Join us for a special Stories & Sips Meet the Maker session as we welcome Brian Nation, Master Distiller at O'Shaughnessy Distilling Co and responsible for the Keeper's Heart range of whiskeys. 

Brian's background is in chemical and process engineering, a path that didn't obviously point toward whiskey. After short stints in pharma and oil refining, he joined Irish Distillers in Midleton, Cork in 1997 as an environmental engineer. What followed was a career that would define modern Irish whiskey.

Nation worked across different parts of the production plant in Midleton Distillery before becoming Master Distiller in 2013, succeeding the legendary Barry Crockett, a moment he has described as one of his proudest. In that role, he oversaw some of the most celebrated Irish whiskeys in the world, including Jameson, Redbreast, Midleton Very Rare, the Spot range, and Powers Irish Whiskey.

In 2020, after nearly a quarter century at Irish Distillers, Nation made a bold decision. He left to take on the Master Distiller role at O'Shaughnessy Distilling Co., founded by cousins Patrick and Michael O'Shaughnessy, along with Michael's father Gerry, and built in an old potato factory in Minneapolis. What captivated him was the opportunity to bring his skills and family to America and explore entirely new whiskey expressions, marrying Irish and American distilling traditions to create something genuinely new.

That vision became Keeper's Heart. Nation spent months conducting blending exercises and developing prototypes, ultimately creating a whiskey that combines sourced Irish grain and pot still whiskeys with American rye. The flavor, he has said, conjures memories of a sweets factory he toured as a boy in his hometown of Cork, Ireland.

At O'Shaughnessy, Nation distills American whiskey in the traditional Irish style, using triple copper pot stills, a process that allows the team to constantly evolve and experiment with different styles. The distillery's first self-distilled expression, Keeper's Heart American Pot Still Whiskey, is made from malted and unmalted barley, triple distilled in the traditional Irish pot still style, then matured for four years in virgin American oak, delivering notes of vanilla, caramel, and toasted oak.

Nation has called Keeper's Heart his biggest passion project to date, a fitting description for a distiller who walked away from the pinnacle of Irish whiskey to build something entirely from scratch in the American Midwest.

During our chat Brian will share the progress of our Stories & Sips x Keeper's Heart cask and chat about developments at the distillery. 

Watch the replay below