The Scotchy Bourbon Boys
The Scotchy Bourbon Boys love Whiskey and every thing about the industry! Martin "Super Nash", Jeff "Tiny", Rachel "Roxy" Karl "Whisky" and Chris "CT" all make up The Scotchy Bourbon Boys! Join us in talking everything and anything Whiskey, with the innovators, and distillers around the globe. Go behind the scenes of making great whiskey and learn how some of the best in the whiskey industry make their product! Remember good whiskey means great friends and good times! Go out and Live Your Life Dangerously!
The Scotchy Bourbon Boys
Exploring the Art of Whiskey Tasting: Techniques, Picks, and Festivals according to Tiny
What makes a whiskey truly exceptional? Join me, Tiny, as I take you on a captivating journey through the art of whiskey tasting, despite the challenge of a fractured wrist. This episode is loaded with insights on how to evaluate various bourbon brands, using my personal techniques and criteria. From sharing updates about our growing social media presence to the uplifting feedback from our loyal audience, this episode is a testament to our unwavering commitment to delivering quality content.
We dive into the personal nature of whiskey tasting, emphasizing that everyone’s palate is unique and deserves respect. Learn about the critical factors like barrel selection and the balance of flavors, with a spotlight on caramel, butterscotch, and chocolate nuances while steering clear of bitter oak tannins. The conversation also highlights the evolution of craft distilleries and the indispensable role of master blenders in crafting extraordinary whiskey. We'll also discuss industry veteran Greg Schneider's impressive efforts in reviving his distillate brand and comparing small batches like Chicken Cock Small Batch and Peerless Double Oak Rye.
As we explore the rich tapestry of bourbon flavors, specific picks like the 1792 Sweet Wheat bourbon and the Lillian Sinclair pick come under the spotlight. Experience the excitement surrounding bourbon events and festivals, offering a unique opportunity to meet industry experts and taste a diverse range of bourbons. We also share our strategies for selecting unique barrel picks and discuss the importance of drinking responsibly while living life adventurously. Tune in for a whiskey-filled adventure that promises to elevate your appreciation for bourbon and the craftsmanship behind it.
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Hey Scotchy Bourbon Boys fans, this is Alan Bishop, indiana's Alchemist of the Black Forest, so I'm tuning in here today to tell you all about the One Piece at a Time Distilling Institute channel on YouTube. If you're at all interested in the art of distilling whether it be home distilling or professional distilling, and the intense geekery that goes into that process, then check out the One Piece at a Time Distilling Institute on YouTube. I promise you're going to learn something you didn't know before about the arts. We'll be right back. Yeah, we're here to have fun and hope you enjoy. We're here to have fun, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:All right, welcome back to another podcast of the Scotchy Bourbon Boys Tiny here tonight talking about. We're going to be talking about what I do, what I taste so many different brands of bourbon, what I'm looking for and how I go about doing it. So it's me tonight. Everybody, this is what you got. We're on live on Facebook and YouTube and then also recording for all the major podcast formats, including Apple, iheart, spotify Also. You are talking about Pandora. You're talking about Amazon Anything you listen to, we're on it. And then also make sure that you follow us on social media Facebook, instagram, youtube and X. Please listen, like, subscribe, comment and leave good feedback. We appreciate that, especially on uh apple, if you get to ever get a chance to go there. Uh, we definitely like the reviews that we've been getting lately and getting a little bit more popular, but, uh, we do between youtube, facebook and the podcast. Each podcast gets anywhere between 1,500 to 2,500 views or listens in a week, so our audience is growing. If you're listening on YouTube or Facebook, say hi. Right now I am trying to figure out how to, after the one podcast last week where we had about 900 people uh watching. Uh, that was a pretty good one on youtube and you know, on facebook, uh, we get about 500 people total watching, uh, when we're done, and then it goes up to anywhere between $1,500 and $3,000. So that's a lot of good fun that's going on. But check us out on all those mediums and you can listen to us live.
Speaker 3:We are live almost if we do a podcast and we record it over the weekend or someplace. That usually will air on a Tuesday Give myself a break from the lives. But other weeks start live at 8.30 Eastern time and then also almost all Thursdays. I've been on this year Thursday at 8.30, this time spot on Thursdays. People, all you guys have gotten regular. Yeah, welcome Alan. Yeah, switch hitting has been a challenge. Actually, just going live and putting this up hasn't been too bad and then all of a sudden, right before we were going to get going, at 830, this just started to light up. You know you still want to use the fingers and do everything, but it seems like I'm overdoing it and so that just you know I got to keep that, but I get the real cast next Thursday. So a week from today they'll be putting that. So I don't know, it hasn't been too bad, but the right hand's coming along.
Speaker 3:I could tell you this my shoulder on my right hand is getting sore and I don't have any clue what's happening. I still try and do certain things but because it's not a compound fracture, it's just a normal fracture, the sprain hurts a little bit more. Yeah, it's already started to itch. Dave, I'm not worried about it. Where I get in, it gets thirsty around 830,. Chuck, yeah, I agree with that. But where this gets, I'm just not a kind of guy where something like the itching or whatever I can handle it. But this right now gives me a little bit of what you call it. Because I didn't break my arm, I can handle it. But this right now gives me a little bit of a what you call it, because I didn't break my arm, I broke my wrist. I can, if it starts itching underneath, I can get in under there a little bit and get some scratches in. So yeah, but doing everything right-handed opening, I still can't open it.
Speaker 3:Uh, with two you know I to use, I'll kind of show you when I open a couple of these up to do some sipping. I will show you the method I've come up with. You know, just driving's a challenge. You just have to be way more alert. And then also, I can tell you, it seems like when you break a bone, you have moments, you get a little bit more alert. And then also I can tell you, it seems like when you break a bone, you have moments. Uh, you, you a little, get a little bit more tired. That's for sure. I've been pretty worn out, that's for sure. All right, so, yeah, everybody on the podcast.
Speaker 3:Uh, on Monday, if you didn't listen on on Thursday, I uh fractured my wrist, fell over backwards and put my hand down, which then sprained and fractured my wrist, but then jammed my elbow back into the cement and then jammed my shoulder up. So that was really a lot of fun. Got to go to the hospital and do all the fun stuff, and so it's been. It's going to be a good four to six weeks. I'll keep you guys updated.
Speaker 3:Uh, I would say the pain is not too bad. Uh, I haven't had any medication for about. Uh, I didn't take any last. So it's been over two days since I took anything and all it was taken was Advil. So the pain's all right. Uh, it just seems like sometimes it'll. It'll just hurt in different areas, or ache. You get those kind of sharp pains.
Speaker 3:But with that said, uh, that's where whiskey comes in at this point. Uh, it's probably a good number of pain. So well, and tonight, uh, remember wwwscotchie bourbon boyscom for all things scotchy bourbon Boys, and you can get these, glen Cairns. You can get our T-shirts, you know, check it out. You can contact me direct either. We ship anywhere and make sure it's for all Scotchie Bourbon Boys things.
Speaker 3:Now tonight's podcast, and I'm going to go through all the different ways. Hey, steven, I'm glad that you're listening All the different ways I go through and how I approach tasting these days, because I've gotten where it's kind of cool. You get to taste whiskey with master distillers such as Allen Bishop're tasting with drinking, with Fred no, or Fred, and everybody has a little bit of a different way they go about doing things, based off their brands or their how they distill. You know, some people when they're blending, they spit. Some people dump, some people dump, some people drink. I mean, it's, it's uh. Therefore, when we were down with uh Alan the last time, he was just smelling. Uh, you know, they all go through different ways of going about things and that is something that you kind of pick up. Uh, one thing. Uh, back to 100 before Kentucky bourbon festival. Okay, uh, that is one. Those are a couple of the things that you pick up, you know and how to go about doing this. But then you go on barrel picks and you go on barrel picks with other groups. You go on barrel picks with the Kentucky Bourbon Festival. You go on barrel picks with the state of Ohio and you go on barrel picks for yourself, and each time you realize what your, you know what.
Speaker 3:What is the concept of tasting whiskey, especially if you're doing it for a podcast? So one, no, 100%. When you're tasting whiskey, no matter who you are tasting whiskey, uh, no matter who you are. This is a personal 100 experience. It's based off of what you like your best friend could like, all the same things you like or don't. It's just because someone else doesn't like what you like doesn't mean that their taste buds are inferior to yours. It's not about it. It's like if someone's taste buds are the way they are and they like just to drink Jim Beam, there is nothing wrong with this. There's a lot of people out there and this is where you talk about the taters who think that somehow they know better about whiskey or bourbon than their counterpart or their friend or somebody else online, because they have more experience doing it Now. Because they have more experience doing it Now.
Speaker 3:Yes, dave says there's no wrong answer to what you like. Yeah, well, actually, if you don't like it, that would be the I don't like this. Yeah, you're right, and so know that. That's something so like when you pick a barrel for the Scotchy Bourbon Boys, what I'm looking for, there is something that I personally like, but I also am looking for, straight across the board, what I know in the marketplace of what people like. One I could tell you this there's a good percentage of people that love a spicy, peppery barrel pick. There's a percentage of people like that, but I can tell you the percentage is higher of people who don't like having the whiskey burn all the way through. Now you're talking about.
Speaker 3:So when you're making a pick for a barrel, pick for a group, you're looking for flavors and you're looking for the heat, not to cancel out the flavors. So that is something that isn't the easiest thing to do, because a lot of times you're drinking and you know that this heat is really good and there's a lot of people who are going to like it. But overall, you know deep down, you're trying to grow your base of people that are going to be you're going to be sharing this pick with and you want them to come back for more and more. You don't want them to basically set the glass down, say wow, that's a hot experience, whoa, and then never, ever want to have one of your picks again because you're too spicy or you've got too much heat and it's too hot. Those are the kind of things that when I'm doing a barrel pick of what I look for. Same thing when you're cooking.
Speaker 3:Now, I like caramels, butterscotches, vanillas, I like on finishes, I like chocolate, I like I don't mind the difference between a dark chocolate, a leather or tobacco. It's is a fine line. So if you're playing in that fine line between it, I'm cool with that. But when you start to get some more of that, and then same thing with oak, if you're getting the bitter oak tannins in too much oak of that, because that's what happens those are the kind of things that I'm always looking for.
Speaker 3:When I am doing a pick with the Kentucky Bourbon Festival, we're looking for what a whiskey connoisseur would like, but I'll tell you this it's not always what I like, because I know there's different categories of bourbon. The main thing, as Alan and Jolie have taught me, is that you're looking for flavors. Jolie have taught me is that you're looking for flavors and I didn't know this. But sometimes you get a bitter flavor and that deal is dealing with the heads that are left into. You know some of the heads that are left in the actual whiskey. So some of these flavors that you, the only way you can know them is to just consistently, consistently taste bourbon.
Speaker 3:Now there's different levels of bourbon. There's the 80 to, in my opinion, the 80, 84, 86 proof bourbons. Then there's the 90 to 107, 108. That's a different level. And then you're looking at the 111, 110, 111, all the way up to 130, those barrel-proof bourbons. Now, when you're drinking in those categories, each category has to be looked at. It's hard to judge 125.4 proof bourbon up against the bottled and bond. It's not even a fair assumption. They can each have their great, their flavors and but they also can, for different reasons, be better or worse. I mean, if 124 is too hot and 100 is been balanced and it's, I'm going to like that. So it really comes down to, in my opinion.
Speaker 3:First you have to have quality distilling. But in this day and age, when you're talking about distilling, even in the craft distilleries, pretty much everybody's laying down some really good distillate and then putting it into the barrel. It's not like it was when I first got in, where some of the craft distillers were giving the craft distilleries a bad name because they weren't putting good distillate into the barrel. They were hurrying it. They didn't know they were trying to do different things and it just that was not what I considered. I considered I would go to a craft distillery and not taste. I could taste some of the problems they were having on the still and it's not gone completely, but it is way less than it was when we first got into this.
Speaker 3:And so putting good distillate into the barrel is the first thing. Then in the barrel, then there's the aging process and then there's a blending process and, as I've been told, in Scotland, the master distillers, or in Ireland, scotland, in Europe you know those areas across the pond the master distiller isn't it the guy? Throughout history it's always been the master blenders. For when you're talking about that, because that does make a difference, you actually can put good distillate in a barrel and if you're blenders or the person who's putting the whiskey together to put in the bottle is, let's say, picking from a spreadsheet or they're not tasting right, you can put out some bad bourbon. You just can't. The people who are in charge of blending and making the batches are very important. Now, a lot of times in the United States that person is the same person. Those people are gone, but they all have blending. You know, the big guys have blending teams, so the master distillers and the blenders are all working together to produce good whiskey, and there's a lot of good whiskey out there, so, all right. So the first one.
Speaker 3:I would say let's start with one of my favorite categories, and this is the double double oak. The double oak and the double double oak For me, if, if whiskey is too long in the bottle or the barrel, the oak tannins are become bitter and you taste this. All you get is this mouthful of bitter, bitter wood. Uh, you're not getting the caramel and the sugars, it's overriding everything and you're getting all this. You get huge tobacco or leather. You're getting the wood and the bitter tannins from the wood and you can overage it. Now, a lot of times, for instance, if you overage it.
Speaker 3:There's a lot of stuff you can do. You can blend it back into something else. You could put that 25-year back in, for instance, I believe Master Blend from Evan Williams. Master Blend does have 24-year-old Evan Williams in there and 13 in a mixture, so that's something you could do. You can make a blend with that in there where you back that off. You know it's not gone, but I like the double oaks because the sweet oak comes from. That's what I like, those oak flavors, those toasted oak flavors, the french oak flavors, and that comes. Those happen in the beginning of the of the aging process, as you go and and then as you keep going further. That's when some of them become over, in my opinion, oak. But if you double oak it, which means you take it out of the barrel at the right time, but then you put it back in another barrel and let either a toasted oak or a barrel or a French oak or some staves and you add that in, and now you're talking about what I like and that's what I'm looking for.
Speaker 3:A lot of times I go towards if someone is making oh, I did not want to do that, come on, get me back now. We got a white screen. All right, we're going to have to go to get back to that. We're going to go like that. Hit my thing again. Here we go. Oh, there we are, we're live, drop down. All right, back in. Oh, 23 years. I just took a sip, laughing out loud. All right, nothing worse than a mouthful of wood. That's from David, and Leland just said he took a 23-year, 23-year. I just took a sip. So what, leland? What 23 years is the question? Anyways, was that Pappy 23 years? 23 years is the question? Anyways, was that Pappy, 23 years? But this right here is on the nose.
Speaker 3:I can always I taste those toasted oak notes, and it's usually with some. On this one. You're looking at a little bit of cinnamon. You're looking at a little bit of cinnamon. Oh, what is that? Brown sugar? That's brown sugar and some baking spices. So baking spices, in my opinion, a lot of times are that hot. I mean the caramel.
Speaker 3:I'm tasting the oak on this Peerless Double Oak and Peerless Double Oak when its first batch was one of my favorite batches. I don't know if it's still here, but it could be. Oh, it is. Let me go grab that. I do have one. I'm gonna grab a little of that. All right, there it is. I still have a sample of one from Nash and if you look at this, okay, so I'm gonna drink this too that, and so these are the flavors that I look for. There's a caramel in here that comes out of nowhere in the back. These are my flavors. I'm always looking. Now, if you're not a big fan, that's not a problem, I mean, but these are the kind of flavors that I'm always looking for. So if I see a double oak, I'm usually in to at least taste it. And then I got to make sure I haven't been disappointed by very many double oaks.
Speaker 3:Woodford double oak, one of my favorites the butterscotch on that, I mean, if you guys want Master Blend, has a 23-year Evan Williams. Yes, yes, you are right, leland, and that's probably the 23-year-olds that get overstimulated and they put it in that master blend. But that master blend is fantastic. We were doing the blending and he showed me how an extra spicy barrel could take something that's sugary and really tasty but doesn't have a lot of kick and add a little kick. So the blenders are very important when they're making the bourbons. But that is lots of cinnamon on the palate.
Speaker 3:I get the toasted flavor in there, like not marsh, what was that? I mean, honestly, folks, what just happened? I'll have to look at that. Something popped off. It could have been the cap, was it? But the cap would have made it. I'm going to have to look back. It's something. What, what? All right, that's going to be on video. I'm going to have to take a look at that. All right, maybe it was a cap, all right. So I'm going to have some of this from the first year Now the first year. The second year was a little cinnamony. It's even a red hot on my lips. I'm liking it. I love the toasted oak flavor. What is so something? Where did it go? That's the question. Where did that go? Did it go? That's the question. Where did that go? So there's a. So this will not screw on, because part of the cap went someplace and it didn't go in my glass. All right, oh, there it is. Uh, now I know what happened. That had to be one of the funnier things I've seen happen in a while, that's for sure. It just popped off. All right, there we go.
Speaker 3:Um, be giving tasting notes on the lillian sinclair. Um, dave, I can't give. That's hard to give the tasting notes. If you read the tasting notes I could send them to you because I wrote them. But I don't have any more of the sample, so once the barrel pick is in, I will give the tasting notes again out of the bottle. I'm looking forward to this. But I do have tasting notes. If somebody has them, could you send them to dave? Um, I think. Uh, I believe they're in the lillian sinclair barrel pick uh group, but I will try and get those to you tonight. Uh, sign to finish the sample. All right, here we go.
Speaker 3:Now that one has a little bit more of the oak, it's got some cinnamon, but it's caramelly too on the finish, so this one picked up a little bit more caramel. I love that first batch. Those are the things that I'm looking for. I'm on. I'm a guy that looks for caramel vanilla. Now we just did a pick and we're going to switch over to chicken cock, because me and CT went down for the Kentucky Bourbon Festival and did a chicken cock pick with Greg Schneider's distillate.
Speaker 3:He has been bringing this brand back, greg Schneider's Distillate. He has been bringing this brand back and, as a person who's worked as a Cooperage manager, he's distilled. He's done pretty much everything in the business what he did to distill and he knows the importance of the barrel. He's made some really good whiskey so we got to taste barrel strength the first batch that he had put in, and that was pretty fantastic. Now you guys get to see what I actually have to do to open up a bottle. I gotta put it under my arm and grab it like that. I'm gonna put a little bit of the chicken cock um. This small batch and this small batch I believe is also his um original. He made some small batches of it, smaller batches than the batches that he put out, but I will strongly say that when I always liked the chicken cock, but because he was doing the blending Peerless Double Oak Rye no, I have not, john, I have not had Double Oak Rye. So this chicken cock small batch is completely different than the peerless double oak. But once again, you're looking for some of the.
Speaker 3:If there's any kind of imperfections in the distilling process and there's a lot of different things that can be in there and even there it can there can be some things that happen in fermentation. There can be things that happen in the actual distilling off the column still there's. You know how. You know it's funny because yeast is an actual living thing and it's like anything else. It can have good days, bad days. But to have good days you have to know what you're doing. The temperature has to be the right temperature. You have to have enough either. I see that you either have enzymes or you have barley, malted barley. I'm one to think that you want to go with the natural process enzymes, and those all can affect taste. So those are kind of things that go about it Now. So Dustin is on.
Speaker 3:I would say, Dustin, if you can switch over to the Jeffrey Mueller, I'm monitoring the Jeffrey Mueller, not the Scotchy Bourbon Boys comments. What happens is everybody. When Facebook's happening and I'm on Jeffrey Mueller's channel and you're commenting on a group, like if you're in some other group or you're in the Scotchy Bourbon Boys group or you're in the bourbon with the ladies, those groups only come in after the podcast is over, when I see the, what you call it, to see it live. You want to switch over to the Jeffrey Mueller feed? That's going on. That I'm monitoring. This way I can talk to you back and forth.
Speaker 3:But with the chicken cock I'm not looking for the same thing out of this that I would from a double oak. Double oak, I'm looking for certain flavors. I'm always looking for good whiskey. Because I got to give my uh, my opinion of what is you know what that I got to suggest that this is a good whiskey. I know that maybe I might not think it's the greatest ever, but you might. So I just want to make sure that whatever we're approving or tasting, that I'm tasting the right things and so like, for instance, this chicken cock has a lot of um, I've always picked up on chicken cock, I always pick up a lot of sugar, I pick up caramel, I pick up the vanillas, but I also always pick up a little bit of I would say it's like a little tang or sour're drinking a beer that has that kind of like what you get it on the finish of uh one that's got just a little bit of a twang kind of after effect, but that now that's not on all the chicken cock. I mean some of the stuff that, I mean some of the batches that uh, greg has blended and put out. Now they have a double oak, which is light whiskey put back into barrels for a double oak, and that's a fantastic. That's what I'm looking for. I'm looking for that double oak flavor and it's in there.
Speaker 3:So you're always looking for something. You're looking for those good flavors and you're always kind of just try to be aware of something that's off. Now you say what's off. Well, in my opinion, sometimes what can be off is too much, too much bitter tannins. Uh, you know, the wood was either. You know there something happened to the wood. Uh, you know, not every single oak tree is perfect. Uh, you can have that. You hope that if there's a barrel that has this kind of thing in it, that they uh, remove it from the lineup. Or you know also, uh, you're always looking for any kind of.
Speaker 3:There's certain flavors or bitterness that you'll taste. One is a band-aid. If you could taste a band-aid flavor, you know something's wrong. Another one is you could taste a little bit of moldy. Now, that moldy mildew taste is based off of. Sometimes that happens to corn and it gets in there. Now, the reason why it's in there on a lot of times you tasted it in whiskey is because only 70% of whiskey drinkers can taste it. There's only the 30% that can taste this type of mildew. But if you taste that mildew you can't get.
Speaker 3:It's like I know that Denny Potter and Jane. They're going to be opening up a distillery but Denny is sensitive to that and Jane isn't. But if it's got that nose he can smell it. When they bring it in the room, that nose he can smell it. When they bring it in the room he could smell that mildew or that specific mold or whatever that happens to the corn or that's in the corn, it can be in the grain because it's in the silo too long or whatever. But the reason why the distilleries all put that, will put it in, is that for the majority of the people they don't smell or taste it. So that's a unique flavor that you and I do. Um, I I've learned to. It's not quite the, you know, blow out the room, but I've learned to identify that in a whiskey.
Speaker 3:Now I have 1792 right here sweet wheat and again, just like the double oak, I look for certain things in the double oak. The same thing If I'm going to taste a wheat, I'm looking for certain flavors in a wheat. The other wheat that I have is the Spirit of French Lick, the William Dalton. This was our last pick right here. This has some awesome, awesome flavors in it. It was butterscotch, it was apricot and it was, I mean, I mean bit of honey, there was so much honey. I mean this is a complex bottle and that's what I look for. Complexity, now, a lot of times, you know, complexity is. The definition of complexity is you get subtle flavors of a lot of different things and it expresses itself the the whiskey, different ways through different, uh, you know, pores. Like you start off, the bottle starts out one way you taste butterscotch. The next day you might taste apricot. The next day you might pick up caramel. Those are complex flavors that express themselves differently throughout the span of the bottle. So a lot of times that's what happens with these wheats.
Speaker 3:Now, this sweet wheat was opened. I had it right before Kentucky Bourbon Festival. Thank you, brent Patron. He was able to get me one. We did a trade and I was able to open that and that hurt. I'm going to pour some sweet weed. I was drinking this at Kentucky Bourbon Festival and loving every second. This was the first bottle I was able to obtain and I was really happy to get it. Now that Ross Cornelison is there. We talked a lot and I really think that his um, his, his, uh palate has made an improvement in already good line of 1792.
Speaker 3:So let's taste the sweet wheat. Now. When I'm tasting a wheat, now, this one, this one is really nice. You're getting some of the oak, but you get like a toasted wheat right there and a richness that's there. What else is that? Maybe a little bit of I'm just trying to pull that out a little bit of, I'm just trying to pull that out.
Speaker 3:I'm tasting a little bit sweet wheat. Let me just quick grab those spectacles. I just want to make sure is this an actual bourbon or is it all? Right on, let's get the lights? Okay, crafted with sweet and delicate wheat instead of the more traditional rye One. This bourbon, okay. So I'm tasting a little bit of corn. I get a little bit of corn pops on it too. So it's a weeded bourbon and I'm glad because you see sweet wheat, but it's a weeded bourbon and I'm glad because I just you see sweet wheat, but then you see kentucky straight bourbon whiskey. I should have done that um right away, but this is um, one of my favorite of the 1792s and one of the nice things about it is that when you're when you're drinking these 1792s, the cool part about it is um, this is normally um.
Speaker 3:The regular 1792s have a lot more spice. The spice on here is way, way calmed down and that for the most part to the oat and the mash bill in this lillian Sinclair pick. What does that do to the flavor? Honestly, with that, adam, when I was looking to pick this particular, we did the Dalton and the Dalton is actually six years old, a year older than our other Dalton. And what that extra year did in the place that it was in the Rick house, it took a lot of those subtle, complex flavors of the first Dalton and it brought out those flavors and they put them on steroids. So it was the complexity of they're all there still, but they're way more they, they. They're way more in the front, but they're way more in the front. So it's a spectacular barrel.
Speaker 3:But the Lillian is a four-year and it has got the French oak stave dropped into it. So it is very, very grain forward. So you're picking up a lot of bread flavor like fresh-baked bread, but you also pick up the oats a little bit, but that French stave sweetens it up and it adds like a little bit of honey. It's almost like you're having a honey butter biscuit and I've got the notes I will give you once we're done with this one. I'll get you guys the notes on the Lillian Sinclair. But the Lillian Sinclair is, like I said, a passion project for Allen and the only reason that's holding it up is that they didn't even have the logo made. The design of the label is the first. We're pretty much introducing the brand, so we're excited about that and this was something that Alan was very proud of and happy with the results. So you're going to want to grab some of that.
Speaker 3:It is good. It has the Barton's 1792 flavor profile, but it adds in a little bit of corn with a toasted wheat flavor. It definitely like a lot of times when I'm drinking weeded bourbons, I pick up a lot of caramel. I'm picking up the wheat part of it, not the caramel, but it also drinks really, really light and it's once again, I believe, the proof on this. Let's take a look at that. But once again, for the most parts, when you're drinking a weeded bourbon opposed to a rye, you're going to get softer flavors. They're not going to be as hot. This is a 91.2 proof, so not bad. It drinks really well and super All right, so let's go to.
Speaker 3:We were talking about the barrel picking process. There's also, let's say OK. So then what do I? What do I go for when I'm drinking a product that is a direct result from MGP? Because we have so many out there, this is a category. Because we have so many out there, this is a category.
Speaker 3:The MGP product, old Carter, it's an MGP product and sometimes their contract is stilling now and adding in some of their own distillate, but we're not there yet. We were talking to Mark Carter, we're not quite there. So this when I'm drinking MGP, I get a lot of fruit, more so than I do with Big Kentucky Bourbon. When you're talking about Big Indiana Bourbon, they have a little bit more fruit tendency. But whatever it really comes down to the blenders, and the blenders make it unique. You've got Macaulay Minton at Dark Arts. You've got Mark Carter from Old Carter. You got Macaulay Minton at Dark Arts. You got Mark Carter from Old Carter. These people are responsible for getting these barrels and putting them out. You've got Michael and God Danny that are now doing it for Squibb and you know which is MGP, and they're doing Penelope for them. Same thing. So you've got all these brands.
Speaker 3:But what I look for is what's in old Carter. It's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. Actually, I just had a belch and it had chocolate in it. This is caramely, it's rich. Um they you know every single. So old carter is one of my favorite bourbons of all time. Um, what, what sherry and mark did, and now what mark's doing to produce these batches is phenomenal. It I I've tasted um a ton of different places.
Speaker 3:Now the, the great thing about uh mgp, and now the, the new name, which is not even uh, coming across in my brain. If Jamie's there, just tell me what it is. That would be great, but it's absolutely. I'm overstimulated with MGP, but at the same time, the people who are doing it good just keep doing it better. So that's what I'm looking for Really really good tasting caramels and something that sets itself apart. But there's never anything I'd never taste anything that people buy mgp to fix their distillate that they want to mix into. If they're, if they've got a small craft distillery, they buy it and they mix it with it so they can fix what they're doing. So that's kind of how I look at it. I will cover that.
Speaker 3:Now, what else? Yes, barrel picks, if you have a store. So barrel picks are very unique when it comes to storing groups. So barrel picks are very unique when it comes to storing groups. The group like, for instance, the Scotchy Bourbon Boys. You want to align yourself with somebody who's picking stuff that's similar to what you like. If you listen to the podcast, you know what I like and if that's what you like, it's good to get on these picks with us because we know how to pick out the flavors we want. So, for instance, we had Knob Creek. We've had now an Elijah Craig. We had the Dalton. We got the Dalton in the oh God, I got to open it up with my armpit. Again, here we go, coming right over at the time. So we're almost ready right over at the time. So we're almost ready.
Speaker 3:So this pick of elijah craig and I'm going to tell you I am a fan of about 10 of elijah craig barrel strengths I've had, for whatever reason, with elijah craig it's a peppery um note that I pick up consistently that I've been told could be based off of distilling issues. Just so you know, just because it's a distilling issue doesn't mean people don't love it. It makes these that pepper. In my opinion, make these barrel picks and what people do. And there's a hand cramp, that's always good, oh God, it's just so painful. What what people do it, they love it. They absolutely love that heat. They love that black pepper and in my opinion, with my subtle palate, is that eliminates the flavor of the bourbon that's in there.
Speaker 3:And so when we went to do this pick, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to come up with something, but we came up with a pick off this Elijah Craig um that we called honey. It's the Scotchy Bourbon Boys honey heaven, scotchy Bourbon Boys honey heaven. It was a short barrel, produced 72 bottles. It was sold out before I got it. So what we what? I remember it was very honey it had. And we were picking and initially there was one a little bit more spicy that everybody. So when we blinded the two it's funny because I knew what it was, but a couple of people were confused and thought it was still the other one and we ended up doing a five to three majority on this barrel and I cannot say that this was a mistake, because it is phenomenal. It has what I like.
Speaker 3:So we'll go from here to this barrel and and there is so much honey up front that all you taste is the sweetness I love sweet, sweet, sweet on my tongue up front. Oh, what's really cool is that I could actually smell graham cracker from this from just taking that sip. And then I got the graham cracker. So it goes honey, honey, honey. Hit your back, back, throat spice. There's this nice spice, nice, could tuck this hug. And then it goes to graham cracker. A little bit more honey, I would say bittle honey, like a bitto honey. Finish, I mean, I'm just telling you this, this as far.
Speaker 3:This is my the c um 931, what was it? C 930, 21, c c 921. Yes, it was c 921 last year, which is 130. Proof was hot, it was good, um, there was a lot of stuff on it. But this, in my opinion, and the, the proof on this, was um, supposed to be 120 and they it what? I think it made nine years but they left eight because they didn't bottle it and they told us it was going to be nine. Yeah, the c923, thanks, uh, adam, but this is 119.8. It's still a legitimate barrel strength. But the, there's no pepper to strip the flavor, it's just it's there a little bit right at the back of your throat, but doesn't it, doesn't you know? And then your finish comes back and you actually could taste graham crackers in your mouth at the end, not at the back of your throat, not where the finish sits down your you know it's right in, right in there. It's really a cool thing.
Speaker 3:These are the kind of things I look for in barrel picks. Think about that, right, you want this is what you want in a barrel pick. You want a uniqueness, that's. We did have one that was on profile and we just I'm glad we picked this, because if you want on profile, you could get, you know, the A, b and C editions all year long at Heaven Hill of the Elijah Craig. But when you're doing a barrel pick, you want something special for your people and that's one of the. That's the way I look at that. So, same thing If you find a store and they're picking good and it's what you like, stick with it, because those people then are pretty much telling you that your palate has aligned with their palate. And that's kind of how, when I do this, I want the people to experience a very sweet up front palate. Then, as you do it, I want a little bit of spice and then a really nice long finish and how I get that.
Speaker 3:One thing I will say that we were able to. When we were picking for this last pick at the Spirit of French Lick, that Lillian Sinclair, we had a chance to pick between two barrels there that they dropped the staves in. But we had tasted three of the barrels and we decided which two to drop the staves in. So we really you know there wasn't you know as far as how much was produced that we got a good shot at what was there as far as the really good barrels and then also the Dalton, we tasted through a lot of stuff. Now there are some Lee Sinclairs not Lillian Sinclairs there that we tasted that were spectacular too. I wish I just had an endless amount of money, but I don't so. But when we're picking we're always looking and thinking about what's the most marketable to the everyday person. This Elijah Craig, I've not heard one person say anything bad about. So, um, you know, cheers to that. Now there's one last one I want to cover. Hmm, two bookers.
Speaker 3:Bookers is a batch. It's barrel proof. It comes out four to five times a year and it's the original barrel proof and everything and bookers comes in these beautiful boxes and everything. Once again, I look for packaging. The packaging of Booker's is at the price it's at, which is basically MSRP in Ohio $100, $99.99. You can't go wrong. You get everything. You get high-quality bourbon, barrel-proof. You get packaging. You get transparency. You get everything. It's what I look for, it and and it's always been my standard now over the over the years since I started buying this in 2018 or spring of 2019, I believe once again, we'll put it under the armpit and pull this off. I had it last night.
Speaker 3:Bookers a lot of times stays on profile on their batches, once similar to Elijah Craig, but this family, um, the beam home batch that's the newest batch uh kind of went off profile for me because, where I usually pick up a lot of caramel and a lot of different, as you can see, that my, I have problems um, where you pick up that stuff, you pick up on bookers and put that back because, uh, you can see, I just got this other weekend and this one is a good batch. The last batch that was like that was, uh, pigskin. For me, pigskin went real quick and I had to get another bottle. I might have to get another bottle of this because this is straightforward, not um, and it's what I look for. This is not on flavor profile the normal bookers, and this is called the Beam House, and this profile is straight-up vanilla frosting. It is confectionary sugar. I don't know what to tell you, and if I could taste confectionary sugar and it'd be that sweet and stay sweet, this is what I want to drink. Once again, looking for uniqueness in my batches, that's what I like, and Jim Beam delivers that.
Speaker 3:Now for the last one we are looking for yep, there, it is Baker's 13. So now you take something Baker's 7, which is a single barrel, and you do a blend for Baker's 13. Oh, it's a single barrel too. They picked these 13-year-old barrels. We're getting way older this Baker's 13-year. When you think about it, the Booker's are sitting around between seven and whatever. This is 13 years. I think Booker's rye was 13 or 12 years old, but you're talking about 13-year-old bourbon. Now, when you're talking about age, bourbon, elijah craig, 18, elijah craig, uh, you know the different, uh, the old fits is they all have seven, there's 14, there's that whatever, when you're talking about that. And then you're talking about Pappy 2320.
Speaker 3:What I'm looking for in these is I don't want it to be oaked to a point that it's bitter. I want to taste it because I'm 100%. My wife loves Chardonnays, oaky Chardonnays and stuff like that. But I want, when you's coming to, the older bourbons with the age, I want them to be sweet, I want them to. I mean, the sweet spot for me is Pappy 15. Pappy 15 is just like drinking caramel. I mean they take the best of the best of the Weller line. It's weeded and whatever, and they age at 15 years. So they're just picking through those, they're cherry picking those barrels and they put out, and they put out a brand and they do the blend. They know what their flavor profile is. They stick the flavor profile on pappy but everybody knows from year to year there's better batches of it than there isn't, because this is not an exact science.
Speaker 3:Uh, weather doesn't cooperate consistently, but I will have to say, probably for the past 15 to 20 years in Kentucky, aging bourbon and Indiana well, I'm not going to leave Indiana out, but aging bourbon in those environments and even into Ohio has been spectacular. The summers have been hot. They have fluctuation throughout the summers of hot days and cool nights, which is the best thing possible. Everybody doesn't understand a Buffalo Trace. Buffalo Trace doesn't rapid age. They don't say they rapid age. They produce really good bourbons. They do it by supplementing in the winter steam heat to warm those rickhouses up and then drop them down to cold temperatures. By doing that you're getting it to go more in and out, but a year is a year. You're just basically producing better whiskey in that year than people who are letting it sit, and that is an opinion. But gotta still watch out.
Speaker 3:I mean, like I said, putting pappy 20 and 23 for me there's too much. I love the 15 caramel. I'm in this for the caramel. I'm looking for the caramel. But I also understand some people are in it for the spice, some people are in it for the black pepper, some people are in it for the fruitiness, some people are in it. Everybody has their reasons to be in it. So based off that, it's like.
Speaker 3:So when I'm picking barrel picks for my group, I'm picking a specific thing based off of what I want my group of people who like what I like to understand. I'm trying to pick something exceptional for them, something that's different, something that they've never tasted before. That's what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to do, I'm trying to find little niches and things and I've done that so far. So that's really fun for me.
Speaker 3:When I'm picking for Kentucky Bourbon Festival, I want to pick for the big Kentucky bourbon drinker, which is those caramels which I love, vanillas I'm not looking so much to come up with something exotic. And then when I'm picking for the state of Ohio, it's a whole different thing. When you're picking for the whole state, everybody's palate is involved. You can't make everybody happy based off those picks, but you're going to make most. You want to make it nothing wrong with it. You'd like to have a caramelly flavor, because that's what everybody likes about bourbon, but at least it's being a little bit sweet, but also have that bourbon flavor and that's what you're looking for. And you just make sure that it's not the whiskey that you're picking on. The pick is not screwed up. I mean we went down to Starlight and that pick for the state of Ohio is going to be coming out soon.
Speaker 3:The barrels that we were picking from were amazing. What's about to come out? The Starlight whiskey aged in Four Roses barrels was spectacular. The Toki barrels spectacular. We tasted some damn good whiskey. I'm not going to say how it went, but it went way better than anybody thought it was going to go and Ted Huber has done a fantastic job with that distillery.
Speaker 3:But once again, that's how I go about what I'm looking for when I'm tasting. You know, on the podcast I'm always tasting for what you guys like. I mean that's, you know the people who listen. I know what you guys like and usually you guys are agreeing with what I'm. You know what I'm tasting, so you know. That's kind of how this works. Oh, I haven't had enough to make this stop hurting. So the Baker's 13 has been open since September and I will have to say that the first batch of 13. So my wife loves, I love regular bakers, the initial bakers. I still have the original bottle of bakers. I have three single barrels baker seven and I've got two thirteens One that's signed, that'll never be opened. It's signed by baker, it's signed by Freddie and Fred, and then I bought one this one specifically here, because it's bakers 13. My wife loves, absolutely loves bakers.
Speaker 3:Bakers is the first I liked. I liked basil hayden initially and then I evolved to colonel tay. When I was buying Colonel Taylor, it was before the rush on Buffalo Trey stuff, it was 2016,. 17, right in there you could get it for $32 on the shelf. It was something that I was giving as gifts to my friends and I loved Taylor, my friends and I loved Taylor. But the first beam, uh well, basil Hayden I was drinking, but the first serious beam was Baker's. But cause Baker's to me had a really, really oily mouthfeel that would allow the whiskey to slide down your throat in a silky way. Silky is what I came up with and it really was spectacular. I loved what it did, because the Taylor would give you that punch and it would be a little bit hot and whatever. But what Baker's did was like nothing that I had ever experienced. So we were doing that, and then when they went to the single barrel, it became a little bit more like what Taylor was doing. But this 13 year is back to what the Bakers was doing. But then there's just that.
Speaker 3:Enough oak, and, if I'm not mistaken, when I was interviewing Fred Ngo, he called it when you're getting up in age, on those bourbons, they can't be too woody. Now I know that Alan Bishop would roll over based off of the word woody, but at the same time I totally understood what Fred was saying. Allen Bishop would roll over based off of the word Woody. But at the same time I totally understood what Fred was saying, because how do you describe what too much oak is? It's like you get that mouthfeel and there's like it turns to turpentine almost. It's got a bitter oily flavor. But if you could get that balance of putting that in there and there's just enough enough leather.
Speaker 3:There's just the one thing that I love about the beam products. I'll say this they're not relying on sugar or caramel. They're relying on the flavor of bourbon itself and to me that is exactly why I love bourbon. Cave Hill does it. There's certain things and the best way to describe what a really good bourbon would taste like is when you walk into a rickhouse and you smell all those barrels together aging in there and you get that smell of whiskey and bourbon. That's the flavor, that's that. That's the ultimate flavor. Essence of bourbon is and you can't deny it's not too much caramel, there's a little caramel. There's not too much oak tannins there's a little oak tannins, there's just. Overall, it balances itself and makes what bourbon is, and that's kind of like the last thing I want to talk about is, or say about it is. You know, bourbon is to what each individual person interprets it. So, if you think what you think bourbon is, if you think it's big and carmelie if you think it's what I think, you know it's all personal interpretation.
Speaker 3:So everybody, uh, good podcast, it's time to go, I think. Uh, facebook um is telling me it's time to go because we're down. I don't know who's all left, but doesn't seem to be a lot left and I appreciate you guys. Once again, we're going to do this on Tuesday and Thursday nights. Hopefully some nights the other Scotchy Bourbon Boys join me. Thank you to Roxy for joining me on Tuesday. I really appreciated that. Hopefully Nash, ct, barrelhead or Whiskey will join me in the coming days we are going to be, I believe, august 23rd. We're going to be heading down to New Riff, which is a Friday, to do a live podcast in the afternoon from there. So look forward to that. We're trying to get another podcast set up with Heaven Hill and Conor O'Driscoll. We had that set up but they had to cancel out and you know the Kentucky Bourbon Festival is right around the corner.
Speaker 3:You guys, if you haven't gotten your tickets, this is the festival September, I believe 11th, 12th, 13th through 15th Friday they're the 13th, oh, wow, because we're doing the September 11th 12th. Thursday the 12th is the kickoff, which is Bourbon in the Air, and then Friday the 13th oh, that is interesting we're doing Friday the 13th at Bourbon Festival Might have to come up with a theme for that, right guys and then the Saturday 14th and Sunday to the 15th. Tickets still available, I'm telling you, general admission tickets which are, I believe, around the 175 mark for three days of bourbon tasting from 62 different distilleries. But at the same time, you're talking about Bourbon P pursuit and pursuit united. Uh, myself, uh, scotchy, though, the scotchy bourbon boys. Uh, we're gonna be there.
Speaker 3:Uh, you're talking about meeting every steve coombs. Uh, you're talking about meeting everybody. Who's anybody in the bourbon industry? They're gonna be walking around freddie and freddie. You know fred and freddie know, uh, you know the. The brent elliott's there for for roses. I mean, you are talking about some of the top talent, uh, peddling their wares and you get to taste it. Uh, it's just amazing what they put out at that festival. There are 32 single barrels that will be being sold from the distilleries booths.
Speaker 3:I don't know what to say. This is exciting, even the distilleries. There is going to be a bottle shop this year, I think Evergreen will have a bottle shop on premise. So if you like something that is not made in Kentucky or doesn't follow the Kentucky rules, you're able to go over to that bottle shop and pick that up. So Kentucky Bourbon Festival is something you want to make and we're going to be there.
Speaker 3:So you want to come down and hang out with us. I mean, they've got the double decker cigar lounge with the Kentucky Bourbon Festival store downstairs and then they've got VIP. Anybody who's gotten VIP? The experience is fantastic. We're going to be hanging out in the media tent, the vip tent, and then there they have all their special events, which are now sold out. But I'm just going to tell you that that three-day pass you're in for an experience that you would think was vip. So if you can get down there during september, hang out. Now the cool thing is this year they partnered with louisville so you can get. There's still places to stay in louisville that have shuttles that bring you to and from the festival each night. So how can you go wrong there? So that's 100. You don't have to drive. They drive you the 40 minutes down and they take you back the 40 minutes each time and you basically get to experience Kentucky in September.
Speaker 3:So and drink I mean who can? Three days, 62 different tastings or distilleries that are offering two to three different brands, or even sometimes five or six different expressions from the distillery. That is like 180 different bourbons to taste and you seriously think you could do that. 60 a day, that 60 a day. You got it covered, so you got to do it. So remember everybody.
Speaker 3:Um, tiny here, great podcast, thanks for watching, thanks for listening. Uh, everybody out in YouTube, everybody out on Facebook. Uh, appreciate you guys. Remember, uh, wwwscotchiebourbonboyscom for all things Scotchie Bourbon Boys. I've been drinking out of one of the Glen Cairns. You can get one of these. And then also remember to follow us on Instagram, facebook, youtube and X. Please like, listen, give us good feedback, comment and remember to listen to us on all the podcast formats Spotify, apple and then also iHeartRadio. Check us out there and remember good bourbon equals good times and good friends. Don't drink and drive. Drink responsibly and make sure that you go out and live dangerously. Little Steve-O is going to take us out. He's not. Let's see what's happening.
Speaker 4:There we go, there we go. Oh, don't ask why. Show me the way to the next whiskey bar. Oh don't ask why. Oh, don't ask why. For if we don't find the next whiskey bar, I tell you we must die. I tell you we must die. I tell you. I tell you we must die. I tell you we must die. I tell you I tell you I tell you, we must die.
