Latest / The Scotchy Bourbon Boys / Old-School Bourbon, Made On Purpose with Royce Neeley at The Kentucky Bourbon Festival

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Old-School Bourbon, Made On Purpose with Royce Neeley at The Kentucky Bourbon Festival · The Scotchy Bourbon Boys

1:59
SPEAKER_02: And uh we are here with the one and only Royce Neely.
2:03
SPEAKER_02: What's going on, guys?
2:04
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's so great to have you here.
2:06
SPEAKER_02: We also got CT, Super Nash.
2:09
SPEAKER_02: Holds up, but one of the videos, but it looks like he's involved so far.
2:14
SPEAKER_02: Myself Tiny, super pumped, super pumped to have you, super pumped on what was happening with you guys this year at the festival.
2:22
SPEAKER_02: Sure, thank you.
2:22
SPEAKER_02: I mean, yesterday we were dressed like Pat Paul, yep.
2:26
SPEAKER_02: Pat Paw.
2:27
SPEAKER_02: I mean, talk about that a little bit.
2:29
SPEAKER_02: I mean, you were just it's like a persona that, you know, a whole thing.
2:33
SPEAKER_02: It kind of had to be a little bit different, right?
2:35
SPEAKER_00: It's hilarious.
2:36
SPEAKER_00: My buddies, you know, they grew up with me back home and were joking with me.
2:39
SPEAKER_00: Like Robert Nodd, he was like, hey man, you know, it's it's hilarious that your grandpa has took on this persona, you know, he's become like this character in bourbon, and uh, it is kind of wild.
2:49
SPEAKER_00: You know, he was uh he was a staple at the Bourbon Fest for years.
2:53
SPEAKER_00: He, you know, he notoriously didn't like to go out in public, he hated crowds, but he always liked coming to Bourbon Fest.
2:57
SPEAKER_00: He'd sit there under the sign that we had of him and he'd just sign bottles all day.
3:01
SPEAKER_00: And people still come up to us and uh, you know, tell us about their experience with him.
3:06
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we just had what Bourbon to Bikini come over here and tell us, you know, about her time with him in 23.
3:11
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, it's uh it's cool to be able, it just made sense when we were doing the legacy batch, our first truly allocated product, that we would launch it at KBF.
3:20
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and but what's also cool is at the distillery.
3:25
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
3:26
SPEAKER_02: Honestly, in 2019, we're cut we're coming down as a group and we're driving down, and we're driving through Sparta, and we see the kneeling thing.
3:36
SPEAKER_02: We're like, let's stop.
3:38
SPEAKER_02: And and at that point, Rebecca was at the distillery, found out that we were there, and she's like, Oh my god, and we had us talk that it might have been 2021 because that was the year you won the absent.
3:53
SPEAKER_02: It was, yeah, 2021.
3:54
SPEAKER_02: It was at right after COVID.
3:56
SPEAKER_00: And I was gonna say, you know, I think that's important to bring up just kind of how this relationship started and how we got to the point of where, you know, we're doing a sponsorship with you guys, and that is that you know, you guys aren't the new guys on the block anymore.
4:07
SPEAKER_00: You know, you're five, you know, going on five, six years in.
4:10
SPEAKER_00: We've both grown our businesses together, which has been really cool.
4:13
SPEAKER_00: I think the first true time I met you guys was at Bourbon Fest.
4:16
SPEAKER_00: Yep, you're all his first Bourbon Fest.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: Right.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: And uh it just made sense as my you know, we've always, Neely's always sponsored the Bourbon Daily, the Bourbon Show, and my wife Rebecca, because she was a co-host on the Bourbon Daily and with Steve Akeley.
4:27
SPEAKER_00: And with his retirement and the removal of those shows, it just made sense for us to immediately jump in with the Scotchy Bourbon Boys and start, you know, continue that relationship.
4:36
SPEAKER_00: So that's you know, really the background on it.
4:38
SPEAKER_02: Well, anybody has to have a monthly show with Rebecca.
4:41
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, there you go.
4:41
SPEAKER_00: I she uh I'll tell you what, it's working good for us.
4:44
SPEAKER_00: So she's got the uh yeah, she's got the face for it, Tony.
4:48
SPEAKER_00: And they don't want to see us, but Recca.
4:51
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, then there's no doubt, and then she's also got the talent for it.
4:54
SPEAKER_02: Right, that's good talent of understanding, you know, you guys didn't do what a lot of distilleries did and source your stuff.
5:04
SPEAKER_02: Right.
5:04
SPEAKER_02: You got through based off of your family heritage and how things got done before, and you also got through with the some of your younger whiskey aging and and Rebecca pulling and you guys pulling those flavors out and then having a great experience.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: I guess for anybody that doesn't know our story, you know, as I don't know, as cliche as this is to say, it really is about passion, right?
5:31
SPEAKER_00: Whether it's about bourbon or mine and Rebecca's passion for each other type of deal.
5:35
SPEAKER_00: But, you know, I started the distillery in 2015.
5:38
SPEAKER_00: Like you said, you know, my goal was to never source.
5:42
SPEAKER_00: I just didn't, and there's nothing against it, but that wasn't, you know, you're not gonna call it Neely Family Distillery and buy Jim Bean's family's bourbon.
5:49
SPEAKER_00: You know, that just wasn't what we wanted to do.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: And it's all our tagline's always been authentic Kentucky Spirits, and I kind of had the mindset of I'm either gonna do this the right way or I'm gonna die doing it, essentially.
5:59
SPEAKER_00: So early on, I was not gonna put out a bourbon at all until it was at least four years old.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: And what I decided to do was we were actually doing some tours for, oh damn, I'm gonna do a plug form here, not that I not that they need it, but for mint julep tours.
6:15
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
6:16
SPEAKER_00: And I had just had 14-month-old bourbon, and they asked me, they're like, Can you do a whiskey thieving experience for our tours behind the scenes?
6:22
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, Yeah, I guess, you know, but I wasn't like I didn't even want anybody to try the bourbon until it was straight.
6:28
SPEAKER_00: And man, we did the first one, and everybody on the tour was like, Can we buy a bottle of this?
6:32
SPEAKER_00: Can we buy a bottle of this?
6:33
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, all right.
6:35
SPEAKER_00: The business side of me says, hey, if they want to buy it, we're gonna sell it to them.
6:38
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's still in line with what we wanted to do.
6:40
SPEAKER_00: It's our whiskey.
6:41
SPEAKER_00: I just I didn't want to put something out there that somebody gets a taste of the first time and say, all right, this is Neely and it's 14 months old, right?
6:48
SPEAKER_00: So I needed to come up with a marketing scheme, if you want to call it, which was a taste of what's to come.
6:55
SPEAKER_00: I needed them to be able to read the bottle and say, hey, this is not Neely saying this is the best of what we got, but this is Neely saying, hey, if you want to buy it, here it is, taste it.
7:03
SPEAKER_00: We got better stuff coming on down the road.
7:04
SPEAKER_00: And it we still sell the taste of what's to come in the gift shop as our different releases that we do.
7:09
SPEAKER_00: It took off, it stayed, you know, steady with us.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: And that kind of transpires up until you know 2020 when I met Rebecca.
7:16
SPEAKER_00: We got married that year, she came on board, and that was a big shift for the distillery.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: That was when we started really winning awards.
7:21
SPEAKER_00: That's when we started having our four and five-year-old stuff start coming out.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, she's been a great addition to the distillery time.
7:28
SPEAKER_00: I mean, she was, you know, she was already a bourbon celebrity in her own.
7:32
SPEAKER_00: She'd been doing the podcast with Akeley for going on five years when I met her.
7:35
SPEAKER_00: I was a guest on the show, and then she's really took that and changed it in from being, you know, the loud, pretty, aggressive girl on the show that's drunk all the time into a respected bourbon blender that some are starting to call a master blender in the in the community.
7:48
SPEAKER_00: And that's a big deal, you know.
7:49
SPEAKER_01: Because her first badge came out last year.
7:52
SPEAKER_01: It did.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: You know, she got to train under Jackie's eye cam with our Hidden Barn brand.
7:56
SPEAKER_00: Jackie's still a friend of the brand.
7:57
SPEAKER_00: You know, she's a founder of Hid in Barn.
7:59
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, anytime she told Rebecca anytime you need to call me, hit me up.
8:03
SPEAKER_00: But, you know, it's still nerve-wracking when you when you take on something that's done as well as Hidden Barn and start putting your name and your face and your branding on it without Jackie there to back you up anymore.
8:12
SPEAKER_00: And you know, Molly Wellman's helped her a ton with that, but still, yeah, you know, it's Becca leading the charge.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
8:17
SPEAKER_02: Well, and then also her importance to you as a wife and running this business.
8:23
SPEAKER_02: I mean, she's she's down there working.
8:27
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
8:27
SPEAKER_00: That's why gentlemen, that's why she's not here today.
8:30
SPEAKER_00: She is running the gift shop today for me.
8:32
SPEAKER_02: And and it's like, and you've got that.
8:34
SPEAKER_02: Plus, you know, she answers emails and she she does the business end so well.
8:40
SPEAKER_02: And you know, when you talk to her, you know, she knows, but she knows she's as passionate as you are.
8:46
SPEAKER_00: She's got the uh, she's definitely a good addition to me, to my, you know, uh good other side for me because I am not, I'm sure you guys, it's hard to understand that I might not be the biggest people person.
8:57
SPEAKER_00: All right.
8:58
SPEAKER_00: So when I get a phone call and I'd be back there covered in mash and this and that, because I used to answer all the phone calls.
9:03
SPEAKER_00: And you know, then I'd tell somebody to fuck off when they had a bad attitude with me.
9:07
SPEAKER_00: It got a lot better for me to have Beck answer the phone, who's much, much more uh consumer friendly.
9:12
SPEAKER_00: Let's say that.
9:13
SPEAKER_00: Our customer service has got a lot better at Nealing.
9:15
SPEAKER_02: So and that and running a distillery, you you know, assholes are are whiskey drinkers too.
9:21
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
9:22
SPEAKER_02: And and it takes all the different types, every single type, and you know, you want to be as neutral as you can, but you also want to be real.
9:31
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely, dude.
9:32
SPEAKER_02: That's something when you come to Nealy, uh, I mean, your distillery is we've been with it and seen it construct and get bigger and go from a little that smaller Rick House to a bigger Rick House, and then then build the three chambers still that will get into this, which sure is gotta be, you know, when you think about all that as it keeps going and growing, and you're you have the family heritage to your whole life, and you know, meeting Bo Cumberland.
10:04
SPEAKER_02: Well he's been huge, and and I mean it's fine.
10:07
SPEAKER_00: Bo's so Bo's doing great.
10:09
SPEAKER_00: He uh, you know, he does everything from clean the litter box to help with the paintball fill we're putting in.
10:13
SPEAKER_00: You know, he's uh he's a good gopher, but he's gonna learn to be a distiller, and he's got it in him, so and you have a lot of stills.
10:20
SPEAKER_00: We do have a lot of stills, and we need distillers.
10:23
SPEAKER_02: And and you know, there's an aspect of the whiskey that is your you guys make it so much more connected to that pot spill, that the the oiliness of it, everything that you have, and then also releasing some of your younger releases and still doing it is a tribute to how whiskey used to be drank.
10:46
SPEAKER_00: It it's always you know, it was wasn't I I'd like to say I really had this grand plan because it's come together a lot better than I could ever expect it to, Johnny.
10:54
SPEAKER_00: Really, I have to admit, you know, it has come together a lot better than I ever expected.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: I wanted to make I wanted to make cool bourbon, man.
11:01
SPEAKER_00: I didn't want to do something boring, right?
11:02
SPEAKER_00: And I try I go back to that passion side of it.
11:05
SPEAKER_00: You know, if you want to see the passion for the family history, my mom and dad are sitting over there at the booth, go listen to my mom talk about Papa or my dad talk about the 11 generations.
11:13
SPEAKER_00: You would it's it's pure passion.
11:15
SPEAKER_00: You want to hear about you know Neely's distilling processes, you know, talk to me.
11:18
SPEAKER_00: The blending, talk to Rebecca, you know.
11:20
SPEAKER_00: But the pot still itself, man, is a passion machine for making whiskey.
11:24
SPEAKER_00: It's not like the column, right?
11:26
SPEAKER_00: The column, you come in, flip a button, let it run.
11:28
SPEAKER_00: The pot still, there's passion with it every day.
11:30
SPEAKER_00: You gotta be there with it, you gotta make the cuts.
11:32
SPEAKER_00: It's quirky, it might do this, it might do that.
11:34
SPEAKER_00: And the three chambers, even more that other side of it.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: So, and that's why I've still and will always be committed to the pot still, the chamber still, and really it's batch distillation.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: I love being able to make cuts on the product.
11:46
SPEAKER_00: Right, and the column still won't let you do it, it's just the simple fact of it.
11:49
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, column still has always been about bringing a consistent product in a mass amount.
11:56
SPEAKER_01: My people we talk about in the the industry that people will drink some of your product or somebody else's not really knowing what a pot still is.
12:05
SPEAKER_01: Sure.
12:05
SPEAKER_01: And they come up and they try it, and they're like, Wow, I get a lot of corn, you know, or I get a lot of grain flavor.
12:11
SPEAKER_01: And I don't think that everybody is ready for that until they are.
12:15
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
12:16
SPEAKER_01: Like, wait a minute, this doesn't just taste like caramel.
12:20
SPEAKER_00: Back to that kind of falling in ass first with it.
12:23
SPEAKER_00: Uh I, you know, I said I set out and I said, hey, I want to make whiskey the old way, not the old way, and then have stainless steel, closed top fermenters and a column steel and all this.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, that's why we have the cypress vats, that's why we work our own yeast, that's why we sweet mash this cyber mash, that's why we run those pot steals.
12:38
SPEAKER_00: All that together can make a bourbon that's palatable at a year to two years old.
12:42
SPEAKER_00: A column steel normally needs to set for four years, man, until she starts being palatable.
12:46
SPEAKER_00: That definitely helped us in our journey because we had a good palatable bourbon at two years old that people were wanting to buy.
12:53
SPEAKER_00: But then I had to, and you made a great point, then I had to start explaining to people that hey, as it ages, as it gets to four or six years old, this isn't gonna age like a column steel product does.
13:02
SPEAKER_00: It isn't about the barrel just taking over and removing a lot of what's you know there from the distillation process.
13:08
SPEAKER_00: And Pat Paul's does a great job of showcasing that.
13:11
SPEAKER_00: We're 10 years old, right?
13:12
SPEAKER_00: But you can still taste the yeast.
13:13
SPEAKER_00: You can still taste the water quality, you can still taste the grain in it.
13:16
SPEAKER_00: I kept telling everybody, hey, you know, true pot steel, true pre-prohibition style bourbon.
13:21
SPEAKER_00: Me and Steve Bean were talking about this yesterday.
13:23
SPEAKER_00: Real prohibition or pre-prohibition style bourbon tastes like this.
13:26
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
13:26
SPEAKER_00: And this was more of the landscape of what it was like before prohibition with all the other distilleries, the innovation, smaller ones, middle sized ones, big ones in Kentucky.
13:35
SPEAKER_00: After Prohibition, you had none of that.
13:37
SPEAKER_00: And everything went to efficient and try to survive, and you know, the corporations started to come in.
13:43
SPEAKER_00: That's our finishing still with the herbs, but then we got to have one to make our base spirit moonshine as well, which is another pot still that we run.
13:51
SPEAKER_01: So the moonshine, which obviously years ago when we first introduced to your brand, it was like that was what was on the shelf, readily available.
13:58
SPEAKER_01: You had the moonshine.
13:59
SPEAKER_01: How are you distributing that throughout the other states, or is it only there local?
14:04
SPEAKER_00: It's mainly only local, and it's because I've put no, I've never even, it's not even on our sell sheet to offer.
14:10
SPEAKER_02: Just so you know, if he tells you everything, he's gonna have to kill you.
14:14
SPEAKER_00: Well, I get, hey, it's it's really crit, it's about like with the moonshine, you know, there are so many, I don't want to, I would never bash any brand, but there are so many legal moonshines out there that really fucked up the game, you know, for what it is that you know, if somebody wants to buy it, order it online, it's available online.
14:29
SPEAKER_00: Our online retailers love having it.
14:31
SPEAKER_00: I have some distributors that I know are gonna take care of it and not sit it on the shelf to die on the vine next to something from Tennessee that come from the ethanol plant, you know, I'll sell it to them.
14:39
SPEAKER_00: But I don't need to, it sells so well through the gift shop that we don't need to sell it.
14:42
SPEAKER_01: And that's the thing, is when they come for the experience, they get a taste of it.
14:45
SPEAKER_01: That's when they get it.
14:47
SPEAKER_01: And it makes it more unique.
14:48
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
14:49
SPEAKER_02: And it's great because I know that early on Mimestone Branch to get there, they did it, and they basically did a bunch of moonshine, but then once they had their bourbon ready, they stopped the moonshining because they had the bourbon ready.
15:01
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
15:02
SPEAKER_02: You being you, Royce Nealy, this is your distillery.
15:06
SPEAKER_02: And with those moonshine, but why would you ever stop?
15:09
SPEAKER_00: I for us, it just you know, and Limestone Branch at the time, they got acquired by Lux Co.
15:14
SPEAKER_00: And Steve Beam's old moonshine, man, is probably the best out there I've had to mind, to be honest with you.
15:19
SPEAKER_00: And me and him have talked about that, and still is Fonte.
15:22
SPEAKER_00: You know, and I think they would still love to be making it, but you know, things change when you sell.
15:26
SPEAKER_00: And uh for us, I mean, we still sell in the gift shop, 50% of our sales comprise of moonshine.
15:32
SPEAKER_00: So we sell a shit ton of moonshine still.
15:35
SPEAKER_00: And you know, and it's I mean, we have a lot of guys that come in and they're like, oh, yeah, I'm buying 12 bottles of the cream moonshine for my wife, and we all know.
15:43
SPEAKER_00: We know, we know who you're buying it for, we know who you're buying it for.
15:47
SPEAKER_00: We want the dream sickle.
15:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we want the dream sickle for the for the wife.
15:50
SPEAKER_00: It's like, yeah, all right, wife's drinking bourbon at the bar, man.
15:52
SPEAKER_00: We know who you're buying it for.
15:54
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but yeah, you know, and we're taking it even another step further that I hate to sell any of my used barrels off.
16:00
SPEAKER_00: So I'm doing an agave spheric this week, you know, a Kent tequila or whatever you want to call it, called Dose Lunis, off of our two moons line, you know.
16:09
SPEAKER_00: So Dose Lunis, Agave Spirit, Kentucky Agave, that's gonna be on the three chamber, but it's gonna go in used barrels, right?
16:15
SPEAKER_00: I've got a single malt that's going in used barrels, but the biggest product we're putting back is our moonshine.
16:20
SPEAKER_00: We're aging our moonshine.
16:21
SPEAKER_00: We put out the world's first ever bald and bond moonshine a year ago, and we're starting to sell single barrels of it at five, six, seven years old.
16:27
SPEAKER_00: I really don't care how long it sets, as long as it's ready to go.
16:30
SPEAKER_00: But I mean, we probably got a thousand barrels of barrel-aged moonshine on side.
16:34
SPEAKER_02: And you also laid down some rum.
16:35
SPEAKER_00: We did do, and we did some rum with rolling fork rum.
16:38
SPEAKER_00: We did.
16:38
SPEAKER_02: And then, and then definitely you've got all these.
16:41
SPEAKER_00: We got five barrels of absinthe that just turned four years old.
16:44
SPEAKER_00: So, come Fort Abelay numb, all right?
16:48
SPEAKER_00: Come Fort Able numb.
16:49
SPEAKER_00: You have to you have to you have to sound it out the way I spelled it, because I don't want to get sued.
16:53
SPEAKER_00: Come Fort Abelay numb.
16:54
SPEAKER_00: Because when I when I tasted that barrel age absinthe, the song comfortably numb just popped into my head, man, from Pink Floyd.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: And I don't want to get sued by Pink Floyd.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: So if you need to sue me, sue me.
17:05
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's just going in the gift shop, anyways.
17:08
SPEAKER_00: But, you know, that's a product we're gonna be putting out around December, is the world's first ever Bald and Bond absinthe.
17:14
SPEAKER_00: And I think we got five barrels of it.
17:15
SPEAKER_00: It's fucking banging.
17:16
SPEAKER_05: We'll be here.
17:17
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
17:19
SPEAKER_02: Rachel's like, yep, yeah, yep.
17:21
SPEAKER_02: My crazy aspect of that is I could see you do a night thing at the distillery with, you know, just like, and then you just got the people, you know, you just play the song all night long.
17:36
SPEAKER_02: That'll definitely get me soon.
17:39
SPEAKER_00: You know, I spelled it.
17:40
SPEAKER_00: When you guys see the label, you'd have a hard time even recognizing that it wait, but I'm just telling everybody, like, that's my inspiration for it.
17:46
SPEAKER_00: And I love Pink Floyd and Comfortably Numb, so I'm not trying to rip them off.
17:50
SPEAKER_00: But I can't help it, man.
17:51
SPEAKER_00: The fucking song played in my head when I heard it, you know, when I tasted it.
17:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
17:56
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'll tell you guys, this would be this could be a cool thing that we could look at doing together as well.
18:00
SPEAKER_00: But we are actively right now building our an outdoor still.
18:04
SPEAKER_00: An actual true moonshine still.
18:05
SPEAKER_00: It's a Donnie Bitten built stainless steel bottom with all copper top that's gonna run into a wooden thumper and into a wooden worm tub that we're gonna run open flame outside.
18:14
SPEAKER_00: Literally, all it is is four posts and a top over top of it.
18:19
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah, it's all it's about it's it's 200 feet away from the rickhouse.
18:23
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna we're gonna cool it with palm water.
18:25
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's gonna be as old school way of running this, but I thought that could be a badass event to do.
18:29
SPEAKER_00: We'll make moonshine under the moon.
18:31
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
18:32
SPEAKER_00: Legitimately.
18:33
SPEAKER_02: This is a good year for the pond, too.
18:34
SPEAKER_00: It's a good year for the pond.
18:36
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
18:36
SPEAKER_02: That sounds awesome.
18:38
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I want to be out of it.
18:41
SPEAKER_02: So you brought the the hidden barn in the tenure.
18:43
SPEAKER_02: Do you want to share the tenure?
18:44
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
18:45
SPEAKER_00: Pop rope.
18:45
SPEAKER_00: Well, yeah, boys, pop rope.
18:47
SPEAKER_02: Let's let's do that's you, CT.
18:49
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
18:50
SPEAKER_02: I always let him do it.
18:51
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
18:52
SPEAKER_00: Do the honors.
18:53
SPEAKER_02: We were with Christian from uh the you know bourbon on the banks.
18:57
SPEAKER_02: We were at Bourbon on the Banks, and he had just bought all the the E.H.
19:01
SPEAKER_02: Taylors, and we were over at the House of Commons.
19:03
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
19:04
SPEAKER_02: Was sitting there, Christian said, Do you ever have 18-year-old marriage or the amoranth of the gods, right?
19:10
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, no, he's like, he puts the tubes in front of us.
19:13
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
19:13
SPEAKER_02: And I looked at him.
19:14
SPEAKER_02: It's 1:30 in the morning.
19:16
SPEAKER_02: I looked at him and I said, You do the pork.
19:18
SPEAKER_00: Austin, I look at the glass, I'm like, I shared it with the whole bar.
19:22
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'll tell you guys, this bottle here is become famous over the last couple weeks.
19:27
SPEAKER_00: So we took the first bottle of it down to Brussel Fest.
19:30
unknown: Yes.
19:30
SPEAKER_00: All right.
19:31
SPEAKER_00: Bruisel has been a great supporter.
19:33
SPEAKER_00: TJ's a hell of a guy.
19:34
SPEAKER_00: But we take a bottle down there and he does an event the first night with his family and friends.
19:39
SPEAKER_00: So I handed him a bottle.
19:40
SPEAKER_00: And I said, hey man, you know, we brought this for you.
19:42
SPEAKER_00: This is the first bottle that's going out into the wild.
19:46
SPEAKER_00: And the second one we're going to donate to your charity fund tomorrow, which brought over a thousand dollars for the charity.
19:52
SPEAKER_01: Nice, there we go.
19:53
SPEAKER_00: But he says to me, hey man, do you care if I open this up at my event tonight?
19:56
SPEAKER_01: I got one.
19:57
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
19:58
SPEAKER_00: Because I want to share it with my closest family and friends.
20:00
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, yeah, man, pop it open.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: So he pops it open, they pour about a third of it, he sets it down, he starts talking, we turn back around and the bottle's gone.
20:07
SPEAKER_00: His bottle was famously stolen at his event.
20:10
SPEAKER_00: Stolen.
20:11
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
20:11
SPEAKER_00: Stolen.
20:12
SPEAKER_00: So by the way, if anybody, whoever stole that, keep it quiet because TJ's on the war path.
20:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
20:16
SPEAKER_00: You stole his bottle of Pappa's Legacy Reserve.
20:19
SPEAKER_00: That's how good it was.
20:19
SPEAKER_00: I said, I take it, man.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: You know, somebody stole it.
20:22
SPEAKER_00: They didn't steal the uh didn't steal any of the other ones, so well, I want people to know that's caramel porn.
20:29
SPEAKER_04: I was like, uh.
20:32
SPEAKER_04: And then you have to explain to me how it's made, why it tastes this way, and then it's back to the traditions, like I said.
20:43
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna tell you, this is this is.
20:46
SPEAKER_04: Don't interrupt me.
20:47
SPEAKER_02: Wait, wait, wait, literally, wait.
20:51
SPEAKER_02: Of course.
20:52
SPEAKER_00: You guys got the first sample, by the way.
20:53
SPEAKER_00: Right.
20:54
SPEAKER_02: But I'm telling you, the bottled bottle is a little different than the same.
20:59
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
21:00
SPEAKER_02: It's picking up some really, really good notes.
21:03
SPEAKER_02: Maybe because it's been in the in the in the hot tent for a while or whatever.
21:07
SPEAKER_00: Who knows?
21:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
21:09
SPEAKER_04: I'm just gonna say open your mind to something different.
21:14
SPEAKER_01: But I think it tastes like cracker checks.
21:16
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I've so the the full story on let me give you guys a little background as we sip through it.
21:21
SPEAKER_00: So we're looking at a 70, 20, 10 Nealy mash bill, 70 corn, 20 wheat, 10% malted barley, all 10 barrels of it.
21:27
SPEAKER_00: That's based off the old Stitzelweller recipe.
21:30
SPEAKER_00: Um it's been marrying for a year together, those 10 barrels, and we're looking at right at about 110, I think, point one, which is barrel strength proof on that.
21:40
SPEAKER_02: You're right.
21:41
SPEAKER_02: The wheat here is the most prevalent of a wheat.
21:47
SPEAKER_02: You you're not getting the rich carameless of the barrel overtaking the distillant, but the wheat is still there, and that is definitely the aspect of the pot still, because you get those oily flavors from the wheat and they hold up against the.
22:03
SPEAKER_00: I mean, look at it, guys.
22:04
SPEAKER_00: You can see the oil is pouring down it.
22:05
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
22:06
SPEAKER_00: The viscosity, the body.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, the body.
22:10
SPEAKER_02: Definitely honors him.
22:12
SPEAKER_00: I appreciate it, man.
22:13
SPEAKER_00: You know, the the biggest what what we've been hearing out there in the wild from people as they're trying it at Bourbon Fest is is this is the$300 bottle that actually drinks like a$300 bottle.
23:09
SPEAKER_00: It's not, and then that's the great part about Bourbon Fest Bourbon Fest.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: CTU and me were talking about it, is I'm selling a$300 bottle that everybody's trying before they buy it.
23:17
SPEAKER_00: So you know that they love it when they buy it.
23:20
SPEAKER_00: And we've sold, hell, I don't know, 400 bottles of it yesterday.
23:23
SPEAKER_02: Well, that's excellent.
23:23
SPEAKER_02: I hope you sell the rest of it out.
23:25
SPEAKER_00: We've got we brought seven, you know, 750 limited batch, and I left about a hundred of them at the distillery at the gift shop.
23:31
SPEAKER_03: So I hear to you that you are changing people's minds in that line when they're tasting it because they're already coming up there knowing what their budget is and all that.
23:42
SPEAKER_03: But then when they taste it, they're like.
23:43
SPEAKER_03: Oh my god.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: Well I have to thank you guys too, man.
23:46
SPEAKER_00: It was good for us to send, you know, we Amy Presky does all of our PR.
23:50
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
23:50
SPEAKER_00: And you guys were number one on the list, obviously, with our sponsorship.
23:54
SPEAKER_00: And it's worked because people are walking up there saying, hey, I want to try the papaws.
23:57
SPEAKER_00: I want to try the papaws.
23:58
SPEAKER_00: And that's coming from that's coming from the advertising, you know what I mean?
24:01
SPEAKER_00: Because I didn't do hardly any advert.
24:02
SPEAKER_02: You know, we're a small little distillery, so yeah, and and we've definitely been pushing that in the hidden barn.
24:10
SPEAKER_02: We're excited for the Ohio release.
24:12
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
24:12
SPEAKER_00: That's that's that and that's what we got, guys.
24:14
SPEAKER_00: So the only place outside of Ohio that's available is at the gift shop.
24:17
SPEAKER_00: This is the Tea Party batch.
24:19
SPEAKER_00: And we did that specifically for Molly to honor her because that's her home state of Ohio, right?
24:24
SPEAKER_00: She's Cincinnati born and breaded.
24:26
SPEAKER_00: She'll be here at the festival today to sign bottles.
24:28
SPEAKER_00: But her and Becca slated on this.
24:30
SPEAKER_00: It was fun to watch them two together put this batch because, man, it was it was fun, you know.
24:35
SPEAKER_00: Hidden Barn always wanted to be the Motley crew of bourbon, and that's what it just felt fun watching them do that batch.
24:40
SPEAKER_00: Oh it was.
24:42
SPEAKER_02: It tastes like there's like it's tasting like those sweet tea.
24:47
SPEAKER_02: The only thing that tasted ever anything closer was the few where he was the few batch that he did where he was like using bootlong tea and he used the actual tea to proof it down.
25:00
SPEAKER_00: But this is no, this is bourbon that tastes that's straight out of those barrels.
25:03
SPEAKER_00: Man, I think this was an eight-barrel batch that they done.
25:06
SPEAKER_00: They normally taste through about 100 to 150 of our oldest stock.
25:09
SPEAKER_00: This is all seven to eight-year-old hidden barn, which is cool.
25:12
SPEAKER_00: Our oldest release to date, and I think it stands up to it.
25:14
SPEAKER_00: So that one's going to San Fran this year.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: And it just so happened it hit at 107 on the dot.
25:19
SPEAKER_00: That's no proof down, that's barrel strength.
25:21
SPEAKER_00: Wow.
25:21
SPEAKER_02: Well, Ohio's ready for a tea party.
25:23
SPEAKER_00: They are.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: Ohio's having the tea party right now.
25:26
SPEAKER_00: So I looked out in jungle gyms, just picked it up in all their locations, and it's uh it's flying off the shelf up there.
25:31
SPEAKER_02: So I we've been talking about it for a couple weeks right now.
25:35
SPEAKER_02: Can't wait.
25:36
SPEAKER_02: Everybody was telling, that's what least means when you're at the festival.
25:40
SPEAKER_02: I was like, okay, but I'll have Royce on.
25:43
SPEAKER_02: So everybody in Ohio, man, hidden barn, you want to hit that, that's coming out.
25:48
SPEAKER_00: And once it's gone, it's gone, guys.
25:49
SPEAKER_00: It's we do a single barrel approach to the small batch, which is they all have their own nuances, but just like a single barrel, when that batch is gone, the next one won't take it won't be like cherry picker, it won't be like slow fade, it won't be like 23B before it.
26:01
SPEAKER_02: But it's a batch.
26:02
SPEAKER_02: It is awesome.
26:03
SPEAKER_02: Because a lot of times when someone introduces as a craft distillery, they introduce with single barrels and single barrel Saturday and all that kind of thing.
26:15
SPEAKER_02: But you guys are introducing it to Ohio with a batch.
26:18
SPEAKER_00: We our our main uh distributor in the United States is Skernick Wine and Spirits, and their main guy for they just moved into Ohio, but Kentucky and Indiana, so OKI, and he had a plan for us, and he said, Hey, you know, he we're gonna run wide open with Willet, who they represent there, and we're gonna start Neely just with single barrels of hidden barn and a hidden barn small batch.
26:37
SPEAKER_00: I want you to do specifically for Ohio.
26:39
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, and we'll build it right off of that.
26:40
SPEAKER_00: So he has a plan, and we made it happen for him.
26:43
SPEAKER_00: And that's what you want with a relationship.
26:45
SPEAKER_00: You know, it ain't like that for a lot of guys anymore, man.
26:49
SPEAKER_00: But we feel with Skernik that we're building a brand together, and that's great.
26:51
SPEAKER_02: I mean, you couldn't have picked a better time for us to become partners in business with Ohio because that's just like your old backyard.
27:01
SPEAKER_00: That's right.
27:02
SPEAKER_02: And you know, it's anybody coming down from Ohio to Kentucky, you're coming down, Neely is on the way.
27:08
SPEAKER_02: Sure.
27:08
SPEAKER_02: And I will tell you this they have a great bathroom.
27:11
SPEAKER_00: Okay, thank you.
27:12
SPEAKER_00: Thank you, guys.
27:12
SPEAKER_00: We're proud of that.
27:13
SPEAKER_00: We're proud of the bathroom.
27:14
SPEAKER_02: Don't stop at a gas station.
27:16
SPEAKER_02: Don't stop on your way down.
27:18
SPEAKER_02: You hit the the right around the corner, four-hour marketing, hit Neely, you make sure you go in there, take stop, and then check everything out.
27:25
SPEAKER_02: You won't leave till you gotta go in.
27:27
SPEAKER_00: I remember I was telling my dad, it's got a lot of room in here, dad, you know, for activities in that bathroom, but he was building it.
27:33
SPEAKER_00: So it's a it's a huge bathroom.
27:34
SPEAKER_00: But yes, thank you.
27:35
SPEAKER_00: I'm glad you guys appreciate it.
27:37
SPEAKER_02: We in Roxy have come to appreciate bathilly bathrooms and everything.
27:42
SPEAKER_02: I agree.
27:42
SPEAKER_00: Isn't it clear Especially for a woman?
27:44
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I understand that, you know, that you don't get to stand up, you know, depending on what you do.
27:49
SPEAKER_00: So yes, I understand that completely.
27:50
SPEAKER_00: My wife's the same way.
27:51
SPEAKER_00: I also learned, and we do this at our distillery, but making sure you have purse holders.
27:55
unknown: Yes.
27:56
SPEAKER_00: Hooks.
27:57
SPEAKER_00: I didn't I never thought of that, you know, but Becca, yes, so we have purse holders as well.
28:00
SPEAKER_00: And in the bathroom.
28:01
SPEAKER_02: Well, just so you know, in the bathroom of the men's, you should always have a couple.
28:04
SPEAKER_00: That's a good point.
28:05
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, always that's for saying that's on the diural, boys, you know.
28:09
SPEAKER_00: It's like in college again.
28:10
SPEAKER_02: I don't know how many times I'm like, how are we doing this?
28:12
SPEAKER_00: It's the college days, right on the urnal.
28:17
SPEAKER_00: That's true.
28:17
SPEAKER_00: You can and real quick.
28:18
SPEAKER_00: I've people have passed out in that bathroom.
28:20
SPEAKER_00: We've there's all kinds of things that can happen in that bathroom.
28:23
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
28:23
SPEAKER_01: So plug plug the location.
28:25
SPEAKER_01: So if you're coming from Ohio, wherever, you're up right in between Cincinnati and Louisville.
28:31
SPEAKER_00: So we're about 301.
28:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, 30, 30, 40 minutes south of Cincinnati, right off Interstate 71, and we're a half mile off the interstate.
28:37
SPEAKER_00: So really easy to get to.
28:38
SPEAKER_01: And if you don't see the signs for Neely, all you have to remember is where the old racetrack was in Sparta.
28:44
SPEAKER_01: They sit between the two exits.
28:46
SPEAKER_01: It's easy to find.
28:47
SPEAKER_00: Or if you need to, if you need to hit some other vices, Bel Terra Casino is a mile down the road, you just jump right over into Indiana if it's right past us.
28:54
SPEAKER_00: So we you can take care of all your problems there.
28:57
SPEAKER_00: That's wonderful.
28:59
SPEAKER_02: And the tenure, if you're at the festival, you're watching this, you got you're gonna want this.
29:05
SPEAKER_02: This is yeah, like we said, yeah, I'll I'll give you a give you a plug.
29:09
SPEAKER_02: We said the best 300.
29:11
SPEAKER_02: You got Macaulay.
29:12
SPEAKER_02: You don't have to worry about ripping on him because he's at the 500.
29:16
SPEAKER_00: Hey, well, we don't have to worry about ripping on Macaulay because he's my boy, you know.
29:19
SPEAKER_00: No, I know.
29:19
SPEAKER_00: Well, I mean, I'm just saying, we call ourselves like we're the alliance, man.
29:22
SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
29:23
SPEAKER_02: Sure, we're just he has the$500, so his is probably the best$500, yours is the best.
29:28
SPEAKER_00: For anybody that doesn't know, Dark Arts and Neely have been in an alliance for since Dark Arts essentially launched.
29:33
SPEAKER_00: We do all of their bottling there.
29:35
SPEAKER_00: So every bit of dark arts comes out.
29:36
SPEAKER_00: If you look at Sparta, Kentucky, there's only one distillery in Sparta, Kentucky.
29:40
SPEAKER_00: And that's because we have never felt like we're competing with each other.
29:43
SPEAKER_00: What Neely does and what dark arts does is two completely different things.
29:46
SPEAKER_00: And Macaulay's a genius, so you know it's a it's a blast.
29:50
SPEAKER_00: And I always I we've had David Pete has been sending so many people over to us, and we send them over to them because what's good for the goose boys is good for the gander.
29:58
SPEAKER_02: Bourbon people don't just drink one cheese.
30:01
SPEAKER_00: Hey, when I look at that long dark arts line over there, I smile too, because I got a piece of them bottles as well.
30:06
SPEAKER_00: And David and Macaulay know that, you know what I mean?
30:09
SPEAKER_00: Like we do a great service for them, and you know, we love the business.
30:14
SPEAKER_02: But New Orleans was the most uh unbelievable thing.
30:18
SPEAKER_02: Right.
30:18
SPEAKER_02: That's kind of where we made the good point.
30:20
SPEAKER_00: I mean, hell, I was the best man in Macaulay's wedding, for the love of God, you know.
30:24
SPEAKER_02: And he had to go buy him a sword to put his own, and so we had a wedding.
30:28
SPEAKER_03: I mean, I missed it, but I watched everything.
30:32
SPEAKER_02: We're talking of actual antique swords original.
30:36
SPEAKER_02: It was it that story is amazing.
30:38
SPEAKER_00: As a buddy of Macaulay, man, life is wild, all right?
30:40
SPEAKER_00: And I feel like I feel like his uh everything's rubbing off, too.
30:43
SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm uh the rings are coming, and uh, you know, the the style's getting better for me.
30:47
SPEAKER_00: I'm about the shirt, right?
30:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I saw Macaulay had a switchblade yesterday, so we're rubbing off on each other, you know what I mean?
30:53
SPEAKER_00: I got the style, he's got the weapon.
30:54
SPEAKER_00: But, anyways, I was there, he reached out to Becca and said, Hey, well, he first he just very briefly reached out to me and said, Hey, at the Distiller Summit in Key West that we do every year, I'm gonna propose to Avery.
31:06
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, fuck, man.
31:07
SPEAKER_00: This is all right, cool.
31:08
SPEAKER_00: But you don't want me to help you with that, man, because I'm gonna screw it up.
31:11
SPEAKER_00: But Becca, so anyways, Becca helped him set up the proposal that he did on the beach.
31:15
SPEAKER_00: And it worked because Avery said yes, and that's all great.
31:18
SPEAKER_00: And then they've been planning, you know, it's we don't have a lot of free time, it's distillers and blenders.
31:22
SPEAKER_00: So he's been trying to marry.
31:23
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he loves this girl because he's been trying to marry her after he proposed to her.
31:26
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he really has been.
31:27
SPEAKER_00: And finally he just got to New Orleans and said, Fuck it, man.
31:31
SPEAKER_00: I'm doing it live.
31:32
SPEAKER_00: Do it here.
31:32
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, Will you be my best?
31:34
SPEAKER_00: Will you stand up there with me?
31:35
SPEAKER_00: And I said, Yeah, man.
31:36
SPEAKER_00: He goes, I need a sword, Royce.
31:38
SPEAKER_00: And I said, you know what, buddy?
31:40
SPEAKER_00: If all you need from your best man to stand up there and get married is a sword, by God.
31:44
SPEAKER_00: I will start drinking tomorrow morning.
31:46
SPEAKER_00: I'll I will start tomorrow morning, I will find us swords.
31:49
SPEAKER_00: So I hollered at my boy Jordan Morris, rolling fork, and I said, Come on, man, let's uh help me down here.
31:54
SPEAKER_00: And and you know what?
31:54
SPEAKER_00: It really wasn't that hard.
31:55
SPEAKER_00: And I I was shocked.
31:57
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't that hard to find some badass swords in the French corner.
32:01
SPEAKER_00: It was New Orleans.
32:03
SPEAKER_03: He came up with it, too.
32:04
SPEAKER_00: I I get down there, there's an antique weapons store on like right off of Bourbon Street.
32:10
SPEAKER_00: I'm in there and I'm like, and it just so happened that-and they had a bottle, they had a bottle in there of an absinthe bottle from 1864.
32:19
SPEAKER_00: So I'm like, all right, man, I'm gonna buy these two swords from you.
32:24
SPEAKER_00: But I want the absinthe bottle too.
32:26
SPEAKER_00: And he's so we're working together and I'm throwing some numbers out and whatnot.
32:29
SPEAKER_00: I ended up buying a gun in there.
32:31
SPEAKER_00: I bought an 1864 Coke Navy in there.
32:34
SPEAKER_00: I bought that old ass absinthe bottle, which is badass, and I bought two swords for me and Macaulay.
32:40
SPEAKER_00: So, and he gave me all the history on all of it.
32:42
SPEAKER_00: And then the best part of it was is the guy I was dealing with wasn't the owner, right?
32:46
SPEAKER_00: So we get to Bourbon Fest, and the the owner is there.
32:49
SPEAKER_00: Oh shit.
32:50
SPEAKER_00: He had a ticket to Bourbon Fest.
32:51
SPEAKER_00: So he comes up, he's like, My guys are telling me that there's some swords here, and then I see you guys up there clacking them at the wedding, and I'm like, Yeah, man.
32:58
SPEAKER_00: So it went full circle.
32:59
SPEAKER_00: It was cool.
33:00
SPEAKER_00: Nobody got injured, nobody got injured at Bourbon Fest at you know, at New Orleans with the uh with the sword.
33:04
SPEAKER_02: So I was worried more about Macaulay at the end of the night.
33:07
SPEAKER_02: He was yielded.
33:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was worried about David Pete, man.
33:10
SPEAKER_00: Poor old David did.
33:10
SPEAKER_00: At least I had a weapon to fight him off.
33:12
SPEAKER_00: David didn't have one, you know.
33:13
SPEAKER_00: I was worried Macaulay might actually stab David.
33:15
SPEAKER_00: You never know.
33:16
SPEAKER_02: All right, we gotta we gotta wrap it up.
33:18
SPEAKER_02: People are trying to do the butt uh voice.
33:20
SPEAKER_02: It's just I look to have this.
33:23
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna be down there to sport chick as I I look at it as just a more a way than I can convince her to come to Kentucky.
33:32
SPEAKER_00: Even better, man.
33:32
SPEAKER_00: Way more.
33:33
SPEAKER_00: Cool.
33:34
SPEAKER_02: So thank you so much.
33:35
SPEAKER_00: Appreciate it, Tani.
33:36
SPEAKER_00: CT Nash, thank you guys.
33:39
SPEAKER_05: We got some burning balls for you.
33:41
SPEAKER_00: Hell yeah, we will eat those.
33:42
SPEAKER_00: Thank you guys.
33:45
SPEAKER_00: That's perfect.
33:45
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we will put that to good use.
33:47
SPEAKER_00: That is no doubt.
33:48
SPEAKER_00: So thank you guys again, man.
33:49
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, all right, all right, take myself.
33:51
SPEAKER_03: One last time do you want to tell everybody other than uh Kentucky Burbid Fest?
33:55
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man.
33:56
SPEAKER_00: So find us at uh Neelyfamily Distillery.com.
33:59
SPEAKER_00: You can find me, Royce Neely, Facebook.
34:01
SPEAKER_00: You can find us on Instagram as well, and then swing by the distillery, right off Interstate 71, exit 55, Neeley Family Distillery.
34:07
SPEAKER_00: We're easy.
34:08
SPEAKER_02: And yeah, everybody on your way home from Kentucky Bourbon Festival up in Ohio, stop off at Neal.
34:15
SPEAKER_00: Sounds good, man.
34:16
SPEAKER_02: We plan to do it.
34:17
SPEAKER_03: Everything for the Scottish Burbon boys, all your swag, land parents, t-shirts, things like that.
34:21
SPEAKER_03: Chris Blend Parent Club, Patreon.
34:25
SPEAKER_03: Holly bourbon balls, Hollywoods, and also bourbon balls, the best, the best in the States.
34:31
SPEAKER_03: And remember, don't drink and drive.
34:34
SPEAKER_03: No good bourbon eating.
34:36
SPEAKER_02: That too.
34:38
SPEAKER_05: Don't drink and drive.
34:40
SPEAKER_02: Make sure you drink responsibly.
34:43
SPEAKER_00: Live your life uncut and unfiltered.
34:47
SPEAKER_00: It's cool, man.
34:48
SPEAKER_00: Good.
34:49
SPEAKER_00: That's great.