282. Breckenridge Rum Cask Finish 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.

Well, you know who likes to give back to their community is one of our sponsors, Jim. Chris Cruz from Cruz Customs Flags. He does custom flags out of bourbon barrels. Not only does that, he do that, but he's also using veterans to build those flags with. I've got one right behind me, Jim. I know you got one on your bar. Beautifully handcrafted, repurposing a bourbon barrel, not throwing it away, not making it into smoking chips, making a piece of Americana, right?

something that'll last probably quite a few years longer than a bourbon barrel would, right?

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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.

We got a craft distillery out of Colorado in the house, one that I've actually been to before, but it's been a minute.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, you get to go out there all the time because your son's out there, right?

I do. And, uh, you know, what a, what a great time it is when I go to Colorado and visit with my son, I always look forward to it. He's a whiskey drinker too. And he's a member of the. the bourbon club out there and he's loving, he's loving his whiskey. He's loving being in the Colorado whiskey center out there because they've got a lot going on. There's a lot of great distilleries out of Colorado.

Yeah. It's like there's Kentucky, Tennessee, Texas, and then there's Colorado, um, or like the four big states, right?

And Washington's knocking at the door.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, there's several states like beating at the door right now. Everybody's booming. Whiskey's booming. Bourbon's booming. Everything's booming, but we kind of got a, a little special thing here for two old sailors, I think, Jim.

Yeah, Mike, I'm looking forward to this one. The minute you mentioned you had a little bit of this, I was ready to try it. So.

So what we got, Jim, is we got the Breckenridge rum cask finished, uh, Colorado bourbon, uh, which is pretty cool to me. Uh, Breckenridge for people that don't know, they actually have make their own rum, don't they?

I think they do. Yeah. So, uh, a rum cask finish is going to bring something to the whiskey. That's a little bit, um, a little bit sweeter of a profile, a little bit more, uh, well, they make rum out of molasses, don't they Mike?

Yeah, they do. Uh, you know, that's why the sailors like it so much. You get a little bit of that sugar in your system. You can, you can sell around the world a couple of times like I have, or you can sell underneath the ocean like you did. All right.

So we've got the Breckenridge rum cask finished and uh, what's, what's the price of a bottle of this?

So it varies everywhere you go. I've seen anywhere from $40 all the way up to $60. It just depends. I think when it first came out, it was a little bit more expensive and as time has went on, we're back to eight now is what I got. Uh, the prices went down a little bit. But like I said, it varies on where you're getting in that. So it pays to shop around, I think $44 at Total Wine, you can get this for. Now, we know this is not stated, but their original owner said that they don't have anything that's younger than four years. So we know everything in there is older than four years. They said there's even some whiskey in there that's over 10 years old, Jim. So, and they don't say how long they finish it in the barrel for. They don't disclose that. We do know the Mashbill, this bourbon though, that was finished in the Rum Cast, Jim, is 56% corn, 38% rye, and 6% malted barley. That's a pretty dang high rye whiskey right there. High bourbon, right?

I mean, any rye content in a bourbon that approaches 40%, you can definitely stand tall and call a high rye. No doubt about it.

Yeah. They take their rum cast, they pour the rum out and then they pour the bourbon in and let it age. I think somewhere in that six to eight month range is what they're probably going for. I know they do some other finishes that go for over two years. Um, so, um, I'm pretty excited about this anytime, you know, I'm a, I'm a fan of, uh, finished bourbons, um, or finished whiskies. I think America is a little late to the game anyways on this. Um, so. Why not? I go ahead and embrace it. Um, and this gets more people drinking whiskey. If this gets sailors drinking whiskey, Jim, we're in trouble, right?

There are a few sailors and they do like their, uh, they do like the rum, don't they? So if they, if we can switch them over, if this is a gateway for a sailor, uh, to pick up a bottle of whiskey, I'd say we've got a, we've got a winner here. Mike, what can people expect out of a rum finished whiskey?

Well, I think what most rum casks finishes are relatively different than what you would get with a port or sherry or wine cask. They deliver something like sipping on, I would call it golden sunshine. They usually have that sweet tropical fruit flavors to them because of that molasses, because of that rum. I think they got that lush flavors to them.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I'm excited. I say we, uh, we check it out. What do you say?

Yeah, Jim, I got to raise a glass to the big bad wolf out there. My little brother, he's the one that brought this from Oklahoma for me as a gift. Uh, so Mitch cheers, uh, me and Jim are going to enjoy this.

Cheers, Mitch. We appreciate it. It's got a nice sweet nose on it. I can smell the rum. I can smell the rum on this. It's a pretty evident. It's not overpowering the whiskey.

I get a little bit of that dried mango or dry papaya on this, Jim.

Yeah, you have those on your charcuterie board sometimes, don't you? Those little dried mangoes, aren't they?

Yep.

Yeah, it does remind me of that, Mike. You're spot on.

Maybe a little bit of a vanilla bean in there. You know, if you took a vanilla bean, you got to scrape it that, that, that content. Um, I get a little bit of that on there. Um, very beautiful nose for some reason. I get sea salt on this, but who knows? It could be just cause it's rum finished.

You salty dog. Yeah, I like it. I like it a lot. I think it's got a, uh, now we've had some rum finished bourbons before, and I think we generally look positively on them. Uh, I don't think I've had one that's been off-putting. I think it's a good marriage. If it's done correctly, that's not overdone. I think you could probably, you could probably have it spend a little too much time in the run barrel if you're not careful. But I think in this case, they didn't do that.

Yeah. I'd like to get some spice out of this gym, but I just ain't getting a spice. I would think I would get out of this with that, that higher. Right.

Yeah. I would have to agree with you. I think that, uh, it's been toned down a bit by that secondary finish. The spices are just punching through like you might expect. I mean, it may show up in the palette. We'll have to check it out.

All right. Well, heck, Jim, let's taste this thing.

Yeah. Cheers.

Cheers.

Definitely sweet up front.

God dang, that's got this old school. Um, it's got that as tropical fruits, that sweetness, but I get a, you know, butterscotch putting on this for some reason. Maybe it's cause I'm hungry for that.

Yeah, no, it's amazing. Mike, you hit a note right on the nose. There's definitely a good, strong butterscotch note in this. So you get that kind of that sweetness upfront, right? As you sip on it, but then that butterscotch sort of settles in on the mint palette. But I need to take another sip to see what it does on the back end.

It's like the bourbon has sucked all that charred sugar cane in from that rum, right?

Yeah, there's definitely been a serious contribution from the rum cask. on the sweetness and like you said, like a dried tropical fruit, a little bit of butterscotch, not a tremendous amount of spice. Where did all the spice go in this whiskey? My goodness, it's gone.

Yeah, maybe that rum kind of meld out. I'm not sure, but, uh, good Lord, it's beautiful. There's not even a hug on this really. Um, which is surprising to me. I thought I was going to get some kind of like Colorado high from this. Um, but I don't, um, I think this has got that medium to long finish on it. That rum is just, it's, it's in my, my jowls jam. It's just there.

Yeah. Yeah. I have to agree with you, Mike, on the sides of the tongue. line. Definitely getting that to finish is nice. It's definitely a good long medium finish. The sweetness is everywhere though. It's not just on the front. You get that butterscotch in the middle, but you got sweetness that goes along with it. On the back end, not a whole lot of spice. A little bit. But that butterscotch kind of drips back a little bit. You get a little bit more sweetness. It kind of sticks with you. I, you know, the, the finish on this may be medium to long, but it does make you want to pick it right back up and have another step, doesn't it?

Yeah, this could definitely, uh, be, uh, I could get in trouble with this bottle right here, Jim.

So is this a, we can Kentucky's room finished whiskey here?

Yeah, for it having as high as Ryan there as it does. Um, I'm just totally shocked.

What's the one thing you would think I'd knock this thing for?

Yeah. Well, that's one thing. And I, I think that I want to get that with a room, uh, but the bottle itself, I hate this bottle.

Oh, this is the, this is the old tech junior bottle, isn't it?

Yeah, yeah. I do not know why distilleries keep buying this thing. As many whiskey drinkers have told them, hey, we don't like this bottle. As many bartenders say, we don't like this bottle. Why keep buying it? That's the only thing I can knock them for. Unless they just bought container and container and container full of them. Change your dang bottles.

Well, you know, right now people are just trying to get any bottle, right?

Well, that is true. And this bottle is not a problem for me because I can pick it up because I got gigantic hands. But for most people, this bottle is a problem. I think for Vivian and Mel, they both would have struggling picking this bottle up.

Yeah, I think you're probably right. I think we've talked many times about the old Stag Junior bottle and how hard it is to deal with it on a bar. It seems like people keep using it, so they're definitely not listening to that part of the show, are they?

No, definitely not. Well, listeners, let me remind you that this thing does have a 56% corn, 38% rye, 60% malted barley. It's 90 proof. The price range is between 40 and 60. Shop around. Jim, for me, this is a buy. I don't care about the price on this. It tastes damn good. I like it. It's like a sailor's whiskey right here for sure.

Yeah, so I'm just going to say this as a caveat. If you're not a real sweet whiskey kind of person, if you don't like that really sweet, syrupy kind of whiskey, this is probably not going to be the right answer for you. If you like the more spicy, drier whiskeys, the bolder whiskeys, the ones with a little bit more oak on the back end, again, probably not the right whiskey for you. But if you like a sweet whiskey, a fruity whiskey, if you like one that reminds you of tropical fruit sweetness, medium to long finish going to stick with you a while. And one that's going to make you pick your glass up about every minute or so to have another sip. Uh, this would be something to definitely try Breckenridge distillery out of Breckenridge, Colorado. Definitely the rum cast finished whiskey is something to be noted and something to try.

Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Well, Jim, where can our listeners find us at?

Well, you can find us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube. You can find us on TikTok. You can also find us on our Facebook group, our private Facebook group called The Bourbon Roadies. a lot of great like-minded people on there that like to share whiskey, share pictures of whiskey, share stories about whiskey, share reviews of whiskey. Basically, just have a good old time. They don't chop each other off at the knees for what whiskey they're drinking. Everybody is pretty much happy to let anybody drink whatever they want without getting on their case about it. If you drink from the bottom of the shelf or you drink from the top of the shelf, you're going to be equally accepted into the group. We hope you'll take a moment Search out the bourbon roadies on Facebook ask to join come and join our family hang out with us for a while.

You won't be sorry That's right. You're not going to find a better group out there on Facebook It is our family and we hope you join it

Alright, so we do two shows every week. Every week you'll hear us do a short episode on Mondays. We call it our craft distillery episode. It's about 15 or 20 minutes in length, like today's show on the Breckenridge Rum Cask finish. You know, if you like to hear about new bourbons, do whiskeys, do things that are out on the market, you want to know if there's something you want to add to your bar, this is a show to tune into. We'll do one expression every week on Mondays. We'll let you know whether it's something we think you ought to add to your bar. Today, I think Mike and I are both giving a thumbs up to the Rum Cast Finish Breckenridge. Every Wednesday, though, we do a full-length episode, an hour and like two 30-minute haves. We'll get you to work. We'll get you home. We'll deep dive on a subject. We'll have a guest on the show. We'll have several expressions on. We'll We'll make sure to fill an hour with lots of fun and laughter and lots of whiskey news. Make sure you tune in to Mike and I twice a week, every week. And Mike, how can they be sure not to miss a single episode?

Listeners, you want to scroll on up to the top of that app wherever you're listening to us. Hit that check sign, that plus sign, that subscribe sign. The way your app tells you, hey, these two jokers got an episode out today and you don't want to miss it because it's going to be good. Then you know what I'm going to say, scroll on down, hit that five star review, hit those comments, leave a summer. We'd really appreciate it. You know what's going to happen. The big bad booty daddy of bourbon, the dirty old sailor himself is going to come to your house with his Breckenridge rum cast finish. going to drink it all night long, be laughing like some old sailors like Jim and I do. You'll leave us that five star review in those comments, though. Guarantee. But seriously, those comments, that five star reviews, they really do open up doors to distilleries for us. They get great whiskey in our hands. My brother loved them so much that he brought me some like this Breckenridge Rum Cast Finish. We really do appreciate it.

So Mike and I are very approachable. If you see us at a store, you see us at an event, make sure you come up and say hey to us. We'd love to meet you. In the meantime, if you need to get the word to us about a new distillery, about a new bottle, about some guests you think ought to be on the show, you should hop onto our website, go to the Contact Us page, send Mike and I a message, let us know what you think. We'll jump right on it. You can always send us an email though. I'm Jim at TheBurbanRoad.com. He's Mike at TheBurbanRoad.com. But like I always say, hit up our DMs on Instagram. I'm jshan63.

I'm Big Bourbon Chief.

And we'll see you down the Bourbon Road.