#BWSIP26 WORKSHOPS
(All workshops are first-come, first-serve)
THURSDAY SEMINAR – 9AM to 10:30PM
American Whiskey Scholar Certification Program Seminar. Learn about our new certification program designed by Susan Reigler and Colin Blake, with special discounts for members.
FRIDAY WORKSHOPS – 11AM to NOON
1. Green River, Caryn Wells – Green River Candy Bar Experience. This tasting experience highlights Green River’s five core products, each thoughtfully paired with a nostalgic candy to complement and enhance its unique flavor profile. Guests will enjoy a guided pour of each expression while exploring how these classic treats bring out new tasting notes in the whiskey. Along the way, you’ll also learn about the origin and history adding a fun and memorable twist to the experience.
2. Angel’s Envy – “What’s New with Angel’s Envy” with Angel’s Envy Master Distiller Owen Martin. Experience an immersive tasting with Master Distiller Owen Martin as he showcases his innovative blending and finishing techniques that are shaping Angel’s Envy’s next chapter. Discover fresh innovations, bold flavor journeys, and the future of the distillery’s craft.
3. Bourbon & Business, Ashley Offutt – Bourbon and Business: Bridging the Gap Between the Culture and Curriculum of Bourbon. This session navigates the intentionality of programming between Appalachian universities, colleges, and Bourbon. The culture of bourbon is robust, warm, kind, and something that brings people together. Come along with this panel as we provide you with templates, ideas, and opportunities to curate interactive programming that bridges the gap between culture, curriculum, and
pedagogy. A part of this session is to provide you with tangible templates that can possibly lead to grant funded opportunities for organizations in your area.
4. Bluegrass Bitters, Shawn Herbig – Old-Fashioned, Reimagined – One Cocktail, Endless Options. The Old Fashioned is a familiar drink, but the proper pairing between the spirit and the bitters creates endless expressions.
5. The Bourbon Goddess, Donna Bowman – Salt, Smoke & Silk: Expanding the Bourbon Palate Through Salinity and Texture. Bourbon is traditionally paired with cheese, chocolate, or barbecue—but what happens when we introduce salinity, brine, smoke, and delicate texture into the equation? In this interactive masterclass, participants will explore how salt, fat, and texture influence ethanol perception, sweetness expression, and finish length in bourbon. Through guided tasting exercises featuring three curated bourbon pours paired with premium caviar and elevated conservas (tinned seafood), attendees will examine how salinity can soften heat, amplify caramel notes, and transform mouthfeel. This session moves beyond novelty into structured palate development. Participants will learn how to evaluate texture as a sensory component, how brine and smoke interact with oak influence, and how to design intentional bourbon pairings outside traditional frameworks. Designed for bourbon enthusiasts seeking deeper sensory mastery, this workshop blends luxury and education—equipping attendees with practical tools to refine their tasting vocabulary and elevate their pairing experiences.
6. Chicken Cock, Will Woodington – Celebrating Chicken Cock Old Glory; as American as apple pie. Join Chicken Cock Whiskey for an immersive, hands-on workshop that brings nearly 170 years of American whiskey history to life. As the country celebrates its 250th anniversary, we’re featuring Old Glory, our newest limited release and the first-ever
blend of Chicken Cock Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey and Laird’s Bottled-in-Bond Apple Brandy, bringing 416 years of combined American history together in one bottle. Guests will deconstruct Old Glory from the ground up, nosing and tasting each component individually before experiencing the finished spirit, build a signature Old Glory cocktail, and explore how a thoughtfully paired bite transforms the experience entirely. Equal parts education, experience, and celebration.
7. Potter Jane / Jane Bowie – Scents & Sensibilities: why the world’s best whiskies are designed in a glass, not a spreadsheet. Hosted by Jane Bowie of Potter Jane and Beth Buckner of Maker’s Mark. While lab reports tell you what’s in the whiskey, they can’t tell you if it’s any good – join us as we explore why sensory intuition remains the ultimate authority in making whiskey.
SATURDAY MORNING WORKSHOPS – 9:45AM to 10:45AM
1. Bourbon Fluent / Cocktail Contessa Founder – Heather Wibbles – Build Flights That Click: Whiskey Sensory Science Fun. Design better flights to learn bourbon better. This how-to session teaches the learning method behind the best and most memorable flights: how aroma, taste and flavor work in the body, why perception shifts with context, and how intentional flights make differences easier to detect, remember, and repeat. You’ll get the practical science behind what’s happening in the glass and in your body, including how aroma and taste become “flavor,” why a pour can taste different depending on what came before it, and how proof and sequencing quietly steer perception. Then we put it to work with a sensory exercise and a guided sample flight built to isolate a few variables on purpose, so the differences aren’t subtle—they’re obvious, memorable, and easy to explain. The core takeaway is flight design: how to build great flights at home. You’ll leave knowing how to build your own whiskey flights at home, at a bar, or for friends, using accessible bottles and a simple structure that works again and again. You’ll learn how to pick a flight goal, choose pours that actually teach something, set the order so the contrasts pop, and use a short set of prompts to capture what you’re learning without turning it into homework. It’s hands-on, a little nerdy in the best way, and designed for
enthusiasts who want a method they’ll keep using long after the conference.
Attendees will learn the following:
– Explain aroma vs flavor in a way that makes tasting make sense
– Understand why flights accelerate learning and memory through contrast and
pattern recognition (and the science behind it)
– Use a short set of tasting prompts to quickly identify what changed from pour to
pour
– Design repeatable flights around a clear learning goal
– Confidently run a flight for friends or guests—how to set it up, pace it, and make
it fun and exciting with a bit of learning in the process.
More information at https://bourbonfluent.com and @bourbonfluent on social channels
2. American Whiskey Scholar, Susan Reigler – Clara Bell Walsh and the Rise of the Cocktail Party. A headline in the 17 April, 1917 issue of the St. Louis Tacoma Times proclaimed “Cocktail Parties are the New Society Stunt.” Sip a morning Highball while finding about the fascinating Clara Bell Walsh, whose party made the newspaper.
3. Bardstown Bourbon Co. – Bardstown Breakdown: Wood Science. This class demystifies how wood shapes whiskey—starting with the basics of why oak is used in the first place, how heat treatment transforms it, and what actually moves from barrel to spirit over time. Let Jaz’min Weaver, National Brand Ambassador of Bardstown Bourbon Company help you establish sensory anchors and put learning to practice. Taste and smell through carefully selected whiskies, using comparison and contrast to isolate specific aromas and flavors linked to oak chemistry and heat treatment. Build fluency around communicating what’s happening in the glass.
4. Michter’s, Andrea Wilson – Mixing With Michter’s. Michter’s invites you to mix it up with some innovative cocktail creations. This class involves hands on learning to make some great libations for entertaining at home. Each guest will be given the opportunity to craft his or her own special cocktail with instruction from the Michter’s team.
5. Professor, University of Kentucky, Janice Fernheimer, Professor, University of Kentucky, Faculty Fellow, James B. Beam Institute for Kentucky Spirits, Founder Women in Bourbon Oral History Project, co-creator America’s Chosen Spirit (serial webcomic on Webtoon).
Sip’n’Study–Pouring the History Behind America’s Chosen Spirit and American Whiskey One Sip and Backstory at a Time.
This session explores the history of Jewish, African American, and LGBTQ influences on American whiskey, based on the research behind our new historical fiction webcomic America’s Chosen Spirit, distilling bourbon’s diverse history one sip and backstory at a time. The pours are carefully curated to complement characters/heroines in the webcomic-i.e Bernheim Wheated to go with a discussion of I.W. Bernheim and Jewish influences on the industry, Fresh to pair with discussion of one of our African American characters, Farthest, who re-imagines what might have been possible if freed enslaved people really had been given forty acres and a mule.
Maria the Jewess, the ancient Alexandrine alchemist credited with inventing the alembic still is introduced by sampling some new make or white dog, and then some New Riff will pair with our conversations around Sue Mundy (and our reimagining of he/their stories as the mother/father of Kentucky’s queer literary traditions), and her interactions with Nora, our young, Jewish bourbon empress to be).
6. Steve Coomes – Country Ham Food Pairing. Really? Steve Coomes – From Barrel to Bite A Bourbon Pairing with Country Ham Really? Food Pairs Well with Bourbon? Of Course It Does! Despite the recent American whiskey renaissance, few have moved to pair it with food as have generations done with wine and beer.
In this session, Steve Coomes, a former chef turned food and spirits writer and book author, addresses why food and whiskey are ideal but under-appreciated palate mates, and why exploring these pairings is a simple but rewarding adventure.
7. The Bourbon Goddess, Donna Bowman – Salt, Smoke & Silk: Expanding the Bourbon Palate Through Salinity and Texture. Bourbon is traditionally paired with cheese, chocolate, or barbecue—but what happens when we introduce salinity, brine, smoke, and delicate texture into the equation? In this interactive masterclass, participants will explore how salt, fat, and texture influence ethanol perception, sweetness expression, and finish length in bourbon. Through guided tasting exercises featuring three curated bourbon pours paired with premium caviar and elevated conservas (tinned seafood), attendees will examine how salinity can soften heat, amplify caramel notes, and transform mouthfeel. This session moves beyond novelty into structured palate development. Participants will learn how to evaluate texture as a sensory component, how brine and smoke interact with oak influence, and how to design intentional bourbon pairings outside traditional frameworks. Designed for bourbon enthusiasts seeking deeper sensory mastery, this workshop blends luxury and education—equipping attendees with practical tools to refine their tasting vocabulary and elevate their pairing experiences.
SATURDAY AFTERNOON WORKSHOPS – 2:30PM to 4PM
1. Napa Valley Wine Academy. Speaker Liz Pirnat. Elevate Your Whiskey Tasting Notes. When you write a whiskey tasting note are you only creating a list of aromas and flavors? What else could you add to a tasting note? Want to improve identifying aromas and flavors? In this session, you will learn how to write a complete tasting note. And find out why writing a complete tasting note is important.
2. Merchant’s Club, Lauren Pellecchia – From Shaker to Shaker – “Nobody puts Baby (bartenders) in the corner.” Today we retire the phrase that keeps great talent in the wings. It’s time to change how we speak, how we coach, and how we reward growth. A bartender’s career is a craft, a pathway, and a leadership journey that begins with respectful language and intentional mentorship. When we choose words that honor skill and potential, we set a tone that values every team member as a developing professional. Mentorship flips the script from policing performance to inspiring growth, pairing consistent support with actionable feedback and real opportunities. The result is a scalable talent pipeline: milestone-driven development and visible recognition that celebrate progress as much as mastery.
3. American Whiskey Scholar, Susan Reigler: Clara Bell Walsh and the Rise of the Cocktail Party. A headline in the 17 April, 1917 issue of the St. Louis Tacoma Times proclaimed “Cocktail Parties are the New Society Stunt.” Sip a morning Highball while finding about the fascinating Clara Bell Walsh, whose party made the newspaper.
4. Surprise Program – More Information COMING SOON!