The Bourbon Thread

There is ONE way you should be making an Old Fashioned. Take some maraschino cherries and some oranges...and throw that bullshit in the trash. No. Muddling.

Get yourself a mixing glass. Throw in a bar spoon of white sugar. A bar spoon of brown sugar. A splash of water. Mix that up a bit to get the sugar to dissolve a bit. Add three dashes Angostura bitter, one dash of orange bitters and 2oz of a high quality bourbon OR rye. Mix without ice. Add ice to the mixing glass and stir for 20 seconds to get a nice dilution going. Strain over a fresh, large cube in a tumbler. Cut a small slice of orange peel and pinch it over the glass to release the oils. Drop the peel in the glass.

Drink it up and realize that you're been drinking wrong your entire life!

You are legend for this. Just made it with Elijah Craig Small Batch. So very good!
 
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I finally bought myself a bottle of Nikka Coffey Grain Whisky after trying it a few months ago and I've never been happier with a purchase. It's just so smooth.
 
I have a problem. Grabbed E.H. Taylor today. Next on the list are 4 Roses Single Barrel, Eagle Rare, and Elijah Craig Barrel Proof.

Y'all are terrible influences.

IMG_20190103_172219.jpg
 
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Elijah Craig is very good. Seems to fly under the radar. I actually like Four Roses Small Batch better than their Single Barrel. And it’s about $15 cheaper.
 
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While I am loathe to participate in a thread glorifying the hipsterfication and corresponding price gouging of a spirit I've long enjoyed, I'll add a good one: Larceny.

Yes. I love this. And I think I paid $26.99 fwiw.

Also, I happened to find it via this list which I stumbled on:
https://coolmaterial.com/food-drink...st-15-bourbons-you-need-to-try-at-least-once/

I have no idea if it's a good list in the sense of whether it could be better and omits options that should be there, but it definitely brought something worthwhile to my attention.
 
I’ve been thinking of USOC participation based on this roster. Villa never got a green card, so it always made it harder to field a team with a max of 5 INT players. Right now here’s our domestics and green card players.

Domestics:
F/W: Lewis.
MF: Keaton, Ring (GC), Sands, Haak?, Bedoya, Rocha
FB: Sweat, mata (GC), Scally
CB: Chanot (GC), Callens (GC), Ibeagha
K: Johnson, Stuver, Caldwell

INT players (max 5):
F/W: Berget?, Isi, castellanos, Medina
MF: Maxi
FB: Tin
CB: Hontoundji
K: N/A

Pretty weak at RB and F/W when it comes to domestics. But if you add Tin, Isi, Tati, Medina And Maxi, you can have all our staters our there.
 
Yes. I love this. And I think I paid $26.99 fwiw.

Also, I happened to find it via this list which I stumbled on:
https://coolmaterial.com/food-drink...st-15-bourbons-you-need-to-try-at-least-once/

I have no idea if it's a good list in the sense of whether it could be better and omits options that should be there, but it definitely brought something worthwhile to my attention.
The list is pretty good, but I laugh every time High West gets praise because they haven’t rolled out their own whiskey yet, all of theirs is too young and still in the barrel, and instead they repackage liquid bought from MGP in Indiana. They’re the ultimate in marketing and tacking on an upcharge for a catchy label.

The Hudson Baby Bourbon is quite nice, although pricey for the bottle size, and their tasting room is a fun visit when in the New Paltz region. Highly rec this and their other products.

King’s County makes some good stuff too and also rec their tasting room in the Guardhouse on the edge of the Bkln Navy Yard. That’s definitely worth a visit for any self-respecting NY’er with an affinity for whiskey.

Bulleit is the Ulrich House brand for a number of reasons. Not a fan of the Bulleit Rye, but all versions of Bourbon are exemplary.

A few that don’t make the list but I’d add deserve to are:
IW Harper 15year - this is damn nice
Eagle Rare - for those of us that don’t lay out for Pappys but want a distant cousin.
 
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I’ve been thinking of USOC participation based on this roster. Villa never got a green card, so it always made it harder to field a team with a max of 5 INT players. Right now here’s our domestics and green card players.

Domestics:
F/W: Lewis.
MF: Keaton, Ring (GC), Sands, Haak?, Bedoya, Rocha
FB: Sweat, mata (GC), Scally
CB: Chanot (GC), Callens (GC), Ibeagha
K: Johnson, Stuver, Caldwell

INT players (max 5):
F/W: Berget?, Isi, castellanos, Medina
MF: Maxi
FB: Tin
CB: Hontoundji
K: N/A

Pretty weak at RB and F/W when it comes to domestics. But if you add Tin, Isi, Tati, Medina And Maxi, you can have all our staters our there.
We're you at least thinking about this while drinking bourbon?
 
The list is pretty good, but I laugh every time High West gets praise because they haven’t rolled out their own whiskey yet, all of theirs is too young and still in the barrel, and instead they repackage liquid bought from MGP in Indiana. They’re the ultimate in marketing and tacking on an upcharge for a catchy label.

Interesting because they don't hide it. Well, they don't call attention to it either, but they straightforwardly reference MGP as a source.
https://www.highwest.com/products/american-prairie-bourbon.php

MGP is on almost all their product pages. They basically admit to being blenders, while simultaneously calling more attention to their own distillery. I admit to being a fan of their Campfire bourbon/scotch blend. I don't care they didn't make it -- not even the bourbon part -- from scratch. It's a good blend and I'm not aware of a more "authentic" source.
 
The list is pretty good, but I laugh every time High West gets praise because they haven’t rolled out their own whiskey yet, all of theirs is too young and still in the barrel, and instead they repackage liquid bought from MGP in Indiana. They’re the ultimate in marketing and tacking on an upcharge for a catchy label.

. . .

Bulleit is the Ulrich House brand for a number of reasons. Not a fan of the Bulleit Rye, but all versions of Bourbon are exemplary.

It isn’t just small start-ups using MGP rye. Though Bulleit is owned by drinks behemoth Diageo, the highly touted brand maintains a craft whiskey vibe, especially Bulleit Rye. The brand’s website says that “High rye content has always been the signature of Tom Bulleit’s distinctive bourbon. It was only a matter of time before he created a rye whiskey.” But “creating” isn’t the same thing as “distilling,” and, as Bulleit Rye properly discloses on its back label, the whiskey in the bottle comes from Lawrenceburg, Indiana.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/your-craft-whiskey-is-probably-from-a-factory-distillery-in-indiana

(TBF, it’s only the rye; the bourbon is produced in Lawrenceburg KY.)
 
Interesting because they don't hide it. Well, they don't call attention to it either, but they straightforwardly reference MGP as a source.
https://www.highwest.com/products/american-prairie-bourbon.php

MGP is on almost all their product pages. They basically admit to being blenders, while simultaneously calling more attention to their own distillery. I admit to being a fan of their Campfire bourbon/scotch blend. I don't care they didn't make it -- not even the bourbon part -- from scratch. It's a good blend and I'm not aware of a more "authentic" source.
They don’t hide it now because they used to and were called out on it in multiple media writeups resulting in a bunch of bad press. Better to own up to the practice than to hide it.

The product they bottle isn’t bad product, it’s just not proprietary, and there’s a good chance the same product can be found in any number of other bottlers with fancy labels butyoud have to do a lot of sampling to figure out a match(es) - MGP actually sells to dozens of new “labels” that haven’t been around long enough to be selling aged whiskey even though they market/distribute. Whistle Pig is another bottler that has a 12y product out for a while but they started in 2007 and it just turned 2019 so it’s been a decade of fancy marketing on their part.

And this isn’t me trying to discourage you liking their product, just calling attention to the practice of the “craft” bottling companies whose proprietary products, when aged long enough to finally distribute, aren’t going to taste like their originals since they’re from different distilleries.
 
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They don’t hide it now because they used to and were called out on it in multiple media writeups resulting in a bunch of bad press. Better to own up to the practice than to hide it.

The product they bottle isn’t bad product, it’s just not proprietary, and there’s a good chance the same product can be found in any number of other bottlers with fancy labels butyoud have to do a lot of sampling to figure out a match(es) - MGP actually sells to dozens of new “labels” that haven’t been around long enough to be selling aged whiskey even though they market/distribute. Whistle Pig is another bottler that has a 12y product out for a while but they started in 2007 and it just turned 2019 so it’s been a decade of fancy marketing on their part.

And this isn’t me trying to discourage you liking their product, just calling attention to the practice of the “craft” bottling companies whose proprietary products, when aged long enough to finally distribute, aren’t going to taste like their originals since they’re from different distilleries.
No worries. The only product of their's I ever tried is the Campfire, and because of that, and because of how I came to try it, the sourcing never bothered me. But I'm also not particularly loyal to them either.
In short, I was in a bar in Wyoming where the Campfire was featured on the menu. Because I knew a distillery in Utah can't make Scotch, I knew at least half the product wasn't made by them. When I found out none of it was, I just thought "good on them for coming up with the mix."
 
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