135. Chattanooga Whiskey Cask 111 - Tennessee High Malt

Welcome to another trip down the Bourbon Road with your hosts, Jim and Mike. So grab a glass of your favorite bourbon and kick back.

We would like to thank our friends at Premium Bar Products for sponsoring this episode. If you're ready to step up your game at your home bar, check out premiumbarproducts.com to choose from their wide selection of glassware, all of which can be custom engraved with your personal message or logo. And there's no minimum order. So after the episode, head over to premiumbarproducts.com and check out everything they have to offer. Now let's get on with the show. Hello, everybody. I'm Jim Shannon. And I'm Mike Hyatt. And this is the Bourbon Road. And today, Mike, we have relaxed from a couple of road trips lately.

Yeah, we did a couple of interviews. We went into Louisville and did an interview. We've been down to Nashville, did a couple of interviews, took our wives out to dinner to the amazing Bourbon's Bistro. They're about three miles from downtown Louisville.

Yeah, so it was a great interview, had a great time there, good food, the steak was cooked just right. You know how I like it, right? I know it. You slap it on the behind, don't get on your plate, right?

You gotta stab it to keep it on the plate.

But today we are drinking a Tennessee bourbon.

Yeah, Tennessee straight bourbon whiskey, right? Yeah. We've had their juice before. It's this Chattanooga whiskey. It's their 111 proof.

Now we've had their rye. We have had their rye. But we haven't had this one on the show before.

We haven't had it before. We picked this out of your bar today. We sat over there and perused your bottles and stuff and looked one that we thought we both kind of enjoy. This is definitely one of those that we enjoy. So this one has a unique mash bill. You know, Chattanooga is always trying to do something different. And they're big into their malted barley.

Tennessee high malt, right? They do that high malt.

Yeah. This definitely has a high malt to it. So this is yellow corn, malted rye, caramel malted barley, and honey malted barley.

So we've got three malted grains and one in corn. What's the percentage of corn? I think 75, right? Yeah.

They don't give it on a bottle here, but I think you're right. 75%.

So 25% of this whiskey is made with a malted grain, either rye or malted barley.

Yes, sir.

All right.

They finish it off in a 53 gallon toasted and charred oak barrels. So this is a six to 10 barrels. That's what they do their batches in and stuff. I'm kind of excited.

Nice dark color to it. I like the bottle. Bottles kind of a little bit of a squatty bottle, right?

Yeah, but it has that longer neck on it. Like I said, it's two and a half inch neck on it, which is good to pour. You know, for me, I got gigantic hands, and even for me, it's...

It does fit your hands.

It fits my hands, but it's still difficult to hold.

So it's a little bit dark. I mean, I would say that this has a darkness of what you might expect to see in a 68-year-old bourbon, but I'm pretty sure this is not 68 years old. This looks like my sweet tea right here. Yeah, that's that's what I like. You like to leave it in the sun a little while, right? Yeah.

You get that old Lipton tea bags and put them out there and one gallon pickle jar and let her go.

I tell you what, I've been a mistake one time. We were having a blind bottle share where we had to bring cast drink whiskeys and I was walking down the aisle at Total Wine. I had to pick out a cast drink whiskey to bring it there. I looked at this one. I said, there it is. That's the one I'm going to take. What does it say right on front of the bottle? It says cask. But it is not a cask strength bourbon.

But it says cask.

I know it, and that's the mistake I made. Got it home, ready to bring it, realized I had made a mistake. I did not buy a true cask strength bourbon. So I ended up bringing EH Taylor barrel proof instead.

So I see what you're saying. Even though this is blended together, this ain't out on a one single barrel cask strength.

So this is 111. on the money, 111.0. I see what you're saying. I think this is, it's a blend of barrels at probably near cast strength, but they've got it at 111. So usually a cast strength barrel is going to come in at one something, point something. But never on the money. Never on the money. So I wasn't a hundred percent sure this met the criteria and I didn't want to get voted out at the end of the day because I didn't bring a cast.

Oh, you lost anyways, Jim. You lost anyways.

What horse soldier took the night?

Horse soldier, a weeded bourbon, you know, castrate. And you're right, it did. I think that was like one thirty two point like seven or something that we drank that night. But still, this stuff is some dark juice. It's got a unique mash bill to it. I like that high malted flavoring to it. Got a beautiful nose on it.

Yeah. Let's check it out. Yeah, it's floral, tinge of medicinal to it, but not too much.

I can smell that malt going on in there, you know, almost like a malted cereal.

Yeah, kind of a burnt sugar, a little bit of burnt sugar on the nose. Maybe a tinge of toffee, raisins or plums or some dark fruit. Kind of a dry, dark fruit, not real rich and sweet. Like maybe a fig, dried figs? It could be. I'm ready to taste it though. Let's do it. Cheers. Cheers.

Wow.

Yeah. That definitely wakes you up. And we haven't just started drinking. We've actually had an episode before this.

Yeah. We had four different rye whiskies tonight. So then we had a couple of old fashions and then somebody else recognized us there and they went ahead and bought us another whiskey, one of their whiskeys. So we had a couple of drinks tonight. It's been several hours. We've been going since about three o'clock today.

So we're not, this is not our first bourbon of the day. We have warmed up on others and this definitely has that pal factor to it. Definitely has that robustness.

Now from the time it hit my lip to it rolled back, I got that spice, sweet spice though. Nice, beautiful sweetness to it. I'm getting those raisin notes on it.

Yeah. This for me, this is sun-made raisins, right? Is that right? Sun-made, the red box with the girl in the center. Sun-made raisins. Definitely got a little bit of coffee going on, a little bit of tinge of chocolate, not too much. Maybe a Heath bar. Yeah, light though, light. Not the first note, kind of the third note.

What's that chocolate bar that is, it's like a Heath bar, but it's hard in the middle. Is that a Heath bar? I think Heath bar is hard in the middle. Yeah. Yeah. I'm thinking of that right there. You're right. It's not so much, but in that middle of their palate, I'm getting that little bit of chocolate, that little bit of caramel, hardened caramel. I don't even know what that hardened toffee.

Yeah. Toffee is usually crunches when you bite down on it, it shatters a little bit. They're a little bit harder of a bark sugar or whatever makes toffee, I'm not sure. But anyway, these are the kind of notes we like to see in a bourbon. This is the kind of stuff that we're getting pretty excited about when we taste it.

Most definitely. I mean, how can you not like something like this at 111 proof, right? This is an all-day sipper, very complex. It's got all those different characters from it. It's got the spice. I feel a little bit of a hug going on, even though we've had a couple of bourbons tonight or a couple of whiskies.

So these are aged in 53 gallon charred and toasted barrels.

A little over two years is what it says. It says it's longer than two years. But good Lord, look how dark that is.

And I'm not picking up the youthful notes for a younger bourbon. I think their maturing process has gotten rid of that youthful nature of this bourbon. I'm picking up more oaky notes, more earthy notes, more... leather notes.

Now, have you ever been down there in that Tennessee River Valley to Chattanooga? You ever visited Chattanooga? I've been to Chattanooga.

I haven't really spent any time there. You ever been down there in summertime? Passing through.

You'll sweat your ass off down there. It's hot. So I could imagine this in a rick house down there. The maturation process is probably just a little bit faster than it would be here in Kentucky. If you haven't been down to Chattanooga, it's in that very southern corner, very beautiful part of the state. You got the Tennessee River that runs through Chattanooga. You got a beautiful thing south of the Chattanooga there called the Gorge. It's kind of like a grand canyon of the It's a very beautiful area. If you haven't been there, check Chattanooga out. They got a lot going on. Now we haven't been to Chattanooga whiskey yet. We want to go down there because our buddy Adam lives down in Chattanooga with his, what do you call those? The Brady Bunch down there.

Sarah and Adam, they have, I think they've got six kids. What a great guy. What a great guy. So this whiskey does say cask on the front. We understand that this is a mixture of somewhere between 6 and 10 barrels of whiskey. Is that right, Mike?

Yeah, six and 10 barrels, more than two years, it's got that, they're toasted and charred. I'm not positive what all that means and stuff, but I'd say cheers to these guys. I'd say a lingering long finish on this. Yes. I don't see how you can go wrong with this. Now this, they even gave you a fermentation on this for seven days. is how long they let it ferment for. I like that. They put a lot of notes on here for you. This is non-chill filtered. It even tells you you might see some sediment in the bottom of your bottle. I don't see any in this one. I was checking out before we started to see if there was. There might be a little bit in there.

Now, what's the price on this? $45. $45. A dark, well-colored Tennessee bourbon whiskey, 111 proof. Did you say Tennessee bourbon whiskey? Tennessee bourbon whiskey.

That's a real thing, right?

It is. Do people know that? You can get bourbon outside of Kentucky. You know what? We keep having to drive it home. But the fact of the matter is, folks, if it's the United States of America, and you make it with 51% corn and put it in a New York barrel, it's going to be bourbon.

Well, I don't know how you could call it America's native spirit. If you could just make it in Kentucky, then it'd just be called Kentucky's native spirit. But the fact is it's America's native spirit.

Well, we have learned over the months and months, and now we can say years now, right? The years of doing this podcast that there are some great bourbons being made outside the state of Kentucky.

Oh, certainly. You can't go wrong with this. $45 for a near cast strength, 111 proofer. I think it's a steal from that. I think other distilleries out there would be going in that $100 price range for something like this. I would grab it all day long. And widely available. Widely available out there. They've got a great marketing department. If you see it in the store, I would definitely say pick this up. fits your flavor profile. It's a little bold. It's definitely bold.

Yeah, it's a little bold. So if you like the softer, sweeter bourbons, if you like the things that don't kind of attack your palate, you know, maybe this is the one for you. But if you like something that's got a little bit of spice, a little bit of pow to it when you take a sip, sits on your back end, just begs for you to take that next sip. Got that lingering finish.

This is perfect for tonight. It's raining outside. It's kind of sleeting a little earlier. Very cold here in Kentucky. This is perfect for that wet, chilly evening. Takes that chill off a little bit. Kind of like a cowboy probably would do after he rode his line or something.

Yeah, I've been going back to it, hoping that little hint of a medicinal note might go away, but it hasn't. I will say this much, it's just a light note, it's just a little bit there, but it is there. If that's something that turns you off, could be that this, again, isn't the bourbon for you. But for me, it's a light enough note that I'll give it a pass.

Well, Jim, I would tell you, if you were out there looking and you're trying to find a bourbon to compare it against, or if you're shopping for a Stag Junior and you can't find it, which is a very hard bourbon to find, right? If you're looking for that Stag Junior, I would suggest you reach for this. It's got those same complexities. mash bill altogether, but still all that complexities going on, the darkness of it. I think that drinker that would drink Stag Junior that maybe not find it, you go ahead and pick this up and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Yeah. I think this one might have a little bit more of the kind of the mineral notes to it. Do you get that?

Not so much. I just get that dark nutmeg. baking chocolate, not a sweet chocolate, but you know what I'm talking about, a baking chocolate. It's got that just a little bit drier. And then that burnt sugars could start coming in, that toffee, just all kinds of candy notes in this. And then that raisin in there, that dark fruit we would talk about, maybe a dark cherry that's been dried or something. I love that kind of

Yeah. Raisins all day long for me on this. Yeah.

How can we go wrong, Jim? I'd say, hey, great choices to buy all day long, especially for that price. I mean, how can you beat that?

And it's everywhere. It's available. It's $45. You don't have to hunt it down. It's going to be there on the shelf when you want it, right?

Yeah, this is something that Jim, you bought yourself. You said you had bought it to bring over my house for that bottle challenge. You might have should have brought this one.

Yeah, it might have been all right. I like this one. Yeah. All right. Well, Mike, where can people find us on social media?

You can find us at Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Facebook, all of them. We're on TikTok. We've got our videos on there yet, but maybe I'll get some gumption up and film some stuff. I don't know. I have to be feeling funny. I've been feeling a little bit under the weather lately, but it's just cause I work night shift and it's hard to get a lot of stuff done. but you can find us on all the social medias. We have a website called TheBurbanRoad.com. You need to go there and check it out. We have our swag on there. Swag. Not wag-oo, but swag. You can find our t-shirts on there, our glasses that we're drinking out of tonight. Our hats. Our hats. Find all that stuff on there. If you're a bourbon roadie, that's our private Facebook group. Jim went ahead and gave you a discount on there, 10%.

It's pinned at the top of the group, right? So you can see the discount code. It's right up there at the very top.

You'll see the discount code. All you do is pop that discount code in there. It gets 10% off any of our gear. Now you're probably thinking, why do those two old jokers need money? Well, This was our first trip down Nashville in the bourbon road paid for it. That's right. Paid for our gas, paid for our rooms to go down there and do a couple of episodes. Cause you know, obviously gas isn't free and rooms aren't free and stuff. So it paid for that stuff. Me and Jim paid for our dinners. So if you want to look at that, but if you want to look good in the shirt, how can you go wrong? Right?

That's right.

That's right. Buy one of those shirts. If you like drinking whiskey out of some whiskey glasses, buy one of those glasses. Also on our website, you can find our blogs, our articles, our reviews. Adam's helping us put those reviews up there. So hit that website up. But if you also want to check out the bourbon roadies, our private Facebook group.

Yeah, absolutely. So the roadies are just, they're kind of our fan base, right? They're family. Family. They love bourbon. They love to talk about bourbon. They love to drink bourbon. They love to take pictures of it and share it with their friends. They like to do reviews and share them out to the group. If that sounds like you, or sounds like something you want to be a part of, you need to join the Bourbon Roadies. Go to our Facebook page, click on groups, go to the Bourbon Roadies, answer three questions, join up. Simple questions, right Mike?

Do you like bourbon? And do you agree to play nice, which means we don't tolerate any rudeness in our group. We just don't do it. If somebody wants to post up a review, they want to post up their first bottle of bourbon ever. If they find something they think's great, maybe a Jim Beam, Devil's Cut or something like that. If that's what they want to drink, that's their bottle, they buy it, your bourbon your way. Let them post it, say, hey, congrats on finding that. But we just don't do any negativity.

Absolutely. So we do two shows a week. We do a short episode like today's where we just review a craft distillery and expression. We talk about it, taste it, give you our recommendations. Today's recommendations are, it's a buy for me.

This to me is a buy and I'll gift this sucker to somebody. If I wanted to impress them and say, hey, I want you to really try this off my bourbon recommendations, I think this is a great gift. 45 bucks ain't that bad.

So we'll do a bourbon review every Monday called our craft distillery review. On Wednesdays, we will do an interview usually where we have a guest on. And we kind of do a deep dive and talk to them.

So this week we're going to have a Pennington Distillery Company down in Nashville, Tennessee. It's going to be with Jeff Pennington and their...

Distiller.

Distiller. He doesn't like to be called Master Distiller. He's going to be on there with them. Carter. You don't want to miss that episode. Absolutely fine gentlemen with Davidson Reserve is their bourbon, their whiskey. You want to check that episode out. If you're down in Nashville for a conference or anything, you got to stop by there. It'll break up the day for you. And they got some other stuff in their distillery besides whiskey.

Absolutely. Well, like I said, we do two shows a week. We'd love you to listen to both of them. If you have an idea for a show, an idea for a guest, we'd love to hear about it. You can find me on Instagram at jshannon63. I'm One Big Chief. And we will see you down the Bourbon Road. you know you can't drink whiskey without glassware and Mike and I are extremely pleased to have a sponsor like premium bar products premium bar products offers direct to consumer the finest whiskey glasses cocktail glasses and bar tools with your own personal engraving I mean, you can write anything you want on these glasses, anything from a company logo to a personal statement. And there are no minimum orders. Their direct consumer platform offers you the opportunity to purchase small quantities of your favorite glass shapes that enhance the pleasure of enjoyment and drinking a whiskey and make it all very positive. They offer the absolute finest trending and handmade glasses, as well as a comprehensive range of styles. And all of their items have been designed with purpose, practicality and longevity in mind. So if you're a bourbon or whiskey group and you need custom logos, you need to reach out to premium bar products. If you're an individual, you just want a few for your bar to impress your friends, to give out as gifts, you need to call Premium Bar Products. They need to be your one and only source for custom glassware. I can tell you right now, the Bourbon Road, that's who we use. Janie and Carson and the team there at Premium Bar Products will take care of you. They'll treat you like family and they'll take care of you with every order.