Is this new app the Airbnb of bourbon? How The Kentucky Hug wants to change bourbon tourism

Can bourbon tourism save the world?

It just might, according to Eddie Fieldhouse III, founder of The Kentucky Hug, an application that streamlines the booking of distillery experiences.

Immersed in the industry with his marketing role in family-owned and operated Pegasus Transportation, Fieldhouse has witnessed for years how logistically challenging it is for travelers to enjoy Kentucky's rapidly growing bourbon offerings. Not only that, but the industry itself has no idea who these travelers are since often one person is booking a tour for an entire group.

He knew something had to change, and felt uniquely positioned to do something to help the bourbon industry grow, streamline its process, and better understand its visitors.

With kyhug.com, which goes live in June and launches as a mobile app early next year, travelers can choose their own adventure, building a bourbon country itinerary and buying their tickets to various distilleries (on and off the official bourbon trails) in one fell swoop. Its fun name is a play on that glow that travels from heart to belly with a sip of bourbon.

"The Kentucky Hug works with distilleries to centralize their various bourbon experiences and available tickets and allows users to plan and book those experiences, all in one place," according to its website. "The Kentucky Hug will also provide the most accurate and holistic picture of where visitors are spending their time and money, capturing valuable information about each visitor attending an experience, not just a single credit card holder."

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You all, this is huge. For bourbon tourism, I'd compare it to the significance that Airbnb had on the home-sharing economy. Fieldhouse is already fielding calls from leaders of other drinks-powered tourism hotspots like wine country who see the wild potential of a one-stop-shop like this.

Here's what to know about The Kentucky Hug.

What is the idea behind The Kentucky Hug?

First, let's go back to the old days of booking distillery tours, which are … still now. A visitor planning a bourbon tour can spend six to eight hours researching and making reservations, Fieldhouse says. The number of distilleries has also skyrocketed in recent years, with 73 locations in operation across the state, Fieldhouse added.

But to string a few visits together in a day? It’s like Tetris, he says, going from distillery website to website to book one by one as tour slots vanish as fast as they could navigate to each site.

Not only that but travelers from outside the state likely only have a Google maps grasp on the rolling, winding topography of Kentucky's back roads where it's likely to take twice as long as you think to get from one place to the next. If you're late, you've missed your next tour and you might not have cell service so you can't call or message to try to reschedule, even if a distillery has additional availability.

Yikes. That's not exactly the experience any of us want for tourists.

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While folks with ample budgets can give an established company like Pegasus or Mint Julep Experiences the reins for a day (or more), that's not an option for everyone. That leaves either sifting through the hundred other operators that have popped up practically overnight, he says, or the frustration of the DIY approach for people thirsty for our native spirit and the stories behind it.

Recognizing the power that the experience of engaging with local communities and learning about our collective history through the lens of bourbon tourism has to bring us together, Fieldhouse knew things had to change. But where do you even start?

He began with the Kentucky Distillers’ Association, who loved the idea, but as a non-profit trade association, it wasn't in their lane, Fieldhouse explains.

Meanwhile, he was having conversations with "really amazing leaders in the industry," he says, and workers who were overwhelmed and unsure how to solve the challenges that were exacerbated by pandemic-related layoffs.

His heart went out to these people. Fieldhouse has experienced firsthand the magic bourbon tourism makes possible when you bring together all manner of people who share a common passion. This made him relentless in his drive to create a solution.

"I know what the problem is," he recalls thinking. "I know what would solve this, which is a holistic marketplace to put everything in one place to make it easy for people … [but] I didn't know how I would do it. And I didn't know who would be involved."

How did Fieldhouse's experience shape The Kentucky Hug?

Ten years ago, when Fieldhouse was getting started in his career, he visited a distillery.

"The first facility I went to," he says, "I was asked to leave the property because as a man wearing makeup and being a member of the queer community, I was making people uncomfortable."

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When Fieldhouse, who uses he/him and they/them pronouns interchangeably, returned a couple of years later, "that same employee, without being prompted, their first question to me was, 'what are your preferred pronouns?'" Fieldhouse told the Courier Journal. "And for the entire time we were on site, they were mindful, they were understanding, they were inclusive. And that is not a result of corporate education or some sort of policy. That is entirely due to the fact that this person had had years of access to people from all around the world."

This kind of exchange can heal a lot of deep wounds, says Fieldhouse. So, "I said, 'I can do it.'"

He dove in, asking distillery leaders and workers to share their challenges and pain points. Armed with that data, and a trove of information thanks to Pegasus' deep experience within the industry, he partnered with Louisville-based Slingshot Ventures (one of the best app development companies in the world, he says) to build the app.

What does The Kentucky Hug app mean for the bourbon industry?

Let's be clear. This isn't just about the tech. It goes beyond making it easier for people to spend millions of dollars supporting the industry, beyond the investment Kentucky Hug will make in our communities, and even beyond the ability to capture visitor data that will be invaluable within the industry.

As Fieldhouse found with his own experience, bourbon can often bridge divides that often seem impenetrable. It can help create a world where people may look past who someone voted for and share a moment as just … people. Will they walk away friends? That might be a bit much to hope for, but those shared moments may help heal a divided world.

And the easier we can make it for people to do that, the better off we'll be.

"Kentuckians have seen the impact of the bourbon boom in our backyards, but a lack of cohesion between distilleries and the broader communities has left opportunities untapped. By capturing and sharing valuable visitor information with the local tourism industry, we’ll be providing previously unseen insights that will help build and enrich local community businesses," the website states.

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Bourbon's history as a social lubricant goes back to, well, probably our origins as soon as we learned how it made us feel. Think about Prohibition, for example, he says, when illegal drinking clubs brought men and women together to drink in mixed company for the first time. That allowed people to have conversations they probably wouldn’t have otherwise had, he says. And today alcohol is often a conduit to conversations that we might not have imagined.

At the same time, brands are beginning to talk about a more holistic approach to the history of bourbon, acknowledging the roles of indigenous peoples, formerly enslaved people, immigrants and others that haven’t always been part of the picture of bourbon, which often just read as "dusty old white men," he says. And they’re recognizing when they don’t have all the answers, and being more transparent about it.

The biggest takeaway from my conversation with Fieldhouse? Bourbon tourism really does have the power to change the world. And The Kentucky Hug may just be the key to unlocking that potential.

I’ll drink to that.

Tell Dana! Send your restaurant "Dish" to Dana McMahan at thecjdish@gmail.com and follow @elleferafera on Instagram.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: The Airbnb of bourbon? The Kentucky Hug wants to change bourbon tourism