TWiB: Kentucky Bourbon Boys launches KBB Reserve, American Whiskey Scholars program, Starlight has 2 brand new releases
Bourbon Pursuit
This Week in Bourbon for September 4th, 2026, covers major industry news including the launch of Kentucky Bourbon Boys' KBB Reserve and American
Key takeaways
- Kentucky Bourbon Boys has launched KBB Reserve, a three-tier travel concierge service for bourbon enthusiasts.
- The American Whiskey Scholars program is now live as a self-paced online certification with three levels.
Main topics
- Kentucky Bourbon Boys KBB Reserve launch
- American Whiskey Scholars certification program
Notable quotes
"It's not under the weather, it's over the weather when it's 110 out all week."
"You don't need to wait for me. Thumbs up. And finished. Thumbs up. This is really good."
Conclusion
The episode highlights an exciting wave of new bourbon launches, educational initiatives, and
Transcript preview
Speaker 2 (0:08) It's This Week in Bourbon. I'm feeling pretty good, but I'm not under the weather. And here's your headlines for September 4th, 2026. The Kentucky Bourbon Boys have officially launched the KBB Reserve. The American Whiskey Scholars Program is going to be launching here relatively soon. And Starlight has two brand new releases. But before we get started, here's a quick word from our partners. Speaker 1 (0:43) Everybody, welcome back to Speaker 2 (0:45) This Week in Bourbon and happy Bourbon Heritage Month to you, Ryan. Speaker 1 (0:49) Oh, yeah. It is the September fur. Well, it's September. Speaker 2 (0:53) It is a month. It is a month Speaker 1 (0:55) long celebration. Yeah. Kind of like how the 250, it's a year long. Yes. Yes. We're going to celebrate it. Speaker 2 (1:02) We got all Speaker 1 (1:02) month. I hope you have your 30 days of bourbon ready to start. Can I just do it in one day? You can actually. Speaker 2 (1:09) 2.30. That is a hack. Speaker 1 (1:11) It's kind of, Speaker 2 (1:12) you know, when you turn 21, they're like, yeah, you have to do 21 shots before you go out. Or you have to do 21 shots. Nobody says what time you have to start, right? That's true. So I started mine around 10 a.m. Speaker 1 (1:24) I feel like last Friday I had about 30 samples. Turned a bunch of single barrel selections. Yes, you had a, it was a whirlwind week. Speaker 2 (1:33) I was Speaker 1 (1:33) spitting though. Yes. Speaker 2 (1:34) A Speaker 1 (1:35) little Speaker 2 (1:35) bit different. Responsibility. Well, we got a few things to cover. And the first is we have this brand new statue in front of us. We do. Speaker 1 (1:42) And it looks just like Fred Minnick. I don't know. This is, I wish it was him in his jujitsu outfit. Not his coat and ascot, but very cool. As you all may or may not know, we won Rye Whiskey of the Year, Best in Class winner. Double platinum. So all the things you can win. So we've always felt our rye whiskey is the best in the market. And this Ascot just proves that, my friend. It sure is. Yeah, it sure is. So if you'd like a picture with the Ascot, Speaker 2 (2:12) it's going to be on display. upstairs in the gift shop so you can go ahead. It's pretty heavy. I was like, this is Speaker 1 (2:18) like a damn Grammy or Oscar. It's nice. It might take off the shelves that I built up there. I hope there's some reinforcements going on. But you know, there's actually an Speaker 2 (2:27) old saying of feeling under the weather, right? You've heard that. I've heard that, yes. Speaker 1 (2:32) You don't say it too often. Neither do I. This week I feel under the weather when it's 110 out all week. That's over the weather, in my opinion. Speaker 2 (2:41) I just hate having colds. I hate feeling sick. But here's where that little nomenclature comes from is that sailors would often be at sea for months on end, and they would often fall ill due to poor living conditions. Kind of go figure there. When they were ill, they were sent below the deck to rest. And any sailor that was doing this was considered to be under the weather. Okay. Because, you know, weather's outside. Yeah, sure. Speaker 1 (3:07) That scurvy's tough out there. Yarr, Speaker 2 (3:09) matey. Speaker 1 (3:10) That's right. Glad to Speaker 2 (3:12) now know under the weather is. You sure do. And we got something here in our glass as well, too. I think just to talk about Kentucky Bourbon Festival, too, if I'm not mistaken, right? Well, Speaker 1 (3:21) I don't know. I don't. I'm assuming he'll have this at Bourbon Festival, but we got the dark art Sherry Garcia. So it's straight bourbon whiskey finished in Oloroso Sherry Wine Cask. Our good friend Macaulay Minton over there at Dark Arts. You know, all the apothecary or whatever you call this stuff. You said it right. Okay. Way to go. Good job. Yeah. So, yeah, I haven't had this expression. I'm a big fan of the blunt blend, but haven't had the Sherry Garcia. We'll see what it tastes. Well, go ahead. Dig in. So 57%, 114 Speaker 2 (3:57) .06 proof. Speaker 1 (3:59) And this is volume three. Speaker 2 (4:02) We Speaker 1 (4:02) got lucky bottle number 991. 991. And Macaulay won Blender of the Year. I'm coming for you next year, Macaulay. And the Ascot. So I'm sure you got a heavy ass paperweight as well. I'm with the nose here. Speaker 2 (4:16) Yeah. Speaker 1 (4:16) I mean. Tons of sherry, dates, figs. There's a little bit of like strawberry lemonade slushy kind of thing going. I was going Speaker 2 (4:30) to say ripe banana a little bit. Ripe Speaker 1 (4:32) banana. Yeah. I can see that. It's like a Runtz bag. There you go. Well, as usual, on with the taste. Oh, wow. That is. I mean, I don't know if it's because you said banana, but it's got some strong banana. It's got some really overripe banana, some cream, some like strawberry banana, like parfait kind of notes. And then it's got like this really interesting, almost like. Speaker 1 (5:02) earthy mustiness, like in a good way. Not, not like it's not scotch. Yeah. Yeah. It's like, yeah, it's like almost like a, our Marsala, like a mushroom Marsala sauce. Yeah. I could see Speaker 2 (5:12) that, you know, and banana might've been too much, but it's Speaker 1 (5:15) like, if you go to a lot of Cuban restaurants around here, you get plantains. Oh yeah. Yeah. And then it's kind of the plantain has a Speaker 2 (5:21) little plantain in there. Speaker 1 (5:22) Yeah. That's really good. Yeah. Well, quick, give it your thumbs, nose, thumbs, thumbs up. I liked it. Very good. I was like, you don't need to wait for me. Thumbs up. And finished. Thumbs up. This is really good. I love sherry finished stuff. So, you know, one of our favorite products was our sherry finished rye. But this is really good. Eight and a half year squib juice in a sherry Oloroso wine class. Nice. Not class, cask. Cask. Good job, Macaulay. Nice work, man. Yeah. It's delicious. It is. Well, Speaker 2 (5:51) here's a few announcements to kind of just talk about. It is Bourbon Heritage Month, so I hope you're out there celebrating. And as we're starting to go through here, let's talk about some events. And obviously the big one is next week. Ron and I, we will be there on Friday and Saturday of the Kentucky Bourbon Festival. We've already put it out there on the socials. We put our schedule when we'll... be around the booth we've also have a new well i should say continuing activation of between two barrels we have a lot of great industry guests that'll be over there plus a surprise pop-up with our friend jim gaffigan that'll be at 4 p.m well i think 4 or 4 15. somewhere around there on saturday afternoon There's also going to be random drops the entire weekend. So you're going to have Sakura Bloom, Honey Hog, our new Joint Operations, as well Speaker 1 (6:45) as what else was the- Found Footage, the big one. Found Footage. How did I forget that one? Yeah, the Short Barrel Club. If the labels show up. They'll show up. Don't Speaker 2 (6:53) you Speaker 1 (6:53) worry. They'll show up. Be down on the wire. But it's another kind of really cool, sweet label of having a Speaker 2 (6:59) Sasquatch on the label. Yeah. Speaker 1 (7:01) Two barrels of Sapsquatch bourbon blended with two of our double oak rye. one of them tobacco staves and I can't remember the other one, but it's frigging killer. Yeah. So good. It's on the label when it gets here. You can read it. Yeah. It'll be on there. So super excited for next week. It's, I hope it cools down a little bit because it's hot on hill, but it looks like it's going to cool down, should set up for a perfect week at Bourbon Fest. And Speaker 2 (7:23) you know, you can find Pursuit because we're always in the shaded area. Over in the craft area. And we've got the 10 by 20 move. Bar Speaker 1 (7:30) corner Speaker 2 (7:30) by the VIP. Speaker 1 (7:31) Yeah. You Speaker 2 (7:31) can't miss us. So make sure you come over, say hi, grab some samples. The people will