A Sip Of Knowledge With Chad And Sara Of It’s Bourbon Night
On July 27, 2021 started a livestream of the program “A Sip Of Knowledge” was held at ZAVVY. Hosted by Liz Rhoades, Technical distiller and spirits consultant. With over a decade of experience in the spirits industry, Lew Bryson is a long-time whisky writer. He was the managing editor of Whisky Advocate magazine for 20 years, helping to shape the voice of whisky writing. He eventually decided to return to full-time freelance work.
And is currently promoting his latest book Whiskey Master Class, and Martin Duffy DIAGEO’s Whisky Master for the Midwest, DIAGEO’s Reserve Brand Ambassador for the Republic of Ireland and Glencairn Crystal’s Brand Representative for North America, with the participation of Chad Perkins & Sara Ahlgrim founders of the “It’s Bourbon Night” channel who will talk about some of the spirits comp whiskey, spirits, distilling, marketing, and the current state of the drink industry.
How Chad and Sara Met
Before Chad and Sara met he worked as an editor at a video production company. Where he spent eight or more hours a day in a dark room. Eventually he became a writer, producer and director, but at the time he was an editor. Which meant he didn’t often go out to shoot. When he learned that the client was a new bourbon bar, which was where Sara worked, he became interested in working on this project, bringing his knowledge and experience to the shoot. By this time, he had already become known as the “Bourbon Guy” in his job, and knew more about bourbon than the rest of the crew.
Sara was working for a marketing group at the Central Kentucky Bluegrass Hospitality Group at the time. This place is more known by the name “OBC Kitchen”. Which is a bourbon bar in Lexington that opened in 2014. Sara’s marketing team wanted to produce a video with engaging images of drinks being served. So they hired the video production company where Chad worked. They did a couple of shoots over the next six months, and that’s how they met. Eventually they became friends and realized that they were both becoming interested in bourbon. They had started with bourbon and Coke. And had moved on to being paired with water or ginger ale and then ice. Now they were in neat bourbon territory.
The Origin of “It’s Bourbon Night”
When they were opening the bourbon bar. Sara thought about the vast world that bourbon and the different products that exist today. So she and Chad set out to expand their horizons. Both of them already do tastings of different products. So they decided as a hobby to form a team to record these tastings and upload them to the internet. Becoming what today is “It ‘s Bourbon Night”. The channel started to become successful. The first episode was about 50 bourbons for less than 25 dollars. Which was complicated by the time involved and the fact that they had no budget at the time.
Chad and Sara never took inspiration from any other content creators similar to them as they never saw the need, so they started from their own knowledge and background. In addition to this, there was not much relevance to the subject of spirits on the Youtube platform, only a couple of channels related to this world, so they did not have any material to model their channel on. Over time and as his channel progressed, other channels started to emerge being inspired through Chad and Sara’s show and forming a friendship with these channels, each day forming a community related to the subject of spirits such as whisky. Over time their channel “It ‘s Bourbon Night” got more interactions and subscriptions from their followers, this support from people led them to start events and participate in events such as the New Orleans Bourbon Festival.
Chad and Sara have an extensive collection of bottles that they have been accumulating since before they started their programme. Many of these bottles have been featured on their channel, and have been funded by their audience through Patreon. Their collection continues to grow to this day.
Disinformation and Differing Opinions in the World of Beverages
Although Chad and Sara have been involved in the world of spirits for some time on their channel. They don’t consider themselves experts. So they are more closely related to the term “Enthusiasts” as they did not receive any formal training. And the knowledge they possess has been acquired through time and experience. In general there are people who do not relate to the term “Expert” when it comes to spirits. As this is a vast world that continues to grow day by day, with new innovations coming to light.
As it is such a wide world, it is normal to have doubts and questions. Which is why people choose to use means of information such as Google to answer these doubts. However, “It’s Bourbon Night” has an episode that consists of carrying out searches on Google. To answer questions that their followers ask them. Obtaining “hilarious” results and in many cases erroneous, exposing the misinformation that many of these sources have about bourbon. Not only can you get misinformation in media such as Google, but also in books. And even differences and discrepancies in the opinions of different experts.
Integrity Over Advertising
Rather than giving direct recommendations. Chad and Sarah focus on sharing their own notes and first impressions of the whiskies they taste. This allows listeners to compare their own tastes with those of the presenters. And ultimately make their own decisions about which whiskies to try. Chad and Sarah explain that this approach is more useful for listeners. As it allows them to learn more about their own tastes and preferences.
Different marketing agencies usually contacted Chad and Sara to make positive publicity for certain products. Being made different proposals that in the end were rejected. Because they seek to maintain the integrity they have formed over the years. In addition to this many people could not believe in this kind of advertising. Chad and Sara prefer not to lie about the products they review.
The “Blind Bourbon Flight Fight” Segment
The show “It ‘s Bourbon Night” has a segment called “Blind Bourbon Flight Fight” which is a long-running audience-participation episode. Consisting of a blind tasting of different types of bourbon. Through the experience that Chad and Sara have gained. They have discovered that in many occasions people’s opinions, tastes and criteria can be affected. Through marketing or recommendations from different individuals. Leading to more closed tastes and in general not being open to other types of beverage options. In general Chad and Sara promote and recommend having a full scope of the different beverage options on the market. And really discovering what they really like based on their palate and not based on their perception.
What a Blind Tasting Can Teach Us
Another trend that this segment brought up was that many people base their purchasing choices simply on higher priced products. Hovering around $50 to $60 bottles, when many of these individuals may be satisfied with lower priced bottles. An example of this came from an anecdote Chad told of a wedding held at Buffalo Trace where he attended. He proposed the idea of a blind tasting of different bottles. As everyone had a choice of higher priced bottles like Blanton’s. At the end of the blind tasting there were several people who chose the lowest priced bottle. Which happened to be “Ancient Age 90 Proof”. Many people tend to base their preferences on external aspects. Such as the label, the price or the colour, without taking into account the intrinsic qualities of the products.
An example of this is the case of the “Wild Turkey 101” bottle. Which Chad did not consider to his liking until he participated in this blind tasting segment. Where this bottle was the winner. This experience taught him a valuable lesson. About the importance of trying new products and expanding his mind to other options. We can see this type of behavior especially at VIP events and parties. Where it is common to observe a large number of people interested in trying as many bottles of whisky. Especially those of higher price and rarity. In many cases, these people are only looking to taste a small amount of these products. Without stopping to appreciate their taste.
Advertising of Alcoholic Beverages in Film and Other Media
For many years, spirits such as whisky or bourbon have frequently appeared in films and other similar media. These often attractive-looking drinks can arouse viewers’ interest and encourage them to try them.
Alcoholic beverage brands, such as Smirnoff, used to pay to appear in these media as a form of advertising. In some cases, this advertising can even be free of charge. As alcoholic beverages often appear naturally in this type of content. An example of this is the appearance of a bottle of Johnnie Walker in the 1950s film “Titanic”. Or in the Netflix series “Heist”, which chronicles the events of “Pappygate”. This phenomenon does not limit itself to audiovisual media. It also also extends to virtual content, such as blogs, social networks and online videos. These media play an important influence and role in the trends and growth of alcoholic beverage brands. A role previously occupied by print media such as magazines.
How Sampling Other People’s Product can Improve your own Product
A common shortcoming of small distilleries is that they do not taste other people’s product. This can make it difficult for them to evaluate their own product objectively. When small distilleries taste other people’s product, they can gain a better understanding of industry standards. This allows them to compare their own product with that of others and identify areas for improvement. Small distilleries can also use other people’s product to frame their own product effectively. For example, a small distillery might say: “Our whisky is young, but it has the potential to become something great. If you try this whisky, you can taste the flavours that we hope to develop over time”.
Featured Image: Patreon
