90. Barrel Pick Prep Night with Adam Boothby - Sippin' CYBP

I just kind of got lucky.

You know, I was actually at the gas station pumping gas and seriously, somebody pulled up beside me and said, Hey, got some of this. All right. Where's that? That's how my life rolls.

I mean, it's funny. He's, he's walking in somewhere into a liquor store and everybody stops and looks and says, look, it's big chief. That's not what they do. They're like, look at that fat guy right there.

That's one mighty tall man.

Look at that guy over there. He's scary. Let's go give him some burglary.

When are you going to start giving out your address, Jim? I give my address out to distilleries.

Okay. So I mean, Mike, yeah, I mean, it wasn't long after you started the podcast, Mike, you published your GPS coordinates to your house. How else are you supposed to get whiskey?

Not by airdrop.

Yeah. I think, I think that's how you get like drive-by shooters or something.

Well, come on out. If you think you're going to be a drive-by shooter, you're definitely in the wrong neighborhood out here to be shooting.

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 logheadshomestenter.com. Hello, everybody. I'm Jim Shannon. I'm Mike Hyatt. And this is the Berman Road. And today, Mike, what a great day.

Man, it has been pretty dang special for me.

Yeah. So you've already recorded a podcast. Yeah. I wasn't able to come. You had to work. I had to work. You know, sometimes you got to do that. That sucks. But right before I came over, I did have a sip of that rye you left me last week.

It was really good stuff. You finished it off.

Yeah.

And the new giant sample bottles I got.

Hey, I love your sample bottles, man. I'm so used to getting those two ounce bottles. You send these, these half gallon sample bottles. No, they're four ounces, right?

That one was a, I gave you a four ounce of the bourbon and an eight ounce cause of the ride because that was an eight ounce.

Now that's what I'm talking about. That's a sample bottle. Man size. So Mike, we're sitting here again at Jeff the bin farm. It's a rainy day outside. We've got somebody special in the house, don't we?

Heck yeah, roadies. Man, I'll tell you what, if you do good stuff for us, we're going to try to do good stuff for you, right? And we got two moderators. We've had one on the, on the episode before, right? On the show, Jason. And, uh, we got some stuff coming up here. So I had to reach out to Adam, Adam Boothby and said, Adam, I need you to come to Kentucky for something special.

He didn't come empty handed, did he? Heck no, he didn't. He brought bourbon with him.

Yeah. He brought me a bottle of the old Dominic weeded. Oh, you know, you know, weed king, he loves some weeded whiskey. Way to the chief's heart, right? That's right. You can, good Lord. And not only that, he brought something that I've been wanting to try and we're going to try that on the first half and stuff. But Adam, man, welcome to the bourbon road.

Thank you gentlemen. Great to be here. It's good to have a roadie on. Actually, we're starting to have a lot more roadies on because a lot of our guests are already roadies, aren't they? Yeah. But Adam, you're a little bit special. You work hard for us on that Facebook group.

We try. Jason and I both try. It's a lot of joy to be on there and just virtually chat and get to know people though.

You share a lot of your own whiskey, though, with people.

Yep. That's one of the things. I don't know about you guys, but I remember back when I first found a whiskey that I couldn't find, and I really wanted to try. And I remember that feeling of, yes, I finally have this whiskey. I finally get to try this. And having remembered that, I want to be able to share that with other people, too. I think that's the big driver for me in sharing a lot of that whiskey.

And you get that whiskey, and you're like, oh, I got this great whiskey. I got this great whiskey. Oh, I don't want to drink it alone.

Yeah. We're going to share it with, right? I love seeing that the roadies and people sharing and stuff. And I actually sent some whiskey out to some listeners the other day and I'm really glad I can't wait to, I love whenever they post it and say, man, look what I got in a mail from the big chief or somebody else to say, look what I got in a mail from another roadie. And I just, it warms my heart that our bourbon culture is like that. And our group, especially has guys like you and Jason, Drew Allen down there in Memphis that shared their whiskey out, not only to the United States, but across the world.

That warms your heart, right Jim? Pretty cool. Yeah. So you are actually from Chattanooga, Tennessee.

I am. And in fact, I'm now just south of Chattanooga, Tennessee, having moved just across the line in Georgia this last weekend.

Yeah. Well that, that's not a long way from Chattanooga, right? No, no. 15 minutes South. Isn't that area in Northern Georgia, just across from Chattanooga, not like carpet country or something.

Yeah. Dalton, just a little South Dalton carpeting. Everybody thinks, you know, you either have Chattanooga choo-choo or Dalton carpeting.

Yeah. Chattanooga choo-choo choo-choo trains. There's a lot of train bridges there.

There's a fair amount of train, but it's not what it used to be.

Yeah.

Yeah. So why'd you bring us to drink? Ah, today I brought, well, I brought a few things, but today we chose to, to open up a fresh bottle of Weller CYBP. Holy Jesus.

CYBP. No, CYPB.

PB.

PB. Create your perfect bourbon, which this is the people's bourbon. The people's choice. Well, people's bourbon, and they chose it, so it'd be the people's bourbon, right?

Well, that's a white label. It's 95 proof. It, it was created from like a website form that they put out there for people to come in and sort of make choices and decide, you know, what, you know, what they like in a bourbon and they compiled all that data and then they blended a bourbon to match it. Right.

Yeah. I believe that the consensus was, is an eight year weeded at the top of a Rick house or at the top of the Rick house, top floor.

Oh man, I don't even, I'm almost speechless. You know, we the king of Kentucky finally gets to drink this, this unicorn.

Well, you're not quite the king till you had a CYPB. So this is actually crowning you, King. That would be it. This is it.

This is the ultimate, right? What if I don't like it?

Oh, I think you're going to like it, Mike.

I was trying to think of a wheat that I've drank that I haven't miked. There might be one or two out there, but not many can escape me. I'm going to track them down and get a sip of them all.

If that man drinks a weeded bourbon that has Weller on the label and doesn't like it, I will be surprised.

This has a good nose to it. Really good nose.

Adam, we need to beat him to it.

Let's beat him to it. I know, I know.

I've still just did the nose because that's me, but I sipped it. I shame, shame on me.

I totally just guzzled it.

Definitely a Weider. Well, I tell you what, I really liked the nose on this one. There's a little bit of ethanol there on the tail end of the nose, but it's got a nice little cherry baking spice nose to it. You ever ate burnt peanuts before?

Uh, burnt peanuts. You see the tractor supply, they got that red coating on them. No, is it? Oh, they're like candy.

It's a candy, but it's like a red, it's kind of bumpy on the outside. Yeah. I know what you're talking about.

Yeah. They're delicious. Is that what they're called? Burnt peanuts? Yep. I've had many a bag of them.

I've had a lot of those, but I never knew what they, I guess I must've just missed the name.

We might have to roam down the road to the tractor supply so I can try this. Cause I'm only familiar with popcorn from Ace Hardware.

I eat hardware popcorn. That is definitely something I will never eat. But rural King popcorn on the other hand, I want to eat that either. Well, no, no, no popcorn ever.

You've heard the story, right? I think we caught it on one of the prior episodes. Yeah.

I ain't eating no popcorn, but it's burnt peanuts from Tractor Supply or whoever else sells them. This has that little bit of flavor to it, the sweetness, that nuttiness of that, that peanut,

Well, I really liked the nose on this. The palette follows it closely, but I get a little bit more of the cherry on the palette.

Maybe that's that orange coating, that red coating on the burnt peanut that I'm tasting, that cherry, you know, with that little bit of peanut from it.

It's an easy sipper. What I'm amazed by is that it stayed with the finish for a little bit longer than what I would have expected for 95 proof on a Weeder. A little bit of blue cotton candy.

Not the pink stuff, the blue stuff. What's the blue? Is that blueberry? I think they're all the same flavor. I think it's just different coloring in them, but it made me think of blue cotton candy.

Blue cotton candy. I don't even know if I've ever had blue cotton candy before, Jim.

Isn't that usually what they have at the fair? You get pink or blue. Yeah, it's always pink, except I always see pink.

Now, Adam, let me ask you, so you, did you find this down in Chattanooga?

I did. Yes. One of our, one of our local stores had a, uh, what they referred to as a bourbon drop and, uh, open up the doors and first person in got first selection and, uh, two, you say you got to choose two and the proceeds from it. So though it wasn't MSRP, it was just above and the proceeds went from it, went towards our tornado relief fund, uh, for the tornado that went through Chattanooga earlier this year. Wow. So they're actually doing something good for the community then.

They absolutely are.

So were you first in line?

I absolutely was. You're that guy. I was that guy. I was that guy specifically for that bottle because I'd never seen it before my entire life.

Well, we were fortunate. You're that guy. You got some luck, man.

Luck and staying out for a good portion of the night so I could grab a bottle and share it with other people. Well, I appreciate that.

Me and Jim are too old to do these things these days. I've done my fair share. No doubt about it. But yeah, it gets old after a while. Don't let it get old. We like you out there getting these bottles and telling us what they taste like. We'd always get to see you and we'd always get to taste them, but it's nice to hear anyway. We can just sip on a whiskey and listen to Adam's stories, right? Yeah, I'm all about that.

So Adam, let's talk about how you first listened to the podcast.

Do you remember that? It was just really, I ran into your podcast, just searching around. I started getting more curious about finding bourbon related materials online, you know, not just YouTube and like that, but I started searching iTunes for some podcasts and. randomly ran into you guys and started listening to it. And it just, it took off for me because of your format, the way you talk about the history, the way you work, talk with the distillers and the way that it all combines. And just, I think to the relationship between both of you guys, it just, it flows really well.

Oh, that's so nice to hear. Well, we are two guys that hanging out together. You know, we, we spent the entire day, um, from probably 10 o'clock in the morning until, I don't know what times you guys leave 10 o'clock, um, at night, but on Saturday, that's what we did. We just hung out together. We talked bourbon. We, we talked all kinds of stuff about life and you know, that's what good friends do. You talk about all kinds of good stuff. We talked about some baby, Navy Submariners down the road, another roadie. We talked to Dave Stevenson and it's just great to have that camaraderie with somebody else that loves whiskey just as much as I do that has that passion for it. Kind of like earlier down the episode, just talking about the whiskey culture itself and guys like you that have that same same passion.

Yeah, there's, you know, not just the roadies, but your podcast brings that out. It really does. It gets people talking, people sharing. you know, the guys in the podcast earlier today to hear them talk about the camaraderie amongst the other distilleries and with other distillers and the things that they chit chat and talk about. It's fantastic. It's pretty cool.

Yeah. You got to see a little bit of insight into not only whiskey, a distillery and how they operate, but you also got to see some back door stuff today too at the house, right? Cause we had a master blender in here. Ashley Barnes. And we also had Leapers Fork, the owner, and he brought his whole crew with him. So I had like six people up in my living room, all talking about whiskey and all kinds of different stuff. And you got to be audience to that.

Yeah, that was, that was pretty amazing to watch. Super interesting to hear from and, you know, to be leaned across and somebody said, sir, are you in this industry? No, no, I'm not. I'm not that interesting guy.

But you are because you're our moderator. So you're, I think you're in it just as much as me or Jim are because you're helping us build that community, right? You're, you're helping us build something really, um, something great and where it goes from here. We really don't know. Me and Jim have talked about that. Where does the podcast go? Where does the bourbon roadies goes? How big does it get? You know, where does this end? You know, does it end with me and Jim owning a distillery? Who knows? Who knows?

Or just drinking bourbon.

Well, it's bourbon's not going to end, so it can't end with drinking bourbon.

Well, we will at least end it drinking bourbon, right? Yeah. So when you started listening to the show, you just grabbed the most recent episode?

Yep. Just grabbed the one that was playing and started going from there. I've actually had to go in reverse to listen to the older episodes, you know, prior to Mike being on.

I always wondered how people did that. I was wondering, do people listen to an episode and say, I really like this. Let me go to number one and catch up. Or do they say, no, let me work backwards until I completely worked backwards.

And I don't know if that's normal or not. It just felt normal in my world.

I don't know what I would do. Normally with podcasts, because I have a few I listen to, I kind of just start listening now and go forward. But if I run out and I really want to listen, I'll go back and pick episodes that I like the titles of. But because I listen to so many different ones, it's kind of hard to listen to them all. I mean, I've got a lot of people I listen to. Mike, what about you? You know, I have several different podcasts I listen to.

I still listen to Dad's to this day. Dad's Drinking Bourbon, probably one of my favorites. Zeke and Big John, as I like to call him. Two of my favorite guys. bourbon lens. I give them three jokers a try every now and then, but I usually listen to them in batches. So if I'm down in my workshop, I'll listen to like six bourbon lenses and then six dads. And then the podcast, I'll listen to those guys.

Cause you and Grease, you guys are buds now, right?

We got that same sense of humor where he'll stick a whole hamburger in his mouth. I probably would do the same thing. Um, And then, uh, bourbon and blondes, I've listened to those gals quite a few times and, um, me and Abby were actually on a, I guess, a Facebook show, Jeopardy show and stuff and where I whipped, uh, everyone's behind. I'd like to say I didn't win because they cheated me, but, uh, they were cheating on that one. I did, I did pretty dang good. my whiskey knowledge was pretty strong. So yeah. So you started listening to the podcast, Adam, and then how did you figure out about the roadies?

Yeah, I went to the Bourbon Road Facebook page, you know, quick and easy hit, you know, so you scroll through, catch up to the day, you know, you start finding a lot of news on Facebook, what's releasing, what's interesting to the Bourbon communities. And then I spotted that little roadies, you know, join the Bourbon roadies piece that they're at the top of the Bourbon Road page. Jumped on there. So it was a private page and you know for me I don't comment that much huge publicly on a lot of the public pages I just much prefer a more intimate group where you can kind of get to know people You know share share things share experiences So when I found the roadies and joined on there, it was it was perfect Of course, it was a lot smaller than you guys have grown a lot.

That's thanks to you and Jason too. I mean you've really helped us out and I think it's not me and Jim trying to grow it so much as the roadies are helping grow it themselves because when a new roadie comes in he'll he or she will bring a four or five people in and it just is kind of spiderwebbed out for us to where we're getting to around 800 people Where it ends up, who knows? And some people say it could get too large. I don't think it can. I think we have two great moderators that are keep that hate and discontent, the rudeness that we have a displeasure for.

Cause we won't tolerate any rudeness.

That's dang sure right.

And who said that Woodrow?

Woodrow's like, I'm tired. Woodrow's out cold. Yeah. So that, so you've got into the roadies and then me and Jim had talked about it. We're like, we need a set. Jason was our first moderator and we talked to Jason about it and he was excited about it and he wanted to know what was involved. And we, me and him had a conversation about it. Then I told Jim, I said, let's bring on a second moderator. And he's like, all right, who are you thinking? I was like, this Adam guy, man, he is, he's, he's working for us already. He's helping out in here. He's, he's educating new bourbon enthusiasts, but he's also sharing his whiskey. And I said, I think you'd be great in. never in my wildest dreams, Jim. So could I imagine how much that he would really do for us? So man, Adam, from me and Jim, you know, we got to say thank you again. I can't say thank you enough.

No, I appreciate it. It's just, it's a little part of the entire bourbon road piece. So it's, it's kind of like giving back to you guys to what you give to all of us.

Yeah. So short notice, you get a call from Mike. He says, you should have come to Kentucky. Tell me about that call.

Yeah, so I get this funny call and I'm driving my kids over to my parents' house because this was Friday evening. Sarah and I are trying to move into our new house through the weekend, Saturday and Sunday. And so I'm driving my kids over to my parents' to drop them off there. And well, all this chaos of moving ensues. My phone rings. It's Big Chief. I see Big Chief pop up on the screen. I answered it. What's up big chief? He says, how are you doing? Told him, you know, life's been crazy. Everything's just going wild. You sound like you need a vacation. Next thing I know he says, well, I called you with a reason. I called you with a purpose.

I said, what's that purpose? I need you to come to Kentucky.

That was literally what he said. I need you to come to Kentucky and thought, well, that's all you need to really say. The rest of it, the rest of it was just icing on the cake.

Well, luckily you've done if you were off, right?

Yes. Yeah. I've been off, I'm off this entire week from work. So I was already set up to be able to, to travel on and take off from, from Chattanooga.

So tell all of our listeners, what, what was that reason? What's that special reason?

we're going on a barrel pick at wilderness trail distillery tomorrow.

Yes we are. Yeah. So we're going to go out there and do a pick and this pick will only be available at paradise liquor and wine in Shelbyville, Kentucky or through our roadie group. That's it.

So if you hear this podcast and you are not a roadie,

You better rejoin it up. Yeah, that's, that's the only way you're going to get it. Or are you going to James's store? But we might sell out the entire pick to roadies. Cause I think our roadies are going to want this pick. So James and his brother are going to be on a pick with us. They're both veterans. They both listeners of the show. And then Adam, we ask you, um, we hadn't had you on here. So I thought that it'd be opportunity for us to sit down and do an episode with you and to do a pick. Plus I had some bourbon I had to give to you.

So you did. And I very much appreciate that bourbon. The, uh, The rhetoric 25 year and the harbinger, right? Yeah, iron root harbinger. Iron root harbinger are truly appreciated. And I know Sarah and I and my family are going to enjoy those big time. I'm going to share that with my parents as well. From what I understand, your dad loves some bourbon too. He does love some bourbon. I brought him back a Wilderness Trail six year, the new weeded that released. And brought him back one as a present as a Father's Day gift. And I think that bottle was gone in less than three weeks.

Wow. So he's a man that drinks his bourbon just as it sat on a shelf.

Exactly. He did let it sit out and actually wait until Father's Day to open it. He got it a little bit early. And I told him, I said, you're not going to see this bottle again, at least definitely not in this presentation box and everything else. He said, I don't know if I should drink it. I said, you absolutely should drink it.

That's what it's for. Well, you're not going to see that again, right? Cause it's not, you could see that bottle, but it won't be a single barrel. Exactly. So how special was that?

That was a super, super special bottle. And then of course they dropped that information after the fact.

I haven't even cracked mine open yet. I just, you know, sometimes you'll get bottles and I'll push them up underneath the counter and I just, I'm not saying I forget about them, but I'll be digging through stuff down there and I look at it. I'm like, Oh, I haven't even opened that yet. I might need to crack that open, but I heard you're hiding it from Jim.

Maybe he does that. He does do that.

He'd go over there and rubbish through my garbage collection.

All right. So we're coming up on a break here, but before we do, I would like you to take another whiff of that CYPB, take another taste of it, and give us your take on it. Adam, give us your notes on it.

It is your bourbon, by the way. You know, to me, this is just, this is a light oak. It's not super oaky to me. So I don't get, but you know, you get a little bit of it. I honestly, I'm kind of like you. I get a lot of that sweet cherry. It's sweet cherry, but there's just enough of that alcohol on it to kind of tingle the upper back of your throat. You know, it doesn't go down. It doesn't give you a hug. Um, to me, this is, I mean, obviously I've heard different reviews on it, but this is a great little weeded sipper.

Yeah, I've heard reviews that are sort of fair to Midland. Fair to Midland, yeah. And I've heard some reviews that are good on it, but mostly I've heard reviews that are less than optimal, right?

You know, I would say to me, knowing what the price of this really is, what the MSRP of this is, at that MSRP, I think it's a great bourbon. I think some people get a little upset over the fact that it's a unicorn bottle when they see it. It's a little overpriced, and the store's driving that. But for the price, I think it's a great bourbon.

And I think that's probably the source of a lot of the negative comments on it, is simply the fact that they drink it after paying for it, and they're like, gee, where's all that down?

but that's only because you paid way too much for it right exactly all right king of weeded bourbons what do you think i'll tell you what people if you don't like this bourbon you bought it i'll tell you what you reach out to me privately and i'll send you my address and you ship to me i'll pay for shipping I'll take it all. I'll take every bottle. You'll even put their name on the bourbon road. I would. Um, I think it's a, like you said, a great little sipper for 95 proof. Um, it didn't disappoint me at all. Um, I liked the nose on it. I had that, the palette matched the nose for me. I got that cherry, maybe a little bit of smoked cherry. When the glass is empty, I actually get a little tobacco in there.

Yeah, the nose on the empty glass is really nice. Really nice. Which is good if you have an empty glass because it means you got left.

Yeah. It means we'll fill it up again later.

Um, but I think overall it's a great bourbon. I don't think the reviews are fair to it. I think you were, you're right, Jim. I think people are embarrassed about when they overpay for it and they're expecting something just, magical to pop out of the bottle. I've had other bottles like that where I've probably overpaid for it. And then I drink it. Then I'm like, man, that hurt a little bit. But this right here, I wouldn't feel that way. I, you know, if you're just going to pay MSRP for it, what, what it's supposed to be paid for, then, then I think it's a great little super fair enough.

Well, let's take a break and we come back. We will check out something else.

All right. Big boy whiskey. Yeah.

Kick in the face.

We would like to thank Tommy and Gwen Mitchell from log heads home center for supporting this episode of the bourbon road. LogHeads Home Center, nestled in the hills of Kentucky, is an industry leader in building hand-crafted rustic furniture. Family-owned and operated, they take pride in offering only the very best for their customers. The LogHeads, and that's what they like to call themselves, are skilled woodcrafters who are passionate about creating rustic furniture for people who appreciate the beauty of natural wood. Owners Tommy and Gwen don't just sell the rustic lifestyle, they live it. And you can be sure that Loghead's furniture will always be handcrafted in Kentucky by artisans who embrace the simple way of life. Loghead's rustic furniture is made from northern white cedar, a sustainable wood that's naturally rotten termite resistant. Its beauty and quality will add warmth to your earthy lifestyle for generations to come. Be sure to check out everything they have to offer at Loghead's home center dot com. And while you're at it, give Tommy and Gwen a shout on Facebook or Instagram at Loghead's home center.

Well, welcome to the second half. Looks like we have Big Chief and Jim sitting with us. Jim, why aren't you around more of these? these podcasts with big chief and letting him roam around doing them all by himself.

He likes to travel a lot. He's been off a little bit lately too. He's, he's kind of a free bird, you know, what do you, what do you call it when they tell you don't come back to work? Well, that'd be called fired. No, no, no. Don't come back to work until we're a hundred percent sure you don't have COVID.

Yeah. I think they're just taking safety precautions and, uh, the coast guard has different policies than, uh, like Vivian's company. So, you know, their rules, their way. So I'm a follow them. And, you know, at first I was like, I feel horrible for setting it home and collecting the paycheck, but after a while it didn't feel so horrible anymore. Cause Vivian's trying to work me to death.

And you got caught up in, well, not all of your projects, but a lot of them anyway, right? I'm back near there, Jim. I see the finish line.

I've always found it that one of you always leans towards the rye and one leans towards the whiskey. And that's a pretty heavy lean on both sides. Towards the whiskey or towards the wheat? Towards both. But it's a cold night in Kentucky. The temperature's dropping. What have you boys brought to warm us up this evening?

Well, you know, we had to dig out a Big Boy whiskey because it is cold. I took you on a ride on a side-by-side. down the road, um, to a neighbor's house. And I don't know, it might be 64 degrees freezing, freezing cold, freezing cold here in Kentucky. So it's winter time here now. So, uh, winter in August. So we got a little bit of stag junior, uh, number 13, as people would call it. It's one 28.4 proof. It's a little hot.

Well, we're going to find out, aren't we? We're absolutely going to find out because we like to get straight to the whiskey.

Yeah, we do. All right. He's, he's, he's, he's pushing us on here. He has literally taken over the show, Mike. Well, batch 12 was the one that kind of made waves, right? It was the one that kind of beat out stag in the set of the George T. Stag in the same year. Yeah, I'd say so. Yeah.

I think everybody had decided that Batch 12 was better than the 2019 George T. Stag.

And Stag is typically a September, October release.

Yeah, that usually comes out, for my area, it comes out in time for us all to start grabbing it towards the end of November, beginning of December.

So Batch 12, Stag Jr. had been out for a couple of months, and then out rolls the big boy, George T. Stag, 2019. It's gasoline.

Mike says gasoline and that's, it's a, I've siphoned some gasoline in my life just a little bit as a country boy. Have you ever did that, Jim? You were sucked into gasoline.

I have done that, but it didn't taste like George C. Stabb.

Hey, listen, you come on down, leave your gas cane with me.

So that's, that's what we brought for you is, is, uh, this old big boy whiskey, right? It's got a great nose audit.

You had to bring me a little bit of a kick in the face to warm me up on a 62 degree Kentucky evening.

Now that's got a deep rich nose on it. If you take too big of a whiff, it'll burn some nose hairs. Well, the key here is to exhale through your nose, into your glass first, and then take a whiff. Then you don't get all that alcohol.

Look, Adam's already out there sucking on that thing. Somebody had to beat you to it.

Mike, you're not doing too good tonight. You've been beat to the punch twice now by Adam.

That's got a good flavor to it. That's fantastic. Nice.

That's not gasoline, is it?

No, it's like a cinnamon hot candy.

Yeah. Fire, fireball. Fireball. Not fireball whiskey. Well, one of those atomic fireballs. Fireball. Yeah. The nose on it is, uh, is rich and has a deep aroma to it. Um, there's not too much alcohol on the nose, but when you put it to your palate, it definitely wakes you up.

I tell you what, that old Kentucky hug just punched itself home.

This is good. I get a little chocolate on it.

I think you called it right there. Yeah. There's definitely a cocoa chocolatey.

If I could mix like a red velvet cake and a chocolate cake together.

Like if they made a spicy cocoa puff.

Yeah. I was waiting for the cereal.

What's that? Uh, what's counting Dracula? What's that one? Oh, count Dracula. You know, the cereal chocolate chocolate. That's, that's what this is right here. If you put, put some habanero pepper with it, this is, it's actually pretty dang good. Um, I don't know how anybody's ever going to drink stag again, if they can buy this. When you say Stag, you mean George T Stag? George T Stag. Yeah. I just buy this. GTS. Have you had this before?

I have not had this particular batch before. I've had, cause this is 13, right? I've had 12 and I've had nine.

And we got a bottle of 14 over there too. Yeah. We got a little bit of everything in here. I want to know how you got your hands on 14 so quickly.

When did 14 release? Cause you're in the bourbon road. Just about three weeks ago, maybe.

Yeah. Two weeks ago. I walked into a store and somebody said, Hey.

So then correct me. It's not once a year release. I think it's a spring and a fall.

Is it a spring and a fall release? Yeah. Cause it's two batches per year.

Oh, okay. So I had to stop and think about that. So the 20, so the, the batch 12 was a summer 2019. Then the 2013 would have been just after the new year.

Yeah. Batch 13. Batch 13 was actually fall of 2019. This was spring, but it came out late. Okay. They hadn't released a stag junior yet this year.

Okay.

I just stopped to think about that. I just kind of got lucky. You know, I was actually at the gas station pumping gas and seriously, somebody pulled up beside me and said, Hey, got some of this. All right. Where's it at? That's how my life rolls.

That's how Mike rolls. You know, it's funny. He's walking in somewhere into a liquor store and everybody stops and looks and says, look, it's big chief. That's not what they do. They're like, look at that fat guy right there.

That's one mighty tall man. Look at that guy over there.

He's scary. Let's go give him some bourbon.

When are you going to start giving out your address, Jim? I give my address out to distilleries.

Okay. So I mean, Mike, yeah. I mean, it wasn't long after you started the podcast, Mike, you published your GPS coordinates to your house. How's she supposed to get whiskey?

Not by airdrop.

Yeah. I think, I think that's how you get like drive-by shooters or something.

Well, come on out. If you think you're going to be a drive-by shooter, you're definitely in the wrong neighborhood out here to be drug by shooting a little bit of caramel in that.

Yeah. Butterscotch, a little bit of butterscotch.

Adam, can you remember your first, your dad obviously drinks whiskey, right? He does. When you were growing up, did he drink whiskey?

You know, he probably did, but not that I noticed, you know, he would, he would throw these little parties for work periodically. But, um, I don't remember a whole lot of whiskey. There was definitely kegs and other various things periodically. I know this because I help myself to them.

They know this. So if they heard this podcast, it wouldn't be a surprise.

They kind of caught me. So I got caught.

So do you remember your first sip of whiskey?

I would actually say it was sometime during college. Um, probably for me, I didn't even to this day, you know, I don't, uh, I don't want to say I don't drink a whole lot, but, um, in college I drank mostly, I guess, beer, but I don't remember a whole lot of the whiskey.

You can't even remember it, huh?

No, I remember, uh, Johnny Walker black label.

We could revisit that tonight. I got a bottle of 12 year.

I prefer not to revisit that. I've never even gone back to revisit that.

So, you know, you started drinking in college, um, and you'd been married before, but now you're engaged to get married to miss Sarah. Right. Right. And she's a whiskey drinker too.

She is. She's kind of switched over from rum. So she's in my path into bourbon. She's kind of followed along with that and we've shared with each other and she will definitely sit down and enjoy a glass of bourbon with me now and then.

So has she left rum or is she not, or is she just, does she drink both?

She drinks both, but leans more towards the bourbon side. Now she actually told me the other day, she said, she said, you won't believe what I taste in this. And she'll just throw out some notes and some things that she's taste. Yeah, she's jumped into it full on. So what about you and the rum? Do you drink rum? I am not a huge rum drinker. I don't mind it. I enjoy some of the four, what is it, the four square. I've tried that from some friends before and I really enjoy that. So the rum finished bourbons. Yeah, the rum finished bourbons are great.

Okay. But have you tried some of the finer rums, sipping rums?

I don't know what you would call finer sipping rums. I've had some pretty old Appletons. Yeah, OK. I don't know if that qualifies.

I don't know. I guess there is, you know, if you start going down that rum path, you know, I wouldn't call it a road, like a path from the beach up into an island. There's some great rooms out there and stuff. I actually have a couple really nice bottles here. Um, actually have a Haiti five-star rum that I think is the finest rum on the face of the earth. Um, and it's, I don't know how old that thing is. It's old though. Um,

But yeah, you know, you talked about path into bourbon. I think the big part for me was years ago, I started hunting bourbon for a couple of friends of mine because I was coming to Louisville all the time. So I would hunt for my friends and stop at various places or stop at a distillery and pick up for my friends and take them back. It was kind of a favorite for him. And then that kind of led to my parents had came out and gone on the bourbon trail and they bought some stuff back from my friends and dropped a few things off with me. And of course everybody would share with me along the way. So I'd kind of do them a solid and they would share some of that bourbon with me. And I think that's, that's really how it started. It wasn't so much in college or anything like that, but that was my journey. And then all of a sudden I realized, you know what? These tastes, these all taste different. And some of these are tastes really great. And some I will never touch again. But that was really how it started for me was helping out my friends.

So you started dating Sarah and she kind of got on her own bourbon path and you guys have started experience bourbon together and you guys been up here to the bourbon trail a couple of times together, right? Yep. I actually have been on the phone with her. and learning a little bit about you. And what she told me was, is that you have one of the biggest hearts out there. And speaking personally, I get that because me and her were talking about that and stuff. She said you wouldn't admit to it in front of people. that if you did something charitable for somebody, but she was telling me about all the kayaking you do for good causes or paddle boarding or racing and you do it all for goodness. And to me that's, that's, you know, there's nothing better than a pay paying it forward, you know? Um, but that was nice to hear about that from your, your spouse. Cause that's what she is right now. Right. You guys bought a house together.

We did. We haven't officially married, but in our minds and in our hearts, we're absolutely are married. So COVID kind of kind of COVID kind of threw down on us actually getting married. But we're looking forward to that and probably get into doing it in our backyard.

You never can tell who's going to show up at your house.

We thought we might have a big Chief Mary as well.

Yeah. Yeah. And tomorrow you're going to be giving of yourself again as you go to sacrifice yourself at the altar of picking barrels. It will be a rough day. It's a rough day, but somebody has to do it. And the roadies are depending on you to choose a fine barrel.

We will come up with an amazing barrel for the bourbon roadies.

You've got to experience some great things in your life at the Wilderness Trail, right?

So yeah, this is like, I know this may sound weird, but it's kind of like going home because Sarah and I got engaged at Wilderness Trail in one of their rig houses.

That's pretty amazing. Absolutely. So you're definitely living the bourbon dream then.

To me, it absolutely is. Maybe the dream for somebody else is completely different, but for my bourbon road, I think it's magnificent.

Yeah. Well, hopefully tomorrow Pat Heist is going to lay out some barrels for us. Some special barrels, hopefully. And we can pick a great bourbon that has some great notes. We've got a pretty special name for it. I think we do. We're not going to talk about it though. Yeah. Um, and if you're listening to this, your roadie, um, we'll announce it on there with their prices and stuff. I think it will be fair. Um, I think it'll be a great bottle, Jim. Uh, we've talked about a custom label for the back. Absolutely. Um, not just that little gold sticker or their little side piece there. We're actually going to do a piece of art that you can proudly display on your bourbon shelf. I think we get into the sticker art.

Yeah, well, we have a real artist. I mean, like a really real artist. So it's going to be great. He's actually done some Blanton's labels for, he did the Lama Sandusky label. He's done the Polish label. He does a lot of the international Blanton's labels. And in addition to that, he's currently producing an image, a painting for the national contest for the Duck Stamp this year.

He's crossing his fingers that he'll win. So people don't know what a duck stamp is. It's a federal stamp that you actually go to buy from the post office. They have a competition every year for that stamp. And that stamp is what you buy to actually go and hunt. Ducks or waterfowl. So I still pretty amazing that he's painting that I've seen that painting It's beautiful. I wish him luck and I hopefully will have one Awesome piece of art that we can stick on our our bottle. They'll do this, right?

I'm sure the roadies are gonna snatch every single one of these up They're gonna go pretty quick.

So I'm pretty excited about tomorrow I mean, it's great to sit around and drink bourbon tonight and talk about it It's always the night before a pick is always great and especially when you're hanging out together and talking about it. I haven't done a wilderness trail pick yet. Well, this is, have you ever did a pick before?

Sarah and I actually, it was odd at wilderness trail distillery when that day that we got engaged, we were actually there for a Valentine's day barrel pick. So I wouldn't quite put that in this same realm because that was more like a larger group of people for an event that turned into a pig. And then you had an option to purchase those bourbons that you pick. So similar, but this is, I think this is probably a little more in depth and A little more fun with a lot more, a lot more meaning for our roadies.

Yeah, absolutely. There's only going to be a few of us there doing the pick.

So I'm, I've never been on a pit before, so I'm just as excited as you. I'm not only that, but I get to go to one of my favorite distilleries or to, um, Pat and Shane, I think the world of them, they've always did us right as the bourbon road treated us with great respect. Um, when Jared and Haley, yeah, they just, Awesome to us. Um, open their doors to us all the time, making sure that we're hooked up with stuff. And I just can't think of a better place to have our first pick from for the bourbon road.

They are absolutely amazing group of people down there. And I think it's Mac that's going to be kind of walking us through a lot of the tasting, right? I think he's a, he does their tasting and pulls a lot of those honey burrows out of there for them.

Well, hopefully he paddles you up a little bit too. But you know, this will be after the pick. So, um, hopefully we can do, do it right. And all the roadies out there will be able to purchase one great barrel or bottle, I guess. Let's talk a little bit more about this stag.

Is it too hot for you, Jim? It's, it's not too hot for me. I mean, I like it. Um, but it's not developing as I drink it. I mean, it's not like opening up. It's not, I'm not getting a bunch of new notes on it. I mean, that initial wow factor that you get from it, the, what we call it, the, the atomic fireball or the, um, the fireball cinnamon. And it's got a little bit of cherry to it. It's got a little bit of oak influence, like actually quite a bit of oak influence. The alcohol's a little bit, it's right there. I mean, it's definitely on your palate.

Yeah, it definitely hasn't changed over for me. The flavor's the same. It doesn't give me a hug. It doesn't give me a Kentucky hug. But just a little bit ago, I took a sip and it sure set my mouth on fire.

And what I wanted both of you to do real quick is take a sip of water. Now, now take a sip of that thing.

It almost got creamy.

Yeah, it did. It changed a lot.

I always find that if I, if I'm kind of losing that bourbon, it's not developing anything else. Um, you know, a lot of Jim will always see me drinking water on, on the podcast. And that's what I'm trying to see if I could pick up any other notes or anything. I just learned that myself. I guess I just, it brings out some different, expressions inside that whiskey.

It gave it kind of a buttery sweetness.

A little bit on the sides.

You guys keep talking about it. I'm going to actually add a little water now. You got me thinking. That's shameful.

One time, uh, we, we are over here drinking and I think we had like this, uh, bourbon that it was right at like a hundred and was it 146 or something, Jim?

It was hazmat. Yeah. Is that the one you kept having to add water to? Well, at the end we had some left there. I just filled the entire glass up and Jim was like, what are you doing? And I was like, cleaning up the hazmat.

Well, it's called, what's that stuff called that people are drinking these days? That little, like seltzer. It's not seltzer water. It's a, Yeah. I mean, it's, it's a white claw white claw. So Jim, Jim was like, what are you doing over there? And I was like, making a white claw.

Yeah. Okay. So I added a few drops of water to this and it's totally better now. It, it really broke it down. Didn't help it out at all. Well guys, it's been a blast. It's a lot of fun. It's so awesome that you drove. four hours, five hours, five hours, five hours to come hang out with big chief and I, and of course to do a pick, but also to record a podcast and sit around and drink some bourbon and a lot of fun.

Oh, thank you guys for having me up here and sharing your bourbon with me and just getting the chance to sit around and be bird bunch of bourbon bullshitters.

So Adam, where can we find you on social media?

Oh, social media is just my name, Adam Boothby on Facebook, AD Boothby on Instagram. And what about your group that you're in? The Bourbon Roadies. So you can find me in the Bourbon Roadies. So if you go to the Bourbon Road on Facebook, go find the private page, the Bourbon Roadies, jump on there and you can find not only myself, but Jason Waller in there. getting everybody talking, hopefully showing everybody that it's a great thing to share your whiskey, and just having a good time talking about whiskey, sharing some photos, and hopefully getting together with each other too, just like we are tonight. Awesome.

Well, we are the bourbon road. You can find us on Facebook or our Facebook group, the bourbon roadies. Like Adam said, we're also on Instagram and, uh, at the bourbon road. We have a website. We do have a website. So you can go in there and read the blogs we write.

Hopefully Jim is going to stick up some reviews on there shortly. He's a busy man though, so I understand the delay. Hopefully you will too. But we'd like to get our reviews on there for you to read. You can find our Glen Caron on there. The link on there is very easy to follow. Purchase our glasses. If you're listening to this right now, scroll up to the top of that page or listen to it on and push that subscribe button if you're liking it. And then after you're done doing that, if you really like it, if you really, really like it, scroll back down to where it says review, go ahead and give us that big old five star. You know, you want to do it. You know, you want to push that five star, not four. Stop, stop, stop. Go ahead and push that five. We'd appreciate the review. It gets us into distilleries. It opens doors for us. Let's just talk to people, have great guests on, have great conversations. Uh, we'd love that from you. So, Jim, where can we find you at on?

I'm Jshannon63.

And I'm OneBigChief. 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 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.