489. A Four-State Craft Whiskey Tour with Drew Hannush

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 four 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.

All right, listeners, welcome back to another episode of the Bourbon Road. We're going to get crafty today, and we've got a special guest with us. Jim, who have we got with us?

Drew Hanisch, Whiskey Lore. Welcome back to the show, Drew. This is episode number six for you, I think.

It is. I'm starting to feel like a regular.

It's always great to have you back. Your pallet is second to none and we've got some great craft whiskeys today. As usual, Todd has put together a tremendous lineup and I think we're going to have a little bit of fun.

Yeah.

Sounds good.

Yeah. So you want to tell the folks why you're kind of here real quick before we dive in?

Yeah, no, I just drove up from South Carolina and I'm going to the beam conference tomorrow. So this will be a first for me. And I've heard about it and I've been told I need to go to it. And I know a lot of distillers go to it. So there'll be plenty of people to shake hands with and actually meet for the first time. So that'll be fun. Plus a lot of education stuff. So I'm looking forward to it.

Where are they holding it at this year?

Uh, it'll be at the, uh, at the university of Kentucky. They're, uh, yeah. Okay. Yep. Yeah.

So they started that, uh, beam Institute. Uh, do you know what, about what year that started? I have no idea. Yeah. Yeah.

Some time ago.

Yeah.

Um, and it's pretty big now.

Yeah, it is. Um, tends to lean more towards the professionals though.

Wouldn't you say, I mean, it's not, I don't think it's a general public would get much out of it. Probably industry people are going to, because they have vendors there and the vendors are trying to sell you on equipment that a common person would go, okay, that's nice, but I don't think I need a Vendome still, so we'll go from there.

Not as showy as the big bourbon tastings or festivals though.

Yeah, exactly. But it's cool to know that there is a industry program like that because in other industries that I've been in, it's a great way. The networking is the thing that to me is the best. What I usually end up with is a laundry list of things that I need to do and I go back home and I don't do any of them. But I have contacts and I have people that I've now spent some time with and feel comfortable reaching out to. So that's always the best part of it for me.

All right. So we're settled in here at the corner Rick house in Frankfurt, a home of the Frankfurt Bourbon Society. Thank you. Thank you, Frankfurt Bourbon Society for hosting us here once again. And Todd, what are we sipping on today?

So we're going to travel four states today. And the first one, it's local. It's Kentucky. And it's from the old Pepper Distillery, the James E. Pepper Distillery out of Lexington, Kentucky. And they were one of those that kind of started with MGP just to kind of get established. And I remember seeing Single Barrels. And they also had the, I believe, the 1776 brand that was kind of high-aged MGP and very Very sought after now. It's hard to find 15-year MGP and rise in bourbons. So yeah. We did a pick there recently, and I really think they're one of those hidden gems in Kentucky that's starting to find their groove.

We picked a really good barrel there. It was really good. A lot of fun.

And then they let us try a seven-year-old rye that was on the barrel we were tasting off of, and we were really well with that one. It was our table. Yeah, it was our table. But like I said, this is their bottle and bond, so obviously it's at least four years. all that good stuff. They have like kind of a high rye. And also I'm pretty sure they use malted rye rather than just, yeah. So kind of gives it a little softer mouth feel. I don't have a, I'm pretty sure their distiller gave us their mash bill, but I couldn't find it real that quick.

Interesting to note from my Bottled in Bond episode that Bottled in Bond, the only person that has a name that you would still know that was involved at all in the Bottled in Bond Act was actually James E. Pepper. Thomas Shirley was another distiller that was up there trying to push that, but nobody remembers Thomas Shirley's name because his distillery disappeared and pre-prohibition and never came back. So.

So yeah, obviously this is a hundred, hundred proof, 50% ABV retails for about 50, 55. Yeah. Yeah.

It's got a little bit of a nice oaky, a little bit of a smoky nose.

Oh, fruity note in there, but I can't quite pick out what it is.

Like rich vanilla and fruit. Kind of that nice classic smell. I mean, caramel.

Yeah, really nice.

Now the thing with them is they go in and they're pretty low entry proof. And I don't recall exactly what that was. I want to say maybe like 108 or so. So, you know, depending on where this was at and what barrels they use, they probably did not have to cut it much.

So it does have that kind of a warehouse wood smell to it.

Yeah. I don't know the char on their barrels, but it seems to me like these are heavily charred because they look at the darkness on it. And also I'm getting a little bit more of that sort of, uh, you know, smoky oak note. Okay.

But yeah, when Drew said he was coming in town, I was like, Hey, you want to meet up?

You want to be on an episode? So it's always good to come and taste whiskey with guys. So cheers. Cheers. Cheers. Hmm.

It's got a lot going on.

Yeah. Flavor kind of punches its milky and then get a lot of the, maybe that char but the little rye herbaliness coming through on the finish.

Yeah. I'm getting it. I'm getting it front, middle and back. It kind of dragged its boot across the front of my tongue. Wiped his feet in the middle and then took them off in the back.

We need a t-shirt that says that. I like a bourbon that drags its feet across my tongue.

That's really tasty. Yeah. I like that. Now, what was the price on this? Like 55 bucks. Wow. Yeah. That's a good, that's a good deal. Yeah.

I have to tell you the, um, uh, the old bottles, I love that original bottle that they had. Um, for the 1776 still have it emptied it out, but I keep it up on the shelf cause it's, it's a cool design.

They're decanter. We've had the decanter on here and it's, it's, it's really good.

It's really, really good too. Yeah. I've got an old 1776 Rye. Yeah. From them from way back when. And I didn't care for it. Did you not? No. And I drank a little bit out of it, but it's up on my shelf there. We can try it again some day time. Interesting.

But it's, it's from probably a few years ago. 15 year MGP. So did it get maybe overly dilly or?

I don't remember. It's been too long since I've tasted it.

It's been sitting so long. It's probably changed a little bit too.

Well, it would be a full, almost a full bottle. Oh wow. I'm sure. So yeah.

Yeah. That rich caramel thing still going on here. There's like a, That fruit's still there too. I really like it.

Yeah. Yeah. This kind of has a little bit of, it's got a lot going on.

It's, I think what's interesting about it is that it gets really rich in the middle, but then at the end it dries right out.

Yeah. And the, and the, you said malted rye. That's yeah, that's what I'm, I'm just not getting that like, um, that earthiness from the malted rye that I typically get. Taking a look on the glass real quick. But we don't know the match bill, so it could be 2% for all we know.

Yeah. Like I said, his name's Cody, and I don't remember Cody's last name. He was the master distiller, and he came to the.

to our club here and presented and it's fun to get to taste something that's actually made at the distillery because this is, uh, uh, I think probably the first time I have. Oh, so, oh, really? Yeah.

Wow. That's shocking.

Cause we actually met one time in that area, but we were going to barrel house barrel house. Yeah. It's just nice in the back. I mean, the finish on it is, uh, It's pleasant. It's a little bit of a bite to it.

Yeah. I think you can also tell, like I said, they go in that low entry proof. It doesn't have that kind of like watered down vibe that you can get with some lows, like probably coming in at 120. So that's quite a percentage of water that goes in those. This one still feels like, I don't know, maybe a cup or something kind of deal or however big these batches are.

I know there's a lot of diversity in the industry in terms of ways people want to proof things down, but the more that I'm tasting stuff that is proofed down ahead of the barrel, to me, it seems to increase the flavor impact.

So I almost wonder why you wouldn't do it, at least to a certain extent. That extra solubility just extracts things from the barrel you don't normally get, right? Or it does them at a higher rate, one of the two.

I also think that's one of those things you'll start to see. I don't know. I feel like, you know, you're a lot of your craft places do lower entry proofs. You know, you think mectors and, you know, obviously, Alan Bishop, he's always kind of got a below entry proof. And I'm sure that'll be the case once his old hermitage.

I think the best way to test it, if you're curious about it, is do the Michter's tour because they let you taste it with a higher entry proof and with the lower entry proof. Oh, that's neat. And you can taste the difference. It is definitely.

Yeah, and the only reason for going to a higher entry proof is accountants, right? I mean, let's be honest. I mean, if you're all about the flavor, I think everybody, all the master distillers would agree that a lower entry proof is better.

Yeah, yeah. What's interesting is when I was doing my research and trying to look in the 1850s and 60s about how they were shipping whiskey around, well, they had shifted to, of course, rail. came along so you're not on the river now you have the ability to get stuff there much quicker so all of a sudden buffalo new york became the center of distilling they were making high high proof whiskeys called high wines and the reason they did that was they could put it in at an extremely high proof, ship it out in that barrel quickly to wherever it went. And then a rectifier would take it and would water it down to whatever the proof was. But it was a way of concentrating the whiskey to get it to wherever it was going to go. And it's one of those things we hear about rectifiers and all the horrible things they did. But what I found in my research was that it was actually more Sometimes it was just for the ability to save some money on freight, get it out there, and then you're just adding water to it once it gets to wherever it's going. The other part of that is that not everybody wanted long proof whiskey. There was a lot more drinking white whiskey and that sort of thing. So it's very interesting to see that.

All right. Well, that was very pleasant, Todd. That's a good start. Good start. And I'm always impressed with him lately. Really, really am.

Yeah, agreed. All right. So let's move on to poor two. Yeah. This is from 1832 distilling. They're based in Concordia, Missouri. It's what they call a soil to sip operation founded by a local farmer named John Lang and a Marine veteran named Nicholas Virus. That's kind of an interesting last name. The distillery is named after the year freedom Freedom Township was established, the very township where they grow 100% of the grain used in their spirits. So this is a 100% wheat whiskey, predominantly soft red winter wheat grown on the co-owner's family farm in Freedom Township. I just got a general thing because like I said, it was really hard to find information on this and shout out to my friend, Adam Dorman, who I just met up with him this past week and he brought me this bottle. They had stopped in there on their way to Kentucky and he thought I really enjoy this. So he brought me a bottle. Cheers, Adam. Uh, so it's aged in new charred Missouri white oak barrels. It says minimum of two, but this is a single barrel and it's, it's pretty dark. Can you turn the bottle just a little bit?

It's extremely dark.

We've got some really dark stuff here today. I don't, that, well, we won't get into like port three is really dark too, but um, He said the MSRP on this single barrel was $45. There you go.

Okay. Yeah. So, so what's the age on it?

Did you, it doesn't say, but I mean, like I said, so what's the label say? It says, Oh, there we go. 56 months old. So four and a half, right? Yeah. Four and a half.

All right. That makes more sense with the color.

Well, I looked and looked and there it is right there.

54.1%. So we're 108.2.

Okay.

So a four and a half year old wheat whiskey out of Concordia, Missouri. Concordia, Missouri. Very dark.

Oh, this is an oak lovers. Yeah, this is got some whiskey.

Makes me think maybe smaller barrels. Since it's got such intense oak nuts, there's like some stewed fruits and honey.

I love it. Yeah. You nailed it, Todd. I think so.

There's a little graininess to it, but it's not unpleasant. But the nose is really kind of dark and rich.

Yeah, the fruits are dark.

I guess they are stewed.

Stewed fruits, I like it.

You're the one that came up with that one. It's like a cotton candy thing I'm getting too.

I was thinking like sassafras.

Sassafras, okay. I was thinking apple butter.

Or strawberries, like a little bit of like strawberry, compote kind of thing. I was thinking, like, I don't know if you heard me, I said plum butter.

Plum butter?

I don't, I've never had it, but I've had apple butter, but I was thinking, you know, it's darker than that. So maybe it's. Yeah.

Yeah, I can see the plum. Sounds like something we used to say back in the day, but they would say plum better. He's plum better than you are. But plum butter, I like it.

Got a great dose. I like it. I'm just getting ready to get set on fire because I think this is going to be hot. I previewed it. We'll see. OK. Cheers. Cheers.

Let's get like a banana in there. It's actually really good.

It is. There is a little bit of fire.

There's a little warmth for that 108, yes. Yeah. Actually, I get like, are you like yellow or kind of like a green banana kind of thing, like under ripe? or not quite right.

I can see that. A little buttery. You said juicy fruit before, and now it's just stuck in my head.

That's a really good whiskey. It's interesting. I love things that are like, take you by surprise just a little bit.

And you said it's 100% wheat. So is it malted wheat, do we know? It didn't say.

It's really interesting. A little bit of spice to it. Yeah. There's like a spicy gumdrop kind of jam on the end. I love being surprised like this though. Like when we had the, uh, Oh, wood hat. Yeah. Like that was out of the blue. Yeah, it's very, once again, a friend introduced us to that. So that's fun. Very buttery, oily, streaking my glass.

Yeah. Seriously, streaking my glass.

I think that Sassafras is kind of getting that on the tail end a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Like almost like a Sassafras root beer kind of. One might even say sorghum, a little bit of sorghum.

Really interesting, because I don't have a lot of experience with 100% wheat whiskies. And I find that they usually tend to do better with the barrel for some time. And this one's obviously had some time to work itself out with the barrel.

Really settles in in the back and just gives you that warm, spicy,

I get an earthiness on the nose that just makes me almost visualize where this barrel was left in a corner somewhere in a wet damp corner.

I wonder if these are 53 gallon barrels. I tend to feel like they're smaller barrels.

As dark as it is, I feel like maybe it's, what is it, the 30s? Maybe just a little smaller.

Either that or they left it outside. 25s or 15s.

At 56 months, if it was one of those 15s, I feel like it would be even darker though in Missouri, maybe. I don't know. But yeah, fun pour.

Yeah. Really good.

Oh, but back to my, like, do you guys think, like, you know, with some of these smaller distilleries doing the lower entry proof, I mean, the big guys are looking for new marketing things, obviously. I almost feel like you're going to start seeing some lower. I mean, I know Buffalo Trace has played around with that with those single projects and their experimental thing, the experimental collection, and things like that.

Requires more barrels. So barrel supply would probably be the question for the big guys.

At the end of the day, it's all about cost of production. So the bigger your operation, the more you're looking, or the more accountants you have looking at the cost of production.

The thing I see also is like, well, I mean, LTOs are hot. If you come out, it's like Heaven Hill and Jim Beam, I'll come out with some sort of, just says low entry proof, and then it has the name of the Rick house. Well, you've got liquid gold. Because that's another thing you're starting to see, another trend you're starting to see is, well, they're emphasizing what Rick house that comes from. It's always been a wild turkey thing, but now you're starting to see the Beam, the latest Oh, that latest series we have with the owl and the beaver. And then you've got Jack Daniels touting Tanyard Hill and Coy Hill. Right, yeah. And then, I mean, it's coming. I mean, what warehouse age did Buffalo Trace? Well, that's where all plants come from.

Well, what I love about that is it is a nod to the fact that these warehouses may not all be made of the same construction. They may have a certain personality to them. I mean, that's what you learn when you go on the Buffalo Trace tour is really how all of these are constructed with different materials. And so they age things completely differently. what I loved was like holiday and the way he described it. And basically what he was doing was he was grabbing barrels from different parts of the warehouse. And if he's grabbing a lot from the upper floors, then you would get one flavor versus if they were coming from the lower floor. So you could actually pick up a bottle. And if you sort of knew the personality of which ones are getting aged more aggressively versus which ones aren't, and it's something that you like, you want a more oak, you find the ones that are aged up at the top instead of the ones that were aged lower down. This was the thing I really loved, like Chattanooga whiskey, every little detail they're putting on the bottle. Maybe the average consumer doesn't care, but I think people who are really interested in flavor and exploring find it interesting.

I love good labels. I love labels with a lot of detail on them. But yeah, I'm not everybody. And I think the three of us are probably very similar. We like that kind of stuff.

I mean, the more I know about it, yeah, it's great. Your average consumer.

Bart's sound is great about it. I don't know if their new labeling, I'm trying to remember.

Well, we haven't seen the Discovery, but he said it was going to be a little different too. But I mean, I guess it'll be Discovery 14 will be coming out at some point soon.

All right. Good first half. Great first half. Two really interesting whiskeys, both of them very pleasant. And I'm going to reserve my comments for the end, but both great. Yeah. Good start. All right.

All right. We'll be right back for the second half and yeah, we're going to take a short break and mull these over a little more and we'll come back with two more pours with Drew Hanisch and yeah, stick around.

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. Now, 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, 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 and so on. So it is an exciting book it is the biggest thing that I put together to this point and right now it is going to be going on sale on January the 13th but it is actually available for pre-order right now at WhiskeyLore.org slash shop. That's Whiskey Lore's travel guide to experiencing American whiskey.

Hey there, Bourbon Roadies! It's Diane Strong with Bourbon on the Banks. I'm popping in to let you know tickets for this year's Bourbon on the Banks Festival go on sale March 17th, and we've made some exciting changes. For the first time ever, special access ticket holders will enter at noon. That means just 300 guests will have the entire festival grounds to themselves for an exclusive one-hour experience. As always, tickets move fast, especially the special access. So set your alarm and mark your calendar for March 17th, 10 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. And if you're rolling in with a group of 10 or more, reach out to me directly. I'll make sure you receive a special group discount. We can't wait to see you on the river.

All right, welcome back to the second half of the show. We've been tasting some craft whiskeys with Drew Hanisch, Jim and I have. Our first pour was the Old Pepper bottled in a bond bourbon, really impressive. A really nice version of a bottle in a bond. Tasty. Yeah. And then followed it up with... Definitely a surprise for me. The 1832 Missouri straight wheat whiskey, we found out it's four years and eight months after I looked at the label a little better. Shocking. But wow, out of the blue. Like I said, Adam Dorman, good friend of the show, sent that to me and dropped it off to me when it came in town. And yeah, very impressive.

You've got two more great ones this time. I do.

Our good friend, Pete Barger at Southern Spirits was kind enough to send their newest limited release. This one can be found there at the distillery at Southern Star and then probably North Carolina, that area. It is a limited release. This one comes in at $3.75. It's their straight bourbon whiskey, finished in Zinfandel Casco. And that's not the Franzio white Zinfandel. This looks like Coca Cola. With the color we're looking at here, it definitely was not the white Zinfandel. This is the full on red Zinfandel. I couldn't find any information on whose Zinfandel barrels they use, but I mean, Definitely the darkest pour we have. We've kind of got ours set on our little pour mats with pour 1, 2, 3, and 4. Yeah, I think Drew said it looked like cola.

Yeah. Right? It does. And it's cast strength. So that's probably adding to the color.

So clock's in at 54% ABV, 108 proof. Like I said, 375 milliliter, 49.95. It said it starts with our paragon weeded bourbon, but it doesn't mention that this is our weeded. So I don't, but I think that may had an earlier iteration. So I'm going to say this might just be their straight bourbon. And it's finished in the Zinfandel cast for over about a year. So that might be where that very robust, like burnt amber kind of colors coming from.

Great nose on it.

Not super like, red, whiny. Yeah.

No, but it's got a nice, it's a sugary nose. And a little fruity.

When I was more into wine, I used to do some wine tastings at a store.

Like Zinfandel's were probably my favorite red.

I know and cabs, you know, some good hearty cabs, but I really liked the Zins were really like, could get really jammy and dark. It's not in my nose like 108.

It's kind of, I don't want to say it's muted, but there's nothing jumping out at me on it.

It's almost like a, it's a little hard. It's hiding itself just a little bit. Maybe if a drop of water in this might like let it blossom, but.

Yeah. I'm getting like some berry notes, like maybe some overripe raspberry type thing. But yeah, it's kind of hard to pull something out of there. All right. I'm ready to sip. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers.

It's concentrated. The flavor is concentrated.

Yeah. Ooh, there's some interesting stuff going on.

Agreed. I'm getting like, like the, you know, this obviously went into that wine barrel. I feel like there's a little bit of that like wine barrel, like not necessarily the Zinfandel note, but it's like the wine barrel note itself. Yeah. Like a little tan and note.

Yeah. I always get like a little chocolate with the fruit. Definitely some chocolate. Yeah.

You mean like the French oat?

Not necessarily French oat, but just like, you know, they empty that wine barrel and then do this in there and there's just like, I don't know, almost like a wine cellar kind of vibe.

Not like damp or dark, but like- There's no American oak to me in this. I think that's what's kind of tossed me off the mark a little bit is that it's the vanillas, the caramels, they're not really present there. The wine is kind of, there's a little praline to it though, a little more on the grape side.

Those, those hot buttered pralines that you get at the fair when you walk around with them.

But yeah, I can't, can't get away from that. Like almost like it's almost like if you took your finger after they dumped this out of that wine barrel and then like put your finger on that barrel or inside that barrel and kind of rubbed along there and then like lick that residue. Does that make sense? It's not off-putting. I like it, but.

I know I'm trying to figure out how to describe it. This is sometimes my issue is that. When I approach something brand new, it's like the card catalog in my brain does not have anything to reference. So I go, I don't know. I don't know what that is.

Yeah. For me, I'm getting like the French oak kind of impressions off of it. I mentioned sort of like the warm pralines before, but it's a little cognac-y kind of. A little bit.

Yeah. The thing is, I had a BenRomic single malt scotch that was aged with a wine barrel. And the wine barrel took it over. And it basically was like drinking that wine. I read the description on the wine and I'm going, well, those are my tasting notes. Yeah. And that kind of feels like what happened here, that barrel really consumed the experience.

Yeah, I could be convinced that this is not a bourbon. Yeah. In a way. Yeah. You know, like this, this might be something else. This might be a, uh, an experimental great, great brandy brandy, a cognac, a grappa, uh, something, you know, that's been played with.

Yeah. This would be a nice bridge whiskey to get into brandies. I would say. Yeah. Yeah.

That's also one finisher. I mean, we're starting to see a few more. I mean, we just recently had the Moscatel finish with True Story, their Bourbonist Moscatel finish, which was really, really unique. You'll see, you know, I think like Bardstown's done a few collabs with Silver Oak. So big Cabernet. So it's kind of one of those that I know it's definitely not a popular finish for these to try, but yeah, I think, you know, they're always looking for the new thing too.

So, well, this is definitely something, um, different, you know, unexpected.

I mean, it's a nice drinker. So, I mean, but I think if somebody came into it thinking that they're about to drink something very bourbon-esque, they're going to be surprised. Right.

Yeah, definitely.

Yeah.

to cleanse the palate here after that one.

Yeah, definitely need to. That could be after dinner drink.

Yeah. It might pair really well with a cigar.

I think it probably would. I think it's great at the end of a meal. I think it would be good with a cigar. I think sipping in a brandy sniffer might actually not be a bad idea for this. Or have a fruit tart or something with it.

All right, so our last one is from Bell of Dayton out of obviously Dayton, Ohio. And this is one of their Dietrich fine whiskies. This is their full proof single barrel bourbon. Bell of Dayton is located in the Oregon district, which kind of threw me off. It's family-owned craft distillery founded by brothers Mike, Murphy, and Tim Lassell. The brand blends local history with world-class distilling techniques. So this is pot-stealed.

Okay. It's interesting because as I talked to him not too long ago, to Mike, and he was talking about Of course, they picked the name Belle of Dayton. That, I guess, is associated with an older brand, but so is the Dietrich. Actually, once they released that Dietrich, they got contacted by a member of the Dietrich family. who said, oh, it's so cool you're bringing that back. And Mike said he was nervous at first because he thought, oh God, what are they going to ask for? I'm using their name. But no, they were just really happy to see the brand come back.

Yeah, so back to that Bell of Dayton, where that kind of came from, it says, the story goes that while renovating a basement in downtown Dayton, a 100-year-old pre-prohibition liquor bottle was discovered with the words Bell of Dayton etched into the glass. Then like you said, the Dietrich Fein whiskeys line is named after the Dietrich distilling company. Was it Fred?

Do you remember?

I don't remember. Which was in production 1884 to 1919. It was one of those that was pretty much killed by prohibition. So many of those did back in the day. And this is a five-grain. So you got corn, oats, rye, wheat, and malted barley, but I couldn't find any specific mash bills. They pot-sealed it in a 350-gallon copper still, aged in 53-gallon barrels and hand-toasted number four char white oak barrels and MSRP's 97.99. And this is This is eight and a half years old.

I was going to say this definitely has some, we have a common theme tonight. The wood is taking over. The wood is taking over.

They also offer a small batch. You can find this at Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, but they also ship to 40 plus states and shout out again. It's a very Whiskey Friends episode, episode, episode. My friend Jeff Wack from Hello Again Whiskey Friends, the YouTube channel was kind enough to, he actually let me try one of these some time ago and came across another one and grabbed this bottle for us. Fantastic. Yeah.

It's really interesting because the rye, I get like an orange peel note with it and it's- Yeah, there's a freshness to the nose and it is interesting. I love the orange peel.

Shout out. That's great.

a little candy like, but it's, it's fresh and it's got a, and the funny thing is we've not really had a sweet, anything super sweet.

I mean, not really. I'd say the middle of that old pepper was, uh, maybe about as close. Everything else has been a little on the drier side, like berries. Yeah. Again, the barrel, the warehouse, it's like you can, you feel like you've just walked in and you're looking through the barrels to figure out which one you're going to tap into. Yeah. And if I saw this bottle on a shelf, I mean, it's a great label.

It's a great bottle. I love that bottle. It's very traditional. Great color. Yeah. Great color to this whiskey.

As the Nelson Brothers said about their label that they brought back, their great grandfather's label, the best thing about finding an old label is that you save a lot of marketing, but they're really cool. The thing is, though, if you see this on the shelf, it's definitely one of those brands that you would have to get to know, because it's not overly easy to read. I guess in the 1800s, they weren't as worried about you picking out the name on the shelf as they were, that you're probably buying something local that you already know. But it's a beautiful bottle. It is beautiful.

I'd be curious to know what the old Dietrich, how to do some digging and see what the old Dietrich bottles used to look like, as well as the Bell of Dayton. That's kind of intrigued now. Well, you got Bell and Nelson right behind you. That's right. I do. There were a lot of Bells.

We lost the Bells. I was going to say, there were a lot of Bells back in the day. We lost the Bells, but there was a Bell of Chattanooga at one time.

I believe there was a Bell of Bardstown. Yeah. Oh, you already sipped, didn't you? Cheers. Sorry. Catching up. That's all right.

Yeah. I couldn't help myself.

I had to follow that nose. Oh, I don't think I mentioned this one. The particular proof is like 123.2. Yeah.

This sits well as a high proof whiskey. It's nice. This is actually nice.

Nice balance notes. The oats, I don't really expect to get flavor out of oats. Usually it's mouthfeel, but I sort of taste a little of that.

I could see like a cinnamon oatmeal kind of thing.

Yeah. Ah, there you go. Yeah. Really interesting.

There you go with the coated glass again. It's a great whiskey. A little bit higher price on this one.

Yeah. Yeah, it's good. It's always like another, you know, it's so fun to like run across these and you're like, who? Yeah. And then you try them. You're like, wow.

Almost a little black tea on that too, at the end. It's really interesting because it's, as you say, there's not a lot of sweet going through here and on the palate, this does not go sweet at all either. It is, I don't know that necessarily the rye is standing out to me.

Um, but it definitely has darker notes to it. Yeah. I'm getting the Oak and the barrel on the back a little bit. Not so much the right, the spiciness of the rise and I really hit me there. This is sitting mid palette. This is, is continues to sting the middle of my tongue just a little bit.

Again, probably another cigar whiskey.

Yeah.

Yeah. I think the oats give it just enough of a mouthfeel to soften it just a little. Yeah. Yeah.

A little cold note on that too. Well, I feel like when we do our rankings at the end of this, our winter, winter chicken dinner, I think that this is, there's enough variety here where it's going to be a matter of preference. For sure. They're all good whiskeys in their own way. Yeah. I'm still going to orange peel a little bit too. Yeah.

I think the interesting thing about this one is it being pot stilled, I was expecting even softer. Yeah. And it's still got a little like pizzazz, if you will.

You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Yeah. Be interesting to know how deep they go. I'm having Jim's face. He's like really intrigued by this.

Yeah, I am. I am. I'm looking at the four bottles. I'm thinking in my mind, I'm going to break them. Yeah. While I'm drinking the detrick. I have a winner myself.

We have to go through, start at four and work our way up. Okay. All right. I got to try, let's see, I'm going to go back to... We can do that. So you can go ahead and visit. All right. A little bit of water.

Yeah, a little bit of water. That's a good idea actually, because it is easy to kind of forget.

I think my one and two is the one I'm debating. I think I have three and four.

Ooh, I'm getting raspberry on number one now.

Are you?

Yeah, interesting. It's funny how you taste one thing and go to another and something else pops out.

How you order them sometimes is really interesting.

It may have actually just challenged which one I'm going to choose, because I was pretty set. But that was my number two that I just tasted. It's fighting for number one. I don't think it's going though. Okay.

I think I'm ready.

I'm ready. Okay. I'm ready. I think I've got it. Let's get his game face on. Yeah.

All right. I'll start. Okay. My number four today is going to be the Southern star. Not a bad pour. Like I said, if I had a cigar, which I'm not a huge cigar guy, but I think that might work really well with it. And it had some good stuff going on, but. Just didn't shine today like the other three to me.

Yeah. So I'm going to, I'm going to follow suit there. I think, um, I think it's good for what it is, but I think they, in my opinion, it was taken a little too far. Yeah. I don't know for me. Yeah. So.

I agree. I mean, the thing about it is, is that I could see that being a bottle that grows on me. If it's sitting in my shelf and I'm in a mood and I realize, Oh yeah, I'm not ready for a brandy. I'm really not in the mood for a bourbon. Let's do something right in between. That's probably what I would pick up.

It's got its place on your shelf. It's a, it's a nice whiskey. It just doesn't really remind me of a whiskey. But when it sits among four bottles in a tasting, it kind of is an outlier.

It gets tough. Yeah. Yeah. It kind of gets lost. Let's just keep the same order. Sounds good? Yeah. All right. My number three is going to be the Old Pepper Bottle and a Bond. I think it's super solid. I really like what they're doing. I love doing the pick there. I think the pick we did is... I'd like to see how it showed up, if we had thrown in here, but we had the bottle and a bon in hand, so let's, but it's going to be my number three.

Okay. Well, I'm actually going to go with the 1832. Ooh, okay. And the reason for that is as I went back and retasted, the 1832 dropped a notch and the pepper actually elevated a notch.

I actually had them the other way around.

Ah, okay. But you know, that's what happens when you go back and revisit things. And I did take water in between each sip, so. Okay. Right.

I guess I'm the tiebreaker. Okay.

Because I'm going to 1832. Okay.

And the reason for me is that it was a lot more on the oak side. Yeah. And I'm not necessarily a fan of, it was probably the okiest of all of them. And it, you know, that's probably the main thing. Again, a nice, a nice drinker, impressive for, um, you know, for the, what the whiskey is and, uh, small distillery and I'm assuming they're still distilling probably.

I saw that, but we can check on that. Yeah.

But, um, I mean, good whiskey. I just, like I say, it's probably against the two that are ahead of it. It's Oak year. And that's the thing that's probably setting it apart from the gap.

Okay.

Well, my number two is actually going to be the 1832.

I just thought it was a fun surprise and yeah, I enjoyed it. Although I get that whole thing, like I'm kind of still sipping on those. And like, when you go back to something after following something up, yeah, it has kind of changed a little bit.

So I could probably, the two and three would be interchangeable.

As the kids say, six, seven.

And while bouncing between these and tasting each of them, you know, I mentioned that the 1832 sort of dropped a notch on the ladder and then the pepper elevated. And the pepper elevated with this wonderful fruity note that just sort of surprised me. It had something the others didn't. So it just, it kind of grabbed the number two spot for me. Yeah, OK. True.

Well, it almost got number one, because when I went back and tasted it, that fruity note just really hit me. My memory of it in tasting it the first time, though, was that it kind of started in one direction, got really expressive in the middle with sweetness, and then dried out on the end. And I'm sure there are times, there are certain whiskeys I have that make that kind of roller coaster move that I like. But I know if I'm going to have something I'm going to purchase and put on the shelf, I'm going to want something that is much more balanced throughout. So that's my number two.

Pepper's a fine whiskey. It's really good whiskey. It got close. But it's not winter, winter chicken dinner.

No, but it sounds like we're unanimous on that. Yeah, I think so. And that goes to the Bella Dayton. Do you drink fine whiskey, straight bourbon whiskey out of Dayton, Ohio?

It's the priciest bottle too, right? To be fair. And the proofiest. And the proofiest. Yeah. You say Drew's not a big proof guy.

I'm actually kind of surprised.

Yeah. But if you do a proof, right. I think the fact that it was made on a pot still, uh, and however they do their cuts, you know, it's, it's just a really nice balance of, uh, of flavors. And that's the main thing for me is that it feels like a whiskey that I should pour when I have my mind clear and I can just sit down and really kind of pick out all the different flavors in it.

I like the way he says that. So it's a moment when the whiskey needs to be the center of your attention, right? And I kind of agree with you on that.

And that's why we bring him on when he's in town. He brings his A-game. He does, he does. He brings the history, he brings the smarts, he brings the voice.

Yeah, the Dietrich was great, but I'll be honest with you, I'm looking for a bottle of that, a bottle and bond pepper, because that was surprisingly good. And you mentioned, Drew, that it could have been almost running for first place.

Yeah, it was very close. I mean, well, it was the second taste. And that's the thing is that It is really hard to taste something in isolation and being the first whiskey that you taste, it's like that it kind of puts it at a disadvantage. So going back to taste it again, boosted it up a bit for me.

All great whiskeys. Todd, would you do our, I guess, a little bit of a favor here and sort of go through the lineup and talk about what they are and what their price, bottle price point was?

Yeah. So we started out with the Old Pepper, Baldwin & Bond. And it ran, I believe, what'd I say, $60? $60, yeah. Followed that up with the 1832 distilling Missouri straight wheat whiskey, which came in at about 108.2 proof. And according to Adam, it was about $45, which. Great price. That's crazy. Still a great whiskey. Still a good whiskey. That was followed up with the Southern Star Limited Series. This was their straight bourbon whiskey finished in Zinfandel cask. That was a 375, unlike the others. And I believe, I'd say $45 for that. Actually, that's about $90 if you double it up. It's actually pretty close to our winter today, and that's the Belladayton Dietrich Whiskey, straight bourbon whiskey. This happens to be a single barrel. Like I said, they do do a small batch. This one clocked in 123.2 proof. This was bottle 129 of 191. It was about eight and a half years old.

I'd say an exceptional whiskey. Very good. Delicious.

Like I said, Jeff Wack introduced me to this. It's kind of fun. They're a little Patreon group. They send out some blind, like he sends out a four pores, I believe, like a kind of a holiday blind and everybody enters their answers in and like proof questions and like what it is and things like that. And like that was, that was the first time I got introduced to that. And I was like, holy heck, you know, I thought it was one of the big boys. I just thought it was so good. Yeah.

The thing is you mentioned to me, I didn't really pay attention. I see full proof on the back and I'm reading it, but I'm not thinking it. And you're right. I don't usually like stuff that's high proof, but this does not drink high proof at all. And that's what threw me off about it is that, I mean, for that high proof, it's not burning the palate. It's not aggressive on the flavors. It's just nice balance.

It is one of those that you can, I may not mention it, it's kind of like everybody else. You can find it in a few states, but you can also order directly from them, I believe. So definitely one to- From Ohio.

Yeah, from Ohio. Well, they got a lot of distilleries, 45 plus distilleries up there.

But they can ship out of state. That's what I saw. Okay. Yeah. I guess the laws are so weird out there. Who knows?

Well, I mean, you think of middle west. So like, I've had friends that have done picks from middle west and you know, those usually go through, pretty sure they get their stuff from sale box. Pumpernickel rye. Yeah. Pumpernickel rye.

Well, Todd, another great show, four great bottles. Yeah, it was fun. Great guest. You really knocked it out of the park this time, my friend. I was going to say, it's going to be hard to top.

Yeah. Well, thanks for having me out. I appreciate driving up here today. It's nice to kind of relax and chat with you guys and sip on some whiskey.

Yeah. You want to let the folks know where they can find you? I mean, they've heard your voice before and heard all this, but never heard to tell them again.

They're going to hear, they're going to definitely hear you during the break or they have heard you during the break. Exactly.

Exactly. And thanks for that too. Yeah. Find me at whiskylore.org or on any social media, but I'm mostly on instagram.com slash whisky lore. And you can also find my books on Amazon or get them through your favorite online bookseller.

All right. Definitely check Drew out. He's writing some good stuff. Should be the book in your console in your car as you're driving around visiting those distilleries, no doubt.

That's right. It's taking the place of the old fold out. Or the big, was it Rand McNally, Alice thing? You don't need a Triptych anymore.

You just need the Whiskey Laura.

You don't need MapQuest, you just got the Whiskey Laura. But Whiskey Triptych, you've given me some ideas.

There you go. Well, you can find The Bourbon Road on all social media outlets. You can find us on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, threads. We do all those things every single week. Jim and I will drop an episode every Wednesday, so make sure you hit that subscribe button so that you don't miss an episode. We'd love to get you down the road, whether you're just traveling to work or on the lawnmower, although probably need some really good headphones for that, or just sitting around the house and you're sipping on coffee. But we appreciate you guys tuning in. We'd also appreciate if you took the time to leave us a review on any whatever podcast avenue you're listening to that gets us more hype, basically. And who can't use that? I mean, a lot of us podcasters like to team up together because it's that intermingling. And maybe we get a few of Drew's listeners. And I'm sure I know some of our listeners listen to you quite often, too. Sometimes we'll have a guest on like Drew. Sometimes we'll just sit around reviewing whiskeys. Today was both of those. Sometimes we'll have a distillery in to talk about their products. But one thing is we're always having a lot of fun. You can also check out the bourbonroad.com where you can buy our merch that helps us get down the road a little bit. You can also check out probably the best way to find us is the Facebook group, the Brevin Roadies. We've got over 3,200 people in there. There's distillers, there's Drew's on there, and people always sharing stuff, what they're drinking. Our good friend, Bo Cumlin, is always dropping whatever little video clip he's done. But yeah, it's a fun group where people just get together and have fun and talk about what they're drinking and celebrate things. So until next time, we'll see you down the Bourbon Road.

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