User:Craiglduncan/sandbox

Whiskey University (W. U.) is a public university in Columbia, Tennessee. Whiskey University teaches public classes throughout the United States and Canada at Restaurants, Bars, Country Clubs, Distillery locations, Liquor Stores, Grocery stores, Casinos, Lodges and Senior Living Facilities. They also teach private classes for hire at parties, events or shows. Their sole mission is to educate the public about the history and virtues of Bourbon, Tennessee Whiskey and other various North American whiskeys.

History
Colonel Craig Duncan was the leader and one of the three founding members of Whiskey University dating back as far as September of 2009. In May 2012 those three guys started hanging out a few times a month and formally training each other about what they learned about Bourbon or Whiskey. Duncan along with Jason Kyle and Ross Osborne started collecting as many brands as they could find from the nine major (at that time) bourbon distilleries on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. They each started contributing to the collection when they went to a local liquor store or traveled to another state or country. After about three years of collecting and contributing, it was nicknamed the Tenn-tucky Bourbon Bar. Now serving as Whiskey University’s unofficial library, the bar has over 1,380 different brands of whiskey and 850 different brands of bourbons. Now, with no duplications and it’s diverse selections of bourbon, it is one of the largest private collections in the world.

In 2015 Whiskey University began teaching formal in-person classes to their own social club and to other Bourbon Facebook groups in the Tennessee and Kentucky. In those days, the only they only taught the three most basic classes public in Whiskey 101, Bourbon 201, Tennessee Whiskey 202 despite having created about 40 classes at the time. Later they added some intermediate tasting classes about the twelve major distilleries on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. In 2016 Whiskey University began offering Bourbon Diplomas, Associate Degrees and a Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts Degrees based on the number of courses and tasting each member had taken. Ross Osborne was the first student to earn his Bourbon Diploma on January, 12th, 2016 and the first to earn his Associate Degree on May 5th, 2017. Since then over 2,500 Bourbon Diplomas and 850 Associate Degrees have been earned.

In that January 2017, the Bourbon Brigade (a non-profit organization separate from Whiskey University) was formed as informal group of 15 guys that got together on a second and fourth Thursdays each month. In 2018 Whiskey University began giving credits for taking field trips to Bourbon or Whiskey Distillery around the country. They also recruited new members that earned their Bourbon Diplomas and taught Bourbon Tasting Classes of their own.

On May 10th, 2018 Carl Ingrum became the first student at Whiskey University to earn his Bachelor of Arts Degree, the title of "Master Bourbon Taster" and the rank of Captain in the Bourbon Brigade. In the first quarter of 2019, three students at Whiskey University earned the highest rank and honor; Carl Ingrum, Ross Osborne and Dale Robinson all finished the University requirements for their Master of Arts Degrees, the title “Senior Chartered Master Bourbon Taster and the honorary of Lieutenant Colonel.”

In order to earn their Associate Degree a student must take 18 Tasting classes and quizzes. For a Bachelor of Science Degree and a Bachelor of Arts Degree the student must take 26 and 34 tasting classes and quizzes for credit respectively as well as teach a tasting class of their choice in public. In order to earn their Master of Science and Master of Arts Degree the member take 42 and 50 classes for credit respectively and must teach two tasting classes of their choice, a basic and an intermediate class.