Distilled Bourbon Podcast

E21. BIG Bourbon Club & Lux Row - Road Trip

• Brent Bridges, Chuck Stinnett, Brian McDaniel • Episode 21

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In this episode the boys from Distilled Bourbon Podcast head to Louisville to attend April's BIG Bourbon Club meeting. We sampled bourbons, met friends, learned the latest news from LUX ROW, Brian made an exciting announcement and I purchased too many barrel picks. Needless to say we had a blast!  We include some highlights of the meeting here along with an interview with Lux Row's Christina Hager.
#DistilledBourbonPodcast #BIGBourbonClub #LuxRow #bourbon #bourbontasting #EzraBrooks

Episode Links:
DBP's BIG Bourbon Podcast Interview with Steve Higdon
https://distilledbourbonpodcast.com/?p=174

BIG Bourbon Club
https://bigbourbonclub.com/

Lux Row
https://luxrowdistillers.com/

https://distilledbourbonpodcast.com/

Speaker 1:

Hey guys, welcome to distill the bourbon podcast. I'm Brent, I'm normally joined by my co-host Brian and Chuck with their on assignment today, but don't worry. They're featured prominently in this episode. And today's episode is all about the big bourbon club and Lux row. Now you may remember the big bourbon club from last season's audio only podcast where we interview founder, Steve Higdon. Uh, Steve is a very cool guy. Uh, you know, anybody that, that, uh, we can interview who's TikTok famous is, is a special, uh, special thing. But, uh, in all seriousness, he's a cool guy. Uh, and he has created something very special in the big bourbon club. Now they have evolved from being an online, only virtual society to both online and in person. So Chuck Brian and I hopped in the car, we drove to Louisville and, uh, we had a great time at the April 12th meeting. So we recorded some of that. We're gonna show you a little bit about what happens at the big bourbon club. There's gonna be tastings. There's gonna be, uh, information. And, uh, you know, one of the cool things that they do is, is bring in distillers and, uh, share information about what's happening at that particular distillery. So th uh, this, uh, specific event, uh, we had the folks from Lux row there. So, uh, it was very cool. We had a great time learning. And then after the event, Chuck got to sit down with Christina hay or from LRO to get a little bit more specific information and to have a little private interview. So enjoy this episode of distilled bourbon podcast.

Speaker 2:

Bourn should be fine. And that's what our mission is all about. It's for everybody, whether you're bourbon, beginner, or whether you're an fishing, not or somewhere in between, we want you to enjoy bourbon. And that's what we do at the big Bour club. We are not your father's Bour club, and we're glad you are. There's three membership levels with big Bourn club. There's a free membership. So if that's all you want to do, you're welcome to do the free with the free you get the app. We're getting four to 500 engagements every day on the app. We have 3,920 members across the country must get on the app, make friends. So raise your hand if you don't live in Louisville. So we have a big contention of people that drove in several hours now on the Saturdays, in the summer, two third of room that ans will raise, but we have folks from Tennessee, Ohio, Western, Kentucky, and all over the place, but please join. At least the free membership use that QR code. We have an out of town membership called small batch it$75 a year, and we have the$125 top shelf membership for 125. We do 10 of these events a year where a distillery or a brand will come out and present to the club. We've had watershed outta Columbus in February. We had makers, mark, who was here last month. Watch today, we have Peerless in may. We have Marvel distilling out of Carbondale, Colorado, which is Aspen. They'll be here in June just for us. Uh, we have angels envy in August. We have, I don't remember all the rest of'em more soldiers coming. We've got Jimmy old cars coming in September, Mark and Sherry. I apologize. So we have a great lineup. And when you're a top shelf member, you get off those events at no cost because he didn't about 50 year. Let's welcome up the guest of the, uh, of the hour distillers, Landon and Christina. Come on.

Speaker 3:

Well, uh, good evening, everybody. How's everybody doing

Speaker 4:

Right?

Speaker 3:

Hi. Well, uh, I'm Lynn foster. I'm the visitor center manager at lunch show, a guy Christina here. She's a retail manager here at the distillery. Um, so it's, it's a great, I first wanna say thanks to Steven, the big applause for having us out in the team here at Joe, got some, uh, great bourbon for you guys tonight. Um, and for those of you guys that, uh, have not been to luxury, I may not be as familiar with this. I'll give you guys a little back story about who we are. Um, of course, we're located down in Barnes town about an hour south of here. Uh, we started operations back in 2018. Um, and actually just yesterday, we celebrated our four year Ann of our visitor center being open. Uh, so that was a big day for us go a long way. Since someone got a full lineup of products we're home to has Brooks, of course, that's what you guys are here for tonight, as well as rebel David county, David<inaudible>, blood Oak. Um, our company Lux has got a long history in the bed experience industry. Uh, we started back in 19 in 58. So we've been around for about 65 years producing not only bourbons, uh, third party, but we also do a whole line of weather spirits, vodkas rise, tequilas, bronze, gens, etc. Uh, our home base for our parent company. Lux goes in St. Louis, Missouri. That's where we develop our body in today. And we've been producing third party through area distillery for the last 40 years. So that's where were able to have some older juice. Um, and now all those production contracts are over. And, uh, we have our own Burt now. So as of January of this year, we started dumping our own distillate that was produced four years ago. Um, and I know the team had the big bourbon club selected fantastic barrel back in November that we're gonna try later on. Um, but wanna turn it over to Christina and she's gonna lead our first mutation. So do we wanna line him through, uh, Davis county,

Speaker 5:

Steve? You ready to go start tasting? Yeah. Yeah. Sounds good. All right. So the first we're we're gonna be

Speaker 6:

Trying today is a limited release by Lux row and it's our Davis county double barrel. Since I do do all of the purchasing for our visitors center, I learned today that what is out on the market of this bad boy is it Lux coat doesn't have anymore Southern doesn't have anymore. And one of you are actually gonna get to win the bottle and some tour tickets tonight. But what we're trying right now with our Davis county, the whole Davis county lineup is a blended, both we and Ry nationals after they aged for about four years. This we partnered with ducks, unlimit outta St. Louis, Missouri. And we took that four year blended whiskey of corn, Ry wheat, and malted barley, and put it to an additional Missouri wide Oak barrel that had a deep toast to on it to age for about six months. So I assume most of you are probably pretty fo proficient bourbon drinkers, right? Whether you are, or I'll just shake your head. This is gonna have that OE smokey flavor profile. I like to call it a campfire style bourbon. You got that Oak and smoke and then see sweet molasses on the end. So y'all cheers through your first sample. It looks like the ladies are walking around, pouring that for you feel free to sip on it. Again, it's about four and a half years old, and it is 96 in proof. And one of you, lucky guys for grows here are gonna have the chance to win it. At the end of this, this

Speaker 3:

Burman that you guys were sitting right now traces the 1874. So we have a whole lineup of Davis county. You've got, uh, three other labels. One has a blue label. It's the straight Brian wheat that Christinas just mentioning. We've also got a white label product that has a French over barrel finish. That's got a nice mellow silk butter finish, and we've also got a red label. That's got a cap finish. So there are any red, white drinkers out there. That's got a real sweet, pretty finish line as well. But what you guys are saying, tonight's my personal favorite, the limits of bags.

Speaker 2:

Tell us about lock. What's his history. How did he get involved in the business? Where did he come

Speaker 3:

From? Yeah, so, uh, Don Lux has been in the business for a little over 30 years. Now. His father, Paul actually founded the, the business back in the 1958 with, uh, his father-in-law David Sherman. So the company was poorly known as the David Sherman corporation in St. Louis up until, uh, 2006. Uh, so on Don L's 30th birthday, his father gave him the company. Um, so that's a pretty good birthday gift, of course. Um, but unfortunately his father, Paul passed away in 2000 on five and in 2006, they renamed the company LCO. Um, so, um, actually last year, about a year ago, our company emerged with MGP Midwest grain products back on April 1st, 2021. Uh, and Don is now the director shareholder M GP. So he's still got his hand in the kitchen, um, as well as president of Lux as well. Yeah.

Speaker 6:

Okay. So rebel is gonna be our weed bourbon and it is a re distillers collection. The fun about working in distillery, not only getting to drink 40 hours every day on the job. Yes. Is that once you're there for a year, you actually have the opportunity to pick single barrels, those barrels, they go on to sell in our visitor center. You get one bottle for free. You get the rest at cost and you get to take home the barrel and ages it. So this is actually picked by a woman named Cait now, and she helped her single barrel production program. Again, it's re distillers. So it's gonna be our wheat single barrel looks like this barrel is filled on March 23rd, 2017. And she picked this at the beginning of the year. So about five years old and 113 in proof. Now with your weeded single barrels, tin, think a little sweeter, I've actually had this barrel. So I'm gonna let you decide after you taste it. If you get that sweet or if you're possibly picking up something else. Now we wanted to bring this one on because you guys did get to taste or you did pick and are gonna taste our RI castings. We wanted to have something for the wheat lovers in the audience. How many of you guys like weed bourbon?

Speaker 2:

Sure. A

Speaker 6:

Couple of us wheat bourbon, super popular right now. Um, we do the re distillers. That's normally when we send kids out into the urban community and they decide on what they want. And then we do revel cash drink, which is a store pick giant on property. If you've ever been to luxury. You've probably seen the beautiful stone house that dates back to 1806. So it is a historic property, but liquor stores, restaurants, and bars. They come taste in that stone house and they, the cast drink, which is what big bourbon club got to do with our Esra brand. And those tend to be about 120 improved. So again, y'all, you're trying our rebel weeded distillers. It's about five years old, 113 and proven cheers round,

Speaker 2:

Too. It used to be called rebel yell. I knew that was coming up. Is it called rebel Y anymore? Is it called?

Speaker 3:

It is. So we dropped the yellow of the name. So it's just a natural progression of the evolution of the brand. Um, it's been called a lot of different things over the years. It does trace it roots back to, uh, to 1849. Um, it's formally produced and since a well distillery, we purchased it back in 99. Um, and, uh, we really brand the Spirit's kind of embraced in, in re spirit. Um, so we just drop the L people call it rebel anyways, rebel single barrel rebel distillers collection, rebel 10 year. Um, so that's the, the decision we made a couple years ago,

Speaker 2:

How many barrels would watch produce a day?

Speaker 3:

So, uh, right now we're producing about, about a hundred barrels a day. Everybody

Speaker 2:

Looks it up. They can't hear you on Facebook and Heather land,

Speaker 3:

But, uh, I say currently we're doing a hundred barrels. We're in the midst of the expansion project. We're a 4 million expansion. So later this year, the end of quarter four, uh, we're gonna have, uh, 14 more apartments that are double the size of what we're doing right now. Right now we've only got to well, 8,000 gallon farm benders. So we're really gonna have production and we're gonna go over to a 24 7 operation. So by next barrel, be producing about 50,000 barrels a year. Right now we're doing about half of that.

Speaker 2:

So you're doing 25,000 barrels a year now for all the Rams. Yes. And all that is made in Louisville,

Speaker 3:

Bart town,

Speaker 2:

Excuse me, Bart town. Well, yeah, sorry. It's twice up. Screwed up. What's the plan within GP in terms of their allocations they're juice.

Speaker 3:

Yeah. So of course, FGP they're based out Lawrenceburg, Indiana. They're one of the biggest producers of Bo west in the world. Um, all of our bourbon brands that are for our great and spirits category, whether it's LRO or limestone branch down in Lebanon, those are all gonna remain Kentucky bourbons. So they're all produce, um, down south about an hour and a half south of us, uh, between all of those grain, uh, and the family, um, with the merge with MGP, we've actually gained access to a lot more re sources because MTPs is divided into three different subcategories. They've got their whole experience that, you know, they do a lot of contracting do other facilities in the area. They've got their brand good spirits. And what a lot of people dont know is they also have a plant based food category that they're plan out in, in Kansas. Um, so MTPs is a massive company with, will be partners with them out of all the brands that are now coming out of both facilities.<inaudible> products account for about 40% of the total share now, wow. So we've gained, you know, a really good partner. It's not really an acquisition. It's more of a, a merger basically.

Speaker 2:

And what's the plan with limestone branch.

Speaker 3:

We're just gonna keep making a lot of good quality Yellowstone carbon, uh, Stein in mine case I whiskey.

Speaker 2:

Let me introduce, bring, let me bring someone up for a couple of seconds here. Ryan McDaniel, Brian coming up beverage barn is our new, go ahead. Liquor store partner with the big rivering club beverage barn is based in Henderson, Kentucky. And they're the one of the largest of not the largest. He'll tell you, uh, liquor store changed in Western Kentucky, but on listen up, y'all on the big bourbon app. You know, the topics right on the topics. We have a brand new one starting tonight called liquor store partner. And it says beverage bar. So make sure you go and follow it because Brian's gonna do something really cool. This is Jack Meredith and I drove down couple Jack. I didn't say raise your hand.<laugh> come on dog. So Somebody give Jack a material phone stand he's about 13 feet tall. When he does that, Jack, I drove down to beverage barn for one of their monthly allocation nights. There probably a hundred people. There was in huge buzz. It was a great night. He's got as good as a collect as good of a collection as anybody. And he holds back allocated bottles at normal prices for everybody. But what we want to do, and this is up to Brian. This is his idea is do an allocation virtually on the big Bourn club through the app on the topic. So I'll let him explain it more. It's not completely defined who he is, our big

Speaker 4:

Bour club, liquor store partner, everybody welcome Brian again.

Speaker 7:

All right, first and foremost. Thanks. Thank you Steve, for having us out here today. I really appreciate it. But yeah, as Steve said, you know, whenever he started this, uh, meeting today, he talked about bourbon being about out friends and about the experience. And that's really the same with the beverage bond. That's what we want. I hate the secondary market. I hate the secondary secondary market. More anything, because the people are making the money on the secondary market. Isn't the distillery. It isn't the retailer. It's the people in the middle that are segment it from the retailer and flipping it to in consumer. Okay. So I, I understand why retailers nowadays are marking up and, and excluding that middle man. My business plan is, is not that at all. So twice a month, we have a allocated B raffle where we have people coming to the store. Everybody gets one ticket, no purchase necessary. You just have to be there when, and if your name is drawn, first person is first pick. So if your name's drawn and we have a PPY 15 near on the table, then that's your pick for$200. And that's what we do. So what I'd like to do is I'd like to bring that to the app. As Steve alluded to, we are gonna be on the app. If you guys have any questions, if you guys, uh, have questions about allocated bottles, how the process works. There's a lot of questions I get every day about, uh, SAAC, Buffalo, trace, Weller, Blas, and all those things feel free to reach out to me. I'll be on the app, I'll be answering questions. And what I like to do is offer a raffle once a month for big bourbon club members only. I feel like a politician up here.

Speaker 8:

I think you're, yeah,

Speaker 7:

I'm not, I'm glad you said that, cuz I'm not, I'm not. All right. So once a month for big bourbon club members, free members or any member for that matter, um, You will either have to come to a meeting to acquire the bottle or you'd have to come to the beverage barn in Western Kentucky. So we have three stores in Henderson. We have a store in Morganville Kentucky. You can go the Adel stores or come to the, a meeting to acquire a bottle. There's more to come. I'll be reaching out to Steve. And by next meeting, we should have, uh, more stuff to put out. So I'd like to bring a couple members of my podcast up here, uh, to talk about it. Pardon me? So here's the, the real man behind, behind everything. Brent bridges.

Speaker 9:

Hello, I'm Brent. Uh, we have distilled bourbon podcast, which you can find on distilled bourbon podcast.com. You can find us on YouTube or on Facebook auto. And, uh, really the success of our little podcast are my two co-hosts. You know what Brian does besides running the country. Uh, he owns the, uh, four beverage barns, uh, and he knows everybody in the business and every bourbon or liquor that you can imagine. These are inside man. Now, uh, next to Brian is Chuck's Senate. Chuck is, uh, our walking encyclopedia. He is, he knows everything. There is no about all topics. Uh, he is, he is honestly a member of the Kentucky journalism hall of fame. Uh, he is retired from journalism, but he is brilliant writer. And he's been to almost every dis distillery in common ones. If they would quit making them, he would make all.

Speaker 6:

So I am the retail merchandiser for Lux co I also am our B I P experience lead and do all the events for Lux road distillers. So we wear many hats.

Speaker 10:

So tell me what the, what the retail side of your job is. What do you do there?

Speaker 6:

So I do all of our liquor purchasing all of our merchandise, whether it's apparel, magnets, Cuis, I design everything and order everything. So anything you go into the gift shop to see I've had a hand in producing and

Speaker 10:

It's a beautiful gift shop.

Speaker 6:

Thank you. We get a lot of compliments on the merchandise that we have. So

Speaker 10:

It's,

Speaker 6:

It's rewarding.

Speaker 10:

It's a beautiful campus that you have

Speaker 6:

Michelle and Don Lux did a beautiful job. They actually mirrored our visitor center after their home in Aspen, Colorado. And I always like to tell people, it, it has a bourbon feel, but it doesn't have a, you know, traditional Mayo, Kentucky home field too. And it's got some nuances with it as well. So

Speaker 10:

Lux row is part of Lux co correct. Where are you all head forwarded?

Speaker 6:

So we're based outta St. Louis, Missouri with the Lux co part of our parent company, and then M GPI Midwestern grain production ingredients is based out of Atchison, Kansas. And they took over the old Seagrams distillery in Lawrenceburg, Andy

Speaker 10:

Huge distillery, huge. They don't give tours.

Speaker 6:

Not yet a visitor center is in the works and in the talks,

Speaker 10:

This is big news. Really?

Speaker 6:

Yes. Um, whether it comes with fruition, we don't know, but if it does happen, it's going to look more towards four or five years from now.

Speaker 10:

Okay. Tell us about the, the, the Lux go. The Luxe rose of Verns.

Speaker 6:

So our two flagships distributed nationwide in the EU in the UK are gonna be our Ezra brand. So Ezra 90 formerly Esra 99, and then rebel 100 in rebel 80. Now our single barrel program, we started in 20, um, 20. So you'll see Esra, cat shrink, Ezra distillers, and rebel casting, and rebel distillers out on the market, predominantly in the Northeastern and the Southeastern part of the us. But it's making its way out to Texas and some of the Midwest regions and a couple out in California.

Speaker 10:

So let's go is on the Ezra Brooks brand for almost 30 years. Yes. And been marketing it for about 30 years.

Speaker 6:

Yes. That is for sure. Our lead brand, our bread and butter. The one we push hardest on the market, um, rebel is coming pretty close behind with a fun name, like rebel and a good weeded bourbon. Those are kind of hard to find still in the market. So that's a close second that we are, are aggressively pushing on the market.

Speaker 10:

You also have some more niche brands like do blood Oak.

Speaker 6:

Yes. We have blood Oak, which pack eight is gonna be released in our visitor center, probably around after Derby. If you follow our Facebook or Instagram, we'll walk through how we're gonna release it. And what the game plan for that is. We also do a really small known brand called David Nicholson reserve. And then David Nicholson, 1843. And that brand originated in St. Louis, Missouri in the mid 18 hundreds. And then kind of our old to Western Kentucky as Davis county. We acquired Davis county the same year. We got Ezra Brooks in 93 and didn't do anything with it till the pandemic in 2020,

Speaker 10:

Ironically, the Davis county will not be coming from Davis

Speaker 6:

County. And we get asked consistently all the time, oh, are we in Davis county? I'm like, no, you got a couple hours west

Speaker 10:

Nelson county. And that's D a V I E S S for you nonwestern Kentucky. So we're at, uh, Joe's older than dirt, uh, restaurant and, and SW right now for, for a tasting. You all are gonna do a presentation for, yeah. Tell us about what you're gonna be showing

Speaker 6:

Tonight. So tonight we've got a little bit of everything. We'll kick the tasting off with the limited Davis county that we did in 2021. It's our double barrel. So that ages for an additional six months in Missouri wide Oak barrel with the deep toast, I actually just got word to today that Southern, Southern glacier wine and spirits who we've purchased our liquor from and our parent company LuxS COER out. So you guys are gonna get to try some bourbon. That's not really on the market anymore, and then someone's gonna win it in a raffle. So we have that. We have, um, the counterpart to the single barrel that was chosen. We have our rebel distillers collection, which is a weeded single barrel, four of six years old at 113 proof. We'll try the Joe's older than dirt as your cash strength store pick. And then I was able to score some uncut unfiltered barrel samples. So we're gonna try bourbon fresh from the barrel tonight as well.

Speaker 10:

Fantastic. Pretty

Speaker 6:

Excited about it.

Speaker 10:

So, uh, you have a weed bourbon in re yellow mm-hmm<affirmative> you got a rib bourbon in Edwards, Brook

Speaker 6:

Mm-hmm<affirmative> and then Davis county is actually a blended of both. So we take 75% of our rebel after it ages for four years. So 75% of our, we did, and then 25% of our traditional with Ezra. So it's got all four grains in the Nashville as well.

Speaker 10:

Very cool. Four ring bourbon. I love it.

Speaker 6:

Pretty rare. So we're excited to put it out there. Then we have the finish. We're gonna try tonight. And then we do two other finished styles with datas county as well.

Speaker 10:

So, one thing I'm a little curious about, I saw on your website that on Derby day, first Saturday in may, you all are gonna close. The luck road is still ring bars down at like three o'clock. Yes. For are, are you having a big party? Am I invited?

Speaker 6:

Sure. I don't know. Not much of a party there. We do have some staff who love to celebrate the horse culture and who live in mobile. So I imagine it so they can scurry off to get to some type of Derby party. That's all, but we won't be having anything on site. The party you're gonna wanna look for might be happening the week after with blood Oak bourbon that you mentioned. And

Speaker 10:

My full phone number might be five fifty five

Speaker 6:

To write it down.

Speaker 11:

<laugh> Christina, thank you so much for hearing us.

Speaker 12:

Thank you guys. It's still bourbon podcast.

Speaker 6:

Awesome. Thank you.

Speaker 13:

Looking forward to the tasting. Yeah,

Speaker 6:

I'm excited.

Speaker 1:

So there you have it, just a little snippet, a little share of what's going on at the big bourbon club and what's going on with Lux. Thank you, Christina. Thank you, uncle Steve. We appreciate all your time. Hey, if you haven't hit that subscribe button, if you haven't hit the like button, please do that. Now share with a friend. We appreciate it. And with that being said, please drink responsibly.