The Scotchy Bourbon Boys
The Scotchy Bourbon Boys love Whiskey and every thing about the industry! Martin "Super Nash", Jeff "Tiny", Rachel "Roxy" Karl "Whisky" and Chris "CT" all make up The Scotchy Bourbon Boys! Join us in talking everything and anything Whiskey, with the innovators, and distillers around the globe. Go behind the scenes of making great whiskey and learn how some of the best in the whiskey industry make their product! Remember good whiskey means great friends and good times! Go out and Live Your Life Dangerously!
The Scotchy Bourbon Boys
How a Small River Town Built a World-Class Bourbon Brand—Inside Augusta Distillery: Community, Craft, & Cask Strength Bourbon
A live conversation from Kentucky Bourbon Festival with Augusta Distillery’s national brand ambassador Matt Groves, explores how a small river town builds a premium, single‑barrel bourbon brand while keeping community at its core. We taste Buckner’s 10 and 13, unpack Old Route 8, announce surprise drops, and share a vintage 1946 pour that connects past to future.
• festival energy, industry friendships, and why bourbon is community
• Augusta visitor experience with lawn seating, music, and fair-pour access
• moving from NDP at bottle to 24/7 production and new rickhouses
• single barrel, cask strength, unfiltered, minimum eight years
• taxes, yields, and the cost of uncompromised aging
• Old Route 8 tasting notes and dependable value
• Buckner’s 13 and 10 profiles, cinnamon, brown sugar, layered finishes
• Riverproof series blending for distillery-only creativity
• 8 and 8 highball with Ale-8 as a modern classic
• vintage 1946 Dalíng pour and the case for past and future greatness
• giving back to Augusta’s school and ballfield with real dollars
• why Augusta is a destination: barrel thieving, bottling, and fall events
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A live sit‑down with Matt Groves from Kentucky Bourbon Festival turns into a masterclass on how a small river town built a premium bourbon brand without losing its heart. We’re joined by Augusta Distillery’s national brand ambassador to dig into what makes single‑barrel, cask‑strength whiskey feel both world‑class and welcoming: a visitor experience designed for lingering, fair‑pour access to ultra‑premium bottles, and a production engine running 24/7 with new rickhouses coming online. If you’ve ever wondered how a brand can be NDP at the bottle while laying down barrels daily, or why the words unfiltered and uncompromised still matter, this one hits the spot.
We taste through Old Route 8, Buckner’s 13, and Buckner’s 10—calling out the signatures that keep fans lining up: brown sugar and dark fruit, cinnamon warmth that stays clean, and a “dessert in a glass” profile that turns into an old fashioned over a single cube. Festival highlights abound—light‑yield unicorns selling out in hours, surprise drops of Buckner’s 17 and hazmat 13—and a smart, simple cocktail reveal: the 8 and 8 highball with Kentucky’s own Ale‑8, a fresh upgrade on the classic 7 and 7 that brings high‑proof whiskey into easy‑drinking territory. Along the way, we share a rare 1946 vintage pour that connects dust, medicine‑sweet cherry, and history to the present, a reminder that some of the best bourbon was made decades ago—and some is quietly aging for drinkers yet to come.
Underneath the proofs and pours is purpose. Every bottle points back to Augusta, Kentucky: a flood‑tested river town, a one‑building K‑12 school, and a community that’s received real support—funded arts, a renovated ballfield with the Cincinnati Reds, and a sense of pride you can feel on the lawn outside the distillery. Consider this your invite to make the trip: thieve from barrels, bottle your own, sit by the fire pits, and watch the ferry cross the Ohio as the leaves turn. If you love bourbon culture—barrel picks, rare releases, and stories that stick—you’ll feel right at home. Subscribe, share
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Start with the whiskey distilling company and the fully open texting. Whether you are up or a farm three points, every day, everybody's trying to do stuff like friendly staff and white noise. With good friends and fans, go around. Always respond. Never trust and drive. All right. Welcome back to another podcast of the Scotty Bourbon Boys. Yeah. We've got a special guest. We're here at KVF again. Uh, everybody, we're going live and we're just recording the podcast next year. Beautiful. But uh one one of my favorite people, and I'm serious, we got Mac Bro for two years from Augusta distillery. Uh, seriously, from the time that we met, you know what I mean? Yeah. Uh, it's so it's everybody that might not know this story, but he looks almost. I have a friend that I've known as since a kid, a little kid, and and he looks like the I mean, I lived my life, and actually Steve would is probably watching right now. Yeah. And but I I knew what he looked like when he was younger. We used to play tennis together and stuff. And you, I mean, it's like I swear to God, looking at you.
SPEAKER_02:I got a doppelganger out there.
SPEAKER_00:Well, but what's even crazier is there's another guy here, Kevin. Okay, and he looks like the 65, 68-year-old version.
SPEAKER_02:If I mean Kevin, I'm looking into my future.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I don't know because you know, maybe but he does apply the normal standards of what the future could be like. You know, we always some people can kick it. You're staying pretty thin stuff. I'm working on it, man. It's hard. Yeah, it's and then yeah, then try you could try if you want to try sharing that, then hit my groups and just share it to like the big groups. Gotcha. Yeah, like the Scotchy bourbon boys, share it to our own group. Oh, people who are waiting in line right now for the festival.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, there's people outside they're gonna be on the sidewalk that are like they're like, all right, let's tune in, Scotchy Bourbon Boys. Here we go. We're gonna get questions like, what's this? When's this coming out? Yeah, who's dropping this? Sure.
unknown:Yeah, that's crazy.
SPEAKER_00:But, anyways, it's kind of cool. So I felt a bond the moment I met you. Yes, but then we you know, bourbon on the banks. Uh-huh. You are a busy man at these festivals.
SPEAKER_02:Yes, that is uh one of my primary responsibilities as our national brand ambassador is I'm I'm the fest guy. Yeah, you catch me at the festivals almost every weekend of the year. I'm always traveling for something. Hands down, Kentucky Bourbon Festival is the one we always look forward to the most. Um, there are so many great festivals across the U.S. right now, but KBF is special by the volume of people and by the concentration of whether it's content creators, podcast hosts, our other like industry friends who are also working in the booths with us. This is a special one. So it's fun.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so fun. Yeah, you get you get all walks of life that are in the bourbon world. I mean, yeah, people making bourbon coffee, dude. People making I cannot say enough good things about staven bean.
SPEAKER_00:I think we're all going.
SPEAKER_02:We did I'm gonna do this.
SPEAKER_01:John, John Waddell and Steven B, man. It's uh he's doing a heck of a job.
SPEAKER_02:His mom's in there this morning working. Yeah, she's the sweetest.
SPEAKER_01:And and so is John. Just nice, and that's what it is. Like this whole industry. I was standing there talking to John for a minute, and here comes Barry walking across the parking lot, you know, the the park area there, and I'm like, oh boy, he's up already.
SPEAKER_02:Yep. I mean, it's about community, it's about like it's about being here, obviously, as a brand and selling and tasting and introducing the brand to new consumers and new bourbon fans, but it's also about um the aspect that we don't always think about, which is you you are you're seeing your neighbors, you're seeing the Barry Bringers of the world, you're seeing Amin from Old Louisville, you're seeing Val from Jeff the Creed, and you're having a great freaking time with these people. Yes. It's community. The community aspect is probably my favorite part for sure.
SPEAKER_00:I think, yeah, we've always talked about when it comes to bourbon, the bourbon's kind of like the glue that brings people together and keeps them. And people who drink bourbon and they drink it, that collect it and they sip it. You know, there's a reason why all these collectors have, you know, six, eight hundred thousands of bottles is because they're not drinking all the bottles. You know, there's people who just buy it and then drink it, you know. But this part, the people who do that and the friendships that you, you know, that you forge through as you go through, and like you said, consistently every year. I mean, when we come to Bardstown, and I you probably find it when you you live up in the Cincinnati area, right? When you're out to dinner in Cincinnati, sometimes you could see nobody, you know, you could for a month when you go out, you don't see anybody that goes, hey man, whatever. Yeah, but all of a sudden you come here, yeah, and it's like you get out of the car. And it's like, hey, absolutely.
SPEAKER_02:It is a reunion, it is a family reunion every year for a week in Bargetown, Kentucky.
SPEAKER_03:That was one thing. It's like I just had eye surgery, major eye surgery, just a week, you know, like eight days ago. And there was more people, distillers, and friends and family in the industry that were genuinely concerned about it and checked on me when I got here, and was concerned that I was even gonna make it here. Sure. And and all, and well wish me and prayers and stuff like that is like, geez, you know, absolutely back home where I live. Yeah, you know, so it was, you know, that's how welcome and received it is what uh like you said, a community. Yeah, absolutely. Family and friends, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And then last year after the festival, I believe, I think it might it was either it was after Bourbon on the banks or the I think it was after Bourbon, we stopped by finally. And then I and then I came down again and had the podcast with Alex, which was fantastic. That she gave up her Saturday morning. Yeah, you know, she's incredible, but you know, but she you, you know, she's you said she's here with her husband, and they just you know, they moved here into a little town, and they really you could tell they were looking for it and embrace it. Yeah, but if anybody, let's just talk quick about the distillery. For sure. When I was there, there's a lot of construction going on and whatnot, but it's all finished. Yeah, you've got that outdoor.
SPEAKER_02:You got the yard. The yard is open, uh, Adirondack style, comfortable lounge seating. We got a nice little pallet stage we built for live music. So we got live music and food trucks on the weekends, fire pits. It is a wonderful place to sit and linger. All of Augusta, Kentucky is a wonderful place to visit and linger. The clock ticks a little bit slower. I tell people as a product of Augusta, Kentucky, I grew up there. I was a kid there once, and as a kid, I racked my brain. What do I do for fun in a small town like this? And now you can't get me there enough, right? Yeah, I can't be back home enough. Right. So that's great. It's a it's a wonderful place to go. You know, the programming that the guest experience team has put together for on-site visits is, in my opinion, some of the best and most hospitable in the industry right now. Uh obviously I'm biased. I'm not gonna not gonna lie about that. From our riverproof beating experience to our production tours that we've now kicked off since you've been in there because you know, surprise, we're producing 24 hours a day, seven days a week, laying down barrels in a rickhouse that's a little over a year old. We just broke ground on a second rick house, we're gonna have storage for 75,000 barrels by the end of the year.
SPEAKER_04:That's awesome.
SPEAKER_02:Two massive rick houses, right? Yeah, we want people to know hey, while we are by the bottle, an NDP, non-distilling producer for for those who might not recognize that. Um, we're very much a distilling producer in the sense that we're laying down distilled every day. Alex has hit the 7,000 barrel mark. 7,000 barrels. In a little over uh right, that's seven times the population of Augusta, Kentucky.
SPEAKER_00:That's no, that's great. Um, and and you know, it's the you talk about you're in you're gonna have that second Rick House book. Yeah, but it doesn't ever stop either. Yeah, I mean, that's just the first couple of things. That's the first, that's the first. But you got it, and your your premier brand is is a very mature brand. It's aged, it's up there. Absolutely. And to get your you'll you do have your you have your one brand that you're distilling now, and then you obviously are gonna take those those distillates and take them further so they can then eventually do all your own stuff. But definitely at the same time, what we're talking about here and what you brought. And you know, the thing about the distillery, in my opinion, is when I went in, is that you've got you can get samples of the expensive stuff. Absolutely. Because you are that that Buckner is a premier, Buckner's is a premier brand. It's up there with the old you're not you're you paid for it. Yeah, and and it's for only it's for a certain amount of people, but if you're stopping by and having the experience, you get to taste some of that. Yeah, you can get cocktails and you can be out on the lawn and enjoy yourself like in a setting and then be satisfied. No, you know, everybody, you know, you don't have to have all the bottles, it's nice to be able to just drink it. And you guys have so many expressions as you keep coming, yeah. It's great to just taste them as they go. And then maybe if you find a uh a really one that you like, you pick up the bottle.
SPEAKER_02:Definitely, yeah. You know, there's something that there's somebody in this industry who his take on drinking not just bourbon in general, but in your you'll know where I'm going with this in a second, but especially the stuff that's hardest to find, the stuff that was perhaps distilled pre-probish. I'm talking about Brad Bonds at Revival. He believes in making the pores that none of us should have access to accessible when he gets them, right? That's why you can go in and you can get a quarter ounce or a half ounce of a 1920 ZH Taylor for 30 bucks.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Anywhere else, you go to New York City, you find that bottle, yeah, man. You're gonna take out a second mortgage, right? Right? But in little but in Little Covington, Kentucky, at Bradbond's shop, him and Shannon are doing an incredible thing. I, in my mind, we've adopted that with our bottles in the tasting room because at Buckner's Landing, you can you can absolutely go there. And if we happen to have a bottle of Buckner's 15 or Buckner's 17 out, it's going to be accessible by the ounce, by the half ounce, by the quarter ounce. So that yeah, you can try it before you buy it there, and it's not going to break the bank. Right. You know, yeah, there's there's no secret. With a with a minimum SRP of around$100, we are a higher end, we are a premium or an ultra premium brand.
SPEAKER_01:That's and it's because of the age. And it's because the age is a big thing.
SPEAKER_02:It's what we call bourbon uncompromised. We don't blend, we don't dilute, everything's unique, and that's because it's always going to be a single barrel released at cask strength and unfiltered. And those combinations of things, you know, you guys know how this is in the industry. You're paying tax on that full barrel every year of evaporation, you're still paying for 53 gallons. Yeah, there can be a gallon left in your barrel and you're paying for 53 gallons worth of taxes every year on that. Yeah. So sometimes when we dump that that barrel and it yields sub-100, you know, sometimes we have to take a loss on it. And that, you know, people know that, people recognize that. Sometimes it's a barrel that's that's heavier than we expected, and we're happy. We're we're cheering, we're rejoicing for that barrel, but um that's it comes with a price tag.
SPEAKER_00:That's where it all balances out for sure.
SPEAKER_01:The other thing that uh, you know, and and you're Augusta here at the festival every year, it just seems like the line increases. Yeah, there's more awareness. People are coming, they're like, right, man, I'm gonna go look for a Buck Nurse 13, or I'm gonna look for whatever one is their sweet spot. Yeah, but the one difference you have to maybe some of the big brands selling age product is you can try it.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01:We're pouring all three of these.
SPEAKER_02:Right. We're still gonna pour all three. Do you guys want to pour it? Yeah, let's let's start at 10 o'clock in the morning.
SPEAKER_00:But yeah, so somebody comes up one o'clock last night. I finished, and I'm starting to get a little bit more.
SPEAKER_02:I was gonna say I was I was right behind you at two. Uh you guys are are gonna be sampling an old Route 8, single barrel eight year at 119.6 proof. You know what? I do actually I'm gonna use my Glen that I got from a gentleman I met yesterday who is from Oahu. Oh my god, he goes by Hawaii Whiskey Finds. He picked up three bottles of this and is going to be hosting a veterans benefit on the island of Oahu in November for veterans, which is really special. We obviously we we feel very strongly about our service members um who are still with us, fortunately, and those who aren't anymore. I'm a veteran myself, and we appreciate that. Seriously, thank you so much for your service. At least he's still with us. Yes, it's and and that is uh that's a very real thing. We're super grateful for that. Uh, eight year single barrel at 119.6 proof. Old Route 8 is our one of our flagships, right? It's what is always available. Um I it is sneakily one of my favorite pours every time I crack a bottle. From the time we launched it as a first edition release in June 2023, coming off the heels of the Bucknish 13 win at the big competition. Um it's it's just held up. It has held up over the years. I love it. That was my first bottle.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that I got it. For sure. I got it, I got it. Your first ever release? Yeah, yep, I sure did. And I still have some of that bottle left on my show.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and the one bottle I do have was from that podcast that revived. Oh, yeah. It was not a hazmat. Yeah. I think it was like some of those on nice. It's not something that you just guzzle.
SPEAKER_02:That's for sure. That's for sure. I will tell you, um, it was really exciting this year to bring back the Buckners 13. We'll and we can we can talk about old route eight some more, but that was a really special thing to do this year for us to bring back the Buckners 13 line with the same source in Nashville.
SPEAKER_01:So I think and I think the first time that I got reintroduced back to that one was uh when you brought it to Columbus. Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:No, you guys did a barrel pick with the KBF, right?
SPEAKER_02:Oh yeah. Now, is that did it sell out? Yeah, it sold out in three hours. Uh that was a very short barrel when Chris and the crew, you were there on the deck, right? Yeah, Chris and the crew from KBF picked that. It was a Buckner's 15. Before we had the chance to bottle it, that barrel aged up to 16, matured up to 130 proof, uh, and only yielded 96 bottles. So we sold 96 bottles of that, with the exception of what we gave to the bars here on the site at KBF. So I think 93 bottles of that were sold in three hours. Um and that's a testament to the crowd here.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and it's the testament of like telling people when they're asking you, what is if you can only buy one, what are you gonna buy something special? That was the one I know we all were talking about. Sure. No, this thing is gonna be.
SPEAKER_00:And you sold it out in three hours.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So when you figure festival opened at 11, you were sold out by two, right?
SPEAKER_02:We were sold out by noon the first full day because Bourbon in the air went hard this year. Okay, yeah. So at Bourbon in the air, so we held back some for the general admission first day. We sold out sometime between noon and one yesterday, being yesterday being Friday.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, that's a special feeling.
SPEAKER_00:But that's something, honestly, everybody doesn't realize coming to the festival. They're all going for the big guys. Sure. You know, they're in line for two hours for Heaven Hill, let's say, or they're you know, whatever. But in reality, you come through the festival while everybody's over there, you're gonna get some damn good, you know, bottles.
SPEAKER_02:And those were the conversation points, right? When people when people came and were bummed, understandably that we were out of that. It was like, well, I see that you have a bag of X in your hand. How long were you in line for that? You're right. Sometimes you're waiting up to two, three hours for something that is extremely special. Don't get me wrong, right? Like I'm a fanboy of this stuff as much as the next person. Yeah, I wish I could be standing in line for some of these releases, right? I wish I could stand at heaven and bring home a VVS. I wish I could stand home, stand in line at Beam, and bring home a bowling pin this year. Like, that's super cool. I love that stuff. I'm as much of a fan of this as I am an industry employee. Um, but because I am over here, you know, we get to come on things like this, and for those who are live, you get to hear that we're shipping in five cases of Buckner 17 as a surprise this morning.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, wow, you just told everybody so we all coming in.
SPEAKER_02:Not that way, you're in line. You heard it here first. Scotchy Bourbon Boys exclusive.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, you got for sharing you know, and hopefully, like say, we're getting it out. For sure.
SPEAKER_02:Would you say the proof of that is? I don't remember. We'd have to ask Billy.
SPEAKER_00:I think it was like 500 and something.
SPEAKER_02:They call it a double mat. Oh my gosh. And it's crazy, you know. That 17 made a splash, it's won a few awards itself, double golds, New York International Spirits Competition, one of its bourbon of the years. Um, you know, it it's this is all just so much fun. So, what about the the 13s there? We do have the 13s there. We have uh we have a few bottles of 139.9 left. If you guys are are ready, we'll go we'll do this and we'll wrap up with 10 because I think 10's actually a good, in my opinion, dessert port.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I got a special for you to wrap up with, especially after talking about Brad Bond's at a revival. So we that's my guy.
SPEAKER_03:This came from Brad.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, and I know it's gonna be good. So yeah, Buckner's 13, 139.9 proof, as you guys know. You know, we I'll say it again, everything's a single barrel. Always single barrel, always cask strength, always unfiltered. Um, I'm gonna nurse my eight a little bit longer here.
SPEAKER_00:Well, that's where that's where you get a look starting cheery color to it. It does. So, what Alex is working on now.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, oh man.
SPEAKER_00:So, are you gonna keep that same dynamic, or will do you think you're gonna produce enough juice that you can have? I mean, the woman's capable of putting together batches, she's so versatile, right?
SPEAKER_02:As a brand right now, and obviously I'm a never say never guy. As a brand right now, we're committing to minimum age statement of eight years. Always single barrel, always cask strength, always unfiltered. Now, there is a program on site where and it's the only program that that delineates, right? And it's called the Riverproof Series. And listen, we'll be the we'll we're transparent. As a single barrel company, it is irresponsible if you bottle every single barrel and sell it. Some of them aren't good objectively, right? Some of them we taste through. Alex is our master distiller. Billy, our executive, tapes through Ryan, our president.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you're not throwing away bad single barrel. Right.
SPEAKER_02:So what we're doing is we're finding another use for them. Sometimes it looks like selling them off for ethanol production, truthfully. But other times it looks like letting the production team, which is our production team, is incredible, letting them get creative on a blending and double oaking project that is exclusively under the riverproof label for the distillery only. Okay.
SPEAKER_01:Right, which makes it and we drank some of those at the cows meeting. Right. And there was so many people there that that was their favorite shot. For sure.
SPEAKER_00:I told it I beefed them. Yeah. Yeah. We beefed them in. I I what I will say is that's that's that's awesome. And anybody who knows anything about blending, yes, you have those barrels that you you can blend. You still need to pull a few good barrels. Sure. Because you can't just if you blend all those. Yeah, you're not just doing bad. That's but that's where somebody like Alex really comes in. Definitely, and then all your palettes. Because I mean, I think you really uh from every time I've ever drank anything with you, you have a great palette. Well, I appreciate that. I appreciate that. And I'm sure they they look to your opinion from time to time. From time to time.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. I mean, I'm not on site. You know, I'm the guy who's in Los Angeles one week in New York City the next, and then in Cape Girarde, you know, the same day. So, you know, as much as I would love to be a part of that process and the notes and the flavors, and you're racking up prequel flyer mines. I'm using the Delta Amex to get it.
SPEAKER_00:I ever have to say what what Buckner's is. It's it's high proof and it's brown sugar. Oh, it's it's high proof brown sugar. It reminds me, if you wanted to pull another brand, it reminds me of stag on a consistent basis. It's got that 5D proof. Yeah, it's stag at a higher proof, let's just say.
SPEAKER_02:I say you're gonna get your dark fruit and your sugary notes, your toasted sugars, but I think it also has that nice, like for me, I think of you know, it's it's attached to something. It's attached to me, that's attached to a memory of chewing big red chewing gum. That's a right, cinnamon red hot candies.
SPEAKER_00:Yep. It it wants to go. The heat wants to go peppery, but it stays cinnamon.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. You know what I mean? Absolutely. It's very cinnamon. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And it's got the right amount at that age statement. There's enough tannin to give it a nice dry finish. Yeah, you know, just a little bit. I mean, not not, oh my god, I can't, I you know, but just a little bit.
SPEAKER_03:That sweetness lasts all the way through.
SPEAKER_00:But I think that 13 years in a barrel uh will take will take out a lot of the the unwanted uh defined flavors and clean up the distillation process completely.
SPEAKER_02:It's really good. Well, what I find characteristically across the board with these barrels is they're not overly oaky. No, yeah, and don't I don't mind oak flavors. Oak is what we're about, right? Exactly, it's part of the process, and for us as a single barrel company, we depend on oak. Yeah, right, absolutely. That's the core. I want to use the core homage to oak, to to American oak.
SPEAKER_00:Well, yeah, 13. Yeah, but like you said, but it anything like a 15-year-old papy is caramel. It is but 20 starts to put the oak in. You get a little bit tree, yeah. And it's probably not as but with you guys, that brown sugar, the little bit of like you said, the cherry. But then the oak coming in with and it almost it's there, and then with the char a little bit, and then it goes, like you said, the cinnamon.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. It's a it's a it's a very I guess complex is the word, but there's there's levels. There's there's layers, there's that is a layered drink. Layers is the word I was looking at.
SPEAKER_02:I think that when you you know, every minute that that opens up, you're introducing yourself to a unique flavor profile that is reminiscent. Was I supposed to let it open up? Oops. No, don't pour me another one. No, no, we'll go to the next one. If you ask Billy Bays, it today's a marathon, but he sprints marathons is what he'll tell you. Yeah, I think Billy Billy sprinted. He spread it out. Billy, we listen, we were here Wednesday night, um, and that included a fantastic dinner at Toogie's table. Love that place. And then, you know, our national sales manager, Tana, she's an incredible person, and she came up from uh her home in South Florida to to be with us for this and to guide us, and we took her to a Talbot House for an old-fashioned because you kind of have to, right? Somebody hasn't done it before. Absolutely. And we sat there and we we walked in very unintentionally to a bottle of old Route 8 first edition. And when we left, there was no longer a bottle of old Route 8 first edition. So we meant the Augusta crew. Again, trust that we don't always just drink our own product, but we love this stuff. Yeah, like you know, we're not just listening I'll be the first to tell you, I love sipping mellow corn meat. That is one of my favorite pourers to have at home. After a long day, I'm just gonna sip mellow corn meat because it's fantastic.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Your palate is a little different. We talk about it. Sometimes you've ate something different in the day. Or sometimes your stomach's just in a different mode.
SPEAKER_00:Did you guys corn coordinate?
SPEAKER_01:It's corn. 51%.
SPEAKER_02:We got corn. You both we're corny. I'm not gonna lie to you. I didn't know what shirt I put on this morning.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, that's awesome.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I just don't get it. And then it was like before you can remember it. That's good. Then you make sure it wasn't on the inside.
SPEAKER_01:I'm just gonna tell you if you don't know what shirt you put on, I'm not sure that Billy put a shirt on.
SPEAKER_02:His was inside out this morning to start. He had the Augusta the Green. Uh, a lot of people recognize that we see it walking around here all the time. The green neat shirt. Yeah. Uh also another great bar here in uh here last night. Oh, yeah, that place is awesome. Yeah. Um, but he had it on inside out. Boss had to tell him, hey, turn your shirt around, brother.
SPEAKER_01:All right, what do you want us to finish up with?
SPEAKER_00:This is the tenure.
SPEAKER_02:Buckner's 10. This is, I mean, man, I tell you, this is like, in my opinion, dessert in a glass. And for me, I have I I firmly believe there is no wrong way to drink this trip. However, I love drinking Buckner's 10 on a big cube. Slow dilution for this makes it taste like an old-fashioned when it's just a rock sport. I'm not kidding at all. It's the craziest thing I've ever encountered. You know, so so I love that on the rocks. Just to give out uh old Rod 8 a shout-out, real quick, um, you know, because so many people who are standing in line right now listening are from the area, or at least if they're not, they know Kentucky's native soda, AL81. Right? Yeah, everybody knows. So this has also been back at the VRBO we're standing at. This has been the week that we are soft launching a collaboration with Ale8 to say bye-bye to the 7 and 7. You can now, you're very soon across bars in Kentucky, you're gonna be able to find the 8 and 8 elevated highball.
SPEAKER_01:Did you just drop another first one? That's another first. Yeah, yeah. Wow.
SPEAKER_02:L8 is L8's incredible. I've been drinking L8 since I was a kid growing up with that stuff.
SPEAKER_00:That is genius. Right. Eight and eight.
SPEAKER_02:And it's called the 88 highball. It's just called the 8 and 8. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So long gone is the 7 and 7. Upgrade. Yeah, from assurance.
SPEAKER_02:There's no way we want people to reimagine what you can do with high-proof spirits. Reimagine what you can do with single barrels, reimagine tradition.
SPEAKER_01:She's the girl that works at the door.
SPEAKER_02:She just heard it. She was like, the eight and eight, she's coming in for once. Yeah, she won it.
SPEAKER_01:She was like, I'm I'm first in line.
SPEAKER_02:No, we're so excited about that. We're doing some co-branding on it. It's not gonna be an RTD. This is gonna be a mix, a quick mixed drink at the bar or at home. We're gonna be sending out some uh cocktail kits to you guys and some other content creators as soon as we get the boxes in. Oh my god. And uh we're gonna be giving you, I mean, it's not hard, it's an ounce and a half of old Route 8 with your whatever ice you like. Top it with your your ale eight. Oh, we're gonna be able to do that. I love it with a squeeze of line. Do it right on the podcast for sure.
SPEAKER_03:You should. On the nose, you get just that little bit of slotted citrus. Absolutely. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_02:It opens up a lot of the buckler's tent for sure. But no, excited about that. And I always suggest a rock spore Buckner's 10 if you want something that's going to like open up into your maraschino and your orange wedge and things. Oh no, yeah, it just tastes like no.
SPEAKER_00:This is just it started off caramel. It tastes like a milk dud. Went straight there. I got the back in the back.
SPEAKER_02:I'm gonna sacrilegious there, but now I need to have some milk dud Buckner's 10. Oh my god. So when Scotchy Bourbon Boys picks a barrel of it, you gotta name it milk duds, right?
SPEAKER_01:That's right. Hey, we picked a barrel the other day with no power, so guess what we called it? Picked in the dark.
SPEAKER_00:We should have actually called it. I was thinking about this, lights out. Oh, that would have been a good one. That would have been a good one. But picked in the dark was pretty good. Picked in the dark. I love it.
SPEAKER_01:I mean, it was absolutely no power. So we were just like, okay, such a fun thing. I love games.
SPEAKER_00:What time were we there? A nine o'clock, nine o'clock um interview with uh with Rod. Samuels. And there was no power. We went into the office and opened up all the windows, but it was raining, so there wasn't that much.
SPEAKER_03:So it looked like we literally had to stop about 10 minutes in because it's like he was so dark. His back was to the windows. Everybody else, the window was lightened, but his he was like a dark shadow, so he had to move around on the other side of the table so we can see him. But it turned out really good.
SPEAKER_02:That's awesome. Yeah. Barrel pick names and the process of doing that is always one of my favorite parts of a barrel selection process. You know, whether it's so good. Whether it's based on flavor profiles, based on something funny.
SPEAKER_00:What was the proof on the 10?
SPEAKER_02:118.2.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. So now we're now that other one was 130.
SPEAKER_02:139.9 on your 13. Yeah. We went down in proof. So did you really like a is it really 139.9? It is.
SPEAKER_00:So did you were you trying to figure out how to the last one?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, to my understanding, you have a 0.02 wiggle room with the government.
SPEAKER_00:So but they weren't going to.02 wiggle, were they?
SPEAKER_02:Well, it wasn't going to give us up to 140.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, it got you 100.
SPEAKER_02:So it got us, it got well, and I don't, I mean, I'm pretty sure everything we do is always exact based on a machine called the Anton Par, which is a handheld machine that proves pretty exactly.
SPEAKER_01:I don't think the hazmat thing really carries as much weight anymore. They're they're buying it based on if at 139, you're buying it just the same as if it was 141. For sure. Agreed. And especially where you can try two or three. Because yesterday, of Buckner's 13, how many different variations did you have? There's probably four.
SPEAKER_02:There are probably eight different single barrels, eight different proofs. Now that's because you know you're you're pulling back your inventory and you're saying, okay, any end-of-barrel bottles that we have that that weren't gonna make it onto a truck somewhere. Um yeah, let's use them. Let's have fun with it. And it's a tongue-in-cheek barrel that's probably gonna break the internet after this festival. It was named by Billy Bays, and they're called barrel 420. If that tells you anything. Oh my god. This is the the barrel 420 Buckners 13 is going to be the barrel that is talked about hopefully for years to come at KBF. And I think we have more coming right now as well. So I think we're gonna be dropping another 10 cases of hazmat Buckner's 13 along with that 17 year drop this morning. So another scoop. Oh my god. Did you go to 17? Yeah, 17. There you go. You guys finish up. I might need to get in line for that myself. You know, I gotta what? I gotta go get to go get calls get in line and buy your own raisin.
SPEAKER_00:I will get in line and buy that for myself. All right, you guys finish off this 10.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, yeah, and I I get a nice uh sweet raisin on the palette of this too. Like, I don't know. I get that winter comes in. Get it as clean as you can. For sure. That was good.
SPEAKER_00:Although, do you want to do plastic on this one? I'm getting that current.
SPEAKER_03:I'll do that if it's clean, but I'm getting the raisin.
SPEAKER_00:I got a clean one. Are you poor? Are we all are we all or just worried? No, we're all. All right. I mean, what the heck? So this was uh we on our uh revival vintage spirits Red Bond sponsored our bus tour nice this year. And with the sponsorship, I just said get I gave him nine months to get me something. Yeah, and so he's like a lot right now. It's like he's sometimes he has a lot, sometimes he has a little, whatever. But what he finally came up with was a dolling deluxe from 1946. So it was an eight-year. So we're bottled and done. That's wild.
SPEAKER_01:And we just worked on Wednesday morning before we got over.
SPEAKER_03:We got those two bottles. That's actually what's left of it of both bottles after we got done with our bus trip.
SPEAKER_00:So I basically this bottle right here is what we poured into the flask.
SPEAKER_01:Oh my god. Pour me a little more, Jeff for Billy, because we'll take one over to him since he's gonna be.
SPEAKER_02:Billy Bayers will appreciate that for sure.
SPEAKER_01:You take that.
SPEAKER_02:I'll take that to the dust, man. The dust, but the medicinal notes. He, you know, Brad says the best bourbon has already been made. I believe we are currently producing what will become known as some of the best bourbon in the world. But you all I also don't disagree with him. Yeah, right.
SPEAKER_01:And we may not be around to some of it. Can you imagine that?
SPEAKER_02:Some of the best bourbon in the world has been already been made. Yeah, some is currently being distilled in the mastical.
SPEAKER_01:And Freddie Johnson talks about that. Like, you know, you could be uh you could be a master distiller and go through the process, and by the third batch, yeah, you may not be around to drink it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, now wasn't it rabbit hole who revived the dialing brand? Yeah, it is, yeah.
SPEAKER_03:Kave is a man.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, cave, and then my friend Haley Hickey, who represents this.
SPEAKER_03:Cheers, cheers everybody.
SPEAKER_02:Thank you so much to Brad Bonds.
SPEAKER_00:We're racing to drink this because honestly, from when we opened it on Wednesday to today, we gotta drink it. You can already tell it's it's it's moving. Yeah, not not for the I the this well, it could be that I just drank we've been sharing.
SPEAKER_03:You would not believe the people in the distillers that we've been able to share this with.
SPEAKER_02:And which is well, you're tasting history, yeah. And you're tasting what started everything that we're doing. Yes, yeah, yeah. You're tasting the reason why we're here.
SPEAKER_03:And it makes it special for us to be able to share it with all these distillers and all that, and then they're looking at it and it's like, oh my god, this is this is amazing, and they're appreciating it.
SPEAKER_02:That's that's incredible. Thank you so much for sharing. No, no, that's it. That's how generous of you guys, seriously. Appreciate it a ton. Yeah, I I I do love that the dialing name has come back as well. Yes, yeah, it's really cool. Thank you.
SPEAKER_03:We were able to do it yesterday with the Mary Dowling uh over there with the. Was Haley there?
SPEAKER_02:Haley Hickey.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, that's who we did. I love Haley Hickey. I met Haley the other night Tuesday, and I showed her.
SPEAKER_02:One of my favorites in this industry as well.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, yeah. Yeah, Haley is incredible. And so we saw the bottles. I told ourselves we were gonna bring something special. I said, We're bringing it back. We're bringing and we brought the bottle over to her, yeah, let her hold the bottle, and then share pours with her too. And and we did it live. Yeah, and she was she was just elated. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Can you imagine if you had this bottle at home? You talk about going to the bar and you drank that old Route 8 the other day. If that if this was on the bar and it was a reasonable price pour, sure, like it was back then. Yeah, how would you not finish the bottle?
SPEAKER_02:You finish the bottle. That's like that's like medicinal candy, cherry notes with the dust that you would expect from something that looks like it came from that bottle. But not over dusty. Not over dusty.
SPEAKER_00:But but a lot of them will pull off that funk that brad bottle absolutely loves. He loves it. Yeah, this doesn't have this, this has that's what Brian Elliott was talking about.
SPEAKER_03:We shared a pour with him yesterday morning, and that's what he was talking about.
SPEAKER_01:He really didn't have that dusty. Like some of them get that cellar floor funk. Yeah, yeah, or grandma's attic type.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then it's kind of open up, but both the bottles uh didn't they both uh and uh I have to figure out what I'm gonna do with the empty bottle.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I mean, yeah, that's a good thing. You could also do that for sure. They would display it at the shop for sure. Yeah, that'd be really special for them.
SPEAKER_00:So it was really kind of cool to get that. Yeah, all right. That's awesome. So finish up with your marketing. Yeah, you know, I mean, you are director of marketing, of sales, right?
SPEAKER_02:You're a sales. Well, national national brand ambassador now. Well, I think when we first met, I was yeah, obviously. Well, and you got to change your Facebook page too.
SPEAKER_01:What does mine say? National sales. That's why I told Jeff. I go, I I had your brand ambassador. I did too, but I'm like, but his but his Facebook page really are changing. Yeah, and I think that's what we put on here for today's heading. We got it all, we got all the bases covered, right? Yeah, he's yeah, he's Augusta. Augusta. Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I will tell you that if you're walking through Frankfurt after Bourbon on the band, there's a good chance to run into you're gonna find me at some bar in Frankfurt Kentucky.
SPEAKER_02:You're trying to get food, but mostly just drinking Miller Highlight. That's what I'm doing if I'm there. Um no, you know, this is special for me. It's you know, I'll I'll give you my what I say is my marketing pitch is is actually more my story. And you know, I'm I'm the first to tell you I'm an emotional guy. Um doing this is the most important thing I've ever done in work, right? Being able to represent the place that I grew up, the place that my mom still lives. Yeah. It's awesome. It's uh yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:That they keep you away.
SPEAKER_01:And you're a small and people that don't know, Augusta's like this small river town that's right on the bank of the river. You guys were affected by the flood that happened last year. It's like it's not like some metropolis, like really when you compare it to Bardstown, Frankfurt, Louisville, nowhere close.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, we, you know, everything that I do, everything that we do points back to Augusta, points back to the people, points back to the little K-12 one building school that I graduated from a lot longer ago than it feels like. Um, my my classmates, a class of 20 people in a small independent school in Kentucky where that shit's losing, pardon my language, it's losing funding every year. We've since we started, since before we distributed bourbon, have donated$150,000 to the school, whether that's awesome to make sure that they have an art teacher salary and supplies because the arts are important, yeah, to make sure that the student athletes have a baseball field. We collaborate with the Cincinnati Reds on renovating the baseball field, you know. So you so it's kind of funny, kids are now playing in Augusta distillery field. A beautiful field that that is flood mitigated. I grew up there. We could never play home baseball.
SPEAKER_00:You should have called, you should have dedicated it. You should have Augusta 21. Right, 21 and out baseball.
SPEAKER_02:You know, but I got to throw out the first pitch for that along, you know, right next to the the president and CEO of the Cincinnati Reds as a kid who grew up playing baseball in a flooded field in a flooded field and watching the Rebs on TV with bunny ears on the TV. That was a full circle moment for me. And to see a team win more games in one season than I did in seven years of playing baseball because they started letting us play varsity baseball in the seventh grade because it's such a small school, that's really cool. Um, and so to be able to continue to do that and know that every bottle gives back to Augusta, gives back to the school. Um, and and the the bars and restaurants in Augusta, the the cafes, the the everybody's so supportive. It's our family.
SPEAKER_01:You have and you have a killer restaurant. The beehive world. We ate there. I uh oh that's that's the one right on the river.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, overlooking the ferry. Yeah, oh man. The ferry that takes you back and forth from Ohio to Kentucky from sunup to sundown, right? If you if you're coming from the north, um, it's listen, it's it's home for me.
SPEAKER_00:It's a very cool spot. Mom still lives there. Well, I call Augusta to get there, it's a commitment. Like people are there, it's kind of like it's not on the way to anything. It's why they go to that, and you go down, it's going that way. Yeah, if you're coming from Maine, you go that way to free, but you gotta actually go down and rates right in the middle, and then go that way. Yeah, and it's like, but at the same time, I will tell everybody it's 100% worth it.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, yeah, and you know that that's part of it. You have to be intentional to get there, right? So the guest experience, the people who are populating on the weekends are very intentional. The people who are buying these bottles all across the country right now are very intentional because they're recognizing the buckler's name, they're recognizing old Route 8. The groups that are picking barrels from us are intentional, whether they're coming here, they're getting a remote kit in the mail. We're intentional people, we have an intentional brand. Uh, and then to put a bow on that, we intend to be around this industry uh forever.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, the roots, you guys have a it's not like you built you it took a while to build it. It took a while. You guys did you do the work? Yeah, absolutely. It is that's as you mentioned earlier.
SPEAKER_03:Uh you're making it a destination, it is distillery for sure for you, don't just have to come there and taste and buy a bottle, do it, do a tour, and then leave. Exactly. You can come hang out, sit around the campfire. Yep. Uh I I imagine smoke a cigar, have a cigar or something like that, have a cigar, live music, sure, and you ride on the banks of the river. And you ride on the banks of the river.
SPEAKER_02:You also you thieve from barrels, you fill your bottles, you cork your bottles, you write your labels, you stay at the benchmark inn, right? Which was probably a brothel in the 1700s. I don't know, but it's I know it was a buffet when I was growing up in high school. It was my first job, and it was honored as hell.
SPEAKER_01:But yeah, is that the place that we did the first pick last year? Remember last year after the KBF pick, we went down to the place? Right. I believe so.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I believe you yeah, it's now called the benchmark in. Then it was really the Augusta guest house. I mean, it's a there's so much. There's so much to do there in Augusta. It's you know, it's a small town, but I tell you what, the people are warm and welcoming, the food's good, the beer's cheap.
SPEAKER_01:Uh you know, and the the bourbon's even the bourbon is world class, the bourbon is award-winning.
SPEAKER_02:And some of it, we think all of it, but some of it it has been recognized as the best in the world. And we're hoping to repeat that again this year at the San Francisco World Spears Competition. So you'll see it flying out there in November for sure. All right, all right. So there we go.
SPEAKER_00:We gave it a stud. I mean, it's the completely everything you just said, Augusta is that and then sucks. So it's something well worth it, especially in the fall. Oh, my god, driving up. Beautiful with those leaves on the yeah, it's just a fantastic.
SPEAKER_02:I think we're getting we're getting into the best time of the year to visit Augusta from now to the end of the year because between the Turning of the Leaves Festival to the White Christmas parade, which pay which pays homage to the Rosemary Clooney film. Um okay, yeah, it's a great place to spend the holidays. I'm coming. All right, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, live from the Kentucky Bourbon Festival, uh Scotchy Bourbon Boys delivering another uh fantastic podcast. Uh, Augusta, you gotta check it out. Uh the this brand here.
SPEAKER_02:Um, once again, everybody, the 17 and some Hazmat Buckners 13 dropping in 14 minutes.
SPEAKER_00:Let's go. All right, www.scotchybourbonboys.com. And then also remember Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and X, along with uh Apple iHeart and uh Spotify. But no matter how you listen to us, uh make sure that you like, listen, and subscribe. Leave good feedback, but also remember good bourbon, good friends, good friends and good times. Absolutely. Drink responsibly, don't drink and drive, and live your life uncut and unfiltered.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely. That's all that should be our model. All right, you guys, that's it. Thank you guys so much.
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