River Stories and Bourbon Lore, A Conversation with Ken Hagan of Left Bank Bourbon

By VOICE-TRIBUNE • Photos By Matt Johnson

Left Bank Bourbon’s story starts with the river. Founded by Ken Hagan and Joshua Easton, the Louisville and New Orleans-based bourbon brand is inspired by the historic journey between Kentucky and New Orleans, following the same waterways that once carried whiskey, tobacco, and trade goods south by boat. That love and appreciation for river culture, folklore, and early bourbon history runs through every part of the brand, from its name to the mythology of the Alligator Horse.

What began as a focus on bourbon-making evolved as customers connected with the stories behind the bottle. The history of Shipping port to the realities of building a modern craft distillery, Left Bank blends historical research, family, and hands-on experimentation. In this conversation, Hagan reflects on the origins of Left Bank, the role storytelling plays in the bourbon experience, and what it means to build a Kentucky bourbon brand with the soul of the river running through it.

VT: The story behind Left Bank Bourbon feels very connected to the river and Louisville itself. What inspired the name “Left Bank,” and why was that identity important to you from the beginning?

KH: The name ‘Left Bank’ is based on the nautical term ‘Left Bank Descending.’ All of Kentucky sits on the left bank of the Ohio River, and most of New Orleans is on the left bank of the Mississippi (people in New Orleans refer to it as East Bank, but it’s the one on the left). This is a nod to the history of people floating downriver from Kentucky to New Orleans to make their fortunes by selling their tobacco, corn, corn whisky, and other goods. This river journey evokes a time of adventure down the rivers and the risks of pirates and other hazards along the way. Abe Lincoln did the river journey twice, and it significantly changed his perspective on the world. All of those river journeys are part of America’s growth, and Left Bank wants to keep that story being told.

VT: The Alligator Horse immediately stands out as part of the brand’s imagery and storytelling. What’s the story behind it, and how does it reflect the spirit of the bourbon?

KH: The origin of the Alligator Horse lies in a song called “The Hunters of Kentucky”. The song was written to commemorate Andrew Jackson’s victory over the British at the Battle of New Orleans at the end of the War of 1812. He used the song as a campaign jingle in both of his presidential campaigns. The Hunters of Kentucky were fierce fighters, said to be “Half Horse and Half Alligator,” and had rifles that were much more accurate at longer ranges than the guns used by the British in the battle.

That lore is an important part of the spirit of our brand. It’s not something we had in mind as founders since my co-founder and I are both pretty literal people. As the brand grew, it outgrew our vision. The Alligator Horse is the talisman for that. It’s something more than just the facts and mash bills. It’s a story of that invisible tendril forever tying together the souls of Kentucky and New Orleans.”

VT: Left Bank isn’t only selling bourbon; there is a sense that it’s preserving history and folklore. When did you realize the storytelling aspect was just as important as the bourbon itself?

KH: Left Bank was founded in 2018 with a focus on re-creating this origin story of bourbon. I thought the story would be a fun hook, but I was focused on building the processes to make a consistent and delicious bourbon. I spent those first few years working on process and analytics, like I had done for most of my career in technology.

When we started putting products on shelves in 2021, consumers taught me that the story was the thing that resonated. The bourbon had to be good. The story was so much more important to our fans.

It’s a balance I face every day I do tastings in our tasting room. Some guests want to explore the bourbon and do a full sensory tasting experience, exploring the flavors oak imparts to the bourbon during the journey. Many others want to sit and talk about the stories of the river for hours. The magic here is that I am learning more river lore from guests and (after a little bit of further reading) I am adding more stories and tangents to the conversations in the tasting room. It’s a beautiful oral tradition of building layers and layers to the story.

VT: As a Kentucky Distillers Association Craft Distiller on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, how do you balance the science of bourbon- making with the artistry and intuition behind it?

KH: My background is analytics and operations. My wife, Angela, has worked in the art world for some time. One phrase I co-opted from her time with KMAC Museum is: “Art is the Big Idea. Craft is the Process”. That phrase is exactly how I balance art and science. The big idea is the process of stave finishing and the journey to New Orleans. That is something new to the bourbon world. Brands add staves. Brands put bourbon in motion. We did something new with the repeatable one-way journey to New Orleans that commemorates an actual historical journey.

The craft/science part of it is being able to do that consistently and keep creating a bourbon that meets and exceeds our consumers’ expectations in a crowded bourbon market.

VT: Louisville has such a unique culture, especially along the riverfront. What do you love most about living and building a business in Louisville?

KH: Louisville is my chosen home and has been for almost 34 years. This city is a perfect balance of big city amenities, manageable traffic, and cost of living. We can really get anywhere in town in 20 minutes (most of the time). One magic thing about this city is the small cities inside it and the fact that we can always discover some new part of the town we never knew existed.

Shippingport is a good example of this. It’s at the heart of our brand story since it was from there that 2 French brothers first floated Kentucky corn whisky down to New Orleans in charred barrels. I love introducing locals to the history of Shippingport and nudging them to head over there and explore a part of town that’s now an island.

Doing business in Louisville is a constant reminder of how small this city is for its size. Local businesspeople are all connected and eager to work together to help people succeed. We have business groups and city offices that are here to help grow businesses, and that’s a huge boon for a company like Left Bank. Many of the most critical connections and partnerships Left Bank has made along the way have come from casual coffee chats or chance encounters with someone who knew exactly the right person we needed to meet.

VT: Your wife’s background in art and as a creative seems like an interesting complement to your work in bourbon. Has her perspective influenced the visual or emotional identity of Left Bank in any way?

KH: My wife is my biggest fan and supporter. She’s tenacious and believes in this brand more than anyone. Running a small business is hard, and sometimes it takes that sort of belief to push through setbacks and disappointments. She doesn’t believe me when I say that some things are impossible. There’s always a tailwind driving me forward, and a lot of that is her faith that this is an amazing forever brand that belongs in the bourbon pantheon. I also completely stole the Art is the Big Idea mantra from her time with KMAC Museum.

VT: Your daughters have even helped assemble the stave netting used during the river journey process. What has it meant to involve your family so directly in the business and its traditions?

KH: The first release of Left Bank Bourbon arrived in New Orleans around August 2020. My kids were starting JCPS remotely. I took them down to an Airbnb in New Orleans, where they did school by day and helped me in the evenings. “Dad has 200ml of bourbon at 120 proof. How much water do we need to add to get to 104 proof?” Who says you don’t use middle school math in real life?

The kids help us paint and do all kinds of labour outside of the alcohol and bonded spaces. They’ve driven me on long sales trips to Colorado, Nebraska, and Louisiana. Should they go into corporate jobs, they will likely be sat down to one small department with a clearly defined job description. Right now, they see a handful of people working together with a shared purpose and nobody ever saying “that’s not my job.” They got to grow up seeing a small business being born and the realities of running a small business. I cherish that.

VT: Bourbon has become a global industry, but Left Bank still has its roots here in Kentucky. What do you hope people feel or understand after experiencing the brand for the first time?

KH: I want people to leave knowing they have just experienced a real story. Left Bank is how bourbon got its name. Our story is also part of the history of river commerce in our young nation in the early 1800s. People can recall that sense of a time before engines hurried everything along. People were still connected through stories and journeys. It was nowhere near as frenetic as life today.

I hope people feel connected to that sense of time and space. It wasn’t “simpler” than today. It was different. Our brand harkens to that sense of time with an intentional bourbon where you can taste the different steps taken to make the bourbon into what it is. Bourbon is an industry flooded with new brands. When people experience Left Bank, they are experiencing a brand that exists for a real and relevant reason: to tell the story of how bourbon became bourbon.

VT: Looking back at where Left Bank started and where it is now, what part of the journey has surprised you the most, either personally or professionally?

KH: 2018 me thought this would be like a tech start-up. Get the technology and process built, execute a few proof of concept releases, and land some 15x multiplier exit in the first 5 years. It was not.

Our first release was in 2020, at the peak of COVID. All of our original plans went by the wayside, and we had to pivot and learn a whole lot. I learned how much I didn’t know about the spirits industry and continue to learn every day on the job. This is a universe of personal connections and handshakes.

In that journey, I also realized how much of my career was spent being a part of larger teams. Being in a small venture means you have to wear all the hats until you hire people to fill them. I can drive a forklift, run a still, move barrels, and tell stories. I am not the person to do marketing, social media, and selling to bars and liquor stores. I knew in 2018 those would be my blind spots. I didn’t know how hard it would be to build the right team.

We spend a lot of our time in 2026 looking for the right folks to drive those efforts and get our brand and product out to more and more fans. The journey is slower than I originally thought it would be, but we’re learning along the way and fighting to stay true to our original story and brand.