The Bourbon and Whiskey thread

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by Rtrorkt

question at duty free; Woodford Reserve at $43 or Jack single barrel at $63 or nothing?

I think Woodford is about $35 normal price at my liquor store of choice. That a doesn’t seem like a very good deal.

[Jims5543]

Originally Posted by tabs

Buffalo Trace is $21.99 at my Sams Club.

Yes it appears out west it is abundant. For whatever reason here in Florida, it is tricky to come across.

Not happy about the premium pricing, will get over it.



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[Eric Coffey]

Originally Posted by onewhippedpuppy

I think Woodford is about $35 normal price at my liquor store of choice. That a doesn’t seem like a very good deal.

+1

If it's the Double Oaked version, then it would be an "OK" deal, but for the standard stuff, that is overpriced. BTW, the Double Oaked is great (and not an oak bomb as the name might suggest/imply).

[Eric Coffey]

Originally Posted by CurtEgerer

131 Proof. Ouch

Yeah, it will definitely put hair on your tongue, especially if not proofed down a bit.

[Nickshu]

I've been enjoying Buffalo Trace recently. Surprisingly good stuff.

[billybek]

Looking forward to having a sip of this tonight. Only a 10 year old but comes highly recommended.

Sorry about the sideways photo. Good job the cork is still in...

[CurtEgerer]

No Buffalo Trace? OK, I'm going to make my own

[vash]

I’m no expert.

Can one turn vodka into a bourbon?

[gtc]

Originally Posted by vash

I’m no expert.

Can one turn vodka into a bourbon?

Redneck Jesus can.

[Aerkuld]

I've had a few pleasant whisky adventures lately. The story starts a few months back on my Birthday when I dug in to my collection and opened up a classic bottle from my favorite distillery . . .



This is pretty much a bottle of pure unobtanium these days. Having a friend locally who enjoys the odd dram, I thought I'd invite him over to sample it. He appreciated the gesture and we started to discuss resurrecting a whisky tasting group I had hosted previously.

Anyway, this particular friend works for a well known local tech company. They just happened to have a whisky tasting evening lined up with the area rep for Moet Henessy who own Ardbeg and Glenmorangie. He invited me along as a guest, and very good it was too! In doing so, I met one of his coworkers who expressed an interest when we mentioned the tasting group, so he got an invite.

For our first tasting, we started off easy with a 'bargain bottles' theme and had eight people turn up with some interesting choices, all of which were duly sampled. We had quite a diverse group, some total beginners, one or two longtime enthusiasts, and the rest somewhere in between. We ended the night with a sample of the '77, and a couple of other bottles I retrieved from my collection.

A few weeks later I was invited back to another tasting with my friend's company. This time Benriach, Glendronach, and Glenglassaugh. Once again, I bumped into another coworker who had heard about our other group. It would be rude not to, so I invited him along to our next session.

After the enthusiastic reception the 'bargain bottles' had received, people expressed an interest in trying a wider variety of flavor profiles. For this event I organized a 'Whisky Tour of Scotland'. This was a virtual road trip, starting in the Lowlands, heading up through Speyside, into the Highlands, up to Orkney, then back down to Cambeltown, and finishing off on Islay. This turned out to be a bigger group of friends with several new faces. I can tell you, sampling 14 single malts in a 3 to 4 hour session is a challenge. My tasting notes started to run out of inspiration at about #12.

We already have our plan in place for the next session - a vertical tasting of different single malts, all from the one particular distillery. This is as much an educational experience as it is a social event, depending on what each person wishes to get from it. I've changed the way the bottles are supplied to, so we limit the samples to a manageable number. Tasting in a group setting is so much more fun!

Anyway, after several years where I haven't been paying enough attention to my whisky collection, I'm now getting back up to speed and appreciating it again. I'd be happy to share some of our selections if anyone's interested.

[Black968]

I have a bottle of Buffalo Trace, it is good stuff for the price IMO. Have been leaning toward Irish Whiskey's lately, Redbreast 12 Year is one of my favorites. Has anyone tried Greenspot? Hard to find in our area.

[porsche4life]

Had a taste of a micro distillery whiskey this week on Bainbridge Island in WA. Tasty stuff, sadly the only bottle they had left was the taster, so I’ll have to buy some on my next trip.

[billybek]

This is really nice too!
Not too pricey. Comes in around $60-$70 CAD.
Working on my second bottle since discovering it.

[Jims5543]

Every year when I make another trip around the sun, I like to grab a glass and quietly enjoy this alone. After playing with many different whiskeys all year long, this one just puts me back in my place. I need to get one more bottle and drink this more.

[CurtEgerer]

Another rickhouse collapse! This time it's OZ Tyler. Oh, the humanity ...




This was the Barton 1792 collapse last year:

[peppy]

Originally Posted by CurtEgerer

No Buffalo Trace? OK, I'm going to make my own

My FIL had one of those and it all evaporated in a few months. He was sad...

[CurtEgerer]

I haven't started the barrel yet. I need to be in one place for 4-5 months. I know there were some specific instructions concerning evaporation and other problems. Will need to make sure I follow the directions to the T on this one!

[Gogar]

Does the barrel have to be mostly full? I'd think so.

[CurtEgerer]

Don't recall anything about that. I do know the barrel has to be prepped by filling it with water and letting it sit for a couple of days to swell the staves. They also recommend checking the bourbon weekly and topping off as needed for evaporation. It only takes a few months to age because of the greater barrel contact area compared to a full size barrel.

[Aerkuld]

I've been exchanging whisk(e)y samples with a work colleague and last night had a sample of M.B. Roland Single Barrel Bourbon.
WOW! This was something else, dark, rich, and full of delicious burnt sugar, peanut brittle, dried figs and stewed prunes, with some nice woody oak and maybe even cedar background notes. I got very little of the things I've traditionally associated with bourbon such as the vanilla. I'm guessing this was matured in some fairly heavily toasted oak casks. Don't know much else about it as it was just a small pour in the exchangeable 3oz sample bottle, but guessing it's probably in the 50% to 55% ABV range and no idea on age.
We'll be adding bourbons to our tasting group schedule.

Oh, and the mini casks. Definitely fill it with water and give it a good soaking for a week or so until it doesn't leak anymore. The wood has to swell in order to seal. I've had a mini cask for a while now. The first fill with spirit lasted for a month and a half. I stopped it there as the spirit was becoming very sweet from the fresh oak and was becoming a little over powered. I was working on an acceleration factor of x8 based on volume to surface area, so that's about 1 year equivalent. There's definitely substantial loss of volume on that first fill partly from evaporation, and party from the wood soaking up the spirit I suspect. I've since filled the cask with sherry and seasoned it for a similar time before emptying the sherry and filling with scotch to see how sherry aging comes out. Should be done by Christmas so I'll let you know.