Joyce Nethery

“An original Making Old Fashioned New”

Joyce Nethery is the co-founder, co-owner, and master distiller of Jeptha Creed Distillery, which is located in Shelbyville, Kentucky.  Joyce has a background in 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 at that point, she began teaching chemistry and physics at Shelby County High School.  After only six years in the classroom, she left to support her husband, Bruce, with his privately owned businesses, where she worked as his chief financial officer.

Bruce had a dream to open a distillery, which, at first, Joyce believed was a crazy idea. Nevertheless, showing her support, she encouraged Bruce to attend Moonshine University, where he could obtain the knowledge needed to distill spirits. When obligations wouldn’t allow him to go, Joyce took his place, and her passion for engineering was renewed. She soon fell in love with copper and with distilling, especially bourbon. It was there that Joyce also developed a ground-to-glass philosophy; Bruce’s agricultural expertise allowed the couple to grow their own heirloom varietal corn, while Joyce’s engineering guided the distillation process, and daughter Autumn’s sales and marketing could get the products distributed and out the door.  So, in 2016, the Nethery family started the family-owned and operated Jeptha Creed Distillery. Looking back, Joyce now admits that Bruce was right in his hunch that distilling could be a rewarding and profitable business.

It is important to the Nethery family to honor the remarkable people in their community who have passed.  The “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, which was reportedly named by 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 Boones themselves named the area ’Jeptha’ after a biblical warrior found in the book of Judges, Chapter 11.  The “Creed” part of the moniker stands for the Nethery’s commitment to honor those values as the distillery grows.

To further honor the rich heritage of the Nethery family ancestors (who came to America in 1715), the distillery displays the Tree of Life on their bottles. Joyce explains that the roots of the tree at the bottom bind us to the past, and while the label area is the trunk of the tree representing the present, the top has the branches reaching to the cork of the bottle, representing the future.  Joyce also explains that when Autumn Nethery went to Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, Scotland, to study distilling, she located the Nethery crest with the motto “ne oublie,” which translates ‘Do Not Forget’.  Therefore, Jeptha Creed has “ne oublie” displayed on the bottom of the bottle label, 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 as distillery co-owner and daughter Autumn, which makes the family distillery a consistent operation.  These objectives are to produce a bourbon that stands out and is not confused with any other product. To help in this goal of uniqueness, Jeptha Creed currently uses only bloody butcher heirloom corn, but it continuously works with new varieties such as blue, hickory king, tuckers white, heirloom, and others for potential future usage.

Joyce has been influenced by the generation of distillers who truly saved the bourbon industry and brought it out of the bourbon depression, noting in particular the Samuels of Maker’s Mark and others such as the Brown family of Brown-Forman.  Knowing what these pioneers did to improve the bourbon industry as a whole truly inspires Joyce Nethery to be original, unique, and appreciative.

Contributed by: Dustin Bowman, Frankfort, Kentucky