239. Rebel Cask Strength Single Barrel 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, it's another craft distillery Monday. I just want to be honest. We've recorded a few episodes today. And we've had a few bourbons. We have. So we're going to have some fun today. We are.

And not quite a craft distillery. a little bit bigger than Craft Distillery. Yeah, because they own MGP now, or MGP owns them. Heck, I don't know what's going on there.

Yeah, so, I mean, they were smaller, but they got acquired. Yeah. So who are we talking about?

We are talking about LuxRoe. Yeah. Down in Barstown. Barstown Darling. Yes. Yeah. Very, very beautiful distillery. We've actually been to this distillery together, did their tour, went back backstage, I guess you could say.

And we've had their whiskies on the show more than once. Yeah. And let's just, let's just be upfront about this. It is a weeded whiskey.

Yeah, it is a weedy bourbon. It's new though. So, you know, as soon as I saw a bottle of it, you know, I had to snatch it up. Yeah. I was, you know, I was gigging like a little school girl in the store today. I saw it and I was like, Oh man, look at the price on that thing.

So no longer does it say Rebel Yale.

No, it just says rebel. Uh, the guy that got caught and, uh, playing the game.

It's, it's, it's canceled culture, but that's okay.

Yeah. I mean, Hey, I get it. You want to rebrand, uh, that kind of goes against that old thing. Don't rebrand unless you have to, maybe they had to, um, but rebel. is known out there. They got some lower brands. They got an 80 proof, they got a 90 proof. They have a 100 proof that is their Rebel Yale tenure, which you know I love. That's some good stuff. Yeah. I've got a surplus of it. not giving any of that away. Um, but, uh, they also have, uh, the distillers collection, which is their single barrel picks out there.

Which I remember some phenomenal pours, really good pours.

We've, we've drained a couple of those bottles. Um, I really, really love that whiskey could easily go up against, uh, some of our urban of the year picks, but this is the rebel cast strength. Um, and I was excited when they released that cause me, you always say, Hey, you know what? This tastes better as cast strength or foolproof or barrel proof, whatever you want to call it. This is also Jim, a single barrel. Yeah. Uh, which is pretty amazing, right?

Well, I think it's great because you get a little bit of a, it's kind of like opening one of those toys from when you were a kid, you went to McDonald's and then you went through and you got a kid's meal. You got opened it up. You didn't know what it was going to be. Yeah. Well, the same thing with a single barrel. You have no clue. It could be something totally unicorn.

Now this was picked from a Cox's evergreen liquor store. Um, so, You know, there's a lot of Cox's out there stuff. So these are available and I'm sure they pick more one barrel because they are a large conglomerate stuff. But if you can get your hands on one of these, I would say pull the trigger. 59.95, Jim. This is 120 proof. 120 proof, single barrel, cask strength, a pick. Yeah. For what I know, these are, uh, right around eight to 10 years old. Um, so it, it's the same bottle as the rebel yield tenure. If you look at it, uh, nice, you look at that juice in there.

It's a little dark in here, but it's a dark whiskey. It is a dark whiskey.

Yeah.

Um,

Is it a good whiskey? That's what we're here to find out.

We're going to let people know. Should you search out this bottle and add it to your bar? Usually if we talk about it, you better get it. It kind of works out that way, doesn't it?

Yeah.

We do a lot of bourbon reviews. in private. Well, yeah. Not every bourbon whiskey makes the show. Nope. So if it makes the show, your ears should perk up. I think that's a fair way to do it.

You know, why beat a brand up? Why not say, call them back and say, Hey, why don't you work on that a little bit?

Yeah, I remember watching, you remember American Idol? Remember the show American Idol? They would have all those singers come on and about a third of them would be duds and they'd give them a hard time. Yeah, I don't like that. Then you got the voice. The voice came on, right? No, the voice is totally different. They only let the ones on that are good. That are good. We're kind of the voice of bourbon. Well, that's the bourbon voice. That's us.

Man, that's, we better trademark that. The bourbon voice, bourbon voices. Yeah, this is a great bottle. I think it's going to be, uh, you know, it's got some age on it. It's been aged in those Kentucky barrels. Jim, you know what else is coming out of those barrels? Fine art. Fine art for sure. Cruz Customs Flags, one of our sponsors, he's making these beautiful American flags out of recycled bourbon barrels. Yeah, man.

And you know, I've got one on my bar, Mike, and it's kind of the centerpiece. And every now and then we'll do a photo shoot from the bar there and it makes it into the picture and it's something nice to see. You got one in your bar too?

I do. I just really love the artwork. The thing I really love about it is me and you both being veterans, I like when a veteran helps out other veterans. And what Chris there at Crews Customs Flags does is he employs combat veterans to help him build those flags, put them to work, get them to use their hands, taking their minds away from the struggles and the sacrifices that they had to make. And it doesn't get more watch party patriotic than that, right?

That's right. And at the end of the day, if you end up with a product that is like, it's kind of the centerpiece of my bar. But they make big ones too, right? They make really big ones like the General that you could put in a conference room.

Conference room, if you got a large store, if you got a large business, I'm just thinking all the different places that you could hang that. A lodge, a bed and breakfast. If you wanted to showcase your patriotism, nothing better than buying an American flag, made it out of bourbon barrels. from cruise customs flags. Check them out at cruise customs flags.com. Buy some of their product. They got some other great stuff on there. If you're a bourbon drinker, they got the whiskey grill made out of oak. They do.

They've got the key holders. They've got a lot of great stuff on there. Check them out. Definitely a great company. Definitely proud to have them as a sponsor. What a great guy, Chris really has a vision for what he wants to do. Love it every time I get to talk to him. Yes, sir.

Well, back to this whiskey, Jim, let's get to it. Let's get, I know our listeners are like, what are you two jokers doing? Let's, let's nose this thing.

This is rebel. This is the cast strength. Wow. Oh my goodness. That's really good, Mike. I get a lot of cherries on this. Yeah, that's a cherry nose. Yeah. Cherry twizzlers, cherry twizzlers, a little bit of like, uh, an oaky tobacco, but not, not too strong. Kind of, Oh, did they have like a tobacco chew that had like cherry in it?

Oh yeah.

Yeah. So sort of like that, like a cherry tobacco.

I had a little cigar too, that Swister Swister.

Cherry, cherry Swishers. Yeah. Yeah. Swisher sweets. Yeah. Yeah.

It does have that note to it, right?

Yeah, it does.

Wow. That's a great nose. Deep, like rich, uh, potpourri flowery. The floral notes are just coming out of it.

A little bit of earth to it. Not too much, but it's kind of grounded. I think a little bit. Um, let's taste it. Cheers.

Little sizzle there.

Ooh.

How much proof was that? I don't know, but there's a Buffalo running down my chest right now.

Yeah. So that's, uh, that's definitely wakes you up a little bit of heat.

That's pretty, that's pretty powerful.

Yeah.

120 proof, right? 120 ish. It's every bit of 120.

So they're single barrels. So they're going to be a little bit different, but they're in the 120 range. Yep. That's a big boy whiskey. That's a grown woman whiskey. You definitely, uh, you definitely have to have your big pants on if you're going to drink this one.

There ain't no doubt about that. Um, still really good. It's, it's got a Kentucky hug on it all day long. It'll, it'll grab ahold of you. Like I said, um, at cherries in there, but I get more oak and tobacco.

Yeah, definitely more on the oaky leather tobaccoy kind of into things.

Once it hits the palette, the best bag of pop rocks you've ever had is in this glass. Definitely.

Going back to the nose now, it's a little more earthy. It's a little more leathery. It's funny how, you know, you get a lot of that cherry when it's just the nose, but after you take a sip and you go back and revisit the nose, you start to pick up a little bit more of that leather and that oak and the tobacco.

Mouth coating on this thing. You know, even with all that spice is still very viscous, very creamy. and get a little hint of citrus on there somewhere. I don't know if that's that cherry juice kind of playing through.

Yeah, cherry juice. I think you're right. I think cherry juice is probably the right word there. Kind of a little bit of a dry cherry, right? Not so much of a sweet cherry. There's not maraschino. It's not, it might be, what's that Mount Morency cherries? Is that the one from the upper peninsula?

Northern Michigan, Traverse City area.

Yeah, yeah.

Very, uh, this is a wintertime bourbon right here.

Yeah. This will warm you up. No doubt about it. I think that this, uh, I could have actually used this bourbon in Florida this last week. It was, it was cold. It was terrible. Not a fishing trip. No, this wasn't a fishing trip. So Melanie and I went to Florida to escape the cold of Kentucky. And, uh, now it was three degrees or nine degrees in Kentucky. When we left, we got down there. It was forties and fifties, but that's not what you want when you go to Florida.

No, he wants sunshine, warm sand. Yeah. Maybe a heated pool.

Yeah. Yeah. No, we didn't, we didn't get that. We, we did have a heated pool. Uh, and we had a couple of days where it approached 70, but most of the time it was rainy and cool. I would say high fifties, mid sixties every day, which is again, not your perfect Florida weather. But when I got back to Kentucky today, I arrived in this morning, got back to Kentucky. It's mid fifties. I'm thinking this is, this is Florida weather.

Well, this probably would have been good on that trip. Yeah, I think so. Definitely for the price.

What was the price, Mike? Sixty bucks. Sixty dollars. Sixty dollars for a cast strength, single barrel, weighted whiskey. out of Burt, out of Bardstown, Kentucky.

You're not going to beat this right here. It is, like you said, you better put your big boy pants on, your grown woman pants on, whatever you got to do before you drink this thing. This ain't a bottle to mess around with. It's a sipper.

Yep.

I wouldn't put it in a cocktail. I wouldn't waste it in a cocktail.

No, don't put this in a cocktail and don't introduce it to your first time bourbon drinker.

Let them let them grow up a little bit before they get this bottle but for the we the king of Kentucky You know, I'm loving it now that Kentucky hugs kind of it's gone away. I Like it. It's got that medium to long finish on it. Yeah, it's just so viscous I like what it says there and you really makes you think man

This is a nice whiskey to sip on. So when you, when you're getting that hug going, when you're sipping on that whiskey, you get that warming effect, right? It starts warming your throat and it kind of works down to your chest a little bit. And if it goes any below that. The first thing you think about is Prilosec.

Yeah, at our age. There's no doubt. We've actually went into this tour together to buy some before. Yeah, this was like a buffalo kicking me in the chest at that first sip. After that, it kind of went away and I think my palate got used to it, but that first sip, I wasn't ready for that. It hit me pretty hard. But a great bourbon buy all day long, obviously for me, but what about you? Cause you're not a, you're, you like weeded bourbon, but you're not a weeded bourbon guy.

You know, I would say if, if you like, Hotter, more aggressive, single barrel cast drink whiskeys. You should add this to your bar. No doubt. Guarantee it. If you're, if you like a little bit softer stuff, something not so aggressive, this, this reminds me a lot of like the weeded version of stag junior, right? I mean, that's probably the best way to explain it.

That's a great explanation. I don't know why they put this on here, but they said, uh, Defiantly smooth.

Um, well, smooth is a relative term. Um, it is smooth on the palette, but boy, I tell you, when it hits that, that it will hit your esophagus. It's where it goes. It takes, it takes charge. You could swallow a rock and not have that. It's good bourbon though. It's great bourbon. I have to say that. And this is definitely there. There's a certain bourbon drinker out there that this is the right stuff.

Yeah. For the witty king of Kentucky.

Yeah. And you know who you are. If we're talking about this and you don't, you are. So go get you a bottle of it. No doubt.

I know we have a whole bunch of weeded bourbon drinkers in our Facebook group, the bourbon roadies and stuff. And, um, I'm always excited. My shelves keep changing out rise for wheat lately here. Um, we drank one lately, ASW. And I was proud to put that up right beside cause me and you drank a new riff, uh, red turkey wheat that I, both of us were like, wow, this is really good, right? Um, this might have to go up on a shelf. I don't know.

And legends is up there somewhere, aren't they?

Legends isn't up there, it's downstairs.

But the reason is, is because, I mean, it's kind of a, we've talked about it so much.

Yeah. I haven't opened that. I, that's an unopened bottle. I just, I have a bourbon shelf downstairs too. And it's just down there. I carried a bunch of whiskey down there. I don't even know why I caught, I think I thought we were going to talk about it one time and we just didn't talk about it, but. It's down there, but I got shelves up in our great room and I think this might go up on a shelf. I don't know. I'll have to look at all the weeded bourbons that are up there. Maker's Mark has a whole bunch up there and Weller's obviously has a whole bunch up there, but I'm always glad to find something like this, Jim. It's nice to go into a store and I went in the store to get a bottle of ancient age and found this.

Yeah. Yeah. Great. Fine.

Sometimes you just, and then when I was up at the counter, the guy was like, Hey, I got this in today too. And I ran across a bottle of a Willett family reserve, a, blend of bourbon and rye. Sure. Which is a weird bottle.

So it's a boo rye. A boo rye. I think high west coined the phrase boo rye, but yeah, there's been a few companies that have mixed bourbons and ryes together and call it. Boo rye. Something like that.

Mixed rye or mixed rye or bourbon rye. I don't know. But the point of all that is, is make sure when you go into a liquor store, be friendly, have a smile on your face. Don't treat people badly and you might get offered a bottle. I got offered a bottle today and I, you know, smiling ear to ear and I should have called you. Um, but I think there might still be a bottle that left there and hopefully you can get a bottle if you want a bottle.

So let's have a lesson here in how to talk to the person behind the counter at the liquor store. So there's, you could say what you hiding behind that counter. Yeah, that's not the way to do it, right? No. Or what could you say?

We say, Hey, you know, I'm from out of town, you know, I'm on the bourbon trail and you know, we've been looking for stuff and you know, this is the bottle I'm looking for. You know, if they don't have it, smile, say thank you very much and maybe purchase something else.

Sometimes they will say, no, we don't have that, but we do have. They'll offer you something different. So be nice. Don't pass on the hate. Right.

I've seen, I've been in the store when I, people walk in and they're, that's all they're doing is hunting.

You got Weller, you got Peppy, you got this, you got that.

And the person will be like, no, I don't, I don't have any of that. And sometimes it's just the clerk. They don't know any better. Um, and then the people get nasty with them and it upsets me a little bit to see that, you know, I, I don't like rudeness. I want people to be smiling, smiling and, cheerful and having a good time. And it's just, you don't get nothing with being nasty to somebody. You get everything. You can really open up a door with being nice to somebody. Kind of like me and you went to Drake's down at Owensboro, Kentucky. We all walked in there and that girl, She was having a rough day. We started talking to her. Of course, we're talking about her podcast and drinking whiskey, drinking bourbon and stuff. And it just brightened her day up to talk to us. And next thing you know, we got there, she said the kitchen was closed. 15 minutes later, that kitchen was open and I was eating a fried bologna sandwich.

Yeah, man. Thick bologna sandwich.

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

Well, you can find us on Facebook. You can find us on Instagram. You can find us on TikTok. We do. We actually are really starting to move up a little bit on TikTok. You can also find us on YouTube. We have audio only on YouTube, but listen to us there if you like. We do put out two shows every week. We do a Monday episode and a Wednesday episode. Monday episodes are usually short like today's where we take a single expression like rebel. And, uh, you know, the cast strength, we'll talk about it. We'll let people know whether or not they should add it to their bar on Wednesdays. We'll do a longer episode. We'll have a guest on, we'll go through a few expressions. We'll explore a topic. Uh, we want to make sure that you get a chance to listen to every one of those episodes and Mike, how do they do that?

Well, you want to scroll up onto the top of your app, hit that plus sign, that check sign, that subscribe sign, whatever you got to do to get your app to tell you, hey, these two jokers have a show coming out today. Get you to work, like Jim said, get you home sometimes. The next thing you want to do is scroll on down, hit that five star review. Also add those comments, add those comments, add those comments. I don't care what you got to say. You can just say these two guys are great. But if you don't, what will happen is is I'm going to grab this bottle of Rebel Cast Drink. I'm going to grab my big friend, the big bad booty daddy of bourbon. We're coming to your house and drink all night long. We'll finish this bottle, which is going to be tough because it's powerful. But by the end of the night, you're going to give us that five star review of the budget comments. I guarantee you. But seriously, those comments, those five star reviews, open up doors to distilleries. They get great whiskey in our hands. We really appreciate it.

So we'd love to have you reach out to us directly. Reach out to us by email, come to our website. We have a contact us page. Hit us up on Instagram. Let us know if you've got an idea for a show. If you've got a whiskey you think ought to make the show. If you think you've got an individual would make a great guest, let us know. You can always send us an email. Jim at the bourbonroad.com, Mike at the bourbonroad.com. Probably the best way to reach us, though, is to hit up our DMs on Instagram. I'm JayShannon63, I'm Big Bourbon Chief, and we'll see you down the Bourbon Road.