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Bluegrass Brewing Partners with Distiller

Louisville Courier-Journal
January 16, 2006
by Bill Wolfe

Stout to be aged in bourbon barrels
Louisville's Bluegrass Brewing Co. and Bardstown's McLain & Kyne Distillery have joined forces to produce a new dark beer with a strong Kentucky accent.
The beer, called a bourbon barrel stout because it is aged for two to three months in former bourbon barrels, promises to boost the profits and reputations of both companies, said Scott Roussell, managing director of Bluegrass Brewing, and Trey Zoeller, president of McLain & Kyne.
"It's a high-margin product. It's a premium product," Roussell said. Bourbon barrel stout beers sell well across the nation, and it's only right that one be brewed "here in our home state, where bourbon is from."
About 900 gallons of Bluegrass Brewing beer - enough for 8,880 bottles - were pumped last Wednesday into 18 recently emptied bourbon barrels that had held McLain & Kyne's premium product, Jefferson's Reserve bourbon.
The companies will share expenses and profits for the beer, which will be sold as Bluegrass Brewing Co.'s Jefferson's Reserve Bourbon Barrel Stout.
The key to the product is the bourbon-barrel aging. Over time, the oak barrels absorb bourbon and should impart some of the whiskey 's distinctive flavor into the beer, Zoeller said.
The result should be a richly flavored sipping beer, with a smooth chocolate taste and "a hint of bourbon," Roussell said. Because of the aging, the beer's alcohol content should be 10 percent to 11 percent, compared with the approximately 5 percent alcohol content of typical domestic beers.
The companies believe that their bourbon barrel stout will benefit from Bluegrass Brewing Company's strong local distribution channels and the big-city and international distribution network developed by McLain & Kyne.
"We want to get into some larger markets such as Boston, Chicago, San Francisco - the Northeast in particular," Roussell said.
"That will allow us to bring our other products ... into more of a national arena."
"It's something that makes sense to us," Zoeller said. "It helps both of us brand our products."
Specialty brews, such as bourbon barrel beers, represent "the fastest-growing segment, and one of the only growing segments, in the beer industry," Roussell said.
In bringing out its first new beer in a while, Bluegrass " looked at really what was hot across the country," Roussell said. The beers that were gaining ground were "these unique types of brands, from fruit beers to various forms of barrel-aged products."
Customers are looking for "what some people call 'big beers' - full-flavored, dark, heavy, complex, strong beers," said Brad Williams, assistant general manager at The Liquor Barn stores in Louisville.
Williams said he looks forward to carrying the Louisville-made beer. He has stocked bourbon barrel stouts made in Lexington and Chicago before, but those were limited-release items. The new brew will be something customers can buy regularly, he said.
"I think they're going to sell a lot," Williams said.
Retailers will set the beer's price, but Roussell said he expects a four-pack to sell for $10 to $16. It will be available locally at liquor stores, groceries and bars.
International sales also may be important for the beer.
"The Japanese and Asian markets are very high on bourbon and anything with Kentucky on it," Roussell said. "The beer also has potential in Europe," he said.
So far, not a single bottle is available for sale. Over the next several weeks, Bluegrass Brewing Company's brew master, David Pierce, will sample the product, at times getting responses from co-workers, friends and customers at the brewery's bar, 636 E. Main Street. When the time seems right, the beer will be bottled and prepared for local distribution.
Pierce is confident that the beer will do well, given its pedigree. "Oh, it's going to be nice," he said. Jefferson's Reserve is "a good bourbon to start with. And I think I make a good beer."
Roussell said he expects to fill a second group of barrels within two weeks and to continue producing a batch every two weeks.