150. Old Forester 150th to Celebrate the 150th Episode

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 got all kinds of roadies in the house.

We do. We got a plethora of people in here. Pretty special show. 150th episode. 150. So the Bourbon Road is 150. Well, not 150 years old.

Is our age together 150? I don't know. I think a podcast is measured in episodes, not years.

We're 150th episode deep. We got two roadies on today though. We got Mr. Todd Ritter. He lives in Frankfurt, Kentucky. And then we got a big seven, Matt Simons. He used to play on the Louisville basketball team. That's the University of Louisville for everybody that don't know. And he is seven foot. Yeah, I was going to say, he's not a short fellow. He makes big chief look like a little chief.

You're still big chief, but you're not the biggest man in the room right now.

No, he's a humongous man. He's sitting in it. We know we got tall chairs at our table and stuff. He makes it look like a regular chair. Yeah.

All right.

So, um, what do we got going on today? So it's our 150th show. Todd came up with this great idea, um, to drink 150th old Forester. The great bourbon celebrate our 150th show. I think that was perfect. But to kind of fill up the show too, we're going to talk about what five bourbons would you start your bar at? Meaning if you wasn't in a bourbon before and you wanted just to create your own bar, what five bourbons would you buy? Each four of us have a list of five bourbons that we're going to talk about that we would start our bars with. Each person kind of has a different idea of how they would start their bar, different budget and stuff. We've all come at it from a different angle and that's how we're going to go about it.

All right. Sounds great. So as usual, we would like to get straight to the whiskey. And this bottle is just not readily available.

Well, I don't know. Is it readily available, Todd? I haven't seen it out in the wild in quite some time. I got lucky and snagged one at the Kroger in Frankfurt. So before we dip into it, why don't you give us the basics on it, Todd? This is batch three. There were three batches released with this 150th anniversary from Old Forester. And this particular one, I don't know the year, how long it's been aged, but the match bill was 72 corn, 18 rye, and 10 barley.

Okay.

And it's came in at 126.8 proof. So it's got some heat there, huh? It's a little warm. All right.

10 barley, I like 11 barley. I mean, personally. Yeah.

So 150 stands for what? Their anniversary, I guess the old Forster label has been around for 150 years. 150 years of making whiskey. Yeah. 1870 to 2020. So they've been around a little longer than the podcast, but you know, 150, 150, that's how it kind of tied it together.

I think it's all the same, Mike. It's just all the same. We're, we're, we're 150 old foresters, 150.

On the next episode, will you guys be drinking some 151 from McCarty?

We might be, we're going to be down in Mexico. That's true. All right. So what do you say guys? Let's, uh, let's check out this old Forester 150. Sounds good. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers.

Man, that's got a super oaky nose on it. Um, some chocolates in there.

Yep. Very rich. Very, uh, got a little bit of sweetness on the nose too, but the oak is way, way there.

I've never said this note before on a show. I know I haven't, but a little bit of coffee bean on this one.

Hmm.

Really? Hmm. I can get that.

It's, it's got a bit of darkness to it. Yeah. Yeah, it's got a dark character to it. It feels charred. And the color of the liquid's nice and dark as well.

Nice and dark, yeah. This is a deep, I would call this a deep amber or a mahogany, huh?

Now these are the largest pours I think I've ever been on a bourbon road. Well, it's got your bottle, so you went heavy handed.

It's okay.

Well, we are drinking one bourbon this show. One bourbon, yeah. So we needed that. We need to have enough to get us through the show. What do you get, Todd?

Well, I always go with kiss and hug, you know? Just as a starter. And on the kiss, man, it's peppery. Not heavily, but there's some pepper in the mouth. So it's not a light front end. You know, it's nice. And then it lasts, you know? I've heard greater bourbon mines than me say, you know, how long does it sit in your mouth? And it's still sitting there, you know, it's got a nice, um, really nice palette to it. Um, you obviously are getting some, you know, some caramel, some oak, you know, uh, but not overpowering on the sweet side.

I would call this, hold on, let me take another sip or heck. Let's all take a sip. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers. That's good whiskey. Yeah, it is. I think says, uh, pow, just kicked your tongue back in your throat.

Yeah, it is.

Huge joke, huge joke presence on this.

Yeah. And it's got a little bit of, um, a little bit of hot pepper spice to it. You know, not just pepper, not black pepper, but hot pepper spice.

Oh, that's good.

Yeah. Thank you.

This is a Chuck Norris of whiskey. Yeah.

I get that chocolate on this. And one thing that you guys didn't catch on the nose that I'll, I don't know, maybe it's just an old Forrester thing for me, but I get a little banana.

Hmm. I do get that in some other old foresters. So it's funny you mentioned that. Just a little.

Have you ripened banana? Uh, yeah. Like a sweet banana rather than a green. I'd rather have a green banana.

Yeah. The ethanol is kind of playing with my nose a little bit. It's making it a little bit more difficult for me. So you've, you've actually, Todd, you've been sipping on this bottle a little bit longer than us. Have you noticed it change?

Yeah, actually the banana presence is a little lighter, I think. I mean, like I said, we just opened this up and popped in the glass. It may need a little time to sit, but that's one of those I've also shared with a lot of the roadies too.

Yeah, good deal.

Todd, I think that's a great way to notice that. It's real slight, but yeah, that's in there for sure.

It's deep, it's dark, it's rich, it's spicy. I don't know the age on this, Mike, but it tastes to me like it's up there a bit.

You know, I wouldn't call it, you know, people get confused sometimes with spicy and hot. You know, hot is when it's young. You know, it has that hot flavor. It's not hot. It's just, it's peppery. It's good.

To me, this would be if you've got one of those cinnamon jawbreakers that's super like atomic jawbreaker that's, it does have a lot of sweet spice to it. It's not that overly burning taste. And then you get, it gets down there to that hug. It's got a nice Kentucky hug on this. It has a very nice hug.

The chest is warm and full of fuzzy. What do you guys think about the finish on it? I mean, what do you think about the flavor of the finish?

gets a little like, I get a little more chocolate towards that end to myself. And then that oak just is, it's a very oaky, oaky bourbon to me.

It's sitting in the top of the roof of my mouth, you know, cause I kind of, I didn't swish it, but like I kind of, you know, moved it around a little bit and I can, I can feel that pepper, you know, just kind of tingling the top of my mouth.

The only thing I'd knock on this entire bourbon right here. and not really the bourbon itself is the bottle. Old foresters known for their clear bottles that you could see the whiskey and they put it in a brown bottle. That would be the only knock on it.

Yeah, so they're kind of hiding the look at it until after you open the bottle. Nothing to hide there, it's beautiful.

Yeah, why not showcase that, that dark brown liquid?

I got a question for you. You know, with beers, sometimes they'll put them in the darker bottles because light will, you know, change the profile of the beer. And in fact, In our grandfather's times, or maybe in our father's times, bottle beer was the best and can beer was junk. But really a lot of the great brewers now are putting their good beers in cans because it keeps the light out, right?

Is there anything to that with bourbon? That is the exact thing about bourbon is you want that light. If you have a bar at home and it's out in the light, your bourbon is going to ruin a little bit faster.

Well, you may be on to something there because, you know, with a bottle like the 150, if this is a bottle that you bring out from time to time, a little bit to your friends to taste on and talk about, and it goes back up on the shelf, it might not come out again for a couple of months. Maybe they had that in mind. You know, this is a bourbon that's going to last on somebody's bars for a couple of years. We need to make sure it stays good.

Based on the ports we just had, Todd's bottle's not going to last much longer. No, that's all right.

We're celebrating, right?

You're turning red over there, Todd. You're like goddamn people drinking my whiskey. It's quite all right. This is what the roadies are about, Sharon. And that's what I like about this group.

Well, let's talk about your five whiskies. And we're going to start with your side of the room over there, Todd. Jim at the first half of the show, and then on second half, me and Matt will talk about ours.

OK.

So Todd, we're going to start with you with your top five bourbons or your five bourbons that you would start your bar with. All right. Is there a reason why?

Anybody give me a drum roll or anything?

Just tell us. kind of what you were thinking.

Well, when Mike brought this up, I really pored over this. There's so many ways you can go through this and come up with five, I mean, five bourbons, five bottles. So I started off with the mixer and I kind of went with Evan Williams. and you could go the low proof or the bond in there. Nice price, nice bourbon. Then I'm from Frankfurt, so I got to give love to my Buffalo Trace. That was my everyday. It plays well with anything if you wanted to mix it. I think it's a nice, neat drink as well.

Oh, don't go too fast now. Don't go too fast. I want to stop there. I think Buffalo Trace for the price is a tremendous bourbon. I think it, I think it has a lot of floral character to it. And for lack of a better term, it really opens up on the palette. And for the price, man, Buffalo Trace is a solid bourbon.

Now, that's what I tell you about Buffalo Trace is we in here in Kentucky, we think it's easy to find. But whenever you go to other states, let's say like Oklahoma that I just came back from. they were like, yeah, could you give me any of that Buffalo Trace stuff? Um, we can't even get it here. And when they do have it, it's like 60 bucks a bottle.

I was like, yeah, I could give it a convenient antique on the shelf.

Yeah. I've also seen it out, uh, at shelves in Frankfurt itself. I mean, uh, I've been to stores in Frankfurt and that'd be totally out of Buffalo Trace, but hopefully that'll change. I mean, if anyone's been, uh, to Frankfurt lately and seeing the warehouses going up there, like, uh, Nobody's business. Hopefully they'll be able to maintain a little better inventory.

Let's recap for you so far.

Evan Williams is kind of my mixer for mixed drinks and your parties. Buffalo Trace is my everyday. And then thanks to you guys and a lot of other podcasts and YouTubers out there, it's really brought forth that not all great bourbon comes from Kentucky. So I kind of went, my third one was kind of outside the box. So I didn't really come up with one because I like a lot. of out of state bourbons. And so I came out with like Frey Ranch, Leapers Fork, Iron Root. I mean, there's just a list, but something from out of state where If my friends come over that they probably don't know much about, and they're like, hey, you can't have 50. I know.

I don't mean to put you on the spot, but can you tell us where some of those are from, like the ones you mentioned?

Well, obviously, Leapers Fork is in Tennessee. Iron Root is in Texas. Another big favorite of mine is Spirits of French Lick in Indiana.

I've had some of their stuff. That's good.

Oh, Frey Ranch is out in Nevada, and I'm a big Frey Rancher.

Yeah. You got some fray ranch fans in the house. No doubt about that. But let me, let me ask you this. So your third one is an out of state represents sort of the craft distilleries that are out of state, but we're still going to make you pick one because it's five bourbons to start your bar with. You're going to have to pick one of those. I love it that you mentioned them all, but we're going to put you on the spot. Okay. I'm going to go with fray ranch. Okay. Good deal.

Beautiful. I kind of saw that coming to be honest with you.

What else you got Todd?

For my fourth, I went with a high proofer and it's hard to beat Elijah Craig, the barrel proof. I haven't found the latest bottle, but it's usually pretty easy to find. I've got to, I gotta remodify my list now. His list is actively changing as you speak. Right. Maybe everybody says. And then my last one was something for like special, special occasions. And, you know, this 150th fits that bill. I mean, you know, if you're lucky enough to run across an antique collection, that'd be a great one to have as a special bottle. Got it.

So you've got, again, I'm going to keep recapping here because I don't want to kind of drive these decisions home. So we've got Evan Williams as your mixer. We've got Buffalo Trace as your everyday sipper slash mixer slash whatever, general purpose bourbon. You've got Craft Distillery bourbon is number three. You chose Frey Ranch. Good choice, no doubt about it.

Number four was the Elijah Craig Barrel Proof. Elijah Craig Barrel Proof, always a winner in my book. Man, it's such a good bourbon.

So complex. Yeah. Just layer after layer after layer of different notes. You let it set for a while, you come back to it, it could be totally different. Every expression they put out, they haven't missed a box on one of them yet. No.

And it's always a little different. I mean, there's very slight nuances. I know the latest one is a lower proof. you know, their 10, their stuff tends to be in that one thirties and this latest one's like, I think one 27 and it's nice. I've had a, I've had a poor, but it's a 12 year old bourbon, right? I mean, and the price for a 12 year old bourbon, it's, it's hard not to beat that. And then my last one was the something special and well, well, for sure.

One 50, we are having it.

Yeah. What's the price on this? That was one 50, one 50. Uh, that was, I have a friend. So I got it at that's MSRP.

All right. So, uh, great choices. I think, uh, that's a respectable list. I would have that, uh, to start a bar any day. No doubt. Thank you.

Well, Jim, let's, let's hear your kicking chicken.

I'm excited about this list because you know, Jim is a bourbon man. Let me get that so you can edit that out. The bourbon man.

It's going to be five rise, right? No, no, it's not going to be five rise because You know, Mike said five bourbons to start your bar with, but there's no way that I'm going to come in with a list that doesn't have at least one rye on it.

Rye whiskey we're talking about. Rye whiskey, not rye bourbon, yes.

So my thinking was, okay, Somebody wants to start a bar, kind of new at it, don't have a lot of money to throw around. My list is five bourbons that you can start your bar with, with $200 or less. Okay? And I wanted to make sure that I represented as many distilleries as possible, five, in that list. And I wanted to make sure there was at least one rye in there. And then I hit a few categories within that. So kind of a, just a general purpose, good list. There won't be any unicorns in this one. No unicorns. Not for under 200 for five. So. All right. Let's hear it. All right. So number one on my list, uh, larceny.

Oh, you know, I have to say, I couldn't remember the fifth bourbon that was in the pack that I had gotten recently for a corporate event. It was larceny. And I hadn't drank a lot of that before, Jim. That's a good bourbon. It's a nice, good, off-the-shelf bourbon.

That actually won our, what makes Coke taste better challenge.

When we stepped out on a limb and did bourbon and Cokes and took a lot of flack for it. Upset the bourbon nerds. We did, we did, but a lot of people drink bourbon and Coke.

I think the majority of people that are introduced to bourbon are through bourbon and Coke. I mean, if you're at a UK or U of L football game, typically people aren't nosing bourbon in the parking lot. They're drinking bourbon and Coke. Here you go, pal. Have one.

Hey, we should do a bourbon and L8-1 show. We'd be up all night, by the way. And you know, if you're starting a bar, you're starting a bar because you want people to come over. And some of those people that come over are going to want Coke in their bourbon. Sorry to say.

Unfortunately, they are.

They are. So larceny at $24, straighter mix, 92 proof. You can actually sip larceny and it's a good zipper. And it's a weeder, right Mike? Yep, it's all weeded up. You know I love it. All right, number two. This one satisfies my rye. So I'm choosing Old Forester rye. It's a $20 bottle for $7.50. Great for cocktails. So again, if you've got a bar at home, going to have people over. Some people are going to want cocktails. So if you're serving up mules or you're serving up old fashions, old Forester to a hundred proof on the rye, it's going to shine through a little bit. It's a good rye to choose, not the best rye out there, but all around good solid Kentucky rye.

You know, it's funny you mentioned that because I've had some people that, what do the kids say now? They felt some kind of way about old Forster rye. And those are usually old Forster heads and they're out there, you know, because old Forster is great bourbon. And so I've had some old Forster heads be like, eh, the rye, ah, you know, it's pretty good. But, you know, I think it is good. I think it's, you know, for what your list is trying to do, perfect. Thank you. I appreciate that.

And you know, if you like to sip on a Kentucky rye, you can sip on that one. Not my choice typically. I'll probably go for something like a rare breed rye or something like that, but it's good. Michter's rye. Michter's rye, absolutely. Number three on my list, and you're gonna see this one coming, Wild Turkey 101. Wild Turkey 101, if you want something, if you want a bourbon that's got a little bit of spice to it, again, something you can drink straight, you can add something else, you can mix it, you can make cocktails with it. But for me, I've been drinking Wild Turkey 101 for 40 years. I guess I've been drinking age for 40 years. It started when he was six. But Wild Turkey has been on the list for a lot of years for me. And so it's always in my bar and I've always got a bottle of it. And you know what? It's a great conversation piece when people are going, you drink that Wild Turkey stuff and you go, have you? Well, no, that's for bikers and roughnecks.

Well, they're probably drinking it wrong too. A lot of people like to do is they just like shoot that whiskey back. We were in a bar the other night. They pulled a really nice whiskey off the shelf. I'm not going to say where me and Jim were, but they pulled the whiskey off the shelf. They poured it in shot glasses and shot it back. And I'd say that bottle goes for about a hundred bucks. Hey, you're whiskey your way, you're bourbon your way, drink it any way that you damn want to. But I'll tell you, on a good bourbon like that, you should really take and get a whiskey glass and sit there and sip it and try to enjoy it a little bit. And you might enjoy wild turkey like Jim does. I actually enjoy wild turkey. It's a good bourbon, good starter bourbon for people too. It's not too hot. It's got that little bit of spice you like to it. I have a well-respected bourbon. Jimmy Russell has been around a long time. He knows what he's doing. We actually heard the story. I've heard a story about how when they sold, they said, the only thing you can't do is change the whiskey. You can do anything else, but don't change the whiskey. Let Jimmy do his thing. The whiskey is what it is.

Well, you know, Big Chief, when we talk about the just essentials of life, you know, just the basic core necessities, I think consummation of a relationship, let's say, would be one of those. Do you want to rush through it? Shoot it back, or do you want to take your time and enjoy it? And I would say your advice is well-saged and earned. You should enjoy that whiskey.

Well, a younger man might rush down there and take care of it. But when you get it our age, that's quick.

Well, they say the daddy bull and the baby bull. Yeah, three bulls, right?

One's going to run down there and get them all.

One's going to jog. And the other one said, let's walk down and get them all. Yeah.

All right. So yeah, wild turkey one-on-one and it's, you know, that's a $20 bottle. So we got a $24 bottle in larceny. We got a $20 bottle old Forrester rye. We got a $20 bottle of wild turkey.

We're not even a hundred bucks yet. We got three good bottles of whiskey.

Yeah.

So number four.

Number four for me is Woodford Double Oaked.

Thanks. I'm revising my list again. That proof is in the pudding in that Woodford Double Oaked stuff. We had, I think it was last Christmas, we did a show. Maybe it was last New Year's Eve. We did a blind bottle challenge and I took that and it whooped everybody's ass. Everybody was shocked at it, right? That's right. Whip three other bourbons ass that I was like, I can't believe it beat all those. Totally blind. Can we say ass? We can say bourbon bullshitter and pretty ass. Okay.

Well, you know, a little preview to my list, Jim. thought my own stuff, but I said, you know what, I'm going to put some stuff out to friends and just see what they say. Rob Carter, Dr. LeGrand, some different folks. You're two friends.

You're stapled in. You're two friends you got.

Yeah. Different ones that I drink bourbon with, Todd Gutter, Muth, Brit Whitehouse. almost unanimously on their five came back double oak, not totally nationally. Cause Rob of course went with some like, Oh, they're new starting a bar. They probably don't have any money. So they, you know, here's a bunch of rot gut. No, I'm just kidding. He didn't say that. Rob's here by the way. Uh, but, um, no, but double oak came up every time. And I brought a bottle of it tonight for us to all just have a pour while I'm doing my list, I guess. Cause I guess it's going to be on there, but go ahead.

Absolutely. So the reason I chose the double-oaked is because of the sweetness and because the fact that I think that it, we talked about this earlier, it's kind of dessert, right? You have it before dinner, you can have it after dinner. It's great with a charcuterie tray, it's great with chocolates or whatever. I mean, it's so versatile. but it's that special sipping whiskey that you pay. It's a good pairing whiskey.

I think also you can introduce it to people. You're talking about this guy, the gal that we're talking about is starting a bar. You could introduce it to someone who's like bourbon. I don't drink a lot of bourbon. And you could pour that and they'd be like, That's pretty good. Yeah. I like that.

That tastes good. Absolutely. And, and a lot of people have heard of Woodford. Woodford to them seems to be a little bit premium. So if you pull out the Woodford for your guests, they're going to be pretty happy, right? So I think that's a, that's a, that's a good choice. And you know, at $45.

Oh, we're over a hundred now.

Yeah. We're over a hundred, but not much. Yeah.

And number five.

Number five, Bookers. And Bookers, I chose Bookers because I wanted to have something that was barrel-proof, something that was bold and, you know, it comes in a box, great display, right?

I think it's ugly box, but. It is the ugliest box out there. Me and Jim talked about that. It's no surprise, Jim, I would say that.

Hey, remember when Indiana Jones went in to pick Jesus' cup? Yeah. Remember all those beautiful glasses and then there was the carpenter's clay cup that had the fruit of life in it? Bookers is just wood and bookers. And some Crayola.

Aren't bookers boxes made from the floorboards that Noah has walked on or something like that? Booker no walked on the floorboards of the Rick house and he used those to make the, there's some story.

There's a bourbon bullshitter coming out. All right. Well, that's a respectable list. Yeah. My great list.

Can I tell you a story about bookers? If you don't mind. And I'm going to edit this story. Cause it was a wild one. I ran into an old buddy. Uh, when we were in our late twenties and we thought we were kind of through all of our wild stuff, but I ran into him one night and we got into some wild stuff. Long story short, this guy is an absolute clown. Uh, and he liked bourbon and he loved bourbon and he drank bourbon, bourbon, bourbon, bourbon. to extremes, to where you shouldn't go to. Eventually I go to bed and I'm with my woman in the bed there and I hear him in the other room and my nickname in high school was Sambo and I hear him, Sambo! And I walk into the other room, and this was, remember when the internet first came out, this was like 2000, 2001. Back when it, yeah, yeah. I had a gateway computer. He's buck naked, sitting on my grandmother's chair in front of the gateway computer. And there's error messages cascaded in a tornado. And he looks at me dead serious and goes, how are you getting naked pictures on this computer? That's not the end of the story because we're tying bookers in here. I go back to bed and I forcefully tell him, if you wake me up one more time, we're going to have problems, Hoss. He doesn't wake me up anymore. And so the next day at 7 a.m. when I had to go to work, I go in there and I see his eyes are just fluttering shut. And I go, big squirrel. That was his nickname. And I wake him up and I'm like, I got to go to work and I'm taking you home. So I take him home. I go to work. I come back and I got it's, you know, it's one of them long days when you've been drinking suburban with your buddy and you will work all day. And I come back and I'm living in the house I grew up in. I bought it from my mom. and I'm living there. And there were still some artifacts from where I grew up. And my father, my stepfather, Tom Bemis, owned Lansdowne Wine and Liquors and Big Daddy's Liquors, which is still in existence on UK's campus in Lexington, Kentucky. So I grew up around liquor stores. And there was, he had a first run bottle of Bookers in the wood box. It was on the top shelf, never been opened with the black wax on the top. And I'm walking through there and I'm just cleaning up and stuff. And I look up and that box is cracked open about three quarters of an inch and the little tissue paper sticking out. That box has not been cracked open since 19 and 81 or whatever, whatever he got that. You know what I'm saying? Since my remembrance. And I grab it. with hesitancy and I look at it and I'm like, what's going on here? And I slide the wood facing open to notice no liquid. There was one inch of Booker's in the bottom of that bottle. When I went to bed after the naked pitchers part, this fella went in there and drank my daddy's first run bottle of Booker's.

Anyway, so moving on. All right, so to summarize, I've got five whiskeys that I chose here and the total price for the whole set, $194. Wow. Now those are total wine prices, so pretty much should hold true across most of the country, I would say.

Yeah, yeah. Well, Jim, we're up against the first half right here. Um, two great lists that you guys brought Todd. Um, super respectable list starts bar. Jim went classic old school, classic economic, economical right there. Um, Jim would have all five of those drink. Um, he should, I should have gave him seven days for one day of the week. Um, Jim would have it bar cleared out in about a week. He'd be like, I'm done. Mike, Mike got that bottle cleared out.

No, I'm just joking with everybody. Somebody's got to drink all these bottles we get. Yeah.

We're on the first half. We'll be right back listeners for a second half and we and Matt will name our five bourbons out. Let's do it.

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All right, listeners, we're back, we're back, we're back. We're here at Jephthah Bend Farm in Shelbyville, Kentucky. I like to say that, Jim, like that.

Shelbyville, Kentucky. Can you move up on the mic like that? It sounds real, like, very white, right?

So we got Ty Ridderode in the house. We got Bat Simons. We got Dianne Evans. One of my neighbors cross street, a lovely lady in the room. We got Steve Johnson's a roadie. We got the famous Rob Carter is I like to call him Mr. Papa Smurf. Mr. Papa Smurf. Bleeds Kentucky blue. And we got Obby in the room with us, all roadies. Yeah, we're drinking some bourbon. The bourbon has been flowing, right Jen? It has been flowing. We got Woodrow on the floor.

He's got his front legs crossed. He heard me say his name.

He's out now. Yeah. So we've been going through five bourbons to start your bar with while we're sipping on Old Forrester 150, courtesy of Todd Ritter.

Todd, can't thank you enough, my friend. Thank you, Todd.

My pleasure. Like I said, you guys do a lot for the bourbon community, so this is my giving back to you a little bit.

So Todd, we went through your list. Amazing list. Thank you. Great list start. Then we did the rye guy. Jim's list. There's only one rile in there though, Jim. Pretty good, pretty good. He threw a weeder in there.

I did throw a weeder in there.

I wouldn't have shamed you if you didn't know. Budget list. Budget list. Yeah, economic. So next up, we got old big seven in here in the house. Matt Simons is going to go through his list.

You ruined about two weeks of my life. Well, you know, uh, you know, we were texting about say, Hey, you know, join us on this show. And I appreciate that, you know, and, um, you know, five bourbons to start a home bar. Oh, that's easy. And I thought, All right, so Todd, kind of like you, I thought, you know, there's categories to this stuff, right? So there's got to be a house whiskey, right? One you don't mind mixing. Another kind of think about it the way you thought about it. I think my house whiskey might be a little too high line. I thought about, of course, You know, oh, Forester, right? And then you've got, uh, old granddad bottled in bond. I mean, that's a, that's a good one. Yeah. I mean, that's a great one. Right. But our house whiskey at our house is the reason I put this on there is Evan Williams, single barrel. You know, and it's at 28 bucks in 27, you know, depending on where you're at, it's, it's not unapproachable at all, but it's not exactly just your gut mixer. You know what I mean? Uh, at $20, I liked the, you know, uh, old granddad, you know, bottled in bond, but I'm going to stay with Evan Williams, single barrel.

That's a respectable bottle to me. Not too high priced. It's a beautiful little bottle to put on your shelf. Single barrel. Um, still low proof though, not high proof. So, you know, I think that's good.

Well, you're not going to get any high proof bourbons on here because I grew up with some old boys that taught me, they said, hey, party's long, right? And so, you know, try to keep it under a hundred and five or so. But we typically drink bourbons that are between, you know, 86 and 110 in general, unless I'm hanging with Big Chief. And then I got to stretch my legs a little bit. I polled some friends. And I said, hey, I got a lot of bourbon drinking friends. And I gave them the same question. I'm just curious what would come out of that. A couple of them are sitting here. But almost unanimously, that list was a bourbon that I didn't have on my list. And it was Woodford Double Oat. Almost everybody said, if I was starting a home bar, I would have a Woodford Oat. And the more I thought about it, for me, and Jim, when you mentioned it, for me, it's like a dessert drink, because it's sweet, it's really good. And so I just kind of pigeonholed it, I think, maybe. But as I've drank it more, it's approachable, you know? And if someone is not a big bourbon drinker and they're over at the house and they're like, I'll try a little bit of that bourbon. You have a, you know, you've got a bourbon collection. I think double oak is a good one. So I'm going to stick with that. It's number two. Now is where it gets tricky. I thought you should have a bottle that you can only get at a distillery. Oh, now there's something. You know, that you can only get into distilleries. It's something to talk about. Because bourbon's about stories. Yeah, it's about stories. It's about, where'd you get it? How'd you find it? What do you like about it? You know? And I also had this similar thought of... I'm a Kentucky boy and I thought, and you can't start a bourbon bar without some makers, right? I mean, it's just, it is for what it is. Great marketing, whatever you want to call it. It's a good Kentucky bourbon. So I went with Makers 101. you know, you can, not that you can't only get it at distillery cause they'll release it during Christmas and things like that. But most of the time you only get that at the distillery. So I went with makers one-on-one. I liked that bourbon too personally. I think that the extra higher proof does something for the makers because they tell you in the tour and the story that they wanted to create a bourbon that was easy to drink and they have. But I like a little more, you know, to my bourbon, is that a sound? You know? And one-on-one's got a little more, you know, to it. Not that it's, that's crazy, so. that was in there now.

I'm glad to hear makers made the list. I really, I really think probably had I made another list makers would have probably been on it. It's some, you know, some expression of makers anyway, right?

They should have made the list.

Yeah. I just got a finishing series. So, uh, that might make my list next year if we're for episode 200 or something.

I mean, makers cast strength is great. I mean, there's some really, you know, when you just get out of the normal maker's mark, which is a worldwide brand. And by the way, known in languages that we can't even pronounce, you know? But for me, it was the 101, right? So number three was the 101. Now I thought, Jim, that you should have a rye on the list. Yeah, well, we think alike. Yeah. Yeah. Thought you should have a rye. Cause you know, once again, you're saying, Hey, I just started my bourbon bar. I have Evan Williams Single Barrel, a nice affordable bourbon. I have Woodford Double Oat for anybody. Tastes great. This one I had to drive to BFE Kentucky to get. It's called Makers 101 and it's a Kentucky tradition. I went with Mikter's rye on that. I just think Mikter's rye for the price and for the exp... It's not the greatest rye whiskey in the world because rye heads really like to get it in there and get it peppery and get it hot. But I think Mikter's rye is approachable. Pikesville rye made the list. I mean, I think Pikesville rye has done a good job. It's, you get that grain, you know, when you, when you're, when you're tasting it so good. But I went with Michter's rye.

Well, Michter's is a great choice. It's, it's, it's a solid, solid Kentucky rye. Now, now Pikesville, a little bit higher proof though, right? Yeah, it is. Kind of makes that big impression on you cause that more proof, but Michter's solid stuff. So let's recap. What do you got so far?

So far I got Evelyn Williams Single Barrel, Woodford Double Lope, Makers 101,

All right, but not Pikesville. That wasn't on your list.

It was just also Rand.

I wanted to mention that I enjoy that bourbon.

But he narrowed it down to one, which is good.

I narrowed it down to one. Now, this last one, this was an MFer, as they say. I mean, it was, I just, I wrestled with it. I'm going to mention several bourbons here, like the Grammys. All right. All right. There was Weller Special. All right, first of all, this is like, all right, so you got to get a nice, you know, in the collection, you have something that's like a nice bourbon, hard to find, you know, like, oh, I'm really doing something here. I didn't think of old Forrester 150 because I've never seen it till today. Thanks, Todd Ritter. But I was saying Weller Special Reserve. Now this one's approachable. You can find it anywhere, but a great bourbon. Oh, Forrester 1920. Oh yeah. I mean a great bourbon. Um, Russell reserve single barrel. But our Eagle Rare, you know, great bourbon. But after talking with a few friends of mine and all that, I think you got to throw the Weller Special Reserve as your, just kind of your, you know, just a good, a hard to find bourbon, right? You could throw Antique on there, which good luck. Really, with the weathering of the wellers, good luck. But the special reserve for me personally, the reason I put it on there after, because people said different wellers, but I like the special reserve. It's approachable. If you can find it out of state, you can sometimes get it for 40 bucks. And it's good work. It's a good bourbon.

And if you're pouring weller off your bar for your friends, they're all going to be happy.

Yeah. $25 in Oklahoma. Good choice. Is on the shelf all day long there. That's a, to me, that's the granddaddy of all weeded bourbon. Uh, he knew what he was doing. Um, if you're drinking Pappy's out there and you think you're all special, uh, you wouldn't have any Pappy's without William Lou Weller, right? Uh, he is, he's it when it comes to weeded bourbon, you wouldn't have varsity, you in an old fits, you wouldn't have your Pappy's. Um, I can just go down that list. Um,

Well, since you mentioned Pappy's and we're not talking about that, but like, you know, here's the deal. Listen, we're all kinds of different bourbon collectors out there and those look great on the bar. Right. But for me, you know, old rip, you know, is, is, is more approachable even from my palette. Cause I've had Pappy 23 many times. I'm like, it's like, um, the. Dogfish had 120-minute IPA. They got the 60-minute IPA, good beer. 90-minute, really good beer. 120, it's like, oh, that's complicated. It's like a relationship. But anyhow, so to recap, Evan Williams single barrel, Woodford double dope, I'm going to go with the Michter's Rye, Maker's 101, and the Weller Special Reserve.

Solid, solid list. Yep, nice. Nice. Good Lord. I got some competition here now. This is turning heated right here. But he took my Weller Special Reserve. Jim, you knew I was probably going to have that on my list. I knew it was going to be on there. It was going to be on my list. But I'm recalculating here, right? Make a U-turn when possible. It's OK. have a, have a bourbon shop or more than one.

We had, we both had the, the double O. I was going to say, and we expected five rice from Jim. So we're expecting five wheats from you, big chief.

Well, I'm not going to go with five, five wheats. I bet you could do it though. Oh, I could easily.

Oh, easily. You're a top five wheated bourbon.

I could easily go five wheated bourbons and enjoy myself all day long. Um, if people know me right. Um, but, This is how I went, right? I'm going to start off with Makers 46. You can find it on any shelf. It's a little bit more complex than just your Makers. It was the first bourbon release after 46 years from them, right? Or 50 years, right, Jim? It was 50 years. The 46 is the stave combination. But 50 years of making one bourbon and that's all they made forever, right? Nothing else, just makers. But 46 to me, if you can get it on your shelf now, I throw a caveat in there. Obviously me and Jim love the cast strength.

It did fare pretty well for us last year.

Just our bourbon of the year. I don't know. But if you can find that cast ring, you're probably not going to find it, but the 46 pick up a bottle. I think it's a great bottle to start your bar with right around $35. You know, that's pretty respectable. I like it. It's a weeded bourbon. Obviously, I'm a weeded king of Kentucky. I love my weed. I'd go with Weller Special Reserve all day long. Just because it's not an improved, easy drinker, I can mix it and stuff too and just smile about it. I would go and find myself another bottle of Special Reserve if I need it bad enough. Am I going to pay $200 for it? Hell no. I'm going to stick around that $25 level for it. That's what I think it deserves. But it's a good mixer, it's a good sipper, it's a wheat. But still, 46, that's my first bourbon, number one. Could start your bar with. My second bourbon I would go with is a Woodinville out of Washington State. They're 90 proof. I think it is a delicious whiskey. all day long, they're still kind of a craft, right? They're rising up. They're nationwide now. They're making a few barrels. A couple.

Do you have some here? I haven't had it before. Maybe I should. I have some up on the shelf over there if you look. Maybe I should try it.

Yeah. They've got some phenomenal picks too. Yeah, they're cast-strength. Again, another cast-strength whiskey that will just blow your socks off. You know, great company out there doing great things. I think if you're looking for a craft distillery, and I'm going to have a couple of craft distilleries on my list. But that's nationwide. You can pick it up anywhere. Don't overlook it because it's out of the state of Kentucky, Rob Cudger.

If it ain't made with limestone water from right here in Kentucky, I ain't drinking it.

So my number three bourbon on the list, I really like it. Some people hit on it a little bit. I like Russell's tenure. Dude, I almost dropped that in there. It's like cherry juice in a bottle for me. It's so good. Got a little bit of spice to it. Some people like the Russell's reserve over that. But to me, that Russell's tenure, you could almost let anybody drink it. They love it. My wife, she's not a bourbon drinker, but she likes it. She says, hey, that's a good bourbon. Comes out of wild turkey, right? It does. Yeah. A name for the legendary Jimmy Russell. How could you go wrong with it?

But you know, when you're, here's the thing about this. There's levels. You know, bourbon's like an onion, right? You know, there's layers to this. And you know, there's what you like, which is at the core. But when you're introducing friends or lady friends and just different people, you got to have those in your collection because not everybody wants to go 120 proof, magnum face, here we go bourbon. The Russell 10 is great because it has Like you said, it's like cherries in the glass. It's so good. It's got just a soft aftertaste. So good.

And it's 10 years old. Yeah. I mean, it's $35 people $35 for a 10 year old whiskey. Um, I see other bottles out there that are 10 years old. People are paying $200 for. Um, how can you go wrong? Um, so you'll notice all three of my bourbons there are $35. You can buy a Woodinville $35. Um, Russell reserved him $35. Get the, uh, $46, $35. I mean, I'm just rolling along there, right? So now here comes a $350. Probably not. Uh, A lot of people that listen to the show, you listen to us. We have a lot of Finnish bourbons on the show and I pay some respect to Lincoln Henderson and his son Wes. I would have a bottle of Angel's Envy on my shelf. right around $35, right? Yeah. The $35 theme. $35 theme. Well, I'm going to blow it out of the water here in a minute, but it's allowed. So the thing with that is they might get beat up, but that's another great bourbon or finished bourbon to introduce people to whiskey because it's finished in that port wine barrel. It takes a little bit of the edge off, gives it a little bit of sweetness. You could get a wine drinker to drink some of that. and introduce them to whiskey. And all you're helping to do is promote Kentucky whiskey or promote bourbon across the board. Beautiful bottle to have on your shelf too. Gorgeous bottle.

Yeah.

I hear some people beat up on it and be like, oh, I don't like that. It's not a bourbon. Well, it's bourbon right up until they finished it. You know, really, it's still bourbon. It was just finished to something.

Yeah.

So their labeling's correct on it. They say this is a finished bourbon, right? Right. I mean, I got several bottles of Angels in me. I obviously love them. And Wes and his family, great people, right?

Awesome people. Great, great family. True Louisvillians, you know, dedicated to the bourbon industry, the bourbon trail, dedicated to Louisville, Kentucky.

So just to recap, I got 46, right? I got Woodinville whiskey. Russell 10 year and angels enemy pork cast. Now, what do you think's old Texans going to finish with? Texas, Texas, $140 now blow it up right there at $120. Uh, if you can find it, um, buy a bottle of garrison brothers, bad, more a, It is a double-oaked, weeded bourbon. Comes in at 115 proof. It's a gorgeous bottle to have on your shelf. And the whiskey inside the bottle is even better. I'm sipping on some right now, because I didn't want to drink the last year, 150th there. Now, some people would beat up on this. Somebody's got to do it. Yeah. This bourbon is only three years old. What? It's as dark as you get anything in Kentucky and complex and complex.

You go, you go to four or five and six years old in Texas and you got nothing left in the barrel. Yeah.

Well, you know, we were telling, actually we were just telling a story. Todd and I were talking during the break there and I was in New Orleans at a little swanky restaurant, entertaining some clients a couple of years ago and there was a salesman a whiskey salesman talking to the owner and I could hear it going on but he was from Texas and I was like Texas whiskey what is he talking about and so I go there and I was like oh I'm from Kentucky and I could be the judge of good bourbon let me have a swig of your whiskey And not in that voice. And anyway, I was like, hey, I'm very interested in what you're talking about from Texas. And actually, they've said, no, sit down. We'd love to have you. And they poured that and the other one that you have. No, actually, not the other one you have because it's the honey one. They have like a regular and then they have this one. And they were excellent. I mean, I thought. Wow. This is really good.

They get beat up on their price, right? That's the biggest thing they say about Dan Garrison and his whiskey is it's overpriced. But man, I don't know if it is overpriced or not. I like it. This is actually my second bottle of Balmore. I love it that much. If I could get Dan to send me another bottle, I'd still have to go out and find a bottle. Dan, are you listening? But to me, it is a great representation. I had a hard time picking a Texas whiskey, because I'm infatuated with Texas whiskeys right now. I could say Iron Root. I could say Tile Carroll. We just drank that right, Jim. TX. Yeah, TX. I could just keep going down that list. I don't know. Uh, balconies, Jimmy's bourbon. You could just go down that list and say, man, all these damn Texas bourbons are kicking. I've actually only had one text Texas bourbon that I didn't like. Um, I'm not going to tell you. You'll have to figure it out for yourselves, people. So I'd say if you're in your mindset and you're just like, I'm from Kentucky and only bourbons can come from Kentucky, it would not be America's native spirit. If you couldn't have bourbon from other states and people are like, oh, limestones only in Kentucky. Well, there's a limestone county, Texas, with a whole courthouse built out of limestone.

There's an Apple Valley, California, and there's not apples or valleys. What I was getting to is that, listen, the thing is, I love that sentiment. To be honest with you, you have reinforced that for me. And this is just in the last few months that we've been talking about this. I was just, you know, because it's popular, it's easy to say, right? It's like, I'm from Kentucky and only whiskey bourbon comes from Kentucky with limestone. And here's the thing about it. That just doesn't proliferate the spirit. And I love it that people from Washington and Texas and Kansas and Indiana and Florida, wherever they are, New York, are producing bourbon whiskeys because bourbon only has to be 51% corn, right, in the Mashville to be a bourbon. And I love that. And you know what? That pays homage to us or homage, as they say, because the people that created the spirit created a very good thing. It tastes good. Um, it feels good. It, uh, brings people together for conversations. Uh, it, it, it leads to podcasts, but no, seriously. Um, and I love that. And to, to, to just try to pigeonhole it is wrong.

What do you think, Todd? I mean, you had a couple of crafts on your

Uh, yeah. I mean, my eyes, like seriously, like in the last two or three years, really open to, you know, I'm, I'm a Frankfurt guy. Buffalo trace has been there for years. Of course it was ancient age and et cetera, et cetera. So it's, uh, it's really eye opening to see all this other stuff come in from other States. And it's, I mean, there's a certain, um, flavor to each of them. There's that Texas bourbon flavor. I've not had anything other than Spirits of French Lick from Indiana, but it's got a very distinct flavor that's different than Kentucky. You've had some MGP. Yeah. I could almost do it blind. If you poured me some MGP, I could almost nail it, I think. It's very distinct. But, you know, Tennessee, it's a totally different flavor coming from there too. And I think you hear that terroir coming from wine and, you know, you hear it about bourbon. I think that's, it's very factual, I think. It's some good stuff just coming from all over the place.

I think our podcast, we try to show that in our love for each region as a region for like different whiskeys. Some people say they don't like scotch. Well, I'm like, open your eyes up to what scotch is and what region it comes from. Same thing with Irish whiskey. There's some great Irish whiskeys out there. but you gotta open your eyes up, drink it right first off, don't just shoot it back, and say, you know, whiskey making isn't just from Kentucky, bourbon isn't just not from Kentucky. I picked Texas because it's my home estate and I have a love for them and stuff. But for this episode today, I tried to put 78 bourbons out on the shelf over there. And I think I got another 70 on the wall up there for people to try. And what I said when everybody came in, hey, try something you haven't tried before, a bottle that me and Jim have got to try and got to love. And we've opened our eyes up.

Yeah, I tried to go there and find one I hadn't had. But it just so happens these are all the ones off the shows we did. There might be one or two over there.

That's why I brought you one, Jim.

You did. Jim, what's that one you gave me that was the Bourbon of the Year thing?

Iron Root Harbinger 115. That was so good. It's magical. When I tell people that, they're like, you're lying. And I'm like, I'm not lying. They really did beat out Rebel Yale tenure, which I got a bottle of Rebel Yale tenure up on a shelf. I think both of them, I could see where the judges probably struggle with that, but both are weeded bourbon. Might be a thing there, I don't know. But a good representation of Texas bourbon and what can come out of Texas. But there's stuff from Arkansas over there, from Colorado, from Mississippi, I could just from Washington state from Oregon. Um, I was trying to think what else is over. Indiana is on there. Ohio's on the shelf over there, Virginia, uh, West Virginia. I could just go down that list and say all these States over there. I was over there on the shelf. So have I opened up my eyes? I'm open about my eyes, especially since we started a podcast, 150 shows, right? Um, I've just,

Yeah, I get excited every time there's a bourbon I haven't tried. I mean, every time there's a new craft distillery, I just I really want to try it. I mean, you can show me that you can tell me you're going to buy me any whiskey off a bar. But if I look up there and I see a craft bottle or something new I haven't tried, I'm going for that before I go for some big boy. I just am because I'm excited. It's like opening a present. It's like opening a gift. You know, you get to try something new and different and it's exciting for me. I mean, I really do get excited about it.

Yeah. He went to the bar one night and we're here in town and they said, Hey, you guys can try anything you want off the shelf. Right. And they have some big boys up there and Jim's like, I'll try that Casey Jones. I haven't had it before driving that train. Yeah. I mean, Hey, um, I think you're that spot on, Jim. It's exciting to get to taste some of that.

By the way, how was it, Casey Jones? It was very respectable. I think it was, now it's just a simple bourbon. It doesn't have a lot of layer to it, but it was well done. It was well crafted. It had a good flavor. It was fine. It was fine. Didn't have anything that kind of blew me away, but I respected it.

Well, 150 shows, Jim. Congratulations. Not a lot of people get to that 150th. Cheers to you guys. Thank you. Absolutely. It's been a good ride. Todd, Matt, we appreciate you coming on the show today, telling some stories, sharing your bourbon list with everybody, kind of proving that there's a little bit of everything on the shelf. I'd said it last week that somebody said we had a little bit of snobbery, right? I don't think we do. I mean, I got old granddad over there on the shelf.

It's one of my favorite brands. I mean, listen, if you took a 365 day tour of my life, I probably drink old granddad bonded more than others, A, because it's good, B, because it's 20 bucks and it's approachable. And I just love the little kind of a hint of that zest, orange zest that's got in there. And of course with the, you know, caramel and oak and all that, but It's a great bourbon.

I would tell our listeners out there, if you do think we're being snobbery or not, just hang with us for a couple of episodes. Listen those episodes through. You'll see that we try to touch all bases and stuff. Me and Jim just can't drink the same bourbon every day.

Well, not only that, but we're highlighting a lot of craft distilleries. and a lot of special releases, right? So we've got bottles that typically run a little bit higher dollar number on them simply because they're coming from a small outfit that's putting out just a few barrels and they got to make money. You know, or we're doing, we're doing special releases because people really want to showcase something special. Uh, so yeah, sometimes it might seem like we're kind of reaching up to the top shelf a little bit every now and then, but we try, we try to keep it real. We do.

And here's the thing, uh, being a roadie, I've learned, you know, if you see something out there that somebody's trying, I guarantee if you ask, Hey, You mind if I try a sample of that? It's going to go out the door and it'll be in your mailbox in three or four days. Somebody will take care of you. I mean, I should buy stock in those little Boston round glasses because I literally just bought a case of 80. I've gone through so many. I like sharing. Angel delivery. Yeah. Angel delivery.

Todd, what's your phone number?

After the show.

But that's what the bourbon culture is about, is sharing your whiskey, opening your damn bottles. It's not a whiskey collection. It's supposed to be open bottles that everybody can enjoy, introduce people to new whiskeys out there. Every time I get a whiskey, I don't only want to put it on a podcast, I want to share it with as many people as possible. It's like a spiderweb, you know, just throwing that spiderweb out there and catching some flies.

You know, Big Chief, I'm glad you said that, though, too, because I'm glad you keep saying the word whiskey, because bourbon is whiskey. Yeah. It's a style of whiskey. Scotch is whiskey. Jameson Black, by the way, it's my favorite, is whiskey. It's a whiskey, and it's made by people in different regions of the country. And that's what we're really celebrating. We love the bourbon style. We love that 51% corner better.

But we love whiskey, and that's what's really important. Absolutely. Well, gentlemen, we'd like to give you the opportunity to let our listeners know if they want to reach out to you and say, hey, why did you pick those five bourbons? How do they get a hold of you? Where are you at on Facebook, Instagram, whatever your social media choice is?

I'm Todd Ritter at Facebook. If you just want to see a lot of pictures of young kids, that's pretty much what I use that for. I did just start a kind of a bourbon page on Instagram and it's called The Dripping Barrel. So you can reach out to me there. I kind of use it to highlight some of the bourbon podcasts and YouTubers out there and just kind of show what I'm sipping on occasion. And you're a regular in the roadies. I am a regular in the roadies and I love it. It's a lot of fun.

I appreciate the invitation. I'm not going to wow you with anything bourbon-wise. I'm just Matt Simons on Facebook. If you want to see pictures of Jeep rides or good food, because I cook a lot, you can follow me there. Here's the deal. I'm the founder of the Christian Jeep Association. Believe it or not, Christians can also enjoy bourbon. And I also enjoy Jeeps. So if you have a Jeep and you like bourbon, maybe you could come and do a Christian Jeep Association, but on any other social media platforms, you won't find me out there. I'm usually behind the scenes, just doing my thing.

Big and seven foot on Instagram.

I do have DJ Seven Foot on Instagram and I'm just not very active and that's why I didn't promote it. I throw out some scripture pictures every now and then and some pictures of some food I've done, but I'm not... It's funny, I had somebody recently come up to me and said, hey, I want to get you for a party I'm having. I want to have you come play some music. I'm a musician. And I want to have you cook for me. And I was like, well, when I'm playing the music, that takes two hands. And the food also takes two hands. I don't have four hands. So how do you picture that working? Anyway, long story short, but also you can find me at DJ Matt Simons on Facebook. You can find me at Matt Simons Music on Facebook. I do DJ and play live guitar. And so I'm a little bit of a guy out there in the entertainment industry. I appreciate the platform for that. But no, nothing bourbon related. I'm just a guy that enjoys bourbon and enjoys the company of these guys here.

Awesome. Well, you can find The Bourbon Road on all social medias at The Bourbon Road. You can also find us on the web. We have a website called thebourbonroad.com. Mike, what can they find on the website?

So you can find our articles about each episode on there for long episodes like today. You can also find our reviews on there. You can find our bourbon swag, the bourbon bullshitter t-shirt, which I'm rocking right now. Obby's rocking one too. You got to get yourself one of those. We're going to have our bourbon road shirt on there. Our bourbon Glen Carons from Distillery Products.

premium bar products dot com you want to check them out if you want some bourbon glasses you can get our bourbon road hat on there that's what you can find on there Jim absolutely well we do have a private Facebook group and you've heard us mention it a couple times during the show today with called the bourbon roadies if you go to our Facebook page and you click on groups you will see the bourbon roadies and we just ask a couple of questions we want to make sure that you realize you're getting yourself into a bourbon group That you're 21, old enough to drink, therefore talk about it. And three, that you agree to play nice and you're not going to be a bully. Right, Mike?

We just don't tolerate any rudeness. I just, that's something I can't, I can't. Can't cotton it. Can't cotton it. Can't cotton it. That's what they say, right? Can't cotton it. Just don't knock for some, somebody down for what they're drinking. If they were drinking Jim Beam white label, that's what they want to drink. They're drinking Jack Daniel's whiskey. They want to come in there and talk to us. Let them do it. Um, say, Hey, welcome to the group. I'm glad you joined and here's some other bourbons you might enjoy.

All right. We do two shows a week. We do a short episode where we kind of focus on a craft distillery. We do about a 15 minute review. Pretty quick thing. And then we do a long episode like today's episode where we have some guests on and we really do a deep dive. We would love to have you listen to both episodes every week. Check us out. Give us a review. Subscribe, right, Mike? Subscribe.

So, man, Jim might have to say this, man. 150 shows listeners. Thanks for hanging around with us. I know we can be a lot of, a lot of the time, but 150 shows, Jim, congratulations. You are the creator of this monster we've created, right? It's a monster. But damn, it's been a fun ride, 150 shows. I can't wait to get to 300 shows. I don't know. There's no bourbon company out there at 300 years old. So I don't know.

We're going to drink some shots. Is there a note for us for 300, by the way? Can you invite me back for that now?

All right. Well, we'd love to hear your thoughts. If you've got an idea for a show or a bottle and you'd like to have us do a review or talk to somebody you think is worthy of our time, we'd love to hear about it. You can reach out to me on Instagram at jshannon63.

I'm One Big Chief. And we will see you down the Bourbon Road.

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