217. Jeptha Creed Bottled In Bond Rye Bourbon Review

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. And this is The Bourbon Road. And today, Mike, we're Studio 1A.

Yeah. Simpsonville, Kentucky.

Yeah.

It was about a 65 degree day outside. The leaves are falling. It's a good fall day in Kentucky. I don't know where you were at 65.

It's like 45 out today. It's cold today. You had to get in the sun. It's rainy. You had to get in the sun. Where were you at?

You were in a tree stand.

No, I got a box fly. I mean, it was cold this morning. It's 34. Yeah. But then, uh, I really did think it was only got to 45 today. That's what my pickups say. Well, man, I guess when I went out. Yesterday now.

Yeah. Well, yesterday was 70, right? Yeah. Well, I went out today. I had my jacket on because I heard it was going to be cold. So I wore my jacket. It was, then I had a few things to do out with the Anna mules, you know? Yeah.

You got a mule out there now? No, I just call them the Anna mules.

I was like, you got a new pet.

but i got a little warm after i had to take my jacket off so i thought it was a warmer day so maybe it's just me working outside yeah probably probably all right i know it's it's supposed to that cold front hit this morning that rain you know behind that was that cold front so um it was a nice morning the deer stand to kind of ponder life a little bit yeah well today we're drinking a little whiskey we're outside we're out of the

elements were in the basement here. Yeah. And we actually have been sampling bottles for like the last hour. Yeah. And we've gone through quite a few samples, uh, because we like to sort of get the lay of the land, right?

Well, we had some distilleries, send us some stuff, smaller sample bottles to decide kind of what we wanted to have on the show. And, uh, the site before they sent us every one of them. and their new distillery. So we went through those. We drank a little shine. Yeah, we did. Um, drank some other stuff, but yeah, we do got a local bourbon. It's a long time coming. Yeah. It probably painful for them.

Yeah. Well, I mean, we have every reason to want to have this distillery on our show to have their expressions on our show.

Yeah.

To see a winner because this is our hometown. These are our hometown people.

They are. It's Jeff, the Creed distillery. I know a lot of people know that bottle out there. It is a striking bottle. I mean, super beautiful. This is their bottled and bond right here. Pretty nice looking bottle. Uh, it is a high right bourbon.

So this is a bourbon.

This is a high right bourbon and it's in their traditional bottle that they put their four grain out in, right? Yeah. It's got a, instead of the, it's got the little label at the bottom that's blue that shows that it's the bottled and bond, which would means what four years old, a hundred proof.

One distilling season, one master distiller stored in a bonded warehouse. It's supposed to be the very good stuff, right?

Yeah. I mean, how many warehouses can you see from the interstate anywhere?

I mean here.

Yeah. Throughout Kentucky, they're very visible here.

Not so much, right? Well, not through all my interstate though. I've never. Oh yeah. I guess not on the interstate. They're usually on the back roads, right?

Yeah. I only think of one and it's Jep the Creed. You know, most of them you don't get to see.

No, the Bluegrass Parkway is not an interstate.

Yeah, it kind of is cause that's barstown bourbon companies got all theirs right down through there, right? Bluegrass parkway is kind of that redneck. Yeah. Is that not what you're supposed to call it? I mean, I don't know. I mean, it goes from one end of the state to the next. I mean, really? Yeah, it does. It's a long old road. Um, but yeah, I guess barstown bourbon company, you can see there's two, um, which is super, super nice. They got some giants out there. But Jeff, the creed is like, They're like on the interstate on I-64. So if you're driving for Virginia all the way out to Missouri, you cannot miss it. It is very visible.

It's a beautiful distillery. It's on some rolling lands in Shelby County, Kentucky, and we're from Shelby County, Kentucky. Hence, this is our hometown kind of distillery, right?

Yeah, we've been there many times too. Before COVID, they had their whole Friday night things and they had Saturday nights out there. New Year's Eve out there all kinds of events out there. So got some good food food trucks show up It's a good time. It's a good family event, too It's not I saw about the whiskey out there stuff But so this right here has that mash bill of 75% bloody butcher corn 20% malted rye and 5% malted barley

I mean, this is a fairly high rye, right? 20% is pretty good. Now we've seen some 40 percenters or near 40 percenters, but 20 is considered a pretty high rye. And, uh, you know, and this is malted rye. So a little bit different. No, actually, let me, let me rephrase that.

malted dry is a lot different than regular rye. Yeah. It's going to give it a different nose. Number one, a nose that people are probably not used to. It could be off putting to them. So I would say don't judge a book by its cover. Right. You know, that's that old say it, right? Um, wait till you taste it and it still, um, might shock you and stuff. So that 20% malted or I, Um, definitely gives us a different note. I think it does.

It does. And, and the, and the bloody butcher corn, it's not your everyday yellow corn. It's definitely got a different flavor. It imparts a different flavor on the whiskey. And it's something that, you know, is being used in a few distilleries around the country. Uh, I know one particular in Texas, right, Mike? Yeah. Uh,

iron root down there. They use bloody butcher corn. I know there's several across the nation that have started now. Some of those are all saying, Oh, we're the only people using it. Um, but, um, we know there are several. So Jeff, the creed, a lot of people ask what that means in our family motto is from ancient Scotland. And I can't even say it, ne o de, or ne o be, which loosely translates to don't forget where you came from.

Remember your roots.

Yeah. Jephthah Creed is the embodiment of this maxim as they honor their family, state and local heritage.

I mean, it's kind of great, you know, so the Jephthah Creed distillery is saying, Hey, or the family, the nethery family who owns the Jephthah Creed distillery is saying, remember your roots, pay homage to the ground you live on, you know, hold true to who you are. I mean, you're very proud to be from Jephthah Bend Farm, right?

I am. That's the creek that flows out of the Jephthah knobs and that's where they live at. That's where this corn comes from. That's the farm that they're farming their own corn. Now, how many distilleries out there are farming their own grain and bringing it to the distillery to cook up for whiskey?

So Farm to Bottle, in this case, if you go in there and visit them, Farm to Glass, right? Yeah. And they've got a great bar there. They've got a great little tour. I haven't been back since COVID, but their weekend get togethers that they have there were pretty epic. Before COVID.

Yeah, I'd say around 500 people maybe. Yeah. I mean, it's slam packed in there sometimes.

country music and, uh, cornhole and just general good times. Great place to go to a lot of fun, but things had slowed down a bit during COVID. In fact, they slowed down to a stop during COVID. And, uh, I guess they're just starting to ramp things back up now.

Yeah, they are. You still have to wear a mask if you go in there. So just abide by their rules. If you go in there, everybody's got what they want to do. So still a great place to visit. You drive down I-64. It is the exit 32 is where you want to get off. Nice quick tour. If you, if you want to get one.

You can always send Mike or I a message and say, Hey, I'm at Jeff the Ben having a drink. Come join me. We might just come over there. Yeah. It's not like we just, I mean, it's literally about two miles from my house, but five, five from yours. Yep. There you go.

You can just roll on down there. Can't you?

Yeah, man.

Yeah. Well, heck, we've been talking for a minute. Let's, uh, let's taste this first. Let's do it.

Let's hit it with the nose first though.

Very earthy truffles.

Yeah, the nose now, I think that's something to do with the with the malted rye and maybe even a little bit of the bloody butcher corn. I'm getting sort of a truffle with a little bit of citrus, like the waft of orange peel, maybe on top of a truffle. I'm getting a little bit of, like, cut hay in the fall. Yeah, this nose kind of reminds me a little bit of, you know, sort of the ground it came from, like the truffle, the earthiness of a truffle and the citrus and the hay that you mentioned, a little bit of carrots.

Yeah. Any root vegetable, you know, you're pulling out of the ground, still has that earthiness to it and stuff. It does have a rich smell to it.

It does have a little bit of sweetness though. I mean, I'm getting a nice sweetness from it, but that malted rye just contributes that, uh, and we've had other malted rye products that we've kind of, we've had before that kind of give us that same similar nose, right? Um, old Pogues Maysville rye is a good example.

Definitely. That's a, don't judge a book by his cover right there. Uh, sip on that and try to figure it out and let it adapt to your palate. Well, hey Jim, I say cheers. Let's taste this.

Let's taste it. Cheers. It's a, it's got a nice texture to it. A little creamy, no more sweetness on the palate than there is on the nose.

Like sugar, cinnamon toasted cereal. Yeah. That Oak after four years here in Kentucky is coming through a little bit. Not a whole lot.

I mean, this tastes like a four-year-old rye. I mean, it's got that four-year-old rye kind of body to it. I would say it's well represented as a bottled in bond. Definitely a nice sweet oak flavor to it.

Yeah. I would call this like a medium finish. It's not. They described it as a long finish. I don't think so personally. That's my palette. It's not sticking with me. Now I am getting a kind of that toasty taste toasted, uh, cinnamon crunch cereal. It's leaving me with that.

You know, I would say if you haven't had a malted rye before, it's something you definitely want to experience and don't prejudge it, right? I mean, it's definitely got sort of a flavor and aroma of its own. Uh, and I'm not saying it's for everybody, but man, it's one of the things in this world that I really like.

So I think here's the issue with a lot of people. is they close-minded and they're like, all bourbon should taste like this.

Vanilla, caramel, baking spices.

Yeah. Yeah. And me and you know that is not true. These craft distilleries like Jep the Creed are going outside of the box. How easy would it be for them to just to make regular old bourbon? Sure. I mean, that's easy, right? Anybody can do it pretty much as long as you got that license to do it. but to step outside the box and say, okay, we're going to do 20% malted rye in this. We're going to use bloody butcher corn, which is a different type of corn.

And we're going to grow it ourselves. We're going to grow it ourselves.

They're going that extra mile. I think it's a good bourbon. Um, 49 99, not overly pricey.

Yeah. I mean in the craft space, this is pretty typical and you know, the bottle is exceptional, well designed, the label superb. And you know, I have to say the color on this whiskey is a, is probably a little darker than I would expect. Pretty, pretty good color to it.

even in the glass, not even in the bottle. I was wondering if the bottle would make it change color because the way the bottle is. Um, but it is darkening glass too.

I was hoping to get a little bit of maple out of it, but I didn't really get any maple on this one. No. Do you get that Oak out of it? I do. It's a sweet Oak though. It's a, um, I, I wouldn't say it's like a, like a, a mature Oak.

It's more of a young, sweet Oak, like a toasted Oak. You know where you can buy some Oak to display at your house. Oh, you're going to tell me Cruz customs flags. You can.

Oh, I love, I love Chris. He's a great guy.

Yeah. Chris Cruz has Cruz customs flags. He is a combat veteran. He employees combat veterans at his business. They take bourbon barrels. They take him apart. They put them back together, but not as a barrel. They put them together as American flags. Both of us got one displayed at our house. Very beautiful piece of art. You can buy one for your house, a small one, or if you have a business or a conference room, you can buy the general very large, uh, bourbon flag display up in your house. You can get them all the kind of stuff and then you can put a red line in there. If you're a firefighter, a blue line, if you're a police officer, I just think it's very neat. I've seen him put the, where the stars go. If you're a veteran, your services flag in there. It looks super nice.

And the holidays are coming up. So this is a good time to think about, you know, what are you going to get that special person in your life, that veteran, that person that served our country or that business owner that needs something to put on the wall in their conference room? What a great choice. I mean, these things are really, really special and I'm, I'm very proud to display it on my bar.

Well, that was a gift from a veteran to a veteran. A veteran owned and operated business. How could you go wrong? He's got other items. He's got bottle openers made out of bourbon staves. He's got a cup. It's chart inside a cup that you can drink your bourbon inside. And that's pretty cool. That's pretty neat. He's got all kinds of stuff. He's got a state key holder and stuff that you could purchase. Go check him out today. The other nice thing that he has is a, if you collect challenge coins, you're a veteran, you're in the military, or if you're a police officer, EMT, and you're collecting those challenge coins, he's got a coin holder. very, very beautiful, made out of bourbon staves. Check them out today. Cruzcustomsflags.com. We'd appreciate if you'd support this veteran owned and operated business. And we all love when a bourbon barrel finds a new place and a new purpose, right? Repurposed. Repurposed, that is.

And we also love when a veteran finds a new place and gets repurposed as well. Yeah. And that's pretty awesome.

Well, Jim, what's our final thoughts on this right here?

I think Jephthah Creed has stepped up their game here a little bit. You know, they've entered the bottle and bond game, which is kind of cool. You know, we all love to see a new bottle and bond whiskey and they've done it here. If you're visiting the Bourbon trail and you're traveling down I-64, I would say stop into Jephthah Creed, visit the distillery. It's a beautiful place. Take a tour. Buy a bottle. I think you'll enjoy it and keep your mind open because The malted rye and the bloody butcher corn bring something special to the game. And if you haven't had it before, I think you're going to find it to be something interesting that sparks your interest.

Yeah. As I'm sitting here drinking this, that spice is lingering on my tongue. This doesn't have that strong, uh, Kentucky hug, but that spice is sticking with me.

Yeah. Now they, they had their veterans celebration, right?

They did. We kind of got there a little bit late to that. Nice. I caught the very end of it. Nice tribute to veterans. They do have a barrel that comes out, I believe it's next year. that me and my son side, it's the red, white and blue series. I'm on there too. I'm excited to see that barrel get some bottles out of there and that will be only sold to veterans. Um, so both of us, I think get an invite up there to go ahead and get one of those bottles.

Yeah. I remember taking the tour there and signing that barrel and thinking, man, I need to be here. The day they crack this barrel, the ball, the day they bottle it, right?

Yeah. Maybe we can get a special invite in there and the day they do bottle it. That would be pretty awesome. Yeah.

All right, Mike. Well, it's been a long time coming, but we finally got Jeff the Creed on our show. Pretty excited about it. I hope our listeners will give them a shot and try a bottle of their whiskey. If you have plans on coming to the Bourbon trail, you're coming to Kentucky, you're going to travel up and down I-64, I would highly suggest you stop at a Jeff the Creed. And when you do, if you're a roadie, reach out to us. Let Mike and I know. We'll come have a drink with you.

Heck yeah. Well, Jim, where can people find us on social media?

Well, you can find us on Twitter. You can find us on Instagram. You can find us on YouTube, Facebook, TikTok. You're not going to find us on Discord. We just don't have enough time for all that. We try, but you know, a lot of that stuff takes time and Mike and I have to sort of focus our efforts on a few things. We also have a private Facebook group called the Bourbon Roadies. And on the Bourbon Roadies, I mean, we're about 2,500 strong now, kind of a family. close-knit group of people that respect each other, drink bourbon, share our bourbon experiences, share our life experiences, and we treat each other with respect. And if you're not one of those people, if you're not going to treat each other with respect, probably not the place for you. Hit the road, Jack. Hit the road, Jack.

Yeah. So we do a couple shows a week to find out how you listen to those shows. If you're listening to us right now, you've already got an app on your phone to listen to podcasts. Scroll on up to the top. Hit that plus that check sign. Subscribe or whatever you got to do. Your phone will tell you your app will tell you, hey, these two jokers are doing another show and you need to listen. Then what we need to do is scroll on down, hit that five star review. You know what happens if you don't, I'm going to come pay you a visit. I'm bring my big buddy, the big bad booty daddy of bourbon. I'm going to drink some bourbon all night long. I'll definitely bring some craft whiskey with me. Um, we'll have a great time, but that five star review right there, it helps us get down the bourbon road. It opens doors. It gets great bottles given to us like this bottle of Jeff, the creed bottled and bond 100 proof. high rye whiskey.

And we thank Jeff the Crete for providing this bottle to us. Yeah.

That's, that's what those five star reviews have done to us right there has gotten us great bottles, our hands on them. We get it in our glass. We can provide you with great content. Well, Jim, another great show, right?

Another great episode. We love these Monday episodes, these craft distillery reviews. It gives us a chance to shine the light on the craft distillery, trying to do good work here in the US, trying to supply some great spirits to their local communities. In this case, we definitely recommend giving this place a shot. And you know what? You're going to be in our hometown when you do. Make sure you reach out to Mike and I. We'd love to hang out with you. If you have an idea for a show, if you have a guest that you think should be on or a bottle you think should be on our show, we highly suggest you reach out to us. You can get on our website, thebourbonroad.com. You can leave us a contact us page response and on there that'll come directly to us. You can also email us. I'm Jim at thebourbonroad.com. He's Mike at thebourbonroad.com. But as we always say, probably the best way to hit us up is on DM, on Instagram. I'm jshannon63. I'm big bourbon chief. And we'll see you down the bourbon boom.