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Master Blender Sandy Hyslop usually creates his whiskies and lets someone else worry about the packaging, but for the debut of the Royal Salute Couture Collection, he had the challenge of creating a 21-year-old whisky to match designer Richard Quinn's bespoke decanter. We'll discuss that challenge and the craft of whisky blending on WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, longtime Laphroaig manager John Campbell is stepping down, while the Heaven Hill strike in Kentucky is now in its third week. We'll have those stories, along with the latest whisky news and a bit of advice: watch out for desk chairs...they can have a mind of their own!

Colby and Ashley Frey own and operate Frey Ranch Farmers + Distillers, a true "grain to glass" farm distillery in Fallon, Nevada. Not only do they grow all of their own grain, but the only thing the Frey family didn't build themselves was the still - a unique combination of column and pot stills custom-built by Vendome. The Freys did have to assemble the still, though...and that's one of the stories they shared on our Happy Hour Live webcast the other night. We're also joined by Aberfeldy's Gareth Howells and actor Beth Behrs, known for her roles on "The Neighborhood" and "Two Broke Girls." They'll tell us about Aberfeldy's #BarrelsAndBees program to protect and expand critically endangered honeybee habitat, along with Beth's own experiences in both whisky and beekeeping.

Bourbon fermenters are bubbling all over the United States because of unprecedented global demand for "America's Native Spirit." September is Bourbon Heritage Month, and there's a sound argument to be made that history will remember this as one of the brightest periods ever for Bourbon. We'll look at the business fueling that growth this week with Steve Beam of Limestone Branch Distillery in Kentucky, Trey Zoeller of Jefferson's Bourbon, and Craig Johnson of Pernod Ricard USA. His colleagues have been among the most active investors in Bourbon over the last five years, including acquiring Jefferson's 18 months ago. In the news, the U.S. will open its borders for whiskey tourism starting in November, while the Heaven Hill strike continues in Kentucky. In our Behind the Label segment, we'll look at two different methods of distilling whiskey...both involve grain, of course, but that's where the similarities end.

Live broadcasting is sort of like walking a tightrope...most of the time, it works. Then, there are those times when one's walking the tightrope while juggling chainsaws, and that's what happened during our #HappyHourLive webcast Friday night at the American Whiskey Convention. While the live video stream was plagued with technical glitches, our audio backup made this episode possible! Thanks to all of our guests who joined us Friday night, as well as those of you who watched the live video stream. 

Distillers like to say they're laying down whiskies for the next generation, but in many cases, it's their next generation who will be bottling those whiskies. That tradition is being passed on now in the Noe and Russell families, as Freddie Noe and Bruce Russell take on more and more responsibilities at the Jim Beam and Wild Turkey distilleries. Freddie is the eighth generation of his branch of the Beam family tree, and will eventually take over for his father Fred Noe as Beam's master distiller. Bruce is the son of Wild Turkey Master Distiller Eddie Russell, who had to work for decades under his father, the legendary Jimmy Russell...who celebrated his 67th anniversary at Wild Turkey this past Friday. We'll catch up with Freddie and Bruce on this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, it's Kentucky Bourbon Festival week in Bardstown, but this year's festival is being hit by both Covid-19 and a strike at Heaven Hill that's forced that distillery to pull out of festival events.  We'll have those stories and

Four Roses is releasing its 2021 Limited Edition Small Batch Bourbon this month, and Master Distiller Brent Elliott joined us on the latest #HappyHourLive webcast with the details. We're also joined by Darryl McNally. who stepped down as Master Distiller at Ireland's Dublin Liberties Distillery recently to start his own Limavady Irish Whiskey brand and revive his family's distilling heritage in Northern Ireland's County Antrim. Whisky Magazine editor Christopher Coates makes his first appearance on our Friday night webcasts, too. Join us each Friday at 5:00pm New York time for our live webcasts on the WhiskyCast YouTube channel, our Facebook page, Twitter, and Twitch!

On a cold, wintry Scottish day in February of 1940, one of Gordon & MacPhail's Sherry casks was filled with new make spirit at Glenlivet Distillery. That cask lasted through wars, recessions, and a couple of generations of Urquhart family members to become the oldest Scotch Whisky ever bottled: the Gordon & MacPhail Generations Glenlivet 80 Years Old. Stephen Rankin of Gordon & MacPhail joins us on this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth to share the story behind this rare whisky...and we'll taste it, too! In the news, global shortages of glass bottles and packaging materials caused by the pandemic are about to result in higher whisky prices, while Diageo has opened its new Johnnie Walker experience in Edinburgh and Beam a new distillery in Kentucky. We'll also look at a unique way to add the character of a wood to whisky when it's impossible to actually make a cask from that wood.

Make sure your battery's charged for this one, since we spent nearly two hours talking the other night with longtime Scotch Whisky and Bourbon ambassdors Steve Beal, David Blackmore, and Ewan Morgan, along with Stranahan's head distiller Owen Martin. We covered everything from Steve's ongoing fight against pancreatic cancer to life on the road and Owen's latest distillery exclusive bottling for Stranahan's. Join us each Friday night for our #HappyHourLive webcast at 5pm New York time on the WhiskyCast YouTube channel, our Facebook page, Twitter, and Twitch.

Paul Hletko opened FEW Spirits in the Chicago suburb of Evanston, Illinois in 2011 as part of the explosion of small-scale distilleries around the United States. He became a leader in the craft distilling movement, and is celebrating FEW's 10th anniversary with the release of a commemorative four-grain Bourbon this week. We'll talk with Paul about balancing the art and commerce of making whisky on this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, travel restrictions may be going back into effect that could affect whisky tourism, while the owner of a Kentucky distillery has now agreed to plead guilty to charges in the Operation Varsity Blues case and avoid a trial next month. We'll also have news on a new series of whiskies from The Macallan, and on Behind the Label, we'll explain why some distilleries use "The" in their names. 

If there's one thing that whisky teaches us, it's patience. Australians Vanessa Wilton and David Whittaker have learned that lesson over the last four years since they opened the Manly Spirits Company distillery in the Sydney-area beach resort of Manly. They had planned to release their first single malt whisky late last year, but of course, the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns delayed that plan. The Sydney area is back in lockdown again, but they've decided to go ahead and release that first whisky through a ballot that opens this week. I talked with Vanessa and David during a trip to Australia two years ago, and decided to wait until their first whisky was ready to share the interview with you. In the news, Jack Daniel's is doing something it hasn't done since Jack Daniel himself was alive...release a whiskey with an age statement. We have the details, along with an update on events being affected by the pandemic and the rest of the week's whisky news. 

Brian Nation is best known for his work as Master Distiller at Ireland's Midleton Distillery, and he shocked Irish whiskey lovers when he stepped down nearly a year ago to join the startup O'Shaughnessy Distilling Co. in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Covid kept him from making the move with his family until a couple of weeks ago, so he did much of his work remotely from Ireland with occasional trips to Minnesota. Now, the distillery is complete along with Brian's first batch of Keeper's Heart Irish + American Whiskey, a blend of Irish Single Pot Still and grain whiskies with American Rye whiskey. He joined us from the distillery for our #HappyHourLive webcast the other night, along with J. Rieger & Co. co-founder Ryan Maybee. The Kansas City distillery is releasing its first Bottled in Bond Rye Whiskey this week, and it's the first whiskey legally distilled in Kansas City since the end of Prohibition.

Everyone has questions about whisky. Dr. Nick Morgan knows more about whisky than most people, and his second pandemic-era book has just been published in a partnership with The Whisky Exchange. Everything You Need to Know About Whisky (but are too afraid to ask) answers many of those questions. We'll talk with Nick about his new book, along with his recent Master of Malt blog column on the role some Scotch Whisky makers played in the rise of Japanese whiskies. In the news, Beam Suntory is entering the direct-to-consumer whisky business, while Beam's Freddie Noe has written a new chapter in his Little Book series of whiskies. There's also a new chapter in the Parker's Heritage Collection series of whiskies, while a couple of upstarts are starting their own histories in the whiskey world.

Earlier this month, Nick Ravenhall and his brother Alex did something most of us would never dream of trying. They led a small team of swimmers through Scotland's treacherous Corryvreckan whirlpool as part of their Whisky and Waves campaign of open-water swims around Great Britain. The "Whisky Smugglers" are carrying small bottles of whisky during their swim that will be blended and sold later this year to raise money for Sea Shepherd's ocean conservation efforts in New Zealand, where the Ravenhall brothers call home. Nick joined us on the #HappyHourLive webcast along with Horse Soldier Bourbon co-founder Scott Neil. He and his partner, John Koko, were part of the U.S. Army's team of Green Berets that led the post 9/11 invasion of Afghanistan on horseback, a mission that was portrayed in the movie 12 Strong. They've turned to making whiskey now, with plans for a $150 million dollar distillery project in Somerset, Kentucky that is in the final stages of approval, but they still have adventure in their blood as

When you drink a glass of whisky, spare a thought for the lonely Quercus Alba. Without the thousands of American White Oak trees harvested every year, we wouldn't have Bourbon or most other whiskies, since Bourbon barrels wind up at distilleries all over the world. Kentucky claims to make 95% of the world's Bourbon, so one might think the Commonwealth would honor that with its choice for the state's official tree...but no. Lexington-based forestry scientist Tom Kimmerer and some of his colleagues want to change that, and are starting a campaign to persuade state lawmakers to replace the yellow poplar with a much more popular (and logical) choice. We'll talk with Tom on WhiskyCast In-Depth about the logical reasons for choosing the White Oak, along with his op-ed column last week in the Lexington Herald-Leader on how Kentucky could become a destination for "climate change refugees" escaping coastal communities. In the news, the big mystery in whisky circles is what happened to a $5,800 bottle of Japanese whisk

We're going into the #HappyHourLive webcast archives for this episode! Legendary distiller Jim McEwan joined us last February on the webcast, shortly before he announced his retirement from the Scotch Whisky industry, and this was one of his final interviews. He shared stories and answered your questions for nearly two hours that night, and we thought it was worth sharing with more of you. 

Jack Daniel's is arguably America's most well-known whiskey brand, but there's a lot we don't know about the history of Jack Daniel himself. The truth behind some of the mysteries around Jack Daniel's went to the grave with him when he died 110 years ago, and historians have been trying to piece together the details for years. Nelson Eddy is the distillery's official historian, and joins us on this week's WhiskyCast In-Depth to shed some light on those myths and misconceptions. In our Behind the Label segment, we'll also get the definitive answer from Master Distiller Chris Fletcher to another widely-debated question: should Jack Daniel's be considered a Bourbon? In the news, whisky lovers may think of a cocktail when they hear Manhattan, but that's about to change with the opening of Manhattan's first whisky distillery in 100 years. We'll have that and much more on this week's podcast!

Bob Baxter distills the award-winning Two Brewers Canadian single malts with co-founder Alan Hansen at their Yukon Spirits distillery in Whitehorse, Yukon, and Todd Leopold makes equally renowned whiskies with his brother Scott at Denver's Leopold Bros. Distilling. Bob and Todd joined us on the latest #HappyHourLive webcast to talk about their whiskies, along with the unique three-chamber still now being used at Leopold Bros. We also talked a bit of hockey, shared heritage in the Detroit area, and much more on the webcast, too! 

Nearly four years after Toby Curtsinger was released from prison after serving just 30 days of a 15-year sentence, he's telling his side of the "PappyGate" saga. Curtsinger, his wife Julie, and eight other people were indicted in connection with the thefts of thousands of dollars' worth of whiskey from Buffalo Trace and Wild Turkey distilleries, but Toby Curtsinger was the only one who served any time in prison. He's always maintained that he wasn't responsible for the 2013 theft of nearly 200 bottles of Pappy Van Winkle whiskies, and his story is part of the Netflix documentary series "Heist." We'll talk with "Heist" director Nick Frew on WhiskyCast In-Depth. In the news, tickets for this year's Kentucky Bourbon Festival are sold out, but some Bardstown residents don't see that as a good thing. Whisky events in Europe are starting to require attendees to show proof of Covid vaccination or negative tests, and the push for sustainability has whisky makers looking to the forests. 

The reaction to last week's bonus episode with Stephanie Macleod of Dewar's was so positive that we're doing it again this week! Wes Henderson of Angel's Envy joined us Friday night for the #HappyHourLive webcast, and we talked about everything from the construction underway at the distillery in Louisville to lab-created whiskies and what defines a "master distiller." That's something Wes knows well, since he co-founded Angel's Envy with his father, the late master distiller and original Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame inductee Lincoln Henderson. Wes joined his father in the Hall of Fame two years ago, and answered many of your whisky questions during the webcast, too!