Bartender Life - Get a Sip of the Rye with Sagamore Spirit

Guest Bartender Kendra Copeland Host Jason Bass

GET A SIP OF THE RYE

By Mary Kate Patterson | Photos by Sebastian Marin

SAGAMORE SPIRIT BRINGS THE WHISKEY EXPERIENCE HOME TO RYE LOVERS EVERYWHERE

What happens when you combine news about allthings American whiskey with The Tonight Showstyle interviews, stir in cocktail classes with rock star bartenders, and finish with dashes of rye whiskey history and distilling know-how?

Presenting Get a Sip of the Rye, Sagamore Spirit’s new monthly lifestyle show that gets whiskey fans old and new to see the world through rye-lovers’ glasses. The show celebrates America’s bartenders and showcases the revival of Maryland-style rye right where it’s happening—at the Sagamore Spirit distillery on Baltimore’s waterfront.

Each 30-minute episode airs on Facebook, Instagram, and is available on-demand across other platforms, including YouTube. Reaching nearly 100,000 viewers, the show brings a mix of industry news, updates, and spotlights from the Sagamore Spirit Distillery and shares new releases from the brand.

Any must-watch show needs a must-see host and Get a Sip of the Rye has that in Jason Bass, a Baltimore native and entrepreneur known well to locals (and beyond) as the founder of Night Brunch—an event series created to celebrate food, music, and friends. “Get a Sip of the Rye is for passionate whiskey lovers and the culture around it,” shares Bass. “In every episode, we have conversations and make cocktails with the best bartenders from our favorite bars around America. I’m grateful for being a storyteller while adding some diversity to the industry.”

The program isn’t just a celebration of rye whiskey. It’s a celebration of passionately innovative bartenders from Baltimore and around the country. Bass speaks one on one with a new bartender guest each episode. The duo shares their love of rye, explores each featured bartender’s career, and mixes a few cocktails that viewers at home are encouraged to create alongside them.

Started while most bartenders were still out of work, Sagamore’s Get a Sip of the Rye was developed to give bartenders a national platform to show off their craft. Each guest bartender gets the opportunity to showcase their hometown bars and restaurants in the process.

While every episode starts with the duo shaking up a classic Manhattan, every episode ends with the guest bartender mixing their favorite way to use Sagamore Spirit Rye Whiskey in a cocktail.

Guest Bartender Andy Bixby

“Recognizing the versatility of rye whiskey is an important lesson for new whiskey drinkers,” says Marcus Stephens, Executive Vice President of Brand Marketing at Sagamore Spirit. “These bartenders are experts at building cocktails that allow individual ingredients to shine. Plus, they’re teachers at heart. We learn something new every show.”

May’s episode featured Andy Bixby of the wellknown Jack Rose Dining Saloon and The Imperial in Washington, D.C. Bixby’s historical knowledge of Maryland rye rivals his cocktail expertise and viewers were treated to a fun whiskey history lesson and little-known science tidbits that are the building blocks to his Perfect Sherry Manhattan. Bixby uses Amontillado Sherry, a dry Spanish wine, for nuttiness and Cocchi Dopo Teatro for bitterness. Neither are classic Manhattan ingredients, but work well with rye whiskey.

“The Signature is perfect for this,” says Bixby. “Sagamore Spirit has nice rye spice that balances things out. Rye is perfect for most classic whiskey cocktails.” Kendra Copeland, of Hotel Revival in Baltimore and the first bartender featured on Get a Sip of the Rye agrees. “I love rye in a Manhattan because of the way it plays with vermouth,” Copeland says. “You can avoid getting a cocktail that’s too sweet, by having a mash bill that’s not so corn heavy, like your bourbons.”

Sagamore Spirit Signature Rye Whiskey is a blend of high-rye and low-rye mash bill, which contribute to the final complexity of the spirit. The high-rye adds notes of cinnamon and clove, while the low-rye includes notes of caramel, honey, and citrus peel. In other words, it’s perfect for classic cocktails.

Now that many American cities are open for travel, Sagamore Spirit intends to take their show on the road, showcasing America’s best bartenders and sharing their modern approach to American Whiskey with the world.

Every episode is developed and scripted in-house by Sagamore Spirit and made by the Baltimorebased video production company, Producers. The series is shot at the Sagamore Spirit distillery in Baltimore and on-location at select bars and restaurants across the country.