Are Smaller Bottles (375ml) The Future Of Allocated Bourbon

We dig into why 375ml bourbon bottles are suddenly everywhere and what that shift means for prices, access, and trying new whiskey without committing to a full bottle. Along the way we swap festival stories, call out standout distillery releases, and make the case for half bottles as the ultimate share-friendly format. 

• New Orleans Bourbon Festival highlights, logistics and surprise moments 
• Makers Mark barrel pick timeline and how releases get coordinated 
• Why 375ml bottles help with rising bourbon costs and buyer hesitation 
• How allocated and limited releases reach more people in half bottles 
• Pocketable sharing bottles, travel wins and shelf-space reality 
• Standout examples from Woodford, Old Forester 117, Jim Beam experimental series and Bardstown Cathedral 
• Whether 375s feel special when the same whiskey exists in 750ml 
• The business tradeoffs of more bottles, more corks and higher per-ounce pricing 
• Comparing festival strategies, booth lines and bottle hunting expectations 

Let us know what your thought is on 375s. Leave a comment before before, thumbs up, thumbs down, you know 

Half bottles are making big waves in bourbon, and we have questions. When a distillery drops a 375ml instead of a 750ml, is that a sneaky way to charge more per ounce, or the smartest way to help more people actually taste the good stuff? We talk through the real-world math, the collector mindset, and the simple truth that most of us want variety without turning our home bar into a storage unit.

I’m joined by Matt from Cleveland On The Rocks, and we connect the 375ml trend to what we’re seeing at distilleries and bourbon festivals. We revisit the New Orleans Bourbon Festival experience, including how the layout, food, and producer access changes the whole weekend, then compare it to the Kentucky Bourbon Festival reality of booth lines and timed bottle drops. If you’ve ever planned a trip around an allocated release, you’ll recognize the strategy behind smaller formats.

Then we get specific: Old Forester 117 series, Woodford gift shop releases, Jim Beam’s experimental 375s, and the kind of special story-driven bottles that feel tailor-made for the half-bottle format. We also dig into why 375ml bottles can be the best “try before you commit” move for rum finishes, honey finishes, and other experiments, plus why they are built for sharing and traveling.

If you’re curious whether 375ml bourbon is a trend or the future of limited releases, hit play and weigh in. Subscribe, share the show with a bourbon friend, and leave a review with your take on half bottles.

voice over Whiskey Thief

If You Have Gohsts

Transcript

Whiskey Thief Tasting Room Spotlight

SPEAKER_00 0:58

I'm here to tell you about Whiskey Thief Distilling Company and their newly opened tasting room. Whether you are up for a farm to glass distilling experience on the Three Boys Farm in Frankfurt, Kentucky, or an out-of-this world tasting experience in New Liverpool, you won't be disappointed. At both locations, their barrel picked all day, every day, are like none other. Each location features stations with five barrels, each featuring their pot-distilled bourbons and rye. Once the barrels have been cleaned and tasted, you can make a selection and fill your own bottle. A day at Whiskey Thief with their friendly staff and ownership will ensure you many good times with good friends and family. Remember to always drink responsibly, never drink and dry, and live your life uncut and unfiltered.

SPEAKER_08 1:53

Unfiltered. We're diving straight into the heart of Kentucky permanent. Let's get started.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

Tiny here tonight, and we've got a special guest. If I can just what is going on right there? That is crazy stuff that just happened. We got a where did he go? Where did my special guest go? I think it's oh, yeah, that could be it. All right, there he is. We've got Matt from the Cleveland on the Rocks joining us tonight. That's fantastic. Um, we're we're we're gonna talk 375s, that's for sure. And then let me move you up here real quick. And but also we can, you know, I have not reviewed New Orleans Bourbon Festival. And considering you went on New Orleans Bourbon to the New Orleans Bourbon Festival with with me, that's something that we can talk about tonight while we're we're kind of going and we'll just mix it in about how cool that was. You know, that was really kind of I mean, welcome, Matt. Matt, good to have you on.

SPEAKER_07 4:10

Right. Thank you, thank you. Cheers, man.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 4:14

I think that's a great idea. Yeah, because the New Orleans Bourbon Festival was fantastic.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Oh, yeah, for sure. And we had a good time, not a lot of not a lot of sleep. You got a little less than me, but not much, just like an hour less. No, I think your morning, I think your mornings, you slept a little bit longer in the mornings. I you you I went to bed earlier and you slept longer.

SPEAKER_07 4:39

Probably. I'm not I'm not a wake up early in the morning person. I'm like, I just get up, 9 30, 10 o'clock, do stuff, and then get the day on, you know.

SPEAKER_01 4:48

Oh, but don't you start work at 4? Something like that.

SPEAKER_07 4:52

Yeah, but see, you gotta understand when I'm not at work, I'm all for the 9 o'clock, 10 o'clock thing, and actually sleep because dude, I don't sleep too much generally. I mean, sometimes I'm on here until 11 or 12 with you guys, or I have taste things going on and different stuff. I don't get to bed until 11 or 12. I get up at 4:30. It's like, yeah. It gets to be a bit much. So when I do have time away, like in New Orleans, I take abandoned and sleep till nine.

New Orleans Bourbon Festival Recap

SPEAKER_01 5:20

Well, yeah, that's that's yeah. I'm I'm a kind I don't know, I'm just a creature of habit. It it's kind of like it's rare for me to sleep past six o'clock. I mean, if I'm sleeping at six o'clock, it it's like this morning, I think I woke up at 5.30 and then I woke up at six, then it went back and it was just like, oh shit, you know, kind of thing. But uh, I was already up at 5 30, kind of checked everything, and then just kind of dozed back off. So, but all right, everybody, we're the Scotchy Bourbon Boys, www.scotchybourbonboys.com for all things scotchy bourbon boys t-shirts. You can also check us out. And we also got Glenn's, so just check out the website for any kind of merchandise that you want, or contact me directly. We're also on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, X, also on Apple, iHeart, Spotify. No matter whether you listen to us or you watch us, there's no, you know, it there's no right or wrong way, but make sure that you're always supporting us, whether it's through really good reviews or you know, following us, leaving super chats on YouTube, that always helps out. And then also it's also kind of good to, you know, become a member. Anything above and beyond just subscribing and you know, and watching, it's it's definitely helps out. Everything that we that that goes into this podcast, goes, you know, that we we take in, goes right back into the podcast. Whether it's trips, you know, to pay for help pay for some trips or pay for some of the bourbon or get guests and that type of thing. So there we go. We got that out of the way. You know, it's great to have you on again, Matt. It's nice to not always do the do everything, you know, on the in-between solo. So you've been filling in quite nicely, I think. And a lot of people got to see you in New Orleans. What what overall, what was your take off of that? You know, because we kind of threw that together at the end. I've already done it, you know, not quite, it was a new venue, but I kind of had the what would you say, my legs or my bearings. And what did you think for the first time going to a bourbon festival in New Orleans?

Makers Mark Barrel Pick Update

SPEAKER_07 7:28

I think the New Orleans Bourbon Festival, I think that one was a lot more fun and easier to get around than Kentucky was. I want to say it all the food was in the same spot as all the liquor was, so you didn't have to leave to go get liquor and then come back in. It was all organized super well, everyone was super nice, and then all the floors were organized super well at the mall, too. So you come out the elevators and there was food, and you're like, oh, this is sweet. You grab food, wander down, get your passes, get your cups, get whatever you're getting, go up to the roof, and then you're at the festival. Everything's in one area. You don't have to worry about driving, doing anything crazy. And the guests are amazing. Like everyone that was there, all the food was phenomenal. Like obviously meeting everybody from the industry, having fun. Like, heck, we got to run a booth for a minute. It was super fun.

SPEAKER_01 8:18

Run the booth. Yeah, it was great. They put us, we were just we were there, but we got put to work. But it wasn't, but it wasn't, it's really not work. But you know, you basically one of the things that just got that we're getting close is we're getting close to our barrel pick being released. That maker's mark barrel pick we did way back in September. I've been talking with OHLQ and Dimic and whatnot. And it looks like we're gonna be able to get it out. We'll probably it's gonna try and get some sample bottles to you so you could tell the people what's happening, and we'll do the whole promotion thing right before or after it's just been released up in Cleveland. So I will I'll I'll give you the details coming up, but it looks like it's start starting to happen, which I'm excited for.

SPEAKER_07 9:07

Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 9:08

It'll be fun to see.

SPEAKER_07 9:09

Do you have a game on this yet? Is that still like a pending thing?

SPEAKER_01 9:12

It's a it's definitely it's just like when it comes where it ships to, then I gotta go and like it's gonna it's gonna come to Canton. So but the first, I think the first case I'll have shipped Canton, and then I'll give get it to you and CT some bottles, and myself, I'll set some stuff up, and then I'll set up the weeks that it comes up to you, the week that it comes up by CT, and the week that it comes up to Canton, and those, and maybe a Columbus release also, where maybe we all go down there and you know do something. I don't know, but this way we'll be able to they'll be able to taste it and then go buy it from the liquor store. I think that's about what's supposed to happen. So it should be pretty cool to see what happens, you know what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_07 10:01

Yeah, that'd be awesome. Because I got a I have a giant maker's mark tasting that we're doing on all the like private selects from all the years. We have like all the BEPs, the BRTs, all of them from I don't know, six, seven years ago. And there's gonna be like 40 people. So I was hoping to have those there, and I'd add that as a special tour to our tasting. And then all those people are already makers' people, so I'm pretty sure they'll want to get some of them a lot.

unknown 10:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 10:25

So that was kind of my my thought. It's on the 18th. If you can get them, if we can get it before the 18th, then perfect.

Why 375ml Bottles Are Everywhere

SPEAKER_01 10:31

I'm trying. I am trying to work that out, that's for sure. At least have the samples for them to try, and then with the date that they can then what the date that they can pick it up, you know, and go buy it.

SPEAKER_07 10:45

Yeah, that'd be perfect.

SPEAKER_01 10:47

Okay. So, all right, we got that, got that out of the way. Tonight we're talking about something small that makes a big noise in bourbon. 375 milliliter bottles are everywhere right now. Are they just smaller bottles or the smartest move distilleries are making? Is this the best version of what a distillery has to offer? And then it's like, you know, we're gonna be tasting a bunch of these. And there's so many different ways the 375s CT reminded me tonight when I was talking to him that we were talking about these 375s coming up and how we were looking forward to it because 750 milliliter bottles for every single whiskey we taste is just way too much. And a 375 one is it's enough whiskey and it's a good gateway to a distillery. And so these releases that were, you know, the it's basically a half a bottle of whiskey instead of a full bottle of whiskey. And people who are collecting and whatnot, at first, when you're getting 375s and everybody was connecting collecting 750s, people weren't sure. But now that the distilleries and the first distillery, so you've got a bunch of 375s out there, right? And talk about where you got those 375s. Hey, I have a 375 makers too. What which one is that?

SPEAKER_07 12:29

So this one is the ice cream social. This was from the either the first or second year we went on the bus tour. This was the one that was the gift shop only one.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 12:41

So the 375s are awesome because this is a cool way for you to not have to spend the amount you would spend on a 750. And plus, if I'm going out, you guys have seen me with 375 in my pocket when we're at places. I'm like, hey guys, you want to try this? If it just works, it fits in your pocket. You can try it, and then your shelves are don't have to be so big either. You could fit so many more bottles if they were all 375. I think it's kind of cool to have the little 375s.

SPEAKER_01 13:08

I agree.

SPEAKER_07 13:09

Plus, I guess I really like about this. With new places you go to, if they have single browns that come out in this, they put them in 375 so they get double the amount so more people can get them, and they won't let you try it there. So you have to go blind and just buy a 370. I'd rather buy a 375 I don't like than a full 750. You know?

SPEAKER_01 13:29

Yeah, yeah, for sure. I'm just down here looking for my ice cream social to see if I actually still I must have drank it all. Wait, there's it? No, all of them are 750s. Damn. Now I have to get up without trashing the whole that that is a hard thing without trashing the whole setup. Oh, I wish I had that 375 ice cream social. That was delicious.

SPEAKER_07 13:55

Oh, it's so good. We just opened it the other night. I think we opened it on our first time. That one was a good one.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

That one I had opened almost right away. I mean, that's my thing, ice cream social. Anything that has like an ice cream caramely taste, I'm I'm on board. So, yeah, that one that one went by the wayside, but here I am back again. So you've got that one. So what what so the 375s at some of the distilleries when they release them? For instance, initially, Neely, Neely was when I first started going down, you could fill your 370, you could fill, but they were filling 375s from the start in 2019. These are some of the ones that I picked up right away at the Neely family distilleries. So some of the craft distilleries were doing it especially. So one of the nice things about a 375 release, or if they're selling 375 bottles, even though you're getting less whiskey and per ounce you might be paying more, you're still leaving spending less. I don't know what to tell. You're not it's from the it's not a bargain from the bargain of, you know, let's say it's an eight, let's say this is an$85 bottle, and you they have it for a$45. That means it's$90 if you bought two, and it's$85 if you bought a$750. But you're still, if you walk out with the$85 bottle, you're still walking out with the$45 bottle. And that still is what right there,$40 less than what you would have paid if you would have bought the full bottle. Now, when you're first starting out, that might be you know something because you you you're drinking a lot in your collection and you need whiskey. But when you start to get a mass a collection, there's no way you want 375s, right?

SPEAKER_07 16:00

I want to make the whole shelf of just 375s next. Because then I could fit a whole shelf of it somewhere because I have no room to put shelves.

Favorite 375s And Distillery Examples

SPEAKER_01 16:07

Yeah, I know. And it's just kind of like you can put off and they and they fit better. They can kind of you can kind of they're not as tall, they kind of like go on their side, you know, they fit, you know, you can make them especially, and and it's funny, all the different bottles. Okay, so you got this rounded one, you got this one oval kind of one, you've got one like that. These are all 375s, every single one. You got the oh, one of my favorite 375s that was doing, you know, going out, and then you've got the Bardstone Bourbon Company that just maintained. I mean, you're just looking at that lineup right there. Look at all of those are 375s. Not one of these bottles is the same, right? Mm-hmm. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:50

So you'll start with the correct health, it looks cool.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

Right, right.

SPEAKER_03 16:54

Just be a little smaller.

SPEAKER_01 16:55

And initially, these were I picked these up during COVID, and this was Jim Beam, and then they fit, then they switched over with that experimental series, and they started doing it like this. So there's so much, and it's so, I really think it's awesome. But the other aspect is there's a couple distilleries. For instance, Whiskey Thief and and Neely are doing it just to offer that aspect of their barrel-proof whiskey. You can watch, you can fill a 375 or you can fill all by yourself, right? But the place is like old, and that just keeps your cost down. Like I know at Whiskey Thief their their 750s are around, I think about$129.99 or$139. So to buy a you're you're gonna be it, I think it's like$78,$79.99 or something like that for the$750. So you're still coming out of there a way under$100, right? But there's other distilleries that are working on it where it's the release that's important. And I'll give you an example that was the Woodford, the Old Forester, and the Cathedral. These, and the same thing with the Jim Beam distillery series distiller series, these are done because of limited quantity. So they don't have a super amount of quantity, and if they were doing 750s, half the amount of people would get them because they're in high demand. So they release them, right, for more availability to the people they want to get the whiskey to. So it's kind of a cool thing, plus, you know, and so those are the ones that you're really kind of excited about. I mean, the cathedral right here, this bottle is amazing, you know, and that's something, and they only offered it in in 375s, and a lot more people got to taste what it's like to make a barrel out of a tree that's been around was 300 years old. And they had to cut those trees down because they rebuilt the cathedral, right? St. Patrick's Cathedral. No, what no no, what is it? Uh Notre Dame Cathedral, which burned, and they had to cut to get the wood long enough to rebuild the cathedral, they had to cut down 300-year-old French oak trees in the in the forest. And then with the scrap, they made barrels, whiskey barrels out of them. And this was Bardstown finished in those whiskey barrels. And that is really a kind of a cool thing, right?

SPEAKER_03 19:52

So the cathedral was a barrel made out of the wood, not like stains put into a barrel.

SPEAKER_01 19:58

Nope, they made a barrel, they made barrels. They made barrels out of it. I mean, just they had, you know, it had enough wood that was like the scrap to do it. Wasn't a lot of them, but I think I think there's another batch coming at soon. It it wasn't something that's a new one of them now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_07 20:18

I think it's out now.

SPEAKER_01 20:20

It could be.

SPEAKER_07 20:22

I don't remember what it's called. I saw it online.

SPEAKER_01 20:25

It could be. It could be. And then we all know what Woodford was doing, and they were doing these releases at their gift shop, and people were losing their minds. Yeah. When they were starting to do it, they had double double oak. This one here, which I'm gonna pour a sample of in my original Kentucky Bourbon Festival Glen. This one here is haha, even though I got the glasses on, I have the light. This one here is the honey barrel finish. And when they released this one, I I was I I think I've got it close, but this one is a honey barrel finish and from Woodford, but I don't think it quite uses the same honey that wow, that smells so good. It's been sitting for you know how some of them they just sit, and then when they sit and you revisit it like eight months later, it just turns into something that is beyond. I swear, my favorite sweet spot is open up a bottle of anything that's a little bit higherproof and let it sit for six to eight months and go at it again. And and for some reason, it's just always way more everything.

SPEAKER_07 21:49

I can see that. But how does that honey rank against the dark arts?

SPEAKER_01 21:57

You ask.

SPEAKER_07 22:00

I don't have that one to compare, so you know, I figured I'd ask.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

Well that this is a well one another thing is is that this honey is from from that dark arts is I got all these dark arts bottles, but yeah, where is the honey? I put it all away the other day. And I'm like, I think I buried it because I I didn't think I would get to it. Anyways, I would say this is a little bit okier. But there's a creaminess on this honey finish. That's pretty good. The other one, I think I gotta do a honey finish podcast because I got now. I got the honey barrel. From Starlight. I've got the honey finish from uh Woodford, and I've got the dark arts honey finish. So those, oh, let's see. Do I have to get up again? I'm looking.

SPEAKER_07 23:14

Do you have a do you have a Kentucky nectar? That's a pretty good honey task.

SPEAKER_01 23:22

No, I do not.

SPEAKER_07 23:25

I have one.

SPEAKER_01 23:25

You have one? Yeah, for sure. For sure. All right. So that one is that's pretty good. Now, when we were at it in New Orleans, the one thing that was fantastic, and that I mean, because I have two New Orleans festivals to compare, right? And honestly, I liked the way the the setup was as far as once we got the hang of the layout, you know, what we were able to do and accomplish was amazing. Quite where we went, the things. Now, but neither one of us, I'll have to thank Tracy and and Barb straight up. I was not expecting to be a part of the judging tasting. Now we weren't a part of it where we judged and put our two cents in, but we did analyze with all the other judges. So the judges were, you know, and we kind of got to we we we got the consensus of what was going on and what was really good and whatever. But I had never been to a tasting where the categories were random. Like even Lord, when you talk about the spirits industry, like San Francisco or whatever, they're they're not randomly tasting all the whiskeys and then they get put there they're tasting them in categories. You know what I mean? They they get five whiskies in a category and then they they rate them. Whereas this was nuts. I mean, it there were, I mean, the one thing that can't hide in anything is an ambirana.

SPEAKER_07 25:54

I mean I called out both of those and I knew the numbers, and I'm like, I need those, those are awesome.

SPEAKER_01 26:00

There was three ambiranas, and one of them was really, and I understand why Macaulay did it, but it was it was over-ambirana for sure. But the other two was the last one we tried. Yep, and I think they did that on purpose. They let that one be the last one because they knew how much it would have effed your palate.

SPEAKER_07 26:26

Yes. Yeah, if they would have done the first five after that, it would have just been done because it would have overtaken the first five at least.

SPEAKER_01 26:34

Yeah. So there's no doubt. So, but that was that was so unique. I remember we were let me just see. I I'm thinking that my thing just needs to be updated so I can see if there's any. I gotta see. Uh no, I gotta turn down the sound. There we go. And now I gotta hit that.

SPEAKER_07 26:57

Yeah, there's you're not hearing comments either.

SPEAKER_01 26:59

No, I wasn't getting any. But I just got John's watching and Bryce is watching, and so we got, you know, so it's fine. But my comments don't update based off of what I'm doing, and I don't know why lately it won't do it, but the video updates, you know what I mean? So so that was kind of cool. So, all right, now I should get back to this. All right. So, what are the things that was go ahead?

SPEAKER_07 27:34

Oh, I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_01 27:34

No, go ahead.

SPEAKER_07 27:35

That was that was the first thing we came into. Like, we came into it, we went down and talked to them. We sat in there, we're just gonna take pictures of stuff and just see what was going on. And it was so nice to let us like sit down and hey, try these. We're gonna bring six over to the table and do this. You got to see how everything worked, and you had your wheel, and you can try your or four at a time, and then you had your glasses, and it was just really cool how they did it. Like it was awesome. It was a great first day there, let me tell you.

SPEAKER_01 28:03

Yeah, when we walked out of there, we walked out. I thought me and you did a spectacular job on making sure we dumped enough and whatever. But our friend, the whiskey doctor. What was his comment? I was trying to pace myself, but I don't think I can. And then we that that was we yes, the walk come all the way to a Bronco Hotel. Well, that was what nine hours later and a nap later. He had a nap in there.

SPEAKER_03 28:34

He slept in our room.

SPEAKER_01 28:36

I can tell you he he probably did better than I did. We won't bring up the other part, you know. Yeah. Getting on camera at Caesar's Palace. There's a lot of stuff that happened that night. We did stuff.

SPEAKER_07 28:54

Well, to be honest with you, you said the building wasn't tall enough and you wanted to water it to make it taller. And I think you accomplished what you set out to do that day, which is good.

SPEAKER_01 29:06

And then afterwards, decided that we needed another beer. So, hey.

SPEAKER_07 29:12

We needed another beer, but we didn't even know there was a place that had cheese fries, and we didn't even get cheese fries.

SPEAKER_01 29:17

Thank God. Thank God. I did not need cheese fries at two o'clock in the morning, you know. City that I think we got in at 2 30 and you walked across Bourbon Street. Now I don't even think you knew you walked across it.

SPEAKER_07 29:33

I did. I didn't catch my foot on the curb, see?

Cost Access And Collector Logic

SPEAKER_01 29:38

That was much earlier. I was watching out by then. Um so so the the 375 is a half bottle. Why are we seeing more of them? Okay, so one, this this answers the the cost of rising bourbon costs. This answers that that question in that, although you're not getting as much and it's not per ounce cheaper, you're still spending less. And so the then you got the eliminated releases, the allocated releases, it gets more to the consumer, you know. They want a variety without the and and so another thing it allows you to do is to buy it and see if you like it. You know, you're buying a 375, and if you like it, you can go back and buy either two bottles, you can get more. So it's those are the advantages of a 375. But when do you think they first, when's the first time you ever noticed a 375?

SPEAKER_07 30:44

So I I go to, I mean, you guys know I go to Gallenberg every three months or so. And we go down, and Sviggerlens has been making 375s for three years now. This is this is theirs. This one is one of their roaming man rise, or this is their cash drink. This is the first ever bourbon they made. And then this is their 10th anniversary bottle that they had. So they only did three fives to see if it would work. And then all of a sudden, people were buying them, and then they were seeing them sold online, and they had a whole secondary market behind it, and they're like, we should do three, we should do 750s. So now they have 750s, but mine's way over there. But and they'll engrave your bottle now and all this fancy stuff. They do a full tour on it, and they all started from 375s to see if people would like them. And I think that's how their brand grew into having the bigger bottles because they just started there. Junction 35 does the same thing up in Pigeon Forge, and then this is old Hamasai. This one is in this one's in Ohio somewhere. I don't remember where this is from. Tom brought me. This is from Sandusky.

SPEAKER_01 31:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_07 31:43

They do all, they do all the 375s, and if they start selling more, they'll make bigger bottles. I'm pretty curious how they're doing that too. I haven't been to that one. Yeah, we do. It's cool that they find that this size, you're not wasting a bunch of money, you're not taking up all this room. And do check this out. If they had these size bottles instead of the big ones that we got in New Orleans, I wouldn't have broken some in my luggage on the way home. It's a good idea to do those when you're traveling and doing stuff. Think of the littler bottles, you know what I'm saying? Like, I feel like that works.

SPEAKER_01 32:16

Although I would not have to say, even revisiting the same situation again, it's not like there was a bunch of 375s that you were passing up.

SPEAKER_07 32:27

That's true. I don't think McCorlegg makes any 375s. So I would have had like what? Eight of those instead of four of these, and yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:36

So do you think the distillers are using 375s to hook new drinkers or reward loyal ones? I I think it's the reward to the loyal drinkers that they can get more to the allocated collectors. You know, you know what I'm saying? That when you're waiting in line at the distillery, they only let you have one and it's a 375. That means you got to go to the end of the line to get another one, and everybody in line is gonna get one opposed to half the people in line who would have gotten it and then sold out at the with the 750s. It just allows more availability to the collector, I think.

SPEAKER_07 33:17

Well, if you think about it, you'd have a line of say 500 people there coming to get it for a 750. Now your line would be double that because they're 375. The price would be less, not past, but less. And then you'd have double the people that got it that day. So now, and you know how that works, because none of us go home and drink a whole bottle by ourselves. You go to a share, you drink it with your buddies, you do stuff. Now all biggest people have had it, and now you can double that number by doing 375s instead of 750s.

SPEAKER_01 33:46

Right. And then like the 117 series, this is high angel shit share, which is one of my favorite one to my skin. My one of my favorite pores from Old Forester. But it also, you get when you're waiting in line for this, there might be, you know, an old Forester single barrel at seven that you might pick up too. You get this, and then what else is there, right? So I really think this helps at the distillery to allow them. And the way the 117 series was working is it was a distillery release, and anybody who was at the you know, that distillery that day got one and they would release this every once in a while, and certain people would be lucky, and those lines would be long in Louisville. But the greatest thing is at the festival, Kentucky Bourbon Festival, they have these there, and people just don't quite the festival people for the amount that they have don't realize what was there. You know, they don't realize what these bottles are because you know, not everybody is just up on 117 375s being released at the old Forester distillery because that is probably more of a local thing than everybody, because they just get bought up, right? And unless you're an extreme collector, but it but these are really good.

SPEAKER_07 35:13

All those are every release was pretty good last year, but that high angel share was my favorite. I don't even have one. I had one here for a while, but I think somebody brought it and shared it with me, and I don't even have one of those.

SPEAKER_01 35:24

That's my second one.

unknown 35:27

Thanks.

SPEAKER_07 35:27

Did you pick that up in the store? Did you pick that from Old Forage?

SPEAKER_01 35:30

No, the first one I bought was at the festival last year. And then Randy Ford got me one, another one. He said he had a couple, so he sold me one another one, you know, for what he got it for.

SPEAKER_07 35:45

Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_01 35:46

He has a lot of stuff.

SPEAKER_07 35:48

Yeah, he has he definitely has a lot of stuff.

SPEAKER_01 35:51

And lately, John has just been killing it there in you know yeah, Chicago and what they're getting is insane. I wish I wish Ohio would turn into that.

SPEAKER_07 36:04

That'd be great.

SPEAKER_01 36:05

And when yeah, I mean there's a certain amount of stuff that's there, but the amount that you know he goes and he's he he just goes to his his store and they they'll have it, you know. They have five o'clock releases. I know that something's coming up soon in Ohio for something like that, hopefully. Yeah, me too. And then you saw Ross is gonna be up by you one to thr one to three, I think. 11 to 1. It's 11 to 1. Yeah, at proof, and then he's gonna be at Lake Beverage down by me, which is right by Carl's house, from 3 to 5 on Thursday, April 16th, that same day. So he's gonna be in Ohio 14, 15, and 16. And speaking, I mean, I believe the 1792, they were they do the releases at 750. I think there was a 750 that no, a 375 release was at the distillery when we were there that day, wasn't it? There's that little smaller bottle of 1792, remember?

SPEAKER_07 37:15

No, they were no, they didn't, they didn't have middle ones. I didn't buy one. And it was the real title tiger one, the hundred, like the little little one.

SPEAKER_01 37:23

They had the little little ones, too.

SPEAKER_07 37:26

Yeah, Walker would have bought them all. See?

SPEAKER_01 37:33

Yeah, the little I've got one of yeah, mine's over there too. But uh they actually had the uh you don't always see 375, 1792s, and I forget what it was. Was it a distillery 1792 single barrel?

SPEAKER_07 37:52

Yeah, it was a pick with a sticker on it. It wasn't foolproof, it was one of the other ones. Was it the single barrel, the yellow top one?

SPEAKER_01 38:01

Yeah, I think so.

SPEAKER_07 38:08

I don't know. I wish they had those around the city.

SPEAKER_01 38:10

There's an attest there's an attestment to the 1792 bottle. That made it. Both those. Yeah, and the sweet wheat.

SPEAKER_06 38:22

It's half gone already.

SPEAKER_01 38:24

It'll be interesting. I'm gonna be interested to see what they're pushing when they're when he comes up.

SPEAKER_07 38:32

You didn't see the list yet?

SPEAKER_01 38:34

No, was there a list?

SPEAKER_07 38:37

The list is online. Click on events, click on uh 1792, and then click on the bottles. There's a OHLQ single barrel, OHLQ. There's a sweet leaves getting dropped, and then something else. There's horrible.

SPEAKER_01 38:51

Are they dropping that port?

SPEAKER_07 38:56

No, the port, the port, I mean, good luck finding the port anyway. It's not coming to a house.

SPEAKER_01 39:00

Yeah, but he I think that they had that at the festival, right? He poured he had the port to pour, did he not?

SPEAKER_07 39:08

He poured it for us, but they I've never seen it for sale ever.

SPEAKER_01 39:12

Right.

SPEAKER_07 39:12

Like ever.

Are 375s Actually Special

SPEAKER_01 39:14

Well, it should be coming for sale soon. I'm hoping. That would be interesting to do a barrel pick and have it done in 375s.

SPEAKER_07 39:27

Those would be oh my gosh, I can get rid of those real easy. We can do that.

SPEAKER_01 39:31

It'd be like selling gum.

SPEAKER_07 39:34

Dude, I walk around with them in my pocket every day. Like, hey, guys, want to try some? Hey, you can buy it right here, and it's enough. You go here, go to proof, go pick this up. Like, that'd be that'd be awesome.

unknown 39:43

All right.

SPEAKER_01 39:45

So would you do you feel that 375s are special? You know what I mean, compared to like a 750 release to like when you have the 375s. I mean, I think it depends on what's in the bottle, right?

Jim Beam Experimental 375 Tastings

SPEAKER_07 40:03

Yeah. I think your cathedral is like super cool, and you'll never have that in a big bottle, so that's awesome. But all the stuff that's in a little bottle that you could buy in a big bottle, to be honest with you, most of us already have it. So unless it's a single barrel or something special, I don't know. I mean, I love keeping the bottles because they fit in my pocket and I can bring it around to places. But I don't know. Unless it's a very, very special bottle, I don't really you know what I'm saying. We already have a big one of it.

SPEAKER_01 40:30

Well, these right here, these little, like you said, the J, this is like the experimental series for Jim Beam. So this one is number eight, okay? And these are special in the fact that this is more what Freddie does to experiment, right? So this one is Ash finished. What's he? A American single malt finished in sweet peat barrels. Haven't opened that one up yet. And then this one, which is two, the number two one, haven't opened that. That was American single malt. So, you know, Jim Beam's not hugely known for American single malt, right? Now I've opened this. This is a Muscat wine finish. And then this one here, which is 10, which is the newest, is Kentucky Strait Bourbon Whiskey finished in Calvados casks. So that is rum, correct?

SPEAKER_06 41:35

I think so. So let's be a Caribbean pattern.

SPEAKER_01 41:39

So I'm gonna try. Let's try.

SPEAKER_07 41:43

Where did you pick things up at?

SPEAKER_01 41:45

These are distillery. Every single time you go to Jim Beam's distillery, these are available right at the distillery, right there. And I anyone that's there, I I pick up.

SPEAKER_07 41:57

Did I pass it up when I went to buy the bowling pin? Or what happened?

SPEAKER_01 42:02

No, you when you bought the bowling pin, you would have bought the bowling pin at the at the festival. And it's even crazier, they're twist caps. See that?

SPEAKER_04 42:13

Really?

SPEAKER_01 42:14

Yep.

SPEAKER_07 42:19

That is cool.

SPEAKER_05 42:21

So let's I want to try that heated one.

SPEAKER_07 42:25

I need to get a sample of that heated one from you for my one buddy that brings me over scotches and irishes. I think he'd love that.

SPEAKER_01 42:32

Okay. This is a I love rum barrel finishes. Oh, that's one of my favorite favorites.

SPEAKER_07 42:44

Rum and Tonyak, man. That's I don't knowkai lately. I that's why I texted you earlier. I'm like, do you think tokai stuff that I don't have? Because I need to figure out a couple more brands that I can pick up on.

SPEAKER_01 42:56

The where the one I wish that still was there is when we did that barrel pick through Starlight, they bought four Tokai barrels. And they released that Tokai Barrel finished Starlight, which was we were drinking that with the owner and his sons, and we were just I got I got tons of thieving barrels of those tokai barrel, you know, uh shorts all over the place.

SPEAKER_07 43:26

You have a little sample bottle of it somewhere?

SPEAKER_01 43:29

No, I do not. They we were like I said, on that barrel pick, we went down, OHLQ got a I drove down to Columbus, hopped on a bus, they'd bust us there to Starlight and bust us back, and then I got to drive back from Columbus. But on the way down, they're like, we're only gonna pick four four or five barrels. And when we when we when we left, they had picked 20. It was a good pick because yeah, they did. Starlight had a really, it was really, really a good, a good pick. It was fun to be on. So this one, the one that I, you know, the Kentucky Straight bourbon and rum barrel cast, I I'm gonna say this has got to have some proof on it. Like, I will tell you, it is 105 proof, 52.5 percent. It's five-year-old. Excuse me. I don't know what fajitas do to your palate, but they sure fajitas?

SPEAKER_05 44:41

You know it's half off of all burritos in every taco place today. Yes. You got fajitas?

SPEAKER_01 44:46

Yeah. Yep, they got we they got some burritos today. It wasn't half off of it. Now that I had a little bit of water and it was in there, it's a little. I would say the rum comes through and it bites. So you know when you're drinking like a really good rum and there's a sweetness and everything, but like when you're drinking just a regular rum, there's that rum bite. It's like almost a lemon lime kind of like sharpness to it, you know. That that this this definitely picked up the bite.

SPEAKER_07 45:32

Sounds interesting. I'm gonna have to try that next time I'm not your way.

SPEAKER_01 45:36

So it's like you know, I'm gonna say that was probably part of the Booker's because the Booker's Reserve was a was that or was that not a rum barrel finish in Booker's?

SPEAKER_06 45:58

It was tequila. It was tequila.

SPEAKER_01 46:00

A tequila barrel.

SPEAKER_07 46:02

What was tequila? They haven't gone around one that I know of, did they?

SPEAKER_01 46:08

What? That Booker's.

SPEAKER_07 46:10

I don't think Bookers has finished anything in uh Rome. I thought it was tequila this year.

SPEAKER_01 46:14

No, you would be right. The 2025 was the first ever finished Bookers.

SPEAKER_04 46:23

So did you crack that before your bottle of the year to see if that ranks anyway?

SPEAKER_01 46:29

Yeah, everything for the bottle of the I had everything for that except for no, even the bookers that came the bookers of the year came after we didn't have that and we had to work hard to get that. But that was interesting. Yeah, it was just we tried to get it. If you remember, we were trying to get it that day. We couldn't get it.

SPEAKER_06 47:02

We couldn't get batch forward again.

SPEAKER_01 47:04

Which was Jerry's batch, I think.

Mini Bottles And Home Bar Reality

SPEAKER_07 47:07

I think anyways with you, I didn't I didn't pick that one up this year.

SPEAKER_01 47:11

It would be cool to pick up a little mini booker's and a little mini, they'd have a mini wooden box. A little bite box. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 47:20

That would be cool.

SPEAKER_01 47:20

I I think that would be the I think that should be the way they do it. Because you know, when you're collecting bookers, think about how many bookers. I mean, I've got a lot of bookers.

SPEAKER_07 47:33

You do. You have a Christmas tree of bookers. Yeah. Like it's like this tall.

SPEAKER_01 47:37

Yeah, and it's uh it's like it's engulfed the the fireplace, and then it's behind me. It's then I have my bookers where I start putting it's all cleared out to start for this year.

SPEAKER_07 47:49

So you ever use the fire pit, or is that just like a booker hangout?

SPEAKER_01 47:54

That's a that's a working fireplace down here, okay? But upstairs, no, because upstairs fireplace is what we use. I have all, you know, I've got a fire pit outside. I've got two fire pits, a gas fire pit and a wood fire pit outside. Plus, I got a fireplace upstairs, and I I have enough fireplace management to not have to worry about a fireplace in the basement. Like, there's no, like, this isn't a place where you light a fire and you just hang out. If I'm gonna light a fire, I'm gonna go sit on that, on my really nice couch kind of thing, or sit out on my back deck. Not gonna sit next to the really cramped bourbon studio and have a fire. And quite frankly, I come down here to get cool, not warm.

SPEAKER_07 48:45

Yeah, I I mean it's cold down here, so I get it.

SPEAKER_01 48:48

I pref I prefer it on a day like this when it's 70 and you don't got the you're upstairs and the house is all muggy and hot, and I'm like, come down here and you're just like the next down here compared to what it was outside. Yeah. So you have one. So I wish I would have had that that ice cream social left some, but I don't. And if I would have, we would have we could have done barrel bottle breakdown.

SPEAKER_06 49:24

So we could do that on now that we both have.

SPEAKER_01 49:31

What? It's one of the although it's not a 375.

SPEAKER_06 49:40

But you know do we have a matching 375 though? I don't think we'd have one as the same.

SPEAKER_01 49:46

I know we don't. I was looking at your 375s, and we definitely don't have a 370. Do you have a Nealy 375? Did you ever stop at Nealy yet?

SPEAKER_07 49:56

No, I've never been there.

SPEAKER_01 50:00

What about a whiskey? You got a whiskey.

SPEAKER_06 50:06

I have two seven piggies. You know what we both have that would be really cool to do that you shouldn't do it with anyone else anyway. Would be one of your uh Penelope bottles that has like a nice little blue color on it. Yeah, let's do what I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_01 50:30

Yeah, we we're gonna have Danny on in in next next Thursday, but let's just do Rio right now.

SPEAKER_07 50:40

I had it I'm already I'm almost done with my first bottle. My second bottle comes tomorrow or Saturday. And then if you don't open yours, I'm gonna buy yours too.

SPEAKER_01 50:49

So yeah, I do know you open it.

SPEAKER_07 50:52

I know I'm gonna ask for that next time I come down. Like, let me let me get some of that like something.

SPEAKER_01 50:57

So you do have all right. If I can I don't know. How about how about how about do you have a big bottle and a little bottle of anything of yours? No, I mean a 375 of anything where you have both, where you can compare a 375 to a 750.

SPEAKER_07 51:34

I don't think so, because we just finished an old job and I got a little. I don't think I do.

SPEAKER_00 51:51

Okay. Nope.

SPEAKER_07 51:57

I don't think I do.

SPEAKER_01 51:59

I would say though, opening, all right, let's see what I got. I did the old Forester, the whiskey thief. I don't think the 375 affects the bottle or the whiskey right off the bat. You know what I mean? But I think what it does is allow you to have less with a higher fill. You know what I'm saying? Like if you have a 750 in the bottle when you close it, and there's more airspace when you're at the bottom, where this has less airspace to evaporate, so it's gonna do a little bit of a different thing, you know what I mean? In the bottle.

SPEAKER_07 52:47

It's gonna take it longer to get to that point to where you want it to get six to eight lights away, or where it's gonna evaporate outside your bottle.

SPEAKER_01 52:56

Like the bottle's done, you gotta you gotta do the bottle kill. Anything that's good, I always do the bottle kill. As it gets down. I'm like, if there's just one pour, I don't do a half pour and let it sit in there so I lose half of the half pour.

unknown 53:15

Right.

SPEAKER_01 53:16

Right?

SPEAKER_07 53:17

Well, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 53:21

All right. So what do you think is gonna happen in the future with 375s? I mean, do you think it's just a trend, or do you think that this is really something? I think lately, compared to what it was two years ago, I think the distillers are getting the importance of the 375, don't you?

SPEAKER_07 53:40

I think so too, because you know what? Oh, you know what the coolest 375 pack you can get that comes in a wooden box and all this fancy stuff is those hardness creeks. You can get little 375s of the three that come out that year in the little box, and it's super cool. I think that they're doing this, those ones are different because are you gonna spend all the money to buy all those hardest creeks? Yeah, because a little pack at low 375, then it's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 54:08

Well, it's perfect because if you like one, then you just go buy the real bottle.

SPEAKER_07 54:13

That's what I'm saying. It's a good way to test it and to share it with your friends. So selling a 375 to somebody and it's 750. If you're selling a 750, you could have sold two 375s to different people who are gonna drink to two different groups. You're letting so many more people try this because none of us drink by ourselves. You're gonna drink this with your friends, a group, whoever.

unknown 54:35

Right.

SPEAKER_07 54:37

Well, if two bottles sell two 375s instead of one 750, you're selling to twice as many people. So now you have those two different groups from those people that are gonna try it, and then their friends are gonna be like, hey, can you let my friend try this in here? You have so much more reach with a 375 than you do from a 750. I think this is a good selling point. If I had a company and I was running it and selling stuff, I could sell a lot of stuff. And I bet you I could sell a lot more stuff in these little bottles than the big beer.

SPEAKER_01 55:06

Well, yeah, and and it's kind of uh now the one thing that is a down thing is that as far as bottling goes and glass, it's more expensive. I mean, you have to there, there's twice as many corks, you know, you have to fill twice as many bottles with the same amount of liquid. So they're not as big as the the big ones, but at the same time, you're you have more time, effort put into everything and individual sales. So that's usually where the little bit more money is per ounce, you know, goes into that. There's a little bit more work to it. But what would you say? I mean, do you think do you think the distilleries are just gonna keep doing more of these based off the higher lower amount of volume of the higher end whiskey? Like people want to have those exquisite exclusive releases where there's not as much juice, so you could get it to twice as many people that can have it, but they just can't have as much. Do you think, or do you think, I mean, it's just it's it's a it's kind of a push-pull thing, wouldn't you think? But I I think the distilleries are going are are into it. When you you're looking at Woodford Reserve, you're looking at Old Forester, and you're looking at Bardstone Bourbon Company along with Jim Beam all producing these special releases, right?

SPEAKER_07 56:45

I think it's a good thing. I think it's gonna end up getting in the hands of more people. It might be a little more expensive than just buying a 750, but you get it into more hands. Like I think it's a good thing for everyone, really. The consumer, especially, because you could have paid all right, say you spend$70 on a$750, and you spend, say,$40 on the$375. I mean, I would rather spend the$40, try it, make sure I like it, and then go back and buy the big one, and then share the little with all my friends, and then half of my friends are gonna buy it anyway. So now you sold so many bottles just off of this little tiny bum.

SPEAKER_01 57:22

Right.

SPEAKER_07 57:23

$750 makes sense as well. But the thing is, instead of me going to buy it, you're buying a little one and a big one. If you buy the big one, oh, I shared them to my friends, I still have half a bottle of all weight. I don't have to buy another one. But if I had the little one and I shared it with my friends, now all of a sudden I'm like, damn, I need to get another one. Let me go get a big one and then call it a thing. You know what I'm saying? Now you're buying two bottles.

SPEAKER_03 57:45

Right.

SPEAKER_07 57:46

And I think the little bottle is the way to go.

SPEAKER_01 57:49

And I would say, I want to say that also with the little bottle, like for instance, the cathedral, it was$350 for$375. That's a$700 bottle.$350.

SPEAKER_06 58:03

That's a different that's a whole different case, though, because that's that's on another level of levels of stock.

SPEAKER_01 58:08

Right, right, right. But it still made it more affordable to the everyday person. I mean, three$350, a$700 bottle,$350, that really is a lot of money for a bourbon, but$700 is a lot of people's cutoff point. You know what I mean? They would never do that. But now they might do$350 for the$375 because it still comes down to the day what and how much money you have when you walk out the door, right? Or what you walk in the door. So you walk in the door and you like, I'm gonna spend$375 at this place, and I want to get three or four bottles, and then all of a sudden that$375 is there for$350, and you buy it and you don't buy the other bottles, but you walk out with something really, really special, and you still stayed within your budget, right? Whereas if that was$700, you probably would have been like, Oh, that's outside my budget. I'll pick up these other bottles and we'll go from there, right?

SPEAKER_07 59:08

Honestly, I don't know. I mean, my budget tops, it doesn't even top 300 bucks. So I'm like, I would have been like, no, it's the first place. I'm just lucky enough to know enough of you guys to have it and share it with me. It's kind of the way that one goes. Just for me personally, if you want to be honest, like I sort of hit well, put it though I am going to the store and buying a$300 bottle.

Kentucky Bourbon Festival Bottle Strategy

SPEAKER_01 59:26

I'm like, that's crazy. Well, put it this way. I was at the festival, I had a certain amount, you know, I had I had a budget. I would have bought that bottle at the festival. I tried to buy that bottle. Some guy jumped in line and took that bottle from me.

SPEAKER_07 59:50

I didn't even, you know, I never visited the booth to buy bottles, the bottle selling store thing. I don't even know where it was.

SPEAKER_01 59:58

At Jim for where? For Jim Beam?

SPEAKER_07 1:00:02

None of them. I never walked into any place where you can buy bottles. There's some kind of store they said to buy bottles at the Kentucky Burn Festival. I never found it.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:09

It wasn't a store, it was their booths. All of their booths. Didn't you? Yeah. Didn't you go down to the Maker's Mark booth? Walk down there.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:19

I figured one of those. I got a seller.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:22

Well, then you then you just lied on the on the on national podcast.

SPEAKER_07 1:00:28

So look, I thought there was a store that sold all of them for the festival. There was like one of the things.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:33

No, no, no, no, no. That that no. There was a store. Heaven Hill had their booth, they sold their. There was a line out the whatever, Maker's Mark, Bardstown Bourbon Company at their birth booth, and then Jim Beam on their booth, and it was like at opening time. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_07 1:00:52

So if each one had their own sales thing, then yes, of course, I walked into probably 75 of them. But yeah, but there was like an overall booth of stuff. Well, how did I how did I never see a knob 21?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:03

The knob 21 was on the morning of Saturday morning that they had the release on. And the line was 20 minutes because the two-hour line was for Heaven Hill for that. Go to the VVS. Yep, for the VVS.

SPEAKER_07 1:01:24

And Steve went in there for three hours and didn't get one. And then I got accelerated. And then he made me wake up at five o'clock in the morning to go to Maker's Ludge. That was not fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:35

Just so you know, you gotta do a couple festivals to really like, for instance, that first day, uh put it this way, I wasn't interested in VVS. One, it was too expensive for my my taste. I mean, people were like waiting in line forever, and it's just like, no, I'm okay with, you know, I don't need I just think Heaven Hill makes some really good whiskey, but it's you have to pay for it. It's not, it's there, you don't get off without paying for it. And there's a lot of people that were in the line for Heaven Hill 17, and there were a lot of people in line for VVS, and there was a lot of people, but I ignored the Heaven Hill line. I mean, I didn't spend a second in that line, almost got a Bardstown Cathedral, definitely got the seller aged. And then the next day I knew, and Jim Beam just kind of everybody who was upset from the first day, they really Jim Beam saved the festival, in my opinion, because people were in line for 20 minutes and they walked out with the res the Booker's Reserve. They walked out, they didn't have Little Book, but they had all three Hardens Creeks, they had the bowling pin, and then they also had the Knob Creek 21 that morning, and I was able to pull off you know the Knob Creek 20. I walked, I I think it was 685 when I got a Hardins Creek, a Booker's Reserve, a bowling pin, and Knob Creek 21. I was a I was like awesome. I'm like, oh, I'm I'm done buying bottles for the day.

SPEAKER_07 1:03:15

I bought absinthe from Royce and I bought a celerase, and I don't remember a third bottle that I bought from the festival at all. Well, uh Royce gave me June beam because we went to June Beam.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:28

Royce gave me absinthe.

SPEAKER_07 1:03:32

It wasn't a big guy absinthe there. I was so disappointed. I'm like, come on, Royce. He said, no. I'm like, okay, well then let me buy one. And then I drank it with a whole bunch of people that are behind me. It was really fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:42

Yeah, it is. And then bourbon on bourbon in the air is the key night to go. That's when all of them sell all the special bottles.

SPEAKER_07 1:03:53

Yeah, but don't you have to buy extra tickets for that for an extra day?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:57

You kind of do, unless you're know a media person.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:02

Yeah, I didn't get media ones for that.

Bourbon On The Banks Versus Festivals

SPEAKER_01 1:04:04

I know. Anyway, next year.

SPEAKER_07 1:04:09

Next year. I want to do the bourbon on the banks. Do you think I should do the bourbon on the banks instead of Kentucky Bourbon Festival? Yeah. Which one do you think would be a better choice for us to go to?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:22

They always try to do that. Really? Really? You're gonna you're gonna put me on a festival spot right here? Get me in trouble.

SPEAKER_07 1:04:29

I'm gonna ask you. No, no, no. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna say, which one do you think I would enjoy more knowing me? Because it has nothing to do with you. Me. No way it's not on you, but I guess it's what do you think I would enjoy more?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:44

I would say the the it's they're not comparable. One's a one-day festival, and the other day's a three-day festival, which we go down for like where you got the bus tour and you got the three-day festival. I mean, it's just wild. And the other one is you go down, we usually get the we drive down on Friday, drop off our get there at like 10, drop off our stuff, party Friday night, and then go to the do the festival Saturday, and then Saturday night go out, and then Sunday we're we're all packed up, ready to drive home again. You know what I mean? The festival itself from a promotional standpoint. It's there's you can sell your wares, you know what I mean. If you have t-shirts or stuff, I got a booth I can sell. But it's good so put New Orleans Bourbon Festival, the tasting event that was from you know, on the on the rooftop, and put it down by the river and make it all day. And that's kind of what it is. It's got some people are there, like, you know, are there repping and they are direct, you know, Greg, Greg Key Keeley from Larikan. He'll be there, you know, doing the same thing. Macaulay will be doing the you know, same kind of booth kind of thing. So they're all there, you know what I mean? In Kentucky. It's the same, it's the same setup as New Orleans Bourbon Festival. Where you know what it was like at Kentucky Bourbon Festival, that's a whole different level of shit happening. Yes, everybody's at their their their specific tents, but you know, the tents are supplied, not set up by the other, you know, by the distilleries and stuff. So I mean, it's it's what it is. Uh it's just they're so different. I say if you haven't been to Bourbon on the banks, and it's a it's it's a much more from a standpoint of a whiskey festival that works out for somebody who wants to taste whiskey and whatever, it's a one-day thing and you're in and you're you're out. You know what I mean? It doesn't take up like vacation time.

SPEAKER_07 1:06:57

Where we're honestly, I think every year I'll be going to New Orleans now. I think that was like the funnest thing ever. I think New Orleans one was a lot. I mean, it wasn't as big as the Kentucky one, but I think what you got there was like that is the one that I tell all my friends, I'm like, man, if we could go to one a year, I'm like, go to New Orleans, bro. That was the coolest thing I've ever done. Like, it's so fun. You but I think our aspect of looking at stuff and what everyone, like, and if you were to go there by yourself thing would be two different things. Because you got to walk around and see what they were doing. And every aspect. If you just you'd walk in the room and you just ask her what they were doing and then they show you everything. You I mean, we met the chefs the day before, all the all the the groups that were cooking and everything, like and I think we just met so many people there that we already knew half the people there were doing everything. So it kind of was like really, really fun. Because it's like going to hang out with your friends at that point.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:51

Yeah, media access was amazing. I mean, not everybody uh uh the ticket holders don't get that kind of access, but media access for what we had in New Orleans. That I the New Orleans festival this year delivered in a way I don't honestly, I don't know. Next year would be still, I want I would desire to go next year. I had a lot of fun. I liked the format, and we would really have our feet underneath us on knowing how the whole thing's gonna go next year. You know what I mean? We did a pretty good job, anyways, this year. I mean, I think we did a lot of stuff for what I think we did more stuff than most. And then you throw in a wedding. I I mean, how do you top that next year? I mean, there was a wedding there, and we all of a sudden were in like the middle of the wedding. How did I I mean I don't even know how that all happened, right?

SPEAKER_07 1:08:46

We went to Macaulay's dinner and then he just kind of threw it at us, you know.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:49

Yeah, but but I wasn't the stuff that was still about. I wasn't the videog, videotographer of the wedding until the that that night when I was like on Friday night, because we went to the dinner on Thursday on Friday night. I'm like, oh yeah, I we we really streamed, we streamed for like two hours while we were there that night. We just decided to do the whole thing and went live, had had a good audience. And Macaulay's like, well, why don't you stream the wedding? And I'm like, Really? You want me to? He's like, yeah. So all of a sudden now we're we're like insiders. I mean, I we got to hear Macaulay. Macaulay was miked. I mean, we mic'd him. I felt like we were on the sideline of a freaking football game, and we and Macaulay was mic'd up. I just didn't have the bleeps.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:41

Right, at one point I'm like around with the microphone walking around talking to people.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:47

They're just we didn't have to. We just sent people out with microphones, and they kept forgetting their and they kept forgetting the microphone was on.

SPEAKER_07 1:09:57

Yes, we did. You know what's cool now? You didn't lose one microphone the entire festival. We did very well on this.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:05

That is true. I might have lost something else, but not a microphone. Actually, you didn't even lose anything, really.

SPEAKER_07 1:10:12

No, you thought you did. You just you do stuff, you do a lot of stuff. A lot of stuff was done. Oh your stuff that you did. What does everyone know your stuff that you did?

SPEAKER_01 1:10:25

No. No. Okay, no.

SPEAKER_07 1:10:28

Stuff happens. Like stuff goes down. Anytime I'm in a room, it's like a weird thing. Like this stuff happens. Like, I don't know. It just does stuff.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:35

Yep, that's what happened.

SPEAKER_07 1:10:36

Yep, did there's no comments in the bottom of anybody asking anything the whole time we've been on here?

SPEAKER_01 1:10:41

I kept updating and I'll update again. Once a lot of times, once we get going, that's what happens, you know? That the but we'll see.

SPEAKER_07 1:10:53

Oh, after I'll just get done by trying to check stuff. You know what's cool though? You didn't lose one microphone the entire festival.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:01

There we go. I got that off. Okay, so I'm gonna go back now. Well, John, John did comment again. He goes, when stores around him do barrel picks of like Eagle Rare and Buffalo Trace, they oftentimes will offer 750s and 375s of the same barrel. And then and then Anthony Pleninger gave us a clap a couple about eight minutes ago. So we got a couple more comments.

SPEAKER_07 1:11:33

What's gotta be Tony? It comes out on my on my beer screen. That's my that's my Scotch guy. So that's the one I told you. We gotta get a sample of that for him. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:43

For sure.

SPEAKER_07 1:11:44

I knew my friend would be right on here. I'm like, I'm so confused. Nobody said anything yet.

Listener Thoughts And Closing Notes

SPEAKER_01 1:11:51

All right. Well, let's send it out right now. We'll finish up. 375s. I mean, honestly, what I did have one little. I would say anybody who's been listening, let us know what your thought is on 375s. Leave a comment before before, thumbs up, thumbs down, you know. But then I guess that's that's it for this part of it.

unknown 1:12:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:21

You got anything else to add?

SPEAKER_07 1:12:24

No, I mean, buy a 375 if something don't know what it is. Enjoy yourself, share it with your friends, see who likes it, and then you guys can go buy the big one. That way you're not buying a whole big one that you don't like it or giving it to somebody else. You know what I'm saying? It's a good thing to go get.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:37

Or if you're at a distillery and it's a three if it's a 375 release at a distillery, it's probably gonna be good because they're trying to make it so that the goodness can be spread around the most. So, all right, that's the that's a that's a wrap. Great to have you on. Everybody, I'll throw it out there for a couple minutes. I gotta get out of here by 10 because I gotta start driving at 2 this morning, so I gotta get sometime. I'll upload this tonight. But hang in there afterwards for a couple minutes and talk to us. I'll throw it out onto Facebook. I'll throw out the Zoom meeting and we could talk a little bit. And but thanks for everybody joining us next Tuesday. I don't believe, which is April 7th. I do not, it'll be another. Well, hopefully bring on Super Nash or whatever, but we'll come up with the top topic for next Tuesday. But next Wednesday, we've got a special podcast going out with Randy Prasse of the Kentucky Bourbon Festival president, talking about the ticket sales coming up and what's new with the festival this year. And then on Thursday, we have Danny and maybe Mike Danny Pelesi and Mike Michael Pellini. Michael might not be on, but Danny's gonna be on, and we will be doing Penelope. And I know that Matt, you're excited about the Penelope podcast.

SPEAKER_07 1:14:09

I'm so excited for that. Like, dude, it's gonna be great. I think that's the one where I'm like, man, I if I could work with Penelope a lot, I feel like their racism in Cleveland could be killer. We could do some stuff.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:22

Well, you all you gotta do is talk to Wendy. She knows what she knows the right people to talk to because she represented in the state of Ohio, so for a long time before she went out, and yeah, I you know what? I I'm scared of that one. If you do that, maybe you'll end up with your own brand.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:41

Oh, that'd be awesome.

SPEAKER_07 1:14:43

There'd be a lot of Amberani involved. Like, you know, we do some stuff.

SPEAKER_01 1:14:48

Amberana Amaretto on the Rocks. There you go. All right, everybody. Thanks for joining us. Remember, good bourbon equals good times and good friends. Make sure that you don't drink and drive. Thanks for coming on, Matt. Make sure you drink responsibly and make sure you live your life uncut and unfiltered, just like us. And here we go.