506. Finished & Fabulous: Rum, Honey, Maple, and French Oak on the Mat

It's been a week of Mondays but the weekend's here Dust on my boots and a smile with my beard Neons humming low where the nose our name Same old bar stools but it never feels the same We raise a glass to the miles we've made To the stories told and the dues we've paid Amber light in a crystal glow A little burning Where the good times roll Passin' bottles like a piece of soul Every pore's a memory, every sip a spark Lightin' up the night in the Kentucky dirt Ain't no mail, just the ties we've sewn On the long-windin' bird

Hello, listeners. Welcome to another episode of the Bourbon Road. We've got another review show for you here today and we're actually kind of coming to the end of it a little bit. And then the next thing you know, I'll have a bunch again. But we're here at the Bourbon Road bar in Simpson Hill, Kentucky. It's kind of nice to keep coming back here because, well, we don't have to reset up the mic stands at all.

I kind of like that. So I'm thinking, I'm thinking of the last time I had to set up the podcast studio here. And I think it was when We had Dan Manningley on. His microphone is still here. But that's okay. It's good. It's nice to have to pack this stuff up and take it around. But yeah, I mean, eventually it's going to have to happen. We're going to have to pack it up and hit the road or move to Studio B out in Frankfurt.

That's all right. You know, it's kind of fun. I get to listen to about 30 minutes of podcasts on the way down here. And yeah, I don't mind the drive. Sometimes I stop at one of your locals, Paradise, and see what they've got. He usually has a few barrel picks in there. Yeah, he's got some barrel picks. And then I picked up one of the small old foresters, and you picked up for some friends of ours. So, you know, get some nice stuff in there.

All right, so we're actually catching up on samples a little bit. We're not to the end of it yet, but we're catching up. And so we're actually, we're double barreling today, which means we're recording two episodes in one day.

Yeah.

And we're still standing.

And we're still standing. And we're dropping a proof on all these, I think, pretty much.

You know, the funny thing is, since we are recording two in one day, you would think we would have started with a low proof and finished with a high proof, but we didn't do that. We took the other route.

Yeah. And that's because we've got another round of all these are finished in some sort of way. We need to protect our pallets. Yeah. We just thought the finishes would be a little big on the pallet for a second show. Yeah. I mean, we wanted the peer stuff, if you will, on the first round and now the finished stuff in the second round.

I've got a couple of whiskies in my glasses here, Todd, and I have to say they're both relatively light in color. They are.

The first one is the Will Horse Double Mash Whiskey, finished in rum barrels. That is a limited edition blend of Green River Straight Bourbon and Straight Rye whiskies, aged for a minimum of five years. A reminder that the Green River Mash Bills are 70% corn, 21% rye, 9% malted barley for their bourbon. And they do a 99, excuse me, they do a 95.5 rye. Yeah, sorry. For the ride. For the ride. I'm so glad they are, we've become really good friends with them because that's the latitude spirits. We had Stephen Corgan on and yeah, they keep sending us stuff and I'm like, yeah, I love their stuff.

Yeah, Wheel Horse has blossomed into a distillery that is just killing it with great whiskeys. We look back to some of the earlier episodes we had with young distilleries starting out, who partnered with bigger distilleries for their distillate. And, you know, not all of those distilleries have performed as well as Will Horse has. Agreed, agreed.

Like I said, it's a blend of rye and whiskey. So a boo rye, uh, after initial aging, the five years it underwent a extended finishing process of up to two years in three different styles of Caribbean rum. MSRP is $45 and it's their typical one-on-one proof. So a rum cask, boo rye.

A rum cask, boo rye. We can't use the word boo rye. It's protected, but you get it.

Yeah. Bourbon and rye mix. We're not putting it on a label so we can say it, I guess. We can say it. Oh.

That's super sweet.

Molasses. There's a little bit of like, I don't know, when I think rum and nose rum, I get like, just makes me tropical. Yeah.

It's a, it's very sweet sugary for like sweet forward molasses is more dark and heavy, but it gives it that, that, that sort of a cooked in richness that sugar gets. And we know molasses is not altogether different from like caramel or butterscotch and those other things, the toffees, those cooked sugars that just blossom in richness when they get. But yeah, very nice. And you know, the funny thing is you look at the color of this whiskey and you think, my goodness, whiskey, bourbon and rye and rum barrels. It should be darker than this.

You would think, but it's not too dark. Yeah.

When I look at the 750 sitting on the bar over there, it has a reasonably good color. Just in the glass, it looks light. Looks a little lighter. Yeah. Isn't that weird?

Yeah.

All right. I'm ready to taste it. Cheers. Cheers. Super sweet. Nice bite from that rye. She does have a nice bite.

I'd be curious to know if the blend was 50-50. I couldn't find any information on that, like 50% bourbon and 50% rye, but one might wager, what do you think, heavier on the bourbon side maybe?

Yes, I think it's heavier on the bourbon side, but you can definitely tell that there's some good rye in here. Um, a little bit of, um, kind of a leathery note on there on the nose. When I go back to the nose, go butter finishes a little shy. This is, um, an easy sipper. This is a little bit more of a, a sweet, um, Yeah, you put this over some cubes, drink it fast. It would be good in a cocktail. I think it would be great, neat, or like we're doing now in a Glencairn, but it's a little, it's more sessionable. It's a little more light, probably would be, accepted across the board by more drinkers as sort of the introductory bourbon. Agreed.

I wonder how well at doing like a rum runner or a pina colada. Could you do a boo rye colada aged in rum?

Yeah, I think this would do well in a number of cocktails. They could be good in a, this would be great in a whiskey sour. It'd be really good in a, I don't know about like island, tropical island cocktails. But I think this would make a great whiskey sour. It would make a really good highball, you know, whiskey and Coke, bourbon and Coke highball. This is whiskey. This is not bourbon by the way. This falls into the American whiskey category.

They want to drink them getting a little more sizzle on the tongue though, despite it being one-on-one. I think that's that rice spice.

Good solid whiskey. Um, yeah, this is, this would make a great cocktail. Whiskey would make a great highball whiskey. It's at, what was the price on this? Uh, 49 99. Yeah. Priced, priced good. Oh, sorry.

45 99. Yeah. Like I said, they're doing the Lord's work in the price range.

Yeah, you could, this, this would fit every bill. Uh, you can, this would stand up to a few cubes. It would be fine in a high ball. It would be fine in a cocktail. Um, I don't know about putting it with, I don't know that there's enough sort of that, that rum forward sweetness, uh, but yeah, it would probably be fine in a colada.

You might have to go a little lighter with it. Maybe a bourbon colada or scar, a whiskey colada. Hmm.

I didn't save any. It's very, uh, drinkable. Very potable. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Good whiskey. Great job. The horse still at the top of our list. I would say as, as for now, it's in first place. What do you think? Safe to say, that's right. What's up on the number two spot? All right. Our number two. Shoot. Is it the Gypsy? It is the Gypsy, isn't it? I couldn't see it. So what's our number two, Todd?

So that would be the Gypsy Explorer, straight bourbon, finished with French and Appalachian oak staves. So Eric Church's brand, Gypsy, and well, he and some others. This is their first release in their Explorer series. According to the company, the Inaugural Explorer release starts with a blend of two six-year-old bourbons, a low rye distilled in Kentucky and selected for its sweetness, and an Indiana high rye chosen for its spice. The combined mash bill of 66% corn, 30% rye, and 4% malted barley is then slowly reduced to 103 proof and finished using two oak varietals. French oak from France's famed forest of Tronca, Good job. I don't know if that's right. Google that one. It's T-R-A-N-C-A-I-S, turn us all. And American Oak from the Appalachian mountains. The MSRP is 69.99. And yeah, you and I have become big gypsy fans.

Yeah, I have become a big gypsy fan. And, and I love it that you said Appalachian, correct? Yes. Sorry. Appalachian.

Sometimes you'll hear it Appalachian.

Yeah. Yeah. But once you go there and you hang out for a little bit, you'd get corrected pretty quick if you don't say it right. Oh, this nose. Yeah. It's a really good nose on this. The French oak is, I don't know how involved Eric Church is on this. I know he's the name for the brand, but, um, I'd like to think he's heavily involved in it. Yeah. Right. I mean, yeah.

He's probably like, I'm involved, I sip it.

Yeah, they run it by me. So give him a sample and what do you think? Put your name on it? I don't know. Well, he's got some good people working there then. If it's not just him, if it's others involved, they're doing a good job because we have, I don't think we've had a bad gypsy whiskey yet. No.

And we just got a, I'm hoping we get a sample, but there's some sort of, uh, Guitar age thing they're doing or something or guitar would, I don't know. Oh, guitar wood or something like that.

So you break down guitars and you put them in the barrel.

So that's cool. I know. So I'm intrigued. So we'll see if we can get a sample. Let's get the rocker sweat off the deck.

It's a great nose. That's great. Oh man. I'm ready to taste it. Cheers. Cheers. Okay. So. Wow. This is a really, really nice nose on it. It hits the palate and it's like a butter cookie, like a Danish butter cookie. That is nailed it. Yeah.

Yeah. Butter, buttery. Yeah. Vanilla.

It's just like those little Danish cookies that you get.

They're so good. I love them. it really toned down that rye considering the ash bills were blending and it had a very high rye component.

Yeah. The going back to the nose, it really has a very nice nose on it, but you take the sip and it's like so subdued. It's, um, you know, the white horse was kind of a little, But kind of like that too, but this is, this is a little bit, this is buttery Danish cookies.

There's a little bit of tingle on the tongue after spot. It's 103 proof. Wow. Getting like some dried fruits as well. Trying to think of what they are. I talked about peaches not too long ago, and you said apricots. But today, I'm getting apricots.

I'm getting a little bit of honey and pistachios. Ooh, pistachios. Boklava. Baklava. Okay. I like it. Ooh, Danish butter cookies and baklava. You can't get much more deserty than that.

No, this is a sweet, sweet drinkers paradise right here. Yeah. Easy drinker. Yeah. I mean, anybody can sip on this. Tons of vanilla with that French vanilla staves.

Yeah. What was the proof again? 103. Yeah. So this sits right in a nice place. 103 proof.

The range for this one's like 101 to 110.

So it's a nice compact proof range. Another good gypsy pour. Fantastic. I don't think anything has gone from that nose to that palate for me ever. I mean, it just was like, I knew that I just got liquid butter cookies.

I'd be curious to know, you know, the Appalachian region is pretty big, like where those oak stays came from, were they Kentucky, were they Tennessee, West Virginia?

I mean, yeah, the region's small. I mean, most people, when they think of Appalachia, they think mostly of, yeah, that whole area right around West Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia, you know, right in that little corner, that's where the Hatfields and McCoys were, right? But when true Appalachia, I mean, West Virginia was carved out of the, let's just face it. If you go back to the time that West Virginia was formed, It was like the worst pick of the property you could possibly get. It was like all hilly, no good bottom land. A little bit there because they do have a few rivers, but they're border rivers. It's a reason they're called the Mountaineers in college basketball, right? But, uh, yeah, I mean, I, I, I love Charleston. I think it's a great place. I know that I spent a weekend in Charleston, had a fantastic time.

We, uh, went to Morgantown about a year ago and stayed the night on our way up to Pennsylvania. Cool town. Oh yeah. That's impressive.

Good whiskey, great nose after the fact it's, uh, Yeah, I'm happy with it. I'd love to have a bottle of this on my bar. All right, Todd. Well, should we mention the upcoming sample soiree once again?

Yeah, let's do it. So August 22nd, that's a Saturday and we are going to have a bottle sample, sample bottle Everything the road bar has to offer. It's just going to be pours galore, I guess is the best way to describe it. At the Corner Rick House in Frankfort, Kentucky, the Frankfort Bourbon Society's building, there will be a $5 charge. And that's kind of like for our insurance purposes of the Bourbon Society. Everybody will be a temporary member for the night. Yeah, that's the way it works.

And you can certainly join for a full membership if you like.

We're not doing that just to get a little buckets because we actually did that with the we've done that with some other groups. It's just the way it works. We are we have a certain. license that we have, and it's just the way it has to work. But yeah, Jim and I have accrued all kinds of sample bottles, and we're going to bring those out. And I'm sure some bottles may come out, and who knows what else. So there will be some Frankfurt Bourbon Society members that will attend. And I've actually already started encouraging some of them to sign up on our web page, and a few of them have. And AMSE has not. AMSE Winning. We won't have you on until you do that. But yeah, it should be a lot of fun. Like I said, Pours Galore, good chance for any local roadies that are close enough to come down. Make it a weekend if you're say some of the surrounding states. You can come in on a Friday night. Go check out the House of Commons. Go set up some bourbon tours. But the way you'll sign up, I'm actually going to put a post on the Roadie page. But the way you're going to sign up is using the calendar on the bourbonroad.com. You sign up, become a member. Free to if you feel like donating some money to us monthly feel free, but it's not obligate obligatory And yeah, so I'm very excited. So yes, I get all this empty sample bottle so I can start giving out some more I'm totally out.

Yeah, so folks Definitely go to the bourbonroad.com website. Uh, if you're not already signed up on there, just click the sign up button. I think there's a login or a sign up button up at the top, right? Just click that log in. All we need is an email address and we're not going to bombard you with a bunch of stuff. We just, uh, and just need to verify you are who you are and you're tied to an email address. Come on in, hang out at the Bourbon Roadie Bar. There's all kinds of fun stuff in there, but the main thing is our event calendar that you'll get to, and you'll see the entry Todd sets up for this sample Swari happened August 22nd. And just get on the list. Just tell it to add your name to the list. You'll be on it. You also get an ID card with your membership that you'll be able to show at the door and get you in. quick five bucks to the person at the door there and you will be in like Flynn and you can enjoy the Night of Pours. Yeah, we may have some giveaways too. It'll be fun. Yeah. It'll be a lot of fun. Make a weekend of it. Come down and visit some distilleries, go to Buffalo Trace, hit some others and just make sure you reserve Saturday the 22nd from five to eight p.m. to come hang out with us. It'll be a lot of fun. Well, Todd, great first half, two really good pours. Um, nothing like, um, mind blowing, but nothing like, um, these were just good, solid, simple whiskeys.

Yeah. Dare I say we're not finished. I just use the quotation marks. We're not finished with finished whiskeys.

All right. Well, we got two more coming up in the second half folks. Stick around. Don't go away. We will be right back with two more pours.

We argue notes, vanilla or smoke, but it's all just part

All right, roadies, we finally, finally released our brand new website. We hope you get a chance to check it out at the bourbonroad.com. It is a total rewrite, remake, revamped. We've done it for you. We have all 500 or so episodes on there with all the details, searchable, all the show notes, everything. You can search by it. You want to go find out what we talked about on an episode way back when you can do it. We've also got our tasting notes, our reviews of over 1,320 whiskies. They're all on there. Todd and I, our tasting notes, our rating for the whiskey. We even cue up the episode on the tasting notes to where we tasted it on the show. So as you're reading our tasting notes, you can play it and listen to us talk about it. So I think we're the only podcast that does that. That's pretty cool. So another thing we have on there is our blog articles. We've got over 250 blog articles on there. We're putting new ones out all the time. And the all new Roadie Bar is now on the Bourbon Road website. So if you're a Roadie, come on, sign up, get in there. We have a chat room. We've got a place where you can post what's going on in your Bourbon world. We have a calendar of all the events that are coming up. We'll be posting in there our drawings, so as we're giving things away, you'll be able to come in there and sign up for the randomizer to get picked. You'll also be able to sign up on lists to come to something that we're sponsoring. Todd's got a great event that we're putting on in the fall, and everybody can come in and sign up for that. And we've also got coupons from our vendors for percentages off on stuff. Definitely take the time to come to the website. Check it out. We do want you to come in and sign up and join in. It's a lot of fun. It's free. It doesn't cost you anything. You're certainly welcome to donate if you want to, but it's free for all roadies. So come check it out.

All right, welcome back, listeners. We are diving into some finished samples and bottles that we've received lately. In the first half, we had the Wheel Horse Double Mash Whiskey finished in rum barrels, which double mash means a blend of their Green River Sam or their Green River barrels of rye and bourbon. And then we follow that up with the Gypsy Explore straight bourbon finish with French and Appalachian oak staves. Two good pours. Yeah. Not overpowering. Yep. Reasonable proofs. And we're not going to jump up too much in this second half.

Not like the last show. No, not like the last show.

But shout out to Mike Daler. He was kind enough to send this. This is the Pursuit and Meat Church Honey Hog Barrel Bourbon. What a match made in heaven. Pursuit Spirits and Meat Church. It's so cool that they teamed up and the guy from Meat Church has become an investor too. You got any meat church rubs in your cabinet?

I don't. I probably should because I just got a brand new smoker.

I had one and ran out of it. I actually have one now, but the one I'm looking for is called Blanco. Ryan Cecil swears that it will replace your salt and pepper. Really? Yeah. Because it's got like salt and pepper, garlic, and I guess little like granulated butter kind of thing. Oh, wow. I know.

What else do you need when you come to the seasoning? I don't know, man. I've been using, uh, two gringos chupacabra forever.

So I might have to, I might have to switch. I had to look for that one. I love seasonings like that. Just like, I mean, Are you a steak sauce guy? I don't use steak sauce. I don't use steak sauce.

And I don't use barbecue sauce either.

I like barbecue when it's presented as barbecue, but I can also eat it like that.

I mean, I guess with pulled pork, it's not a bad idea. But like with brisket and stuff like that, I would prefer just to eat. Brisket as is with that smoky flavor. Unless it needs covered up somehow because it wasn't done right. But it doesn't matter.

I hope that's never the case. Never the case. Right. But. So a little bit about this. This is a limited edition collaborative whiskey released by Pursuit Spirits and Matt Pittman's Meat Church BBQ. Crafted specifically as a tabletop companion to pair alongside smoked meats and rich barbecue, this 105 proof bourbon translates the flavor profile of Meat Church's iconic Honey Hog Dry Rub into a premium spirit. The blend is a fusion of straight bourbon whiskies from Kentucky, 78 corn, 10 rye, 12% malted barley, and Tennessee, 80 corn, 10 rye, 10 malted barley. The honey finish involved coating the finishing barrels with over 55 gallons of source certified Texas wildflower honey from Burlson's Honey located in Waxahachie, Texas.

The reason I can say that is the song by

Oh, what's her name? The country singer. She sings a song called Waxahatchee. Oh, there you go. Yeah. The proof is 105 MSRP is 79.99 for a 700 milliliter bottle. These are probably only available to the P club, which is their private club. This is how Mike got his. And then I know they had some there at the pursuit location in Louisville.

All right. Check it out. I'm ready for some, uh, honey sweetness. And this, yeah.

The funny thing about this is like, if you've listened to Ryan and them long and Kenny, uh, They said they would never do a honey bourbon finishing yet. Yet they have. Yet they have. They have succumbed to that. I was going to say.

But it's all right, guys. I understand. That's right. The draw is too hard. I say. You got pulled into the vortex. Yeah.

Well, I think a lot of their fans were demanding it too, so.

Oh, yeah. Very nice. Oh yeah. There's been a few honey finishes lately that have gotten my attention. One from Short Barrel. The bee's knees. And then one from Green River, believe it or not. Yes. I really liked that one. But that was, that was, that was not like a finish. That was like, they poured damn honey in the bourbon.

Well, this is, they poured honey in the barrels. Okay.

Oh, I like it. It's got a great nose to it. It's definitely a honey whiskey though. No doubt. It smells sweet, floral. Yep. Wasn't Jimmy Russell the one that could tell where honey was from by nosing it? Oh, I don't know, but that's amazing. I heard that he was as good with honey as he was with bourbon.

Now, when you say like that, do you mean like the state it came from or like where, like, cause I've had clover, like it literally said clover, like region, like region. And then there's, you know, you see clover honey a lot of times or wildflower honey. Like they definitely have a distinct tasting difference.

Yeah.

All right. Ready to check it out. Cheers. Cheers.

Oh, that's super sweet. That is super sweet. What was the price on this? $79.99. Okay. So I'm not going to add it to my Arnold Palmer's, but I would do it. This is good. It's a little pricey to be putting in an Arnold Palmer. I want some barbecue to try it with though. Yeah, that would be good. I've got some brisket up in the fridge. Oh, let's heat it up. We should go grab a piece. That's right. Oh, it's really good. It's no doubt a very sweet honey finished bourbon. Yeah, that honey is big on it. Big impact from the honey. Yeah, well done, though.

Very delicious. It might, the honey might overshadow the actual blend a little bit too much for me.

Um, yeah.

So that's, I think Ryan's a great blender. We've, we've come to that conclusion.

So I think that honey, honey finished whiskeys, bourbons rise, whatever. Uh, they can get really sweet. The honey can take over quite easily. And it doesn't mean you don't enjoy it. You can still enjoy it, but it does have the potential to overtake the whiskey a little bit. You would think honey would have a soft touch, but honey does not have a soft touch. It can stomp on your bourbon.

Stomp on your bourbon. But I'm guessing since they didn't do like the typical They got like a, you know, like a from Burleson's, the apiary or whatever, a barrel that was. Had their honey finished in it and then that thing like pouring the honey like there's some really funny. Instagram videos of like them messing with that honey and like a sticky hot mess kind of thing and pouring into barrels and things.

So, so what do they do? Did they buy like a container of honey and then they put it in one of their barrels?

Yeah.

Okay.

So they didn't like send their barrel to Burleson's and say, put your honey in there. Right.

Which is the case.

And then empty. Right. Yes.

So they, they just bought a big 55 gallon drum of, honey. And then they put it in their own barrel.

And then I guess, and they dumped that out, maybe send it back to Burleson's that way. Or bottle it for the gift shop.

A barrel finished honey. Pursuit honey. Why not? That's right.

Definitely has that like wildflower nose too though. It's just, but crushable and yeah, I think like, this would be like a great one to have sitting beside you as you're grilling. Yeah.

I can sip on this while I'm at the grill. Yeah. I just got a brand new Rectech Bullseye 380 BD smoker and I've been eyeballing this thing for a while. Yeah. So it is, and I'm not going to go into too much detail, but since we're talking about meat church and all this kind of stuff, I think it's good. The problem is I want a Blackstone, which I have. and I want a grill and I want a smoker, but three things is just too much, right? But they got this bullseye and it gets a thousand degrees. It's a pellet smoker that gets to a thousand degrees. I don't know if I believed it, but I kind of believed it. But anyway, I talked to a few friends who do a lot of this kind of stuff. They said, yeah, it's a good unit. So I bought one, got it in. I baked it in a little bit using the procedure, but then I said, okay, let's go to max. Let's see how high this will go. It settled in at 990 degrees. Holy cow. And I let it cure for half an hour at 990 degrees. Oh. And man, you cook whatever the hell you want at 990 degrees. Uh, yeah. I know it's low and slow for good barbecue. So, but, but if you want to do like a, a big giant brontosaurus steak or something. Get all Fred Flintstone on it. How awesome is that? So yeah, I don't need to have a gas grill and a smoker. My smoker gets to a thousand degrees. That's impressive. It's pretty awesome. It's amazing. It gets there fast. Now is this one of those, is it smart to where you can... Oh yeah, it's on the phone and it runs a program and all that. Isn't that crazy? It's unreal. This thing is... I made wings on it the other day and well, let's just say I burned them up, but that's okay. I'm learning. 990 wings. All right. Well, yeah, great, great whiskey. I should... I'd get a bottle of this so I can take it out and hang out at the grill with it.

Well, this came in a sample bottle, so we'll save this for our event, I think. Yeah. For sure. All right. What's up? All right. Our last one for the evening is the short barrel sap squash. And that should tell you a little bit about what that's going to be. Straight bourbon whiskey finished in maple syrup barrels and toasted barrels. Sapsquatch starts where most Finnish vermin don't, in stainless steel. Using a blend of Kentucky 70% corn, 21% rye, 9% malted barley, and Indiana 75% corn, 21% rye, 4% malted barley bourbons aged six to eight years, we build the base using sugar, maple, and fusion spirals. Conditioning the whiskey for six to eight weeks before it ever sees a finishing barrel. This step lays down a foundation of maple-driven depth, caramelized sugar, and toasted nut character. From there, the whiskey moves into Kalvin Cooperage toasted barrels that previously held maple syrup, sourced from Vermont and Ohio. The separation of process is intentional. Stainless builds flavor, barrels build structure. The result is a whiskey that is bowl controlled and repeatable batch after batch 110 proof with an MSRP of 89 99.

Oh, I'm looking for so repeatable. So this is something they want to do from time to time.

Yeah, they've, uh, It's kind of like those bees knees. They've released a, it's a kind of almost like an annual batch. I would imagine. Yeah.

All right. I'm excited to try it. Yep. I've heard a lot of good stuff. Oh, good nose. Good, dark, maple-y nose. Yeah. But it's not like over maple-y, right? It's like, not like, not crazy. No, it's not like maple syrup on steroids, maple syrup on steroids. I've had something like that. True. Actually, I have one over here. I'll let you try. Okay. Nice. It's a respectable nose. It's got a very nice maple sweetness to it. Equal parts oak, traditional bourbon flavors. Nice nose. I'm ready for taste it though. Same. Cheers. Cheers. That's really good. Definitely sweet whiskey night. Todd, you brought the sweetness tonight. Well, second show of the night. So dessert. Yep. This is dessert. Oh, this is really well done. Really good. So it's not overly maple syrupy.

No, but it'll let you know it's there. Yeah. I mean, like we were talking about on the honey one, you can, You could go too far and then it becomes more the finish than the actual bourbon. Yeah. This has got a little bit of the, I like, you can also get that like toasted marshmallow too for the toasted barrels. A little bit of butter.

Like pancakes. Pancakes.

This is, uh, yeah, this is, this is like, um, or one of my favorite things, the, uh, Waffle house waffles with maple syrup. Oh my goodness. This is respectfully done. This is dark caramel, burnt sugar, maple notes. It's got that toastiness, almost like a burnt marshmallow, or maybe not burnt, but like, It's just before it gets burnt, it's got that nice brown coating around it. It's like a whole grain pancake or waffle.

A little bit of butter on it. Very nice. The maple syrup is a light touch. Yeah, if you're one of those people that you like your whole grain waffles, you like them mostly butter and just a little bit of maple syrup. It's kind of where this stands for me. Very nice.

I think the interesting thing about this to me is it doesn't finish maple-y. It finishes more toasted oak, which I really like. Wow. Short barrel. You're doing good. Yeah, I'm kind of excited. They're one of those that's on the list for single barrels for the Bourbon on the Banks Festival. And speaking of, I just did a barrel pick with boondocks of all people, which They've been a label for quite some time and source. They're based out of Kentucky and yeah, we did a rye and a bourbon pick.

So how many picks are there for bourbon on the banks this year? 13?

13 is what I'm thinking, yeah.

Yeah, definitely a good time to come this year and pick up some single barrel picks.

Yeah, I'm pretty excited about that one. What was crazy is, you know, usually you get four to five barrels to pick from. I think he had nine bourbon barrel samples and 10 variety samples. Wow. So we were taking very tiny sips and this was like at one o'clock in the afternoon. So lunch, liquid lunch.

This is a good whiskey. I like this. And I remember seeing the announcement on Sapsquatch. And I was thinking to myself, we need that. We need that. All right. The big question is, how will they finish? How will they finish? And you know what? I didn't save whiskies this time, so there's no revisit. I drank everything you gave me. But we've got... It's in that steel trap mine though, right? It's in that steel trap mine. So we've got four whiskies. Let's go back over them one more time.

Yeah. So we had the Will Horse. Double mash, which is a blend of rye and bourbon. It was Finnish and rum, Caribbean rum barrels. The second pour we had was the Gypsy Explorer, which. Not to finish like the others, but it was finished in French oak staves and Appalachian oak staves. Our third pour was the Pursuit Honey Hog finished bourbon, which was a combination of Tennessee and Kentucky bourbons finished in. Burlson's honey from Texas wildfire honey. And then lastly was the sap squash from short barrel. All right. Proofs range from one on one to one 10, which was a really, it might be the tightest range, tightest range you ever had except for bonded and bunch of our bottled and bunch of those.

All right. Well, Todd, this time I'm going to let you go first. I want first last show.

Okay. I'm going to we're going to do four again. Let's do all four. I think so. Yeah. When we go five, it's better to just kind of do top three. Yeah. My number four. It's going to be the wheel horse this time. OK, solid, solid. I think crushable, good introduction to a rum barreled boo right blend. But there was it's I don't know. Just didn't like, wow me. It didn't wow me either. It's really good.

And I've got two that are kind of in the not wow me stage. So I'm going to stick with the wheel horse as well, the number four spot. OK. And I have another one that's going to go in the number three spot that's probably pretty close.

OK. My number three is going to be the Pursuit. Yes. So we think a lot. Yes. A little, just a little too sweet for me.

The honey stomp on the whiskey. Yeah. Yeah, it did.

A lot of honey flavor.

And now could I sip on that while smoking some meats? And I would probably I would probably really enjoy that in an Arnold Palmer, but the problem is that that price is hard. It's hard to do.

Yeah. And people are loving it, but it's just, I don't know, a little too sweet, a little too sweet for me. Like I said, I think Ryan's a great blender and I think. The finish overshadowed his blending capabilities on this one.

Yeah. I think he probably didn't really, really, really want to do a honey finish, but he made the best of it. That's right.

Now, who? Oh, you're, you're struggling with this one. I am, I am. I'm like looking at the bottles. This is kind of comes down to, My number two is going to be the sapsquatch. Really? It is. I find it really enjoyable. But I think if you go back to the last finish show we had, I don't know.

Finish whiskeys, I've been there, done that.

Yeah. And this is a really good one. And I'm very glad to have tried it. This is an excellent maple finish, like excellent, excellent maple finish. But I don't know. I'm just kind of I like the weird ones. So I'm gonna go with the gypsy as my number two. And here's the reason.

I really think it was a hard thing that Short Barrel did with Sapsquatch. I think it was a challenge to subdue the maple the way that they did. And to make it as tame in that. And to give you this whole grain waffle butter pancake thing without going too overboard on the maple sweetness. So I'm going to, my number one's going to be this, the, um, yeah. So the soft squash.

Okay. Yeah. My number one's going to be the, um, gypsy. Um, it was a good job.

Yeah.

It's, uh, it's very French oak driven and I just kind of like, Yeah, just today finishes. Yeah, I don't know.

Just.

So it's sung to my palate, if you will. But I will say this, the the toasted finish on that sapsquatch. I like that a lot. That's a nice, I guess, kicker, if you will. Yeah, yeah. So we had a tie for first, that's the Short Barrel Sapsquatch and the Gypsy Explorer. Second place today went to the Pursuit Meat Church Honey Hog Barrel Bourbon. And then a very close third was the Will Horse whiskey that was finished in rum barrels, which was the bourbon rye.

All good whiskeys, all good values. I think you can pick any one of those up and be okay with it. For me, I think you and I both had differing opinions on the number one whiskey of the night. But you know what? When you get to finish whiskey, sometimes it is a matter of preference. Preference for sure. All right. Well, great show, Tom. Thank you for putting it together and you, you managed to squeeze in, uh, four whiskeys and nine proof points. So good job. Probably never happening again. We're usually all over the place. All over the place. Uh, a lot of sweet whiskey today. We enjoyed it. We had a good time. We hope that you'll take the time, as we said before, to get onto the bourbonroad.com and sign up, become a roadie. It's official. You'll get your own badge. You'll get your own name tag. You'll get your own place in the halls of fame of bourbon roadiness. We'd love to have you join in and come on. It doesn't cost anything. It's free. There are opportunities to donate to the show if you want to, but it's certainly not a prerequisite. Most of our roadies are in the encourager realm where they just cheer us on and wish the best for us. But come on in, check it out, the bourbonroad.com, sign up. That way you can get into the event calendar and get yourself signed up to come to the sample soiree that's happening August 22nd in Frankfort, Kentucky. At, uh, the corner Rick house, home of the Frankfurt bourbon society. We'd love to have you come in and join us there every week. Todd and I released an episode we release, uh, sometimes with guests. Sometimes it's just Todd and I doing samples. We are getting caught up on samples though. Uh, we hope you'll join in the best way to make sure you don't miss a show is to scroll to the top of that app. You're on hit that subscribe button. That way you'll get that notification, let you know every time we drop a new show, you can throw those headsets on and. and join us for a fun time down the Bourbon Road. We'd love to have you along. But until the next time, we'll see you down the Bourbon Road.

Where the good times roll Passing bottles like a piece of soul Every pore's a memory, every sip a spark Lighten up the night in the Kentucky dark Yeah, we laugh too loud, let the worries go Find a little truth in the afterglow Ain't no man, just a ties-leaf song On the long winding bourbon line Here's to the nights that turned into dawn To the friends who stayed when the rest moved on To the clink of glass and the stories spun And the quiet peace when the night is done On a bourbon road we ain't alone Every mile's marked by the love we've known From barrel to bottle to the hearts we hold there's a fire that never gets old so pour it up let the moment slow a little bit of life in every glow yeah forever we'll call this home on the long winding