50. May the Road Rise Up to Meet You...

Well, Mike, I'll start out by saying, any crack? Any what? What is that? Well, it's kind of an Irish saying. It means, how are you doing? Oh, I'm doing, I'm doing good.

I've drank a couple of glasses of bourbon today.

Welcome to another trip down the Bourbon Road with your hosts, Jim and Mike. So grab a glass of your favorite bourbon and kick back.

We would like to thank Tommy and Gwen Mitchell from Log Heads Home Center for supporting this episode of the Bourbon Road. Find out more about their fine rustic furniture at logheadshomecenter.com. Hello, everyone. I'm Jim Shannon. I'm Mike Hyatt. And this is The Bourbon Road. And today, Mike, where are we? We're out of my house, man, on Jeff the Bin Farm out here in Shelbyville, Kentucky.

So we're recording two episodes today. We did. We had some listeners on earlier, but, you know, St. Patty Day is right around the corner.

That's right. It sure is. And, you know, I think that even though we are The Bourbon Road, it's not a bad thing if once in a while we don't take a side road. What do you think? Well, every road's good when it comes to whiskey. I agree. I agree completely. So today is, well, for us, we're going to release this on St. Patty's Day or the day before, somewhere around that. What do you think?

Yeah, I think that's awesome idea.

Yeah. You got any Irish in your blood?

I do have a little bit of Irish, scotch Irish. What else you got in your blood? Native American. I might, my, I was showing my DNA thing to Vivian the other day and it just, it's America. Yeah. It's pretty much, uh, England and Scotland and Ireland and America.

Yeah.

Um, 5% German though.

Yeah. I'm, I think I'm more German than Vivian's parents are. Well, I'm, uh, I don't know. I mean, I'm probably three quarter Irish, three quarter.

Well, you got the last name Shannon.

So a little bit Scottish in me. Yeah. I am a Shannon. So Shannon is like the, the main river that runs through Ireland. Yeah. So I guess it's appropriate that we should take a pause on St. Patty's day and, in the midst of all the, you know, the St. Patty's Day parades being canceled and allow our listeners to celebrate St. Patty's a little bit with us.

They're locked up in their house. They got to have something to listen to.

So why not listen to us? That's right. Well, I have a great respect for all whiskies. You know, I prefer bourbon. Bourbon is my preferred whiskey, but I do like Irish whiskies. This got a little bit of bourbon in it.

I think it does. I was going to go back to that River Shannon. A lot of rivers over in Europe, river comes first. Here in America, it's the Ohio River. Over there, it's River Shannon. That's right. The River Shannon.

Well, Mike, I'll start out by saying, any crack? What is that? Well, it's kind of an Irish saying. It means, how are you doing? Oh, I'm doing, I'm doing good.

I've drank a couple of glasses of bourbon today.

Well, what are you doing? Or what have you been up to? Or any crack means kind of, what have you been up to? What have you been doing?

Well, you know, our listeners know we both have full time jobs and you've been like, I'd say swamped. Swamped. Absolutely. Just working from sun up to sun down. And I kind of been doing the same thing. It's starting, the farm has started to come alive. You know, it's starting to be, it's not spring yet, but it spring has sprung, you know, and with that comes a lot of outside work. And so I've been doing that. Got to go down to bars down the other day, took my mower down there and You know, I'm down in Barstown, might as well visit a couple of distilleries, right? Right. So yeah, but we today, we got a special bottle with us though.

We do, we do. So we've got Slane Irish Whiskey with us today and it's an 80 proof Irish whiskey. They're part of the Brown Foreman family and it is a triple cast whiskey and Slane actually reached out to us and they sent us a bottle and they sent us some hats and some other t-shirts and things like that for us to enjoy their brand. You know, we just thought, Hey, you know what? This is a good time to sit down with an Irish whiskey and, and have a sip and talk about it a little bit. And you know, we're not experts on Irish whiskey. Well, hell we're not experts on bourbon either, right?

We're not experts on whiskey. We're just two guys that drink whiskey.

But I want to tell you, so earlier here, I asked you, I said, any crack. And you were looking at me like, well, we're going to delete that out. But, uh, you know, basically that's a saying is like, what's been going on, you know? And you proceeded to tell me how busy you've been and how I've been, how busy I've been. We got the Corona viruses going on.

That's kind of a downer, but you know, when you're down, you know, whiskey sales go up when times are bad. Yeah, that's, that's a proven fact. They do. So we're here with a slang whiskey and I'm glad you said that they reached out to us and they sent us a bottle. Just everybody knows that that we're drinking it cause they sent it to us and we're, I'm glad they did.

Yeah. And you know, we'll talk about it. We'll enjoy it. Uh, we'll just shoot it straight just like we should, you know, but you know, back to the, any crack, I just wanted to let you know that if you've not been busy, If you've just been sort of hanging out and just doing the normal thing, uh, the answer to that would have been devil a bit, which means not much. Devil a bit. So I say any crack, you do a bit.

That might be beyond my vocabulary. I'm actually about to say a whole bunch of big words. It's probably way beyond my vocabulary.

Well, Mike, why don't you tell us a little bit about what it means to be a triple casked whiskey.

So they take and start the whiskey out in a toasted, it's a virgin cask.

Yeah.

A whiskey's been in it. Then they move it into a seasoned cask and those barrels are coming out of the Tennessee whiskey and bourbon barrels out of here out of Kentucky.

That's a familiar kind of aroma we're getting here with our glasses nearby, isn't it?

Yeah.

Oh, it's got a beautiful aroma.

At first I was like, it's a little weird, but then it kind of grew on me. And then they put it into Sherry cask. Oloroso cask, sherry cask, out of Spain. And that's what's going to give this that raisin spice, raisin bread, you know, that cinnamon raisin bread, maybe, taste on it. And I've already sipped on this. You know how I like to do it.

Yeah, I know. You're usually ahead of me, right? You know, I like to spend a lot of time nosing something before I taste it. You do a quick nose on it and you're straight to the palate.

My nosing is not going to work too well today.

Yeah. It did it when I, when I started, but. Well, let's check this thing out. Slain Irish whiskey, triple cast 80 proof. 80 proof. Yeah. The nose is, uh, is, is light on it, but it's, it's got a bit of caramel. Um, there is some oak on this though. I mean, I've had some Irish whiskeys that don't have as much oak on them as this, but this has got a nice sweet fruity nose to it and a little bit of oak. Kind of like it. I might even be picking up a little bit of butterscotch here. Sometimes the caramel doesn't quite go to butterscotch, but on this one, I think it does.

That's that bourbon barrel, right? Probably. Tennessee whiskey. Probably is. So cool thing about this place is there's actually a slain castle over there in the County Boyne in Ireland, and it's on the River Boyne, which that's pretty cool. I mean, how many distilleries have their own castle? So you from the County Boyne, huh? I think I'm from County Cork. County Cork. I don't know. I don't know where I'm from. I do know that my last name Hyatt is keeper of the Highlands. Oh, okay. That's a kind of a cool fact. In there is a Hyatt Castle over in England somewhere. I remember looking that up at one point and I'm sure somewhere down the line I'm related to them families.

There you go. Some noble man, right? Some big giant noble knight.

Well, if he was, he'd be awful ashamed of me today.

I'm just a regular old fella. Well, Mike, let's take a taste of it again, since you already had it. I haven't had it yet, but... Oh, by the way, sláinte. Sláinte, that sounds Polish. Actually, no, that means to your health, my friend. Is that like Gaelic? I think it's Gaelic, yeah. Gaelic? Yeah. I mean, I don't know if it's Gaelic. It's old Irish, right? Yeah, old Irish. It's Gaelic, I would say. Gaelic, I'd say, yeah.

I tell you, Jim, it's great tasting whiskey, by the way. I like it. I'll get straight to the point on it. I pick up that as butterscotch as I get that, that raisin spice on the back.

Maybe a little bit of plum in there. A little bit of sweetness from that El Rosso cask.

Yeah, that's a little bit different than from your normal Irish whiskey, right? Right. I think it is. Now, the color on this is very light. I was kind of surprised by that.

It's a golden. Yeah, just like a golden. It doesn't even go to amber, does it? No. But you know, this is not a corked bottle. This is a screw tap bottle. It's a kind of a black glass, right? You don't see through it.

No, you can't. And you know, I don't, maybe this will be something that back before 1870, you know, maybe going back to their trades, you can't see through the bottle. You can't really see what's in there. I don't know if this would have sold after 1870, though.

Oh, after Garvin Brown brought out the clear glass bottle, right? Yeah, I don't think it would have sold because you can't see the whiskey and what's inside of it. But it is a beautiful bottle. It is. It is a beautiful bottle. And, you know, I like their logo and I like their story. I like the reference to the slain castle. I think if I get over to Ireland, I'd like to go visit that slain castle. It'd be kind of nice. I tell you what I really like about this bottle.

So they got slain and engraved on the sides or I don't know if you call that engraved or not in the mold. Um, and then it's narrow enough to where a bartender could grab it.

Yeah.

And I think a lot of Irish whiskeys are in my mind are like that or skinnier bottles.

Yeah, I think they are. I mean, probably the big one, the one that sells gallons and gallons, right? Hundreds of millions of gallons, I don't know, is that Jameson, right? That's the big, that's the one that gets a lot of notoriety, I think. Yeah, and that's more of a, like a wine, almost a wine bottle, maybe.

Right. Or old school whiskey bottle. This is a little bit different. I don't know, almost like a scotch bottle. I don't know. I don't know what to call that bottle, but it's different. It stand out for sure.

Yeah, it looks like a Jägermeister bottle.

Kind of that shape. Yeah, but I think it's a good good drinking whiskey, smooth. Well, we had the luck of the Irish when they sent us this, didn't we? Well, anytime somebody sends you something for you, you gotta... you know, don't look a gift horse in the mouth. That's what I say. And I, we've, we've listened to both of us listening to different podcasts and I've heard other guys get stuff and they'll, they're honest with it.

They say they don't like something. They don't like it.

Um, I don't know.

I don't drink Irish whiskey on a daily basis. I do have an Irish whiskey or two in my collection or in my bottles that I go to and I enjoy them. I like scotches too. I'm not a big, I'm not super big on like peated scotches. But I do like barley, malt barley whiskeys, which an Irish whiskey is. And I don't know exactly, you know, what the process is. I didn't do a lot of research behind slain whiskey and see, you know, are they a pot stilled whiskey or are they, you know, what it is. But I do say, I will say this much, it's very enjoyable. And of the Irish whiskeys that I've tasted over the last year or so, this would be near the top of my list. Now I wonder,

what Ireland thinks about this because it's a little bit different and it's triple cask and they're using some bourbon barrels and they're using those sherry barrels or cask, which a sherry cask is a lot larger than a regular sized cask. Is it like 83 gallons or something like that?

Yeah, I don't know.

Or over there would be liters. Did you know this place is actually on an island, right? Oh, it is. Yeah. They got quite a few acres over there. I think 1500 acres and they have a lot of concerts there. Um, it's what their website shows. And, uh, they do a lot of weddings there. Like the stilleries here and wineries here in America. I just kind of wonder how popular this is because it's finished in bourbon barrels and it's finished in Sherry barrels from Spain.

Well, I don't know. I, you know, it's a, like I said, it's a kind of a part of the Brown Foreman family of products. They make sure that their, their brands have a wide acceptance, you know? So Brown Foreman, right?

Let's, let's talk about Brown Foreman with us. How many brands does Brown Foreman have?

I don't know totally, but I mean, we could name off.

In America, right? They got Woodford reserve of people don't know, uh, old Forester, right? Jack Daniels down in Tennessee, which a lot of people would think Jack Daniels just owns themselves.

They've got, well, we talked about Slane. We're having it now. Glyndronic, which is a Scotch whiskey. They've got that. I think they have more than just Glyndronic. I think they have others as well. I'm not familiar. They have some clear brands for like tequila. Again, I'm not sure which ones they are.

So my thought process on that, the three big whiskey distilleries in America, you know, Jack Daniel's, what for reserve and Old Forester. Do any of those have a finished whiskey? Well, I mean, Woodford does. And what? The double, the double double or the double and the double double. Those are finished. Yeah, but it's still finished in a, it's not finished in the sherry, but I'm talking like angels envy to where it's finished.

I mean, they're masters, their masters collection. Yeah. Certainly they have had finished whiskeys in the masters class.

I guess you're right there.

Yeah. You know, as far as old Forrester goes, Nothing comes to mind. Jack Daniels, off the top of my head again, nothing comes to mind.

You know, like the apple and stuff, but that's really not finished. Right. Those are additives. Yeah, I would assume so. Yeah. See, and that's why we say we're not whiskey experts. We're just two bourbon bullshiters sitting down here for St. Patrick's Day and drinking some whiskey and talking to our roadies out there, our listeners.

Well, Mike, we don't like to do just one bottle in a show. Uh, we usually like to have at least two. So, uh, I've brought another bottle. Oh Jesus. But this time, and again, we're not sticking with one brand here and we, we do appreciate slain sending us that bottle and, and. But we want to make sure that we give St. Patrick's Day the Bourbon Road proper salute. And that does include two bottles. That does include two bottles. What else did you bring over, Jim? I brought Red Breast. Red Breast is another very popular Irish whiskey. Now that's a 12-year, right? This is a 12-year whiskey. But in this case, I brought the 12-year cask strength Red Breast. So we're not drinking, we just finished slaying at 80 proof. Was that 80 proof? It was, it is 80 proof. So we just finished slaying at 80 proof and now we're going to drink Red Breast single pot still Irish whiskey, which has been aged for 12 years. And this is the cask strength edition at 58.2%. That's 116.4 proof. What do you think Mike? That's a step up.

I think he's going to sizzle a little bit. Will you taste that? Oh man. You ready? Yeah, let's do it.

Now the red breast is a pot stilled whiskey.

And, uh, that was a swan pot steel. You know what I'm talking about when it says that swan neck that comes down? You're asking me things I don't know.

But let me read a little bit about what it says on the back of the bottle here. It's a single pot still Irish whiskey. It's unique to Ireland. It's made in the Middleton distillery in County Cork. Oh, County Cork! That's where my family's from.

That's why you chose this. There you go.

Pot still whiskeys are characterized by full complex flavors and a wonderful creamy mouthfeel. Well, let's find out for ourselves. What do you think?

Let's do it. Well, I was asking you about that swan's neck is when I went down Leapers, Leapers for Lee down there was telling me that that if you change the angle on that Swan's neck by just a degree or two. It'll change the spiciness of the whiskey Wow and he read up on that and At the age of 15 who think who thinks of this stuff? But the angle of it would change the spiciness and the flavor of his whiskey It just goes to say this is a true art making this stuff is a real art.

Oh, yeah All right, Mike. Let's check it out Now that's that's a different story right there it's got some oak in it, right It does, but there's more peachy, kind of a strong peach flavor to it. A nose, I should say. Yeah. So that's definitely a step up from the slain as far as like boldness goes. I'm going to tell you, I just took a sip of that.

Did you? Is it Pop Rocks? Oh my gosh. No, it's actually, there is no heat on it at all, Jim. I'm getting some kind of sweet candy with this. Not a hard candy, like maybe a Werther's. Werther's Original, the chewy one.

You sort of get that hard candy, like you're sucking on a hard candy, but it's got a little bit of like citrus and fruit, kind of a fruity citrus kind of hard candy, mango-y maybe or something. Apricot.

Yeah. And we've had some dried apricots today, but this is super sweet on the front end. Yeah. I mean, it's super sweet. I'm surprised you like this.

Me? Yeah. No, I do like this. Remember, this is my bottle. I've had this for a while. I know, but I'm just saying, I'm kind of shocked.

I mean, if you're a sweet whiskey drinker, this would be your jam. Yeah, but it does have some spice to it, Mike. You have to admit. On the back. Right on that very back end, there's a little bit of spice, but not what I was expecting out of a 12-year-old. What do you think about the kind of the oily mouth feel, the viscous mouth feel of this? It's different, isn't it? It coats the mouth. It's definitely a good whiskey.

Now this is not, we're not comparing Red Breast Cask Drink to Slain by any means. They're two different whiskies. One's totally different. Totally different. They're both delicious whiskies. The Red Breast is just an expression that has been allowed to come to the bottle directly out of the cask. Fusil oils, all the other stuff that comes along with a fully unfiltered, unproved whiskey.

It needs nothing else. This is... Yeah. a true drinker right here you could probably what was the proof on it again 116.4 That's, that's surprising. No, it doesn't drink like that. Right now. I'm sure once I stand up, something would be wrong with me, but so what do you know about St. Patrick's?

You know, I feel kind of ashamed that I don't know much at all.

What do you know, Mike? So he was a saint and the feast of St. Pastor Patrick, but he is actual, uh, actual man. And he lived from 385 to 461 AD. Um, So he lived a ripe old age. He lived a long time for his deal. And I'm sure as a priest, he was living not such a bad life, but you had to do something good, I guess, to become a saint. Right? Yeah. And today he celebrated on March 17th every year. Um,

And this year, you know, we'll have to celebrate in our own way because Boston, New York, Louisville, and many other cities have canceled their St. Patty's Day parades and celebrations because of, you know, the COVID-19 coronavirus. Yeah.

So you're telling, Chicago done said, hey, we're not going to turn the river green?

Uh, you know, whether or not they pour the, the, the green dye in the river or not, I think is a separate issue.

What about the, uh, what's your take on this is off whiskey, I guess, but what's your take on green beer?

I think it's a part of the, part of the celebration. I don't think it adds or detracts from the flavor in any way.

I don't know. I'm not a big proponent of drinking. I don't, I don't know why I can't bring myself to do it, but if I go to a bar and they had green beer, I just like, I'll skip that.

Yeah. I don't think I would order it either. I mean, it's not my thing. I mean, I'm, I believe me. I, I don't having as much Irish blood in me as I do. I don't even feel the necessity to wear green on St. Patty's day. Really? No. I mean, because your last name's Shannon. I mean, come on.

I've, I'm, I've got green blood. So why, why should I? That's kind of like me red blood. I'm not wearing feathers around.

Well, Mike, what do you think about the Red Breast 12?

I was pleasantly surprised by it and I would probably try to find a bottle of this for myself.

I like it. I like the sweetness of it. Knowing that now there are a number of whiskies that I have on my bar that I want to introduce you to that are not scotches. I mean, I'm sorry. That are not bourbons. Right.

I mean, I got a couple of whiskies that aren't bourbons and I've kind of delved into the rye game a little bit. And, um, I thought, you know, I've got some Johnny Walker down there and a black label. Um, I think I got a Johnny Walker red label down there and I got some different whiskeys here. I got a Jameson down there. You know, you got to have some Jamesons. Sure. People come over and want to drink a little Irish, Irish whiskey. Absolutely. Um, or Irish car bomb, I guess. back in my younger days. We used to have Jager Meister at the house all the time. Yeah, I don't know. I just, I'm fascinated by different whiskeys and that you can sit down and relax and drink one without over consuming and not feeling so, we've talked about that bloated or something on beer and that's why I kind of wanted to get away from beer. Plus 55 calories for you know, that slain I'm sure is around 55 calories for that poor whiskey for that. That's not too bad.

Yeah.

I can drink one big old like a, um, craft distillery beer and that sucker might be 300 calories or more.

Well, Mike, I think our goal here was to put out a kind of a bonus episode on St. Patty's day to sort of raise a glass to our friends and across the sea and you know, the whiskeys they produce. I think that both of the whiskeys we tried today were pleasant and surprising. I'm kind of a big fan. I've always been a big fan, but I'm certainly a big fan now. And what do you think? Irish whiskey?

Yeah, I think if you're not dabbling into different whiskies and you're not trying those, you're not seeing the whole picture. So go out there and try something different. Even if it's going to buy a pour, you see Slain on the shelf at a bar, I would say, hey, get a pour of it. It's probably not all that more expensive, right? Right. grab a pour of it and try it out. And then if you like it, then find yourself a bottle of it.

And if you need a little more power about in punch, grab yourself some rib rest 12. Yeah. So I guess I'd say happy St. Patrick's day to you, Jim made the road rise up to meet you. The bourbon road, the bourbon road rise up to meet you. Yeah. I'm full of Irish sayings today. So cheers, Jim. Cheers. And we'll see you down the bourbon road. We do appreciate all of our listeners and we'd like to thank you for taking time out of your day to hang out with us here on the Bourbon Road. We hope you enjoyed today's show and if so, we would appreciate if you'd subscribe and rate us a five star with a review on iTunes. Make sure you follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at the Bourbon Road. That way you'll be kept in the loop in all the Bourbon Road happenings. You can also visit our website at thebourbonroad.com to read our blog, listen to the show, or reach out to us directly. We always welcome comments or suggestions, and if you have an idea for a particular guest or topic, be sure to let us know. And again, thanks for hanging out with us.