Inside the Block
We're shining a spotlight on the vibrant businesses and and unique history of the Warehouse Block in Lexington, Kentucky! Every first and third Sunday of the month we're serving up a fun blend of inspiring, behind-the-scenes stories of the Bluegrass region's most dynamic district!
Inside the Block
The Void Sake with Justin LeVaughn!
You've likely heard of bourbon in Kentucky, but what about sake? We got to sit down with Justin LeVaughn, co-owner and head brewer of Void, to dive into the unexpected world of Kentucky's first and only sake brewery.
Justin reveals how three science-loving friends turned their pandemic experiment into a thriving business that bridges Japanese brewing traditions with Kentucky craft culture. He walks us through the fascinating six-week journey "from grain to glass," explaining how koji (a rice mold) transforms simple rice into complex, flavorful sake.
What makes Void special isn't just their product but their creative approach. While honoring traditional sake styles, they've developed signature creations like their tangerine "sake screwdriver" and bourbon barrel-aged varieties that speak to their Kentucky roots. Their taproom in Lexington's Warehouse Block has quickly become a community hub, featuring local art and unique events that celebrate creativity in all forms.
Ready to expand your beverage horizons? Whether you're a sake enthusiast or complete newcomer, Void offers an approachable entry point to this ancient fermentation tradition. Visit their taproom to try a flight of their diverse offerings and discover why sake might be your new favorite drink in bourbon country.
I am here with owner, co-owner, co-owner, co-owner, justin Levon head brewer, head nerd head nerd. So all of the above, you do everything a jack of all trades. Yeah, all the three of us do yeah okay, so so, justin, levon and you had said, because I think that that last name sounds like kind of like a villain or like a super villain um, how many different ways have you heard levon pronounced?
Speaker 2:uh, levon, levon. Uh, I think those are the main ones and then, yeah, I guess, every permutation with every dialect you can think of.
Speaker 1:It looks pretty straightforward on paper, Levon yeah, but of course everybody figures out a different way to go about that.
Speaker 2:A lot of times people will be like honey, you're going to have to pronounce that for me.
Speaker 1:I'm like, all right, it always starts with a honey. Yeah, yeah, definitely. So you're one of three. That is the Void guys. Are they all Tell?
Speaker 2:us about the void, tell us about the operations. Who's behind it? Yeah, so it started with uh. Actually the three of us, um, we kind of uh had this idea, kind of in the middle of the pandemic, that we wanted to do a sake brewery, um, or so, we want to do something with sake. So we kind of started, um, brandon, uh, uh flown, and myself, uh kind of came up with the idea. We had been working in the beer industry for almost a decade, I think.
Speaker 1:What were you doing in the beer industry?
Speaker 2:Uh, so he was, uh, uh, he helped co-found uh one of the breweries here in town, ethereal Um, and he was, uh, and he's the head brewer there and had been in beer beer brewing for that entire time. Um, and then I kind of, after I got done with uh grad school, I kind of stumbled upon the beer industry by doing their quality control work and I homebrewed at the time and so when you're in a small business or small brewery like that, you wear all hats. So kind of learned from him kind of commercial beverage manufacturing. That sounds fun, but, yeah, basically just commercial beer brewing.
Speaker 2:So we had been beer brewers for a bit and then throughout that time we were experimenting with different stuff, stumbled upon sake, koji being one of the ingredients. It's a rice mold, okay, uh, that breaks down the starches for these. But I had never grown it, um, never knew anything about it, and it kind of enticed me and so we basically made our first batch of sake and it wasn't terrible. Then we just kept brewing and then a couple years later then we started this, but the whole, I guess um imagery or the branding or whatnot came from. We're all a bunch of nerds, uh. So like sci-fi, horror or like uh fantasy, role-playing type games, and so that whole like old cult, uh vibe. We wanted to like emulate kind of the sort of the fear, the unknown, like kind of the intrigue of the unknown.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I brought my brother in here, um, he's one of my best friends and he hadn't been in the warehouse block in years and he hadn't seen how it's really been revitalized lately and he certainly hadn't been here and he's a very much like a self-identified nerd loves horror yeah loves all these video games from back in the day. And so he came in and was like notice the symbol and which I had no idea what it meant, or whatever so he was talking to the bartender, but he's like is this Zelda?
Speaker 2:You know, and that's, that's a common question. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. And so the bartender was like yeah, you know, we're a bar made by nerds for nerds. And so whenever we were talking about it later on another podcast, jonathan, my brother was like I don't think we're supposed to say nerds and I'm like no, he, this is a self-identifying thing like. This is where we can go to like feel, to feel safe, yeah, I mean yeah, everybody, everybody can nerd out about anything? Yeah, absolutely for sure.
Speaker 2:So this is a common bond between you guys, all of the yeah, so really the, the, the, the triforce, zelda thing kind of came after the fact we didn't go into it with that. Um, we like the idea of like the, the triangles and stuff and it's pretty like mysterious and there's like three of us and uh. Then like uh are the uh social media manager and stuff. He at that time he wasn't working with us, but we knew him and he came up with some early concepts and stuff and did like three triangles. Three people came together and made that little like triforce look like a portal and we were like never thought of that.
Speaker 2:It was like like that's really cool, so then we kept it yeah but the, the triforce of those three triangles, actually is a uh pretty famous like samurai clan in like the warring states period or um. So the right side up version is like a famous uh samurai clan, like symbol, and so you see that a lot in Japan. And then also Zelda kind of took that imagery and embellished it with their game.
Speaker 1:So your icon has it's like multifaceted. I love that. Yeah, Several different meanings. That's great. So during the pandemic. Now I want to go back to something you said earlier, because you said none of us had ever like grown it before. What did you mean by that had said earlier?
Speaker 2:because you had said none of us had ever like grown it before. What did you mean by that? So the I mean we're familiar with yeast and other stuff, so it's like that. You're kind of growing in like a liquid kind of media, this one like steaming rice, and then you have to sprinkle this mold on this rice and cultivate it like a culture, it like a almost like a plant, so it's more of like that solid state form. So we had never done. I mean I've done, I've grown like molds and other organism stuff in my in, uh, college and grad school, but not like that before, like on a food product for for eating and fermenting so take me through the whole process like I'm gonna.
Speaker 1:I want to start making and do you say sake or sake?
Speaker 2:uh sake.
Speaker 1:Yeah I want to say how you say yeah it's growing.
Speaker 2:It's funny in the south like I mean it's pretty common, like sake, yeah, or, but I mean it's pronounced sake, but I'm not gonna be of.
Speaker 1:You're not gonna be thrown out. Yeah, I'm not gonna be the language police. Okay, sounds good.
Speaker 2:But yeah, when we first started I had to like with my accent, I had to like sake sake sake.
Speaker 1:I know no, I'm having to like, cause I definitely was raised. It was like it's sake.
Speaker 2:And so I'm having to like like kind of turn of the century and I'd spell it S-A-K-I. Okay, and other things are just sake or sake, but yeah, but anyway, okay, tangent, I love it, I love a good tangent. Yeah, so sake. So the process starts. I mean it's a rice-based beverage, so we say it's a brewed beverage because one it's a grain product, even though it's called rice wine, sometimes rice liquor, but it's a brewed beverage and rice being the main sugar source, so we don't malt it like beer and like with barley and wheat and stuff for beer making or distilling.
Speaker 2:So the rice is first processed and like polished and kind of like white rice okay, so you're taking off the outer layers and stuff um with, uh, with sake rice and um, now it's, it's processed a little bit more, so it's polished more than your table rice.
Speaker 2:But because it's polished that embryo is gone so we can't malt it. So we need another organism to be able to convert those starches into usable sugar for the yeast, and so we have this rice and then we'll kind of steam that rice and then inoculate it with this mold. It's a rice mold, that's that koji I really. We just grow it, give it the kind of conditions to kind of grow and around and into this rice grain, and it's basically just an enzyme factory. So it produces our enzymes for us, but it also produces a bunch of other flavor compounds that give sake that flavor. So that's kind of the pre-step. And then, once we have that koji, then we combine it with water, more steamed rice and yeast and then, as the kind of koji or that koji rice melts away, releases the enzymes, and then they go to work on the rice and then, as that breaks down, then the yeast eat it and make alcohol.
Speaker 1:How long from start to finish?
Speaker 2:I tell people from grain to glass. It depends on the recipe and style, but uh, for ours it's about six, seven weeks.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, from start to start when I'm bottom, yeah, and so when and you're doing this, you're brewing it right here in the warehouse block. Okay, where is it exactly?
Speaker 2:so it's a little further down.
Speaker 2:It's at the end of national avenue towards like towards, uh, richmond avenue, okay, like that intersection there, yeah. So, uh, there's a like a warehouse complex there and so that's where we started and it, uh, was kind of the brewery and tap room, or I said it wasn't really. I mean, we had taps, but it was more like a tasting bar because it was in a warehouse and so we had like a little mini tasting bar on wheels, yeah, because I was, I was still brewing there at the time at night before we, or well, in the morning before we opened, and so had to tear it, tear it down, do my brewing and put it back together every single day pretty much, yeah, yeah, the days we were open, um, but yeah, but yeah. So that's where the brewery is and since we've expanded here, this place kind of closer down and, I guess, in the warehouse block.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the tap room right here, yeah.
Speaker 2:Is all of our retail customer facing stuff, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you so weird, cause my favorite of the sakes is the one and I'm not sure what, it's exactly called, but it has like that orange creamsicle taste. I love that one. So how are you so you're adding in different flavors? Are you actually adding in like orange essence to that, Something like that? Yeah?
Speaker 2:So we we tried to for the sakes and even like our uh, sparkling sake seltzer based products. We yeah Um sparkling one we yeah, they're pretty popular in Japan and it's fun, yeah so. But yeah so all the ingredients we try, we use whole ingredients for pretty much everything, If we do need to adjust the flavors. You know any natural extracts and concentrates, but with that one in particular, all like whole bean or whole vanilla bean and tangerine juice yeah, Go into it.
Speaker 1:Amazing, yeah, yeah. So it's very like, straightforward, like what you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's basically like I call it jokingly like our sake screwdriver. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:So that's the. I guess it's the shining one for the customers and the listeners there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:But yeah, so that one and basically we're just taking our like traditional cloudy sake or nigori um, and we're just kind of riffing off the flavors of those because it's kind of our favorite style or one of our favorite styles. We like them all, um, but there's so much complexity, um, that you can get out of it and it's just cool to pair and contrast yeah, and experiment I'm sure.
Speaker 1:So what now? I haven't branched out past that one because like I'm just the type like I'll find something. I'm like that's just mine every single time, but I need to like experiment and try. So what are the other flavors that I should, and what flavors did you start with? What's been sort of like the?
Speaker 2:yeah, we initially started with three, okay, so kind of the core. Well, now it's up to like five or six, but when we originally started it was just our standard clear sake or filtered sake, our nigori sake, which is the cloudy one that you have to shake up, and then we did a flavored Nigori product and we started with horchata.
Speaker 1:I think, yeah, those are the echoes yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So I always loved horchata as a kid. So yeah, that's where I was like flavors are already there, you just got to add two more things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, did you still have a horchata style one?
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, no problem, so yeah that was the three that we came with. And then we had a coffee one as well that we actually got the idea. During the shutdown we did a virtual tasting tour, like it was. The guy was in Japan and he could see, or we could see him, but he couldn't see us kind of thing. But he was talking about cocktails that they do. He was like, yeah, we'll take an agori with a frozen like coffee ice cube and that's their cocktail. I'm like that's really cool. So that's where that one came from. But yeah, so we use nate's coffee with that one oh, I love that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so his roastery is right across from the brewery so we get it fresh um, make up the cold brew the day before, add it in um. But yeah, then the shiny one came later and that over when we first opened the tasting room at the old location, uh, and people just loved it. So we were like, all right, this is a year-round thing now. Yeah so, but now the core three are that one shiny one, the um, opalescent uh and the messenger, which are kind of the core three core three gotcha.
Speaker 1:And what is the um alcohol content?
Speaker 2:for sake. It's generally um jokingly if you look at like like the tax code in japan, which we don't follow here, but it's I always find it funny. They can be from one percent to 22 percent that's cool. It's quite a span, yeah, but typically like, your average sake is anywhere from like 14 to 16. Okay, um some I've seen like 8 to 12, kind of like a wine but it's a little bit stronger.
Speaker 2:A little bit stronger, yeah like most of our sakes, are 15 or 13 to 15, and then um, some of the uh, bigger, uh, higher alcohol ones are 18 okay, yeah, the it's wild to me that it is that high of an alcohol, like it just seems very smooth, like it doesn't seem.
Speaker 1:It doesn't have that bite to it, yeah.
Speaker 2:And that kind of goes back to the fermentation process. We do a little. I mean you can ferment sake in two weeks and it tastes really good. Extender ferments a little longer just to make it to where it's a little bit smoother. I guess it's less like boozy bernie bite and more of like that nice kind of clean ethanol. Yeah, bite, um, but yeah it's kind of it. Sake will sneak up on you because it's like 15.
Speaker 1:You're like oh man, this is great yeah, this is great the bottle's done, you're like, oh, I shouldn't have done that I know I came for um, your galentine's event, which I want to talk about, your events, here in a second, because I think you guys do such a good job with little micro events too, you know, and like all different scales of the sizes of them. But and so my friends and I were drinking sake all day during that Galentine's event and then at some point we were just like you know kind of drunk.
Speaker 2:I tell people and also the bartenders, I was like, yeah, sake hits you a little differently, it's a slow burn.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure, but I don't know. Do they say anything about like hangovers? Is that different with sake or is it about the same?
Speaker 2:I mean you drink enough alcohol, you'll have a hangover To each their own.
Speaker 1:But it's kind of weird I mean I can have a bottle of sake and I'll be fine the next day. Is there something to it being like the rice or anything having to do with you know, maybe it's a little more natural or something I'm not sure.
Speaker 2:I know that like yeah, it's like I don't really get, I don't really feel like crap in the morning, but I mean there is some science behind it. But yeah, I'm not 100% sure, it's just a great beverage.
Speaker 1:I wonder what the Japanese say about it too. Have you been to Japan, oh?
Speaker 2:good, yeah, yeah. So actually when we were starting this up, we had planned to make a trip to Japan, but then we had to stop because it was like the shutdown was happening and we're like all right, if we go, are we gonna get back? And then, like the next week they closed, closed worst places to be stranded though.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah for sure.
Speaker 2:Um, and then yeah, like, and then it stayed closed for two years. So, and then when it opened back up, we already opened up. Um, I mean, there's not many sake breweries in North America. When we first opened up, there was probably 15. Total in the United States, in North America.
Speaker 1:Oh, in North America, okay yeah.
Speaker 2:Not just there was one in at that time, there was one in Mexico and maybe one in Canada, but it's spread out or it's still one in Mexico and I think two or three in Canada, but still, like most of them were in the U S but now it's probably about 25, 30. Um, but even then, like uh, we had went to a couple of breweries, uh, shadowed with them and you know they helped us plan it. And then fast forward a couple of years later all those brewers kind of got together with a trade organization and they put together this advanced brewers course and me and uh brewers went and lived in a sake brewery in Japan for two weeks.
Speaker 1:Amazing, that was fun, so you took it from. What did you say earlier, rice?
Speaker 2:No grain to glass. Oh, I love that. That's a good one.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's awesome. So you saw that whole process then. Yeah, we saw most of it.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. So you saw that whole process then. Yeah, we saw most of it. We got to make a batch of sake there, which every year we also do. It's called the American Sake Festival. It's kind of our national thing, which I'll be there next weekend. Oh, where is it? It's in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Oh, cool yeah.
Speaker 1:That's where we get some of our rice from. Is Arkansas, oh, arkansas, okay, does Arkansas? Um, that's where, like we get some of our rice from, is arkansas, oh?
Speaker 2:okay. So arkansas okay, I does arkansas have good rice? Yeah, yeah, they actually produce. It's funny people don't realize that they produce probably the most rice in the us, second to california. I had no idea. Yeah, I mean, with the drought and everything, it's kind of, uh, I guess decrease their tonnage in California. But yeah, like the like soil and the climate is perfect for rice growing.
Speaker 1:Huh, arkansas, all right, and so is the conference always there because of that.
Speaker 2:It moves around, but for the past two years they've put it there. There's a big sake brewery that's actually opened up in Hot Springs Smart yeah. And then that farm has been there making like, I guess, or has been growing kind of premium eating rice, but also been making sake rice or growing sake rice for 40, 50 years.
Speaker 1:Oh, wow so they've been around.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, that's where we get our rice from. But what was I going to say? Oh, I guess tangent, please. We did that at that program. We brewed sake there. We couldn't stay for the whole process, so they finished it. We kind of talked to them throughout the process getting updates, but then when we did that festival, they shipped over that sake that we made.
Speaker 1:Oh, fantastic, was it good? It was, it was very good.
Speaker 2:And then yeah, we got to drink it and serve it at the place, so it was really fun. It's kind of a nice full circle like experience. Yeah, but japan was really fun. Um, yeah, a lot of a lot of eating, a lot of drinking, but it was just a really pretty place, yeah, for sure, I went a couple of years ago with a group of students and I just fell in love.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's just so efficient and like the culture is so I don't know like everything is just like very well thought out.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And everything is just really. It is so ancient and yet modern, I love that, yeah.
Speaker 2:So we stayed a little bit in Tokyo, but mainly in Niigata, which is like the northern kind of part. But yeah, when we took the train it's just like, yeah, you'll see a bullet train, yeah, yeah yeah, um, uh, but yeah, you'll just drive in in the middle of the city, there'll be rice patties everywhere, yeah, and it's kind of like cool juxtaposition between, like you know, the metropolitan and then like rural, and like it's like, yeah, it's just, yeah, all that mixing and blending, it was just really cool. What do we call it? Utilitarian?
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, most certainly. I think we should start a yearly Japan trip like void.
Speaker 2:We should.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like it should be like a, you know you sign up. It's like we'll figure out how to make it. Make sure you know tour and and really great bullet train moments and like see all the sites and stuff like that and drink all the sake. Yeah, all right. So I have you on camera now and we're recording. So you're, you're in I'm in.
Speaker 2:Okay, you heard it here first yeah, I've been wanting to go back yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So when was this the last time you were there?
Speaker 2:this was a year and a half ago. Okay, yeah, we. Yeah, we were in the summer of 23.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Cool, so, but you're the so Void is the only sake brewer, for sure, in the state of Kentucky, though.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. First, and only as far as I know.
Speaker 1:First and only here in Lexington. I mean that's great. Yeah, that's awesome.
Speaker 2:And so are areas of the US. Originally I guess, yeah, I'd be like New York, like New York New York area and then California, but now there's probably as many or more and kind of like the southeast and kind of kind of spread across the US within kind of that eight to nine hour distance. Here there's the arkansas one, uh. Ashville, north carolina, has one great ben's american sake. Nashville, tennessee, has a sake brewery, awesome, proper. And then charlottesville, virginia, um, and then I'm drawing a blank on it. There's at least two more, uh they're popping up?
Speaker 1:yeah, they are, they are so it's.
Speaker 2:It's been steadily growing as kind of a beverage category, yeah in the in america, and then also um the number of breweries as well?
Speaker 1:do you think the like the american palette is sort of expanding to really appreciate sake more, or I?
Speaker 2:think so they just weren't.
Speaker 2:It just wasn't something that was like that anybody knew, and that's why the popularity wasn't there for a while, I mean so america has, I mean, since you know, world war ii there's been a pretty close um, or following world war ii there's been a close kind of connect or connection between japan and america and kind of the blending of cultures and stuff uh helped bring sake over here. But also america imports, or imports, I guess, the most sake out of all the country. Or yeah, I think america, us and china import a lot of sake and also, as far as their exports go, they export most of their. Japan exports most of their sake to the us gotcha um, so there's always been like a big, I guess, market market for sake. But I think that kind of like craft, american craft, like beer and beverage kind of culture has kind of taken to sake and tried to take some of those cool like flavors that you can get out of it and also like view some of the neat traditions and uh kind of just flavor pairings yeah sake.
Speaker 1:So yeah, well, it sounds incredibly versatile so it's like a really good use of a flavor.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and and two. It's like you can pair it with pretty much anything, because people will ask like, oh, what should I pair this with, like that kind of like wine mentality, which is is fun and really cool. But I tell people it's pretty much anything. Yeah, I'll do like some of ours with barbecue.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you would not think that that'd be the thing like pizza, yeah, okay yeah, because, like rolling oven, they uh, the, uh, I think it's yeah, the bruxelles location. Um, they've had our sake there for a while and they'll oh cool, they'll pair.
Speaker 1:It pairs really well with pizza, yeah that'd be cool to start doing like um paired tastings and stuff in the warehouse because we have barbecue, we have pizza, you know yeah and we do like.
Speaker 2:For example, we've been doing different, like tasting events. One of it, there's a um, we do some like little, uh, like local makers, markets, and um one, um individual, he's a chocolatier. Oh uh, he's a school teacher and makes chocolate love it um, but anyway. So he makes some really good chocolate and we've done like chocolate pairings with our sake, uh, which is really cool. We did uh, I think we did uh. Did we do cheese pairing? I think we did cheese pairing.
Speaker 1:Cupcake pairing always um, down for cheese. Yeah, that sounds great all about it. So your events, though I think that's what has really drawn me to you guys in the in general is that you have a really great grasp of like. Well, first of all, it's such a great space the taproom. When did you move in here?
Speaker 2:It was about about the, was it kind of the end, end of March, I think, last year?
Speaker 1:Oh, so you're.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so it's about a year, about a year old.
Speaker 1:Which is great. I just feel like you've been here so much longer, because oh no, time flies, time flies. There's just so many different events that you do a really great. I think your social media is top notch.
Speaker 2:It's Sean, right, yeah, so shout out to Sean.
Speaker 1:He does great work and he is on it and he is like on it.
Speaker 2:you know, and I and he's he's done a really good job. No-transcript became like a nice like third space hangout spot, definitely, um, and so we wanted to kind of keep that here and really, uh, build kind of like a community centric space with not just the warehouse block but lexington in, with not just the warehouse block but lexington in general or just the neighborhood yeah, I think you were incredibly successful at that.
Speaker 1:I mean the decor is really cool, I mean because it definitely is reminiscent of that nightlife in japan, for sure, and I think you know you've melded really well together, like the branding and the. I think I think it's great yeah, like.
Speaker 2:So we at the brewery, um and this is true for a lot of american brewers, but a lot of the equipment, uh, we can't feasibly import from japan, so we have to retrofit a lot of equipment from brewing and winemaking um, but we worked with um, uh, local like builders and fabricators to like make our press or to make our koji table, and then when we did that, like other artists came to us and so a local artist built the tentacle lights that we have yeah, I love the tentacle light.
Speaker 2:That's like one of my favorites so he welded the wiring and did the whole paper mache like thing. Yeah, and then yeah, and so we've. Yeah, I guess we've always, because I guess that kind of um creativity or eccentricism or yeah centric kind of like attitude, like attracts the creative people.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so most definitely well, you have really fun creative events. I mean, you have opportunity and I I was told last time I was here too like wednesday nights or like community nights too, so people are able if you have, you know, a little group that you want to be able to meet, it's like a really fun spot to be able to do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we do. Sean's done really great helping build and cultivate those communities and so, like, yeah, wednesdays we do like, I think, frequent mixer events like socials. And then, yeah, there's people that come uh, I think it's like once a month or something like that, but they'll come play board games. Just set up, yeah and um, they're getting you know more and more people are starting to to do them yeah, and you have the stage which we're sitting on right now, so do you have live music sometimes too?
Speaker 2:um not live music, but we do kind of um like trivia, we do um like drag brunches, belly dance kind of events which are really fun. Yeah, we've done a couple of burlesque shows, which is really, really fun.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So like, and then other events where like like private or what was I ticketed music events and stuff. So just having like a neat focal spot for people, definitely it's nice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and in the markets you do. I mean that's really. I mean they're frequent too, so it's like makers, markets, night markets. Tell us more about that.
Speaker 2:So the makers markets kind of, because we make a pretty niche product and we take a lot of pride and stuff and the craft of it and we wanted to kind of give that back to a lot of cool creative makers people that create cool things, and so that's where that kind of came from, but just not only kind of share sake, but share all the other cool things people are making and doing.
Speaker 2:So yeah, that's kind of how it happened. And then Sean's had really good connections with a lot of these uh, these vendors and stuff, so that helped um. And then the night markets like I remember, um, now that we have kind of this space, it's a lot more open um and have the space to be able to do these, these bigger gatherings. But, like I remember coming to Lexington, they used to have the really big night market.
Speaker 1:Yeah. And when they stopped Sixth Street or like way down. It was like Loudon, Loudon.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but that was really cool and I was like when it stopped I was like, man, I wish we could do that again, and so just trying to build something like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So so yeah, just cool little community things.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Like I love that.
Speaker 2:You know you can come hang out, have a glass of sake if you want. If not, support the local community.
Speaker 1:I think the vendors that you've chosen for your markets or that you've created these relationships with are really unique, because the last time I came it was really high-end, beautiful pet and dog treats.
Speaker 2:But it was next to this artist who takes little, tiny skeletons of animals that she finds and like creates really cool jewelry out of it and I was like you, never know what you're gonna get, which is a really neat, you know facet to it. That particular thing, yeah, I've always like grown up with like bugs and stuff and like the whole like specimen preparation and stuff like that kind of thing and like epoxy and that process of like making it yeah, like stuff like that. It's really really pretty.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think so too you all do really great with that too. So what um challenges have you been faced have you faced in the past?
Speaker 2:I mean, whether it be from the brewing process to opening the tap room I mean yeah, so like we essentially, starting out, kind of bootstrapped it ourselves in terms of like just building from the ground up, so like challenges there. I mean like when you're opening a brewery or a manufacturing thing, it takes a lot of not just financial capital but also like just sweat.
Speaker 1:Blood sweat and tears, yeah, tears into it.
Speaker 2:But honestly, like I think getting open it wasn't like there were challenges, but it wasn't like a huge hurdle to climb, but mainly it was we were kind of coming out of the shutdown and pandemic and like that brought on a whole new challenges uh there. But you know, just kind of like any business, just slowly growing it. Um, we kind of had, I guess uh inadvertently had that kind of like, kind of like any business just slowly growing it. Um, we kind of had, I guess uh inadvertently had that kind of like kind of cult, like low-key kind of following, but like it was kind of like um, so, so we started with that and like we really centered around kind of our regulars and then those people told other people and brought them in. But, um, but yeah, as far as, and then like challenges, which is like you had mentioned before, that this whole block area and all the way down national avenue past the block have been kind of renovated, revitalized and so dealing with.
Speaker 2:It looks very different now than it did 15 years ago yeah, so part of part of the hurdles were kind of dealing with um kind of being in the middle of that process. Yeah, like the build up and everything but um, I guess. But yeah, they're not like insurmountable because I guess we're here.
Speaker 1:But yeah, you are, but they're just kind of fun challenges yeah and everything.
Speaker 2:And then yeah, and, and two, like it's, it's. It takes a lot, like I said, grain to glass it's uh seven, six weeks, so about two months uh per batch. So a lot of forethought and planning needs to go into it so um, it just takes longer are you so your head brew?
Speaker 1:are you mainly over brewing? And so are you like you're not here in the tap room as much.
Speaker 2:No, we're usually. I mean, one of the owners is here usually every day or most of the time, but yeah, so I'm only mainly at the brewery, but then, yeah, when I'm, you know, have a few things to finish up, I'll come down here and just finish up, so it's not like one of you is always there and the other one's always here.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, most of my time is over there just because the whole brewing process is pretty hands-on and laborious. But yeah, it's neat to kind of just walk down the street just kind of when we're up here.
Speaker 1:I think it's great You're so close to. I mean, all the operations are here. So, it's not like you're driving like across town or something or whatever.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's nice because it's like, oh, they need something or some bottles, I can just quickly ride up there, get it, bring it back Totally.
Speaker 1:But yeah, yeah, that's neat. So did you have a pretty loyal following right off the bat with your regulars, or is that slowly?
Speaker 2:grown. It was kind of slowly grown and cultivated, because it was kind of like that oh sake and bourbon country, or sake, what's that? I had it with sake bombs, or at the hibachi place, sake bombs.
Speaker 1:I forgot about sake. What was a sake bomb?
Speaker 2:It's like the drop shot.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, but what do you drop it in?
Speaker 2:Usually like a rice lager.
Speaker 1:Yeah, beer, a rice lager.
Speaker 2:Okay, usually like Kirin or like Asahi or like Sapporo.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh, sapporo, of course. So most people and that's not uncommon, but I mean Lexington or Kentucky in general, and in Lexington uh have a you know pretty, pretty significant like Japanese uh population and influence, with Toyota being pretty close.
Speaker 2:Oh of course, yeah, and the universities and stuff.
Speaker 2:So that's kind of why we kind of stuck here, um, but yeah, so I guess, uh, building that following um, but just kind of we were doing when we initially started out we were doing farmers markets.
Speaker 2:Uh, tours were a big thing. So we do kind of guided tours throughout, kind of like how it's made like and a guided tasting um, just to kind of, because we knew that when we were opening this, one of the big challenges would be educating people about soccer, totally, um, so it's like everybody's had it heard of, heard it, maybe, had it in those like drop shots or squirted in your mouth at the hibashi place, but yeah, um, yeah, but yeah, just kind of and telling people like, hey, this is, like, this is a cool thing, and trying to like kind of, you know, just educate them a little bit what it is, what it tastes like, what you can do with it and just how cool it is, so that that kind of helped bring a lot of people to us. And then it was kind of that once they had us they were hooked, kind of thing.
Speaker 2:Love that so kind of blending, like, yeah, that what made craft beer really cool, and with those bold flavors bringing them in. And then we're like, oh hey, have you ever tried this traditional stuff? And then they're like, oh, tell me more.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's great. So very natural and organic. Yeah, yeah, progression of that, I love that.
Speaker 2:And then and then, too, it's like yeah, it's when you come here, it's we try to focus on. That's. It's not just well, the beverage itself is really cool, but there's a lot of cool like um, just how it's made history behind the lore yeah and then also the experience. So have that, like you know, kind of every interaction is kind of like a guided tasting, almost kind of thing yeah, I was gonna ask you.
Speaker 1:So if somebody is, has never been to void or doesn't come very often and doesn't really know what they're doing and they waltz in like what, what would the experience be like or what would you suggest they kind of start with?
Speaker 2:Usually like flights. We do flights, so it's basically the equivalent like a wine pour, but it's three, two ounce pours and you can do a flight, uh, try a variety of stuff, uh, and then go from there. So, like, we always have a pretty, like I said, we have the core kind of six products that we do have year round, and then we have rotating um seasonals and one-offs. Um, for example, we just um, we just uh just left. It was drank, everybody drank it all but the pistachio cake. Oh, amazing.
Speaker 1:You don't have any more.
Speaker 2:No, it's very popular.
Speaker 1:I'm sure it sounds great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Banana pudding, Nogori toasted coconut.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like all these cool like desserts yeah.
Speaker 2:But also, kind of alongside that, a lot of more kind of traditional styles, not just the clear and nigori or cloudy sakes, but also like some higher, let's say, more premium products, but with just more premium ingredients, like more processed or more polished rice, cool little experiments where we might change the yeast up or it's pressed a little differently. Um, so we always have something yeah, that sounds like it'll pique people's interest. Or, like we, we do a barrel aged or bourbon barrel aged sake. Yeah, we release, uh, about twice a year, I think.
Speaker 1:Um, yeah, sparkling sake, as you name it well, what's funny, too, is the the the fact that um Japan is one of the major buyers of Kentucky bourbon. So, it's almost like there's this like reciprocity thing happening where, like Americans really love the sake and then that bag. So I was wondering if there was ever any like collabs with, like a bourbon barrel type, like um, you know those types of flavors within that um saying in japan or here, no, or have you guys done it?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah. So we um, we actually got um a barrel. Uh, what was uh, was it from a barrel house? Um, so like we'll do beer like stuff, stuff like that, like we just kind of fell into a barrel with that blending sake, with that kind of whiskey and bourbon, we do beer collabs.
Speaker 2:So since we kind of came from the brewing industry, like Lexington in general, the brewing scene in general in Lexington is a lot more, a lot very collaborative. So everybody, kind of all the brewers know everybody, we're all good friends, we like to have fun and you know we can all experiment together. So that's where we kind of try to keep that kind of collaborative atmosphere. With beer Wisebird, like we're doing a collab with them, kind of like a weird sake, cider, hybrid, fun, yeah. And then we're also in the works of working with Barrel House to maybe make a distilled product from our sake. Very cool, yeah, so a lot of cool. So yeah, we do a lot of fun, collaborative things like that. And yeah, we're in Kentucky, we're going to put sake in a bourbon barrel.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, of course, but I mean, we do other wood-age sakes as well.
Speaker 2:We do one regularly, that's uh, with amberana barrels um, which is a cool wood. It's very like marshmallow kind of ginger snap cookie flavor. Fantastic, um cedar, um yeah yeah, I.
Speaker 1:Um, when we interviewed derrick at mirror twin he also echoed what you said about how, and I don't know why it surprised me. I guess I just figured that like business is pretty cutthroat but like the community of brewers and small and small breweries in lexington is really supportive of each other and I don't know why that was. I mean, I'm glad to hear it, but it was like shocking to me yeah, it's, it's funny.
Speaker 2:It's like I guess the the kind of history and the brewing scene here is they all kind of came from, uh, like all tech or what I say, all tech, but lexington brewing, sure, um, and then everybody kind of made their own little pocket of brewing and kind of grew it up from this fun kind of collaborative atmosphere because they all knew everybody or they all knew each other, um, so, like I said, derek, we know we're good friends with him. Yeah, we've done some collabs with him and it's nice to have those relationships because you know, sometimes you just got to things happen, you've got to embrace the suck of stuff going wrong, and it's really fun to have some friends next door and be like hey yeah, can you help me out or I can help you out, and stuff like that.
Speaker 2:I love it and then we can kind of come together and make something really cool.
Speaker 1:Most definitely Okay. So, as we're ending, I wanted to. I want to know. Well, I probably should have started with this a little bit more about you personally. You said you had went to grad school.
Speaker 2:What was that in? Okay, so my journey starts. Yeah, so I basically started off doing kind of like biology and biochem. Okay, so this is all science, nerd, doing kind of like biology and biochem.
Speaker 1:Okay, so this is all science nerd related. Yeah, yeah, this is not a while.
Speaker 2:So I was very focused in like kind of biology, cell biology. Microbiology was kind of my initial forte. Once I graduated, worked in several labs as kind of I call it like a data rat doing, like you know, wet preps and experiments and stuff. And then when I was initially in grad school, then preps and experiments and stuff and then, um, when I was initially in grad school then found a love for science teaching and so yeah, and so taught um the and then got involved with the teaching labs, managing those, helping develop curriculum.
Speaker 1:This does not surprise me. You're very well spoken. I can see you teaching. Uh, thank you. Yeah, I mean it, yeah, it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it was just a lot of fun, and then during that time I was also picked up homebrewing as kind of an outlet for some of that. Yeah, so that's where that connection started, but kind of cultivated that science, outreach and communication and education aspect and that's where my grad school was in yeah, just college or teaching like college freshman level science and biology, and then, yeah, after that fell into the brewing industry as kind of like a microbiologist and stuff so but yeah, so that's kind of my background.
Speaker 1:Neat, yeah, yeah, great. Well, that and the fact that we're all going to travel together to Japan, every year yeah. So you'll be adding some, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't speak a lot of Japanese. That's okay, we'll figure it out, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, together, promise, remember we're going. Okay, sounds great. All right, thank, and I love, I love Void. So this has been really yeah, this has been great. Can't wait to see all the different markets you have going on coming up, especially in the summertime, when the weather's like moving in the right direction and yeah yeah, I'd say always.
Speaker 1:Just you can follow us on the social medias, yes, and we always have all kinds of events going on, so keep you up to speed on yeah, whatever, and if there's somebody out there who potentially has like a small group that needs to meet or an idea for a really cool event, I've noticed you guys are really easy to work with on all of that, so this is a great spot for that, yeah, so if you have like an idea, you can always reach out to us.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, like I said, sean, he's lightning fast yeah, and then, yeah, like we, we try to have that kind of, or try to cultivate that kind of like, um, I guess, inclusive, safe, collaborative kind of atmosphere. So so, yeah, yeah, like, yeah, board game we do. We've done some board game nights, uh, here, um, somebody comes, or there was, uh, some players that brought some like mahj.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I love it. Mahjong is on the rise.
Speaker 2:I've heard.
Speaker 1:It's coming.
Speaker 2:Yeah, all kinds of cool stuff.