Because bourbon barrels can only be used once, plenty of people have been coming up with ideas for how to use them creatively for decades. One such person is Lewis Shuckman of the Shuckman Fish Co., a family owned business that has been in Louisville since 1919. According to Bourbon Historian Michael Veach, Shuckman’s started off as a neighborhood grocery store. It was here the idea of self-serve pre-packaged butcher items was born.

Over twenty years ago Shuckman began smoking fish in used bourbon barrels. He met Julian Van Winkle shortly after that and began using used Pappy barrels…