2025 Special guests
Bryan Smith
Master Distiller, Hard Truth
In 2015, Hard Truth Distilling Co. in Nashville, Ind., began making whiskey, and Bryan Smith, who worked in the brewery with some of the Hard Truth owners, was asked to run the stills. An ever-inquisitive student, Smith spent months visiting distillers to learn the trade. While he formulated four rye and four bourbon mashbills and began distilling, Hard Truth's owners began building one of the most innovative visitor experiences in American whiskey, planting its flag firmly in a forest well away from Bourbon Country. It attracts a few hundred thousand visitors annually for tours, tastings, cocktails, its restaurant, live music and, of course, bottle sales.
Erik Bogle
Erik Bogle is an owner of Houston Watch Company, a whiskey-focused cocktail bar founded in 2015 in a former watch and jewelry store in Houston’s historic downtown district. He began bartending in 1999 through his years as a touring musician and managed to make one of those passions his profession. Erik holds accreditations from Kentucky’s American Executive Whiskey Steward program and Scotland’s Edinburgh Whisky Academy and is a generally curious nerd about all things related to the production and enjoyment of fine spirits
