80. Boulder Spirits - Bottled in Bond Straight Bourbon Whiskey

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 our friends at Premium Bar Products for sponsoring this episode. If you're ready to step up your game at your home bar, check out premiumbarproducts.com to choose from their wide selection of glassware, all of which can be custom engraved with your personal message or logo. And there's no minimum order. So after the episode, head over to premiumbarproducts.com and check out everything they have to offer. Now let's get on with the show. Hello, everybody. I'm Jim Shannon. I'm Mike Hyatt. And this is the Bourbon Road. And today, Mike, another craft distillery on our table.

Most definitely.

And you brought this bottle.

Well, I did bring it, but they were kind enough to send it to us. OK. Most of them have been doing. So this was free to us.

We are going to be absolutely honest and transparent, let everybody know where it came from, and we're going to talk real about what it tastes like.

Most definitely. Is there any other way to do it? No, absolutely not. Yeah. So this is from Boulder, Colorado. It's from Boulder Spirits. OK, so Colorado whiskey, straight bourbon. Straight bourbon whiskey, bottled in bond. All right. 100 proof. I didn't see, I guess it would be four years old. Well, at least. Now this is going to shock you a little bit. 51% corn.

Okay. It's got to have that, right? It's got to have that to be a bourbon. Yup. Okay. 44% malted barley. Oh, a Colorado high malt bourbon whiskey. Yep. And a 5% rye. Wow. So not too much rye, but a lot of malt in this. So Tennessee guys are doing high malts. And we've got Colorado doing high malts. That 44%, that's a lot of malt whiskey. That's a lot of malt in the whiskey, I should say.

Now I got to think Ryan Nagley out there at Boulder spirits. He's the one that, um, sent this to us, reached out to me and said he would like us to try their stuff. So their owner out there, Alastair Brogan, he's actually a veteran in the Royal air force. Okay. So a fellow vet, fellow vet of ours, different country, but an ally, I guess of the U S um, him and his wife moved to Colorado and started up a distillery.

So I'm not surprised by the higher malt content because in Europe, typically the whiskeys that are made on the European continent typically have a little more malt to them, right?

Yeah. The bottle itself is the typical whiskey bottle, I think, of the West, I would say.

It's got that old West look to it. You'd expect to see just a raw cork stuck in the top, right?

Yeah, I kind of like the bottle and stuff. It's got a beautiful label on it. It tells you, you know, corn rye and humongous malted barley. Rocky mountain glacier melt water. I don't know if I buy into that right there. I know a lot of people say that.

You know, glacier melt water is kind of, it's kind of a big deal. I mean, it all depends on where you're talking about, but you know, those glaciers, they hold a lot of minerals. They hold a lot of metals, a lot of copper content in glaciers. So if they're pulling glacier water in and using it, I mean, I'd be surprised if they weren't processing the water in some way, but you know, that can impart some unique flavors, I would think.

Yeah, their distillery has a different name. It's called Vapor Distillery. I don't know if that's their old name, but I think if you look up Boulder Spirits, you'll be able to find them there in Boulder, Colorado. I think they did a great job on their label though. Very unique. I like it. Yeah.

Boulder, Colorado, absolutely beautiful place. Sort of north west of Denver in the foothills. Absolutely gorgeous. You've been to Boulder before?

We have. My little brother actually played football there at the University of Colorado as a walk-on. Excellent. He went to college there as a Marine and became a Marine officer. So yeah, I know Boulder a little bit. And then me and Vivian, we went there and took a little tour and went to some, not distilleries, went to breweries back then. But yeah, you've been there. It's a beautiful place if you get a chance to go.

Yeah, and Melody and I have been out. We've been to the Breckenridge distillery. You know, we've been to distillery 291. Haven't been to Boulder yet to the distillery there, but hopefully we'll get a chance to get out and visit these guys. Mike, why don't we try this whiskey?

Let's nose a sucker.

All right. Yeah, that's a very interesting nose. Very sweet. Um, yeah, I'm surprised that's Woodrow playing with his boy. By the way, picking up any noise in the background as Woodrow chasing his bone up and down the stairs. I like the nose actually.

Not too much sweetness on that nose. Um, getting like that some figure apricot. Yeah. Apricot.

So I would, I would go with apricot. I don't know.

I would say, you know, maybe apricot or, um, peach, nectarine nectarine. Yeah. Yeah. That light fruit.

Nice, nice nose, nice and light and sweet. Not too sweet, but nice and light and sweet and floral.

I don't know if it's that, that malted barley that's kind of tricking me.

Yeah, I think it is actually. I think the malted barley is playing a big role in this. No doubt about it. Let's, let's taste this thing. Let's taste it. Sweetness right up front. A lot of sweetness up front. Oh yeah.

I know you're going to say Necco candy.

Yeah. It does have that, um, that chalky hard candy kind of minerality to it.

I would say a sweet tart.

Yeah.

Sweet tart. Super sweet. Just that the bourbon part of it is that, that tart part, you know, not sour. They're just that tartness of it.

Yeah. You know, any kind of a, like a chalky, Okay, for the sweet tart, I don't get the tartness. So the tartness isn't there, but that whole chalky kind of sweet flavor you get from that candy, I'm getting the same thing here. And that's why I said Necco, because Necco is kind of that, it's a sweet tart without the tartness.

See how I get the tart. Really? Almost like biting into a green apple. Just that little bit of tartness on the back end. No spiciness at all. Maybe that's cause it's got 5% rye. You're trying it. You're trying it.

Yeah. I'm trying to find that rye. I don't know. I'm not finding that rye. I'm not finding the influence of the rye here.

Yeah. Not, not a whole lot of spices, baking spices in it at all.

But this is, uh, this is very enjoyable. So very much front of the palate kind of whiskey, I think doesn't really impact the backend very much. but it's, um, very nice. I like that. Um, that sweetness that lingers in the middle, uh, it kind of gets joined in by some, it's a nectarine or, or, uh, peach.

Now as it lingers on the tongue a little bit, I'm starting to pick up a little bit of spice, but just ever maybe that rise trying to peek out, but not a whole lot. I got to salute these guys for stepping out there and trying something different. Um, that, you know, that 44% malted barley in there.

Yeah. And I say, just so our listeners understand, you know, when you talk about cost of grains, You know, because grains play a big part in the cost of producing whiskey, right? Yeah. Corn is by far the least expensive that you can use. I mean, by far. Corn is relatively cheap compared to rye and rye is relatively cheap compared to barley. Barley is very expensive and it definitely adds a lot of cost to the mash. and production of a whiskey to have a high barley content like this.

Well, in Colorado, if, you know, a lot of people think Colorado, they think just mountains, right? But you get out of Denver and you start driving east. What do you see?

Well, you go east of Denver and there's nothing but flat land.

Yeah. With corn fields and probably some barley up there, I would think.

Could be. I don't have any knowledge of that, but you know, once you hit Denver, the world changes, right? Yeah. I mean, it's like, if you fly over, it's amazing, right? I mean, it's just, once you get to Denver, but it's pretty flat.

It's pretty flat. You probably just see crop circles.

Well, this is a, Mike, for me, this is a, this is a nice surprise. I like this. You know, I like, I like a whiskey with a little more malt in it. You know that. Yeah. I like malted dry. I like malted barley. Heck. I even like malted wheat. You eat malted cereal? Malto meal? Yeah, it's been a while, but I have had it.

We just put our age out there for everybody. Malto meal. Everybody's like, what is that?

It's like porridge. Well, at least we didn't say like cream of wheat or something.

I ate cream of wheat back in the day. Did you? Ain't nothing wrong with cream of wheat.

All right, Mike, so what do you think about Boulder?

It's a good sipping whiskey. If you're looking for variety, you're looking for something different, I'd say pick it up. It's definitely a sipper, a bottle and bond, which our buddy Scott from Bourbon Lens will say bottle and bond is always the way to go. You know what you're getting.

Yeah. So I would definitely share this bottle with somebody. I'm not sure I'd gift a bottle away, but I would definitely share a bottle with somebody. I don't think this is a mixer. I mean, you could mix it, but I think it's better to just be sipped on.

I definitely think it's a sipper all day long. Um, missing that spice a little bit, but you know, Hey, for a weeded bourbon guy, and this is not a weeded bourbon, quite shocking.

It's very good. Yeah. I think this profile of this whiskey was designed not to have that spice at the back end.

Yeah.

So I think it's intentional. I think a thumbs up for this one for me.

Yeah, I think it's a buy. I'd buy it. If, if I see it on a shelf, um, and I'm not certain where all states are in, but they're definitely on our radar. They're moving. Um, I'm pretty sure you could find them in that, that those Western States out there, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, um, Montana, I would think Wyoming. Um, I would pick up a bottle.

Yeah. Well, we're not a hundred percent sure where you can find Boulder whiskey, but you can find the bourbon road on all social medias, Mike, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube at the bourbon road.

You can find us on Facebook. We have our own Facebook group called the bourbon roadies.

Yep. And you know, the bourbon roadies is a private group. You got a request to be added and join. We ask you a few questions. We want to make sure that you understand that the group is a bourbon group, that you are 21 years old and you are old enough to drink. And you agree to play nice. You got to play nice because we will not put up with, we will not put up with people who at the expense of others to make themselves look good.

You ever, you're seeing those show loads of dove, uh, and Woodrow. Well, Woodrow McCall, they're both Texas Rangers, but he said a couple of times in the show, he will not tolerate rudeness. So, uh, I kind of think that I don't like rudeness. Um, so yeah, there we go.

And Woodrow, by the way, is over here squeaking his dog toy. Yeah. All right, so you can also find us on our website at the bourbonroad.com. Obviously, you can listen to our podcast there. We have blogs where we write on each episode. We write a blog about our notes on the episode. We also have our Glen Cairnglasses on there. You can also reach out to us on the website. If you want to send us a message, make a recommendation on what we should have on a future show. Tell us what you think about a particular bottle or expression of whiskey. We'd love to hear it. You find me at one big chief. I'm jshannon63 and we'll see you on 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 it 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 on 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.