490. The Hazmat Flight: Tasting Lost Lantern's Highest Proof Releases

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 podcast. We've got a really fun show today. Our good friends at Lost Liner, Nets. Adam Polanski and Nora Ganley-Roper have sent us another of their Lost Lantern 2026 spring collection, and this is a really interesting one. I'm very excited. How about you, Jim?

I'm pretty excited, too. I think we need to get a 50 state map, and every time we get a collection from Lost Lantern, we need to check off the states they've introduced us to.

Agreed. You know, I told you I'm in that monthly club and I just got something from North Dakota. Wow. So that's, that's a first from, from North Dakota for me.

What states are we visiting tonight and how many distilleries are we going to taste tonight that we haven't had before?

So we've got four new distilleries that we've never tried and that doesn't include our bonus pour and we'll get to that bonus pour cause there's probably a couple in there.

Okay.

But we're going to visit, we're first going to visit Montana. Then we're going to hop over to North Carolina. And then the second half will jump to Alabama. And then lastly, Idaho. Idaho, Idaho, right. What's fun about this collection this year, the spring collection, it's a high proof versus lower proof whiskey. And what they've done is kind of made pairings and there were 10, they sent us 10 samples, but you know, we, we dedicate a lot of space to them. So we kind of try to narrow it back a little bit. So we've got five that we're going to go through and we will discuss the others a little bit. These all have recently just dropped. You can get them straight from their website and Sillbox and then they're in Vermont. They're based out of Vermont at their tasting room there in Vermont and probably some of the stores around that area I would expect. Sure. So, without further ado. That first pour. That first pour. This is going to be the lowest proof. This is the Montgomery Distillery Montana Straight Bourbon. It's a family-owned distillery in Missoula, Montana, which is a really cool town. It's been some time ago, but I went out to that area. My folks wanted to go out west, and this is pre-kids, pre-wife. I'm an old dad, but I lived a lot of traveling and things before that. I went out West with them and basically chauffeured them around. We went to, um, Yellowstone, we went to the Tetons, we went to, um, Glacier national and, you know, just did all the things, did all the things, stopped at some really cool places, you know, had some, what is it? Uh, uh, not lamb fries, but the Rocky mountain oysters. Uh, it wasn't bad. I survived Haggis. So, you know, yeah.

Well, if you survive Haggis, you're good.

Yeah. But beautiful country. And actually, at that time, I was more of a beer guy. So that was kind of a fun, you know, there's all those places out there. I'm still a beer guy.

Yeah, same. I'm going to Asheville soon. So I'm very excited about that. There you go.

So a little more about this Montgomery distilling. This one's only 104.6 proof. Again, there were 207 bottles of this. This is a single barrel, a hundred dollars, a match bill of 70 corn, 20% wheat, 10% malted barley, aged four years. So actually we are going to have the pairing that they recommend with this and we will get to that one later and we'll touch on some of the others here in a little bit that we'll We'll discuss them all at some point. Sure. So let's get to, let's get to Montana. Let's travel.

Montana sky country, sky country. Oh, nice.

Oh yeah.

That's a, it's got a, it's got a nice, uh, sweet minerally note to it.

I know you're going to hate me, but I'm getting a little banana. Just a little, like a little like just ripening banana. I get kind of this, uh, that might be your fresh.

Well, I get this, uh, like overripe fruit note. Okay. Um, but it is really bright. I could smell the sky.

As a single bro, you kind of wonder, did this drop in proof out of Montana on those cold, cold Montana nights? Yeah.

Those guys, they get like, uh, they start expecting snow around August, don't they? And then it stops snowing in like June. So they got June, July and August. That's it. Three months a year, you know?

Beautiful country though. Oh, yeah. You know, like I said, I took my folks around, but I went on a 13-mile trek in the Teton, or not the Tetons, I'm sorry, in the Glacier National Park. A little scary. There were a lot of people on the trail. When I was walking it and there was like a nice stopping point where I guess it's kind of where like some of the employees stay for you know during the season obviously warmer season because it's probably impassable when you get into the colder weather and So I took off after I took that break and you know kind of stay near groups just because I mean you're in You're in bear country. Sure. So I got to this part where the, the trees are kind of had been burnt and there's a little bit of green and, and I'm like, suddenly like looking around, I'm like, there's nobody around. So I was, you know, Elmer flooding and I was like tiptoeing a little bit cause I didn't, you know, you get your ears, you know, just perked up. You're like, Oh, I started thinking, Oh my goodness, what am I going to do if there's a bear, you know?

You didn't have bear spray, huh? I mean, I'd be packing, I think.

I think I had a bear bell, which, you know, the joke is, you know, you often hear the bears running through the woods with the sound of bells jingling in their bellies. I'm ready to sip this. I am too. Cheers. It's dry. It is. It's very bright though. Yeah. Dry and bright. I'm getting like dried, like a little more like stone fruits kind of thing.

Yeah. I'm picking up with the mineral notes too. I wonder if it's the water. I was going to say, I bet it's good water. I bet it's really good water up there. It's dry, but you can tell it's got this innate sweetness in it that is just lurking in the background. It's just like it's been, I don't know. What was the proof again? 104.6. Okay. Well, I mean, I'm surprised that it's as dry as it is. Nice oak component, like this overripe fruit, this dryness, there's a little bit of lack of sweetness, but this sense that there's sweetness that wants to be released, like it's hidden in the background kind of thing. And the mineral note, I love it. I think the water they used to proof this, did they proof it or is it? I mean, it's a single barrel. I'm guessing. Well, I don't know. Did it say full proof or? It's some odd proof, right? Yeah. Yeah. It's probably whatever came out of the barrel.

So yeah, the, the, the, um, the idea behind this was there are 10 whiskeys, two versions of a loss liners flat flagship, far-flung bourbon and eight single cask presented in four curated high and lower proof pairings. Each pairing allows a comparison of how proof interacts with distillery character, grain composition, age and regional style. They don't talk about barrel entry proof though.

No. So I bet they, they introduced water to get it to their entry proof.

Actually the single cask are bottled at natural cast string. Okay. The only one that's been tampered with water is the far flung blend that they put together.

Uh, the, I mean, we're, we're getting like a, a high mineral content water addition as it went in the barrel.

Yeah, I think so.

But that's it. I mean, but it's there. You can taste it.

I like the mineral shutout and I'm getting like that banana. Like it's almost like a green banana now. Really?

Yeah. Well, I'm getting overripe fruit. So maybe that's my version of banana. I don't know.

I'm curious when you eat bananas, do you too?

When I eat bananas, I taste banana, but I just don't get them in whiskey. I don't know. I do like bananas. Okay.

Cause that'd be awful. I like runts. The banana runts. Yeah. Yeah. You pick up the fake banana, right? Well, that's fine. I like this. I mean, it's got a little sizzle. Kind of front pallet, kind of sits on the front paddle a little more than the back.

Yeah, nice. Really good. I'm going to save just a teeny bit of that though, so I can take one more taste of it. I didn't get us any water. I hope we're going to be okay. Well, we'll get something to break.

All right, so this one's going to be a rye offering this time, and this is the high proof rye pairing. This is from Broad Branch Distillery. It's a North Carolina straight rye, eight years old. Broad Branch is in Winston Salem. It is 141.6 proof. We are up in our game. And it's a dark one. It is a dark one. There were 174 bottles of this. Price was $140. Mashbill is 100% prairie rye, which let's first remember seeing that. This is a Char 4 barrel and does say this is Lost Lantern's first hazmat rye release.

Wow. A hundred percent rye. Prairie rye. I don't know what that is, but okay. Char four. Char four. How long in the barrel? Eight years. Eight years. And this is, this is their make. This is their make. Wow. Yeah. I'm impressed already. I haven't even put it to my nose. I know. Oh, wow. That reminds me of like a, like a high proof American whiskey out of Canada. American whiskey, high proof, uh, or Canadian, Canadian whiskey out of Canada. I said, man, I'll tell you what this, uh, cold medicine I'm taking makes my brain do all kinds of backflips. Yeah. Jim's been a little under the weather. Just a little. You haven't been able to get me on air for five days. I've been down for the count. I've been itching too. I really like this. Yeah.

The nose is lovely. Wow. There's some nice minty notes.

Minty notes, but there's this, this deep, like, uh, I'm waiting for you.

Cause I think I have an idea.

It's like a heavy skinned, like a mango. Oh, you're going there. Okay. Or like, uh, Yeah, I don't know.

See, I was going to say I'm getting a little chocolate too, like a mint chocolate.

You're getting chocolate? Yeah. I'm getting like a tropical fruit note, but it's definitely like a mango, like a thick skinned tropical fruit.

And just to let the folks know, so the low proof pairing for this rye was a New Riff Distilling Kentucky Straight Rye that was 115.1 proof, which they do the 95.5. And it's, there was 172 bottles of it and that's a hundred dollars. And I don't know, maybe, maybe I'll just kind of write reviews for those or something and put them on the bourbon roadies page or something.

Adam's like some kind of mad scientist here. He's like puts all this stuff together, you know? Yeah. I'm ready to sip cause I'm very excited about this.

Cheers.

Oh my gosh. Ooh, that is fire.

That's a mouth punch. Fire. Folks, just be warned, this is the second lowest proof. Well, actually, our bonus pour is second lowest proof. So this is the third lowest proof. We're going to go above and beyond this in the second half. This is already hazmat.

Oh my gosh.

This doesn't get rid of your cold or your... Yeah, this is...

So if we were in prohibition right now, This would be the medicine I would be after. This is medicine. This is way up there. Oh my gosh. I'm getting Samoas.

Samoas, okay. Like coconut chocolate. Nice. Girl scout cookies. I can see that. I'm also getting like a little bit burnt orange. Like it's a mint, like you said, Samoas actually like thin mints meets Samoas meets this. I'm getting like this burnt orange girl scout cookie.

There's no tree falls in this one. Wow. That's Samoas all day long for me. That is really good. And it is very powerful. Yeah. That's a big, this is a big boy, big, big boy, big girl alarm.

Cause we're going to go above and beyond the second half.

Wow. Lost Lantern, killing it. Tell me about this distillery. Do we know anything at all?

I mean, other than where it's at, I mean, I've got the sheet here and they don't go into great detail on it, sadly. I mean, it's definitely one.

So Winston-Salem, North Carolina. I don't think we've had, well, we certainly haven't had whiskey from them. I'm not very familiar with the distillery. I haven't heard of it before, but that's one of the things that Lost Lantern does is they introduce us to All these great distilleries that are sort of, uh, you haven't heard of.

Yeah, for sure.

They search them out. They find them, they bottle their whiskey and they get it out to the masses.

All right. So dug up a little info. It's in the arch district. Uh, it's known for its grain to glass spirits, tasting room and cocktails rooted in Appalachian distilling traditions. So that must be where that, uh, prairie, prairie rise coming from. I was hoping that I might have some little info on that. But I'm not really seeing that. It says, a focus on local artisanal production honoring Blue Ridge Mountain Distilling Heritage. And they're known for their award-winning rye fidelity or their Boykin rye, which I guess those are their own products and releases that you can find in that area. but I'm impressed.

I am too. I mean, I couldn't drink this all night long. This is, this is a one and done.

I think we have like three night caps here is what we've got.

Oh my goodness. I have to work tomorrow. Yeah.

I'm working half day.

So I like it. I think it's really good. I don't think I can drink all that you poured me. I hope this is not going to be a proof battle tonight. Well, we're going to do winter winter chicken dinner. Sometimes it's the higher proofs that went out, but when they go over a certain level, then I'm not sure.

Yeah. I mean, sometimes there's just too hot.

Yeah.

And I get the, I don't know. I'm curious. Like, how many people out there are into the hazmat because they think that heat that you get from hazmat is a flavor. You know what I'm saying? Like. Yeah. I mean, there's a certain. You feel the burn. So. Yeah. And people like it, but do they think that's good because I feel it on my tongue.

Like more than. It could be. It could be. I mean, there are certain times when I really want the spice and food, you know, I want that heat. So I don't know, maybe in whiskey it matters. Maybe, you know, when you have that extra punch from the high proof, it takes you to a place that is special for the moment.

I mean, it's definitely a hot, it's a hot ticket right now. I mean, age statements, high proof.

And it really does remind me of some of the high proof Canadian whiskies.

Yeah. doesn't have like that maltier backbone. Right. That say like your driftless Glen and you know, some of the other really good crafty rise have. Yeah. Yeah. That's really good. Really impressive. All right. Take a break and grab some water. I think we need to get some water for sure. All right. We'll be right back for the second half of the show. We've got two more that are even higher proof. And then a bonus. And then a bonus. All right.

We'll 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. 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, 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, 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, so we are back. A little bit of water to cool down that palate. I haven't put a little on my head.

I was warming up inside.

Well, we got a few ahead of us here and we haven't had the highest proof whiskey yet.

Nope, but we're climbing up the ladder. So just to recap, our first pour was from Montgomery Distillery. It was a Montana straight bourbon that was aged four years. 70 corn, 20 wheat, and 10% malted barley that was distilled in Missoula, Montana. Very impressive. I mean, considering that was the first thing I've had from Montana. Sure. Yeah. We followed that up, climbing up to the hazmat real quick with the Broad Branch Distillery North Carolina straight rye, which was eight years old, 141.6 proof. Mashbill was 100% prairie rye, which ought to do some homework on that one. and a Char 4 barrel, and that broad branch is in Winston Salem, North Carolina. But here we go. This is a big boy. Pore 3. Yeah. We are climbing. This is Dread River Distilling Company, Alabama straight bourbon. So first thing I've had from Alabama. Abilama. Alabama. Roll tide. 141.8 proof, there were 158 bottles at $140 that you could order from Los Lantern. The mash bill is 60% white corn, 30% winter wheat, and 10% malted barley. This is aged six years, and Dread River is located in Birmingham. So this is a darn near 142 proof wheat bourbon, weeded bourbon.

Yep.

Wow. Right. So what's pretty cool about this Dread River Distilling Company is it's the first distillery to produce bourbon in the city in over a hundred years in Birmingham.

Wow. Yeah. Now this isn't Alabama like apple peel whiskey, right? I mean, this is just bourbon. This is just bourbon. This is bourbon.

Okay. It says the name is inspired by a local legend of an ancient mystic underground river flowing beneath the streets of Birmingham. One large enough for steam ships to navigate. No way. That's what it says. Come on. It says that the story leans into this theme of exploration and mystery using the concept of Dread River water as the core ingredient for its spirits. Cool. So they also have a flagship straight bourbon, which same match bill, but I'm sure that's a little lower proof than the single barrel version. A sherry finished rye. They do some agave spirits, vodka, jam, and rum.

Cool. Yeah. I love good stories, but I don't know if I believe that whole steamship under Birmingham thing. I don't know. I've been to Birmingham just a few times. This one gets a little darker too. Maybe the dread river is darker. Yeah. I'm thinking Pirates of the Caribbean, you know. It's like a little bit of Luxardo cherry going on here. I think it does have a cherry note. I think it has like an elevated cherry note.

Really dark cherry syrup kind of thing. Some good caramel notes. Little black pepper. It's a very inviting dark nose. I love the nose on this. And it's not hitting me like singe in my nose hairs kind of thing. Surprisingly.

Right. All right, let's taste it. Yeah, cheers. Oh my. Wow. Holy cow. It's like a warm river. A warm river of flavor. A warm river like Barry White. A warm river going down my throat. Wow. That is really good. That is really good. How does it change temperature when it comes out of the glass and goes into your mouth?

I don't know.

This is... Wow. A little bit of like... um, dark burnt molasses.

Exactly. That's real dark cherry still going on there. Dark cherry. Almost like, um, it's like some cola too.

This is like a really concentrated, um, rum cake, but like with chocolate and Cola and oak and just, I mean, I don't know.

It's just so concentrated. Wow. Dreaded and dark. Yeah.

Wow.

I'm like you. Dark arts needs to visit these people. This is something that. Dark arts meets dread. Dreaded dark arts. Yep.

Again, this is a nightcap. I mean, it's, this is, it's not hitting as hard as the last one though. I don't think, I mean, it's, it's still there, but it doesn't have the hazy heat.

This one has kind of more of a, it's more composed. It's a little more, It's inside, inside the walls, inside the boundaries. It's not like really like expressing itself outside of any limits.

It feels like it's.

a little more well-crafted. Yeah. And just to touch on upon it, this was a part of the high-low Southern bourbon pairing. And the one we'll not be tasting tonight is the Fiddler Soloist Georgia Straight Bourbon, which you've had with the ASW.

Great distillery.

Out of Atlanta, Georgia. And oddly enough, it's a 129.9 proof, so that's nothing too low. That's the low version. That's the low version.

Not too low, though. Yeah, we've got some fiddler on the shelf over there.

I can see it from here. Yeah. So what's kind of fun about that soloist is it's 56% corn, 14% malted wheat, 10% malted rye, 10% malted barley, 7% smoked malt, 3% chocolate malted rye. And it's aged seven years. That's a soloist? Yep. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Jason and them just had a pick with them not too long ago and it's got like this coffee vibe. And I think it's that chocolate roasted chocolate malt kind of gives it a chocolate vibe. But, but I'm loving this. This is really good.

Yeah. I don't want to give anything away, but I'm digging this. Abalama. Yeah. Who knew? I know they like to throw apple peels in their whiskey down there. So I heard that. Oh, you heard about Alabama whiskey. Yeah. So I mean, Google it sometime, but basically the Alabama whiskey would, they would, they would put apple peels in the barrels. So this was back, back in the day or? I don't know. It was back in the day. I don't know. They might still do it. There might be still a few that do it.

It's interesting.

What Alabama whiskeys do you know? Clyde Mays and they source.

I think, although they may be distilling now too. I wonder if Clyde Mays does the apple peels. Actually, maybe I feel like I've heard that somewhere now that you're talking about it. Yeah.

Um, I think they do. I think they do on one of theirs.

Well, here's the thing. If they're throwing apple pills in this, well, it's getting smashed.

Oh my gosh. The Clyde maze process actually uses whole baked oven, dried apple slices, not specifically the peels. Okay. They add dried apples to their barrels, resulting in a hint of green apple and cinnamon, make it smoother than other whiskies, which is what defined the Alabama style. Wow.

How about that? Okay.

Learn something new every day.

Yeah, there we go. There's your nerdy moment of the show.

Yeah, it was Clyde Mays, I thought. I couldn't swear I remember that story. It's called Alabama style, which is the, I thought it was apple peels, but I guess it's the whole day going apple slice. That's really interesting.

That's kind of their, uh, what is it? Uh, the, um, like maple char, maple char charcoal thing that, you know, the, Tennessee does Tennessee whiskey. They Alabama's like, Hey, we'll throw ours through some apples. Yeah. Just figure something out States. You can do whatever you want.

Make it yours. Yeah.

Hey, you know, they may dub it as the Alabama style whiskey. All right.

Just pouring it through cotton.

There you go. Right. Or peaches. Uh, are we ready to move on to the big daddy?

Oh, this is more. This is more. Oh my goodness.

I'm in the ladder. Climb in the ladder. Let's do it. All right. So this one would have paired, like I said, this is a high proof, low proof. So this one actually would have paired with the Montgomery Distilling Montana Straight Bourbon, which was 104.6 proof. But what we have here, ladies and gentlemen, is Days Defile Idaho Straight Bourbon. This is 10 years old. It's in Shelly, Idaho. It is, are you ready? 154.4 proof.

Oh my, this is, this takes, I think this takes the...

Does it pass the laws when the law is like 151 ish?

I don't know, but I don't think we've ever had 154 proof on the Bourbon road.

There were 126 bottles. They ran $140. The mash bill was 76% corn, 11% triticale, and 13% malted barley. And triticale, I found out, is a kind of a rye malted barley blend.

Yeah, it's kind of really big in the Western states, the Western plain states. Yeah. Oh, as he uses it, yeah.

Funny enough, it does say here that it's distilled at a now closed Idaho Distillery and aged further by dastaphile. It's the oldest whiskey yet released from Idaho. Wow.

A 10-year-old, 154 proof. This takes the cake on the Bourbon Road. I don't think we've ever had this before.

Yeah. Like I said, I think that laws that laws has gone. I shared it with some of some friends and I want to say it was about 151 six. That ride that he sent you home with, which was amazing. It was amazing. Um, now days to file, um, is it's named after a narrow mountain pass in the lost river range. We've gone from dread river to lost, uh, which was used by early 19th century trappers, which is kind of cool. I've been watching this, uh, thing, the show about kind of like frontiersman, like Kit Carson and all those kinds of things. So that's kind of interesting. Cool. I'm looking forward to this.

I was going to say this may... So this is a lost distillery. Lost Lennon has found a lost distillery. So these guys are no longer in business. So their barrels have moved to a different one, I guess. Yeah, sure. All right. Cheers. Cheers.

Oh, the nose.

I know, right? Oh, I love that. I really do love that. It does have a little bit of a burn to it, but my goodness, you get to do that when you're over 150. This is, uh, this is syrup, medicinal, but like a, like a, like a high proof honey.

Man, there's something I just cannot peg.

A little bit of smoke. Yeah? Yeah, a little bit of smoke. Smoke or barrel char though? Yeah, it's probably barrel charred, but I don't know. It gives that hint of smoke. It's just like a smoky sort of baking spice cough syrup. Smoky, baking spice cough syrup. A little bit of cereal out there too.

Yeah. There's a little bit of graininess for 10 years. Surprisingly. I wonder if this was pot stilled.

Probably. I would imagine. I mean, look at that legs on that. Oh my goodness. Yeah. I'm going to taste it. Cheers. Cheers. Okay. That's, uh,

It's definitely fire. It's hot stuff. You know, it's not burning me that much.

Yeah. It's rich. It's it, it, it announced its entry. I'm here.

Now Dastaphile is known for, they have one that's called Norwester whiskey. So if any of our listeners out there, In Idaho, they may see that.

This is good. This is definitely an aperitif. This is definitely, um, I think we've had three of those now though. Yeah. This is not a sipping whiskey. This is something that you finished the day with. This is a end of the day after dinner on the porch, one and done kind of whiskey. Oh, it's got some rich caramel though. Hmm. Boy, I appreciate it for what it is.

Yeah, that's, that's really good.

I've had one like this from 291 had one like this from laws and I've had one from like this from what's the name of Idaho from days to file days to file. Wow. These Western distilleries that pay attention to the grain and just focus on the craft and man, just let it go. I think that the dryness, the altitude, It must do something to it. It must do something to it. This is really 10 years old though. Yeah. Yeah.

Wow. They're not hotboxes are they? No. Yeah. That caramel, like it's just rich, rich, rich caramel. That is crazy. Wow. Good stuff.

Thank you, Adam and Nora. Yeah, thank you. You guys treat us multiple times a year. Yes. We do appreciate it.

And I do think we'll, well, spoilers, we have two single malt high-low profile, but we may save that for the malt Migos when we ride again, which we need to do that again soon.

Yeah, we need to come up with another title though.

I think I've got one.

Do you? You know. Yeah, your brain's always turning. The wheel's always turning. Yeah.

If I'm not driving kids around.

You know, we've had, what, ride again and.

Uh, let's see. Oh, it was just the Montmigos. Oh, Revenge of the Montmigos. Yeah. Revenge of the Montmigos. Montmigos ride again. But I've got some really fun, like, well, those two are single malt, single barrel single malt. So I've got some other single malts that we can single barrel single malts. Let's say that fast four times.

I just went to Colorado and spent an extended weekend with my son and his wife and the grandkids out there. Melody went with me. We wanted something to sip on, so we got a bottle of the Straight Hands Blue Peak. And that's what we sipped on for three days.

Speaking of, I have their Founders Reserve, which you haven't tried. And that's, spoilers, that's one I was going to bring to our Knicks. They can make some whiskey. It is so good. If we'd had that last year, it might've been running for Whiskey of the Year. Wow.

How about that? Now I'd love to get a snowflake on the show.

That's hard to manage.

It is hard to get. But the Blue Peaks, 40 bucks. Yeah. And I sent you a picture of Weller for 29 bucks on the shelf from Colorado.

I saw some folks posting pictures in Texas where huge Buffalo Trice drops. Yeah. So I guess it's improving, or maybe it was just one of those days where it all dropped. They're like, OK, we need to dump some of this stuff. Right. Good whiskey. Yeah. I mean, I get, you gotta think these places are probably in Drew's book, Drew Hanish's book. Uh, and yeah, if you're in that area, like I passed Birmingham a lot, I may have to have to swing by there. Yeah. Yeah. All right. We got one more and we're going to, let's get a walk.

We're dropping. Yeah. We're not, we're not just dropping. We're jumping off the cliff.

Uh, it's not too far down.

From one 54.

Oh, it's one 20.

All right.

I need some water. It's not down to one Oh four though. So, so being the mastermind that he is Adam Polanski likes to play around with different barrels in different states. So if you guys recall the last time, I can't remember, we've had their estate collection, which was a lot of fun. That kind of featured Frey Ranch and you know, that's where we got introduced to Whiskey Acres. We're trying to set up a show with those guys. But he also likes to play around with some things and he calls it his far flung. series and they do a rise sometimes. So this time they did a bourbon and there are two versions of it. It's the same blend, but like I said, they're focusing on high proof versus low proof. So they prove some of it down to 100 proof, which runs for $80. And then this is the cast-strength version and this is far-flung bourbon four. It is a blend of straight bourbons from seven distilleries in seven states. So we have like, we're like hitting the Atlas today. If we were, if we had a map on the wall, we could put our pinpoints where we drink a map for drinking all standards. Right. So it's got Baltimore spirits company out of Maryland, high wire distilling company out of South Carolina, which we've had their, uh, the Jimmy red really impressed with that rich grain distilling at a Mississippi, which I believe. You've had, did you have them on the show?

Yeah, we've had them on the show.

Santan Spirits.

They're out of business now, I think. Oh, are they? I think Rich Graydon went out. Bummer.

Santan Spirits out of Arizona. Still Austin company out of Texas, one of my faves, whiskey acres are boys from Illinois and Wollersheim distillery out of Wisconsin, which I've heard of Wollersheim. So this was, there were 120 bottles of this particular blend, 120.7 proof. And like I said, retails for a hundred. Wow. So let's see what Adam can do with some blending. 120 proof. Yeah.

Let's see his craft. Nice dose. Uh huh.

Yeah. Cleanse the nose, nose palette a little bit. How do you do that? I'm sniffing the inside of my hand there. Yeah. The armpit sometimes. Yeah.

No armpit. The crease between your elbow. It's just a good solid nose. It's got a, it's got a nice spicy note to it. A little bit of a gumdrop note. Sweet. Yeah. Very sweet and spicy at the same time. Almost like a Thai chili spice kind of thing.

Thai chili spice. That's the first time I've heard you say that one. Yeah. I like it. All right. I'm ready to set. Cheers. Cheers.

Very well rounded. Oh man. Yeah. Nice texture. really pleasant on the palate. Um, well balanced. Was that his target? If that was his target, he did a great job.

It'd be interesting to know like, if you got to talk to him, like what percentages of each kind of went in it and like how, how much he played with it. Cause I mean, seven different components from seven different states is That's pretty wild.

This is a really good whiskey. Yeah. Wow. You mean a little licorice? A little bit. A little licorice. I mean, it's got a great caramel note. It's got a little bit of vanilla and it's got, it's got the, like you said, the licorice.

There's a little bit of like bright citrus, not like orange. It's almost like a, yeah, like,

lemon, lemon zest, just a little bit of like, um, leather and oak. I mean, it's just, it's one of those balanced whiskey. It's balanced. It's got a lot going on. It's, it's really introducing itself across my entire palette. Yes. Everything's awake and tasting this. Yeah.

I got a lot of saliva going after drinking this.

I'm trying to pull out one distinct note, but it's like so well distributed and so well balanced that I'm not getting like this one overwhelming note that's standing out.

I feel like this is one with all those components. You might get something different every time you sip it a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. Cause now I'm getting a little like cherry cola, little nuttiness.

Yep. Wow. A little grain, little, I mean a little bit of everything. It's just, uh, Did you throw it together, Adam, or did you really plan it out? Because you really did a good job. Regardless, you did well. I'd like to know. You did well. Right. Yeah. That's good. Good stuff. 120 proof. Still not like, it's still a lot. It's still a lot of proof. Right. Ooh, this is going to be really rough. Yeah. So. I'm trying to think of where I'm at on this. I want to go back to, let's go back and talk through them one at a time. Okay. Let's just start at the beginning. Let's go through them one more time. It'll help us.

Are we going to do top, just do top three this time since we've got five?

I think we'll do the top three is fine. Okay. But let's you and I go through with the listeners. Let's go through one, one through five one more time. Okay.

And just sort of revisit them. OK, our first pour was from Montgomery Distillery out of Montana. This is their straight bourbon whiskey. And this one was the lowest proof 104.6. And it was aged four years.

Nice.

I would probably say it just gets. I mean, it just gets kind of like stepped on a little bit. I hate to say that. I mean, it's, I mean, I'm excited because, you know, it's a new one to me and it's really enjoyable. Uh, I think we called it, uh, bright.

Yeah, it was bright and it was, uh, it was, it was a good, it was great whiskey. These are all, I mean, you know, a lot of times when we get sent whiskeys from distilleries. You and I have to make sure that they can make the show before they make the show. For sure. With Lost Standard, we don't even check them anymore.

Right. We trust them that much. We trust them that much. I mean, this could have been like a train wreck, but we knew it probably wasn't going to be. Exactly. And yeah, this excites me. I mean, if I'm out in Montana, I will be looking for some of their products. It's that good. I'd love to visit. I'd love to get out to Sky Country. I'm still getting that, like, green banana thing. Yeah. It has that, that mineral note to it. And yes, that pure mineral.

Like whatever they use to bring it to barrel proof before they put them, bring it to a barrel entry proof before they put it in the barrel. That water is fantastic. Yeah. Good pour.

Number two. Number two, we stepped into the rye category and that was the broad branch. Distillery, North Carolina, straight rye whiskey, eight years old, Winston Salem, Winston Salem, North Carolina, 141.6 proof. Great, great nose. Good nose. I think we talked, uh, like minty dark mint chocolate. Uh, this was the, uh, did we call this the girl scout?

Yeah. Yeah.

Samoas, mint, uh, thin mints. But no, what'd you call them? Trefoils?

Not trefoils. Trefoils. Not trefoils. Not trefoils. Yeah. Definitely not trefoils. Trefoils are the Danish buttered cookies. These are more, these are damn Samoas.

Wow. A mint just really popped on that in the sip.

Yeah. You said a mixture of Thin Mints and Samoas. And Samoas. Yeah. Yep. Yeah, it's there. That's good. Yeah. All right. Take a little water. My goodness. Yeah. Cause we're going to, we're going to the big boys now.

We're climbing again. I know. We didn't get enough punishment from the first round, so let's do it again, right? All right. Number three. Oh, the caramel, the butterscotch. Yeah. Dread River Distilling Company. This is our first venture to Alabama because, well, I'm pretty sure that you've had Clyde Mays.

Have you had Clyde Mays on the show though?

We have. Okay. But that was, I believe, MGP sourced? Honestly, I can't remember. I feel like it is. And they may be distilling now with their apple thing, obviously, which I mean, that's just putting a barrel when they pour it in a barrel.

So it could still be after they buy the whiskey. Right. So let's see.

Oh, wow. This is really good. This was 141.8 proof. And let's see, eight, six years. This was the interesting one with 60% white corn, 30% winter wheat, and 10% malted barley. Definitely the proofiest we did bourbon we've probably had. I'm enjoying that. That's good stuff. Yeah.

I think we were really, really well with this one. Yeah. Yeah. So I've got my order of the first three in my brain.

Okay. I did too, man. That was rich. Yeah. Our fourth pour was days to file Idaho straight bourbon. This is a 10 year. We found out this was, uh, made a distillery that closed in Idaho, but was aged further by days to file. I guess they went in and bought their inventory. This is the oldest whiskey yet released from Idaho. This was 154. Point for proof. This was 76% corn numbers at Triticale and 13% malted barley. Oh my gosh.

My goodness.

That's something. It is.

This is crazy hard. Yeah. Yeah. Crazy. Crazy.

And then lastly, we had the far flung bourbon four. This was the cash proof version, 120.7 proof. that Adam Polanski blended together seven distilleries in seven states. Those were from Baltimore Spirits out of Maryland, Highwire Distilling Company South Carolina, Rich Grain Distilling out of Mississippi, Santan Spirits out of Arizona, Still Austin Whiskey Company out of Texas, Whiskey Acres Distilling Company out of Illinois, and Wallersheim Distillery out of Wisconsin. It clocked in at a low 120.7 proof. I know it's good. I mean, I really, really enjoyed that. But now the big question comes, what's your third place?

My third place is the, uh, the Idaho. The days to file. Days to file.

I'm going to say my third place. is the broad branch, the rye.

Okay. It was actually really good. I mean, I agree with you there. It was delicious, but man, this proof has got me like on fire.

Yeah. Agreed. I mean, we're both sweating. No, we're kidding. Yeah. All right. So you want to tell your number two or you want to switch over to me? Switch over to you.

My number two is going to be the Dread River. And I'm going to go with the same Dread River. Wow. Yeah. Really good.

Really good. Excellent. I am in. I am, yeah, I'm enthused to find out more about this place. Yeah. Actually I'm enthused about, about all of them.

I want to see how they got those ships underneath the city. Right. All right. You're going to tell your number one? Yeah. I mean, my number one is the very, the blend. The blend. I'm going to agree. Yeah. That thing is. Adam killed it. It's ideal. Adam and what's Nora. Nora. Yeah. They killed it on this one.

I grew up with them. They had a child.

Yeah.

We actually. in talking to their PR person, we're in discussions about tasting these through with Adam, which would have been a lot of fun, but they have a newborn. So as you can imagine, they're busy. But wow, it's just, it's got a lot going on. Oh my goodness. Are you really doing, I think you're doing it. Oh, he's blending them all folks.

So the lost letter blend was the number one tonight. Yep. Which was second highest proof, but. Second highest proof? Oh, I'm sorry. Second lowest proof. Fourth highest proof.

Second lowest proof. Sorry, sorry. Yeah.

I'm scared to do what you're doing. Well, what does it matter?

That's true. Well, actually I finished the first one. So, well, it's the love proof anyway.

It probably knows what the percentages are, but yeah. So this is the big mix that we put them all together, but you know, Adam did such a great job. Why can't I? That's true. Adam's blend was fantastic. He probably took months to come up with this shirt.

You did it in two minutes. All right. Hot mess or good?

It's hot. That's for sure. Well, you know why, right? Yeah. Because as we're sipping through these samples, the super hot ones, I can only drink just a little bit. Right. So there's more of those. Right. Left over. Wow. This was fun. I tell you what, if you want to have a fun time, if you want to really enjoy yourselves, get some buddies together and just, just get yourself a subscription to the lost lantern and just have get togethers.

They ship to a lot of States. If you want to take a chance and not, you know, 90 bucks for something unknown. is a little rough and then you've got shipping. So it's going to be probably about 115 after you ship, but you trust them. Yeah. Trust them.

Yeah. They are. I trust them because I don't think I've had anything from them that I was like, Oh, why did they do this? Yeah.

You know, I mean, it's always going to be good. And I mean, just like, like you said, we are literally being, uh, We're traveling the States through their bottles in some cases. Yeah. Great guys. All right. I'm trying, I blend in mine. I don't know proportions.

Yeah. I don't think anything's going to beat that blend by Adam.

Yeah. That's a little disjointed now. A little bit disjointed. It's hot too. It's hot.

Hot and disjointed. Hot and disjointed. Didn't work. We could try our hand at it. Adam, let us know. We'll come help you. That's right. We'll come to Vermont.

We'll come out to you and you can teach us how to do it right. That's right. Right. Great time. Yeah, that was fun. Thank you, Adam. Thank you, Nora. As always, we appreciate it and keep up the great work. Yeah. Keep finding those really cool, unique barrels. Yeah.

Well, you can find the bourbon road on all social media outlets. You can find us on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, tech talk, Facebook threads, all those places every week. Todd and I get together. We drop an episode. It's always fun. We're always drinking whiskey. Lots of laughs. We hope you'll join us every week. The best way to make sure you don't miss it. Scroll to the top of that app. You're on hit that subscribe button. That way when we do release, you'll get that notification, letting you know that, uh, that we've dropped another one, you can put your headset on, you can join us for a fun time, an hour away from life, an hour away from the hustle and bustle. Just enjoy, maybe you can pour a little Glencairn full of whiskey and just kick back and enjoy the time. Check out the Bourbon Roadies, our social media Facebook group. That's where all our friends hang out on Facebook. It's a great time. About 3,200 of them and good people. Great time sharing all kinds of stuff. And it's lots of fun. We hope you'll check it out. Also check out the bourbonroad.com. It's our website. We got our swag on there. We got our episodes on there. We got our articles on there. We hope you'll take the time to go to thebourbonroad.com. But in the meantime, we will see you down the Bourbon Road.

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