On this roundtable we talk about an article published on Breaking Bourbon and talk about the next era of bourbon. Are finishes over? Is wood experimenting coming next? Or are we looking at beyond the big six?

Show Notes:

• Above the Char with Fred Minnick (@fredminnick) talks about the types of glasses he uses to drink
• Are we done with finishes?
• Are there any left?
• What is the next era?
• Support this podcast on Patreon

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Starting a whiskey company is no easy task. And making youself stand out from everyone else, it’s even harder. There are a handful of companies that supply most of the bourbon we see on the shelves and many of us fall into the trap of buying based off the packaging. However, with this show, we’re able to go and find brands who are finding new fans based off their whiskey. Broken Barrel is one of those companies that is forging a new path and finishing their whiskey in such a unique way by rebuilding barrels that we needed to have them on the show. Today we get to talk to Seth Banheim who is the Founder and their Global Brand Manager, Nick Roady about how to stand out in a crowded market. As a brand we have to find new ways to be different and find a way to capture the mindshare of consumers on a whole new level. We also talk about brand education hurdles and how far can you go until you’ve completely lost a customer. There’s a lot to unpack here, especially for those budding whiskey brands who are looking to make a name for themselves.

Show Notes:

• Above the Char with Fred Minnick (@fredminnick) talks about eliminating toasted barrels for finishing.
• What were you doing with a vodka brand and how did it get into whiskey?
• Where did you see the opportunity to find new types of staves?
• Do you hate making money?
• Why was is so important to have a differentiator compared to what has been done already?
• How does the conversation change when talking to retailers and distributors on being different?
• What did you learn from Ol Smokey and what they did different?
• How far can you go before you lose a consumer with brand education?
• Is there something to a model like yours that can capture consumers of all levels?
• At what point does differentiation go too far?
• Support this podcast on Patreon

Every year there is a distillery that catches the headlines because they have sold for hundred of millions of dollars. Sounds like a dream for many but to make that dream become a reality, you’ll have to know how to value your distillery. For that reason I’ve invited Kris Bohm on the show. He’s the founder of Distillery Now Consulting where he helps folks buy, sell, and install distillery equipment, but he’s also found himself in the midst of multiple merger and acquisition conversations. He joins the show to talk about how to value a distillery in the case someone like Diageo or a private equity firm comes knocking. We talk about case sale volumes, the value of aging whiskey in barrels, equipment, brand recognition, and where the trajectory growth curve comes into play.

Show Notes:

• Above the Char with Fred Minnick (@fredminnick) talks about the rise of AI and being a writer.
• What made you want to get into distilling as a teenager?
• What’s the difference in distilling alcohol vs ethanol?
• Why would a client choose pot vs column?
• How do you gauge consumer demand and look at sales for calculating value?
• What does the pool of buyers look like?
• What is the threshold of a case volume to start the discussion?
• What’s the value in the brand vs the equipment and production?
• Beyond physical assets, what other factors play into a valuation?
• How are barrels valued?
• What’s the process for selling a business?
• Any value in having current distribution?
• What are roadblocks that often kill deals?
• Does it matter if case volume happens in the market or at the tasting room?
• If you can’t afford Vendome, where do your point people?
• Support this podcast on Patreon

On this roundtable we talk about the updates to the Kentucky Bourbon Trail with a rebrand and what updates are happening. We discuss how everyone has to change from the standard distillery tour to something more immersive. Then we wrap up the show talking about our hidden gems when you visit Kentucky.

Show Notes:

• Above the Char with Fred Minnick (@fredminnick) talks about Evan Williams Single Barrel leaving and coming back.
• What has changed with tourism in KY?
• What are your favorite hidden gems?
• Support this podcast on Patreon

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I remember the first time I saw a bottle of WM Tarr. I didn’t know much about it except that is was from a company in Lexington and there was well-known football coach supporting the brand. Fast forward a few months and that bottle disappeared from the shelves and was replaced with a new brand called RD1 and it specialized in finished bourbon whiskeys. To help share more of this story, we’ve invited Barry Brinegar on the show. Barry is a Co-Founder and National Brand Ambassador and gives us the scoop on how their business plan that was only going to focus on gift shop sales got completely disrupted by covid and they had to look at new ways of doing business. We talk about their mission as a company and how they are taking a modern approach to whiskey to find new customers and how a that football coach I talked about landed them a premier placement on ESPN’s college football gameday coverage.

Show Notes:

• Above the Char with Fred Minnick (@fredminnick) talks about Maker’s Mark and the proof change.
• How did you get started in the whiskey industry?
• How did you get connected with Mark Stoops?
• Why release WM Tarr?
• How did you adapt when covid shut down your business plan?
• What is the goal of how you are trying to be different?
• Did your cutover happen overnight and was the plan to switch over already in place?
• Why go with a modern brand vs traditional?
• How did you land on your core four products?
• How involved is Mark Stoops with the brand?
• Why have so much transparency when it comes to the wood finishing process?
• Why did you use amburana?
• Support this podcast on Patreon

The barrel is where the magic happens and it takes years for your whiskey to achieve it’s optimal flavor. Most of us are familiar with the standard american white oak barrel with a char 4. Yet, there are hundreds, if not, thousands of combinations that go into creating a barrel from the wood species, stave seasoning, char, toasting and how it ages based on location in a geography or a floor in a warehouse. There’s one guy that does all this research and that’s Andrew Wiehebrink from Independent Stave. This is his third time on the show and this time he brings different aging experiments for us to taste through. We taste the same whiskey from different levels of a warehouse and even the same american single malt aged in texas and scotland. We also dive into the state of the barrel shortage, our shared distain of amburana, the shift to char 1, and what new innovations are coming from the barrel and oak alternative market.

Show Notes:

• Above the Char with Fred Minnick (@fredminnick) talks about will today’s bottles be a new dusty.
• Talk about what stave seasoning does for the whiskey
• Why does Kentucky have more extraction than Texas?
• What does elevation from levels on a warehouse do to the aging process?
• How often do you revisit experiments?
• Does the mashbill make a difference to your experiments?
• Would American Single Malt make more sense to use new vs used barrels?
• What did the location differences for American Single Malt experiments make?
• Has the barrel shortage been resolved?
• Do you research the human element and what consumers are looking for in taste?
• What do you think of Amburana and exotic wood species?
• How are you smoking barrels?
• Why is Char 1 creating a darker whiskey and are there diminishing returns?
• Does pot vs column still play a role?
• Where are oak alternatives heading?
• How do you design a barrel correctly for double oaking?
• Support this podcast on Patreon

Most of us scoff at celebrity whiskey because let’s be honest, most celebrities don’t care as much about the product as they do sales. But on a past whiskey quickie we reviewed Whiskey JYPSI and that one changed our mind. It wasn’t until we started diving into it that we discovered Ari Sussman. He’s a whiskey maker for many brands like Whiskey JYPSI, Three Chord, and Mammoth Distilling, but his history with spirits will fascinate you. He’s truly a student of the art where he spent years overseas bartending, discovered vintage cocktail books, and was an integral part of the first ever university distilling program at Michigan State. We talk to Ari about his past and then dive into the Whiskey JYPSI brand and how Eric Church and himself are trying to change the face of celebrity booze.

Show Notes:

• Above the Char with Fred Minnick (@fredminnick) talks about finding better bourbon in the Netherlands.
• How did you get to this point in your career?
• What old school cocktails and liqueurs fascinated you?
• Were you trying to use the University of Michigan distilling program to innovate new things?
• Can you talk about blending 50ml bottles?
• What brands did you help build?
• Why would a company want to ghost blend?
• How did you get hooked up with Whiskey JYPSI?
• Why is this celebrity brand different than others?
• How have you added in Canadian whiskey and light whiskey into a blend?
• What do you feel is more innovative in world whiskey that’s not happening in American whiskey?
• Why are you trying to be different in this celebrity world?
• Why JYPSI?
• Support this podcast on Patreon

We’re back with Bourbon Community Roundtable #94 and this one takes a single subject but it spins off into another. 2024 has seen the decline in whiskey sales and 2025 forecasts don’t look much better. So have we finally eclipsed the peak of bourbon? A few years ago, there was a flourishing secondary market, droves of new people getting into the hobby, more options on the shelf, and massive expansions from all the big player. We’ve talked about this being a side-effect of the COVID boom but we also saw american whiskey get into more gimmicks and inflated prices. But we all still need the category to grow, so what’s it going to take to reinvigorate more people to get into bourbon?

Show Notes:

• Above the Char with Fred Minnick (@fredminnick) talks about documentaries on other spirits.
• Have we eclipsed the bourbon peak?
• What can be done to make it just as popular again?
• Support this podcast on Patreon

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Many of us make pivots in our career. I had my own where I had really was focused on networking in tech early on but then after I did my first presentation to a room of 500 people, I discovered I really liked it and found a new role in technical marketing. Our guest has a similar story where he wanted to get into distilling, made a successful gin brand then tried to build a whiskey brand, but realized how hard it was and thought, how can I get more people to try our products? And that’s how Whiskey Riot was born. Bobby Finan is the Founder and Organizer of Whiskey Riot Festivals across the country and we get into his past of getting into the distilling business and how he took on personal debt to hold his position at his first company and launch Whiskey Riot simultaneously. Now Whiskey Riot is expanding to more cities so if you’re looking for a new event to attend, put this one on your list.

Show Notes:

• Above the Char with Fred Minnick (@fredminnick) talks about distilleries creating music halls.
• Before there was a festival, you had your own brand and forged your way into spirits early on.
• When you wanted to start a distillery did you have a business plan?
• What was it about your Tommy Rotter gin that really took off?
• Why didn’t your whiskey business ever take off?
• Did you think you could make people come to you instead of going out to stores?
• How were you funding Whiskey Riot?
• What was your return on investment for a typical event?
• How do you evaluate a city for a new festival?
• Why would a legacy brand vs a new brand want to go to whiskey fest?
• Support this podcast on Patreon

If you can recall your childhood, you probably remember your Dad being there but you may never have appreciated the life lessons you were taught until you got much older. And when you have kids, maybe that’s the reason you start drinking bourbon. Both of these are reasons our guest today decided to call his brand Fathertime Bourbon. Jim Gaffigan needs no introduction because we’ve all laughed at his jokes throughout the years. Family life is a facet of his standup, and food obviously, but Jim loves to say the things we’re all thinking and it’s what has made him so successful in his comedic career. Jim Gaffigan joins the show to talk about how he made the switch from beer to bourbon and what drew him in to becoming a bourbon connoisseur or as he likes to call it, a professional alcoholic. From there we dive into his new brand of Fathertime Bourbon and what it meant to incorporate generations of his family and his comedic focus into the story and design.

Show Notes:

• Above the Char with Fred Minnick (@fredminnick) talks about proofing whiskey and adding water at home.
• Can you recall a good college story with Stu Pollard?
• What made you want to go down the path of being a professional alcoholic?
• Did you find any correlation between picking barrels and your comedic routines?
• Did you have the natural progression from mixing to neat?
• Did you try and buy the rarest stuff right away or look for everyday items?
• How is bourbon perceived in your circles?
• Were there anything obvious or strange about bourbon that you discovered?
• Are you finding yourself traveling to whiskey bars now?
• How involved were you with the bottle design?
• What tips do you have for signing bottles and not letting your hands get tired?
• How did you script the social media launch for the brand?
• What easter eggs did you hide in the label?
• Is there a statement or impact you want to make with this brand?
• Support this podcast on Patreon