Hey, isn’t this supposed to be bourbon country?
Well, according to at least one company, there’s plenty of room in Kentuckians’ livers for more options.
We got wind last week that Lexington Brewing and Distilling, parent company of Kentucky Ale and Town Branch Distillery, has some interesting adult beverages in the works.
Up for release in 2013 are Labadee Gold and Labadee Dark (both “rhums,” as the company likes to spell it) coming from the distillery end of the business.
Proving himself one of the state’s shrewdest businessmen, founder, president and CEO, Pearse Lyons knows that rum—not bourbon, not vodka, not gin—is far and away the most popular spirit in the country, and he knows that, for the most part, Americans are drinking crummy rum.
Also the founder and CEO of Alltech, a $750 million company producing antibiotic-free and hormone free cattle feed in 128 countries, the world knows Lyons is no rum dummy. Clearly he’s seizing the opportunity here to roll out premium rums, er, um rhums to serve a market that largely doesn’t know how good fermented sugar cane molasses really tastes—without cola!
We’re not exactly going out on a limb in saying this, but we predict that in five years, you could well see the love given good bourbon also being lavished on good rum as the premium distilled spirits industry continues its boom cycle.
Also at Kentucky Ale … brewers there and at BBC Bottling in Louisville have begun discussing how to partner on a beer which, according to InsiderLouisville.com, is loosely dubbed, “I-64 Corridor Collaboration: LBDC-BBC Limited Edition Collaboration Brew.”
While collaborations between breweries are nothing new, we think it’s something to watch when one state’s two largest brewers get in on the action.
Hypothesizing aside, beer lovers will be the beneficiaries are yet another good Kentucky-made beer hits the market … someday.
