153. Ironclad Missouri Toasted Oak Cask Single Barrel

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 are reviewing another Virginia whiskey. It's been a while since we had one on. I think the last time we had a Virginia whiskey on was when I traveled to Virginia to visit Randy, was it?

Yeah, I think so. We've had a couple of them on, though. I think four or five, actually, we've had on the show. But this one's kind of a special one for both of us.

Yeah, it's kind of tied to the maritime world, right? Most definitely.

One of the really first steel warships really, or two of the steel warships that fought each other in the world at the time. And we're talking about the Monitor and the Merrimack, which was fought at the Battle of Hampton Roads right there in Virginia. Yep. So this is ironclad distillery.

So this is a Virginia distillery paying homage to the ironclad ships of the Civil War.

Yeah, I even have some ties to that. When I was in the Army and landing craft, we'd take Army divers and we'd go down to the coast of North Carolina there and they'd found out where it was and they were raising stuff up and the boat I was on actually had a crane on it and we raised up the anchor and brought it back to the Newport News Maritime Museum. Just a beautiful museum if you haven't been there.

Wow, that's pretty awesome, Mike. Yeah, that's something else to be a part of. I mean, definitely. So this whiskey is, um, it's a four grain whiskey, right?

Yeah.

Can you tell me a little bit about it? I don't know what their mash bill is, but this is their Missouri toasted oak cask. Okay. So this is a, this is a bourbon. It's a four grain bourbon that, uh, after it's completed aging, they put it in some toasted oak casks from Missouri and they allow it to finish for about what? Six months.

Yeah. So they finished it for five months in the lightly toasted new white oak barrels. Um, I think that's something a little bit different. We've, I mean, you kind of have an infatuation, especially me with toasted bourbons.

Yeah. Usually they're way sweet. I mean, they've got that extra measure of sweetness that comes from that, uh, the wood sugars and the toasted oak.

Yeah. You get that sometimes campfire s'mores, marshmallow. Uh, you get all that, just the rich notes that come out of some complexity there and stuff. Now this bottle right here, they sent us as a hundred and five proof on their website. It says for anywhere from 90 to a hundred.

So does that make us special?

I guess so.

They probably have been listening to past shows where you said, I think it'd be better if they let it be cast strength.

Hey, I'm happy with that stuff. Now this has a, this is only a little 375 bottle. They go for $50. You can buy it on Spirit Hub. Not bad for a 375 for 105 proofer. You know, when I always compare stuff back to what the double double Woodford reserve goes for, right? That's a little 375 bottle. It goes for $50 and it's only 90.4 proof.

And the WB saffle from Turkey, it's a 375. It goes for about 50 bucks.

Yep. Now you got to remember that when you buy this and you're drinking it, it's 105 proof. It's super dark though. which you would expect from a toasted, right?

Yeah, it's very dark, very dark. It looks like a mini Rebel Yell 10 year bottle.

Yeah, yeah. I don't know what the age on this is, but it's definitely a dark whiskey. Kind of excited about it. Anything that's toasted. Now, Virginia, how much time did you spend there in Virginia?

I was there for just three or four days. It wasn't a long time, but got to try a few whiskeys from there, you know, Catoctin Creek and Bear Knuckle and some others. What about that back in your Navy days? Oh, I'm sorry. So back in the Navy days. Yeah. So actually I didn't spend a lot of time. I was in Norfolk for Just a short time before I deployed. So most of my time in Norfolk was spent at sea, not at port.

I spent 10 or 12 years there in the Newport News, Hampton Roads area. I'll tell you what, in the summertime, I could kind of see why this is dark, because it gets hot there. It is super hot there on the coast, super humid. I could see that whiskey moving in and out of that barrel. Wintertime's kind of mild there, somewhat like Kentucky here. We don't get freezing winters or anything. But I could see that being on the par. If you drove over to I-64, it actually ends there in Virginia. It runs right through our backyard. Right through it, yeah. So let's know as this thing goes.

Let's check it out. Wow. That's a, that's a caramel nose. No doubt about it. I'm actually getting some burnt chocolate on that. I'm getting like figs, like fig Newton and caramel nose, but I am picking up a little bit of the chocolate though.

Mike that, you know, when you, uh, toast a marshmallow and you get absolutely just like black, that's what I'm getting on this. Okay.

Let's check it out. Let's taste it. Cheers. Cheers.

There's that wave of sweetness I get.

Yeah, it definitely has that wave of sweetness. I'm getting the rye on it though. So for me, you mentioned the marshmallow that was blackened. For me, I'm getting like rye toast that spent too much time in the toaster, got that sort of charred You know, you hate that when you turn the toaster up just a little too high and it comes out a little dark. Yeah.

I'm kind of getting that, but this is with rye toast. Rye toast, huh? You don't get no sweetness on this at all.

Oh yeah. Yeah. There's some rye, there's some sweetness there. So it's definitely picked up from those wood sugars on the toasted barrel.

I'm getting that rye taste too. You're getting a little bit of bitterness on the back end, almost like a bitter chocolate, like a baking chocolate.

I think the chocolate part of this is definitely coming in on the backside.

That front wave is just a little bit of spice. Maybe that's from the proof. Um, it's dark. Um, not as much finish as I thought would be there.

Now I will say there's a little bit of youth peeking through on it. Not a lot, but a little bit. So I mean, if you're sensitive to, um, you know, a little bit of that, those youthful notes, uh, you'll expect a little bit from this one, I think.

Now, I don't think that you're using 53 gallon barrels. I think they're using smaller barrels and that might be where we're getting all this from is the smaller barrels. We've tasted smaller barrels before and we've gotten that same thing, a little bit of youthness to it. It's almost like they're trying to rush the whiskey a little bit. I'd like to see them go to that 53 gallon barrel. Maybe they're just not big enough to do that.

Could be. I mean, overall, um, you know, I would say that this is a pleasant whiskey. It's got, um, some pretty good notes to it. There's a lot more going on to this as I sip on it, I start to pick up some additional things. I'm like, you know, those figs on the nose are starting to come out a little bit on the palate. Uh, the right host. Um, I mean, get a little bit of like a buttery kind of a little bit of a buttery taste to it. Like maybe you went ahead and said, Oh yeah, I over, I over toasted the right toast, but I'm still going to put my butter on it. So.

I'm actually getting those figs now too. You say that maybe that's just cause you said it, but either a Turkish fig. Um, I served some of them here the other day and one of my trades at the white figs. Yep. Okay. I could get that. Cause when you open it up, it's not white inside. It's dark or a fig preserve on this. Um, the sweetness is there. I still getting that just a medium finish on this little bit of pepper, little bit of pepper.

I'm starting to get a little bit of hug on this. Not bad for a little craft distillery. Yeah. I mean, I'm looking forward to tasting this again after another year. You know, I know that's already finished, but maybe if it had another year under its belt, um, some of those youthful notes would go away. They would become a little bit more, um, rich and bold, but already I can taste layers in the flavors. You know, this is something that's developing well. I would imagine, Mike, if you and I continue to sit here and sip on this 375, that we would continue to uncover things as it, as it opened up.

Well, I'd say if you're from Virginia or if you have a tie to U S Naval history, um, you're a Mariner. I think this is a great bottle to pick up and to have in your collection of, of on your, on your shelf of whiskey. Um, It's a nice little craft to still re bottle. It's not going to break your bank or anything. Are you getting a steel at it? No, definitely not. Cause I, you know, what would a seven 50 cost you? It's going to cost you a hundred bucks. Right. Um, but still a nice little bottle. And I think you're right about that bottle. It's like a little mini a rebel yell 10 year bottle. Right.

Absolutely. I'll tell you what, another thing, when you go to Virginia and you go to the state liquor stores in Virginia, cause that's a control state, right? And you go in that liquor store and you look, they're going to have those Virginia whiskeys all down the top shelf. Very prominent. Very prominent. They're proud of their whiskey in Virginia. No doubt about it.

Well, I think they're proud of whiskey here in Kentucky just a little bit, right? Yeah, they are. Absolutely. Heck, you can almost go to any state and get some Kentucky whiskey, though. Yeah. I don't know. Jim, for me, it would be a buy. I was very glad to reach out to these people. As a matter of fact, I'm going to Virginia in May, I called these folks up and said, hey, I'd like to stop by and see you. And I think we'll stop by there and do an episode with them. Good deal. Talk to them about their history, their lineage. What's in store for them if they're going to go to that 50? You know I'm going to press them on that, right?

Yeah. Well, you know, you gotta be honest. You know, we are honest with our listeners. We're honest with our distilleries. Um, you know, this, whenever we say this is a buy, this is something we recommend you give a shot. I mean, that's, that's, that's a thumbs up as far as I'm concerned. Uh, but we're going to give you our taste in those. We're going to tell you what we think about it. Um, I'm not getting any youthful corn, like corn, youthful corn notes out of it. Mostly what I'm getting is kind of new oak, a little bit of, maybe that's coming from that finishing barrel. That finishing barrel, that Missouri toasted oak.

I don't know why they called it a Missouri toasted oak cask. You know, a lot of whiskey that goes in the cask comes out of, uh, out of Missouri. Um, a lot of oak trees there, right? That American oak. So yeah, Lebanon, Missouri, yeah.

Lebanon, Kentucky's got some oak coming out of it too, doesn't it? Just a little bit. I think there's, there's a couple of, uh, a couple of Lebanon's involved in cask making, I think.

Well, I mean, I do know in a Penn Stave Company is sending a lot of barrels completely around the world for winemaking and they're known for their barrels. Absolutely.

Well, Mike, I'm going to say definitely something you need to try. If you're from Virginia or your birthplace is Virginia or you've got friends from Virginia, I would say this will be a bottle to have on your bar to celebrate Virginia and their efforts in producing whiskeys for the country. I'll be honest with you. I love the maritime theme. You and I both have a special part in this bottle. We got a special love for anything maritime. But anyway, dark liquid. layered a lot going on. Uh, I think it's, I think it's definitely something you want to add to your bar. If you get a chance.

Yeah, I can, I can, I'm excited to see where they go in the future too. And, um, so much craft stores are just learning how to, to make whiskey and make it really good. And as time goes on, you know, is there whiskey only going to get better? I'd say so.

I'll tell you what, when your glass is empty and mine is empty and you bring it up and you nose it, an empty glass, you really get a good nose on it. Do you? And I'm getting that, uh, caramel and figs, caramel and figs. Like a Fig Newton. Like a Fig Newton. Yeah. I do like my Fig Newtons.

We've talked about that in the past. Uh, you're a Fig Newton town. Well, Jim, another great distillery. Where can our listeners find us on social media?

So we can be found on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Tik Tok at The Bourbon Road. We are pretty prominent on Instagram, probably even more so on Facebook. The others we work at a little bit, but primarily Facebook and Instagram. We also have a Facebook group called the Bourbon Roadies. And on the Bourbon Roadies, this is a private Facebook group where people who are fans of the show, who are friends of the show, who like to support us, come in, hang out, chit chat about the episodes, talk about bourbons they're drinking, bourbons they're sharing.

We do encourage sharing, don't we? Oh, most definitely. You gotta share your whiskey with everybody out there. That's our hope that you would. Don't let it just sit on the shelf and collect dust. Open it up. Pour some for your friends. Heck, give them something. If you don't like their whiskey. Give it to your friends and see if they like it. Somebody out there will like it.

Absolutely. We do two shows a week. We do a short episode like today's where we kind of spotlight a bottle, spotlight a distillery. We also do a long episode on Wednesdays where we kind of go at a little bit more depth. Sometimes we'll have a guest on. Sometimes it's just Mike and I. We would love to have you guys listen to both shows every week. And in order to know when those shows are coming out, The easiest way Mike is I'll hit that subscribe button.

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Absolutely.

Well, we'd love to have you listen to both shows every week. If you've got an idea for a show, if you've got an idea for a bottle that needs to be reviewed, please let us know. Mike and I are very approachable and we're always got our ears open. You can find me on Instagram at jshannon63. I'm one big chief. And we will see you down. The Bourbon Room. But 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.