137. Thirteenth Colony Southern Bourbon Whiskey

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. I'm Mike Hyatt. And this is the Bourbon Road. And today, Mike, we're down here checking out where the bar is going to go in the basement. Yeah, walk down here.

You guys have a full dining room table down here that everybody sets out when you have big gatherings and stuff. I came down here and I'm like, what is going on? You got everything moved into your living room, kind of down here in your basement. And so you're going to put a bar in, finally.

Put a bar in. I've been giving you a hard time about it. Yeah, with Ramo's basement.

I think you called it. Yeah. I mean, you've got some Coca-Cola stuff and lots of horse stuff, but, and you got a little bitty bar cart that is just, crammed. I don't think that poor little thing could handle anymore.

No, it's got, it's on wheels, but if you try to roll it, the wheels will fold under. Yeah. I could imagine there's a lot of whiskey on that bar park car.

I'd say you probably got 50 bottles on each shelf.

Yeah. So with a bar, we can certainly up the number of bottles on display and, uh, Hey, we shoot some video there from time to time.

Yeah.

And when roadies come to visit, Got another place in addition to another place.

Well, heck, I had a roadie come over yesterday to the house and stopped by, pick up some of his wilderness trail picks. And good thing is he reached out to me when you reach out to me and asked to come see me. He ended up leaving with four, four ounce pours all from special bottles. The last of the fray ranch single barrel. Oh, that was the very last. There was a little bit left in there and I poured it into my, uh, infinity bottle. So, and then he left with some, uh, garrison brothers Valmore, which is a special bottle. You know, I love that stuff. He left with some leapers, fork, bottled and bond, which I kind of liked. Um, And then I gave him a little bit of that Davidson Reserve, we did bourbon too.

We're trying to tell you guys it's good to be a roadie. It is good to be a roadie.

It's good to see that he appreciates those craft distilleries. I mean, I'm sitting there and talking about that. And then I see these roadies going into distilleries that me and you did reviews on. And that excites me because I know I'm getting people or we're getting people into those distilleries and they're liking that stuff. So hey, cheers roadies on listening to us. Absolutely.

Well, today is another Craft Distillery Monday. Yeah. And we've got another bottle. This is from a distillery that we had on about 10 episodes ago. It's been a while. Episode 119, I think. 119.

Yeah. They got a beautiful bourbon bottle. It's kind of that birthday bourbon, Old Forrester birthday bourbon bottle shape. Squatty little bottle, little three or four inch neck on it. I like the bottle, simple label on it, just wraps around it. Can you go wrong with it? I don't know, but they had sent us this bottle along with a rye before we reviewed the rye. So I had this kind of tucked away hidden so I wouldn't pop it open.

So it's a 13th colony. Yeah. Out of Americas, Georgia? Americas, Georgia. What a great name, right, for a town? No, they don't call this a Georgia bourbon. They call this a Southern bourbon whiskey. Southern bourbon whiskey.

So it's at least four years old. We know that. up to four years. So I guess that some younger bourbon maybe be in there and stuff. So this is 70% corn, 25% rye, and 5% malted barley. 95 proof. They're aged in 53 gallon barrels. And try to guess the price on this thing.

I guess. I'm trying to think back to what they priced their rye at. And I just don't remember right off the top of my head. $45?

Even cheaper than that, Jim. $34.99. Wow. Pretty cool. That's a great price, right? Yeah. So these guys were founded in 2009. They started out with making moonshine just for their families at Christmas time. They got into that and they said, well, hey, let's make some whiskey. Let's make some bourbon for everybody. So I say, let's go ahead and nose this thing. Absolutely.

I'm getting a little bit of cherry on the nose, but that rice spice is sitting back there. It's kind of tickling my nostrils just a little bit.

Yeah. I kind of figured you'd like this as being a high rye. I get cherry juice on that. Some of that brown sugar.

The color on this is nice and dark for the age of it. Yeah, it's sweet, but it's got a nice balancing oak note to it on the nose anyway.

So you think Georgia, I think heat, you know, the maturation on those barrels got to be a lot more than here in Kentucky. So I kind of dig that.

Yeah. Yeah. I think that they're kind of playing the Texas game a little bit, right?

Yeah. I think anywhere you get down past like mid middle Tennessee, you're going to get that Texas. Yeah.

The Southern maturation effect. Yeah. Well, I think, you know, Texas has it in spades, right? Because they got the hot days and the cool nights.

Yeah. It's a different, you know, you got different regions in Texas too. So it's going to be different if you went all the way down there to Garrison Brothers, they're going to have some extreme heat. But if you get it all the way up to Dallas, they definitely have some super cold nights.

In Georgia, they got hot days and hot nights. Hot night of nights, right? Yeah.

I get a little bit of a butterscotch on this nose too, I think.

Yeah, it's got kind of a buttery nose to it.

Kind of creamy.

Yeah. But it's a nice nose. It's not overpowering. At 95 proof, it comes across real nice. I think the cherries, the butter, the rice spice just kind of all work together real well. Presents a nice nose. I'm really looking forward to tasting this.

I think it's gonna surprise us. I'll say cheers, let's do this.

Cheers, let's do it. Yeah, pretty close. Pretty close on the palate to what I got on the nose. Same cherries, same buttery. You said butterscotch? Yeah, I could go that way. It's not exactly butter. It's not like butter popcorn or anything. It's more of a butterscotch, I think.

That creamy candy. I'm just trying to think of a creamy candy, but I can't think of one.

Werther's original. Not the hard ones, the soft ones. Soft ones.

I get that in this. On the back end, it's a little bit bitter, almost like if you've ever gotten a pecan shell while eating pecans. Just a little bit bitterness, but that rice spice is there. That Kentucky hug or Georgia hug is already kicking in.

Yeah, this is not my first bourbon of the day. I had one before the episode. So I'm not going to blame the bitterness on the back end to it being my first bourbon of the day. I think it does have just a tinge of bitterness back there. But what I'm also getting is that rye sort of building on itself a little bit as I sip on it. And I'm getting that rye muffin. So if I put all that together, I would say kind of a rye muffin that's hot and buttered. with a little bit of cherry preserves on it. Very nice. And the pecan shells, of course, to get that kind of the back end is a little panic. Yeah.

Still a fine bourbon. I still get that brown sugar. It's definitely a bourbon. I like that they call it a southern bourbon. That's a pretty high rye content when you think about it, 25%.

25%, absolutely. Yeah, that definitely qualifies as a high rye, I think.

Not too much malt in there where it's overmalted will take it to a different category and stuff. This is just a nice sipping bourbon, I think, at 95 proof. It drinks way hotter than a 95 proof though.

Yeah. I'm trying to think back to their rye. And I mean, we drink a lot of different expressions as we're recording these episodes. And sometimes it's hard to reach back in that memory library and pull back what you remembered from it. I do remember that the rye was on the verge of fantastic, I thought. I thought it was really good. But I don't remember if it had this same kind of a bitter finish tail on it. I think it was a little bit sweeter maybe than this one.

This thing on the glass, I'm looking at the legs on the glass and this thing is super viscous. Lots of legs on it. I just like it. This is a good sipping bourbon. Absolutely.

Well, I'm glad that we've made an opportunity to get their bourbon on the show as well as their rice. Sometimes we can't get them on together. Maybe we have to wait a little bit to pull the other one on. Love the bottle, love the way it looks, great label. You know, great story behind how they formed the company. You know, they just wanted to make some whiskey for some friends, right?

Yeah. I mean, some friends get together and say, hey, let's do this. And then next thing you know, you got a distillery. I mean, that's an American dream. Me and you talk about that all the time. Absolutely. Having a distillery, having a dream of having our own whiskey and stuff. And if you're not dreaming or trying to advance yourself, you know, I think that's something that everyone should do. This bourbon has a medium to long finish, I would say. That bitterness takes it out of that long finish for me. It sticks with the palate though. It's sticking there. It's oily on the mouth and stuff. I like it. This would be at $34.99. Come on, let's get real.

That's a good price. I mean, there's not a huge number of... fine expressions coming out of the South, only because they're just starting to pick up steam down there. Certainly as you get over a little bit more into the Alabama, Mississippi, Texas coastline, there's some more distilleries popping up, quite a few more actually. And it's moving down. I think we found a Florida distillery not too long ago. We haven't had them on the show yet, but there's one down there that we want to get a chance to take a look at. But yeah, where is Americas, Georgia? Is that South?

Americas is, if you went halfway between Columbus, Georgia and Macon, Georgia, and then just kind of drew a line between the two, it's about an hour south of those. So maybe two, two and a half hours south of Atlanta. Yeah.

So Southern Georgia.

That is Southern Georgia. Almost Florida, not quite. Yeah. I don't think they want to be called Florida and Georgia. Well, Jim, I'd say another great craft distillery. You know, we got a lot of truck drivers, long haul truckers, delivery drivers, you name it, guys out there that are on the road making America run. And I think we should give them a shout out on the show. Those guys that listen to our show all the time, they're in the roadies, they're hauling bourbon for us, hauling whiskey, they're hauling people's stuff that people need in America to survive through this whole COVID thing. So hauling my bar here tomorrow, hauling your bar here tomorrow, your delivery driver. So all the truckers out there, that are hauling our stuff. Me and Jim say cheers to you. Thank you very much. Keep listening to us. Maybe get on that CB. Are there CBs? I think they still do. Make sure you get on that CB and tell your fellow truckers about the Bourbon Road podcast. We're just two dudes that sit in Jim's basement drinking bourbon, talking about it. If you're going through a state, you got a little bit of time on your hands before you pick up your next load, stop by one of these distilleries, pick up some of their whiskey and stuff, they'd appreciate it. Heck, you might be able to even reach out to us and bring us some. There you go.

When you're coming through town, we'd love to see you. Yeah. No doubt about it. All right. Well, Mike, I'm extremely pleased yet again with what's come in the bottle from 13th Colony. I think that if you are in Georgia, if Georgia is your home state and you're listening to this right now, You guys got something to be proud of. That distillery's doing it right.

Yeah, I would say Georgia should be proud of their distillery there. I love their bottle. That bottle can't be cheap to produce. It's not a regular bottle you'd see and stuff. I'd almost think that's almost like a little brandy bottle or something, you know?

Yeah, a cognac bottle or something. Cognac bottle, yeah. And when you have a short, squatty, wide bottle like that, you take up more shelf space. So both bars and liquor stores have to think about that when they're putting your bottle up there.

Yeah, I guess you are probably taking a risk, but do you stand out on that shelf? You absolutely do. Yeah. So listeners out there, Man, this is a buy from both of us. Pick it up. This would be a great gift at that price, too. There's no doubt about that. Pick up this bottle if you can get it. Go online. Try to find it. It is worth the buy. Beautiful little bottle. Beautiful bourbon inside. I'd call it an everyday sipper at that price. And we're going to have to get down there. We need to go visit this store. see what they're all about. Well, you can find us on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook at The Bourbon Road. We have a Facebook page. We also have a private Facebook group called The Bourbon Roadies.

Yeah, The Bourbon Roadies. We're about 1500 strong now. Good. Good whiskey people, right? Guys and gals both love to drink whiskey, talk about whiskey, share whiskey, take pictures of it, just have a good old time. It's not just whiskey they're taking pictures of either. They're taking pictures of their dinners and their outings and the dog in the backyard and all kinds of stuff, but anyway. What a great group of people.

Yeah. If you want to go in and join our group, three questions you got to answer. Are you 21? Do you like bourbon? Do you agree to play nice? Because we don't tolerate any rudeness. But a great place to ask fellow whiskey drinkers, hey, where's the best bar at? Where's the great liquor store at? Have you tried this? Nobody in there is going to down what you drink. If you drink just Jim Beam straight, that's what you drink. If you drink it with Coke, I don't care. If you pour milk in it,

If you're heading to Little Rock, Arkansas, chances are there's a roadie in Little Rock, Arkansas. You can say, hey, I'm going to be in Little Rock this week. Where's a good place to go and get some bourbon or hunt some bourbon? Where's a good bar to sit down and have a few drinks? Probably go get an answer.

Yeah. There's some great people in there and stuff We do two shows a week a show like we're doing right now of a review of a craft distillery or sometimes a big boy Second show of the week. We usually have a guest on it's an hour long a little bit longer, right? Go in there.

Enjoy those if you do enjoy them though Yeah, scroll up to the top hit that subscribe button because we want to make sure that you get a notification every single time we put out a new show and Then when you're done doing that, I know you like it. So scroll down to the bottom and Hit that review button. Just take a minute. Leave us a one sentence. It's good. Five stars are appreciated, but as Mike says, we'll take a one star as long as you'll take time to tell us why.

Heck yeah. There's nothing wrong with that. You know, not everybody can agree with us. Not everybody's going to like how we do things. We got some strange tasting notes sometimes. Sometimes we get candy in it. Sometimes we get cereal. Heck even sometimes we get cedar shaving. Go on there and help us out. It opens the doors for us. People send us more whiskey. If you're a company out there and you want us to review your whiskey, get in contact with me. I'm one big chief.

On Instagram and I'm jshannon63. 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.