484. Exploring the Three Chamber Rye and High West Cask Strength

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.

Hello there, this is Drew Hanisch of Whiskey Lore and I'm so happy that the Bourbon Road guys are going to let me promote a little bit about my new book coming out called Experiencing American Whiskey. It is a travel guide to whiskey distilleries in the entire United States. Lots of details in this book to help the traveler along the way and I'll tell you more about it at the break.

Hello friends and welcome to another episode of the Bourbon Road Podcast. This is Todd Ritter. I'm here with my always co-host, Jim Shannon. What's up, Jim? Glad to be here. We've been having some fun on the road lately. We have. trekked across the icy tundra to get to one recording. And we did another one with Zoom. The first one we did was with the folks at Peter E. Hart Spirits. Had a great time. And that house, beautiful, the Civil War memorabilia was just like, I mean, I love history.

I went to Perryville with my dad. So he's not like the Civil War buff historian kind of person, but he loves history and he loves war history. And so we went to Perryville together and he had a great time.

Wait a second, did I say that right?

Per-ville.

Yeah, I went to the reenactment one time and it was a lot of fun. It's interesting to see that kind of stuff.

People, the actors get shot and they lay down in the mud or dirt or whatever and stay there until the show's over.

And horses and just, it's just, it's just a neat and yeah, I just love it. I mean, I've actually been watching a thing about frontiers men. So, um, so. But today we're at the Corner Rick House in Frankfurt, the home of the Frankfurt Bourbon Society. And we've got a nice little tasting review thing to go through. We've got four expressions we're going to dive into today. And I'm pretty excited. This is, of course, we'll rank them at the end.

I think there's a heavy weight in here, but we'll see. All right. Well, I mean, I think this year we should make an effort to try and stay on top of our samples and not let them get backed up like we did last year.

There are worse problems in the world.

There are worse problems in the world to have. But you know, we are getting samples in and if we do too many shows where we're out on the road and we're visiting and we're having guests in and that kind of thing, samples kind of pile up. So we got to kind of,

I was going to say balance. It's a trick because you know, you get reached out to by different places and other places like PR folks are like, hey, you want to try this and review it on the show. So you get hit from all sides. And I mean, we get some stuff. I'm like, nah, I don't think that's really our show too. So it's kind of, it's kind of fun. Yeah. All right. So what do we have today, Todd? The first board we're going to have is Short Barrel's four-grain Kentucky straight bourbon. This is 46% ABV, 92 proof, Short Barrel. It's one of those brands that's really picked up. They are a very popular NDP. They're based out of Atlanta. Myself, AMSE, and David actually got to do a barrel pick with them for the bourbon on the banks. I was going to say, it may have been probably I don't like to pick favorites because we had a lot of fun and picked some great barrels, but that one was kind of special and unique.

When I think back to the bourbon and the banks picks, short barrel is the first one to come to mind. It was a standout. It sticks out. Yes. It was really good.

Something different going on. So what we have here is this is a four grain, like I said, and what they've done is they've taken and they state this, this is, um, Park Wilderness Trail, their weeded mashpill, 64 corn, 24 wheat, 12% malted barley. Their second is sourced from Green River, and that's 70 corn, 21 rye, 9 malted barley. They also gave the combination. So it sounds like it's a heavier on the wheat because suddenly you've gone from 65 corn, 20 wheat, 12 malted barley, and only three rye. So just a smidge of that rye. Wow. Not a whole lot of that rye in there. Right. But this retails for $30.99. And, um, 30.99. Sorry. 39.99. Okay. 39.99. Sorry. 40 bucks. Yeah. Um, and some of these, like as an NDP, what they're doing is buying barrels and then those barrels get shipped to Atlanta and they've got a warehouse there. So it gets that hot Atlanta heat. So probably does. They say it, You know, hot Lana, hot Lana indeed. So, but this is like their every day, you know, kind of like their shell for a few. Okay. So, and it's a pretty good price at 40 bucks. We're starting to see a lot of those brands come out with that spot right there in the $40. So it's kind of a doorway, I guess. Yeah.

Let's check it out.

Definitely get that the wheat presences. Oh yeah. Yeah. It's soft on the nose. Some honey.

Honey sweet tea. I need sweet tea. I like it. A little floral. Not much though on the fruit notes. I mean, it's, uh, it does have a little bit of a floral note to it. There's a hint of, uh, brown sugar, brown sugar. This is kind of a little bit lighter on the nose.

I think.

Yeah. Non age stated. But since it doesn't have an age statement, it's at least it's in Kentucky straight. So they're all over four. Right. I would wager. If everybody's playing by the rules. That's right.

Let's taste it. Cheers. Cheers. Okay. That honey tea sweetness on the mid palette. Carries right on over, doesn't it? Yep. Um, not a lot of spice on this one. Nope. Not much bite. What was the proof again? 92. 92. Okay. This is a sessionable whiskey. This is something you could sit down and, uh, you know, pal could be out on the, on, on the porch and make disappear in short order. Summer day. Yep. Yep. I don't think it would punch through in a cocktail. I think this would be fine on a cube of ice. Might be okay in a mule. I think it would kind of disappear a little bit.

I think if you're more about the cocktail than the expression behind the cocktail, I think it would be all right. I mean, this would probably make a good Manhattan and things like that.

But it's not going to be the star of the show. I mean, if you're in a highball glass with an ounce and a half of this, it's going to disappear. But if this is, like you said, a Manhattan or an old fashioned or something where 90% of it is the whiskey, I think it'll do great.

It's leaving a nice cool tingle on the back of my paddle a little bit now, though, that second sip.

Oh, this is definitely sessionable. I can make this disappear in short order. Good flavored whiskey. The oak's coming through on the finish. The oak is there on the finish. I like that.

Now, I'm not sure about the distribution. I'd love to look that up. But I think it's easier for folks, if they're really interested, just do a dive. Like, where's this? Get up short barrel. Yeah. piqued your interest, you know, it was a wonderful thing.

I'm glad that they're coming out with this, uh, I don't know what you want to call it. They're fan favorite, whatever it is, the average everyday pantry whiskey. I think it's a good idea. I think a lot of times these, uh, NDPs put out, you know, LTLs, they kind of cater to the barrels, but, but they should have something that is, When they gain that fan, when they get that person that loves what they do, I think they'll drink their everyday whiskey as well.

Folks out there might see their bee's knees, I believe is what it's called, and that's their honey finish bourbon. It's very, very popular.

The bee's knees.

They also have a cigar blend of some sort. I think they're one of those that finishes in some Armagnac and Cognac.

Now, does Short Barrel have a customer experience in Atlanta?

You know, I didn't dive into that. I feel like they should have. I mean, you know, you hear about ASW. I know they do. Oh, yeah. I mean, even if it's just a tasting room, of course, I think they do.

Yeah, I've been to ASW on multiple occasions, but haven't been to Short Barrel. I do get to Atlanta every now and then.

That's a great city. I've been there for some conferences and things. But man, just traffic.

It's crazy.

I mean, that's one of those like, I used to drive into Florida. You'd be like, OK, we want to hit Atlanta at like 2 AM in the morning. You do. And it's still like wall to wall. You're like, what in the heck is going on?

Yeah, I mean, I work remote. I consult with a company in Atlanta. And I work every day with their embedded employees there in Atlanta. So I get to hear all about the horrors of the Atlanta traffic.

I don't have to be there, but. Right. It's crazy. I think that's kind of why we go to the Gulf Coast now a lot more. Don't have to go through there.

This is a good solid whiskey. This is nothing. Okay. It is properly priced at about 40 bucks. This is a good solid whiskey. The components that go into this come out of two well-respected distilleries that people love and good stuff. I mean, it's good. I don't understand their proportions, but obviously it works. I think four grain is just one of those buzzwords that people like now, maybe. They needed that little bit of rye just to carry it over the top. Yeah. But they wanted to lean heavy into the wheat whiskey, into the wheat, because wheat is a good buzzword right now too. So. All right. Well, I didn't save any Todd, so you're going to have to be the one to do the crazy combo.

Okay. Got it. There's more though. Okay. All right. Our second pour, we're going to kind of stay in that. We did Territory because this is Old Steelhouse Blueprint Series, batch 002. This one clocks in at 52.5% ABV, which is 105 proof. MSRP is a little jump, so it's about $75. The match bill for this is $64.2412. And that's 64 corn, 24 wheat, 12 malted barley. And if you were paying attention, you're like, hey, didn't he just say that for that last one?

Yeah.

And the answer is correct.

It's Wilderness Trail.

So this is another NDP sourced some weeded whiskey, or excuse me, weeded bourbon from Wilderness Trail. The idea behind the blueprint is it's a tribute to the original 1933 architectural plans, the T.W. Samuels distillery. So everybody's ears go, hey, I'm part of T.W. Samuels, which is in Cox's Creek, Kentucky. And these guys are actually I've not, we haven't been there enough. Maybe it's a place we can go up to at some point, but they are trying to bring that distillery back to life in some portion. So I don't know if it's kind of a castle and key restoration or if it's Glens Creek. Do they own the property there? As far as I know. Wow. And a side note. I actually met one of the main guys behind that after we did the chicken cock pick for the Bourbon on the Banks. Yeah. So we happened to go to one of the breweries there and had a meal afterwards, some of us, and yeah, met one of those guys.

I'm surprised that the Samuels family didn't snap that up.

I don't know. I don't know. I mean, yeah. I mean, who knows? Are there relatives that have like, you know?

Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. It seems like a lot of the old names get snapped up by the future generations, right? Well, that and Heaven Hill. Yeah. Yeah. Of course.

They have a bevy of labels and such. Wow. This says, uh, So this one's not to be confused by Batch 001, which was a MGP high rye bourbon. It's age-stated five years, and you'll see the Batch 002. It's a really neat bottle, too, by the way. So this is still house. Old still house, yes.

And this has nothing to do with the tin can whiskies you see on the shelves that say still house on them, right?

Oh, that's new to me. Oh, you've never seen those?

Uh-uh. Yeah. So they're, they're, uh, they look like, uh, lacquer thinner cans. They're kind of square and about six inches tall and they say still house on them. I'm curious if they're related. They might mean. Maybe. No, no, I doubt it. I think still house is such a generic term. I was just curious. I think that's the other one's more of a kind of a moonshine kind of thing.

All right. Let's nose it. Yeah. I think the first thing that pops out to me is despite that first one, having so much of that weeded bourbon from wilderness trail, this nose is a lot different. Don't you think? Oh, you don't have any enough of glass one to compare it to.

Well, I can't, no, I have some. No, so glass one's a little more oaky and more depth to it. This one is. I'm getting a little darker fruits on this one though. This one has more fruit. Yeah. Dark. Yeah. Okay. I'll go there. Well, not super dark. We'll say, but fruit. I mean, the first one didn't have a whole lot of fruit at all. This one has fruit for sure. It's got a really nice nose though.

It does. And the thing about this, I'd be curious to know how big of a batch it was, but this could probably be at batch proof because, you know, Wilderness trail is one of those, depending on where the barrels come from. I mean, we actually had a wilderness trail rye pick here at the Bourbon Society that was like 101 proof and that was barrel proof.

So, but I've also seen them entering at what? 108, 107. They're pretty low. Pretty low. Yeah.

Um, but we've also had some that were like 120. So I really like this nose.

Yeah, me too. Really nice. Let's taste it. Cheers. Cheers. That's got a bit of a bite to it.

13 proof jump, so.

Yeah. So nothing special done with the barrel. Nothing special done with the. As is. As is. Okay. It's good whiskey. Oak and leather. A little bit of leather coming through. What's the age? Five. Well, how about that? Yeah.

It's like a baked bread kind of thing going on there.

Yeah. Yeah. I think, um, this is, um, this has got a, uh, a very like toasted cereal note to it. I was going to say they're almost like a little bit of like toast and almonds too. Yeah. Cheerios or. Now Cheerios is oats, right? Yeah. Toasted oats. Yeah. There's no oats here, but I get kind of that toasted.

Yeah. I mean, you can still. Right.

Yeah. Wheaties. Wheaties. Man, I used to be a Wheaties fanatic. Yeah. That's one thing I'm always been a bit of failure.

Well, just healthy cereal in general. I mean, sure as a kid, I would tear up some lucky charms and things, but. Yeah. I do like my like, you don't do grape nuts, do you? No, that stuff's like gravel. I tried once.

Yeah. Wheaties. I've always been a super big fan of Wheaties. I've never been like a sugar on cereal kind of guy. So I've always had just milk and whatever the cereal was. And Wheaties always just, it got me. It always got me.

Definitely has that like, I don't know. There's something about weeded that pops out to you.

Man, weeded bourbons are just the jam. They really are.

This is solid.

Yeah. It's a really good barrel. This is not a single barrel. This is a blend. It's a batch, right? Or a batch. I'm sorry. Blend is not the right word here because they're all the same group of barrels.

I like it. Yeah. Still got that honey. Like, I think we called for some honey tea in that first one. This was like honey bread to me.

Really good. A little bit of fruit though on this one.

Like, um, there's no peach, but like almost like apricot kind of thing.

So you're getting just a hint of like citrusy kind of just a lean into that area. Just a little. Yeah. Good deal. Excellent.

He's a good whiskey still house.

Kinfolk, if you will, those two first two pours, they were kind of like kinfolk a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. So, all right. Well, I'm glad to see some of the, um, wilderness trail whiskey getting out there, getting included in some, uh, some other, under some other labels. Yeah. Obviously it's awesome. Same with a green river, both of them making tremendous whiskey.

We just had a Pete Marino from green river on and We'll see playing that distill it out there for some of these brands and it's fantastic last week.

That's right. All right. Fantastic Todd. Well, I think break time. Yeah, I think we should take a break, take a short break and we'll continue sipping on these. I'm going to get just a little bit more of that first pour so that I can have a little bit for the combo. The combo. Yeah, sounds great. Folks stick around. We will be right back.

Hello there, Drew Hanisch, Whiskey Lore, and I am excited to announce that I have a brand new book coming out called Experiencing American Whiskey. If you have checked out my travel guide to Experiencing Kentucky Bourbon, you'll know that I go deep into the details of Kentucky Bourbon. Well, imagine that I've spread this out across the entire United States now, and I'm covering a thousand distilleries, coast to coast, and even Alaska and Hawaii, I have 227 detailed profiles in there from the distilleries that I've had firsthand contact with. I give you all the details that you need to know like when they have tours, if they do tastings, cocktails, and everything is in a state-by-state format so that you can roll through, find your particular state that you're traveling to, and have all that information at your fingertips. On top of that, I have a website resource where you can bookmark and actually create a wish list of the distilleries that you'd like to visit. I cover state regulations so you know how many bottles of whiskey you can walk out with from a store, from a distillery and so on. So it is an exciting book. It is the biggest thing that I've put together to this point. And right now it is going to be going on sale on January the 13th, It is actually available for pre-order right now at whiskylore.org slash shop. That's Whiskey Lore's travel guide to experiencing American whiskey.

All right. Listeners, welcome back to the second half of the show. In the first half, we had the short barrel, four-grain Kentucky straight bourbon. Our second pour was the old Stillhouse Blueprint Series Batch 002. Some similarities there, but some differences too. The first one, great easy drinker. Second one, a little more complex, and yeah.

But I think on the first one, it was like, if you do the numbers, if you do the math, sit down with a calculator, there's not much of that right bourbon in there. That green river, right. Very little. But it definitely takes it in another direction. So they were adding it, adding it, adding it, and they're like, we're there. Yeah. I mean, when you're good at what you do, you know when it's time to stop. And if you're long-time listeners, you know we don't do math. No, we don't do math. We try.

So we just give up. So our third pour of the day. And we're going to jump up a little more in proof here. And then we're going to jump back down. And we'll explain why we're going to do that here in a little bit. But this is the High West Cast Strength blend of straight bourbon whiskies. It comes in at 58.5% ABV, which clocks out at 117 proof. Park City, Utah, another NDP, although they do distill their own and blend a lot. But this one does not having their own distill it. It's got a blend of whiskey age six to 20 years and has juice from Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee. MSRP is 69.99. And the one thing that really makes this notable is that the two, it says two Kentucky components use, it has match bills of 40% malted barley. Oh my goodness.

I know. Wow.

I'm trying to think. Which is crazy high for a Kentucky bourbon. Yeah. It has to be, Some one-offs or something? Yeah. I mean, nothing I'm aware of. Contract is still by maybe Bars Town or somebody.

Maybe we'll get AI to research all our old episodes. But I honestly don't remember anything about 40%.

That's one of the highest I've ever seen.

Yeah.

I mean, except for obviously the 100.

Well, High West is a well-respected distillery. They've been around, well, throughout the bourbon boom.

Yeah. I remember working at a liquor store and they were one of our first whiskey tastings we ever had. I was up in my craft beer days and I ordered and did tastings for that. They were one of the first places to come from definitely out of state into a Kentucky liquor store and be like, hey, we've got stuff from Utah. And people are like, Utah? You don't have no bourbon in Utah. Now, didn't they invent the boo rye?

Yes.

They are the ones behind it. And it did say this has kind of got that boo rye thing with some high rye mash spills on the, I guess, the MGPs, probably that Indiana. And then Tennessee is probably going to be some dickle in there.

Yep. Yep. Let's check it out. Check it. I'm getting ready to be blown away, I think.

Now it didn't give like proportions or anything like that. So kind of like, uh, I'm getting a little bit of a... Barksound spoils us with like the exact percentages of how they do these things.

A bit of green hay, grassy note. Interesting. Cereal.

See, I can just get in that little slight hint of the dickle, that like, Flintstone, vitamin, orange.

Yeah. It's there, just a little. That whetstone.

Wet stone. I like that.

Yeah. You know, when you take a wet rocks and you rub them together or you slap them together and they make that, that smell that. Could be a particular stone though, right? Does it? I would think so. I don't know.

We don't have, I tried to get Amzie. He's a geologist. So, or he knows that thing.

I like it. I like this because I think it's very much, um, this has got that, that hay cereal farm, um, grain elevator kind of nose to it. I like that. I'm ready to sip. Cheers. Cheers.

Wow.

Concentrated. Oh, Nice bite. Nice blend. Tastes really good.

Yup. Little nuttiness, which I wasn't expecting. Just a little. Not getting the vitamins, the dickle vitamins.

Nope. I'm very surprised by this. The nose did not bring me to where I am now in the palette. Oh, that's really nice. That's a good whiskey. What was the price on this? This one retails for 69.99.

Oh my gosh. Run right out and get it.

Yeah. Oh my goodness. That's really good. Should be just hitting shelves now. Yeah. So, I mean, not everybody loves the, uh, sort of the grassy hay notes. I think when they're, when they appear in the right whiskey, it's okay across the board. I mean, maybe not, but in, in general, I think that, um, when you get the right balance of notes, it can, it can taste nice. This kind of takes me at, like I said, towards that green elevator a little bit.

Yeah. So nice, like that cardamom finish a little bit.

Yeah.

But yeah, that almost peanut butter. Yeah. It's kind of a spicy, Peanut butter? Just a little.

It's a little creamy. Good stuff. Some other stuff going on, yeah.

These guys have always been great at what they do. Park City, Utah. Park City, Utah, yeah. I wouldn't mind being there in the middle of winter sometime. I wonder how many of our listeners have actually been to the High West Distillery. I mean, I'm sure we have some listeners out that way, so hopefully a few. I would like to go sometime. I haven't been. Park City, I mean, high west if you're listening. Todd and I would love to come out and visit you guys. That's right. Let us know.

Fly us out there. Hey, and the great thing is, like, if you're in that area, you know. grab a copy of Drew's book and you can find all kinds of things around you. Oh yeah, definitely. Drew's been there, right? I'm pretty sure he has, but I would check.

If I had to bet on it. 400 distilleries and still going. It's got a nice bite to it. The finish is medium to long and it's got a great hug. Yeah.

What a great hug. That's a good pour.

That's a good whiskey.

It's got a nice color too, but I'd say that 20 year old juice kind of helps that color. So what are some other expressions from High West that you've always liked? You know, Midwinter's Night's Dram is always a good one. But they vary a lot. Yes. But I would also say, Borderline's on really good or a little overhyped. Does that make sense?

It probably is, but it just has that seasonal Christmassy kind of... I was going to say, it tastes like Christmas.

Port finished and, is it just port finished or is it something I forget?

I don't know. It's always named after some like Shakespearean play.

Anyway, the Campfire Rye. Campfire Rye is very interesting. It's been a while since I've revisited that, but I remember it like having a little bit of that smokiness to it. Obviously the Boo Rye we spoke about probably Yeah, they were definitely the inventors of the boo ride, but, and I think they do it the best. Um, you know, they do a lot of single barrel picks. I know Jason and Scott did one that was actually finished in great brandy. Okay. That's been some time ago. They also have, Oh, is it like the Jackalope or is that just there?

Yeah, with a, yeah, the Jackalope, whatever that is.

It's a rabbit, rabbit meets antelope. But yeah, I mean, they're one of those, they've been around a long time and they're an OG as far as like craft distillery slash NDPs go. I mean, they've been in the biz a while. Good deal.

That's great whiskey. I enjoyed it a lot.

It's really good and the price is fair. Yeah.

No doubt. but I think you're seeing a lot of good blends, man.

All right, shall we move on to the last one? This is the one I'm excited for you to try because I've already tried this and this one came to us thanks to our good friend, Amzie Winning of the Frankfurt Bourbon Society. And sometimes he's like our third wheel, if you will, we drag him on. And this is the Leopold Brothers nine year cast strength three chamber ride.

Oh my God. So anybody who's been listening to the show for a while knows that, I don't know, probably what four years ago, three years ago is still when Mike was cohost. Yeah. So Todd, managed to land a bottle of the three chamber rye from Todd at Leopold. I don't think that one was age stated, but I feel like it was maybe it was five or six at that time. And for whatever reason, it just didn't hit you the right way. It did not. But when I tasted it, I was like, oh my God. The angels sang. The angels sang. And it was like, this is probably in the top three whiskeys I've ever had in my life. So, Leopold Brothers Three Chamber Rye for me is like, it's like on the trophy wall. You know, it's one of those things. I think that year was an honorable mention.

It got a lot, it was very polarizing. It is polarizing because not everybody likes that. You will see distilleries do very grain forward. And I will say Three Chamber Distilling Would you say even more grain forward a little bit?

Yeah. So when we had lost whiskey on, they were very grain forward. We had Southern Distilling on, very grain forward.

Spirits of French Lick. Spirits of French Lick, grain forward.

So all of these whiskies are near and dear to my heart. I love them a lot. But the Three Chamber Rye is like, it takes it to the next level.

So getting back to the description, it's considered one of the most historically significant American whiskeys produced in the modern day. So Leopold Brothers, it's Todd and I forget his brother's name. I don't remember, yeah. I just know Todd because, well, I'm a Todd. Custom built their three chambers still, which is a vertical pot still design that was the industry standard in the late 1800s. And then It got abandoned because, well, the column still was more efficient and a little bit faster. Accountants win again. Yeah, accountants always win. So this is 80% heritage, a bruisey rye, and 20% floor malted. They do their own floor malting there. It's barrel entry proof is 100. And this one, like I said, 54 and a half. ABV, so 109 proof. Roll back again. What's that barrel entry proof? 100. Wow. Is that crazy or what? Yeah. So they're out of Denver, Colorado. This does have a big retail price, but I mean, this is about as crafty as crafty gets, I think too. $180. So, and what they went for with this 80%, 20% is it pays homage to the Maryland style of rye. So more floral, fruity, or that kind of thing, rather than the Kentucky rye, which tends to be a little sweeter. Your Pennsylvania rye, a little spicier kind of thing. But yes. When AMSE brought this in, I think I literally sent you a picture. I was like, look what AMSE's got. And you were like, exclamation point, exclamation point. So I got us a sample. And thanks to AMSE again for letting us. And I did try that night. And I got to admit, apparently I needed them a little older because this one really wowed me.

Yeah, wow. I'm over the moon. I'm ready to try it. I'm so excited. Okay. And you know, the color on this is decent. Yeah. Not crazy dark considering tonight. No, but very nice. Yeah.

But that nose. Oh, the nose.

Oh my gosh.

There's your licorice.

Yeah. Licorice and rye bread.

Oh my goodness. There's even like, like the Florida, like I'd almost say like a little bit of lavender. There's something there, floral. I mean, yeah. Um, almost like a potpourri, you know, like those, like a spring potpourri where you put the stuff and boil it and it gives you that aroma.

I mean, this has got a lot going on. Nice. But it's definitely, um, It's got that, that bready rye muffin kind of, just, I love it.

I think the thing that kind of threw me off for the first time with the bottle, it just, I don't know, it came off a little more like farmy.

Yeah.

Yeah. I don't know. But this, Wow. I do want to shout out the Neely family. They have a three chamber still or still now. They just recently got it in. Yeah. So I'm kind of interested. I mean, those guys are pretty, Royce is pretty experimental anyway.

So they're real close. We need to go visit.

I know we do. We could probably get Bo to meet us up there for that one. Cause he's in Sparta and good friends with those folks.

Do you want to keep nosing? No, let's go. We could for a long time.

I know. Let's move on. All right. Cheers. He was so excited he didn't even say cheers. Cheers. Oh, that is awesome. That is so good.

Todd, you're a god.

I'm a minor deity because I brought it.

Oh my goodness. Well, I've tried several times to get with Todd and every time I go to Colorado, it seems like something comes up. It doesn't work out.

Yeah.

Maybe on this next, no, it's not going to happen on this trip. I'm leaving here in about a month and I haven't even talked to the Leopold brothers to see if we can make it work.

Yeah, but hey, you might have to swing by there to grab a bottle of this.

Might have to grab a bottle, hit their bottle shop. Wow. This is so good. And they did a collaboration with, uh, Dickle too.

Yeah. Still see that bottle on the shelf. I don't know. Dickle's a polarizing, polarizing distillery sometimes. I don't mind it, but I got to take it in small doses, I guess.

Not everybody likes that whetstone minerality, right?

Whatever stone that is. This is really good. I mean, there's a lot going on with that. I mean, the florality is still there. The graininess is a little less. The graininess shines in the nose, but I think the palette, it's not as grainy, but the mouth feel is just crazy. Yeah.

Licorice notes and a little bit of a, like a candy something.

Yes.

Root beerish kind of a little bit. I don't know. So good. So delicious. Yeah, these guys have dialed in magic here, no doubt. Okay folks, if you can manage to find a way to get your hands on a bottle of Leopold Brothers Three Chamber Rye, whether it be the prior release that Todd and I had earlier or this one, it's just, they're different, but they're both delicious. Wonderful. How often do they put this out?

I don't know.

I think Amzie ordered it directly from him. He just happened to see it pop up.

He's got some of their brandies too, which their brandies are fantastic too. I don't know if they've run those through the three chamber, but there's so much going on with this. Like I'm getting a little molasses. I know, I hate to bring in a ringer.

So we're going to do win-win chicken dinner, but I hope we haven't given anything away.

Second place is, I was going to say, second place is really good, too. They're all really solid, as always. We try not to have any landslides, but yeah. There's a little bit left, and you're taking that home. That's OK. I was going to say, I don't even think I would blend that with something. I'm not even going to blend that. We'll blend the first three. Yeah. deserves to stay in its glass by itself. Okay. Well, do we want to do four, three, two, one, or do three and folks can figure it out that way.

Um, let's do, let's do four, three, two, one. That's okay. There's no problem with that. We can do it. Um, we're good. Let's just, let's just hit it. Okay. What do you think? That sounds good. You want me to start? I can start. Okay. Go ahead. All right. So for me, I think the still house is probably my number four. Okay. My number four is going to be the short barrel. Okay. All right.

It's crusher, but yeah, the proof. And I figured that, but you know, they're kind of in this bottle and yes, I'm That's a great bottle to be like, Hey, rather than this, like our Buffalo Trace, try this. Yeah. It's a, it's a solid solid.

And, and I'm going to go with short barrel for, for my next one, but I I'm jumping ahead of you here, but the, uh, the short barrel for me was very crushable. Yeah. That's a good word for it. Very sessionable. Um, but, um, Yeah. I don't know. I think, I think the steel house was just a little bit more kind of one note for me. One trick pony. One trick pony. Okay.

Yeah.

Well, I'm going to flip-flop the other way. Okay. So I'm going to say the steel house.

There were some things on there. I liked a little more the proof, that kind of thing. I mean, not to be a proof hound, but yeah. Yeah. I just had a little more complexity to me. You know, like I said, that short barrel is a great, you know, When friends come over and they're like, do you have any Buffalo Trace or Heaven Hill or something like that? You're like, no, try this short barrel.

Well, tie it as if anybody can't guess what's your number two.

Number two, sadly, is going to be the high west and it's really, really good. Very impressed by that.

Yeah. I think it's really good. And you and I will agree on this one. I think the high west solidly sits at number two. And I think it's a good expression. I think it's great that they have something that... That's at a reasonable price point. That, um, is just a good solid whiskey. I think it's great that they incorporated, you know, the, um, the whiskeys from far East, the fart, let's call it the far East because they're in the far West. So, and our number one. Yeah.

Like I said, I knew it was going to be a ringer.

Yeah. That's why it was last. Well, two reasons it was last. One, because we thought it might be the winner winner chicken dinner.

It's just, it's so, so different.

Yeah.

Than like anything you've probably, I mean, close to pot still when you say although pot still has its own kind of mouth feel and things like that too.

I don't know. It's almost like it extracts out the essences of the grain. I mean, if you're a grain person, if you love this whole idea. If you're a Laws fan or you're a Southern Distilling fan or what was the other one we were talking about?

The Neelys.

Anybody that's like that really, really focuses on the, you know, the grains. I think that, you know, the three chamber rye just amplified, it's like an amplifier of the grain. Yeah. And it's amazing. It's so delicious.

Before we sign off, I do want to give a quick shout out to all the roadies who attended Bourbon on the Banks. We recently, I'm not on the board anymore, but I'm kind of like a special liaison is what I call myself for them. So they recently had an event at the Foundry, which is here in Frankfurt, and gave out over $100,000 to, I think it was like 35 different charities and things, you know, from our homeless shelter, the Woodlands Trust, and just a slew of local charities. Tip of the hat to all the roadies that show up for that. We do have a nice collection of them that come out and they know who they are. It was awesome. The governor even came and spoke for about 10 minutes. It's great turnout.

It's a good deal. The Frankfurt Bourbon Society and those members form a good part of the Bourbon on the Banks Board. It's a great deal. It's good that that goes back and pours back into Frankfurt.

Yeah.

And some of the money went towards the waterfront restoration, which is where Bourbon and the Banks is held. Yeah.

It's probably going to need it. We've had some tough times and the river's coming up now. But yeah, tip of the hat to all you roadies that come. And I know tickets are actually supposed to be going on sale next month. I mean, we're getting towards the end of February and I believe it's March, mid-March, there's tickets are going on sale.

Well, let's let everybody know. If you weren't around last year, They go quick. Yes. They go fast. And you don't want to find yourself in July or August trying to find tickets to an event that are no longer available. So just plan ahead this year. Make sure you get your tickets as soon as they go on sale for bourbon on the banks. Make sure that you immediately, once you have your tickets, turn around and get your hotel or Airbnb or whatever it is that you're doing, get that situated and then have fun the rest of the year. Cause you're set. When the time comes, you'll be here.

So. But hats off to Diane Strong. She does a great job and the rest of the rest of the bourbon on the banks board and crew. So yeah, it makes me, it makes me proud to see that. I mean, it's not one of those. where I don't know, somebody's making a whole lot of money. It's all going right back into our community and I appreciate all you roadies that come.

All right, Todd, I did combine everything.

I did too. Just the three.

I kept out the... I had like three drops of the Leopold. I figured it'd be so dominant.

Even three dumps, I mean.

I did put it in there, though. Oh, the nose. Let's check it out. The nose now. I'm just flying with the three. OK, so for those of you who might be wondering what's going on, Todd and I sometimes will combine all the... Gym, mostly. Yeah. We'll combine everything that we had during the show into one class just to see how it marries together. Sometimes it's lovely. Sometimes it's... Oh, the nuttiness is coming out.

But I think I did have a little more of the high west, which had that nuttiness.

Yeah, the peanut butter. I think it's a good mix this time. I'm getting a lot of nut. Yeah. And, uh, honey nut Cheerios. Yep. Honey nut Cheerios and, uh, yeah, all the cereal things, a little bit of grassiness, just a hair of fruit. It's a, it's a good pour. I mean, I mean, if I had this as a pour, I would say it's good. Yeah. It doesn't always work out that way, folks. All right. Another good show. Another good show. Lots of fun. Todd, thank you for putting together a great selection of whiskeys tonight. I think we enjoyed it. Yeah.

Props to our PR folks. And let's see, the still house I grabbed myself. And then obviously shout out to Amzie once more on the Leopold. Thank you, Amzie.

All right. Well, you can find the Bourbon Road on all social media outlets. You can find us on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, threads. Todd and I will record an episode every single week. We'll put it out on Wednesday. Sometimes we've got a guest on. Sometimes it's just he and I with a few bottles. We're always having fun. We're always drinking whiskey. We hope you'll join us every week. The best way to make sure that you don't miss a show is to scroll to the top of that app you're on. You're definitely on an app if you're listening to us now. Hit that subscribe button, that check box, that plus sign, whatever it is that makes your app remember us for the next time around. That way, when we put out a new episode, you'll get this notification that Todd and I have put out another episode. And you can throw your headsets on and join us for another fun time. Drinking through some whiskies. We hope we're able to let you know what it is you should have on your bar. What's a good value? What's great flavor? You know, we all have different palates. We all enjoy different things, but I think we've had just a few whiskies done. We kind of know a little bit. Just a hair.

We know what we like. And we've even diverged from that too.

That's true. We hope you'll check out the bourbon roadies on Facebook. Just go onto Facebook and search out the bourbon roadies. That's our peeps. That's our fans. That's our friends. That's the people that love to listen to this show and share about what they're drinking, pictures, and good times, and just all the good stuff.

And I'd add, don't be bashful.

Be a part. Yeah. Speak up. Make a post. Make a post. I'm drinking this tonight. Take a picture.

What do you guys think? Yeah.

There's no judgment. No judgment. Nope. And in how you drink it is up to you. Yep. If you like it on a cube of ice, if you like it with a little bit of Diet Coke, so be it. That's you. You do you. No judgment there. So we definitely love to see you on the Bourbon Roadies. We'd love for you to check out the bourbonroad.com, our website, all our articles and Um, you know, our episodes are on there. Also our swag, our hats and t-shirts and all that good stuff. If you do buy something gives Todd and I a few bucks to go down the road and interview that next place. So we hope you'll check it out, but until the next time we'll see you down the bourbon road.

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