427. Blue Corn Bourbons and Whiskeys

Hello friends and welcome back to another episode of the Bourbon Road Podcast. I'm your host, Jim Shannon.

And I'm your host, Todd Ritter. We've got a great show for you today. So grab your favorite pour and join us.

Todd and I are proud to have Smokey's Lifestyle Cigars as a sponsor of this episode and as the official cigar of the Bourbon Road Podcast. Our hosts and listeners alike enjoy the ultimate experience of premium cigars. Smokey's Lifestyle Cigars are where flavor and craftsmanship meet. Find out more during the halftime break and at Smokey's Lifestyle Cigar dot com. The Surgeon General warns that cigar smoking can cause lung cancer and heart disease and is not a safe alternative to cigarettes. The Hill House Bed and Breakfast, located in Loretto, Kentucky, is ready to be your bourbon country home away from home. Located less than three miles from Maker's Mark, the Hill House is convenient to Bardstown and the rest of the Bourbon Trail. The next time you visit bourbon country, choose comfort and convenience. Choose the Hill House Bed and Breakfast. Listen in at the break for more details or visit their website at thehillhousekentucky.com. All right, folks, well, it's another review show and Todd and I are in the Bourbon Road bar. This is a show that Todd has put together and it's actually been something we've talked about for probably a month or more, right?

Yeah. I kind of came up with this idea when once again, I kind of looked at my collection and knew what some of the things you had in your own. So I'm like, let's get corny, if you will. Yeah.

Yeah. So today we are we're going to have four whiskeys on the show actually five five yeah and uh all bourbons

Two corn whiskies. And then, yes, the two I brought are bourbons and then the one you have is a bourbon as well.

OK, so there are a couple of corn whiskies. And we'll talk a little bit about corn whiskey when we get to that point. But our first one up to bat today. Oh, well, let's talk about what the show is.

Yeah, we're feeling sad, kind of, and corny. So it's about blue corn. So everything we have today, has blue corn in it. And blue corn is, it's not just one corn, it's kind of a family of corns, you know. You've heard a bloody butcher that being like an individual red one, so there are numerous types of blue corn. And the reason it's blue is because of something called anthocyanins. Oh my gosh, you did research. I did a little research. Google's a wonderful thing. And that's what causes that blue coloration. It's a pigment. So really, yeah.

So beyond bourbon and blue corn chips, what else did you use blue corn for?

Yeah, that was kind of bourbon and like cooking a lot of tortillas and things like that. Obviously, I think it kind of originated from Mexico and then others have kind of. it's kind of progressed to other states and things like that. Because there's quite a few surprisingly out there that are kind of playing around with blue corn. I mean, we just had Borchetta on who plays with red, white, and blue corn. I can also think of Bluegrass here in, it's in Lexington, Kentucky. They usually have like an annual release of some blue corn bourbon that they put together. It's really, really good. And then another one I've tried that none of these three are on the show that I just kind of want to reference is Pink Knees out of Missouri. Yeah. And they're another one that kind of experiment with different kinds of corns and things.

So there's potential we could have a volume two of the show. Possibly, yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

And you know, we may jump into some red corn and white corn. I mean, there's, you know, it's just always fun to like, I was like, hey, I've got a bunch of blue corn stuff here. Let's put them together and see what we got. All right.

Well, the first one in our glass is actually has a little bit of red, white, and blue corn in it. It contains 25% Bloody Butcher, which is a red corn variety. It has 25% heirloom white corn. And it has 25% of Bruce's blue heirloom corn. The last 25% is made up of malted rye 20% and 5% malted barley. So pretty extensive mash bill. And this is from Jephthah Creed. This is their red, white, and blue straight bourbon. This is batch three that we have now. And this is the most recent release of 2024. It's a hundred proof, beautiful bottle. These guys, their bottle is just top of the heap as far as I'm concerned. Yeah, it is a nice bottle. It's great.

I like the, any kind of, you see like that engraving, engraved glass type thing or you know, like with the, it's got some texture to it is always kind of cool.

All right, well let's go ahead and check it out and then we'll come back to this expression and talk a little bit more about it.

Caramel, strawberry jam. I'm getting a little like strawberry.

Yeah. I'm getting, uh, definitely an earthy note and I always get that with a definitely the red, right? Yeah.

And earthy kind of, uh, almost for like the soil that grew in almost.

Yeah. It's a light fruit though. Um, on like, uh, Oh, but we use this pear juice for our... Yeah, I can see the pear. When we make our mimosas, we do pear mimosas on the weekends. That sounds nice. And we use this pear juice, pear nectar actually is what it's called. It just reminds me of that. I'd say the nose is typical for like a hundred proofer. It feels nice.

Yeah. No, no nose burning.

Nothing there to put me off whatsoever. I know that, you know, in the early days, JEPTA had some issues with whatever they were doing. And some people got sort of a sour taste in their mouth about it.

Yeah.

But it's a different day now.

Yeah. They've kind of turned it around.

Definitely.

And they have for quite some time.

So it's not just been recently. Cheers.

Cheers.

Wow. That's a great palette. Nice, full, full bodied. I'm getting that salivating on the sides. Yep.

Very. Wow. This is, uh, might be the best thing I've had from them.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And I've noticed them getting better and better over time. Yeah. Like last year's red, white and blue was good. Yeah. But this is, this is really good. Wow.

Still getting that rich caramel. No. A little bit more kind of a darker, darker fruit fruit.

Yeah.

It's light, light fruits on the nose and then the little bit darker coming in and it would be more like, um, I don't know. Um, plums or maybe in a little like blackberry. Wow. Really good.

I'm gonna hit a second sip here. Textures great. The body's great on it. The finish is, it finishes like a much older whiskey. I would agree. I'm getting those sort of tobacco leathery notes off of it. And I'm thinking, I don't know, a little bit of tannin, but not too much, but definitely like a, like a tobaccoy kind of note. Okay.

Now this is, I believe it's, At least four years old, I believe is what it said.

It would be at least four years old, I would say, but I'm going to say that there's smaller distillery. They probably have tough time keeping up with the production, so when they call it a four-year whiskey, it's probably four-year whiskey.

Maybe a few five and sixes in there.

There could be. But this is a whiskey that has a mission. I mean, red, white, and blue is not just there because of the colors of the corn. This is called their red, white, and blue bourbon because it's tied to the military and it's a way of thanking members of all branches for their service. That's awesome. And Jephthah Creek gives a proceed of all their income from this particular expression to veterans organizations. That's awesome. Yeah, it's really good stuff. And this retails for about 70 to 80 in that range? Like so. Depending on where you get it. If you get it at the gift shop over here, I would imagine it's probably 79. Okay.

Do they have any other like, do they have like a cash proof version of this or is it pretty much? Not of this one, I don't think. Yeah, I know they have some cash proof single barrels I've seen.

This is kind of a limited release. I mean, I don't know how many barrels they make of it. You know, one of the barrels is actually signed by visitors to the Jeff The Creed Distillery who are veterans. Every time you visit there and you take a tour, you have an opportunity to sign the red, white, and blue barrel for the next year.

That is really unique.

I love that. It's really cool.

And then the ones that come out of there are kind of special. Just a quick question, though. Is your signature on all three barrels?

I did the first two. I don't think I did release three, but I was definitely on the first two. That's cool. Yeah. And yeah, I think it's a great thing. They have a wonderful event every year on Veterans Day where they welcome people into the distillery. They bring the veterans group that they're honoring with their gift. from the sales of this in there. And then they celebrate through partnership and you can buy bottles. And they do that basically on their release every year. Impressive. Yeah, this is a really good whiskey. I'm super pleased with it. I think that if you still harbor, and I'm talking to the listeners now, if you still harbor some ill will and feelings towards Jeptha because maybe some of the early expressions took you a bit by surprise. I'm telling you, now's the time to give them a second chance and to try some of their six year weeded they had was fantastic. The red, white and blue really good. I'm not going to say every expression they put out will be in your sort of profile, but they definitely should be on your radar again.

Yeah, I agree. I mean, I think I was one of those when I tried some of the early releases, I was like, you know, there was something there, but I don't know. Yeah.

Well, enough companies have made a successful run at it with blue and red varietals. They've done a good job. And I think that it's just maybe it just took a little longer to get on board, but let's say that 2024, they're killing it. Their stuff is really good. And I know when we went to the Kentucky Bourbon Festival, the line was pretty long to try their stuff. That's good to see. Yeah.

Speaking of charity, I'm going to bring this up because I'm still privy to the Bourbon on the Banks information. And I was a volunteer and all that kind of stuff as well. But Diane just let us know how much money was raised from that event. And it all goes to local charities. So I thought it was pretty awesome. $356,000.

Wow. Fantastic. That's VIP and all the other stuff.

And yeah. I had no clue it was that much. Yeah. So it's able to return 80,000 to our beneficiaries, bringing our total contributions to date to an inspiring 215,000 or 356,000, including funds raised through our VIP reception and auction. Wow. That's pretty awesome. And hats off to all the folks that are listening that came. I mean, you are a part of that. And yeah, my hats off to you.

Yeah, that's our, I would just call it our home event here. That's our home event. We talk about other events. And, you know, I mean, we attend other events, but that's kind of our home event. We hope all of our listeners, if they can't make it every year, make it once every few years down to Bourbon on the Banks and just enjoy it.

Because there's actually going to be a little quick reception next week that I'm going to. Last year, the governor, Governor Beshear came down and was a part of it as well. Fantastic. He's there again. I know he likes, he's a big Bourbon fan himself.

Likes his Bourbon.

I think that's a requirement of being a governor in Kentucky. If you don't like bourbon, there's a good chance you might not make the cut.

If you stand up on the podium and say, I'm running for governor and I don't like bourbon, you're probably not going to get elected.

You might want to move to Indiana.

If you don't like bourbon or horses, you're in trouble. All right. Well, let's, uh, let's chalk one up for, uh, jump the creed. That was fantastic. And, uh, let's move on to our second poor Todd.

Okay. We're going to stay in that hundred proof range because this is a bottled and bond and this is still Austin's blue corn bottled and bond bourbon. So this is, uh, what's the match bill on this one? This one is 26% blue corn, 25% white corn, 44% rye. and five percent malted barley.

Okay. Wow. Okay. A high rye, blue corn, urban. High rye, blue corn. Well, blue and white corn.

Blue and white corn. No, 26, 25. Okay. So that's pretty much the same. Now, this one tends to be released in the winter, apparently. And then they also have a red corn, which I didn't do a deep dive on that. If I get a bottle, we do a red corn one, we will. But I'm assuming it's probably Bloody Butcher, but it could be something else. And I think that one's released in the spring. And it's also a bottle.

Well, I'm a super big fan of the Still Austin. Just their plain Jane. middle shelf bourbon and rye.

Yeah.

It's really good. It's good stuff. Good quality stuff. All right. Let's check it out. Yep.

This has got a little bit more of a nutty note.

Nutty, but it's also got like a creamy sweetness. Not as much caramel as the last one. A little bit more like a creme brulee kind of. Yeah. Good call. Again, noses appropriately for a hundred proof. Let's dive in. Yep. Cheers. Okay. So this one's definitely lighter on the palette, a little less sweet, a little less sweet. Uh, doesn't have quite the body and texture that we had in the last one. It's a little bit lighter, but it's a little more refreshing.

I was actually expecting a little more like spicy kick with 44% ride, but it's, it's pretty soft.

And it's given me a little bit of dryness on the back. Is it? Yeah. You said it lacks sweetness on the front, but it also gives a little bit of dryness in the back too. It's pleasant. Flavorful. A little bit of pepper.

Yeah. Little, little white pepper. Yep. Yep. Um, a little bit of like citrus, like, um, orange kind of vibe I'm getting almost.

Yeah. The, the palette doesn't, I mean, the, the finish doesn't stick around a real long time on it, but it's very pleasant. I like it. It's, um, almost has like a, a licorice feel to it, but like it, like it's got this spiciness, this dry spiciness to it, but it's not licorice. Definitely not. I mean, it's kind of, I know good and plenty's are licorice. It kind of reminds me of a good and plenty a little bit, but it's a little, little, little better on the back.

Yeah. That's just noticing like there's a little bit of bitterness.

This is a, this is a pleasing pour. This is very unassuming. washes straight across the pallet, doesn't trip any landmines along the way, reaches the back, gives you a short to medium finish, a little bit of a bittery bite on it, but fresh. I kind of like it.

It's very clean. Yeah, it's very clean. And this one runs about 95, 99 or so in that area.

You know, I'm interested. It's very interesting that the ride doesn't play a bigger part. Like you said, I would have expected it. It did.

Yeah. I was expecting like a nice big spicy finish, but the segues nicely into just kind of a, there's that little bit of bitterness at the end, but it's almost like a black walnut.

Yeah. A little bit of a black walnut shell kind of on the back. So funny. I've totally confused everybody kind of like licorice, but doesn't taste like it.

Okay. Then what is it, Jim? It can evolve. I mean, you know, it's not ever evolving in the glass. If we were to leave these for 30 minutes, we'd come back and probably get something else. I'm sure.

Yeah. Going back to the nose, man, it's dead on nose to palate. Now it was a little weird on the Jephtha. The Jephtha kind of was like light fruits, dark fruits. It was kind of weird. This one's kind of in line, the palate and the nose really do match well. It comes across the palate, like I said, I said, didn't trip any landmines. I mean, it doesn't trip any triggers. It doesn't make you think about crazy stuff when you're drinking it. It just kind of makes its way to the back, finishes in a relatively short period of time, leaves a fresh, and a freshness on your palate afterwards. It's a good drink.

Yeah, I kind of left myself short in the glass. I've already finished mine.

Are you done?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, truth be told, it was my palate warmer. I wanted to try it anyway.

So do you think this is sessionable?

Yes. This would be one to sit on the porch and watch the clouds go by.

Wow. Interesting. I like it. I like it because it's definitely different.

Yes.

It's very different. And, you know, still Austin, they're definitely a distillery to be admired.

Yeah. Like we were kind of discussing before we started recording. I, I, you know, there's some great stories in Texas. You, your iron roots, your garrison brothers, your, um, Oh, what's the, uh, Balcones Balcones switch. Foreshadowing. Yeah. We could know something about that. There might be one of those coming. I was thinking of that other one that, oh, Lone Elm. Lone Elm. Lone Elm. And there's numerous others. Yeah. They're pronounced some really unique stuff. But I think still Austin has this thing where it's like, if you were to pour that for somebody and didn't tell them what it was and said, this is a bourbon, and then you asked them what state it came from, There's a good chance they might say Kentucky. I mean, I don't know how they get these velvety smooth, you know, I've had some cast strength and some single barrels from them and just.

Well, it's just one of those Texas distilleries that doesn't produce. you know, really a Texas profile whiskey.

Yeah. But I'm like, how are they doing it? You know, cause I love that Texas vibe that these other disorders put out.

It's its own thing and I respect it.

Yeah.

But these guys sort of, they managed to do it in Texas some other way. Yeah. Yeah, I like it a lot. I think this is definitely not this specific expression, but still Austin in general. They're bourbon in the rye or something you should be, and I can't attest to this because I haven't been to Texas in a very long time. Our Texas listeners let us know, but it should be something you find in the well. at many bars and restaurants, I would think.

Yeah. I mean, as far as the bourbon nerds go, they've really kind of exploded on the scene. When we were talking beforehand, they just came out with a cigar blend, which is called the Tanager, which is a, I guess a Texas bird, or I know it's a bird, but But it's getting rave reviews and yeah, it's kind of hard to find, apparently. So it's kind of cool to see, you know, usually these unicorns coming out from the big boys. You understand that, but it's kind of interesting to see some of these smaller Disauris getting some bourbon nerd love.

Yeah, that's great.

Yeah.

Awesome.

All right. Well, Todd, let's, uh, let's pick this spot to break at. Yep. And, uh, you and I will continue to set. You don't have any left of the still Austin. No, but I'm gonna finish my Jeptha.

Finish your Jeptha. I'll finish my still Austin. We'll make it through the break and folks will be right back. Don't go away. Few things pair better together than a fine whiskey and a premium cigar. and Smokey's Lifestyle Cigars are where flavor and craftsmanship meet. Their exclusive collection is meticulously hand-rolled from aged tobacco sourced from the Dominican Republic. Revel in the artistry that only decades of experience can bring. The owner, with over 10 years of cigar mastery, curates blends that capture the essence of family tradition and innovation. Embrace the journey and indulge in a harmonious symphony of Smoky's Lifestyle Cigars, an experience truly beyond compare. Find out more at Smoky's Lifestyle Cigar dot com. When you're traveling the Bourbon Trail, location and comfort is everything. That's why I recommend making the Hill House Bed and Breakfast your home away from home. Located in the heart of Bourbon Country, the Hill House Bed and Breakfast is less than five minutes from the Maker's Mark Distillery in Loretto, Kentucky, giving you easy access to the Bardstown Distilleries and all points of the Bourbon Trail. The owners, Cheryl and Jim, offer four comfortable and cozy rooms along with a gourmet hot-plated breakfast every single morning. And, when you return from a long day of fun, it's time to enjoy a bit of the Bourbon Trail nightlife. Relax on the large outdoor patio, complete with a blazing chiminea and solo stove, or curl up on the sofa and chairs, put a record on the turntable, and relax with snacks and fruit in front of the gas fireplace. An evening at the Hill House is a perfect time to raise a bourbon glass full of cheer in the company of family and friends. We know you'll enjoy your stay at the Hill House bed and breakfast as much as we did. Find out more at TheHillHouseKentucky.com.

All right, roadies, welcome back to the second half of our Blue Corn show, if you will. We in the first half, we had a red, white, and blue corn blend of Jephthah Creeds, which are 100 proof. Really nice. And then we follow that up with the Still Austin Baldwin Bond Blue Corn. And we've got three more in this half, so five whiskeys. And obviously, since we started off with 200 proofers, well, we're upping our game in proof-wise. And I'm already feeling it a little bit, so it could get fun towards the end of this half. Just don't get the blues, right?

I'm not going to get the blues.

Yeah. The first one we're going to start off with the second half is from Wood Hat, and it is out of Missouri. My good friend and roadie, Wade Ward, picked this up for me on his travels as he'd come to Kentucky and he and his wife had flown in and we had hung out. He actually came in for the Mashin Journey experience there at the Bardstown Blitz. He and his wife went out, we got to meet for dinner and have drinks and things like that a few times. But they went and had all kinds of tours lined up and literally, he brought his bottles that... He had purchased to me and I kept his bottles until he and his wife drove back up through to go see actually their big Auburn fans. So I think I ended up having about 27 or 28 bottles that they had purchased on their travels. Oh my goodness. I was like, well, I was like, you just increased our like, like taxes. By a ton. My state approves of this. But on his way back, when they came through driving, he brought me a few presents and this is one of them. So this is a really small distillery in Missouri. This guy uses nothing but heirloom corns and this is, it's called Wood Hat. Old blue single barrel castor in corn whiskey. So this is a corn whiskey. I couldn't find the mash bill, but he said this guy was very talkative and probably if we ever got him on, he would probably love to talk about it. But there's a lot of, you know, he has a red corn, a bloody butcher corn one. And, uh, actually, uh, Wade also purchased me one of their just straight bourbon.

So at some point, corn whiskey that is distilled and then placed into new Oak would be a bourbon.

Yes.

But the reason they can't call this a bourbon is not, no.

Right. Yeah. We don't know. Yeah. Could be a used barrel. Could be. And maybe, you know, he didn't, maybe it even is in New York and he didn't. Oh, maybe it is a bourbon. It qualifies as a bourbon. He didn't call it that. Maybe. But it is a straight corn whiskey. Yeah. So that, it tells you a little bit. Comes in 127.2 proof. and runs about $100, but there is, he also has a 80 proof version of this. I believe it's called Aged. Blage blue, corn whiskey or something like that. You're always a little hesitant when something new comes to you. I previewed this one some time ago and I was floored. I think he uses some different barrel sizes and things like that, but that color on that is... Yeah, it's very dark. It's lovely. Chocolate mahogany. So it's wood fire distilled. So I think he uses like his old staves and things like that to like, I believe they call themselves a carbon neutral distillery, which is impressive.

Yeah.

And. Yeah, they're harvest hosts that, you know, I just kind of dug into their. So anybody out in that has a camper out that way. Hey, stop there. Name one more time. It's wood hat, wood hat, wood hat. It's a new Florence, Missouri, new Florence, Missouri.

Yeah. So I'm intimately familiar with Missouri. My son and I biked across Missouri from one end to the other. So we got to go through all these little towns along the Missouri river, all the way across the state. Yeah. I got to, I don't, I don't remember new Florence.

Yeah. I didn't like take a deep dive. Like what's new Florence near, I guess, you know, give you, give you guys something to Google.

Okay. As I knows this, I get, I kind of get a rich, deep sort of a, um, holiday spice cake kind of goes on it.

It's very. Spicy, I get like a little bit of like. I'm getting like a little bit of leather, like it's like just a little bit of like tobacco, which is really interesting. I mean, corn whiskey. You don't really like think of like those deep, rich flavors.

I mean, yeah. Yeah, so what are those cakes you get in the holidays that nobody really likes, but they get them. They're like very heavy, they weigh like 10 pounds. I remember what you even call those.

It's like candied fruit or something.

Candied fruit in it and it feels like it's filled with rum and it's, they're heavy and dense. Oh my goodness. Yeah. One of those. We're getting old. We are getting old. We're getting old and it's the second half folks. We can't remember what they're called, but that's what the nose reminds me of.

Cause it's like a running joke. Like some of them get passed around, you know, year after year like, Merry Christmas.

Merry Christmas. Because they literally have a shelf life of like a hundred years, right? It's not a jam cake.

But it's got like a fruit cake. Fruit cake. They call it fruit cake, right? Yeah.

Yeah. And then they literally do have like a hundred year shelf life because they have so much rum in them. You like pull them out of the box and they drip, right? Yeah.

And it's got like that candy fruit, like I said, but nobody knows what those fruits are. It's like.

Well, anyway, if you get the idea now, folks, that's what I'm getting on the nose. I'm getting that sort of a fresh open can of fruit cake at the holidays. All right.

So cheers to Wade. Thank you.

Cheers. Oh, that is delightful. That is really good. Yeah. That is buttery. It is. And soft. Oh, it's like drinking, I don't know, like cinnabon. It's like liquid cinnabon. There's no cinnamon in it, but liquid, whatever this is, kind of just rushing, very sweet, very syrupy.

I was really impressed. I was like, you know, this is really good, but he was like, this was something we tried and they were floored.

So it's got like a late nuttiness to it. A little cereal note.

Yeah. You get a little bit of grain. Yeah. But it's very rich. Like after you swallow it, sweet and rich.

a little bit chewy. So it like, it like comes into the front and it makes a tremendous impression. Then hits the mid palate and it, the impression is elevated even higher and then hits the back and is down a little bit for me. Okay.

It doesn't like, see, I feel like it's lingering back there on that back.

It is lingering, but it's like that, like the impression of like the impact of the flavor doesn't like set off the back of my palate.

Yeah. And then, then since, I mean, we've got to figure it's got a lot of corn in it, so it's soft too. I mean, there's little to no burn. There's a little bit of spice on the end, but you would never wager this is 127 proof.

I've never had anything like this. Yeah. This reminds me almost like an after-dinner drink, like a pair of teeth.

I kind of want to try, do you remember we tried that Golden Origins that was the Hardin's Creek from Jim Beam? Yeah. and nothing like this. Not even close.

This is special. Have they won any awards? Did they send this off?

I don't know. Like I said. It's a really small and his name is Gary something. And I mean, he's making, he's making a barrel at a time. I mean, his name needs to get out there cause he's really, he's really good at his craft and this is delicious. Want to like try the red corn. And like I said, I've got a bourbon.

I would like to know why this didn't qualify as a bourbon and something in the process didn't let that happen. I'm sure. Or he made a conscious decision. market it as a corn whiskey, one of the two.

Well, I think maybe we need to reach out to this guy.

Yeah, I think so.

Yeah. And I couldn't find much on distributorship. I know you could order directly from him. And now the price on this is about a hundred bucks. Okay. It's Kraft. So, I mean, you know, the guys, doing the Lord's work. So, and wow, this is really good.

So if you are, if you want a bottle of whiskey that, um, that you can put on the shelf and you can grab for an after dinner dinner pour, And I'm talking about after dinner, what kind of meals, Todd? Let's think about the kind of meals here. Certainly a steak dinner.

Yes.

But I think it would go with barbecue.

Yeah. Heck, this might even go with like a, depending on what your dessert choice is, I could, like you said, it's kind of deserty anyway. So it'd be interesting to see if like, I don't know, like a plain cheesecake.

Yeah, that could be. Yeah, absolutely. I don't think it's like for like a seafood or Chinese kind of thing, right?

Maybe Chinese, maybe some spicy, like some says one possible, but not seafood.

And maybe blackened, blackened, blackened, something like that.

Maybe, maybe.

All right. We're spending a lot of time on this.

I like it. If you're in that area, check it out.

Man, I would say a hundred dollars, spend the money.

Yeah.

That's really good. It's fun. Yeah.

And my hats off to Gary. I will be reaching out. All right. So shall we move on? Yeah, sadly, I think we must. All right, so we kind of spoiled it on this one. We talked about Balcones. So this is their True Blue Cast Strength. It's also a straight corn whiskey. This one's 131 proof. Again, they do a 100 proof version of this. So if you're not a proof person like ourselves, and this is actually a single barrel pick. So I think, Remember, Wade's my text buddy, so we're always sending things and back and forth. Cheers, Wade. Yeah, cheers, Wade. So I don't remember if he got this one for me. But it was a good chance. And Balcones is probably one of the biggest in Texas.

They probably have the biggest distribution. Them and Iron Root have the biggest distribution out of Texas, I think. Yeah, for sure. Typically.

This one runs about $60 to $70, which for a cash proof single barrel, that's a pretty solid price. All right, let's check it out. Cheers. Cheers. Okay. That nose is a lot different. Yeah. Yeah. This is a marshmallow.

Marshmallowy, but also like honey and spice.

Yeah. And apparently they roast their blue corn. I don't know. It'd be interesting to know if what the others, if, if that roasting of the corn is something they all do or it's just something about cone has decided to do.

You're getting sort of a little bit of a deeper, uh, sort of a nerthy note on that. Yeah.

Just a hint of like a wisp of smoke, but maybe because of that roastiness, like grilled, like a grilled corn vibe. Cheers. Cheers.

Very different. Very different. I put an old Kentucky chew on the Texas bourbon. going for a second sip. Yeah, because I'm not like, I can't put my finger. I can't put the flavor I'm getting into words. It's definitely triggering some kind of memory, but I can't remember what.

This is like, there's like a savory thing going on with this one.

Like, yeah, I think that's kind of, if we look over the past three, that's kind of one of the trends. I think it's to have a little more earthy kind of savory meaty kind of flavor to it. Very sweet. Yep.

And. Despite it being only four proof points bigger, there's a lot. It's got a zestier, like a lot more spice on the tail end, like a rich caramel. I'm still getting like that grilled corn kind of vibe.

So you're talking like the Mexican street corn kind of thing. A little bit. Yeah.

Elote. Yeah.

Elote.

Yeah. Now without the like, uh, you know, they put like the lime and things like that, but I'm in all the Cotija cheese and all that.

It's got a great palette to it. Um, it, this sits more towards the rear mid to rear palette bourbon, a little bit more, uh, a bourbon, corn whiskey, corn whiskey. Sorry. Um, definitely grabs me. quite a bit and just like seizes my palate. It says, okay, I'm all you need to pay attention to right now. It's really good. It's nothing, not much upfront, but definitely mid and rear and just all over it. Yeah. Very good. Very delicious. Very real. This has definitely got a big stomp to it, I think.

It's hefty. It's hefty. Can we say hefty? Yeah.

It's, um, it's definitely got a big boy drink.

Yeah.

It's got some girth. It's got some breadth. It's wide. Uh, the palette is very, uh, expressive, expressive. Yep.

It, um, but it's not like, like a punch. It's not punching you in the mouth, but it, I don't know. It, I mean, we just said it has a lot of girth, but like it, it still drinks nice.

But it's like, it's one of these things that's funny. It's kind of like, okay, sometimes you drink whiskey and you're drinking the whiskey and you're talking to somebody and you're into the conversation. If you drink this, the conversation's on pause, and you're kind of paying attention to it. It grabs your attention because it really has a big step on your palate, I think. Sometimes you've got to explain things in ways that just, they're not flavors. I feel like this one gets your attention, makes you stop, makes you think, uh, everything else doesn't matter for just a few minutes while you try to analyze this. This is a dark mahogany too, very rich.

Colors are very similar on these last two. Are you going back to them? I am. I just wanted to see what happened. Okay. I feel like the balcony might be sweeter.

That's really interesting. Yeah. So this one's the one we're on now. Let's remind our listeners what we're talking about.

This is the Balcones True Blue Cast Strength. And like I said, this is a single barrel and this is their corn whiskey. Balcones has an array of I guess, whiskey's out there. They do single malts, they do the rye, they do a bourbon. So, but this is their.

Yeah. If you go up to the, to the liquor store and somebody carries balconies, you can look up at the balconies line and you'll see five or six bottles in their expressions on the shelf. So they've done a good job of filling the shelves with their product. It's really good. I like it.

Shall we move on? Let's move on. All right. The last one. Some of our folks may have heard of it's been getting a lot of love, especially Fred Minnick is a huge fan of this. And this is Smoke Eye Hill barrel proof straight bourbon whiskey, clocks in at 131.4 proof. Yee-haw. Yee-haw. It's 0.4 proof over the balconies. This one, they're out of Colorado. They're out of Colorado Springs, Colorado. This one is actually distilled for them. This is their recipe and it's distilled by MGP. It's aged in both 30 and 53 gallon barrels. And it kind of got its name. So apparently there's a legendary cattle ranch out in the Arizona area called Smoke Eye Hill. And that's kind of where I guess it would have been like the bootleggers of the West. So like all the bootleggers and distillers of the West were kind of out there. And to let folks know that the lawmen were in the area, they would put bells on their mules. So I guess You know, if the lawmen were coming, they would put bells on the mules, slap them on the butt and off the mule ran or something. So let everybody else in the area know they were, they were coming. But apparently this was like a, like kind of Hollywood's, yeah, speakeasies back in the day.

All right. So this is a Colorado Springs, Colorado. It's called Wood Eye Hill. Smoke Eye Hill. Smoke Eye Hill.

And, and this is something that, you know, I get out to Colorado Springs every now and then.

Maybe I need to go visit these people. Yeah.

So again, they have a lower version. I've heard it's really good as well. It's a 93 poof version of this too. Let's check it out.

Cheers. Wow. The nose is, uh, Sort of light.

Yeah. Now there's been some variation on the batches. I actually just got a backup of this and it's 134.2 proof. Definitely not 134 on the nose. Well, this is 131. Not 131 on the nose. Not 120 on the nose, not 115, probably more like 110. Fresh. Fresh. Yep. Light, bright. I kind of want to like, you, you talked about fresh and light, bright. It makes me want to kind of go back to the, the still loss and compare. Oh yeah. Maybe.

Yeah, definitely.

And I couldn't find much on like mash bill of this, but. Now what's the price on this bottle? The price on this and I, this was on seal box for 84.99. Okay. All right. So we're, we're dealing with a bunch of bottles today in the 50 to 100 range. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right. It's a lot of caramel. Cheers. Cheers.

Oh, it's got a lot going on in the palate. Yeah. This is Pop Rocks. Very caramelly.

Comes off a little less sweet. Yeah, a lot of caramel. Yep. The barrel char. Spice like. Brown sugar galore. Cherry. Yep. Rich. It's got a really soft texture again.

It does. It's soft, but it's like this concentrated richness, sweetness. It's not super, it's not over the top sweet, but it's got this richness that you would get from something that's like not overly sweet, but just it has decadence.

Yeah. Which makes you wonder if that's being parted by that blue corn or something. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, you know, if you have like a yellow dent corn at 130, one proof. It's a little different experience, but yeah. Now this kind of has, it's interesting.

It has a little bit of like a Texas note to it.

I know it's weird, but. Distilled in Indiana and there you go. Sits in Colorado. Yep. This is a very good whiskey. This is a very good whiskey. Wow. Hats off to Fred for calling it out. Cause it's, it's definitely put them on the map.

You know, it's got, I, I, I'm going to say that we could actually take an entire show and break this down as it, as it opens up over the show. This is something that you could tell has a lot that's concentrated in and you're not getting it right now. But as you continue to see if you get something new and something new and something new is it opens up.

I believe this is like five years, five year product. Do we know the mash bill? Nah, I couldn't find anything on that.

So are they contracting MGP to distill this whiskey for them?

Yes. This is their mash bill using their blue corn. Okay. Again, couldn't find out where that was coming from, you know, but yeah, this is, this is their recipe and hats off to them for doing it.

I wonder the scale, you know, cause I mean, what's it take to go to MGP and say, make me some whiskey. You know, their stills are pretty big with the love they're getting.

It's definitely gone up a little bit. Cause like I said, I just, uh, I was like, I found a second batch and it's a different, different proof, even a little higher.

So, wow. Fantastic. Yeah. The next time I'm in Colorado Springs, I'm going to look these guys up. Wow. We've had some really good whiskeys today, Todd.

Yeah. It just goes to show you that it doesn't have to be yellow corn to make good whiskey.

Yellow dent number two is like the 99.9% of the whiskey is made out of. And then, well, let's say 90%. And then the other, maybe 8% of it's made out of white corn. And then the other 2% is made up of varietals. So, wow. For looking at the two percenters, I mean, these guys are doing a good job.

And I thought it'd be, like I said, I thought it'd be a fun dive. Check them out. And like I said, maybe we'll do a red corn one soon.

I wonder what comes up on Google when you say red corn bourbons or red corn whiskeys.

There's the one out of Asheville, the Jimmy Red. Jimmy Red. Yeah. Obviously, our friends at Borchetta, I'm hoping they'll send us their red corn reserve, I think they were talking about. Right. Obviously, Jeff the Creed is a bloody butcher. Our neighbors. McBrayer, the McBrayer foes, Bloody Butcher. So yeah, and I know that Pink Knees in Missouri, I talked about much earlier.

Well, have you noticed like a trend or a theme to the blue corn? I mean, for me, the red corn is clear. It's like this earthy kind of musty, earthy note that you get. I don't know.

And it's like in a mushroomy, earthy, no, I don't, it's hard to say.

But that's what I get from like the bloody butcher red. From the blue, have you been able to kind of put your finger on it?

No, but that might be because we're getting different variants of that blue corn. Like I said, it's a family rather than, you know, bloody butcher. I'm sure there are other red corns out there, but buddy butcher is a very specific red corn and probably throws out those notes you're talking about. Whereas, you know, like we said, that one, some of the blue corn we've gotten today was kind of floral and nutty. And like this is just some of these others and this corn whiskey and this are just, it's just rich. And then like everything has been soft.

And hats off. I can tell you what, not a lot of people drinking corn whiskey, right? Straight corn whiskey. And you think about back in the day, back in the 1800s, there was a lot of corn whiskey rolling around. And those guys had it good. It makes great whiskey. I've had some of the corn whiskies out of Canada, particularly like some of the stuff old Carter's put in their bottles. They're Americans.

You know, the old corn whiskies, 20 year old, just amazing, right? Yeah. Heaven Hill even came out with like a 25 year corn whiskey. Well, they got that mellow corn. Right. They got a few lost mellow corn barrels, right?

Super aged mellow corn, yeah. Well, mellow corn by itself bottled in bond at four years is pretty tasty. Yeah. Are we going to rate these?

It's been our thing, so it's going to be tough. It's going to be really tough today.

All right.

I think I've got mine. Do you? Yeah.

I'm not sure I have mine. There's two of them that I'm kind of not sure about. Oh, yeah? OK. Yeah.

Bottom two or lower or higher two? The middle two. Middle two? Middle two.

I'm not sure.

So you already have your winner. Yeah.

I think I've got my winner. OK. I've got my winner. I'm not sure about like the order of the middle three. Okay. That's kind of where I'm tied up.

All right. Let's, let's just do it. Todd, what do you say? Let's just go for it.

I'm ready.

We'll do our best and I'll start. All right. My number five is going to be the still Austin. And so I agree with you.

Okay. So the still Austin was kind of, I mean, it was good whiskey, but it was just like, it didn't like make me go, ah, or yeah.

Again, like you said, I think it's one of those like you and I sat on a porch and watched the clouds go by. I could, I would put this one upstairs.

So this is the one that would go upstairs on my pantry. And if a few friends came over and we went out and sat on the back patio, I'd probably grab that one to just make the bottle disappear.

Yeah. Yeah. It'd also be interesting to see like if they ever come out with a cast strength version, like maybe a little more punch. All right. You got a number four. You want me to, want me to just keep rolling and see if you agree.

Number four, number four, number four. Man, this is tough. It is tough. This is tough for me. I'm going to go with the balconies.

I'm going to agree. Really? Yep. Wow. Again, it's a single barrel. It's a nice single barrel. It's high proof. It's good. It's spicy. But I don't know, it lacked a little finish, I think. It sat there, but I think that is more proof sitting there rather than the finish sitting there, I guess. All right. Two for two. We're on, we're on par with each other so far. All right. My number three. Yep. It's going to be Jeff, the creed, red, white and blue.

Okay.

Oh, we're going to vary here.

We're going to differ here.

Okay.

Oh, I told you I was stuck in the middle on that. So this is kind of tough.

I am very impressed with that. Like I said, I think that's the, that is the best bottle I've had from them. It is delicious. And. Hats off. You've turned it around. You've made me a fan. Well done. So you're three?

So for me, the number three is Smoke Eye. Is it? Yeah. I actually think it's really good. Okay. It's actually, Very good. We're in the very good range now. People call this a stag killer. Yeah, you think so? That's what Fred said. I mean, it was number one. But it's your palette. It's your palette. Yeah, it's what I got. That's right. It's what I got.

I liked it. That's what makes it fun.

But I think the Jeptha etched it out for me.

OK. So number two is going to be?

The Jeptha.

Jeptha. Oh my goodness. Yeah.

All right, we are going to vary a little bit today. That's OK. It's all right. Our palates are not the same, and that's a good thing.

Yeah. So my number two, but I love it, is the wood hat. Wow. I was really impressed with that. Again, Wade, I owe you big time on that. It's delicious. So like I said, he's got me a, it's called bourbon-esque or something like that. So yeah, we'll have to check it out soon.

See, I already punched my ticket on the train to go to Missouri. I love that wood hat. Yeah.

Wood hat number one. We will definitely be reaching out to that guy. Yeah. Because I am, yeah. What's your number one? My number one is the smoke here. Yeah. Or smoke guy, excuse me.

Smoke guy, yeah. So it's like a taste-off between the smoke guy and the wood hill.

Yeah, different day.

Who knows? Both small places. Relatively. I don't know about Wood Eye, but... Wood Hat.

I don't know about Smoke Eye. Those 130 proofers will do that too.

I mean, they're getting barrels from MGP, but...

But it's their recipe. All right. That's impressive.

So you want to do a taste off between the two? So what were they? They were the first, second, third, fourth, fifth. Which ones were they?

The smoke guy and the wood hat, uh, three and five.

So the, the wood hat was three and the smoke guy was five. Yeah. I want to do a taste off since we finished these one and two, let's do it again.

All right. The nose goes to smoke eye to me. Now that I'm going back to the wood hat, it comes off a little, a little more youthful.

Yeah. I'm getting a youthful note on the, on the wood hat. It's funny because they would I would hat. Yeah. I'm getting a youthful note.

And then actually like, I feel like at first when we noticed the smoke guy, it was kind of coming off a little light, but now it's getting a little, it's like, yeah, I'm here as I put the smoke eye up to my nose.

I I'm like, I'm preferring the smoke guy over the hat. Okay. Wow. Wow. Wow. All right. I'm going back. They're both delicious. They're both delicious.

But I, let's be honest, all five were delicious.

But the wood hat does have this like faint, distant, youthful note to it. It's kind of like, what's that? The smoke guy doesn't have that youthful note.

Yeah. And this was a lot of fun.

All right, Todd, I'm jumping on board. You're right. Yeah. No doubt. The smoke guy is phenomenal. It is, um, a notable whiskey. Yeah. Notable.

But that might be like, we just went from a bourbon to a corn whiskey. So, you know, You have, it's just amazing to try a few things in a row and then go back in a different order. And it could literally just change your whole.

Man, I didn't even know about these guys.

So this is Colorado Springs. Colorado Springs.

So we also know about 291 Distillery. That's it, right? Those two? There's one more. Breckenridge. That's not Colorado Springs. Oh, sorry.

Colorado, yeah.

There's one more in Colorado Springs, but I don't think they have any expressions that reach this level.

But I'm curious to know if you go out there, is it just an office? Because, well, they're just getting barrels from MGP. So I wonder if they have a tasting and tours and things like that. I don't know. If you get out there, you're going to have to let us know.

Yeah, I'm going to go back out. I'm going to check them out for sure. Let's reach out and see if we can't arrange an on-site interview and I'll fly out for it.

But yeah, this and a lower proof version, I think it's 93 proof are the only things they have at this moment. So I'm curious to see if they're going to expand their spirits, you know, the types of spirits they do, but hats off to them.

Yeah. The Jephthah was great. Um, the, um, wood hat was fantastic. The, um, what was this one?

Uh, smoke guy, smoke guy takes the day. Obviously still Austin and Bacchus still still Austin about all great whiskeys, all fantastic day folks, but to Texas, Colorado, Missouri, and, um, KY. So a nice variety of states involved. Fantastic. Well, Todd, what a blast. So much fun. I know this was fun.

Great whiskies. Yeah. Really, really, really good whiskies today. So folks, I hope you took your notes. I hope you paid attention during, during this episode. There's some, uh, there's some little, little operations out there that are packed away that you never know. They just produce whiskies that are just out of this world. You can get a whiskey for, 75, 80 bucks that will just blow away things that you can pay thousand dollars plus for, right? I mean, let's be honest. If you're all about taste and not about FOMO, then there's some whiskeys that you can pick up for under a hundred bucks. It'll just blow your mind.

Yeah. And I'm going to go ahead and announce it. There's probably a good chance I'll give away some pores of this. Oh my goodness. You've been warned.

All right. Well, check out the Bourbon Roadies group on Facebook and make sure you remember, join. There's a lot of great stuff going on in there, but one of the good things is, is every now and then Todd decides to ship out some samples. So you want to be part of that.

If you want to experience what we're experiencing,

So you usually ask a question, right?

Like some, something to trigger. Usually I'm just, it's a, Hey, I'm going to give away some samples who's in. I keep it pretty simple. Oh yeah. Okay. Well, good deal. Yeah. All right.

Well, fantastic show, lots of fun, great whiskeys. Folks don't turn away from corn whiskies. I mean, if it doesn't say bourbon on the label, that can be okay.

Yeah. And, you know, step out of your comfort zone. Try something that says blue corn, you know? Yeah. It's fun.

I'm going to do some combinations here. After the show, Todd, we're going to have a party. What do you say? Okay. All right. All right, folks, well, you can find The Bourbon Road on all social media outlets. You can find us on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, TikTok, threads, all those things every single week. Todd and I put out an episode. We have some guests on the show sometimes. Sometimes we just have our guests are bottles of whiskey and we have a great time with them. But every time it's going to be informative, it's going to be fun. We're going to have a great time. We're going to tell you what we think. Our opinion is on what should be on your bar. I mean, agree or not agree, agree or not agree. Todd has his bar. I have mine. They don't match exactly. And nor should yours. So you just find out what's yours and you pick it out and you add it to your bar. And we hope we've helped you make a few decisions along the way. But definitely listening to every single Wednesday, we'll put out an episode. And the best way to make sure you don't miss one is to scroll up to the top of the app you're on, hit that subscribe button. That way, that podcast app you're listening to us on will remind you that Jim and Todd have dropped another episode and you need to be tuning in for the next sales call drive, for that next snow plowing, grass cutting, living room sweeping episode that you need to do with your headphones on. Maybe you just like to put your headphones on and go to sleep at night. I was going to say quiet time. Quiet time. We'd love to be a part of that. So make sure you add us to that. But until the next time, we'll see you down the Bourbon Road.

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