141 Smooth Amber Old Scout 107 American 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 and I'm Mike Hyatt and this is the Bourbon Road and today Mike, it is another Craft Distillery Monday. Hard to believe we've gone this long and we haven't had Smooth Ambler on. Yeah, they're right down the road, right? Yeah, I mean, well, right down the road. I mean, Greenboro, West Virginia, right? I mean, this is a This is a kind of Greenbrier. That's like a destination, isn't it?

Yeah, I've been to the Greenbrier before. The Greenbrier Resort is a place where presidents stay. It's beautiful there. But when I think of West Virginia, I think of John Denver.

John Denver. Yeah. Country road.

You know, that song's not about West Virginia though, right?

Take me home. About Virginia.

West Virginia. I need to stop singing right now. Smooth Ambler is something that we haven't tried before. Are they craft distillery?

Yeah, sure. Why not? Why not? Absolutely.

Well, I think they are. Um, but you see a lot of their picks out and stuff. You see them doing a lot of picks, but you also see the regular stuff on there. They got some not popular stuff out there. Big level is one of their stuff that a lot of people hit on a little bit. I, I personally, I like to drink it cause it's a weeder. I'm a weeder guy. I want to try everything that's wheat.

Yeah. A big level wasn't my jam, but you know, a lot of people, um, like that, like that. It's just not for me, but yeah.

You got a really like weeded bourbon to like big level, but this is not big level. We're drinking today. We're drinking the old scout 107.

Now 107, you'll see it in your stores, right?

I mean, you go out to your local liquor store and you're going to see 107 in there from old scout.

Usually it's a pick. And, uh, this one's from John O's. It doesn't matter for us. It's a representative sample.

Yeah. I mean, usually, usually whenever we get something from a distillery, they're, they're, they're going to cherry pick it. They're going to try to send us something special anyways. Um, and you bought this, how much does this run you?

This was about $45. It came out of Jono's Liquors in, uh, Elizabeth town, Kentucky. I think Jono's has a couple of locations. They have one in Litchfield. They have one in Elizabeth town. Uh, but this particular bottle, uh, it's very typical of a, uh, smooth amber pick, a 107 pick about 45 bucks.

So this is, is an American whiskey, right? This is not a bourbon. Um, It's a bling 28% bourbon, right? And 72% American whiskey.

Yeah. So this is the reason I wanted to review this mic is because it's, it's, it's on the shelves. A lot of, a lot of liquor stores are going to have this one out there. It's going to have it on their pick shelf, you know, of their local picks. A hundred and seven proof is nothing to laugh at. That's right in the range.

I would say. And it's got some older whiskey in it. The bourbon is 12 years old and then the American whiskey is six years old. So that's a pretty decent whiskey.

Yeah. So I'm excited to try it. Like I said, it's amazing that so much time has gone by and we haven't had this on the show yet, but I'm ready to try it. Let's do it.

And that's, that's butterscotch. That's very butterscotch for me.

I get the same thing that butterscotch, um, what, you know, I wouldn't call it a butterscotch bomb, but those, uh, butterscotch for deep vanilla is like vanilla bean.

A little bit of ethanol in the nose there. It is 107 proof, so it's going to hit you a little bit. But that's one of the things that kind of pops out at me. Caramel, butterscotch, yeah, butterscotch caramel. Kind of a creamy, a little bit of a creamy nose.

I just got whiskey beard. I tipped a little bit of whiskey in my beard. Little bit of fruit. Not too much. Not a whole lot of fruits on there. More cereal notes on this for me, like Cheerios, not Honey Nut Cheerios, just plain old Cheerios on this one. Yeah. Cheerios is a good call out.

Not like that oat bourbon we drank a little while ago. No. Yeah. Let's taste it. Let's do it.

Oh, that's buttery.

buttery, butterscotch, a little bit of hot buttered popcorn, a little bit of nuttiness.

How about a kick in the chest as a Kentucky hug, man? Yeah. That's going way down deep.

Yeah. So for me, Mike, this is, this is buttery, nutty, popcorn-y kind of, you getting popcorn?

I don't know. For me, it's making me talk like Barry White for some reason. Barry White. Yeah, I get that, that Cheerio cereal on this. Super buttery, you know, almost like you'd pour cream over your Cheerios instead of milk. It's very viscous, 107 proof. Jim, I had to tell you, man, this sucker drinks like about 120, 125.

Yeah, it'll wake you up. This is a cool weather whiskey, no doubt about it. I think that for me, I've always kind of leaned towards the Acetyl whiskies, the ones that have that buttery, butterscotch-y, nutty kind of flavor to them. This is kind of in my wheelhouse. Now, is it a bourbon? No. Is it kind of got that sweet upfront kind of bold bourbon flavor? No. This is more of an American whiskey, kind of a softer buttery kind of flavor to it. But it's hot. Have you ever had a cow's tail candy? No. Oh yeah. Yeah. It's, it's butterscotch over a cream. Yeah.

I've had those before. That's this right here. It's got that sweetness to it. If you let this sit on your tongue a little bit, um, super sweet. Not dessert bourbon. It's got a big kick to it. Um, this is definitely a grown woman whiskey, big boy whiskey, whatever you want to call it. Um, man, what a great pick Jim.

Yeah, I think it's all right. Mike, I, I don't know how much difference there are between the different single barrels or the different picks of the old scout 107. But if they're similar at all, I would say it's a great try. 45 bucks. It's a reasonable price. Um, this is a West Virginia company. They've got, uh, they've got a little bit of history, been around a while.

I'd tell you this about this, Jim. Um, For 45 bucks, this is pretty spectacular for a blended whiskey. Not American whiskey, it's not a bourbon, it's a blended whiskey. Like we said, super buttery, cow's tail candy, whatever you want to call it, not a dessert whiskey. If you're looking to step out of the box, this will be it right here, man. Now John O's, is that a pretty fair priced store down there?

Yeah, I think it's a good place to stop. If you're, if you're coming up from Tennessee and you're heading towards Louisville or you're coming up from Point South on I-65 and you're heading to Louisville, about an hour, 45 minutes before you hit Louisville, there's a little town called Elizabeth town. Yeah, John O's is there and I think it's a fair price. I think they've got some good selection there and. It's a good place to stop. I would say check them out.

This thing has a super long finish on it. Um, it is just sticking with me. It just coats your mouth with, with sugar goodness.

Yeah, I don't know that it, you know, you'll be able to get this particular pick. And if this one stands out as an exceptional pick, I'm sorry folks, but you know, I think it's definitely worth giving them a try.

Yeah. I'd say if you can just find an old scout 107, um, even if it's not a pick, go ahead and try to buy one of them. The stuff you'll see a lot of groups out there on Facebook, uh, getting these picks and stuff. Uh, they're, they're hot commodity lately.

Yeah. And if you can get to Greenbrier, West Virginia, what a great place to spend the weekend with your honey.

Yeah. I mean, whether you're a woman that your husband doesn't drink bourbon, he drinks white claw or vodka. Or if you're a guy and your wife likes to drink a little wine, still a beautiful place to visit. Um, go check this place out, uh, help support local, local distilleries. Um, you're not going to go wrong. Stay at the Greenbrier. I mean, stay at the Greenbrier. Absolutely.

Yeah. Yeah. Cause a Greenbrier is kind of a throwback to 1800s aristocracy, right?

Yeah, a little bit. Um, you know, you had asked money to stay back there in a day. Yeah. Um, so something we're doing here lately, Jim is once a week, we're trying to do a live, um, we've been on Facebook, we've been on YouTube now, um, You know, we're going to try to, to engage our listeners a little bit more. So listeners, if you're listening to this, uh, and you're not into Facebook, you can catch us on YouTube now and try to do it once a week. I'm mainly in there. Jim's not the social butterfly usually. Uh, but Jim's going to pop in there and say hi to everybody and help me answer questions. Cause it's hard to kind of be the moderator on a show like that and answer those questions. So Jim's going to be my technical support. He does that for a living anyways. He's great at that. So come check us out.

Yeah, come check us out. So Mike is doing this. It's been the last couple of Tuesdays, right?

Oh, yeah. Big Cheese Bar Night is something you're going to want to check out. I just have a good time in there. I'm just sitting there bullshitting people, mainly listeners. We don't do big guests on there. Might do big guests here and there. It's a virtual bar night. It's a virtual bar night. Um, something if you, you can put your kids to bed, your wife's went to bed, your loan sitting there, or if your husband went to bed, come check us out. Um, and you never can tell. I might send you an invite and say, Hey, pop in here with me. And I usually try to have four or five people in there with me to talk. Um, I give our spill. We talk about bourbon news in there. What's going on in the bourbon world. Um, cause there's always something going on, right?

Yeah. So if, if you join our bourbon roadies and that's our private Facebook group, um, you come onto Facebook, you look at, uh, at that page, you'll see our groups. If you click on the bourbon roadies and join up, you answer three questions. We want to make sure that, uh, you're 21, that you understand you're getting yourself into a bourbon group and that, uh, that you're going to play nice because we absolutely want to make sure that everybody in our group gets along. We don't want anybody. pouncing on anybody else.

Yeah, we're that good family that everybody does get along in there. And the moderators do a good job of keeping everything clean in there. So come and join our group. And we're 1,500 strong right now, growing every day. By this time next year, who knows, we might be in the 6,000 range.

But if you're in that group, you will get the notification. You'll get that information that we've got a live event coming up with Mike's going to go live. He's going to be pouring whiskey and talking to everybody.

You also get for this year only 10% discount off any of our swag in our Facebook, bourbonroad.com. Right, Jim?

Yeah. If you're a bourbon bullshitter, you gotta get the t-shirt.

You gotta wear that shirt. I showed somebody that shirt today and girl said, I wear that thing. Um, and I can't, I can't wait to this summer and we're going to be down at the Kentucky bourbon festival and I see people walking around with our shirts on. Man, I had my blow up gym.

Make a note. If you come to the Kentucky bourbon festival or your bourbon bullshitter t-shirt, right?

Yeah.

It's not a hundred percent cotton.

Um, it's a blend. I think it's 50, 50 or something like three blends of t-shirt, whatever the t-shirt is. It's a nice t-shirt. Um, so. Make sure you wear that t-shirt. Make sure you try to come down there. I'm excited about the festival this year. I've been checking it out, Jim. I've been checking out places for us to stay down there. We're going to make a weekend out of it, I think. Take our wives down there. Just have a good time. I found a manor that has a spa at it for our wives. Oh my goodness. So me, you can drink as much bourbon as we want and get away with it.

Yeah. We're not going to get any trouble this time. Yeah. All right. Well, Mike, we do two of these shows a week. We do a long version every Wednesday and a short version like this every Monday where we sort of focus on a craft story. Today, it's been Smooth Amber and their old Scout release. It's been a great episode with this release. I think for me, it's a thumbs up. No doubt about it. I'll drink this anytime with you, buddy.

You know, I was a little hesitant about opening this bottle, but you brought it in and I was like, okay, you know, I'm a eyes wide open kind of guy that likes to look at everything with an open lens, I guess. And man, you totally shocked me. A great, um, bottle of whiskey, man. Spectacular. Yeah.

I always like to sort of zero in on those butterscotch bourbons because you know I love those too.

I totally love this. And we actually got a new listener this week. Daniel Price in our bourbon roadies group. Um, he's from West Virginia. He's from that area and stuff. So, uh, I'm gonna, I'm gonna put him on this right here and tell him that you get a bottle. Absolutely.

Well, Mike, we want to hear what everybody has to think about, uh, you know, upcoming episodes. Do you want us to have on a particular expression? Do you want us to have on a particular guest? Is there some local distillery in your state, in your town, in your city? that you think is deserving of a little bit of exposure on the Bourbon Road?

We'd love to hear about it. There's a hundred different ways you can reach us. We're on every social media right now. You can reach us on Instagram, on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok. I don't know what else is out there really at the Bourbon Road. We have our website, thebourbonroad.com. You can leave us a comment on there or you can just reach out to us personally. And trust me, we'll see those messages. We're going to respond back to you.

And if you're coming to the Bourbon Trail, if you're coming to Louisville, Kentucky, you're coming to Frankfurt, Kentucky, you're coming to Bardstown, Kentucky, if your destination is the Bourbon Trail, we want to know about it. We'll do everything we can to meet up with you, won't we, Mike?

Most definitely.

All right. So the best way for you to help us reach other people is to subscribe to our show. Make sure that if you're listening to this episode and you like what you hear, you scroll all the way to the top of your screen and you hit that subscribe button.

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Yeah. Don't be hesitant. Reach out to us. Let us know what you think. You can always reach me on Instagram at jshanton63. 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 classes 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.