Around the Barrel - Transcript - Ep048/Re047 - Erik Brown

 

Erik Brown: If you want to know what keeps a home place manager up at night, it's a line on highway 55 and 28 degree weather.

 

Lucas Hendrickson: Many of us can find the task of keeping our living spaces nice and tidy for even the occasional house guests, well, daunting. When your job is being prepared for guests numbering well into the hundreds of thousands, it takes a completely different mindset. 

 

On this episode, we talk with Erik Brown, the new home place's manager for the Jack Daniel distillery about trying to bring some normalcy into a pursuit that's currently far from normal, about using history to inform the future of the visitor experience in Lynchburg and about how one makes the seemingly incongruous transition from working around the racetrack to working around the barrel.

 

Welcome back to Around the Barrel, the official podcast from the makers of Jack Daniels. I'm your host Lucas Hendrickson. We've talked a lot over the course of this show about how making it to the historic home of the Jack Daniel distillery isn't an accidental process. You've got to have a certain amount of want to. Erik Brown possesses a whole bunch of that want to and channels it into making the guest experience at the distillery the best it can possibly be. He's only been on the job a short time and comes into it in the midst of a roller coaster timeframe for the hospitality and tourism business as a whole, but he brings an energy and enthusiasm into the role that comes not only from his experience in the distilled spirits industry, but also from his eye for detail and genuine appreciation for the history and lore of Jack Daniels.

 

Erik: Hello, my name's Erik Brown. I'm the home play manager here at Jack Daniels distillery. I live currently in Spring Hill, Tennessee, but originally from Louisville, Kentucky.

 

Lucas: Erik Brown. Welcome to Around the Barrel.

 

Erik: Thank you. Nice to be here with you, Lucas.

 

Lucas: It has been an interesting couple of years around Lynchburg and around the home place entities that you're now in charge of. Give us a sense of what all falls underneath that home place umbrella, and then we can work from there.

 

Erik: Absolutely. No, I think when it comes to my role I try and look at it as everything outside of production when it comes to visiting Lynchburg. So we've got our tours and our experiences, we've got Miss Mary Bobo's, we got our white rabbit bottle shop, and then the hardware store. It's that full experience. When you come to Lynchburg. I try and look at it that as an all encompassing thing from the plants we decide to put on the tour path to how we update and keep the landscaping to trash pickup, to parking safety, everything it falls under that scope and there's just a lot of little things that come along with the role, but all what make this place so special.

 

Lucas: Sure. Tell us a little bit about your history in this hospitality/guest services space. Where did you come from before you got here?

 

Erik: I probably have a really weird path to hospitality and tourism. So I graduated from college at the University of Louisville and had an itch from growing up in Kentucky to be a thorough bread horse trainer. So I spent a number of years actually on a Palomino quarter horse every day working as an assistant trainer at Churchill Downs in Louisville.

 

Lucas: Wow. Okay.

 

Erik: Yeah. It was a passion of mine. Grew up, my uncle was a horse trainer, my dad owned a couple of horses, so I was like every Kentucky kids dream was like, Hey, I want to compete in the Kentucky Derby. Actually got the opportunity. One of the horses that was in our stable in third in the 2008 Kentucky Derby. And so that was an incredible experience. But wife got pregnant. She came in and said, "Hey, we're going to have a kid. And actually we're going to have two kids. And so this lifestyle's not really going to work out so great." Because I was traveling to New York and then New Orleans. And so I was very fortunate for my time at Churchill to meet a lot of great people and actually accepted the role over at the Kentucky Derby museum, which sees roughly right around the same amount of attendance that we see here at Jack as an iconic historical site. So got that opportunity and really started actually in the event space in sales, so I could talk. And the thing I love about this industry is, and you see it probably at Jack more than anywhere I've been, is your opportunity to engage and interact with people from all over the world.

 

That's what's great about my job. You don't know who's going to walk in the door that day or where they're going to be from, and you just hear people's real stories. I mean, this is their vacation time. So yeah, got a great opportunity at the museum and absolutely loved my time at the Kentucky Derby museum. And then one day I was sitting at my desk and Wendy Treinen, who was the PR manager for Woodford Reserve and Old Forester sent me a job description and said, this is your next job. I was like, well, Wendy I'm happy. I don't really know. She's like, no, this job is perfect for you. And interviewed. We were opened a brand new distillery in downtown Louisville, old forest, first home place and a 150 year old brand. And from a hospitality lens, got to hire my entire team, start a brand new facility from scratch and just engage and create this experience in downtown Louisville. And so that was my introduction to Brown Foreman.

 

And then as time went on, was able to oversee Woodford Reserve, Sonoma-Cutrer, Casa Herradura, but then this opportunity came up. And I can tell you a story of my first visit to Jack. And my conversation with my boss at that time was this was the ultimate destination for me as far as where I wanted to go with my career. So just beyond excited to be here right now.

 

Lucas: That's very cool. Now, how long have you been in this role?

 

Erik: Four months yesterday. So much experience trying to figure out my way around Lynchburg.

 

Lucas: Sure. Well, and in the, I have to assume, deep dive that you've experienced over the last four months of seeing what exists, but also not only what the future looks like but the past of again, the guest services hospitality side of what Jack Daniels offers, can you talk a little bit about how this all came together over the years? My first experience at the distillery was close to 25 years ago and certainly it wasn't the well thought out and executed experience that it is now. Do you have a little sense of the history of how those things progressed over the years yet?

 

Erik: Yeah, absolutely. I think it's a story of people, right? I mean, you talk to Rainald and Goose and you talk about where things were located and I think as tourism and storytelling, people want to know more and they want to learn more. I think as that's evolved, it's given us the ability across the site to say, "Hey, we want to tell this story." And then people are like, "Yeah, well tell me more about that story." And so then you've got this incredible audience in our Tennessee Squires and now you've created a home for them at the Milo house. So really I think the evolution of Jack Daniels visitor experience has really just been an opening up of us saying, "Hey, we've got these great stories," and people wanting to listen and hear them and learn more. And so then I think that in turn says from our ambassador guides to our tour guides to everyone saying, "Well, we need to learn more and let's ask why. Why was this put here? Why was this there?" To me it's a continuous evolution of our history and then our future as well.

 

Lucas: Sure. Again, dropping into this role in the midst of a changed world in so many ways and certainly from the hospitality and travel industries have been impacted by what's been happening over the past couple of years. What specifically has Jack Daniels done to ensure very safe visits for all the guests? And then what's the the general feeling right now around the hospitality travel industries? It seems like we can be in a little bit of a two step forward, one variant back time loop right now.

 

Erik: Yeah. Here's one thing that I'm just so proud to work for this company with is everything that has been done since. I mean, it was March 15th that the world stopped, especially in the tourism and hospitality world. I have a lot of friends who lost their jobs. Life changed, right? I think this company looked out for their employees and their visitors more so than I saw a lot of places and just how proud I was of that moment of our company saying, we're going to get this right. We're not going to be the first to jump back and spring back. But when we do take a step forward, it's going to be the right step forward. So I think the most impressive thing that our company has done and here at Jack is we always wanted to continue to move forward.

 

So we started very slow. We started back with, Hey, we're going to open up the visitor center and let people come in to, okay, now we're going to walk out and walk around the facility, keeping it outside, keeping numbers small, controlling what we could control. And all along that path, we were listening, we were learning, we were taking feedback from our consumers of what they wanted, where they felt safe. And so I think it's just been a progression, right? And so now we're not back to full capacity on our tour path. And every time that something pops up, I think we ask ourselves is, are we doing the right thing for our employees and are we doing the right thing for our guests? And if we can answer yes to both those questions, then we're going to move things forward. So ultimately, right now I feel very comfortable with where we're at, but more confident knowing that, Hey, we're going to think things through the right way and make sure that if someone needs an accommodation, if we need to do something differently, we have the resources available to make it happen.

 

Lucas: Sure. Again, you've only been in this spot for a little bit, but certainly with your experience with Brown Foreman as a whole, I'm sure you have some stories. What's the most unique request that a guest or a group has ever asked for during your time, not only with home place, but maybe even old forest and those folks?

 

Erik: I think the biggest request that really come in, it's really got to go around the product. It's like, oh, can you get me a bottle of this? And then especially here, it's like, I didn't walk into this knowing, Hey, we're getting ready to launch some innovation that's going to make people go crazy. And I get here and Chris Fletcher says, "Hey, you want to sip a bottle of 10 Year?" And I'm like, "Well, sure. What's this?" "Oh, we haven't done this in a hundred plus years." I'm like, "Oh no." We're getting ready to have a lot of excitement, and then Coy Hill following that, it's like, wow. I mean, that's... So I think people when it comes to those type of requests, they want the inside scoop or the exclusive. And that's one of the things with our tour path. It's like, "Oh, can we go behind the scenes?" I'm like, "Yeah. You can take the regular tour. There's nothing to hide. You're going to see everything that's right in front of you."

 

Lucas: Right. And I imagine and especially the 10 Year and the Coy Hill releases, you go, okay, now how many stanchions do I have on site that can direct that line that's going to stretch on down to the square as part of those releases. Yeah I mean again, yeah you got dropped right into the middle of two, very, very important and unique releases. So nothing like hitting the ground running.

 

Erik: Yeah. And if you want to know something, I think it's so awesome to have these col out there and lovers of the brand that want this bottle and they're willing to stand out overnight. If you want to know what keeps a home place manager up at night, it's a line on Highway 55 and 28 degree weather. And I'm texting our team at 5:00 AM saying, "Hey, we're going to pick up donuts and coffee." These people it's like, do they have restrooms? We brought them porta potties for the Coy Hill just because it's like, that's what... I think that speaks to our hospitality is these people they choose to line up and they want this bottle so bad and it's like, okay, we're not open. Can we try to make it as safe as possible, as comfortable as possible, knowing that, Hey, we're not going to be able to make everyone happy, but ideally we're going to do our best to make sure we at least try.

 

Lucas: Yeah. Well, and again, it helps you set the template for what the future versions of these things are going to look like, especially as the team is rolling out these new and innovative new products that there some of them are scheduled for 2022 and beyond. So it certainly gives you that blueprint for how to execute those events moving forward.

 

Erik: Yeah. And I think that's the unique thing about having the home place. Our job with these special expressions or releases is we want to tell the story. I mean, I think that's what we excel at and you spend an hour with one of our guides, any of them, pick, you're going to get a great story, you're going to get a lot of history and you're going to walk away saying, okay, not only did I get this bottle, but I learned a whole lot more. So when it comes to the future of these expressions and what we hope to do here, I think that's part of our responsibility. Yes, we can put 10 Year on the shelf and let you buy it but man, we want to engage you at Jack. We want you to learn our history. We want you to say when that bar's on your shelf and you're pouring it for your friends, yeah let me tell you the story of when I got this bottle. So hopefully goes beyond just the purchase.

 

Lucas: Yeah. How important is again, that story, the history of the brand, all the things that go around it. How important is that as you start to make decisions about what the future of the home place looks like. Obviously the wider guest services side of what the company looks like. It's a brand rooted in such history and with such great story, how do you use that to then propel what you offer to those guests forward?

 

Erik: When I came down and was interviewing for the job, I had the opportunity to spend a little bit of time with Chris Fletcher and he took me through the production side and just seeing how much care was given to the process and how passionately Chris speaks about it. I think that's like, wow. Okay, so on the visitor experience side, we have a responsibility to make sure that the way that we're telling the story reflects all the hard work and dedication that goes in from that team. So as we continue to create experiences, whether it's around specialty product or taking people to parts of the facility that we might not have explored in the past, everything ties back into the care, the craftsmanship of making the product and then how we reflected on the story side of it.

 

Lucas: Yeah. And again, that energy and the enthusiasm and love for the history that both Chris and Lexi have it's infectious. And so when people get around that, they go, oh, this is something different. Especially if they've done a lot of whiskey based travel, if you will. They see that this is something that it's not just a product, it's pride in what accomplish here. And certainly in Chris's case, a family history involved in it. It's very much infused into everything that they do.

 

Erik: Yeah. And I think it's just real I mean, and that's the thing. First time I came here, it's like, just let me go, let me walk wherever I want to walk. I mean, I could get lost. But you stand at the cave spring and you're like, man, this is where it all started. And then you drive down Highway 55 and your mind starts tracing back, what was it like back then? And so then you start to think about, well, what are they going to say in a hundred years or 150 years of where it's at and have you done the right job taking care of it? And I think we will and I'm excited.

 

Lucas: Yeah. Say you're a first time visitor to the distillery. What do you think is the, and granted there's a lot of people with and a lot of different reasons why they would come to Lynchburg although it's certainly it has to be a purposeful thing, you don't get their own accident. But what do you think is the perfect first guest visit path, if you will, for people who are just coming to Lynchburg for the first time?

 

Erik: Yeah. I think one, give it your time, and that's one thing as you start to have people saying, "Hey, I want to come visit Jack. We'll spend an hour or two, and then we'll..." It's like, no, don't do that. Don't waste crossing a bucket list item off in an hour or two. Give yourself a day. And so for me one, I always recommend a morning tour because you got the best chance of seeing a burn. And so if you can see that, to me that just kicks off the tour so perfect. And so that's where I would start. I'd start with a tour, Hey, pick whatever you want to taste.

 

So you got two different tour experiences now, you get to taste a lot our expressions and hear a lot of history. So I always go with the tour in the morning and I'll say that because if you haven't been to Miss Bobo's, you do not want to go to lunch before your tour. It makes for an uncomfortable walk. So I always plan tour then lunch at Miss Mary Bobo's. And then this town has so much and spend time exploring it. Take time to walk into all the shops on the stores, see it, live it. I mean, it's just incredible. So that's how I would plan my day as far as visiting Lynchburg.

 

Lucas: Well, again, you talk about that, the Bourbon explosion that's happened over the past several years and you have this opportunity when you come to distillery to see that one extra step that makes that pivot from Bourbon to Tennessee whiskey. It's really pretty cool especially when you think about the opportunity to see a burn that creates that charcoal.

 

Erik: Yeah, absolutely. When you're up there and you're the Rick's burning, you look at it, you feel the heat and you see the process and it's like, okay, well there's your one extra step. That's your separating factor, right? So it's such a unique opportunity. And look, if I could do it for every single tour, I would love to. I don't think Larry Comb is going to be all right with that.

 

Lucas: No. You'd have way too much charcoal on hand.

 

Erik: Right. Exactly. But yeah, absolutely. It's one of those things where, they call it catching a burn. That's what the guides call it. So if you catch one, it's been a good day.

 

Lucas: Yeah. You talked about how on your first visits you wanted to just go and wander and take it all in. Do you have yet a favorite part of the distillery grounds as you continue to get to know it better?

 

Erik: Whew. Just the walk. I can get lost in this facility. I absolutely love it from Barbecue Hill watching the sunset up there. I mean, some days I just go up there before I go home. Now it's a little bit earlier in the day.

 

Lucas: Right, sure.

 

Erik: But I mean, talk about a view and it's like, Hey, you know what, everything's going to be all right. The world's in a good place, just from that view. When I take people into the Motlow Cave, to me that's like a... I don't know. That just hits me as this was here long before us, it's going to be here long after us. But yeah, I could just get lost in these grounds all the time.

 

Lucas: Yeah.

 

Erik: I don't drive my car much around here. If I can walk, I'm taking it in.

 

Lucas: You don't really need to. Just find a place to park and tie the shoes uptight and you're off. And as far as groups that want to make Lynchburg a part of their middle Tennessee visit, what things can they book or expect as part of the broader distillery stuff?

 

Erik: Absolutely. I think as groups come in and that's what we were used to seeing in the past. I mean, you'd visit here and you'd see motor coach after motor coach, after motor coach, right? So I think that's one great thing about our property that it does allow for 25, 30 people on a tour because we're outside, right? We got space to spread out. And so I think if you're planning a group trip and Bobo's hopefully we get back to family style here in the near future. But it's really set up for larger groups, right? I mean, I brought my family here and it's like 12 people that we had half of them here, but right, that's the neat part. You can do it together. And so I think that's one thing that our facility and layout allows for is we're used to having large crowds here. So it's something that we're used to, to seeing,

 

Lucas: Can you tell us about the near term future? What events or activations as part of the visitor center and the like, are going to come in the first part of 2022.

 

Erik: Yeah. I think it's just so crazy right now, right? And we got great feeling of how everything's moving forward. I think of the one thing that we've learned through this is that something else is going to pop up. So I think we'll continue to be cautious and careful right now being open, having our full staff back and executing what we're executing. I can't say how proud I am of this team to just get visitors back in and get the experiences is back to where they are. We had an event full fall and you were part of some of it, but we brought back the Jack Daniels barbecue. Team did a fabulous job executing that while we did a little bit smaller size crowd without having international travel.

 

We saw that execution. We were able to help Jack him back into multiple sclerosis foundation, bring that event back. And so I think as we've gone through all those things, and then you add on 10 Year and Coy Hill, and then we were able to light our barrel tree and get in the holiday spirit. I think having that mindset of now that we can feel comfortable executing these events and keep them safe for our guest, we can start to plan, I think. As we move forward into the new year, I really look to next May and fall of starting to continue on that path of what's new and exciting in Lynchburg.

 

Lucas: Sure. We talked a little bit during the barrel tree lighting event down there in late November, you talked about your Louisville roots and the fact that you, again, work with Old Forester and other brands. It might mean you have some Bourbon love running through your veins as well, that's okay. Does it feel at all like you've gone behind enemy lines in the whole ongoing Kentucky versus Tennessee debate?

 

Erik: No, not at all. It's funny because my tour guys when we walk in the room and they're like, well, why do you have that bottle? I'm like, well, it's like, this is where I came from. But no, I mean look, I've always loved Jack. So one of my first memories of being of legal drinking age was with my dad and I ordered a Jack and Coke. And it was one of my first legal drinks. And it's just wild to think of that Bourbon craze and then you get here and again, that 10 Year release is like we got something special here and this product and to see. I saw all kinds of special releases in Kentucky across a multitude of distilleries and how they handled it. But man, you want to talk about a fan of Jack Daniels trying to get a bottle of 10 Year, it's a different conversation, right?

 

Lucas: Yes. And an ongoing conversation to this day and probably will be for years to come.

 

Erik: Yeah.

 

Lucas: Speaking of enjoying the product, what's your favorite way of enjoying Jack Daniels?

 

Erik: Oh man. Right now it's single barrel select. I'll say that in the four months that has changed from ginger and apple, which Lisa Hunter, who's in charge of our flavors. She actually hired me at Brown Foreman, so I owe a lot of love to her. So I've been able to explore, right? And then you get the opportunity to taste things that maybe you shouldn't have been able to taste. Like Coy Hill before it was bottled, right? But it's like, man, this is some cool stuff. But there's just so much innovation here. But again, it all goes back to how much care is given to making the product. And it's just so neat to see.

 

Lucas: Yeah. When folks do come and have of their experience and head back to where they're from, what's the one thing that you want them to remember about Lynchburg and the distillery as part of that trip for them?

 

Erik: Our people. I share with my team, if we can get the hospitality side right, if people can come in... I always say this when it comes to these attractions, people are giving us their most valuable commodity. They're giving us their time. You're going to run out of it, right? So people are choosing to spend hours with us and hopefully they'll spend a little bit of money across the home place as well. But if we take that into account that people are giving us their time and our job is to cherish that time, give them an incredible experience so that when they leave here, they say, I want to do it again. I want to tell my friends about it. And those stories then get shared at their home bars, at their local pubs, at wherever they go. But to me, that is our most important job on the visitor experience side is making sure that when guests come in, they feel like this is home. That's why we call them home places at Brown Foreman.

 

Lucas: Sure. Well, Erik, again, thank you for your time. Welcome to Lynchburg and your role. Looking forward to seeing what other innovations you bring to the table here. But again, thanks for spending some time with us around the barrel.

 

Erik: All right. Thanks Lucas.

 

Lucas: Thanks for checking out this episode of Around the Barrel. You can find archived episodes of Around the Barrel on all major podcast platforms, including Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, and more, plus on the web at jackdaniels.com/podcast. And if you like what you hear, please follow, rate and review while you're at it. Cheers y'all and join us next time for more conversations around the barrel. 

 

Your friends at Jack Daniels remind you to drink responsibly. Jack Daniels and Old No. 7 are registered trademarks, Copyright 2021, Jack Daniels. Tennessee whiskey, 40% alcohol by volume, 80 proof, distilled and bottled by Jack Daniel distillery Lynchburg, Tennessee. Around the Barrel is intended for listeners 21 years of age and older.