Tiny Irwin spent 20 years in the beer business before an Instagram post caught his eye, shifting his direction entirely. He started his career in on-premise sales for Miller Brewing Company in the early 2000s, ran the Walmart account, led sales for a global craft brewery, and eventually became president and chief operating officer of a 90-year-old beverage distributor.
In 2020, he moved his family from the West Coast to Franklin, Tennessee.
Then, an Instagram post crossed his feed: the Southern Whiskey Society was looking for someone to take it over. He showed it to his wife, who told him he had no reason not to go for it. So they bought it, Irwin said, because building community wherever they land is one of their family’s core values.
“This will just be a bigger megaphone for you,” she told him.
The Society hosted its first event under Irwin’s ownership in 2022. Afterward, he went on what he calls a listening tour, gathering feedback from attendees, then assembled a board of advisers he describes as smarter than himself in areas where he isn’t. Among them is Joseph Dulaney, a bourbon enthusiast Irwin met at a Brentwood, Tennessee, liquor store, where a rotating group of whiskey drinkers would gather and talk for hours.
“Whiskey is the great equalizer,” Irwin said. “Nobody knew what anybody did. Nobody cared.”
Dulaney serves as what Irwin calls his “crazy ideas guy,” and his ideas, Irwin said, almost always circle back to the same question: how to use whiskey to build a larger community.
The vision is to help battle the epidemic of isolation and loneliness,” Irwin said. “We do that through changing the social landscape, creating spaces, and curating intentional communities.”
The Society’s clearest expression of that is the Founders Club, a paid membership group that meets for organized experiences roughly once a month. The gatherings have drawn members from beyond Tennessee, catching the attention of Southerners in neighboring states.
The Society’s annual event will take place this year on August 8 in Franklin, bringing more than 40 distillers (not just representatives though, but rather owners, founders, master distillers, and master blenders) together in one room.
In addition, some 10 Middle Tennessee chefs will join the distillers, each preparing 1,000 small bites of a single dish—ranging from smoked duck to bite-sized cheesecake—to carefully pair with a pour.
“You see a lot of ‘aha’ moments with bourbon whiskey connoisseurs,” Dulaney said, speaking of the clever food and bourbon pairings. “It opens up a whole new world for them.”
Irwin, who spent years attending industry trade shows, knows firsthand what it means to have a VIP experience. So the event will use crystal Riedel glassware rather than plastic cups, will cap attendance so guests aren’t rushed, and will have a plethora of “surprise and delight” moments to keep things interesting year after year. The lineup has also expanded to include the Southern Tequila Society, with 10 tequila producers, alongside a cigar lounge the Society air-conditioned last year after guest feedback.
The Southern Whiskey Society partners with OneGenAway, a food-relief nonprofit also based in Franklin, and has raised roughly $10,000 in a single night. This year, the group replaced its silent auction with a charity barrel, featuring bottles signed by a visiting master distiller, with all proceeds going to the nonprofit.
The Southern Whiskey Society holds its annual event at The Factory at Franklin. More information is available at southernwhiskeysociety.com.
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