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, are, you know, Ryan, I was doing some brainstorming this morning. And I was thinking about, you know, the first time we talked about barsen perfect company on the podcast was back on episode 19. When we had Dave Mandela on, I mean, 19 was hundreds of episodes ago. So

12:00
We’re years beyond that. And we’re kind of reminiscing and thinking about, like, you know, this was before like ground was breaking and all this other kind of stuff. So it’s, it’s cool to find that point it was just kind of a vision is more of a dream and now you’ve kind of seen it come to fruition and the execution of it. Absolutely. So but until we start talking about, you know, the operation side and really what goes into we want to know more about the people here. So, Steve, I’m gonna look at you because you know, we had talked earlier when you’re kind of showing us around here and the size and the scale of things but you know, you had mentioned that you know, you grew up in Loreto, like let’s that’s sort of your home around Maker’s Mark area. kind of talk about Do you remember was Maker’s Mark your your first taste of bourbon?

12:42
It was and that’s an interesting story. You know, I was riding bicycles up and down beside of Maker’s Mark property when I was a youngster, and occasionally a barrel would have a little product in it that I might snake sip. So yes, it was my first taste. Wait, wait.

13:00
They’re just barrels like on the side of the road is that how it was? Well, at that time barrels were worth virtually nothing. So when they dumped them, they would just pile them up pyramid style on their property course riding around the bicycle, I was inquisitive and I would venture and to see what I could find and sometimes I would find this see up here there that was left in the barrel. So how are those bike rides home?

13:25
Some of my remember so

13:29
that’s, that’s quite the story. Yeah, you’re not gonna find that with bourbon barrels nowadays. It just seems like it’s a it’s Well, I mean, a it’s a market where people are, are we were actually talking about this at lunch about an average

13:42
barrel is around $80 on us barrels on the on the average man in the market. So being able to squeeze some extra product out of it is probably even even more impossible now because they do things of, you know, a, there’s ways that you could dump it, but I’ve also seen places that they sort of like vacuum

14:00
You out the product from the barrels now too and they also ran some to you know, they were rants to get all the product they can have it. Get that devils cut now that is cut out. Yeah, that’s correct. Exactly. And so we get Steve’s story to ensure the bourbon, john, about yours. Mine’s not such a storybook beginning. But prior to me getting into the spirits industry, I worked for PepsiCo, and then

14:27
working at Barton 1792 brought me into the spirits industry. So I moved from Missouri to Kentucky, as lead over some of their bottling items on the efficiency side and then work my way over to the distillery over director of operations, distillation operations and then master distiller at Barton 1792. And then I got a call one day from David Mandel, as we all know here and two years later, here I am sitting talking with you guys, he’s not a good salesman or anything.

14:57
I beg to differ.

15:00
So I mean it’s it’s good to kind of know about your past and and Steve I kind of want to like talk about that some more about because you you have a you have a storied history you know you were the master distiller Maker’s Mark for how many years 15 years 15 years kind of kind of talk about like what got you into the spirits business? It was actually coincidental that you know, I grew up beside of Maker’s Mark and when I graduated from high school, I thought I wanted to go into farming as a as a career. And I soon found out that was a bad choice, to say the least. What I early mornings and early mornings, long hours, no pay. You know, I went down to Maker’s Mark just looking for a job primarily. And it just happened they had an opening, hired on and work down there for the first 1617 years. Doing every job down there, you know, actually went from maintenant nightwatchman

16:00
distillery operator warehouse and everything down there actually performed in 1988. I became master distiller. So I was master distiller for the last 15 years I was down there.

16:13
Learned every part of the operation. I mean, I had some, I call them pioneers of the industry that I learned from you know, they knew the business inside and out, they knew exactly how things should be done. So, you know, I was able to learn,

16:28
semi retired from Maker’s Mark had the opportunity to go to Wyoming, built Wyoming whiskey, got it up and going product on the market. I was out there for six and a half years. And during that time, I was inducted into the Kentucky bourbon Hall of Fame, which was a great honor. And then the Wyoming of all in Wyoming. The opportunity came in 2013 to come back to bars town to do bar sound bourbon so actually came on board before they purchase the property.

17:00
And I have to lay out the production facility and get that all up and going. So what was that first job at makers? Did you say you had actually went in growing yeast? I was a yeast,

17:12
yeast person. And then I didn’t know that was a job. Yeah. Nice person is actually growing yeast is actually a separate operation from the distillery. You know, it’s actually keeping the culture of yeast Bible sterile, you know, in every part of it. So I started out in that part of it, and to Steve See, he’s being

17:33
pretty humble, right? very humble. Right now, a yeast person propagation is such an important part of the process, and one of the more difficult parts of the process. So here at Bardstown, bourbon, we actually leave it to the pros as far as hand making our east and delivering it to us as we just utilize it so we do not propagate our own East here, but just Steve’s being humble as probably if Steve started out in a nice

18:00
propagating yeast. The rest is history from there because if you can do that you can you see why he was master distiller for 15 years at Maker’s Mark? Yeah, well to elaborate on that just a little bit Maker’s Mark started in 1953 with the culture of yeast, they still have that same culture today. So it’s propagating cayton is bad allegedly it’s like the weather east or something right? It’s exactly the same same Yeah, yeah. So you know it’s it’s not just growing it escaped Mr. Al and Bible and keeping the the foreign East otherwise it’s kind of like a mouse wall. You know, you don’t touch it, you know?

18:37
gently qualified hands are allowed to touch the smallest. Yeah, exactly. Well, I mean, it’s, it’s pretty amazing because a I didn’t know there was a yeast person that even existed at Maker’s Mark at this time, but it sounds like you didn’t screw up too much because if they’re still using the same yeast today, then you did your job. I hope so. I mean, you know, it would bend my neck if I had enough.

18:58
So talk about some

19:00
Like makers out you know they preach like everything is consistent. You know we want consistency let’s do everything the same just don’t screw it up talking about going from that environment to like startups with like Wyoming and bars on bourbon like, was that had contrast the two for me, I think Maker’s Mark gave me the basis to be able to do wileman whiskey because actually had performed every job down there. So you get the basis then you have an idea of how to pursue

19:32
you know from some great teachers that you do the issue, don’t do something that that’s going to cause you issues down the road. And you know, when you set up a CLT always kind of look at like the operators point of view. You know, what makes it easier for the operator to do, but also what makes a better product come out to keep keep it sterile to keep it sanitary, to keep it you know, claim and to make it easier for the operator to perform his job.

20:01
got a lot going on there, that’s for sure. And so you touched every every piece of equipment and then you knew everything back and forth it makers then yeah, something I’ve actually been from like said yeast maintenance warehousing bottling shipping clerk, Master distiller all the way from one end to the other. Well, what was the so I mean, I’m imagining that you like the master distiller role more than anything else or you just been shipping clerk for the longest time? Well, I mean it’s it’s a pathway to get to that point, you know, it’s understanding the whole operation you know, if you became a master distiller and actually did not know any of the other parts of it, you really be an effective master distiller No, that’s part of being a master distillers overseeing and knowing what’s happening, what’s going on with the other parts and you came in, I’m assuming, I don’t know I don’t know your entire background here. Was it more like apprenticeship that you learned?

21:00
All these things are good. You have a background formal education in science and chemistry and stuff like that, too. It was more, I always call it a school of hard knocks, you know, that you learn from the ground up. It’s not a formal education in a way, but in a way, it is really a very formal education. You know, you learn why you cook a certain temperature, why you hold it for so long, you know, all the commercial or chemical parts of it become a reality when you understand why it’s being done. You know, why the permit fermentation appears and reacts like it does. So, you know, it’s all those parts that makes everything come together to to reality. All right, I gather from you one more thing about state one thing I gathered from you walking around and hanging out with you at lunch is that you have a unique ability to kind of keep everything basic and simple. Like, you know, just kind of is this is what it is, you know, it’s let’s do it the right way. Where’d you get that from kind of that simple madness. Well, that was from you know,

22:00
47 years ago, that’s kind of the way gas chromatographs all the, the formal processes that are used to monitor now, we’re not in existence, I mean, basically use the hydrometer, pH meter and

22:15
acid tetration. And that told, you know, basically, what are we doing now we’re making product that that you can enjoy it to drink. You know, that’s what the ends up taste is, what the final verdict is, all these other instruments equipment, makes it refined enough that we can repeatedly do exactly what we need to do. So you know, it is a collecting detailed information that if a fermentation starts to go bad, we can look back on instruments and know exactly what’s causing it. Four years ago, we couldn’t we still had to rely on those three checks to make sure that that was what was achieved. Gotcha. All right, Steve, we’re gonna get you gives you a break. You can have a drink here, Manhattan over there. So we’ll go

23:00
On john a little bit so john, kind of kind of give us some background about you know, we talked at lunch from Missouri, kind of what brought you into doing more stuff with spirits. And I mean, we talked about what got you here two years ago, but what was that? What was that initial thing that you said like, I think this is this is what I want to do with my life. So the main driver was working for PepsiCo.

23:23
Somebody from PepsiCo actually got hired on the says rack and I got a call from him saying, hey, I’d really like to have you come down to one of our facilities and Kentucky, really help revamp increase process efficiencies. Because in my previous job in PepsiCo, my job really was a productivity manager for about 12 different co manufacturing facilities under the PepsiCo umbrella in the Greater Chicago area. So that was getting in learning every position, learning every single mechanical aspect of it. What really influences different lines running different speeds running

24:00
unscheduled breakdown, scheduled breakdown really finding a balance and then it increases increasing efficiencies across the board. So I came down to Kentucky, it took about six or seven months to recruit me to come down here, comfortable where I was at Chicago. And then I learned, I

24:17
did my homework, and I was gonna go to a brand new industry. So few years ago, when I came down here, learn more about the community learn more about the industry. It really struck my interest down here and my wife and I, at the time made the decision to uproot our family and moved to Kentucky, and I got my feet wet at Barton 1792, starting out there as their quality manager and as their productivity manager for the site there. So looking at boggling line speed is how to increase those how to increase because every millisecond sees it as the board Yeah, doing time studies on everything. You know, I came from a very lean background as far as white belt Green Belt certification and

25:00
Six Sigma, if you guys are aware of that. And so after we got bottling up and running to the speeds that we wanted to my focus became the distillery over there. And then that’s really where my passion really got ignited, and the spirits industry, and I went all in there 1792 and then an opportunity came to become a distiller master distiller down there. And like I said, I just put all my attention and focus into that, because my passion was driving that. And so that’s where I initially got my feet wet. Had a great time doing it, I still have a great time doing it. I’m just doing it here at the Bardstown bourbon company. Now, for the past two years. I was that sales pitch, you know, it calls you or you know, they’re like, come on over and you’re like, you know, where this new startup we promised? It’s going to be great, but yeah, so where’d you get that nice, cushy job? So I did my homework also cuz I had a great experience with Sazerac under 1792. I wasn’t looking to go to anywhere else. But like I said, I got a call from David Mendell. He’s a very pretty

26:00
Waste of guy. And I don’t think he’s ever been told no before. So it took about five or six months for me to really do my homework, really research the company, the people that are working her working here and everything. And like I said that passion was even further ignited with the business model here. And the innovation that’s taking place and the team they have assembled here at the Bardstown bourbon company. So that’s what ultimately really pushed me over the fence to to join the team here. What was that initial game plan or strategy? Like? Obviously, it’s, as will people learn, you all have grown past that. But what was that initial like? Here? Our goal is just to kind of start out, you know, with the company. And here’s kind of the benchmarks we’re trying to hit. Right. I think the initial goals and me and Steve talked about this. So initially, we did plan to go up to 6 million proof gallons. We just thought it would take 10 years to get there. So not only did we surpass the 6 million we’re on track do right at 7 million proof gallons this year. So we have increased 50

27:00
sees we have quadrupled in capacity since sep tember 2016 at 1.5 million gallons. So what was originally probably a 10 to 12 year plan quickly became under a two year plan. And only the people that we have assembled here is the only reason how we’ve been able to successfully do that. A lot of people brag about capital, what kind of equipment you have. But the focus here is the human capital element here at the somber company. Average years of experience you see out there on the floor just walking around is 15 years in a distillery so every operator supervisor manager we have on the distillery side has worked at a distillery before they were poaching all the all of us and people that’s what they were doing. They tend to do that in the bourbon industry.

27:43
I own ask you kind of a question about your PepsiCo days. Why is seven up so much better than sprite?

27:50
It’s just a personal. That’s my thing. I remember I could taste them side by side. I’m like, Oh, yes.

27:56
So it was funny. I wasn’t even on the side of peps.

28:00
was on the light snacks food division. Oh, so my expertise Believe it or not, and this may be boring to some of your listeners was rice cakes, large rice cakes and small rice cakes boy, so if there was ever such thing as a master rice cake maker, it would have been me and the PepsiCo umbrella embroidered on your Polo. Right. So I was on a team that helped design and run over 500 rice cake machines out of Columbia, Missouri and Quaker Oats. Wow, that was one of my first first jobs under PepsiCo. That’s a day of attempt at burn beyond you know, the rice campaign. Right.

28:38
So so let’s go ahead and let’s kind of talk about really what you all are doing and what you’re building here at at Bardstown bourbon company. You know, Steve, you gave us a tour earlier and and really showed us a Like how things had changed in the past like year two since it really started and you had you had one still running 20

29:00
Seven now you have like two stills that are running 24 seven. So kind of talk again about so the capacity and what you all have. Well, this business plan really started out opposite of what it is today. You know, we, when we purchased the property started laying out the facility, we were actually thinking of producing our product. That’s this comes in the fact of 1015 years of getting where we’re at now. Well, during that process, we started talking to clients, potential clients, which are now clients about doing custom production. And that grew by the time we started in 2016. We had actually sold out 100% of our capacity at 1.5 million proof catlins. So we went start up operated that year, the next June, we had enough

29:50
made to double that’s 1.23 million proof gallons. Well the next gym we need to do that again, double again, this going to 16

30:00
Point 8 million proof gallons 90% of that is driven by customer base, collaborative distilling, you know where we produce for other clients. And, you know, that gives us cash flow, which enables us to expand the restaurant bar, everything that you see here to make the complete. The vision of this is to develop an experience for people coming through, you know, more the Napa Valley type of experience, not just having a tour tasting, and then you’re on your way. But also, the laws have changed in Kentucky to allow us to do that. So several things happened during that process during the two years that drove us from 1.5 million to three to 6.8 million proof gallons and develop the the visitor based experience that we’re getting ready to launch here in the next few weeks. He said a nice The interesting thing about cash flow

31:00
You know you get you said y’all get paid about two weeks after you produce it whereas most companies have to wait four years you know to bottle it and so what I mean did y’all just see a name that net 14 Exactly. net 14 so like, you know MGP you know obviously everyone knows is like the big contract distiller Did y’all just say they’re the only ones doing there has to be a need somewhere? Well, yeah, the need was there. So the need was for customized not contract really. Yeah. So customized meaning you have a say in every part of the process here with the help of Steve and I and the rest of the team. So from grain selection, grain procurement family, how we mill our grain as far as the grind profiles concerned, mashing procedure, fermentation, what kind of yeast you want to use and how we want to run our two stills and our to 500 Gallon doublers. So and then what type of barrel we ultimately put it into and all the proofs temperatures in between. So it is truly customizable. So we’re the first to do that.

32:00
On such a scale or somebody like MGP had so many different recipes that they’re selling out of inventory. Here, we have pre production meetings, very specific pre production meetings, that we go over every part of the process with our customers. So just the things I mentioned. And not only that, they are welcome on site, why we produce and they are working side by side with our operators and producing their whiskey at our facility. And for the sensory part of it. We have to know what they want. So they actually come in and we work with them. And we have to we’ve even had customers come in and train us and Steve and I Nick Smith or distillery manager cret Travis Cantrell, or leads our lab actually have to pass blind sensory panels to be able to even write their product. And then we have to score it numerically and write notes on every lot that leaves this facility. So it’s very involved when we produce a product for our customers just it’s just not saying hey, we have inventory of these three mash bills.

33:00
This is when they’ll be available. Yeah, so it says it’s much more difficult than it makers. You’re like, Oh, we got one thing. Yeah, I was gonna say, coming from, you know, makers where you have one thing, you know, does this more of a pain in the ass like, like, Damn, I just wish we would produce one thing but you know what I’m expecting? We’re doing 41 mash bills, right? Yeah, this year. So that’s two grand Bourbons, three great more rooms for green Bourbons, rye whiskey, Malton whiskey, we just finished our first 100% single, single malt recipe under the American single malt category. So the innovation here is amazing. A lot of that the success we’re seeing is attributed to that human capital element I was seeing. So the cash flow helps us out, amazingly, but the human capital element where most most startups would struggle to come as far along as we have, and to three years, we’ve we’ve had that human capital element that has really taken us to the next level really quickly. So do most of your clients do. They have

34:00
A magic pill in mind, or do you guys kind of coach them through like, they’re like, I want to do this, you’re like, wait a minute that you don’t want to you don’t want to do, it runs both ways. Some customers come in and they know exactly what they want, you know, we have to look at the, we want to produce a product they already have. So we’re burdened with that responsibility. And that’s where the tastings that john was talking about while ago come into play, where you learn to taste what they want. And you know, it’s it might be something that might say, this needs to be adjusted a little bit, but it’s their product. So that part of comes in and in addition to that Miss given us freedom to venture out and experiment some, you know it Maker’s Mark, I did everything exactly one way. Right? They had one recipe one nice pale here, we’ve actually put out a product that David knew nothing about until it was in the barrel. And you know, we have that ability and that freedom to do that. And that allows us to experiment some and to venture out

35:00
That’s what really drew me first talking to David Mandela about that the freedom of innovation here. And then that’s just, me and Steve, have the freedom to innovate down to the operator level. So they submit ideas for new Bourbons, new whiskeys, new blends, is there is there a suggestion box around here and not only suggest the box but as far as their like annual performance, they are challenged with coming up with an innovation. And they have they have taken a hold of it and truly taken ownership of the process here and the innovation here and we’ve seen some great results because of that. Let’s walk me through the process. So Kenny, and we want to come here and you know, have us have you all produce our bourbon for us what’s like the first steps or what do we do?

35:47
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 in print

36:00
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 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 features a full sized 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.

36:58
Walk me through the process, so can

37:00
And we want to come here and you know, have us have you all produce our bourbon for us what’s like the first steps? Or what do we do? I mean, I know there’s at least like 22 steps because we saw a sheet was not earlier said literally everything it said like in 10 minutes, it’s going to sit here and then it moves over to the something else. So it was there’s a lot of flowchart. Yep. All the flow check. Yes, at first, it’s, you know, you have a product that you want to replicate. And maybe you’ve been buying on the open market, you know, just say you’ve been buying from MGP. And it’s a certain mash bill certain recipe. Well, that’s a starting point for us, because we can pretty much find out what that is. Nope, it’s a 21% raw, we basically know what that is. So then we start at that point, and then we start to dial in what you want. You know, if the product you’ve been buying maybe is a little bit too hot, a little bit too spicy, or whatever it might be, then we start to dial and to get that out of it. And then we will work with you as a friend.

38:00
line to get to that point. And then we just take off from there. What do you what do you dialing if something’s too spicy, just kind of give me an example. Well, there’s lots of things you can do from the cooking process, the grind, you get in the distillation, you know, temperatures that you’re on the condensers. And for instance, you can blow off certain flavors by running your condenser at a higher temperature. So it’s dialing in little points like that can that can make a big difference in the product that you end up with, but it’s also some of our customers in that mash bill in mind. So we really work with them. They’ve been sourcing product they want to call Bardstown bourbon home for their company. So we really as the pre production aspect of it, we really narrow down, do a lot of comparisons, what they’re looking for, and then narrow down a mash bill. Since we we we can afford to do that we have already so many Nashville’s in our pocket, we can get pretty close to what they want off shown on the base.

39:00
distillates that we produce their reproduce here and then from there we can really, really narrow down from a process control aspect and really fine tune the quality of the district that they’re looking for. So you’re talking about yeast, you know, the caretaker of yeast or whatever you’re doing, are they so like, Can you find to it so much that you can pick your own yeast strains to do different things here or is there only like one huge strand here so it’s down to even you selection so we we handle dry activated yeast liquid yeast right now we handle seven different yeast strains here at this facility, and our customers really get to choose what type of profile East profile they’re looking for, which drives the selection of the East that we utilize when we inoculate each fermenter. So it’s very interesting. A lot of work goes into East production. Like I said, that’s why we leave it to the pros and then we acquire procure the yeast that we need to use for each batch. Let’s just take use it as an example. I mean, help

40:00
We’re not going to know exactly what you strand we want right if we were going to go and contract is still How do you guide somebody through a process like that I mean just using use as an example so they

40:12
maybe there’s a type of use they have in mind maybe they had no idea I mean is there a way to sample different strains and be able to say like oh yeah that’s that’s the one I got is Nashville with this Evernote Yeah, I’ve got cherries out of this. So like I said, Every each yeast profile that we can present or customers present basically come with the content our profile I what they expect this distillate to taste like when utilizing this yeast. But like I said, we also have such a library of disciplines now with different yeast, we can really show examples of it’s not theoretical anymore, you’re just not really reading the description of what this these profile will lend to your fermentation process. They can actually taste in front of them. And you can have let’s let’s just use 7488 recipe 74% corn 18% raw 8%

41:00
malted barley, we have that with several different strands in distillate form. So if I was using that, as example for a customer to try to nail down what type of yeast they use, I can take them through and have that same base mash bill, same base procedure that we use, and the only thing that we have changed is the is the yeast that we have not culated this fermenters with and they can taste each profile and see the difference. And they can select from there. Cool, cool. What about so like, you got the distillation down? Now what about the wood? Like, you know, do you guys got them on which charts to use which type of woods you know, type of barrels to use. So in the spirit collaboration, we use independent save company a lot, but we were seven, eight different Cooper just also. So we get those Cooper just involved. When we’re talking with our customers. It’s just not telling our opinion on stuff. We get the grain suppliers, we get the farmers, we get the coop urges. We get the experts in each of those individual fields to come in and talk to our customers also. So it’s

42:00
collaborative group effort when we’re designing a first production here for a customer. Cool. Yeah, let’s say I was like, there’s a lot going on there. Because I would imagine like you guys are, you’re running at capacity right now or I mean, you are Yeah, I mean, you’re contracted out for pretty much, pretty much everywhere. So it’s not like anybody’s gonna come in tomorrow and be like, hey, ready for 300 barrels, or whatever it is, right? How long is that? Wait.

42:25
Right now we have contracts. I’m a Madison, as far out as seven or eight years, we’re pretty much contracted out almost full capacity for the next three years, three to five years. You know, there’s some space here and there. But yeah, a lot. We intentionally leave some space for new customers. I mean, we just don’t do we don’t do investment barrels. We don’t just have somebody come up new to the industry wanting barrels, you have to be vetted. You have to be established, you have to be an established brand. So we want to know this partnership, when you’re partnering with Bardstown bourbon in this collaborative effort.

43:00
That is a true collaboration in the spirit of collaboration and the brand that we’re working with. I mean, it’s amazing that you can pick and choose your customers. Yeah, well, and the demand is out there. I mean, there’s never a week goes by that we don’t have multiple people come in wanting to get on the latest, you know, to have product produced for them. So, the demand, the need is still out there. But as you say, we get to pick the class that work best for us that we can do the best job for. So is there an opportunity if say, you have, you know, barrels that are aging right now for someone to buy, like, you know, a certain amount off of those lots? Or is that? Are you trying to say we need to source some here in like five years asking somebody,

43:42
something like that, reach out to us and we’ll definitely talk to you about it. We have, like, it’s truly we’re transparent and we will tell you,

43:52
especially in that effort, if we have if we produce 300, we had higher yields 310 315 or there was a very

44:00
Two or three years, come to talk to us. And we’re more than open to talk to you about something like that. Put our name put our name first on the list. Yeah, cuz I’m talking about so you guys are wood selection now aging. Y’all have some beautiful warehouses here. So how do you go about like allocating the floor levels to your individual clients, you know, so like, say I like, I really want the first floor because I want to let sit there forever, but somebody else wants to hot top floor. How do you kind of give allocation to those customers? The allocation stems from basically where we’re at and how we fill our warehouses and what type of brand that we’re producing for at the moment, so we really don’t rotate here. But like I said, we’re open anything so if you’re doing a minimum 300 Steve’s you they’re writing barrels. Yeah, exactly. Well, and we kind of do on first come first serve and we’re filling the warehouses so fast that if you come in and there’s only one floor left to put it on, that’s what you’re getting. That’s what you get, but if there’s space available

45:00
When you wind on the first flower, yes, we’ll do that. I was just kind of did a make those, you know, those demands like I want them on this floor. So I can tell you working with 24 different customers or 40 mash bills, we have probably seen every demand that you could think possible. Yeah. For bird juice and bourbon or whiskey for somebody else. What’s the craziest demand?

45:21
Oh, gosh, see, if you want to answer that one.

45:24
probably use something exotic besides a Sarah grain, which we won’t do exotic or introduce some other thing in the distillation column as we’re distilling a beer to try to mingle in the distillation column. So that’s pretty unique on getting and we don’t say no, we look at every request, Think it through because this type of progress can really drive innovation, believe it or not, so we’re very open. So we get to work with all these different technical teams. So we work with some of the largest craft producers in the world to some of the top five spirits

46:00
producers in the world. So with that comes distilleries that have been around a very long time companies that been around a very long time that have technical teams. So not only do we get to leverage our key operators and their experience as a 15 years in the business, we get to leverage different companies, teams when they come and look at our, our assets, how we run stuff, and we get to know how they run stuff also. Yeah, so there’s a huge, huge knowledge transfer there. I want to talk about the economies of scale, I guess. I’m a brand that’s established by Why is it more beneficial, laid out a contract distiller versus just opening my own? Like, where’s the kind of breakeven or like work? Or I guess there probably is an aggregate and that’s why they continue to question so this bourbon, boom that we’re in right now, a lot of people don’t doesn’t know when it’s going to end. A lot of people have their opinions. It’s gonna be two more years, three more years. So it’s from a capital investment standpoint, and a cash flow standpoint. Do they want to build a new

47:00
distillery do they want to expand? Do they want to spend millions of dollars? Or do they want to supplement their demand in the short term with a company like us? Or do they, they just want to work from a collaborative standpoint, how transparent we are, and lean on our knowledge to help them out in that certain situation. So there’s tons of different search away situations why people come produce for us instead of starting their own distillery or increasing their capacity at their current locations. So I want to say to is that, you know, somebody wants to start up a brand, maybe they have a brand they want to build a distillery. Well, maybe they have the capital to build a distillery and start, but they don’t have the capital to sustain that three 510 year wait to get a product, or if they come and produce for us, they don’t have this overhead, to investment to to really get into it. That way. They can pay for the product produced and keep going. So that’s that

48:00
Spend a large part and I think that’s a large

48:03
issue with micro distilleries starting up. You know, some of them cannot sustain that. That long term. Yeah. So you talked about what you can do for other people. What Have y’all been doing yourselves for yourselves here?

48:16
That’s a great question. We continue to think about that on a daily basis, actually. So we have several core different mash bills. We have a 20% wheat, a 39%. Wheat, a bourbon 54%, malt whiskey, 95, five rye whiskey 30% 36% rye, bourbon. And then on the experimental category, we have a handful, numerous experiments on the Nashville category, we’re actually doing a 90% corn, corn bourbon, believe it or not, so we’ve 90% heirloom corn, 10% malted barley, and we’ve put it into a new chart, shout out number four barrel. That was our most recent experience experiment along with the American single malt experiment. So we’re doing a lot of action

49:00
fermentation a lot goes into our experiments, because our smallest batch we make here is a 30 barrel batch. So we need to do our homework before we deal with screw our experiments. Yeah. So if we’re paying for foreign, let’s say four and 25 bushels at a 30 gallon beer, there’s a lot of grain roughly roughly, exactly 23,800 pounds of grain in that experiment that goes into there. So we got to do a lot more homework. The innovation, like I said, is ongoing every day just not on mash bill selection, but how we run the equipment, what type of equipment, how we blend, we really work with our culinary and beverage teams. We utilize what we have what you see in front of us to help us on our blending side and new product development side also. So it’s one of the things I’m passionate about. Here’s the innovation side of it, and the freedom to innovate. We’re just not making one Nashville. Yeah, we’re making several mash bills a day. We have 32 fermenters on site. 12,500 gallons of fermenter

50:00
Sometimes we can have four or five recipes sprawled out across that production floor. So you got options, we have to go a little farther than that, you know, just if we do one recipe and we’ve done this

50:13
aging, you know, there’s been some conversation I’ve heard over the years that, you know, bourbon age is better a certain proof in the barrel. Well, we’ve we we have that experiment in process. Now we put the same production in it 107 110 115 121 25 just to prove to our sales more than anything, it does it better at this proof rather than higher proof or lower proof. So things like that is what we’re able to do on daily basis. And Steve’s point, we even were down to blending desolates before we put it into the barrel, so blending different mash bill and distillate form, then put it in into the barrel, just for innovate for the innovation, see what happens and then likewise sees point the 100

51:00
10510712 110 115 125 entry proofs of the same exact match bill on the same exact run, that we can blend on the backside after their, their age for 10 to 15 years on that that particular recipe. So what’s your, what’s your level of confidence? Because I think about it from a business perspective, I’m like, shit, that’s a lot of risk. Right? Like, let’s like, I would be like, let’s focus on something that we know that we can sell like, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s, it’s basically like, this is what we can account for it. Right? So talk about, like, the level of risk you’re willing to assume with all these as well. Right? So yeah, go ahead, Steve. I don’t know that it’s a huge risk, or at least our thinking is, if you put a good quality product in the barrel to start with, it’s not going to be bad. You know, maybe it’s going to taste a little different. I mean, maybe it’ll be $1,000 bottle product comes out. Instead of a $50 bottle product. Sally Just let me try the tasting bar. But you know, it’s, it’s the thought that we can do something with it. Because it’s gonna be good. No matter

52:00
What is a very methodical all the pre work that goes into all these innovations? So for every, let’s say, new maxvill that we produce, there’s about 40 to 50, Nashville’s that we are not producing, yes, how we got to that one. So is that pre production aspect doing our homework. So I’d say back to the knowledge that this facility possesses across the board really hedges that risk of producing something that would not be worthy of having the Bardstown bourbon name on it. And so we were really, we’re really excited. And we’re really proud, even an experimental form with what we produce on the innovation side. So, you had mentioned earlier, earlier, Steve RSR, john about, you know, kind of looking at the market, and really, how everything is just continuing to grow. So, Steve, I got a question for you. Are you keeping your pulse on on bourbon and like kind of where do you see this path in three years, five years, 10 years is their business.

53:00
Bubble let’s get a burst up saying the downturn on bourbon. I was in the industry point it took the big dive. And companies were thinking they were going to have to close the doors. There were no podcast is back then you are about k LQ. It was in smoke signals, but

53:18
you cannot bring up something real quick. Yeah, so I give Steve.

53:22
We go back and forth. Nice to have a great friendship. But I like to remind them we have antique collection here on site. Right? There’s a bottle on there that Steve has produced. Well, that is now in an antique collection here at the facility. Wow. So I always give a brief he usually tells me to shut up when I say that I say that on there.

53:44
But he held the bottle keeps going up and I don’t understand that. But anyway, you know the

53:51
what we’re doing now with the demand increasing daily with the marketplace like it is unless something drastic happened.

54:00
I don’t think we will see at least a downfall we might see a leveling off portal plateau out, but I don’t think we in our lifetimes will see it. downtrend like it has in the past. Did you ever think it would be like this?

54:16
Not this fast. I thought it would come back. But I didn’t think it would be this fast pace just took a it’s taken off where it’s just skyrocketing right now. And, you know, if mark is keep opening up, especially overseas, you know, we’re never gonna be able to meet the demand. Yeah. Are you john? I’m pretty much in the same boat as that. I think if we do see a downturn, it’s going to be the established brands and distilleries that are going to survive it. So when when that happens, I my opinion is I don’t know. So if you do know, let me know because I’m also the planner here, and I cannot plan our forecast accordingly. But until then, we are driving we’re driving for 210%

55:00
like Steve said, if we get into basically the Asian markets, India, China, I mean, there’s not enough bourbon in the US to satisfy those markets. Yeah, I mean, I guess there’s, if we think about, like, what heaven Hill did during that time, like they acquired they, they basically branched out right? They were acquiring vodkas and other types of spirits. Are you all thinking like, hey, like, let’s do a run here. Let’s do whatever it is, like you thinking of something beyond just whiskey. I don’t even know my burning your years there. Is it too much that kinda sorta I don’t think there’s any interest in it right now, because we’re maxed out at the bourbon and whiskey, you know, category. So as far as venturing off into a gin or rum or vodka or something, I really can’t see a point to it. You know, we just don’t have the ability or the capacity to do it. Right. Our core strategy right now is whiskey and bourbon. So we do not have plans to produce a gin or vodka at this facility. Even as a startup that’s probably surprising from

56:00
A lot of people for cash flow purposes, a lot of new distillery startups come out with vodka engines. And that’s their strategy, their business plan, our plan and core focus is going to be on bourbon whiskey. It was funny, we were up there and there was a spreadsheet. And Steve was like, this is a slow day. And I was like, what a lot of different colors every time slots full Steve, what’s a busy day like?

56:24
Today’s when there’s 10 colors up there? Yeah. And so yeah, you can totally see that you’re just booming right now. And I mean, it’s crazy. In the short amount of time. Oh, for sure. And, you know, as we kind of, like, want to talk about like last on, like, the operation side of things, you know, as we had kind of mentioned, we saw that list of like the 20 some odd steps that you get to customize as you’re going through there like Whose idea was it to sit there and say like, instead of maybe just saying like, oh, choose a green bill will take care of the rest, like what part was it that said we should probably have them be a part of this every step of the journey.

57:00
Well, when we started the thought process of custom production, you know, it was to produce the brand that you have, or that you want to put out. So, in order for us to be able to do that, we’ve got to know your thoughts. So all that comes into play of grain selection, cook temperatures, you know, proportion, percentages of grain, yeast, any part of it, you know, you’ve got to have a say, and if you don’t, then it’s not really your product. You know, you’ve been doing that over the years you’ve been buying product you had no say and so it’s not really customized unless you have input on everything. And the list just kind of grew out of those conversations. Is it just like template at that point to say like, Hey, this is our These are our 20 steps, like you choose whichever you want in this step. It’s it’s really that that that pre production homework that I that I’ve brought up a couple times, we really go through each step of the process. Some of our customers like a 15 minute hold some like a 20 minute hold.

58:00
Hold up, what’s a hold, so that to get the enzymes active, and basically to get your long chain starch molecules down to fermentable sugar, which is your glucose maltose malt triose. So it’s really to break down those starches and the sugars. So, to put it in terms of everybody will understand that we like, we like the whiskey geek stuff. Yeah, it’s a rest period for the enzymes to do their job. So, a lot of people have different schools of thoughts and depend on what enzymes you use.

58:31
That really dictates how long some of those holes and some of those temperatures are. And as soon as it holds, they’re gonna affect the flavor at the end of this as well. It’s a cook temperature that you reach a temperature and you hold it that temperature I’m it’s, it’s similar to cooking the food, you know, you you boil it for so long to break it down. So in the hold, we hold it so long to break this starch down and also to pasteurize it on most recipes to kill all the bacteria and the process because Santa

59:00
Meditation is key and in this industry and in this process, as you guys know, you know, what this reminds me of is home renovation, you know, like having to pick all the, you know, you gotta do the cabinets, the knob, right? Correct the molding, it’s like a ton of decision, we can do all this without the flexible system that we’ve really implemented here. So if you were here three years ago, or approaching three years ago, in September, the whole system has really evolved also. So we’re really trying to balance the art and science of this process. So this last shutdown, we just installed a new mash cooler, we just installed a whole new process control system, where we can basically it has a historian module on it, we can really look at every part of the process, any given time of the day, anywhere in the world, if we wanted to, and we’re going to allow our customers be able to look at that process. If they’re not here on site. They’ll be able to log in and see how our cookers are doing. How are stills are doing. So it’s great. It’s flexible across departments to it does all over

1:00:00
cost accounting

1:00:02
does all of our work in progress so everybody can see how much raw materials we have in the process with the costs associated with it too. So I can get down to which operators on which station and there’s a DVR function to where I can see what buttons were pressed. So we mine a lot of mine a lot of data here. But that’s easy, it’s easy to mine a lot of data. The hard part is pulling the data out

1:00:25
and really understanding what it does. So this particular software system has AI functionality to it so it can actually watch what we fix on the screen if we put something in a manual and bring it down it can learn next time it has indicators for next time Hey, systems about to do this it’ll auto correcting itself so you can manage what you measure you know exactly Yep. But it’s a it’s almost like a like a dominoes thing like like Jerry just rolled your dough and fairly automated we really want to lean on the human capital element again. So we haven’t as he saw as you walk through

1:01:00
They’re still turning vows. They’re still definitely human element into it. And that’s what I’m talking about the art and science, we really want to balance that. Because there’s pros and cons to both. So what about bottling? Do you guys bottle here yet? Or? Or do you help with packaging at all? So I think we can say this right, we’re getting ready to

1:01:19
build a bottling facility here and break ground in the next few months. So we’ll have some high speed lines and especially line in that Baldwin Hall, which will be here on site. And we’re going to make that just just as transparent. And just as great as experience experience that you have on the distilling side or not. We’re going to offer that on the bottling saw side also. So it’s like a true concierge here. Yes, it’s true. It’s true. From beginning to end. We will be able to do it all here for you. You can even go pick your own corn outside if you wanted to. Yep, it’s like Carlton here, you know, I don’t know what you do whatever you want it

1:01:54
to.

1:01:55
They’ll give you the lunches and cocktails. You know, it’s great. Speaking of and takes me

1:02:00
About a day to grind all that corn that’s out there. So it’s about a day of production for us. So about for our listeners, what, what size is that out there. So we probably have 3535 acres of corn out there right now. And you run through that in a day, we’ll run through that that’s a little over a day with on average 2627 acres that we processed through this facility right now. It just goes and you think about it, I mean, this just the industry in general, right, how much corn goes through? I mean, for myself, I I always have a thing when I think about chickens, like how much how much like chickens are actually consumed on a daily basis between chicken nuggets between eggs between everything like that, like it’s the same reason in bourbon like there’s there’s so much corn that is actually produced and actually goes in this product like we even have one of our operators grown 40 acres for us. So Matthew Osborne, who’s on our warehouse team is growing 40 acres of bloody butcher heirloom corn for us, and he’s sending pictures.

1:02:58
That’s the ownership piece. I was talking

1:03:00
About this corner is now 15 foot tall out at his property. Wow. And it looks beautiful. And he’s personally responsible for planting the seeds grown at taking care of it and delivering it to our site. So that’s the ownership aspect. Everybody You see, walking around here is thoroughly involved in the process. Hopefully he gets a barrel out of it. He will.

1:03:22
So let’s go ahead we’ll wrap this up. You know, Stephen, john was a pleasure having you all on it, especially because, you know, we had we’ve had Dave on way back in Episode 19. And now we get to really kind of hear like the operation side of this. Especially because back then, you know, we this place didn’t even exist, right dream. Yeah, it really was. And so being able to kind of understand exactly the journey that that each of you have come through in your own personal and professional lives and and kind of giving that that sort of touch a personality to our listeners as well as very appreciative because really, that’s how it’s how people connect that’s really want to really understand of who these people are that are actually producing a lot of products that

1:04:00
We’re gonna start seeing on the shelves here in a few years. So thank you again for coming on here. Hey Ryan, thanks for having us. Yeah, absolutely. Thanks for having us from being such gracious hosts. Yeah, gosh, I know they’ll treat us like kings it’s maybe we’ll go see a warehouse. Maybe do that. So make sure that you you can follow Bardstown bourbon company on Facebook and Instagram and all those good places you can follow us as well bourbon pursuit Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. And if you like what you hear, we always appreciate your support. leave us a review if you haven’t done that now let’s do that just just go ahead open up the your whatever kind of podcast app you’re using write us a review we always appreciate like good and bad ones. That’s true. We like to know and we suck. That’s what

1:04:41
I said. I think I heard a quote that nobody gets better by hearing always good feedback, right? So right. So make sure you take it you can always send us an email to you know, team at bourbon pursuit but Ryan go ahead and close this out. Yeah. If anyone has show suggestions, comments, feedback, like Kenny said, we love hearing from you guys because this is who we do it for. So yeah.

1:05:00
With that, guys thanks again. Being from Bardstown You know, this is like a really Bardstown bourbon has been a breath of fresh air to the community, like with the restaurant and just everything you guys are doing. It’s so innovative and cool. And I’m excited to you’re one at kind of one of the first people to make that step, you know, towards what we’re trying to achieve here in this town. So I appreciate everything you’re doing and yeah, with that, we’ll see you next time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai