Joyce Nethery

“An original Making Old Fashioned New”

Joyce Nethery is the co-founder, co-owner, and master distiller for the Jeptha Creed Distillery located in Shelbyville, Kentucky.  Joyce has a love and background for chemical engineering, holding a Master’s Degree from the University of Louisville’s Speed Scientific School.  For many years after graduating, she worked in industrial distillation until she wanted a more family friendly schedule with her kids and began teaching chemistry and physics at Shelby County High School.  After six years in the classroom, she left to support her husband Bruce with his privately owned businesses where she served as his chief financial officer.

Bruce had a dream to open a distillery that at first Joyce believed it was a crazy idea. However, showing her support, she tried to send Bruce to Moonshine University where he could obtain the knowledge needed to distill bourbon. He could not go so Joyce decided to take his place and her passion for engineering was renewed as she fell in love with copper and distilling, especially distilling bourbon.  It was there she developed a ground-to-glass philosophy; Bruce’s agricultural expertise could grow their own heirloom varietal corn, Joyce’s engineering could distill the spirits, and Autumn’s sales and marketing could get the products distributed and out the door.  So, in 2016, the Nethery’s started the family owned and operated Jeptha Creed Distillery.  Looking back, she now admits…Bruce was right!

Joyce says she always wants to honor those of the past.  Jeptha in the Jeptha Creed distillery name is based on the location of their current Shelby County farm that is in an area called the Jeptha Knobs, named by Squire and Daniel Boone during the exploration of Kentucky in the late 1700s.  This area had a natural salt lick that attracted wildlife such as buffalo, deer, and turkey.  The Boone’s named the area Jeptha after a biblical warrior found in Judges, Chapter 11.  Creed is for their promise to honor those values as the distillery grows.

To further honor the rich heritage of the Nethery family ancestors who came over in 1715 they utilize the Tree of Life on their bottles. Joyce explains the roots of the tree at the bottom bind us to the past, the label area is the trunk of the tree representing the present, and the top has the branches reaching to the cork of the bottle or the future.  Joyce also explains that due to her daughter Autumn’s age she went to Edinburgh, Scotland to Heriot-Watt University to study distilling.  While there she located the Nethery crest and moto “ne oublie,” translated do not forget.  Because of this Jeptha Creed has “ne oublie” located on the bottom of the bottle, setting the foundation for the roots of the distillery and the bottle’s tree of life.

Joyce shares the same objectives and long-term vision for the distillery as co-owner and daughter Autumn which makes running the distillery easier.  She says the objective was to produce a bourbon that stood out and would not be confused for another product, and they were successful. They currently utilize bloody butcher heirloom corn, but are continuously trying new heirlooms like blue, hickory king, tucker’s white heirloom corn and even more.

Joyce was influenced by the generation of distillers who truly saved the bourbon industry and brought it out of the bourbon depression, noting the Samuels with Makers Mark and others like Brown-Forman.  Knowing what they did to improve the bourbon industry truly inspires her to be original.

Contributed by: Dustin Bowman, Frankfort, Kentucky