Meet the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame Class of 2026: Scientists, Brothers, a Writer and a Lawmaker

Every September the Kentucky Distillers' Association adds a handful of names to the Kentucky Bourbon Hall of Fame, the highest honor in a state industry it values at $10.6 billion. The Class of 2026, the 24th since the Hall was founded in 2001, is an unusually wide-ranging group: two scientists, two brothers who rebuilt a family company after Prohibition, a trade-association president, a writer and a state senator. Together they tell the story of how bourbon got from the lean years to the boom.

The class was inducted on Sept. 14 at The Marriott Louisville East before what the KDA called a record crowd of more than 300 industry leaders, with a livestream for fans watching from home. Gov. Andy Beshear gave welcome remarks, and bourbon author and educator Susan Reigler served as emcee. Bourbon Lens published its own write-up of the class in late October and, with gifting season close, it is a good moment to meet the people behind the bottles.

How the Hall chooses

Inductees are picked by a blue-ribbon committee made up of past winners of the Parker Beam Lifetime Achievement Award, the chair of the KDA board, the Governor of the Order of the Writ and an appointee of the KDA president. They review nominations from KDA member distilleries, and no more than five honors are awarded each year across three categories: Industry, Roll of Honor and Lifetime Achievement.

The scientists: Shane Baker and Dr. Pat Heist

Shane Baker and Dr. E. Patrick Heist, both of Danville, entered the Hall with an Industry distinction. Baker is a University of Kentucky mechanical engineer whose grandparents met as teenagers working at a Kentucky distillery. Heist, a microbiologist who also earned his degrees at UK, taught medical microbiology before the two friends, who once played together in a rock band, founded Ferm Solutions in 2006. The company provides fermentation research, lab work and training, and the inductees' biographies say it has worked with more than 200 distilleries around the world.

They went on to open Wilderness Trail Distillery, which became known for a science-first approach: proprietary yeast strains, an infusion mashing process and sweet mash fermentation in place of the sour mash most Kentucky distilleries use. In 2022, Campari Group agreed to buy a 70% stake in Wilderness Trail for $420 million.

The brothers: Lyons and Garvin Brown

The late W.L. Lyons Brown Sr. (1906–1973) and George Garvin Brown II (1912–1969), known inside the company as "The Boys," were grandsons of Brown-Forman founder George Garvin Brown. Both joined the family business in 1933, before Prohibition ended, to help their father rebuild it. Under their leadership Brown-Forman became the largest Kentucky-based distilling company, Early Times became the world's top-selling Kentucky Straight Bourbon, and the company acquired the Jack Daniel Distillery.

After World War II, Lyons focused the company on two brands, Old Forester and Early Times. During the 1937 Louisville flood, Garvin pulled on hip boots and waded through the water to rescue the company's records. And in 1970 Lyons' horse Fathom carried Diane Crump, the first woman to ride in the Kentucky Derby. A bottle of the Old Forester Perfect Old Fashioned Syrup is an easy way to toast the brothers at home.

The advocate: Eric Gregory

KDA President Eric Gregory received the Parker Beam Lifetime Achievement Award distinction. A former Lexington Herald-Leader reporter, he took over the association in 2008, when, according to his biography, the Kentucky Bourbon Trail was a modest tour of just seven distilleries. He led the trail's growth into an international destination and pushed through a long run of legal reforms. The biggest came in 2023, when Kentucky passed legislation to phase out its tax on aging barrels, which the industry had fought for more than 75 years.

The KDA says Kentucky now makes 95% of the world's bourbon and that the industry supports 24,000 jobs, with nearly 3 million visits a year to the Bourbon Trail. Anyone planning a trip can start with The Kentucky Bourbon Trail: A Revised Edition or the Kentucky Bourbon Country Field Guide.

The storyteller: Fred Minnick

Fred Minnick of Louisville was named to the Roll of Honor for journalism and communication. He served as an Army photojournalist in Iraq and, after returning home, published his first article on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail in 2006. He has since written nine books, including Bourbon: The Rise, Fall & Rebirth of an American Whiskey, which won the 2017 Spirited Award for best spirits book, and Whiskey Women. His 2026 memoir, Bottom Shelf, tells how bourbon tasting became part of his recovery from PTSD. He co-hosts the Bourbon Pursuit podcast, co-founded the Bourbon & Beyond festival and, with the KDA and Bourbon Crusaders, helped raise nearly $5 million through bourbon auctions for Kentuckians hit by the floods and tornadoes of 2021 and 2022.

The lawmaker: John Schickel

Former state Sen. John W. Schickel of Union, who retired in December 2025, received the Roll of Honor for public service. As longtime chair of the Senate Licensing and Occupations Committee, he carried Senate Bill 11 in 2016, a broad update of Kentucky's alcohol laws. It let distillers offer more samples and sell souvenir packages, and it allowed precinct-level local option elections for distillery sales. In 2020 he sponsored SB 99, which let distilleries sell products made in partnership with microbreweries.

A Kentucky-made award

Even the trophies are local. The KDA commissioned Louisville glass artist Brook Forrest White Jr. of Flame Run to make the awards, using amber, oak, copper and water motifs, and JoEl E. Ford of Kentucky Cut Stone in Lancaster to cut their limestone bases. If you want a bourbon-country souvenir of your own, the Kentucky Bourbon Trail Whiskey Glass Flight and the Kentucky Bourbon Trail Map whiskey glass make good gifts. For something sweet, try Old Forester Chocolate Modjeskas.