224. Exploring Bourbon Special Releases

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, we got Woodrow at our feet. We're sitting in front of a roaring fire out at Jump the Bend. It's dark outside, though, man. It is dark. It snowed this morning.

It did. It did. That's kind of the first snow of the year, I think, right? Yeah, that was it. We had a little bit of black ice too, right? I think a little bit. Uh, I worked last night so it, you know, I'm watching it come down and, but it was kind of dissipating the whole time. It just, you know, it just wasn't cold enough.

I've just had a chill on my bones all day. I don't know why, just the thought of there being snow on the ground, just kind of, it went to the bone. I did, it did.

I've been looking forward to this drink all night. Well, you said pour a big pour. Well, we got two, uh, limited release bourbons that I got. I got them at retail. Um, of course, cause that's my thing, right? I don't, I don't like to overpay. You don't like overpaying either though.

Yep. Definitely do not like to overpay. What's your general rule about 10% over 10% for a small small store.

But if it's like Kroger or liquor barn or total wine. I usually would want to pay retail for that MSRP. They really don't mark them up.

You know, I mean, something like, I think liquor barns a little bit higher than total wine, but, um, you know, they give money back to veterans. Yeah.

Well, you can also go into Kroger and go find some steals in there. They had 46 cast strength a day in Kroger for $29.

Oh my gosh.

They still cast drink, uh, for just a 46. Um, but still for the 46 for $29, I was like, that's, that's a pretty good deal.

I was going to say they still got it. They had the FAO two for $60.

I think that's $10 off that, but I saw, plethora of on there. They got a bourbon shelf that has a sale rack almost in there and that's, that's where you get some great deals. There's usually some decent bourbons on that sale rack. Yeah.

Uh, wilderness trail at $40 in there. I mean, you cannot beat that. That's unheard of. Yeah.

But the two I got today, last week we drank rye. Yep. Um, this week I got two wheats.

Yeah.

I'm looking forward to it. I really do. I mean, I really do look forward to the wheats, Mike, because they're, they're, you know, kind of the break in my routine a little bit.

Well, I got one wheat that we're going to drink on the second half. That's kind of a granddad right now of the wheats, but, um, the first wheat we're going to drink was a kind of a shocker. And when I got offered a bottle, I was like, Why did he even question it? If I wanted it, just say, I got a bottle for you. So the first bottle we're going to drink from is, uh, from new riff is there red turkey wheat.

Red turkey. I haven't heard of red now. Red turkey wheat is a, it's a type of wheat.

It's one of America's great endearing wheat varieties dating back to the 1870s. It was common across the country. It is preserved today by artisan bakers and distillers and farmers who care about flavor. Whether in bread or bourbon, red turkey wheat confers rich, grain-forward flavors typical of old-time wheat varieties, while in this case, conjuring a zesty brightness to rise from the glass. That's what they say. So this is a 70% corn, 25% red turkey wheat, pretty high wheat right there. and 5% malted barley aged no less than five years. All right. So what's the proof on this bottle?

This is 100 proof. This is a bottled and bond. So this one's at least four years old, 100 proof. And we know our friends up there at, uh, at new riff. They love producing bottle and bond whiskeys, don't they?

They do. And this is non-shell filtered. So, um, I was happy to, to find this, to get it $50. I for a new riff bottle. That's, that's a great price. Yeah. And it's a bottle and bond. Um, for me to find a, um, we did bottled and bond. That's a pretty special thing. Sure. It is. Absolutely. I don't, I can't think of a whole lot of them out there that are bottled and bond or wheat, uh, wilderness trails only when I could really come to mind.

Now, what do you think about the, the new riff bottle? What's your opinion on the painted top on it?

I don't know that I like it. I like to see the bourbon. It's like they're trying to hide something. We've talked about that before, right? That they're trying to hide something in that bottle and then mean you learn something new today about shaking the bottle and seeing what the proof is, right? Yeah.

I think, you know, now that I know that and now that we've, actually tested it and we know that it does really work. Yeah, we're over there shaking the hell out of my bottles. I'm just wondering if it's going to be any more accurate than us tasting for the proof. You know, you can kind of taste for the proof and get close.

Yeah.

I wonder if the bubble test will be more accurate.

I don't know. Yeah, I don't, I don't know. So if you shake it, the bigger the bubbles, the faster they dissipate is a higher proof, right? Yeah. Little bubbles that last around for a while is lower proof.

Yeah. So I mean, if they get, if you get down around 80 proof, they're going to be really small bubbles and they're going to just sort of stay there for a while. And, but anyway, I mean, it, it works. It really does work. So this is an old master distillers trick.

Yeah. And obviously we're over there shaking a couple of bottles and stuff. We're testing a couple of different ones out from low proof.

I looked at the new riff bottle and we're like, Oh, we can't do that one.

Yeah. I just, you know, there's a couple other bottles out there like that, that are black and they just, uh, I don't know. I like the bottle itself. You know, that's kind of that, uh, eh, Taylor style bottle, big, tall, long neck on it. Uh, you're not going to spill any bourbon out of it. You know, the only thing bad about it so tall, sometimes you gotta watch out what kind of shelf you put it on too. So yeah, so let's get to this thing. Let's just, let's, we're not, we're not reviewing this. There's just drinking it. All right, let's do it. Man, what a great nose on this thing.

It does. It does. It has, uh, it has a, a sweet floral nose on it. Kind of a little bit fruity.

Yeah.

Get that Oak a little bit of that, uh, ethanol heat, but you know what? I mean, it's, it's definitely more fruity than I remember a new riff being wack. Let's taste this thing.

Cheers. Cheers. Got a little zest on it, doesn't it? It does. Little pop rocks going on.

Kind of sizzles a little bit going down the sides. But it's a little bit softer on top, I think. It doesn't really hit the roof of your mouth too much. More on the sides for me.

It's getting that hug that went right down though, didn't it? Yeah. Is that killing that chill?

Yeah, I'm feeling good. I'm feeling good. This was a good size pour, Mike. You did it right.

Well, the reason we wanted these two on, because we were talking about limited releases out there. We haven't talked a bunch about limited releases, right? They're not single barrels so much as they're just limited. They're going to do one run out of it, maybe two runs of it. It's an experiment at the distillery. Sometimes seasonal. Seasonal, yeah. A big release happened today for roses released a 20 year single barrel bottle, $200 there. People were lined up for it. Um, we just both kind of missed out on it. Yeah.

You know, I don't know that I would have stood out for it, but it was $200. So it kind of, that probably kept the line a little bit smaller than normal.

But yeah, I guess the secondary, they're already going for 2000. Oh my goodness. That's 20 year old bourbon, I guess. I mean, when's the next time that they're going to be releasing a 20 year old bourbon at four roses, right? It wasn't a special bottle or anything. It didn't, it did come in a nice, box though. Um, so they did do that right. Um, and there were several of them too.

Now it wasn't the governor just down at four roses yesterday.

Yeah. And I was thinking about this. We got invited to it and I don't know how it slipped their mind not to attend, um, their new visitor center there at Lawrenceburg at the four roses distillery, how we miss that. It just kind of slipped by us and stuff.

Got a lot going on. It is that time of year where not only is there a lot of events going on, you know, we've been to several in the past few weeks. We've got two more this week. We got two this week. And not only that, you've got the demands of the holidays and family.

Yeah, it's a busy time of year, trying to fit Christmas in and whiskey in, fitting a podcast in. I've got hunting going on, so I'm still trying to do that. We're actually going to have our sponsor, one of our sponsors is going to come over here and him and his son, they'd lost their hunting spot. to hunt this year. So, you know, me and him are talking and he was like, I really love place to hunt. I love to have kids in the outdoors and kind of get back to nature and stuff. And I invited them to come stay with us next weekend. for two days and go muzzleloader hunting. He doesn't even have a muzzleloader. I said, but I got you, I got you covered. I got plenty of guns downstairs. I guess I shouldn't be telling everybody that, right? No, it's actually a good thing to tell people. I wonder how many people were surprised by that. Um, So, um, it's kind of good to have Chris Cruz and his son come out and kind of spend some time with us, probably drink a little bourbon, you know, here, um, get you to come, you'll be back, hopefully come, come over here and we could drink some bourbon together and stuff. But speaking of sponsors, yeah, speaking of sponsors, we do have our other sponsors seldom seen farms up in Ohio. He's making maple syrup and then he's poured it in bourbon barrels, aging it for six to nine months. Um, great on pancakes. I actually had it on pancakes this morning. I didn't cook them myself. Surprise, surprise. I stopped by Cracker Barrel, had them make me some pancakes real quick. And, uh, I brought them home and covered them in it.

I thought you were going to say, you sat down at the table, reached into your pocket and pulled out a bottle of self machine. You travel with your own maple syrup.

Well, I wanted to go to Keras' grocery down the road from us and get pancakes from there, but I called there and they said, hey, we don't do pancakes in the middle of the week. They only do it on Saturday. I was racking my brain as I was driving and I was like, well, I'll stop at Cracker Barrel, get some pancakes and pour that maple syrup on there. It's been aged in bourbon barrels. So I did that. I ate those pancakes, took a, I guess a nap is what I took today. Um, but I got up and called Kevin Holly up there, seldom seen farms and talked to him and said, Hey, what's going on, man? What's, uh, what's cracking lacking up there? What you, what you got going on? So he's got a shipment of barrels coming in from new riff right now on a truck. He said they should have been there today. He's going to fill them and send them back out to them.

That is so awesome.

So we're drinking probably some of the bourbon that came out of those barrels. I bet we are. I like to think about it that way. That's a rollback to seldom seen farms. We'll check them out. We'll talk about them later in our show, but check out their website. What is that Jim seldom see maple.com. So back to limited releases. What's a, can you think of some other limited releases? Like we missed the master's keep one this year too.

Yeah. So that's the, yeah, the one O N E the masters keep one. We didn't get our hands on that one yet. I'm still not giving up on it. I think we might be able to still get our hands on a bottle of that.

What do you think? I'm hoping I'll get a phone call.

I'm going to talk to my son because, uh, in Colorado, they had the diamond, they had the decades, they had the, um, Uh, which other one did they have? I can't remember, but they had all the masters keeps up on the shelf. They had cases of diamond.

Yeah. You brought me one bag, not a bottle of the diamond, but another one. Um, you said, Hey, which one do you want? Yeah. That time I didn't want to buy him off. We should have went ahead and bought some more of my thing.

Yeah. So I want to talk to him and see, cause we're meeting next Monday in Miami and we're going down to the keys and going fishing. Maybe he could just pack a bottle for me. Pack a bottle for you. That would be good.

Well, that'd be awesome. This stuff. Yeah, I think, uh, those releases where we are missing out missed out on the four roses release. We've missed out on the wild Turkey release, but we ended up with this new riff. Um, still a great release, something, especially for me being a weed king in Kentucky. Um, hit home with me, got kind of introduced to this new wheat. It gets sweeter as we sip on it.

Yeah, as I continue to sip on it, it softens up a little bit. That sizzle kind of, I don't know, settles down just a little bit. The sweetness kind of hangs at the front of the palate a little bit. The back end, still got that hug. Still got a little bit of spice back there. But I want to say that it's more soft and sweet than it is spicy with a kick.

Yeah, yeah. I think you hit that on a nail on the head, I guess. You know, there's some other releases like we just reviewed the Peerless Double Oaked, right? I saw that today at Kroger. This is going to kill you, Jim.

$80 in there. $80. There you go. Up on the shelf. I don't feel too bad. I paid, what'd I pay? 89, I think.

Well, you miss all the traffic going into Shelbyville with that construction stuff.

So that's, that's all right. I took care of my local store there a little bit. So. Yeah, I enjoyed that one. That episode just released last Monday. So if you haven't listened to it yet, you want to go check that out. That's something that if you can't find it in the store, there's a good chance you'll find it at the distillery.

Yeah, they still got bottles of it. You know, go out there and get it. I actually saw on Whiskey Advocate, that that is like the number seven bottle of bourbon of the year.

I think a lot of people like it now. Peerless always catches, let's just say a lot of crap because their prices are a little high, right? I mean, their bottles are a little bit more expensive.

Yeah, but I think they got their fans in the whiskey community, just like new riff does, right? There's people that covet new riff releases. I'm sure that somebody wanted this bottle right here really, really bad. Um, but I wanted it worse. I didn't even know about it. Truthfully.

Well, when I, when I looked at some of the reviews online, uh, well, I'm just going to say across the board, when you look at some of the reviews online for bottles that are a little more pricier, You're always going to see a lot of people saying bad things about them because they're, they're expensive. You know, it just kind of puts a sour taste in somebody's mouth, I guess.

Yeah. I guess if you, I don't know why, why complain about it?

If you don't want it, don't buy it.

Yeah. I mean, I'm not going to sit there and complain about Lamborghini because I can't afford it. Yeah. Number one, I won't fit inside of it. So, you know, you'd have to put some butter all over me and kind of wedge me in there.

You probably get in all right. You just get down to the problem, right?

Yeah. Well, you ever been down to the Corvette museum down there? Yeah. And they got Corvettes where you can win them and stuff. Um, you know, some of them, you got to do a raffle. They'll sell like a thousand tickets for a hundred dollars each or something. And they'll raffle one off. Well, we were down there and I said, why not a hundred bucks? I'll take a chance. But Vivian's like, why don't you try to get inside that car real fast to see if you'll even fit. And so I did, I laid the seat as far back as I could get it. And I barely fit inside that thing. But once you're in and you're in that cockpit, it's pretty comfortable car. Nah, cause my ass is too wide for that chair.

Oh, was it?

Just a little is it was, it would have been, I couldn't drive it for eight hours. Yeah. But you're right. Getting out. You're a certain age. You're trying to get out of car like that and you're a big guy. It's not comfortable.

Yeah, my dad's got a vet and he's pushing 80 and he still, he still drives it. He gets in and out of it, but man, it's gotta be a struggle. Does he drive it fast? I don't know. I mean, I've driven it fast when I borrowed it from him one time, but, um, I don't know. I don't think he's, he might, I wouldn't know.

I just, I know my father-in-law, um, to get in a truck with him and drive. You're not going very fast, but he's only has a Nissan pickup and, but still you're not, you're not going anywhere fast with him. You definitely not getting on the interstate unless you're driving yourself. Yeah. Those, uh, special releases like this, I think they're worth a pickup, you know, take a chance on it.

Yeah, I think in general, yeah, sometimes you have to say no because you can't get them all. Right. I mean, you can't, every time somebody weighs a flag and says there's $150 bottle is released and you can't go get it, but sometimes you just, you just really want it. I think they're usually pretty good. And I've, I'd say our, our batting average is pretty high on those releases, those special release. Yeah.

I think we're probably hitting the seven 50 or something.

Yeah.

Oh, I wanted to tell you the, you know, the garrison brothers, honey, honeydew is pretty much always available now. Have you noticed that? Oh yeah. Yeah. So that was a special release now that kind of has turned into a mainline product.

Well, I think they figured it out said, Hey, if we sell more of this, you know, it's making money. People want it.

Yeah.

You know, I could understand it first. It might be like this new riff right here. I, believe that they should go ahead and just make this a standard release part of their portfolio, you know, I don't think they're gonna listen to me, but because that's not what they're known for. They're known for their high rise.

Known for the high rise. Yeah. And that goes back a long way. It goes back to kind of MGP. Yeah, they're MGP stuff. They're OKI that they had. Yeah.

Yeah.

But yeah, I mean, I would love to see him have a, a standard issue weeded bourbon at four years old.

That would be pretty cool. Well, you know, me, whenever we go in somewhere and know somebody doesn't have a, uh, weeded bourbon, I got to ask, you know, when it looked mean you were at mickters, um, I'm like looking around, I was like, where's that, where's the wheat silo going to go? And they were like, what are you talking about?

Yeah.

Yes.

Four roses too. I think you ask everybody. Well, I, to be fair, I did ask makers Mark, um, Hey, when's the right coming? Yeah. But then he had a pretty damn good answer to it though. Uh, I thought he was like, we just made a spicier weeded bourbon. for the rye drinkers. And I was like, I like that answer. I like that answer. He wasn't being coy or nothing. That'd be like wild turkey. I can't ever see wild turkey having a weeded. They're not going to do it. It's not going to happen, right?

I won't say they won't do like a special, you know, experimental kind of thing, but yeah, I don't think it's going to be a main, it's not going to be a new skew, you know, that stays on the shelf all the time.

I just don't see them doing it at all. I mean, it's just not in their, their portfolio to make it happen. And I can't see maker's Mark ever doing it. You know, that's weed, weeded bourbon is their thing. And, um, good on them. Good on them. Don't let us influencers influence you into making something you don't want to do. Well, Jim, what's your final thoughts on this right here?

I think I like it. This could be a daily drinker for me. I like it a lot. I think it's a good, easy-drinking whiskey. It particularly tastes good for me because I had a long day of thinking about that bourbon I was going to have at the end of the day. And this really hit the spot.

Well, heck, I mean, I'm glad I got the bottle. Like I said, I hope they do another one like this. This might even go on an outside shelf for people to sip up on. I might have to take another ride. Another ride might fall tonight to the new riff bottle, or I might take a, I actually got a new riff bottle up there. I'm gonna take that new riff down and put this one up.

Yeah, it's a good one. I might even say that it rivals the rye for me. For me, I like their rye bourbon. It's good. I really like their rye whiskey a lot. 95.5. That's a good cocktail whiskey too. It's a great whiskey. Just all around cocktails straight up. I love it. This one here is, uh, is probably my number two.

You know what I like about this? It was only $50. They could have easily went to 75 and not blinked an eye. And I think people would have out of paid 75 for it.

Now new riff, are they, are they in all 50 States?

I'm pretty positive they're at all 50 States at this point.

I mean, they're really putting out a lot of liquid there. I mean, if you go to their facility, it's, it's cranking out the barrels.

Speaking of cranking out barrels and hopefully we can get them on the show shortly because we haven't had them on the show in a, in a very long time. We older this trail. is slowly becoming a giant. Yeah. They are putting in, I think six more fermenters, um, two in their facility now, I think they're 4,000 gallon for fermenters. And then they're going to have another, um, cook house and those are 20,000 gallon fermenters.

They're killing it. Those guys are killing it.

And they're constantly building, new rick houses as they go. They're just filling that property.

They're building an empire going forward. I mean, it's quite honestly reminiscent of what happened with the big families in the 1800s. I mean, that's kind of what they're doing, right? I mean, they're taking all their profits. They're turning it back into the company and they're fueling their growth. They're just building rick houses and more and more capacity all the time. I think when we went there and interviewed them the first time, they were at about 200 barrels a day. I don't know where they're at now, but I think they're pushing 500 plus, right?

I'm not sure. I mean, eventually they will get to the level of heaven heel or I don't know if they'll get to Jim beam. Yeah. Um, but they're, they're slowly, it can arise.

I mean, if 500 barrels, let's just say it's 500 barrels a day right now. And I don't know that it is or isn't, but probably pretty close.

um you know heaven hills at 1300 a day so they're you know they're they're getting there right i mean well you put that many more fermenters in there you're definitely uh cooking a lot more whiskey wow i just thought that was kind of neat kind of whiskey news of the day for us i saw that we definitely need to get pat and shane back on the show get back out there visit our friends out there you won't meet nicer people that are just down to earth.

And we run into them all the time and it's always a pleasure to sit and chat with them for a bit. They're just, yeah, down to earth.

Yeah. Well on the second half, Jim got another special release bottle here. It was actually four bottles that were special release from Makers Mark. We'll get into that. All right. Sounds good. We got a great sponsor up in Ohio, seldom seen farms with their bourbon maple syrup. It's been aged in bourbon barrels. The distilleries, they dump their bourbon out. They'll ship those barrels up there. He dumps it in there six to nine months. Now comes magic. I know you like to make cocktails out of it.

It's probably my number one thing. Now, don't get me wrong. I love pancakes. I love a little bit of fried chicken with some maple syrup dripped over it. Oh, that sounds good. A little bit of waffles, right? Chicken and waffles. Yeah. I love that. But I tell you what, taking that maple syrup, half an ounce, two ounces of bourbon, a few splashes of your favorite bitters makes an absolutely amazing old fashioned. And it's so quick and easy.

Well, he's getting to that time of year where he's going to tap those 2000 trees on his farm and stuff. We just drank this new riff. He's going to put some maple syrup in that, let it age, ship it back to the distillery. He's even contracted with Leapers Fork Distillery. He's putting maple syrup in the barrels for them also. He's working with all our friends. He told me today, he's like, Hey, I'm going to be down at burnt church and Hilton head South Carolina. And I was like, that's pretty amazing right there. That, uh, that maple syrup from our sponsor is going to be in the distilleries that we've worked with. Um, make sure you check him out. Perfect time to buy those Christmas gifts. Bourbon drinkers love anything bourbon, right?

Yeah, and his website's so easy to use. It's so easy. SeldomSeeMaple.com. You go on there, you hit shop, hit the shop menu item, up comes his products. He's got the bourbon maple syrup by the bottle. He's got it by the case. You can buy a case of 12, give them to your family members, give them, you know, buy it for your company, give it to your employees. He's got, uh, he pairs it with candles and other things, you know, to make nice little gift sets. A lot to look at there. I definitely suggest you take the time, go to seldom see maple.com. You still got time before Christmas, jump on there, check it out, make a purchase, help out our sponsor, help out the show. Right. Yes, sir. Perfect. All right. So we are back and this is kind of our episode talking about special releases. And so in the second half, you've brought a bottle for us that is also a special release, but it's part of an experimental program at one of our favorite distilleries.

Yeah, it's a from makers markets, their DNA and what they did was they took and they're kind of experimental, you know, barrels. They put it in a different entry levels. Um, So the highest you can go in, right? Is it what? 125. 125.

That's the legal limit.

That's it. Yeah.

If you go by that, you get a speeding ticket. You do get a speeding ticket? Yeah. Who gives you that ticket though? I don't know. Is it the, the bourbon police, the TTB, whoever enforces that stuff. Well, you can't call it bourbon if it goes in greater than 125, right? I mean, then you got to call it like a vodka or something.

Well, I don't know what you, once you put it in a, I mean, I don't know what you'd call it. Just, you guys call it whiskey. It just can't be bourbon where bourbon cannot be put in the barrel over 125 proof. So they did at 110, 115, 120 and 125.

So it's four different bottles or four different groups of barrels that they're doing different barrel into your proofs on. And they're going to, they're going to take a look at that result and they're going to, try to determine which one is best, right?

Yeah. So this was barreled in 2013. So they really had to be thinking ahead, really. You know, you think what was going on back in 2013 to say, Hey, we're going to do this project.

So I'm assuming it was unbarreled this year. So that's an eight year old whiskey.

Yeah. That's a not bad right there, right? Eight year old. That's a sweet spot. Internet sweet spot. Eight to 12, right? And the man, the myth, the legend, Jimmy Russell is the one that says that, you know, he says eight to 12 is where he thinks that sweet spot. Any more than that, you're getting too, too oaky, too tanicky. This was on the fourth floor of warehouse number 30. They got 30 warehouse. That's a low number. I think I got a lot more in that probably. That's, that's a lot. And then the sample size they said is 100 barrels aged and they released 60 barrels. So 60 barrels, that's, that's a, for them, it's probably a small batch. Um, Now, what we, you did notice today was this thing, things got a screw cap on it.

You know, it's kind of crazy because when you grab, when you grab any bottle of maker's Mark, you know, their special release or their regular issue or their cast strength or their 46 or the, whatever it is, you never know what you're going to get. Right. I think there's a method to the madness, but I don't know what it is.

Well, this would get you in trouble because that screw cap comes off a lot quicker than a cork coming out of there. It's still behind that red wax though. It is. It was soft. It was easy to open and stuff. Now these went for a little bit of money though. Yeah. $100 for a bottle, $400 for the entire set. Um, I didn't feel the need to buy the entire set. I was offered the entire set. I just, I didn't feel the need to have all four bottles. It would just been four bottles of weeded bourbon sitting in my house. Um, I do know people that would probably love to have all four bottles. Our friend drew Alan as a big, big, um, maker's mark nut. He probably bought all four, right? He told me he said he had a sample of each of them. He said he would have, love to have all four bottles and stuff.

So this is a screw top. We pulled down a bottle of cast strength off the shelf and it was a cork. Then you grabbed a bottle of the 101 Makers and it was a screw top.

Yeah, it's the weirdest thing.

I just thought, you know, listeners go out there, go through your maker's bottles, post on the roadies, which ones have screw tops and which ones have corks.

Drew probably knows the reason why he answered that.

Right. Yeah.

So this comes in at 125.4 proof right here.

So it was barreled at 125. It comes out at 125.4. Yeah.

That's a, that's some pretty high proof from them. I don't know if I've seen anything higher than that. The makers mark cast strengths, usually in that 116. Same thing for the 46 cast strength. Oh man. That's, that's pretty high. Yeah. What'd you think about how you've been over there?

No, I've been nosing it. Yeah. So I think I'm thinking we just talked about maple syrup during the, during the break. And, uh, I think this has got a little bit of maple syrup on it.

Yeah.

It's sugary. Sweet. Very sweet. Very, um, it, it smells like it's, uh, It's been reduced. You know, it's been, it's like a concentrated sweetness. Well, let's hope it tastes like that. Cheers. Cheers. Yeah, man.

Sweet.

A little bit spicy.

Kind of packs a little punch to it, doesn't it? Yeah. Like on the back of your throat almost. It's a, it's back there on your tongue. Got a nice spice to it. Nice, uh, baking spices to it.

I like this a lot. I like this a lot. I think this has, it has a little bit of a, it has a good bite to it. You know, makers a lot of time is, is, is kind of a, just an easy drinking bourbon, right? Easy drinking whiskey. And this one here gets your attention a little bit.

I'll tell you what this thing's got in the glass. It's got some super legs on it too. We haven't talked about that in a long time. This is a viscous whiskey right here. It is, uh, it is everything a, um, high proof whiskey should be.

So 125 proof. This reminds me a little bit of a, Like a 1792, it's got that little bit of fire on it, you know, but, um, it doesn't taste like 1792, but the, but the alcohol impact and the viscosity and everything kind of reminds me of a whiskey in that range. Kind of like it, Mike.

Kind of like it a lot actually. Now on that little label, that little tag, it says it's drying, but it's just making my mouth water.

Yeah, I have to agree with you. I agree with you completely. My mouth is watering up, trying to put out a little bit of the fire probably.

Yeah, it's a, it's sticking in there. You know, we always talk about that atomic fireball candy and stuff that is this right here. It's just, it's there. We did a whole time. Coach your tongue and everything. Yeah. A long, long finish on this thing.

We're not doing a review of this, but yeah, it's not a real dark whiskey either. I mean, it's got a good color to it, but it's not real super dark.

I'm glad I bought this bottle. I mean it's not a big bottle either. I guess that's just their standard 750 bottle. That looks like the standard maker's bottle, right? Yeah. Um, I'm always used to seeing that the one liter bottles that look a little bit bigger, but this is the standard bottle and stuff. It just looks tiny for some reason. I mean, when you look at it.

Now, this is the bottle that's got the story on the side that talks about the bubble size and that's how we found out about that.

And then we started talking about the cap and You know, that's our bourbon conversations though. We just, you know, sit here and shoot the shit. Like we were talking about man, which is because that's what I'm having for dinner tonight was really I'm having venison man, which is, Oh, even better, even better with tater tots. It's kind of like, We're going back to lunchroom meals from me and Viv, but that's what we're having. You said you grew up eating manwiches all the time.

I did. It was kind of a staple in her house. And to this day, you know, spam and manwich are two things that I love to have when I can get it, but it's not a favorite of my family as a whole. So I got to kind of sneak a little bit here and there when I can get it. Will Mel not eat it? She's not a fan. No, she's not a fan of man, which she's not a fan. Now, Melody Wheat just about anything, but some of the things that she doesn't like. probably Manwich, Spam, potted meat, Vienna sausages.

I mean, that was, that was staple when I was growing up. Me and you in here, sitting here talking, I don't think me and Viv have eaten a, a Manwich meal. And if you don't know what a Manwich is, It's just hamburger meat and as a can of this sweet tomato sauce, can I?

Yeah.

Really sweet, right?

And put it on a hamburger bun and get yourself a little special sandwich. I want to say it's tomato, it's tomato sauce and sorghum molasses mixed. It's kind of what it's like, right?

Yeah, it's, it's thick for sure. Yeah. And it's been setting. I cooked it before you got over here and I wanted it to be done because right after we're done recording, Viv gets home from work and I wanted to make sure my meal is done and I kept looking at it. Like we said, I haven't had it since our son graduated high school in 2009, and I would bet that we haven't had it since then. But me and her were talking, we're like, what meals? have we not had in a long time? Cause you just, you kind of get in a rut sometimes, right? You're cooking and you eat the same stuff all the time. So we're trying to change it up a little bit.

That's good. That's, that's the spice of life right there. You know, that, that's what makes it, that's what makes life fun is, is changing it up a little bit.

Yeah. I mean, I was just like, Hey, sometimes, The other day she said, we're going to have hot dogs for dinner or chili dogs. And that's what she made was chili dogs. And I pulled that lunch lady thing out. I said, next thing you know, I'll be getting square pizza in the pan. And she kind of looked at me like, what? And I said, will you serve corn with it?

Yeah.

Mike, I like this whiskey. I have to tell you, this is some good stuff. Now, I've been pretty happy, I would say in the past couple of years, I've been pretty happy with everything Makers has been doing. I was happy with the 46, happy with the 46 cast strength. The FAEO1, the FAEO2, the RC6, right?

Yeah.

Man, I mean, they're killing it.

These guys are killing it. Community bottle that they gave back to the community with Chef Edward Lee. Yep. They get beat up pretty hard. But in this, I don't know if this is the most expensive bottle of makers I've probably bought. I don't, I can't think of a more expensive bottle that I've ever had from them. I really, that's probably it right here.

Yeah. Well, it's a good whiskey. I'm enjoying it. It is a little bit hot. So put on your big boy pants, put on your grown woman pants. If you're going to drink this, um, it's going to get your attention, but at the same time, nice and sweet definitely has a sort of a maple syrup sweetness to it. It is a little floral, but it's also got that spicy kick to it. And that spice is coming from that barrel. I know it.

I mean, there's a bunch of special releases still on the table. We're in December, right? Yep. And some people have been holding back maybe on their releases, but they are coming. I saw online some Pappy starting to hit the shelves. So make sure you're looking out for that. I've seen some of the antique collection from Buffalo Trays hitting the shelves. Not the George T. Stag. Not the George T. Stag to break everybody's heart. It's not going to happen this year. I'm going to break your heart. Well, I don't know. You know what? I want to try some different ones. I'm not opposed to it, but you know, for me, the stag junior is just better. Um, you know, while I go back and try it again, um, I definitely will. It just shows that, you know, you, sometimes when you take a chance on these, um, these bottles, you can end up something really beautiful. Was that bottle worth a hundred dollars? Absolutely. For me it was. I'd go back and buy it again. Um, some other releases that are coming out. I don't know if I've seen this on the shelves yet, but castle key restoration, right?

Yeah. Is that the one with a black label on it? Uh, yeah, I can't tell you. I can't remember, but uh, we had it over in Frankfurt, right? Yeah.

pretty, pretty dang amazing. Um, rebel reserve single barrel age 12 years. Um, now tell me you're going to get a bottle of that. You know what? Damn sure. If I have to, I'll probably drive down there and see if I can end up getting a bottle of it. I would be pretty excited to get a bottle of that. They removed their Yale off there, but still amazing bourbon inside there. If I have to gift somebody a bottle of something and I want them to have a really nice experience, Rebel the 10 year is super amazing. I can't even imagine a 12 year in that. Cause the, uh, wieners do take a little bit longer to mature stuff. Um, so I always like to see that. Um, I was trying to see what else is coming out. The wise man bourbons already out. Um, I already saw that on the sale shelf. The wise man bourbon is actually from Kentucky out. I don't know that that really didn't do anything. The five malted, stouted mash from Woodford is out. You can still find that on the shelf. Wyoming whiskey, we've been a minute since we drank any of that. It's time to revisit that for sure. I think we had that with Mark Rucker from Bourbon Life. I'm pretty positive that's the show we drank some of that on, but they actually have one called the Outrider. Um, which makes sense, right? That sounds right. Wyoming whiskey, I think a Cowboys and you think of an outrider out there just kind of riding the fence line, um, looking for spots. Yeah, that's, uh, some stuff. There's still more and more and more stuff coming out there. There's supposed to be a new basil Hayden coming out. Uh, that was supposed to have been this year. It was called subtle smoke. I haven't seen it. Oh, that sounds good. That's a little bit of Freddie getting involved there, isn't it? Yeah. Bernheim original wheat whiskey, a barrel proof.

Oh, now I'd really like to try that. Yep.

That's a pretty amazing whiskey anyway. So getting it a barrel proof would be nice. I'm just looking through this list and the list that we use is our good friends over at Breaking Bourbon. I think their website for bourbon releases, they got the corner on that, right?

Yeah, they do a pretty good job. They do the research. I would say that they're pretty respectable and reliable source for bourbon information.

Brown Foreman is supposed to release a bourbon called the Big Four. Now, I don't know if that's for the Big Four. a bridge here in town or is that because it's bourbon rye, wheat and balt should be different type of a double play there.

Yeah. Yeah. They actually just released their financials as well for this, for this last year.

And, and, uh, They did really well. I was checking that out. I saw us reading that. And what Jim's talking about, we'll get emails from Brown Foreman. We'll get emails from Four Roses, from all the whiskey companies, kind of letting you know the inside scoop about the company and their financials. They did. They look really good.

Yeah. I have to say this, you know, they're, their, their bourbon lines across the board did really well. Uh, Jack Daniels did extremely well at a 9% growth rate, but their tequila grew at over 20%. So something's going on there, but the bourbon boom's not over. That was it. No, no, it's definitely not over.

That's percent growth rate across the board pretty much.

Yeah, you can't complain.

It can't complain at all. In any business, right? Right. What's a businessman hope for? You know, what's kind of growth rate?

Year on year? Yeah. I mean, if you could do five plus 10%, you're doing pretty good. Yeah.

So they're not hitting any hardship there. Yeah, I'd say that was a, I'm looking through this list. I don't see anything else on here that, that really strikes my fancy. Heaven Hill heritage collection age 17 years. I think that's out already. Heaven Hill select stock at 21 years is supposed to be coming out this year and we're running out of time. They had a Heaven Hill select stock 36 year. Oh my goodness. I don't even know what that would cost. Yeah, they have a heaven heels like stock double oak. And I think some of those would have been delayed because they had the strike. So, you know, if you know something's going on, you better go get in line. I heard people were waiting in line this morning for that four roses, um, 20 year, uh, they got in line at four 30 this morning. I bet you, you should talk to Brent.

We should see if we can't just, no, I don't need a bottle, Mike. I don't need a bottle of it. I just need a taste. We just need a taste. Just enough to say what we think about it.

Well, heck, I don't know.

I don't know if we'll get any or not.

Well, Jim, hey, another great episode. Talked about a plethora of stuff about bubbles and whiskey to caps on whiskey to a man, which is I'm going to go home and eat. I don't know what I'm going to eat tonight.

I don't think it's Manwich though.

It's not Manwich. Or can people find us on social media?

You can find us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. You can find us on YouTube. Of course, we don't have any videos. It's just audio only. But you know what? It still works. You can listen to the show. You can find us on TikTok. We do absolutely, once in a while, release a video. And maybe there's another one coming down the pike. I don't know. But you will not. Guarantee you won't find us on discord.

You will not find us on twitch Mike and I have real jobs We just we just don't have we just don't have the time to do all that other stuff But what we do we do well, we try we try that's that's what keeps us going The main place you can find us at is our bourbon group on Facebook the bourbon roadies 2,500 people strong you got to answer three questions to Join are you 21? Do you like bourbon because everybody loves bourbon? And do you agree to play nice because we don't tolerate any rudeness What we want in there is people to be able to celebrate whether you're celebrating the holidays as we're about to do or if you're Celebrating somebody's life that has just passed away if you're celebrating for promotion and advancement starting a new company. If you just moved and bought a bottle of bourbon for your new house to kind of christen it, that's what we want to see you celebrate. If you drink from the very bottom of the shelf, I was trying to think of a whiskey tonight from the very bottom of the shelf.

I mean, there's a log cabin, Kentucky gentlemen, there's a lot of them.

If you're drinking some of that, we want to celebrate that. If you're drinking in cocktails, you're drinking a Coke, If you're drinking it with seldom scenes, maple syrup, that's what we want to see. If you're drinking from the top of the shelf, we want to see that also. If you got a new selection out there, we want to see that in that group. So join our group. It's a great group of people that are like-minded. They just love some whiskey.

And we do two shows a week. We do a short episode every Monday, usually focusing on a single bottle, a single expression, something from a craft distillery. We call it craft distillery Monday. Sometimes we got a big boy distillery on there, but the key there is we're really looking at the craft. We're trying to explore bottles that you may not have in your collection. You may not have in your bar, something you might want to try. We kind of, we kind of want to let you know what we think about it so you can make a decision on your own every Wednesday. Every Wednesday we do a longer episode, usually about an hour. Like today's episode, we do a first half and a second half, about 30 minutes in each half. Ideally, if you're driving to work, it'll get you there and get you home and you'll get your fill of bourbon knowledge for the day. Mike and I love to distill that bourbon knowledge and feed it out to our listeners. If you listen to the show and you've got an idea, if you think you've got something that that we might wanna talk about. We highly suggest you reach out to us. Now Mike, one of the things that is important is if they wanna make sure they don't miss an episode, if they wanna get notified when we're coming out with a new Monday episode or a new Wednesday episode, they don't wanna miss it. How can they do that?

Well, you got to scroll on up to the top of your app on your phone, on your computer. You'll see a subscribe button. You want to hit that subscribe button. Sometimes it can be just a check mark or plus mark or it says subscribe. Make sure you hit it. Say you follow us. That way your app lets you know that we got a new show coming out. Then what we really want you to do is scroll on down, hit that five star review. You know what's going to happen if you don't. I'm going to bring a whole shit ton of weeded whiskey to your house. Weeded bourbon. My big friend, the big bad booty daddy of bourbon is going to open bottles. We're going to drink all night long. By the end of the night, you're going to hit that five star review. Um, you'll be laughing with us. We'll be having a great time. I might even bring some mammoth with, with me. We'll eat it. Eating man with you and drinking his shit done whiskey. But seriously, those five star reviews do help us out. We're at 161 on Apple right now. Me and Jim really do pay attention to those and so does whiskey companies. They look at those and say, Hey, we need to get these two guys in our distillery. We'd like to get on their show. It really does help us out and we appreciate it.

Absolutely. So like I started to say earlier, we, we want to hear from you. We want you to reach out to us. I want you to sit down to that computer. We want you to write us an email, sit down to that iPhone or that Android, write us an email. I'm Jim at the bourbon road.com. He's Mike at the bourbon road.com. Tell us what's going on in your hometown. If you've got a local distillery that's kicking it, that's really got something great and you want to share it with the world, let us know about it. We'll reach out to them. We'll have their whiskey on the show and we'll talk about it. If you've got an idea for a guest or a topic we want to hear about it, reach out to us. We always say it's probably better to hit us with a DM on Instagram. I'm jshannon63. I'm Big Bourbon Chief. And we'll see you down the bourbon room.