Milam & Greene’s Master Distiller Marlene Holmes was inducted into the Whisky Hall of Fame last week, becoming the first female master distiller and only Texan to be so recognized.
Her path to this award has an unusual twist, but like with most things in life, the unexpected can lead to greatness with the right combination of attitude, support, dedication and catfish.
Holmes learned the craft of distilling over more than 30 years, more than a few of them as employee #68 at Jim Beam. She started out in a physically demanding day shift position moving barrels around. Holmes sometimes wondered what she was doing getting battered by them, until a space opened up on the third shift with an opportunity to learn about distilling; as she said, “I just hung in there.”
But that’s skipping over the catfish part. Holmes worked on an aquaculture project, prior to being employed at Jim Beam, with Booker T. Noe, a sixth generation Beam and the master distiller there for over 40 years. Booker wanted to use the spit stillage or slop – the grain water left over after the alcohol has dissipated – for his catfish habit, seeing as it was good livestock feed, so why not fish food too he wondered? Holmes had been thinking about starting a catfish farm on her property and her county extension agent introduced the two. After a summer of feeding the catfish fingerlings in the chill ponds at the Beam distillery, she developed a curiosity about distilling, the equipment and the culture.
Holmes absorbed as much knowledge as she could, notebook in hand and picked up a “little sister” reputation for always hanging around. She’s seen the automation of some of the more dangerous jobs come to pass, as well as some standardized processes, which change how things are done a little bit. However, whiskey is still made the same way as it always has been.
Once Holmes got close to retirement at Jim Beam, Randy, a colleague and friend who had become a consultant for craft distilleries, asked what she was going to do next. He connected her with Marsha Milam, who founded the Milam & Greene with Heather Greene in 2019, and it’s worked out pretty well since.
The experience and deep-rooted history in whiskey (and Texas) extends to Milam, who counts Ben Milam as an ancestor, and Greene, who has been in the business for over two decades. When asked who inspires her, Holmes had this to say, “I don’t know that it’s one individual, but I’ve got a lot of really good people that I work with, Marsha and Heather and the rest of the crew.”
Holmes calls CEO and master blender Greene a great leader saying “her enthusiasm is infectious,” and said that while they don’t talk too much about how the distillery is female owned and female run, “because then we’re not talking about our whiskey” it’s evident that this team is award winning.
Holmes was shocked and surprised to learn she had won the award, and says it’s pretty amazing to be in the company of other inductees like Steve Nally, Elmer T. Lee, and Parker Beam, all heavy hitters in the world of bourbon. She said this award is “a Milam & Greene thing, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the folks I’m surrounded with here.” When Marlene talked about the great community in Blanco, she shared a story of when she moved to the county nearly seven years ago. There was a U-Haul return location at NAPA then, and the employee working came around the counter to dole out a hug her when Holmes told her she was coming to Texas to make whiskey, and replied, “Oh, honey we love our whiskey here in Texas!” and told her not to put her shorts away until December. That small town friendliness rolls on.
Holmes grew up in a small town in Kentucky, and while she loves to visit the cities, she’s happy to call Blanco home and live close to the distillery. She returns to Kentucky a handful of times a year for work and enjoys the opportunity to see friends, family and her former coworkers from her time at Jim Beam. Homes enjoys touring other distilleries, too. The whiskey tourism business in Kentucky is a billion dollar industry, and champs always like to keep an eye on the others in the field.
