191. Brindle Straight Bourbon Whiskey

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

Hello everybody I'm Jim Shannon and I'm Mike Hyatt. This is the Bourbon Road and today Mike it's another craft distillery Monday and there's a Texas whiskey in the house. Yeah I mean

Sort of Texas sort of Texas, you know, it's it's a Texas by way of Indiana.

Well, you know this is the age of Non-distilling producers. Yeah for sure and there's a lot of good whiskey out there being blended and bottled by people who are not actually distilling the whiskey and it seems like Some of the really good ones are actually coming out of Indiana sometimes.

Well, a lot of them are coming out of there. There's nothing wrong with that with sourcing your whiskey and stuff, I think. But the art of it is when you buy the barrels, do you know how to blend them? Right. Right? Exactly. And we know some pretty good blenders out there.

Well, I mean, you've got to select barrels to start with, right? It's not just a matter of you know, it's a matter of purchasing the right stuff to start with. Yeah. Cause you can get good whiskey from a lot of places.

You can get some bad whiskey too. Well, that's definitely true. You know, and you know, I think Ashley Barnes says, you know, if you put bad whiskey in a, in a barrel, it's not going to make it better. Yeah. Right. Um, so, but MGP is known for making great whiskey. They are. I'm sure they'll have a bad, batch or a bad barrel every once in a while, but typically.

Well, today we have a Texas whiskey out of extreme West Texas.

Yeah, that's West West Texas. That's almost New Mexico.

Oh yeah. El Paso, Texas. We have not had a whiskey out of El Paso, Texas yet. This is our first time. So I would say at this point we've got Texas pretty well covered after this episode.

We got, I think we got one more area. We haven't covered South Texas, like Houston area yet. Um, but we've covered pretty much everything else in between. Yeah.

All right. So today we have, uh, from El Paso from the, uh, prospect spirits group. This is Brindle bourbon, Brindle B R I N D L E. And, uh, it's 88 proof. It is a small batch bourbon. And it does hail from MGP out of Indiana.

I mean, 88 proof. You wonder about that. Now is that a, what is that on the front label there? Is that a fly?

You know, when I heard Brindle. My brain went straight to Jeff Goldblum and the fly back from, what was it, the seventies or eighties?

I don't even remember. Like early eighties.

Early eighties. But it wasn't Brindle. It was Brundle. Brundle fly. Yeah. Anyway, so I saw that fly on it. I saw the name Brindle and I got to thinking, okay, this is a play off the old fly movie. But actually, Brindle is something about coloring on a fur, right? That could be a Brindle moth, I think.

I don't know, heck. I'm not good at that stuff.

Well, there's not a lot of information out on the internet about Brindle. This bottle was actually sent to us by a friend of the show. Now we've always said, if you're living out there in small town USA or you've got a local distiller and you'd like us to try the whiskey and highlight it on the show, we're happy to do it. In this case, James Dreyer, friend of the show, out of El Paso, Texas sent this bottle in for us to give a shot. And that's what we're doing today. So it really does work folks. If you send us a bottle of bourbon or even email us about a distillery in your hometown, we're going to take time and look at it.

Yeah, all the time. I, you know, um, I think I brought a whole bag of bourbon over here tonight. That's been sent to us. And, um, you know, you got sent that bottle right there. The, the end of the game though is what's in the glass. You know, we know that total wine sells this for 36 99, not a bad price. Sure. Sure. Um, you know, what's Basil Hayden go for? 49 99. Yeah. Yeah. That's 80 proof bourbon. So I say, let's give it a try. Let's give it a shot.

That's got a little bit of a sweet nose, but it's light. Doesn't have a long maturity kind of nose to it. I am getting the Oak though.

I would say this is probably a high riot to me. I could smell a little bit of spice in there. I get a little bit of light fruit, like peaches or nectarines.

Yeah, I'm getting the fruit Mike. And I would say it, it probably is a little bit lighter, like a peach or a, you know, a pear maybe, but it is floral, a little bit floral. There's a little bit of spice there. The ethanol on it doesn't bother me even a little bit. Let's say it's a fairly pleasing nose, although very light and nothing, um, extraordinary or notable, but just a, just a good solid nose, right?

Yeah. I think you get the, I pick up a little bit of that Oak on there. Maybe a hint of vanilla.

Yeah. All right. Let's taste it. Cheers. Packs a bit of caramel to it. on the mid palate and a little bit towards the back. I'm getting that rice spice a little dry.

Yeah, I was going to say almost bitter, but not bitter. It's drying on the, on that backend, little bit of sweetness. Like you said, caramel, maybe a little bit of caramel corn on there. Uh, you ever had like caramel that's almost burnt? You know, it's, it's almost burnt too much. Uh, like not caramel corn, kettle corn, kettle corn, and they've got it too hot and you can smell it burning off. I'm getting in that taste on it a little bit.

It's a little nutty. I'm going to say, um, pecan. Maybe that's just me thinking Texas. I was thinking, I was thinking Jiffy peanut butter. Yeah. It does have a nutty flavor to it.

Yeah. I think in a blind, I would almost thought this would be Heaven Hill. Yeah. Because of that nuttiness, right?

Yeah. If we, if we didn't know that the distillery was in Indiana, we might be kind of thinking it might be a Kentucky distillery, right?

That's got a little bit of a, just a small Kentucky hug. Not, not a whole lot of spice in this like I thought it would have. And maybe that's cause it's proofed down. And we always tell everybody, we're always drinking one 20 years or something like that. But you know, sometimes it's good to revisit a whiskey like this and kind of reset your senses.

I agree with you completely. You know, as I continue to sip on this, um, I'm forgetting about any sweetness it might have, and I'm focusing more on the rear of the palate, sort of that drying, um, oaky effect that I'm getting from it. I still get that bit of light fruit, but not with a ton of sweetness. So I'm going to say it's not balanced. I'm going to say it's a little bit more on the rear of the palate, a little less sweetness, a little more bitterness or drying.

You know, as I, like I sip on it and I'm, it's got this weird coating on my mouth, almost like it's a beeswax in your mouth. Um, coating it just a little bit, not, you know, maybe that's that drying effect I'm getting. Um, I don't know what else you eat that gives you that taste. You know, it's just a weird, not saying it's weird. I mean, it's, this is a nice bourbon. Yeah, it's a nice bourbon.

Yeah, I have to say, um, you know, one of the things they say on the bottle is, uh, it's a, it's a Indiana straight bourbon whiskey. So when you know it's at least two years old, uh, it doesn't specify the age. So technically if the label says it's a straight and it doesn't say. any age on it, then it's kind of required to be at least four years old. But we know sometimes a label will slip through every now and then. You know, they had so many new SKUs last year. TTB kind of has trouble keeping up, don't they?

I would think they would. I know Seth from Broken Barrel had said, I think, was there like 14,000 they had to go through last year or something? Yeah. And there's a lot of stuff they put on these bottles and stuff, but Steele for $36.99, a small craft distillery. They went out there, bought some barrels from Indiana and then went back. Nice ladle. I mean, I would call that the Stagg Jr. bottle, I guess. Yeah.

I mean, it's a pretty typical bottle for new distilleries to use. It's readily available. It's produced in large quantities. It's not too expensive. It's a good solid heavy bottle. I mean, Stagg Jr. is in it, right? So, but it's a little tough for a bartender to deal with, right? Because of its diameter.

I think that and the neck on it is a little short. Super long and stuff. You know, we've talked about that before about the Nexon bottles and how long they should be. But on this, I would call this a medium finish. We've got some legs on it though for 88 proof. Yeah, I noticed that. I noticed it was sticking a bit.

So one of the things that I'll tell you about the label is, and now it's got this, I think this is a moth. This is a moth on the front, on the front of the label. It's a very nice looking label. They did a good job on it. Assuming that there's a brindle moth, I would say this is a brindle moth. It's on the head of the cap as well. But on the label, they say Carpe Noctem. So we've all heard Carpe Diem, right? Seize the day. Carpe Noctem is seize the night. So they're telling you to go out and take control of the night.

So I was Googling that jam. It's the American brindle moth and they can be confused with a butterfly. Um, and I guess moths and butterflies can kind of be not one in the same, but when I think of moths, I think they eat your clothes. When I think of moths, I think like nighttime. Yeah. Right. Nighttime flight and stuff. Uh, but it's known for North American stuff. And I think the artwork they put on that bottle is definitely beautiful and stuff. Something like that's cool. They came out with a great name for it and stuff. It's catchy. Like you said, it's kind of that black goldish tan label. I like that.

Pretty simplified, right? Yeah. So Carpe noctum sees the night. We've got a moth on there, brendle moth. Moths kind of sees the night, don't they? Yeah. And you know, when you're out enjoying your bourbon, a lot of times it's at night, so. All right. Well, Prospect Spirits, if you're listening to this show, give us a little more backstory on this. We'd love to know why you chose the moth, why you chose the name. We're enjoying your whiskey. Simple, clean, nothing. I mean, it's not going to knock your socks off, but it's a good solid whiskey.

Most certainly and stuff. Well, Jim, hey, another great review and stuff. I think this would be a buy. If you're in that area, you're looking at El Paso area. If you're in total wine, you're looking for something extra to pick up, maybe something out of the normal spectrum and stuff. This is, this would definitely be a grab, I think.

I agree completely. So you're not going to wow anybody with this bottle, but I would imagine that any bourbon drinker that you give a pour this to is going to be perfectly satisfied.

I guess a lesson in this would be for if you're in the store, you're not sure where that whiskey came from. If it's not like a Texas straight bourbon whiskey, or if it's not a Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey, you're not sure about where it's from. Turn it around the backside and you'll see distilled in And it'll tell you the state has been distilled in usually Kentucky or Indiana, most likely and stuff. But there's some stuff coming out of Texas distilleries now that are probably going to be sourced for other people and stuff. So, um, make sure you just look on their or Ohio. Um, a lot of people source out of Ohio, right? So if you're looking at that shelf, you're not sure about something, read the label a little bit. Um, it'll, it'll help you out.

Well, hats off to Prospect Spirits and Brindle Bourbon. You know, their label is very clear, well written, transparent. You know, they don't try to hide anything. We know exactly what's in the bottle here. And as a consumer, I always appreciate that.

Heck yeah. Well, Jim, we got a giveaway on the bourbon roadies right now on Instagram. Three bottles of bottled and bond whiskey. bottle of JTS Brown, bottled and bond. Yeah. A bottle of Evan Williams, bottled and bond.

I love it. White label. And a bottle of JW Dant, bottled and bond.

All right. And then to go along with that from our good friends at Smokier, Bourbon, Barrelproof, Bourbon Chips and Blocks. We've got two bags of that. Go on there. Give us a follow. Give them a follow. Make sure you enter to win. You tag three people. You got to be 21, right? You got to live inside the United States because that's going to be a big box to ship and send out. So make sure you follow the rules on there. I think it's a good giveaway.

Absolutely. And us Texas people out there drinking Brindle bourbon, you're doing a little bit of grilling out there on your smoker, right? They're going to need some of those chips. Yeah.

Those chips or even the blocks. Heck. The nice thing about those blocks is you can light one on fire. put your glass over a big rocks class and that will make you a smoked old fashioned or something. Um, so that's a nice thing you use of the box. If you don't have a smoker and you want to have a smoked old fashioned or a smoked Manhattan, is that something new? You ever seen a smoked Manhattan?

No, but I'm ready.

Yeah, but that's a good giveaway. Uh, You know, we just want to give back to our bourbon culture, our bourbon community. There was another great giveaway on there by one of the other roadies inside the bourbon roadies, which is our private Facebook group. So if you want to get one of those giveaways. Go in there, check out those giveaways. Play along. Absolutely. We got another one that's going to be coming up. You don't want to miss out on that. It's another great set of glasses. You don't want to miss that stuff.

Absolutely. Well, Mike, people can find us all over social media. We do them all. Well, not all, but we do most of them. We do Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok. Now we don't do discord and we don't do Twitch. I don't even, I know what Twitch is, but I don't know what Discord is. You know, we may pick them up Sunday, but maybe if we get ourselves an intern. Yeah.

Yeah. Most definitely.

But people can find us in all those places. We also have a website called the bourbonroad.com. And on that website, Mike, you write some pretty darn good articles. Yeah.

You know, sometimes you latch onto something. Now, last week I wrote an article about Seth from Broken Barrel and stuff. And I mean, you were just almost overwhelmed with his work ethic, right? And I kind of wrote about that. you could almost see a bourbon baron sitting down here in your basement with us, right? Um, you could see that man of his drive and tenacity and you know, that's inspirational. I like to write about that stuff, but on other times I'll write stuff about bourbon festivals or, um, our locations, just all kinds of stuff. So make sure you check out those. We got some pretty good swag on there too. And we're about to add some swag.

Yeah. So we've got, a lot of stock coming in from our good friends at Distillery Products. We've got a lot of great stuff that's going to add to our catalog. Can't wait to debut it. Not going to tell you right now what it is, but I'm pretty darn excited.

Yeah, we've been talking about this for a while. If you don't know who Distillery Products, Carson and Janie over there, if you have a big bourbon group or you have a distillery that you need glass for it. Where for distillery products is the place they're going to beat everybody else out. You want to create customer service. Um, fun to talk to Janie, keep you, she will keep you laughing forever. Yeah. Um, out in Montana, small company, small business, give them your support and stuff. They got the glassware. They got the barware. That's where you want to shop for your bourbon group, your bar, whatever your business is that has to do with the industry. If you're looking for glassware, that's where we get our glassware from.

And if you want to see a sample, it's really easy. You just get on the Bourbon Road website and you order one of our Glencairns. We'll ship it out to you and you'll get to see exactly how good their product is. And you know, speaking of Montana, I'm ready to go out and visit those guys and do a little fly fishing in Montana. You're about to head on a trip anyways. You're going to Colorado. Going to Colorado, going to do a little fly fishing up in the mountains. The Rockies. Yeah, the Rockies. Looking forward to it. But yeah, I would love to get out to Montana. Isn't that where Legends of the Fall was filmed? That was, uh, Brad Pitt, wasn't it? Chasing that trout down the river. Yeah. Wow. Amazing. Anyway, Mike, we do two shows a week. We do one of these every week on Mondays. It's kind of a, we call it our craft distillery Monday. It's usually a short episode, less than 20 minutes. And we just kind of take a look at one single expression, usually a craft distillery, somebody we want to raise up, shine a little light on, let everybody know about them. And then every Wednesday we do a deep dive, an hour show, do 30 minute halves where we, uh, have a guest on or do something a little bit more, right?

Yeah. So this week we got coming up, we're going to be announcing next Wednesday, a special club that you can join. You're not going to want to miss that show. You're going to want to get in on this club. It's from a big boy distillery. You're not going to want to miss it.

It's limited to 500 people nationwide. 500 people total.

You got to be a resident of DC or Kentucky with a billing address in each one of those.

Keep tuned. Listen up. As soon as you listen to our Wednesday episode, you're going to want to,

go to our link that we're going to have on our website and on our social media post. Go to that link and you're going to want to sign up if you want some allocated bourbons. If you want to beat the flippers, you don't have to go to store. It'll show us right up to your house. I mean, that doesn't get much better than that, right? Absolutely. So you're going to want to check out that show. We also got Four Roses fixing to come up. We're going to have Brent Elliott on the show.

Yeehaw.

What an amazing show we're going to have. And we got the Green Berets from the movie 12 Strong, the actual Green Berets. We're going to have them on the show with their bourbon horse soldier. We know how good that stuff is. Absolutely. We've drank it on the show before. Pretty good shows coming up.

Yeah. I think we've got some great stuff coming up. You know, it's, uh, we're entering into the fall season. We're entering into, let's face it, bourbon time, right? Yeah. And a lot of great stuff going on. Mike, we need people to let us know how we're doing. Uh, how do they, how do they do that?

So one of the things we need you to do is go on right now, scroll on up and hit that subscribe button or that check mark on Apple podcasts. And then you want to scroll on down and hit that five star review. Tell us what you think about the show. Tell us what you'd like to see. Tell us how it makes you feel to listen to our show. Otherwise, you know what's going to happen. The big bad booty daddy of bourbon is going to come to your house. Maybe with a couple of bags of bourbon, like I did today for Jim's and we're going to make sure we get a five-star review of you some way or another. We're going to end. I'm going to leave with empty bottles to you. It's going to be a fun time.

All right. Well, like Mike said, we love to know what you think about us. We'd love to have a review from you. You can always hit our DM. You can always let us know on Instagram what it is that you got going on, what you'd like to hear from us. You can also send us an email. I'm Jim at The Bourbon Road. He's Mike at The Bourbon Road. But probably the best way, and we always say this, is to reach out to us on Instagram. I'm jshannon63. I'm OneBigChief. And we'll see you down the Bourbon Road.

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