292. Brush Creek Straight Bourbon Whiskeys 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.

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Hello everybody, I'm Jim Shannon. And I'm Mike Hyatt. This is The Bourbon Road. And today, Mike, we have another craft distillery Monday. We've got a bourbon from out west on today. Like out West West, like in the real West, right? Kind of up, up to the area there where Lonesome Dove ran, but not quite. I think it's a little bit west of that even. I think so.

You know, we were talking about that of where they were, whether they were in Cheyenne and where they moved for through on Lonesome Dove and stuff.

But this right here is near Saratoga, Wyoming, which is not far from Laramie, you know, right there near Medicine Bow National Forest. So this is a lot of history out there. Yeah, this is the Old West.

So what we're talking about is a place called Brush Creek. It's 30,000 acre ranch out there.

Which is that a big ranch in Wyoming or is that just an average size ranch? I think it's pretty big.

Pretty big. Plus they have another 15,000 acres. Yeah. They call it a farm. Yeah. That'd be a big farm.

Yeah, I like to call my place a farm here, but it's not even You got a five in there Jim.

I do but nothing else Well, what we're talking about today listeners is the brush Creek straight bourbon whiskies You know, so I said there's jam plural plural. Yeah, so this is actually three different whiskies Jim blended together and Brush Creek started in 2019 laying down whiskey. So obviously their whiskey is not old enough yet.

As of today, their own distillate is sitting in the barrel. It's about three years old. The oldest of which is about three years old.

Yeah. And I think they've decided to go to that four to five year old whiskey. Right. Which is smart. We've seen distilleries here in Kentucky do that.

So in the meantime, they're sourcing their whiskies, whiskies with an S from three different states.

Yeah. From Indiana. Got some pretty good whiskey. Right. We could almost guess where that comes from. Right. Right. Out of Kentucky. Ah, there's too many distilleries here to guess on that one. And then out of Tennessee.

And we could probably narrow that one down pretty good, but we won't try. Yeah. But nevertheless, three different whiskeys, three different states, three different distilleries, uh, comprising a blend of three whiskeys that is making up this four grain mash bill.

Yeah. And then it's, it is a four to 12 years old. So that's pretty respectable. 94 proof on this. So we don't know the match bills of those three different types of whiskies. Um, but it's got a nice, beautiful color. Uh, and there's the standard whiskey bottle with a tulip neck. I would call that a nice copper.

Um, yeah, it's a nice color to it. Very respectable. Yeah. I guess mash bill is the wrong word here, but it's, it's certainly a four green blend. It has all four of the greens in it, right? wheat, rye, barley, and corn.

Yeah, I mean, you can't get no more for green than that, right? Right. You can find this throughout the states. You can find it online here in Kentucky. You can find up the party source there in Northern Kentucky, Texas. You can find it at specs. Some of those bigger retail stores you can find it at and stuff right around 55 bucks average. I found a couple of places online for $32. I don't know if that's a sale or what it is, but still a respectable price.

Now Brush Creek, this 30,000 acre ranch. out in Wyoming is actually quite some resort, right?

Yeah, I would call it a luxury branch where people can go out there and relax. They have a spa. They have hiking trails. You can go hunting out there, fly fishing, horseback riding, guided tours on like a side-by-side ATV tours, wing shooting packages. They've sponsored by Beretta. Orbis. They've got Wagyu beef out there. They've got a bakery. They got a creamery where they take and make an ice cream and cheeses from goats.

They've also got a winery out there that produces over 30,000 bottles a year. Did you say 30,000 barrels? 30,000 bottles of wine. Bottles, not barrels.

But bottles of wine, that's a lot. They've got a couple different nice restaurants out there. This is a destination you want to go to. If you're looking for the outdoors, you're looking for that type of nature, this is your place to go.

It's in God's country out there, right? I mean, there's a lot of God's countries in the United States, but Wyoming sure ranks up there amongst some of the better sceneries, right? Looking out across those grasslands and canyons, it's just a beautiful place. Definitely would love to get out there myself. We haven't been there. We're seriously thinking about it, though, I would say. Yeah, just a beautiful place.

It's a place to relax and kind of connect back to nature and stuff.

Now they do make a gin as well, and I know that they grow their own botanicals up there. So they've got their own greenhouses, about 20,000 square feet of greenhouses where they grow their botanicals. But in addition, those greenhouses are putting out about 100,000 pounds of food a year. And of course, those foods go into their kitchens in the restaurants there to support their guests. So I'm not sure how many guest rooms they have, but I would say this is quite an operation.

Well, I think what we just go out there and check it out is what we need to do. Try to see it for ourselves. See if we approve or not. Maybe we can get a hold of these fine folks here. They actually sent us this whiskey from Brush Creek. We're very happy to have a bottle of this. We actually have a bottle of their Rye whiskey too. But we decided to do the bourbon today.

Let's do our due diligence here. We do appreciate the bottle being sent to it. We're going to be truthful about our tasting. Let's taste this bottle. Let everybody know what they can think about Brush Creek. Cheers. Cheers. Yeah, the nose is solid. I would say definitely a waft of caramel, a little bit of fruit. The oak is apparent. I think some of the older whiskey is showing up in the nose as well. You can tell that there's belage in there. But knowing that it's blended, you can expect to get a few things.

You ever had been into like a Belgian waffle restaurant or where they're making those fresh waffle cones and you could smell those waffle cones being made? I get that in this nose right here. There you go. There you go.

Yeah, I would say this is a good example of blending older and younger whiskeys together. The youngest being four years. So whenever you take multiple whiskies and you put them together into a bottle, The bottle gets the age of the youngest whiskey. So even though these are four to 12 year old whiskies legally, you have to call this a four year old, right? Sure. But there are things that exist. There are notes and there are attributes of a four year old whiskey. that don't exist in a 12 year old whiskey and vice versa. So things you get out. So when you put them both together, it's quite a challenge to blend them correctly, to get a positive outcome.

Your friends over there barrel proof, smoking chips, smoke your bourbon. They, Susan always makes these candied pecans. Oh yeah, I love those. Get a little bit of that candied pecan on there. There's another little note there I'm getting. Not a whole lot of spice in this though.

Not a lot of spice, but It's got a, just a hint of a savory note to it. I can't point it out. It doesn't really, I mean, it's recognizable, but I can't put words to it. It's, it's, it's good. It's unique. It's not, I've not had those combinations of the notes on the nose before.

The old stone fruit in here, like a, a ripen peach, you know, that peach truck had just come around.

Like, like when you really let them get softer. Oh yeah. Yeah. I can get that. It's kind of floral. It's definitely floral. I think it's good. I think it's great. I'm ready to taste it though. Cheers. Kind of a little of the same, um, nice, uh, baking spices. Still that other spice. I can't get it. It's kind of a savory note. Um, a little bit of fruit. You said over ripen peaches. I tend to agree with that. Get a little anise in there a little bit on the back of the palette. Yep. Yep. Yep. It does sit well on the back. But it is a little it's a different spice when it gets back there. Would you say it's a little drying on the back? It is a little drying. It's like it pinches your tongue a little bit. Yeah. It wants to be pop rocks, but it's not quite there. Not quite pop rocks. It's like a sizzling. The finish on it is just barely reaching medium, but it's pleasant.

Not a whole lot of sweetness on this. A little bit of that like old dried leather. You said that drying effect. I'd like to say it had a, there's no roasted nuts in this right here.

Roasted something though. Yeah, I still can't get past that savory note because I can't put my finger on it. It's almost like, uh, like Bailey for something. Oh, well, sometimes you just can't put the words to it, folks. You just have to keep sipping and move on. It'll come to you eventually.

There's not enough sweetness in this to say it's like a, uh, Maybe a cashew, a roasted cashew or something that's not as nutty. It has more oil to it. But it's not enough to say it's like it has a bunch of fruit in it. This has got more spice in it.

This is a good porch whiskey. I think if you're if you're up on the ranch in Wyoming and you're relaxing after a day of fishing or after a day of pheasant honey or whatever it is you choose to do while you're up there. This would be a great porch whiskey. Definitely.

Maybe like a winter green or a spearmint is in this is what I'm getting.

You're talking about the kind of freshness of it. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not getting the actual mint flavor, but I am getting the freshness. Yeah.

Cause it, it, it just kind of opens up your power a little bit. It's like, like I said, sizzling on my palate. If I took some spearmint or something like that and chewed on it, that freshness of it would be.

Yeah. Well, I have to say, you know, for their first expression, a young distillery, They do have a big operation behind them, but for a young distillery doing their first expression, I would say this is a success.

Yeah, I quite like it, Jim. Price-wise, $55, I get it. You're just getting into it. I'd be interested to see if their new bottling is going to stay that way whenever they put their own out. 94 proof, this is probably proof, right? I'm wondering if they proved it down or if they kept it at a hundred, it might bring out some more sweetness to it. We always talk about that, right? remind everybody again what we're drinking. So we're drinking the Brush Creek straight bourbon whiskies. This is three different whiskies from Indiana, Tennessee, and Kentucky at 94 proof, four to 12 years old. And you can pick this up for around $55 for a green blend. Yeah. I think they did a very fine job blending this. It's not harsh or anything like that. It's not overpowering. If you like a little bit more of a spicy whiskey, this is probably right up your alley. If you don't want that sweetness, and I know a lot of people hit bourbons because they're overly sweet.

this is that bourbon you're probably looking for or of a Nam Creek style. Yeah, and I'd say it's a versatile whiskey too. You could do a lot of things with this. I think it's bold enough, it's got enough flavor in it that it can hold up to a little bit of ice. I think it'd be fine mixed as a highball or in a cocktail. I think it'd probably make a fine old-fashioned. It's got enough spice to it. It sips nice straight, and that's the way I would prefer it, but I'd say it's versatile enough to go any of those directions.

I let it set in the glass a little bit, sipped on it, got that hint of that peach, which is super nice. It opened up a little bit, a little sweetness came out of it.

Not overly still, not overly sweet. I'm gonna pour a little bit more, Jim. You can almost session with this, I think. You could sit down and at the end of the day, literally, if we go up there, if we go up to this place, you know, we're going to go two different directions. I'm going to fish and you're going to hunt. I'd like to pheasant hunt up there.

I think that or even, you know, I'm get on ATV and, you know, I like to take photos. I'd probably go crazy up there taking photos, right? Yeah. I would love to shoot this bottle. against some of the other backdrops there. Eat some wagyu beef, maybe hunt some pheasant. Heck, I might even fish with you a little bit. I enjoy catching a good trout. You know, that's relaxing and stuff, but. And the girls?

I see our wives at the spa, on a hike, eating some wagyu beef. They both like to eat a little bit of beef. But back to the sessioning on this bottle, I think that after that day, After dinner, we watched sunset with it. Yeah, we come back and watch the sunset set on the porch. We could session with this bottle and probably talk about the notes in it for quite some time. I think this is a good sunset bottle here. I'd enjoy it. Yeah, quite beautiful.

Um, like I said, it's opening up. I'm getting that sweetness. Now that peach, I was, uh, maybe a little bit of toasted peach. Jim, if you ever, have you ever taken a peach put a little butter in a cast iron pan and just kind of sear that, that peach on the side, ate that. That's what I'm getting on this. Um, I really put a little bit of just, just a little bit of cinnamon on there for that sweetness and it gets caramelized.

Yeah. You know, that's something Mike, we could talk a little bit about this. This is a shorter Crafty Story Monday episode, but one of the things that, um, is very common to the way we taste whiskeys is that we'll open the bottle. and we'll drink from the neck, right? Yep. And then we'll talk about it. We'll let our listeners know what we think about it. And then sometimes we'll come back to that bottle later just for personal reasons. We'll notice that it's a little different.

Yeah, it could be, you know, and it depends on what we've eaten that day, what we drink. I would say if you're a listener out there and you drink from a bottle and you're just straight from the neck, don't be discouraged by that bottle. Come back to it. Your palate can change over the course of the day.

Right. I think they've always improved over time, at least from the neck pour to the next time I come back and visit the bottle. Obviously, if you run a bottle down to an inch from the bottom and you leave it that way for a long time, you hazard other things happening like oxidation. But I think I've always noticed for the most part that as these whiskeys are exposed to that oxygen, exposed to that air, they do tend to open up a little bit. They do tend to improve some, right? As a general rule.

Well, I will tell you this. This thing has a nice hug to it. It's starting to work there. Right. So I would, I don't even know what kind of hood call that. Cause you got three different states, maybe a call it the 10 K hug. Yeah. Yeah. 10 K hug.

You know, do you think we could, we could finish this bottle between us one night out there?

It'd be a rough, rough morning. It will be rough. I bet we could. Actually, I know we could. It'd be easy.

This bottle is definitely sessionable. I truly believe it. I could, you know, and what makes us an idea for a sessionable bourbon to me is one that as I'm drinking on it, I start to notice more and more things about it. I start to really enjoy drinking it and I'm not looking for that other bottle to drink now. I just want to stick with this one.

Yeah, this is a bottle that you can sit around and talk about and discuss. And, you know, I would implore people to make sure you're listening to our craft distillery Mondays. Check out these bourbons we're talking about. We are very careful. about what bourbons come on the show. And this is one that we thought about. We talked to them. I liked their story. And you know, I'm not a big story guy. The story doesn't matter to me. The bottle doesn't matter.

The story matters to you after you've tasted the bourbon, right? Yeah, yeah.

What matters is the whiskey inside. You can have the ugliest bottle on the face of the earth. Plainest bottle there is, which is that Stag Junior bottle, right? But we know Stag Junior itself, It, it can sit in that bottle just fine by itself, but I've seen other people put whiskey in that bottle and it tastes horrible. But then I've seen people put other whiskey in that and it tastes just beautiful. So it really doesn't matter. Well, Jim, another finer view, a medium finish on this, a nice a 10 K hug on this. Yeah. $55. That's not too far of a reach for a four to 12 years old.

You got to remember that. Yeah, you're always got to have this in your mind, at least today in today's numbers, always have it in your mind. What's the proof and what's the age? If it's somewhere in the 90 to 100 proof range and it's somewhere in the four to five year old range or four to six year old range, $55 is correct.

Now I will tell you who else has 94 proof out there. Oh my goodness, Elijah Craig, right? Elijah Craig. Yeah. Elijah Craig is going to run you right around $40 for a bottle. $34 to $40 depending on how we're doing.

But, you know, let's face it, Heaven Hills putting down 1,300 barrels a day. Yeah. For the moment, Brush Creek is having to source their whiskey. We don't know how many barrels, but they are putting down their own and probably at a fairly rapid pace.

Oh, yeah, I could imagine they are a great big disorder like this. I think it's a great place to go visit. If you want to go visit a place, you get the best of all worlds here. If you're into that outdoorsy world like we are, if your wife's in the wine or your significant others in the wine, they got wine there for you. They got beef. They got the creamery. They've got the greenhouse. They've got it all. They got the spa gym, a luxurious place to stay. I'm looking forward to visiting.

Yeah, absolutely. So, listeners, if you get a chance to try this or if you see it on the shelf, I think Mike and I are both kind of in tune on this. We say you ought to pick yourself up a bottle. I think you won't be disappointed. Hey, if you see it on the shelf at a bar and you're having a drink, definitely get a pour. Check out brushcreekdistillery.com. Find out more about these guys. Check out the resort out there. If you ever had an inkling to head out west and go to Wyoming out near Cheyenne and Laramie, This would be a great place to go. I think Mac and I are going to try to get out there at some point.

Yeah, I want to go back out. I've been to the American West plenty of times, kind of grew up in the American West. So to me, this would almost play like going home. different part of the American West. I've been out there, rode a Harley out there a couple times and enjoyed myself and I look forward to visiting again. All right.

Well, Mike, where can people find us on the internet?

Well, you can find us on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Man, we're all over the place. But our main place is on Facebook. We got a private Facebook group called the Bourbon Roadies. We're getting around three thousand people in there, Jim. Three easy questions to become a member. Are you twenty one? Do you love bourbon? Hell, if you're searching this out, you love bourbon. If you listen to us, you love bourbon. And also, do you agree to play nice because we don't tolerate any rudeness in there? I mean, if you drink from the very bottom of the shelf, to the very top of the shelf. We want you to come in there and enjoy yourself. Enjoy a great whiskey conversation with us. Celebrate life, birthdays, anniversaries, retirements, whiskey festivals. Folks, you need to stick with us. We might have some big stuff that's coming down the pike.

We'll let you know.

We're going to let you know. But it's pretty damn exciting. We're excited about it. So yeah, come and join us in the roadies. Pretty great time. Yeah.

So we do two shows every single week, every week on Mondays. You'll get a craft distillery Monday episode from us. We sit down with a bottle like we have today with brush Creek. Mike and I'll sip on it. We'll talk about it. We'll give you our opinion. We'll let you know whether or not you ought to add it to your bar. But every Wednesday, we'll do a full-length episode. We'll have a guest on, we'll travel about, we'll go to a distillery, we'll have an author on or a chef, or we'll drink three or four bottles. We'll get a deep dive of subject, a much longer show, basically two 30-minute halves. We'll get you to work and get you home. two shows every single week. Mike, what can they do to make sure they don't miss either one of those shows?

Well, listeners, what you need to do is scroll on up the top of that app, hit that subscribe button, that check sign, that plus sign, and the app is going to let you know, hey, these two jokers have an episode out today and you need to listen to it, catch up, see what kind of whiskey you need to put on your shelf today. Or, hey, what kind of guests they got on? Then we need to scroll on down and hit that five star review those comments because you know what's going to happen if you don't the big bad booty daddy of bourbon is going to come over to your house bringing some of this Brush Creek straight bourbon whiskeys with him and drink it all night long. You'll be talking like John Wayne. Seriously, leave us that five-star review. Leave us those comments. But seriously, those comments, those reviews, open up doors to distilleries, gets great whiskey in our hands like this Brush Creek. We'd really appreciate it.

If you run into Mike and I and we're out and about, you see us at an event or at a liquor store. You see us out at a distillery mixer. You stop by and say hi. We'd love to meet you. Love to shake your hand and hear your bourbon story. Heck, Mike, we were just in an event hanging out with some roadies. Just yesterday. Yeah, a lot of fun. So make sure you're not shy. You'll walk up to us. Mike and are very approachable. You can also reach out to us on our website, the bourbonroad.com. We've got a contact us page on there. Just fill out the little message and send it to us. We'll get back with you. You can also hit up our emails. I'm Jim at the bourbonroad.com. He's Mike at the bourbonroad.com. Like we always say, probably the best way, just hit up our DMS on Instagram. They're wide open. I'm Jay Shannon, 63. I'm Big Bourbon Chief. We'll see you down the bourbon road.