Pipeman Interviews Angel's Envy at Bourbon & Beyond 2025

0:04 Hi, you love them too. Yes, that's true. I see why for you your. This is the pipe Man here on the Adventures pipe Man W four c Y Radio, and I'm. Here with Angel Teta, Global Ambassador for Angels. Mby Nice and who else do we have here Owen Martin, Master Distiller for Angels MB Nice. So I gotta say, I'm really excited about this because I interviewed before the change over several times here in Later in Life, and I know you got some really new and exciting things going on, so I think we need to spread that news right off the bat. So tell us what's happening.

0:54 Well, I will talk all about that, but I am super proud to I think this is our seven year partnership with burbon Be as the Beyond VIAP sponsor. So what's cool for me is that every single year somebody's gonna bring the heat to this festival and taste them on new whiskey. And Owen's got not one, but two things in his pocket to taste nice. Yeah, and obviously I'll tell you all about the new liquids, but Angel's in charge of all the cocktail programming and the new cocktail she does with it, so we talk about innovation, and so often that is whatever new release is on the horizon. But I think Angels just is involved with innovation on like the broader brand side and has probably a lot to speak to of that. But yeah, two new releases, what was that two fridays ago, So we're just about a week into them, and so far we've got really warm reception on both. But yeah, both a little bit different than what we have done in the past. So yeah, as you said, taking us in a slightly new direction, but I don't think like the one that's inappropriate for us.

1:46 So tell me the differences and what these are about and how they differ, because sure I look at them as many Layman's would be, because I'm certainly not a bourbon consort. I'm like, oh, that's the same. Bourbon you're not alone in. But I think these ones. I've said it just a bit ago. I love a double release because, as you just said, you took the words time. How they differ, how do they compare, how do they contrast? And when you do a double release, not only can you talk about how much craftsmanship's been put into each individual. Liquid, but you get a whole other set of talking. Points of how they differ and whether the commonalities and what techniques did you use, and so for me, that's a really fun conversation and storytelling aspect to. Have around them. Yeah, like you said, one of them, I would say is just a very classic burd.

2:28 It's a unique grain bill. But in terms of its profile, I think it's just going to be a huge crowd pleaser. So we're calling it our two grain bourbon. So you know, unlike weeded bourbons or high ride bourbons, this has neither of those. It's ninety percent corn and it's ten percent malt, and so that really high corn content. I don't think you really see it in any bourbons. Right, and for us, to be completely honest, it was a happy accident to have that much corn in it. But what's come out has been a really really unique whiskey. And so about five years ten months from the time it was distilled, and I think with that high amount of corn, people would expect maybe something overly sweet or like one noted, and it's very much more. I think the most unique part of it's like how silky and velvety it is, but it's actually more like nutty bready.

3:08 I in turn called it brioshe, which I like because that's kind of it covers those but kind of elevates it a little bit. So I was like, okay, your internship, You've earned your internship. Yeah, and it sounds bougie. Hey, if I can add a little bit of bougie, that's all right. Obviously I want to connect with anybody, whether they know a ton about bourbon or nothing, but any when we have the opportunity, you know, like, obviously carmel and vanilla are like hallmarks a bourbon, but if you want to dress that up with like a crembrewlet then hell yeah, right right, So anytime we can make it a little bougie. Why would you're. Talking my language now? Because I like the corn thing. I love corn. Yeah, so that makes it for me sure, creating a new different case that it's like, yeah, a taste supposed to just drinking something to get a buzz.

3:51 Well, And when I say it's a little bit outside of our wheelhouse to date, by that, I mean this is the first time we've done a grain bill based innovation. So obviously fifteen years in we've made our name on cast finishing, will continue to do so but when I have opportunities to showcase other things that, especially when it's distillery only, that's really like my playground, right, I can do things a little bit outside our norm test the ideas, if we get a super warm reception, then maybe come back with a bigger batch next year. So that's all part of the fun that goes on in the background of these sort of releases as well. So as the distiller, does that mean you had to taste a whole lot of wrong versions and it's still you have a good version. I'm not gonna call them wrong versions, maybe just not they weren't the perfect version, right, right, So we had eighty four barrels that had this specific grain build. We tasted through every single one of them twice over and picked our fifty favorite.

4:38 And that's what we made the batch out of. Nice And what do you want to add to this angel? I love that there's an angel in Angels Hate Envy. Yes, sometimes you grow into your name. Well, to add on that last point, he made over fifty samples. What's cool about Angels Envy. It's really a collective. So they have an incredibly talented production team. They'll pull those samples and then they bring in the sensory team to taste them as well. So every once in a while when. Something a project like this is happening, we'll get these little solo cups with like tops on them and numbers, and you don't know what you're tasting or why. But do you like it? What would you do different? What's better? I kind of I love that because we're still a small enough company and young enough to pivot and do those types of things where we talk directly to the consumers, we talk directly to production. Just as a brand, we're talking to everyone, and so we get to collect all of those things and then use the knowledge that they have to blend something that people really want. And that's why I think our releases always go off without a hitch.

5:31 I love the word pivot because I think that's the mistake many businesses make. Is the world changes. You have to evolve with it. People change. You have to evolve with that. Yeah, and if you're not willing to pivot, you might not get anywhere. I mean, Owen came around at the right time. You know, it's a real story that I tell too much, but it's that, you know, he challenged us to get outside of the box that we created about innovation with finishing, Like finishing just doesn't mean a previously filled cast. Okay, i'd headline in it. Those are great flavor had ruminant cool, But what does wood do? What does that barrel look like? And his experience knowledge of finishing in his previous career really helped us innovate and push past that box that Kentucky Straight Bourbon loves to put itself in. Not to say it's not the best spirit in the world, because it is. But if you don't push that, where are you going to be in ten years and twenty years and fifty years.

6:21 You've got to look at it from a global. Perspective and not box ourselves out of competition because Japanese whisky and irishwhisky Scotch is innovating all the time. We have to keep up with that competition to keep Kentucky Bourbon relevant because it should be. It's America spirit, and. I think that's a big reason why you guys are growing, especially you go way back in time, bourbon was going downhill and now it's going uphill. And I attribute to that way of thinking right there. I think it's that and I think Honestly, I got to give like a little bit of credit to my cool hearts. I'm from a bartending background, and without all these Barturners coming out making rye bucks, making bourbon cool again, bringing back to Manhattan, A big props to mad Men because that was a huge thing for old fashions. All of that culture kind of came together and bartenders were behind it. We had a little bit of like that's cool, slick like Don Draper sort of vibe, and then masters stillers and blenders truly creating delicious spirits. You don't have to do anything too but when you put them with well crafted liquors and modifiers, all of a sudden you have a world class cocktail. When you know, vodka soda was trending, which is fine. It's refreshing, but it doesn't quite have the complexity that we're looking for here around Kentucky and such.

7:29 So it's been really great. Nasty. Yeah, we all need hydration, it's cool. No, I will never hate on a cocktail that is a one in one, so it's a little bit different. But for me, I do think that bartenders had a lot to do with that push. Like the Strawberry Buck was huge that came from a whiskey bar in San Francisco that really changed the game, and that was way back in like two thousand and ten, maybe two thousand wow six. And for here with bourbon and beyond, of course we'll do an old fashion, but for beyond VIPs, you know, we elevate the cocktails. A really cool espresso martini with our rye. We put a huge bubble foam on, We've got a cool peach smash, a little peat ing, and we're doing Stegl Radler on top of that. So we try to bring complexity and fun to the cocktails here because it's not only about Kentucky, it's not only about showing off Louisville, but people are here from around the world, so we want to make sure that they have the best impression they can.

8:19 Absolutely so, how is the loyal Angels MV customer loving the new everything that's going on now to evolve Angels MV. Well, I think it's reflected from my point of view because I see a different side than Oenc's. We are selling it's bananas at the distillery. You know, they always want something they can't get anywhere else. This is a big part of the Distillery series launch. We welcome over two hundred thousand guess or our doors at five hundred East Mayne a year, and they want something they can bring back and share. And that's the biggest thing. It's not sitting on a shelf getting dusty. They want to open it. They want to share it. Because we're tasting at the distillery, We're putting the education behind what the liquid is and they want to share that with their friends and family and all of that.

9:02 The openness of what. We're doing and the transparency is due to Owen because he brings us along the whole process. So I'll let you kind of speak to like people are reacting well of the liquid because I think the more you know, the more you want to share it, and the more you're proud of it. Right, totally. Yeah, And what you've been around? How many? What anniversary did you just have? Thirteen? So Angels, I mean, Angels got the long perspective, right, She's been on since the early early days, whereas I'm kind of the new guy in the room. Right, I think I'm in three years next week. So yeah, I mean, I think my goal with these beyond just having a conversation with them is like what do we want to use them for? As like almost a tool. So it's like, I know we covered the two grain, but the one we paired it with is the peded cask, right, And so even though that's's stillary only, my thoughts maybe we can get that into travel retail from here, right, like global travel retail and put in Heathrow Airport, find the Scotch consumer and kind of pull them into the equation, and we can use finishing casts in any sense like that, right, like a Australian red wine. But I'll launch in Australia that sort of thing and be like very intentional behind not just how we shape the liquid, but then what we do with that. And I think that's part of the fun. And I think my goal also is we had a pretty we'll call it nimble lineup for a long time, right, like we had our flagship that we've made our name off of a poor finished bourbon. We've done a lot of riffs on that single barrels cast shrinks, did the rum finished rye along after that. But I think part of the reason I got brought on board was to turbo charged the innovation aspect, and so you know, there's people that still don't love cast finishing. They're very purest and I think there's less of them nowadays, And certainly when we launched and Angel lived that we're lucky to come in late when cast finishing had already been

10:33 more adopted by the industry. But there's still people that are kind of turned off by it. And for me, when I release a straight bourbon, it's to re engage in that consumer or if it's somebody who you know likes Angels to anybody really just hadn't had a bottle or bought a bottle in a few years, it's to bring them back into the conversation. And so beyond the liquid, it's like, what's the application? And for you as the distiller, where did the ideas come from to create something that I don't know? It's dusty in here, never know. It's a lot of clutter and cobwebs, but they come out of left field. But I guess my experience is a little bit different than most of the master distillers in Kentucky, where sometimes they were born into it, like in a generational aspect, or other people have come up through their quality departments are managing the distillery. And my path is from engineering to craft beer, from craft beer to moving to Scotland and getting my master's degree in distillation science Wow Scotland, back to the US and working for really small mom and popcraft distilleries and then scaling from larger to larger distillery from there. And so my I guess, I would say I have more of a global whiskey top process too, Yeah, exactly. So like some of the new things we've laid down are normal grain bill but for me mined with different Aley strains and champagne ye strains, and so those won't see a bottle for probably like another five to ten years, but fermentation from the beer days, I would say the only reason I have the job is because of my experience cast finishing whiskey and learning about that process because that's been used in Scotland for decades and decades and so but taking more of that approach to cast finishing and the applications there.

12:00 So again it's just varied. I guess, whatever the product might be, it's kind of the thought process of what skill set have I developed that might apply to that? And then who are we trying to reach with that product totally. And so for people that aren't here at Bourba and Beyond or they may go to come the Louder in Life, Yep, what else can they do to check you guys out to maybe go on tour. Yeah, to any of that stuff. Yeah, I'll pass that to Angel. But I would say it's intentional that we launched this around here, right. Like, so last weekend is a big event called Kentucky Bourbon Festival. So that is a very much super nerdy bourbon festival with a little bit of music. And then you got burb Beyond. Which is it's clearly a music festival, but it's got a bit of bourbon there too, And so for us when we launch our releases around them, that's really cool because we can hit different audiences with it. Obviously it's distillery only, but when you like, as you mentioned, people coming from nationally or even globally to this event to Kentucky, it's not a hard push to them be like, hey, this cool thing we just came out with. If you want a drive by or distillery on your way out of town, come grab it, right. That's an intentional timing with that, But as to all the other things we offer.

13:04 I'll leave it to the pro here. There you go. Yes, what's great is that we were the full first full production distillery downtown since prohibition. So when you come, you not only see what Owen does, but you see kind of my side of things too, with the tasting, retail experience, cool pairings. And it's right downtown in New Loos. So if you haven't been in Louisville in a while, New lou is a revitalized. It's beautiful. We're always building like new hotels and new bars, so it's a really cool part of town to check out. But you can definitely come to the distillery. We have extended hours around these times. We're open until eight pm on Friday and Saturday, and if you don't have time for a tour, you can pop upstairs have a great cocktail or you can taste all of the things of which we're selling in retail. And we have a few special pores we pull out just for September because it's National Bourbon Heritage Month, so we always have those on offer the whole month of September, which is really cool.

13:52 Some people don't get down here. They don't have access to library and things like that, so we save it for this one special time of year. Cool and how can they catch you on socials on the web and can they order stuff? There's shipping that happens. It just depends on the state that's above my pay grade. But you can go on angelsm dot com and find out all about that. Follow us on socials at ANGELSMV dot com. No, there's no dot com. It's just not angel MV. For Instagram. Owen has a really amazing name on Instagram that is totally brandworthy, which is called oven mitton. I think there's a there's an underscore, Yeah, oven Underscore Mitten nice for whiskey and baby content. Margo's real cute, so that's definitely worth it.

14:33 And then I have a short pandle that it's called angel Sharing angels Envy all one word. It's just a run on sentence. I love that. Yeah, it's great and there'll be all kinds of stuff on there, but we do I've undermine. It's like an insider's club, so you can find out about releases, get special access if. You want to join that. We have members from all over the world. Now, we launched this company in twenty eleven went global in twenty twenty and now we're in twenty different countries all around the world. It's so cool to see Angels semi bottle in Soul, Korea, you know what I mean. So that's see, that's wild. Yeah, it's awesome. So from a long journey, and then it's really invigorating because every year there's something new, and it's been just it's been a really cool journey with our own so far. I love it, and I love that you're here at Bourbon and beyond or.

15:15 Oh yeah, where else would you be? I know, right, it's. The best place to be. And do you have any final things that you want to mention to the listeners that we haven't covered already. It might not be timely, but tomorrow at four forty Eastern Standard time, the good people behind Bourbon and all the regulations and promoting the Bourbon Trail and who have been doing this since before prohibition, they're trying to create the world's largest Bourbon toast. Wow. Yeah, So tomorrow. For forty Eastern Standard time, we're going to raise a toast of whatever you'd prefer. Of course, it's going to be angels eNB to cheers and hopefully we get in the Guinness Buck of World Records. So we're gonna find that out. I'm looking forward to that. Yeah, it better happens, or else nobody can listen to my show anymore. Oh hey, all right, that's good.

15:55 Yes, well, thanks a lot for being here, and thanks for being on the Adventures of pipe Man. Thank you for listening to the Adventures of Tatement on w for CUI Radio.