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
Mastering Bourbon: Your Guide to everything Single Barrel 101, and Barrel Picks with the Scotchy Bourbon Boys
Get ready to master the nuances of bourbon with the Scotchy Bourbon Boys! This episode features a the legendary Super Nash joining us from North Carolina as we dive into updates on my recovery from a broken wrist and wisdom teeth removal. We celebrate Single Barrel Night and explore what makes these selections so unique. Plus, we spill the beans on our exciting plans to expand to Roku TV and cable, and share the latest ways you can follow our bourbon journey across various platforms.
In our deep dive into the world of bourbon, we break down the differences between single barrel whiskey, small batch, and regular bourbon. Through our Knob Creek pick, we illustrate the variety in proofs and characteristics single barrels can offer. We also delve into the art of blending small batches to maintain consistent flavor profiles. Whether you’re a bourbon newbie or a seasoned aficionado, you’ll walk away with a richer understanding of proofs, mash bills, and iconic elements like the Blanton's topper.
Finally, we explore the evolving landscape of distillery picks and state selections, especially in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. From the Winking Lizard’s curated picks to Ohio’s state program distributing rare barrels, we recount memorable moments from bourbon festivals and emphasize the meticulous process behind each barrel selection. We wrap things up with a spirited sing-along to "Whiskey Bar," reminding everyone to enjoy bourbon responsibly and cherish good times with great friends. Cheers to unforgettable moments and exceptional whiskey!
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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.
Speaker 2:Now, that was a screw up 's. See, there we go. I don't even.
Speaker 3:Drinking birdies, sipping on some stars. We can do a little while, but it's short for the watch. We love what we do. We're drinking every birdie man, we talk some shit, but we're telling the truth yeah we're the scotchy birdie boys Raising some hell and making some noise. Yeah, we're the Scotchie Bird and the Boys. We're here to have fun and we hope you enjoy. We're here to have fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, welcome back to another podcast of the Scotchy Bourbon Boys. We are back in studio. We got Super Nash from North Carolina, not South Carolina, tonight. Welcome, super Nash. Cheers everybody Glad to be here.
Speaker 4:Glad I can jump on and jump in and have a little pour of single barrel night.
Speaker 2:Yep, it's single barrel night. We are going to talk everything single barrel We've got Tiny in the studio.
Speaker 4:Can't forget about that.
Speaker 2:Yep, I'm Tiny Excited to be back Pretty much. This Thursday I go for my final check for my broken wrist. I don't have to wear it unless I'm at work. I kind of wear it still the brace for it, but it's healed up about, I'd say, about 95%. I still sometimes don't really feel that I got the strength yet in it, but I believe the way it healed it should be coming back, and then I'm fresh.
Speaker 4:I'm wondering why you've been waving at me for the past.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've been showing everybody that it's like there's no brace or nothing. No brace or nothing.
Speaker 4:Is he trying to show me that white tan or that white Ohio tan, or what?
Speaker 2:I'm pretty dark here, buddy, I'm pretty dark. If you want to get into a hillbilly tan, I got that. You can get into that, but I, you know. But also I'm fresh off of. The reason why we weren't on last Thursday is because I had my wisdom teeth removed.
Speaker 2:Last Thursday Finally got to the point where I felt that now that I'm about I'm getting into, I've full six days removed from the procedure. Everything went fantastic. I have to give my dentist straight up kudos what he did, the medication I just had numbing. The first day there was a little bit of pain, but after that that, how everything was managed and everything, uh, he was very, very helpful and I'm gonna keep on the soft diet kind of thing. Uh, one thing really good about this is that I went from uh. Usually I want to be about 260 to 255 when I go to kentucky bourbon festival and this year I was thinking at uh, I was at 283 about a month ago and I was thinking that's going to be rough to get down there. But um, I went on vacation too. So a lot of times you go on vacation, right, and you gain some weight, drink a little bit more than you drink and whatever.
Speaker 2:But we took the grandkids and everything. I didn't, whatever. And then I had this procedure I hopped on the scale and, um, all of a sudden I hopped on the scale, it's 271 and I was like what you know, right after, like I think I had it on thursday, I hopped on the scale on like saturday morning and I was like what's going on? And now I I hopped on the scale after my, after came home from work and whatever, and I was 267. So, um, I'm well on my way if I just and I still have a good five or six more days of the soft food kind of thing, you know what I mean. And then I've been just eating slower, having you know, and eating a smaller portions because of it.
Speaker 4:You know, you just well you lost it and I found it on my way.
Speaker 2:It's what happens. It's what happens.
Speaker 4:The only crap is what you eat in. Hawaii. I said well, just about everything I could.
Speaker 2:There's Bill Johnson is on Walker's on tonight. There's Randy is on James Jacobs, matt Lyson A lot. Randy is on James Jacobs, matt Lyson, a lot of people on Cheers everybody. We are going to be talking single barrels, but first I'll give some shameless plugs for the Scotchy Bourbon Boys wwwscotchybourbonboyscom. For all things. Scotchy Bourbon Boys T-shirts Glen Cairns Check it out there. Check us out. Find out who's on the podcast. We're a podcast group having a blast.
Speaker 2:Randy Wackerly is going to be helping us get on Roku TV. Like you know, if you really want to get down to it, the plan is starting to play out. I got a couple more years, but it would be great to be. You know, do some things, get on TV, get on Roku, get on you know, um, do some things. Uh, get on tv, get on roku, get on you know, overall, maybe get on cable.
Speaker 2:We're, as this keeps going, uh, I'm super excited we're gonna change how we go about doing things. But also remember, right now you could follow us on youtube, facebook, instagram or x, so those four places, and we are live on youtube and facebook, so you probably already are if you're listening to that, and then also make sure that you follow us on while you're in your car on your favorite podcast formats apple, iheart, spotify, pandora, you you want to listen to us on you playing video games? Uh, we're on, uh, all the podcast formats that you listen to. Just check out the scotchy bourbon boys. So there we go that and leave good feedback yeah, yeah, please.
Speaker 2:Um, I was asking jamie and walker, I don't know if you've done that yet, but just go to pot apple podcasts and actually leave us some good feedback. I'd like to get our rating up there. 4.1 is not bad, but we've had a couple things and whatever happened between other rival groups or whatever, so there was a little bit of negative feedback back then. But we've fixed all that. So we'd like to get that podcast uh rating up. So, everybody listening on youtube or facebook, if you can go to apple podcasts or iheart radio, give us a good feedback and leave a a nice message about what you think about the podcast, because we greatly would appreciate it, please. All right, so tonight, uh, you know we're getting into sync, we're gonna get into single barrels. Uh, we've done this podcast. I think I did this once with uh, with whiskey. Whiskey did it and we were doing it, uh, back when we were talking about when we had gotten some bad. This was a couple years ago, but this this year.
Speaker 2:I felt that that was more of a. It wasn't. It was more of an explanation of a of what you wanted to do with group picks. You know group single barrel picks. But the definition, as you'll agree with me, nash, is a single barrel, you know. Now there's a couple things.
Speaker 4:A single barrel of whiskey bottled.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 4:Now Completely on its own.
Speaker 2:Right Now there's two things they can do to it. They can bottle it barrel-proof or they can proof it down. So like, for instance, when you go and you do a Knob Creek pick, like we did and I've done a couple times the proof of all Knob Creek barrel picks is 120. Now, on our pick specifically at Knob, at Knob Creek with Sandy no, and when we went and did it, we actually picked a barrel that was 120.2, so it wasn't watered down. You could get it. It was within the specs and they just put it in the bottle. So so that was kind of unique. But if you pick a 139 or a 130 of Knob Creek while you're doing it and they're going to add water to take it down to 120, and you get more bottles that way.
Speaker 2:Now a lot of picks, for instance, can be barrel-proof, and that's another thing. So when you're looking at single barrels, you want to look to see if all the single barrels contain a consistent proof or do they differ? And if they differ, that means that each single barrel is being at the barrel strength, because they just take what's in there, dump it in the bottles and sell it to you. Now you say okay, well, how's that different from other whiskey? Right, right, that would be the question. Let's see.
Speaker 1:What is?
Speaker 2:this? Okay. What's the sending stars? Okay, that's okay. So we got to get into what the I'll check. Every once in a while I'm checking to see the. You know who's on and who's watching and whatever. But let's um, let's get into why.
Speaker 2:What a single barrel? How does a single barrel differ from regular bourbon, small batch bourbon, and then your single barrel and all your small batches, okay, and then also from barrel strength bourbons, okay. So the main thing about when you're buying bourbon for instance Jim Beam and I believe this one right here is a small batch, eliza Craig. This small batch, eliza Craig, has the label that you purchased for me Super Nash. This is a small batch that I've never answered. It says specifically for tiny of the Scotchy Bourbon Boys. You did that for me. I appreciate it. I covet this bottle. But what's in this bottle is a 94-proof small batch, eliza Craig, that you can buy, same as what you buy off the shelf. What does that mean? So small batches can be anywhere from a few barrels to 600 barrels. Definition of a small batch is is compared to the main production of the whiskey that a distillery is making. So let's just say jim beam uses 20 000 barrels.
Speaker 2:I don't know how many they use for a batch we're just figuratively right numbers here so anything underneath 20 000 barrels is a smaller batch and you can call it small batch. There's no rules for small batch now, if you are at a craft distillery.
Speaker 2:A small batch can be anywhere between um I, I believe. Actually, when it comes to chicken cock whiskey, they just did a small batch that was three barrels, or was it? It was it was six barrels, so six barrels or 11 barrels. But what that is is they take those barrels and they mix them together so that they either taste the best that they can taste or they want to get a consistency of a brand. So when you buy Elijah Craig's small batch, what they're trying to do with this is when you buy it, it's the same consistent flavor profile.
Speaker 2:Now I've found that these small batches, even though they're trying to maintain consistency, they've been actually better as you go forward. Now I would say, like Jim Beam, when you taste a Jim Beam from 1974, 65, and 1980, and then you taste a Jim Beam today, they basically evolved to the whiskey drinker's palate in my opinion, but there is a flavor that's consistent throughout. That you you know that they've been trying to do ever since. They try and keep that consistent flavor same yeast same, same barrel, company, same. You know that everything's the same same amount ofes. They analyze them in a computer.
Speaker 4:They even age them in the same places, same parts of the warehouse and all to get that same consistency.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and don't finger, okay, so, anyways. So what happens is there's a lot of people watching on YouTube right now, so it's going crazy, but it's always sometimes people being rude, but so you're getting that. That's what the goal is of a small batch, and it can be, like I said, there's no rules, I like a lot batch, and it can be any. Like I said, there's no rules. Um, I like a lot of small batches. I like the chicken cock, the, the chicken cock small batch that they came out with, um, and it's right here, uh, it's fantastic and it was less barrels.
Speaker 2:Uh, you basically are picking like three or four star barrels or six barrels or whatever, and you're blending them together to get a flavor that's even better than each individual barrel. You're looking, um, that is usually the blender's preference and and the blending will will talk about a lot about that, how much it matters. But when you're talking about a single barrel and that's what we're talking about tonight single barrels are once again we talked about it one barrel, it's a one-off. They take the barrel. They either proof it down for consistency amongst the single barrels and, for instance, I do have right here, we'll put that out, but I have Jim Beam single barrel. Jim Jim Beam single barrel. One is one, oh eight. Um. Jim Beam single barrel. Uh, is the same mash this what you got? Yeah, the same mash bill as Baker's and Booker's. They all have the same mash bill. So Jim Beam's single barrel is 108, and, if I'm not mistaken, baker's is 107.
Speaker 4:And I have Yellowstone and it's at 109. Right, but all the single barrels that I've seen, they barrel them at 109. Right. I bottle them at 109.
Speaker 2:Right, so this, when you get it, is going to be bottled at 108. You know the proof. So they basically take those barrels and make sure and they proof it down to 108. Now, a lot of times the distiller will say that he likes to. He'll take them down consistently. He knows the mash bill, he knows and it's just one barrel but he likes what the barrels taste like at 108.
Speaker 2:So in this case, with jim beam single barrel, you're going to be at 108 consistently, meaning no matter what's in the barrel it'd could be a 112, a 120, a 130. They're going to add water and this single barrel will produce either more or less bottles, but you're going to have a consistent proof to it. So that's one thing that you're going to be looking for when you're looking for your single barrels. Now, a lot of times this is consistent for the distillery itself. When you go to your liquor store and the distillery puts out their single barrel on the shelf. So the distilleries put their, they pick single barrels and keep putting them out on the shelf. I know for a fact that if you want to know the single barrels that you see a lot are Evan Williams single barrel. You see Jim Beam single barrel. From time to time you don't see it consistently.
Speaker 4:And then what are a couple other single?
Speaker 2:barrels that you see on the shelf. Yep, jack Daniels does a single barrel Now.
Speaker 3:I don't know if Jack.
Speaker 2:Daniels single barrels keep the proof consistent. They might be different, but this is what you got to look at when you're buying from the liquor store on the shelf in your general bourbon population, in your general bourbon population, you're looking for the proof and if it's consistency, you know that they've added some water. That's neither good nor bad, it's not, it's just part of it, the H Taylor single barrels.
Speaker 4:they're all the same.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because the H.
Speaker 4:Taylor single barrels are all the same proof.
Speaker 2:Well, I believe they're all bottled in bond, 100 proof. So every single barrel is taken down because that's how it's bottled. It's got to be bottled in bond but instead of making a batch, they're basically pouring it out the barrel, proofing it down to 100 and sticking it in, uh, sticking right in the bottom. So that's what there, there, you're looking at now when you're dealing with single barrels, in my opinion, and the other one, that is that one of the biggest single barrel uh bourbons there is and it was the first one is oh my God, I got to what am I wait? Yeah, thank you, I'm thinking Booker's just ran through Blantons.
Speaker 2:Blantons is the ultimate single barrel. All their single barrels, for Blantons, on their regular single barrel, are 93 proof. You're right. Now they have straight from the barrel and that's a single barrel. You know, now they have straight from the barrel and that's that's a single. But you know, blanton, straight from the barrel, that's just. They're not proofing it down, you can get that. But overall it's 93 proof, it's consistent. Um, that program, uh is one of the reasons why, and I should. Let me grab real quick a blanton. I just got one right up here. Let me grab real quick a Blanton's.
Speaker 4:I got one right up here. Dude what you were thinking. Right off the bat, there you go.
Speaker 2:And Blanton's has Blanton's gold. They have Blanton's straight from the barrel. They have Blanton's and the 93. But everybody that everybody's looking for is always the regular Blantons. I mean, everybody's happy when they get regular Blantons. You get something else. You're really ecstatic, but they have. Now. This one is a straight from the barrel which I was awesome enough to get.
Speaker 2:Yes, you were. But you see the topper. And there's a reason for the topper everybody. Because when you buy Blantons and this is another thing about single barrels single barrels aren't guaranteed to match your palate, they're not guaranteed to match the flavor. So let's just say you love EH Taylor and you're like holy crap, this is great and EH Taylor's consistent all the time. And then you get a chance to spend a little bit more money and get an EH Taylor single barrel. Now you're talking hit or miss, because let's just say you like eh taylor because it's not too sweet, because eh taylor, in my opinion, is a is what bourbon should taste like. It's not too sweet, it's got enough of the oak flavor, it's got enough of the you know that barrel caramelizing, it's got enough of the bourbon, it's got enough of the yeast, it's all in there. It's what, what you want.
Speaker 2:And then you get a single barrel and that well balanced single barrel yeah now you can get one on this and it can be a dud and and just let's just say you've been waiting to get a colonel taylor single barrel. You're you, you've been passed over 20 times and you finally get. When you open it up and it tastes like someone shoved oak and you're gonna poop it. You know that. I actually my first taylor single barrel. It was sat on the shelf for two and a half years. I forced myself to drink it but but I preferred Taylor 50 times over. Actually, I got a Benchmark single barrel, which is the same mash bill but younger, and the Benchmark single barrel blew away that Taylor single barrel.
Speaker 2:So single barrels are inconsistent. It's kind of like potluck. You don't know what you're going to get, especially with Blanton's, and that's where the toppers came in. If you got a Blanton's and you're trying to get a Blanton's and you know there's eight different toppers and you all different stages of the Kentucky Derby, each one is a different and it spells out Blanton's. You get a, b, an L, an A and then the second. You know Anyways, the second N is it? Oh, we lost. Did we lose you, nash? No, I'm here. Okay, what just happened? I don't know why we switched around on the you you. All of a sudden, there we go. What was that?
Speaker 4:I don't know.
Speaker 2:Anyways. So the yeah, messing us up there, so so so they were like well, what happens if they buy one and they get a dud? Because you know they're picking those barrels from a specific place in the warehouse. But we know.
Speaker 4:Well, you know, they're still going to keep it because they're going for that horse and that ladder.
Speaker 2:Yep, and so they'll or.
Speaker 4:Get that stake flat.
Speaker 2:Yep, they actually end of the barrel, right. I mean it's hard for people on youtube to see, but it's not hard to for people back. Here is the stave from buffalo trace. If you get, if you get all eight, you send them in and they will send you it back on a stave mounted and even pay for the shipping. You pay for the shipping there, they pay for the ship. It's a fantastic program but it's thank you for buying 865 barrels of whiskey or bottles. But initially you weren't able to look at. They wouldn't even let you look before you opened the box. You had to, like some people would like, buy 30 bottles and let me interject right there.
Speaker 4:When I started drinking blends and collecting the stoppers, it was 39 a bottle there you go, so anyways and now.
Speaker 2:Now it's like 65 a bottle bottle and then secondary is crazy, oh my gosh.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we don't even need to go or admonish secondary prices, because they suck.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, oh, my God, let's see. Oh, my God, let's see. Oh, I just screwed that up. Nope, okay, I just want to. Let's hide that one, all right, bill Bill Johnson's on.
Speaker 4:I just saw somebody. They were asking $300 for that bottle you have right there in front of you. Yeah, straight from the barrel. Yep, that's ridiculous. Yep saw somebody they were asking 300 for that bottle you have right there in front of you. Yeah, straight from the barrel. Yep, that's ridiculous yep, so you know, on a secondary market now the one I got.
Speaker 2:So once again, it's a single barrel and they knew that. So when you're playing the single barrel game, like I said, I've gotten regular bottles of blantons that I've rated a 93 and I've gotten a regular bottle of blantons that I rated a 65 and they they tasted like two completely different bourbons. It's a hit or miss thing when you're buying it off the shelf, just like when I got this straight from the barrel, I didn't know it was going to be fantastic. I knew and had tasted it, but it was fantastic. But it could have been. I could have spent this money and it's a single barrel. There's nothing you could do about that now, so that single barrel's off the shelf. What you got to look for, you got to look for if they're proofing it down. You got to look to see if they're, if they're putting them out inconsistently. You know what I mean, for instance. The next one that I want to talk about is maker.
Speaker 4:Let me put this out there. It's like like today, uh, if you're going up there and you're looking for single barrels or like in my case, like today, store picks, and I knew this store and I've been to it several times before and so I know the guys that work there and a lot of the guys in the stores. They go to Kentucky, they go to Mexico, they do tequila picks, they go to Kentucky, they go to Texas, they go to Indiana, they go all over, they go to Colorado and they do barrel picks from everywhere.
Speaker 4:Okay, uh, bourbon and tequila and and several different things, and so they're the ones that are actually tasting this and picking these barrels and all right so when I went in there and this store had they probably have maybe 15 different bourbon single barrel picks and all and these are the two that I chose today to come back to bring to the podcast and taste and so I talked with the guys in there. So go to your liquor stores and talk with the people you know, talk with them about it and talk with the people you know.
Speaker 2:Talk with them about it and they'll tell you, you know, if anyone's picking it or how they picked it, or if they just got sent a kit, you jumped.
Speaker 2:You're jumping the gun you jumped. We didn't explain this. Okay, so we're going to the next level. We'll go to the next level. We'll go to the next level. So now we're talking about private picks. So single barrels are available to the public in private picks.
Speaker 2:Super nash was just talking about stores, liquor stores, where you're picking up the distillery picks. Now the distilleries can do private picks that they only release from. They don't send it out barrel after barrel, like evan williams or whatever. They they'll do a couple picks and just have them at their gift shops. They're they're known for that watershed up here here in Ohio has a lot of single barrel picks from their gift shop.
Speaker 2:They don't sell the single barrels off the shelf On the Spirit of French Lick. You can walk into the gift shop anytime. They will have many different picks, sometimes picks from other groups that the group will not buy the whole barrel but it'll be there for sale. So there's a lot of different things and one of the things that nash was talking about he can keep going on this is that now this is where pick teams or pick people come in. Now he was just talking about at this particular liquor store. They go to the places and uh, and then the scotchy bourbon boys. As a group we go to the distillery and pick it. But there are some places based off of covid and when covid hit they started they couldn't go and pick out the barrels and have the big experience they had to get samples.
Speaker 2:They pick from the samples. The distillery would bottle it and you'd go from there. Now who knows what you're getting? Then I mean, you know, we know that in the world that I'm not saying any distillery does it, but you, you're picking from the sample. You don't know that your sample went into that barrel, because all the time now when you go and do a distillery pick, you get to sign the barrel, you get to keep the barrel. In some cases some, some places don't let you. But you sign it and you do it and they know what it is and they barrel it. Uh, so you know, it's kind of a cool thing. I know that uh, this our first spirit of french lick pick uh went to super nash. Uh, second pick from elijah craig is in uh ct's house. Uh, this third pick of uh lillian sinclair that I'm gonna be getting soon I'm gonna be bringing back here um I have one of my favorite for christmas.
Speaker 2:You guys can't have all the barrels. No, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 4:So I hadn't got room for it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't. I'm trying to. I'd have room for one more somewhere. I'm going to figure it out. I'll figure out where that last barrel goes and then I'm done too. So the cool thing about single barrels when it it comes to the pick teams and we're going to go over. So you got pick teams going out from restaurants. We have a place called the winking lizard here. They do barrel picks left and right in the state of ohio. They're fantastic picks. You go to the restaurant now. At the restaurant you're not buying the bottles, you're basically tasting those picks at all their different restaurants and you can buy it. Pour for pour Awesome. And they do a lot of stuff when you walk in. They've got a good selection.
Speaker 2:Cheap pours too. Yeah, reasonably priced.
Speaker 4:They don't do no markup on it, do they?
Speaker 2:Nope, nope. And then in the state of Ohio we have a really unique thing called state picks. Ohlq sends teams of people and I've been associated with the old elk and now also now we've been associated with the starlight pick that should be coming out. I know they just the state of Ohio just did a chicken cock pick with Greg Schneider. I wish I would have been a part of that one, but I was not. But um, but they also do makers mark.
Speaker 4:he's been a part of with you do uh oh hlq yes, they just did one with him.
Speaker 2:They went down and did oh, hlq came down and did one with him. Um, I found out about it. Uh, so the state of Ohio has been really taking the forefront. I don't know very many other states that are actually doing state picks and then distributing them to all the liquor stores. They'll buy anywhere between 7 and 20 barrels from the place and then distribute it throughout the state. Tell everybody about the different tasting notes and people go crazy for these.
Speaker 1:They're awesome.
Speaker 2:This one right here, Maker's Mark, is their favorite one. This is coffee crumble cake from OHLQ.
Speaker 4:The whole team at OHLQ for the last two to three years now has really turned that state program around and I want to say it's probably the number one in the whole United States. You know, if not, it's got to be way up there, but they do more for the people the bourbon and whiskey and scotch lovers than I've ever seen before in any other state.
Speaker 4:And I just got to give a shout out to the whole team there. Okay, Our friend I might as well go ahead and mention her name, Ann Demick, our friend there. She's, you know, one of the main ones there, but she's got a whole team of team of people that does all the picks.
Speaker 2:so so also, I want to uh wish a happy birthday to stacy pritchard. Today she is 44 on today. She's put that out out there. Stacy, I'm glad that you're spending a little bit of your birthday watching us. Uh, we'll talk a little bit about. We're going to talk a little. So you're having a wonderful celebration. So I'm going to have a little bit of this coffee crumble cake as my first uh pour sample since my teeth have been extracted. I I don't know what it's going to do, but the one thing I want to say is makers mark private select are one of the private selects that you can get at the gift shop.
Speaker 2:You can find them, um, throughout the gift shop, but then also you can find now you just found one through liquor stores actually making selections. They don't put out their own, oh, they don't put out their own single barrel, their, their version of this is a mass-produced um makers 46, if I'm not mistaken. That's what they do. They do a batch of it. They just put these staves in there and they consistently do it. But there's so many flavors they they were when they were coming up with makers 46. There was thousands of flavors and they're like well, we got to make. We got to do something with this, and that's where their private select single barrel program this is one barrel, this is the state of Ohio selected it and it tasted like crumbled coffee cake, so I'm going to put a little bit in there. I'm scared.
Speaker 4:I want to know when that came out and how come I didn't get a bottle of it. You know I might have a bottle of it and I just had no yeah, but it's like some of the these are so good.
Speaker 2:This is 20 OHL exclusive 2022. So stay. Profile Um 111.3. Proof March of 2022. So we're right in the middle of COVID, right when that was happening, so I'll put that one back, but that's how the state picks. Then there are festival picks, which are fantastic If you go to a festival we, we were at new Orleans bourbon festival there was a. I picked up the chicken cock, uh pick and and the dark arts pick. I think you got a couple too, did you not?
Speaker 4:Oh, yeah, absolutely. Uh uh uh wilderness trail. I kept their pick uh single barrel pick. Oh my gosh, there were so many.
Speaker 2:The Elijah Craig single barrel got that pick from the Kentucky Bourbon Festival. Now you're going off. I said so many Now you're going off. I said New Orleans. Now you're going off of Kentucky, new Orleans, I'm sorry, yeah it's okay.
Speaker 4:It's like stay on, motherfucker. Stay on task. I'm all over the place here. Oh yeah, I picked up a couple down there too. Uh, I got the dark arts, of course oh my god.
Speaker 2:Stacy said it wasn't her birthday, it was. They picked their 44th barrel today oh my god, I had even.
Speaker 4:I didn't even look at.
Speaker 1:Facebook today I didn't have a chance to, so that's all on YouTube.
Speaker 2:That shows you. I swear to God, I basically Was Stacy's birthday just recently.
Speaker 4:Yes, it was like two months ago.
Speaker 2:Oh, two months ago, someone's birthday was today, because I typed in happy birthday Kate.
Speaker 4:Price's was today. Oh, it was, so it was today oh, it was, yes, double.
Speaker 2:Okay. Happy birthday to double okay. There you go, okay, that makes sense, thank you, thank you. Thank you, sorry, stacy. You know she's in the, she's in the group and I have. I have, um, what would you say? An excuse. I'm all medded up. I'm medicated. I said that before I even had it. Stacey said it, so you were wrong. It's June and we're only in July, so it was last month. I do, okay, so anyways.
Speaker 2:But I will have to say that after all this, I haven't been the sharpest. I'm just glad I'm still alive on the planet. So there you go. All right, so let's get back. So the festival picks and the Kentucky Bourbon Festival that you know Stacey mentioned. They did 44 for this year as of now and one more to go and who knows. But you know, that's amazing Now, in the past they were.
Speaker 4:They were Yep. You know that's amazing now, um, in the past they were they were ready.
Speaker 2:Yep, ah, it's so nice to taste that I haven't tasted that in a while that one is definitely crumble cake.
Speaker 4:Yeah, 111 profound brown sugar another, another brown sugar is very good, so once you get into these other picks, the store picks.
Speaker 2:That's a pick team. Sometimes the store is just picking it from samples, sometimes they go. I prefer people to go to the places and pick. The Kentucky Bourbon festival goes to all the distilleries. New orleans bourbon festival they go and make those picks. So they're at the distilleries touring around making the picks, picking the barrels for the or the distillery and in those cases, especially the kentucky bourbon festival, my opinion, the pick team. That happens. They put out a lot of pick teams. Stacy is part of those pick teams. These are expert barrel pickers trying to pick really, really good special barrels.
Speaker 2:We've been on a couple of those picks. Ourselves have been part of those pick teams. We were on the chicken cock pick. It was amazing. That was the best pick I've ever had where all four barrels that.
Speaker 2:Now, in this case, we picked from samples that were brought to their tasting tasting room and we picked from four of the samples, but all four of the samples were spectacular. It would have been great to pick um. Chicken cock is distilled and aged at the bardstown bourbon company. Would have been great to pick there, but we weren't able to do that. So we were able. That was the next best thing. But we were down there in kentucky, made the pick, but all four barrels were. I I've never been on a pick where I loved all four barrels. A lot of times the barrel will be this or that. You know what I mean. So that was a great pick for Kentucky bourbon festival. We went to, um, I want to say bluegrass distillery, um, in uh, kentucky. Uh, I think she knows. Uh, stacy might or might be able to tell us where the bluegrass distillery is. But that is more up towards a little bit more towards Frankfurt.
Speaker 1:So we did what yeah, that could yeah.
Speaker 2:I believe so. And then Yep, and then we did a pick with them. For that I know Nash was on the log still pick. So they did all these great picks. For the distilleries that are going to be there, I will say, okay, midway, midway, kentucky.
Speaker 4:Okay, knowing that they did 44 already and going to have 45. Knowing that they did 44 already and going to have 45, I have definitely been working hard this year and I have upped my budget.
Speaker 2:I mean, they made it freaking impossible. I mean, how the hell do you pick?
Speaker 4:between everybody, but I have upped my budget from last year to this year knowing that they were going to be doing something like this. Okay, because we had a little bit of inside information that they were going to make it bigger and better, and we've been talking about it all year long.
Speaker 2:Yep and we got to do one.
Speaker 4:We got to do an August podcast leading up to the they really stepped it up bigger than what I thought they were going to do. So, they went from like 35 and added like 10 more, or 32 and added 10 more. It was 35 and added 10 more.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's crazy. Well, I mean from the year before, before we're talking about I think there were third yeah, I mean, whatever it was, it was a low, I think.
Speaker 2:Even 45 blows stacy's mind. Good job, stacy. Um. So so you've got the festival pick team. So at the festivals, I really think you're going to get some of the best single barrels out there, because one it's especially the Kentucky Bourbon Festival. Just think about the distillery. This is the premier bourbon festival in the United States or in the world, because there's no bourbon festivals. So you're talking about the premier bourbon festival in the world, and what is a distillery going to want to do? Are they going to want to give you sample barrels from stuff that they don't think is their best?
Speaker 2:they're going to want their best out there so that the festival goers taste it and want to drink their product. So these, these picks and these pick teams are picking from some of the best bourbon there is in the world and they're the ones. So what happens? On a single barrel and you're on a pick team, you become the blender the guy. You're picking four or five barrels and you're picking the best of those barrels.
Speaker 2:Now, when the state of ohio picks and they're buying 20 barrels, they're just trying to pick barrels for the state that because there's so many different palates that it's just good whiskey. But when you're talking about these festival, they're just trying to pick barrels for the state because there's so many different palates that it's just good whiskey. But when you're talking about these festival picks, they're trying to get the best barrel possible for each time of these picks out of these picks, because this is important for the festival, because 45 people pay their money, come down, they're going to come back next year wanting more. Because they're going to come back next year wanting more, because they're going to be like that bottle was fantastic there's a limited amount of people and every one of those people.
Speaker 4:When they get these bottles, they're going back and they're telling 10 of their friends and oh my god, it's just going to build this thing up bigger and better and it's just going to be unreal. But they're like I say you got to give it to those, those picking team right there, because they're not just going out there just to taste it. Oh my gosh, you know, pick one barrel and let's get it over with. They're going in there.
Speaker 4:They're really working at it and going through these barrels and and they're really tasting them and they're picking some of the best barrels they can possibly pick to bring to this festival and they know that Right.
Speaker 2:So then there's let's see which one's this. Then on single barrels. So you've got the liquor stores, the states doing it, and then you're doing the festivals, and then you're doing groups, and groups are very important. The Scotchy Bourbon Boys we do, and let's see, I've got our barrel proof. No, is it barrel proof?
Speaker 4:I'm looking for the scott creek.
Speaker 2:You got our knob creek out there, right yeah, I've got our knob creek, but I've also got the single barrel um the scotchy bourbon boys, honey heaven. So we did we. So I've done a pick with the kentucky bourbon festival, right here. I was on this particular pick um at uh kentucky, if we're not with uh, and we did that pick with uh conor o'driscoll and randy prass, the president, and we came up with this one and I got to. That was one of the first times I was on a barrel pick where I was in a rick house, which was a fantastic pick. It was a fat, fantastic pick experience. So if you can get on a pick team and you go to the distillery, these experiences are fantastic. Not only are you doing these different barrels and tasting from them, but then you get to pick one and then it's going to be bottled and put together for you. And this one here from Elijah Craig. We did last year the week of Kentucky Bourbon Festival, if you remember this particular Elijah Craig. So we've got these two. One was from. So we're picking Now when you buy a barrel and get it here in Ohio, we go through the state of Ohio and then we basically have vouchers and people pay for the vouchers and when the pick comes in, you pick up your bottle.
Speaker 2:Your bottle you want to. If you're into single barrels, you want to make sure that you get in associated with a group where you like their picks for the team. The pick team is a lot of the times it's me, nash CT, consistently on these picks, and then we bring from time to time I believe our last pick Walker and Jamie were a part of it too, so we have different pick teams that come through Roxy's on it. It's always good to go and try this Honey Heaven that we did for this pick, which ended up being a short barrel, and so I want to get into a little bit of what can happen during these picks.
Speaker 4:We had about three females on this pick, or four females on this pick, because we all had our wives and girlfriends with us, and they each, like I say, we all know our wives and girlfriends with us and, uh, they each, like I say, we all know that they have a better nose and a better palate.
Speaker 4:it helps, yes, yeah, you better step up, give them a little more credit no, I I having, uh, I think uh, it's like my wife, like I say, she, she can nose and taste a whole lot better and she picked it out way before anybody else did too. You know the one that we were going to pick and everybody else was going one way and all of a sudden, wow, then we picked this one, the honey barrel.
Speaker 2:Well, I was always going this way too. I knew that the honey in this one was between two One. So when you're picking you know the flavor profile of, let's just say, elijah Craig. Elijah Craig barrel proof has a lot of pepper in it. From time to time it's got caramels, it's rich, it's whatever. But on this particular honey heaven that we, we picked um, the honey prevalence was a lot more, the pepper prevalence was almost non-existent. It was a really easy um pick. But there was another one, and now this one was, I believe, we thought the proof was higher on that.
Speaker 4:Honey honey heaven.
Speaker 2:Well, the what it really was. It's funny because it was aged um. I know for a fact that they were telling us that when it was bottled it was going to be nine years. And I know it was nine years when it was bottled, but they kept it eight.
Speaker 2:But then, they changed the proof from 120.2 down to 119.8, I believe it's eight. So the proof dropped and the age didn't go up and I was just like, how is that even a thing? But anyways, it doesn't matter. So what you get is you're trying to make sure. Now, we definitely once this was in the bottle. This bottle is a fantastic bottle, um, was loved. But but what happens is you don't know how many bottles you're going to get.
Speaker 2:You pick this barrel and then they tell you, uh, 144 to up to 198 bottles is a normal thing for different for a barrel, proof depending. Now, this was nine years, so usually it comes down a little bit. So I was hoping for 144. When they told me it was 72, exactly half of what they said it was, I was a little bit skeptical, but that's what I had to deal with. So you can have a short barrel, um, right now. Um, the barrels that we just purchased, uh, that we're're purchasing to sell out of the French Lick Distillery through South Carolina, were those are one hundred and ninety three and one hundred and ninety eight each one. So we have a lot more.
Speaker 2:So you just never know what you're going to get out of a single barrel, when you're picking as a group and you've got to sell it but undersell it. You can't oversell it. So those are kind of things that you want to do as a group. But picking as a group you want to make sure everybody gets a little bit of a unique flavor, but you kind of sometimes want to, you know, staying on profile. So each barrel pick is a uh, what would you say? An exclusive? Um, you got to think about it. You know what, what you're trying to do with it. Sometimes the brand, if it's like, if it's the right brand, you want to stay on brand. And sometimes, if that brand isn't like the most popular thing, um, you know, you just don't have to stay on brand so you can get a little bit more honey in it, like we did here.
Speaker 4:I really think that that did when go ahead in other words, you don't have to shoot for that profile. In other words, we all gravitated towards that, that palette of that bourbon right there, instead of the normal elijah craig peppery type uh single barrel profile so when you're talking about a liquor store and you taste their picks, if you like their picks, usually that pick team is picking some good bourbon.
Speaker 2:So when you're talking about a group, if you don't I mean 100% if you taste a group's pick and it's a bourbon that you like and then you don't like it, you kind of got to think about. You might give the group one or two picks, but if you're not on board, find a group where it aligns with your palate. Not everybody comes across our palates. You know our palates. You got to like what you're picking. You know what I mean.
Speaker 4:When we picked that honey barrel we all didn't agree on the barrels, but you know well, we picked and eliminated and then we did by group, you know elimination and initially, um, it was the.
Speaker 2:we had nine people on the pick and there initially it was five to four, the other barrel when we voted. But then we blind tasted it again those two. It totally changed and it changed, but the final was six to two the honey barrel. So initially I liked the honey barrel.
Speaker 4:On a blind tasting.
Speaker 2:We blinded it after those two won out of the other four. You know what I mean. We eliminated two and we kept and then, once we were able to do this, um, but in that six, two um, I believe bernie lubbers was on the pick and he was one for the other one. On both times he liked it because he likes elijah craig and it was on profile. But we as a group went, went to the honey barrel, which I don't know how much was in the other barrel but it couldn't have been less than what was in this barrel.
Speaker 2:So you know, once again, single barrels are a crapshoot. It's like you don't know exactly what you're going to get. Um, now and when you're buying distillery single barrels, you're hoping the distillery is picking good, not crappy ones, and they're not just like picking from a spreadsheet. They're just basically picking the good ones that they're doing, and then they're blending the other ones. But they find a good one, they send it for single barrel.
Speaker 4:That's what you're hoping, usually at a distillery when they're doing the single barrel distillery picks. You know they have a team and that team is comprised of what upwards of like 10 to 15 tasters well, I, I think yeah, but even like Brent.
Speaker 2:They're always shooting for consistency, and so you know it's a whole different story as compared to six to eight people you know, consistent, yeah, going out and picking on these, pick teams for festivals and whatnot. So now you know what you should expect from the everyday single barrels on the shelf from the distillery, what you should expect from the distilleries gift shop, what you should expect from the either restaurants or bars, or you know agencies, liquor stores, stores, when they're doing their own picks. Grocery stores even do them. I mean, in wisconsin there's a grocery store I'll do some picks for you know. So they're sending teams down. This barrel picks are a blast and if you have the ability to or sell them either at your restaurant, at your bar, it's a great way to reward your workers. You know your bartenders take them down, take them on a trip, pick a barrel and then you got that to sell at your bar. There's so many different ways that the single barrels work, but overall, great way to reward your customers right.
Speaker 2:So if you're picking you, know so if you're picking, you know so if you're on task on your picking, just make sure you find the right as a, as a connoisseur, the right place where you're getting those single barrels. And once you do, you know, stick to it, because they're going to be doing some great single barrels. And, speaking of awesome single barrels, at the moment, we're going to have that William Dalton and Lillian Vernon, which is going to be a brand introduction single barrel. Although the brand is being introduced on another. Nobody has the French oak stave, because Alan was able to drop that stave in for three months for me and that really made this Lillian Vernon barrel, in my opinion, spectacular.
Speaker 2:This is a very light fruity. There's some pear, there's some, you know. It's just very, very complicated and elegant. I really believe this bottle, we're going to have enough of it and people are going to want multiple bottles. So, you know, contact me on Facebook or you know, or Super Nash or Facebook, right, and if you want to get in on that, we could show you how to do it, how to get part of our barrel picking process, for not going on the barrel picks but for being available for all that we do. We do two, three a year, and so hopefully this, this. Now, what happens is they get delayed so long.
Speaker 4:You have an opportunity right, or somebody you know in the group, to to be a part of the of a barrel pick well don't leave that out
Speaker 2:well, there is the crystal glen karen club that I've ordered some more crystal glen karens and then the maximum 500 membership to be a part of the club and help out the scotchy bourbon boys is that you are um invited to a barrel pick along with. You get the barrel picks that we've done on the different levels. I'll be explaining it. And then you, you know you get the pick when you go. It's when we get it, you get. You get a bottle of that and you can buy as you get first chance at any of our picks. So that what if we're going to be selling out, which we do?
Speaker 2:Um, every pick right now has sold out and I don't think this is going to be any different once we get this pick in for the spirit of french leg, yeah, so so, uh, uh, I mean thanks everybody tonight for watching. I mean single barrels. I hope we've covered exactly what it is, what you want to do, how you want to navigate the different single barrels. There's so many out there People don't understand what a single barrel is Different types of single barrels, yep.
Speaker 4:I hope we covered it all. And thanks to everybody. Youtube, facebook and all the different platforms that you you listen to us on.
Speaker 2:All right, man, uh, wwwscotchie bourbon boys, for all things scotchy bourbon boys. And then also make sure that you check us out on all the podcast formats Apple, spotify, I heart. Check us out on all the podcast formats apple, spotify, iheart, and then also pandora deezer. Yeah, there you go. And then also check us out on youtube, instagram, facebook and x. Uh, I've been pushing a little bit more on x, so check us out there, now that elon mus kind of got it down, so that if you do something wrong you just don't get spanked every single time. So I've checked that out a little bit. And then also remember good bourbon, good friends and good times equal Good friends and good times.
Speaker 3:What? All right, let's try that again All right.
Speaker 2:Remember good bourbon equals good friends and good times. Make sure that you don't drink and drive, drink responsibly and go out there and live your life adventurously. All right, little Steve-O is going to take us out.
Speaker 4:Cheers everybody. A little Maker's Mark Private Selection, Sing-A-Long Another brown sugar.
Speaker 3:Whiskey bar. Oh don't ask why. 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, I tell you we must die.
