99. Blackened American Whiskey from Metallica

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.

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Yeah, we got a bottle of Blackened. And if everybody doesn't know what Blackened is, it is the marriage between the band Metallica started in 1981. World famous, right? That's right. And then pretty much the godfather of craft distilleries, Dave Pickerel. So that's what we're going to drink today.

Yeah. It's funny. You mentioned Metallica started in 1981 because that actually was the year I graduated high school. And as you can imagine, there's a little bit of Metallica playing on my, in my car when I was driving around like on an eight track tape. No, no, no. Boy, you're really calling me out to be an old guy. Now. I think we, I think we had stuff other than eight track tapes.

We had, we had cassette tapes, right? The cassette tapes even come out then. I think it was still an 8-track tape. And if people don't know what an 8-track tape is, about the size of a piece of toast, you just pop that sucker in your dash. There was no two sides to it, right? It was just one-sided.

Yeah. Well, it had, it had, you could click the track button and change the tracks on it.

I remember that that's about all you could do, but they would wear out. I actually had an old pickup that had a eight track tape and had a, all I had was a box of like Johnny Cash and Hank Williams Jr. eight track tape. So that's what I listened to. But, and then I remember when the inner sandman came out and that was like my first taste of Metallica. And then when I was in basic training, um, right before graduation, Metallica came and played at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and we got to go watch Metallica live. And I was like, these, these guys are kick ass.

Yeah. Yeah. They could definitely. raise the level of volume in the room, couldn't they?

They still can. They still jam out pretty good for some, I wouldn't say older guys, because they're all around the age of you right now. So I don't think of you as an old guy, Jim. I just think you were a dude. So young fellows. Well, they were, they were kind enough to send us a bottle. I got to say it's quite striking bottle. And the special thing is about these that I said, they worked with Dave Pickerel and he is that godfather of craft distilleries. He went around a bunch of distilleries and helped them start up and he had a knack with that. We helped them and these guys actually each batch gets music played to it and each member of the band picks out that batch. So we actually have the bottle of batch 97 and that's their bassist Robert Trujillo. And this track was song one, eye of the beholder, cyanide, the thing that should not be, ride the lightning, no remorse, fade to black, broken, beat and scared. That kind of sounds like us, Jim, right there, broken, beat and scared sometimes.

Well, I'll tell you what that, those, that playlist got repeated over and over again. And those low frequency sound vibrations were vibrating those barrels, causing all that goodness to, to mix in. Right.

Just going in and out of the barrel. Right. So this is a 90 proof whiskey. It's a blend of bourbon and rise together. And then they take and put that inside black brandy cask. What the heck is black brandy?

Well, brandy is a distilled wine. So it's basically a high proof wine that's been distilled. Black brandy probably comes from a black grape, you know, and there are some black grapes out there. I'm not familiar personally with black brandy, but I would say that it's a good choice made by Dave to use a black brandy. Uh, cast to do a secondary finish on a blended whiskey, uh, for Metallica.

Yeah. I think we're going to, we're probably both going to love this. I would imagine. Cause there's not a whole lot out there that mean you haven't tasted from Dave. that we haven't loved. And me personally, he was a master distiller over at Maker's Mark for a long time, right? So he is to me, he was probably the weeded king of Kentucky. He knew what he was doing. So.

So anytime you take a bourbon and a rye and you marry the two together, I think there's a chance that something good could come out of it. And Dave, knowing what he knows, uh, has probably made some pretty wise choices there. But to finish that then after and in a black brandy cask, it's just going to add that something special. So yeah, I'm really looking forward to this. Well, let's know this sucker. All right. Wow. For an 80 proof, it's got a pretty substantial nose to it. I think very sweet.

Yeah. I'm getting some, like maybe some burnt caramels on that. Um, some deep caramel and maybe that's coming out of that brandy cask.

Yeah. I'm getting the rice spice, but a little bit of fruit on those too. And that must be that brandy, you know, that like fermented fruit, like just a little bit overripened, I think. Yeah.

You know, if you take a peach or a plum or something like that, and it's overripe and you had a, you know, container set down on the counter, you get that fermentation going and you get that, that nice aroma that comes off of it. Sometimes overriping fruit.

No doubt. Let's taste it. All right. We'll hit you quick with that sweetness upfront. Most definitely.

But it's really nice. A little bit of cinnamon there that just enough, not overly spicy, but I mean, that's all spice or that clove I'm getting in it.

Yeah. It's kind of a mixture of the two. I tend to agree with you there. It's got that all spice and that clove, and then it just kind of drifts into a little bit of a mint. There's a little bit of mint there.

The other thing I'm getting is, uh, you know, I'd like to put a nice tray of fruit and stuff out whenever we're doing a tasting over at the house and getting some of those dried apricots in this.

Yeah, I see that now. So you get a little bit, because sometimes those dry uppercuts have just a tinge of bitterness on them. And I'm kind of getting that on the back end. It's almost a citrusy, minty, but it's got a little bit of bite to it. Very nice. Very different, I think. Uh, but the whole time that that sweetness is hanging in there, uh, all spice. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's present the whole time. I think it's got a great palette.

I'm actually getting a little bit of not manyness, but whore hound candies in this sucker. You know, it's coming out for me that mediciney, um, taste. What is that Jim? What am I getting there? I'd say whore hound candies.

Yeah. Sassafras or I'm not getting a whole lot of root beer to it. Not root beer, but yeah, it's a little prickly on the tongue though. It kind of, if you're familiar with a Willet, sometimes when you're drinking a Willet, you'll get that little prickliness that happens on your tongue. I'm getting a little bit of that here. I like it again. That's something I like. I think they've really put together a very nice whiskey here. You know, the rye I think plays a pretty big part. And I'm a, I'm a ride lover. So of course this really kind of fits the kind of thing I like. Sometimes with these branded or sponsored brands, you kind of wonder if what comes out, what hits the shelf is really going to be worth anything. But in this case, I think that the whiskey in the bottle is, um, is a tribute to the man who put it together. I think it was well-crafted. I'm enjoying it. Yeah. I think it's a great little bottle.

It's. I wouldn't say very complex, but everything's there. The nose matches the palette. The finish on it, I would say is medium to long. It kind of stays there with you. That sweetness is still there with me and stuff. Gives me the little bit of that, I'm getting a little, just a slight hint of Kentucky hug. Not a whole bunch, but enough to know you've been drinking some whiskey.

Yeah, it's definitely warming.

Yeah, it almost reminds me. Have you ever had any ice wine before, Jim?

I may have, but I don't remember.

Either that or a mold, a mold wine, a hot mold wine and stuff. It kind of reminds me of that. Just a tad bit. Maybe that's that brandy coming out in this. I got to say, I really liked this, Jim. It's, it's a nice whiskey at 90 proof.

Now, Mike, is this something that's pretty much available anywhere?

It's, it's available anywhere in the United States right now. And I think in several different countries around the world.

Now, what's the price on a bottle of Blackened?

So yeah, Jim, this is a $50 MSRP. It's available nationwide. Several countries throughout the world also have it, just kind of like Metallica. They're a worldwide band. You can also get a box set, three different whiskies, comes with some music, probably a pretty good pickup for $150.

Well, I think, you know, something like this, a little bit special, a little bit different than, uh, than something you've tried before. I would tend to tell people to give it a chance, give it a shot. Um, I think it's, uh, if you've got a friend or somebody who was a big Metallica fan, hard rock fan. or you're having a party with a bunch of people. What a great bottle to have on hand for that.

You might say this is a entry whiskey for people that like wine or they like brandy and they really want to venture into whiskey, pick up a bottle of this, try it. If you like Angel's Envy, I think you'd like this, especially Angel's Envy's Rye. This is kind of comparable to it. I think it'd be a good pickup. It would be a buy for me.

Yeah, I'll own a bottle of this and I'll try to share it with as many people as I can.

Yeah, if you're listening, go to their website, check it out. Each batch has a different playlist picked from each band member. I think that's pretty cool, you know, and I've been to a couple of distilleries that do that. They're in there just blaring that music as loud as they can get it. And you can actually see those barrels moving just a tad bit, that vibration off of those. I like that idea.

Yeah, I think it does have some effect. I don't think too many people are arguing the effect of sound waves and the contribution to whiskey making. So not just a few companies doing that anymore. There's quite a few companies doing it, right?

Yeah. Oh yeah. I think the science part of us there, and we've talked about that before, most distillers, people that are working on distilleries, They've got some kind of science background, kind of like Jim. You know, you got that science mind going on and you understand what's going to happen with that. And even with the common sense guy with me, I understand what's going to happen if you took like a needle gun, which we both know what that is, right?

Oh yeah.

Yeah. Chipped a little paint in my life chips and paint with it, but the deck would vibrate as your needle gunning the paint off the deck. So, um, I could see this, this working and obviously it does. I like how their bottle is labeled. It's got sound waves on the bottle and black, um, white blackened. It tells a great story. The bottle does. Um, the liquid in it is what I would expect. It's kind of a light Amber, not too dark. Um, beautiful bottle, beautiful pickup. If you're looking for that gift, if you're looking for, you got a heavy metal friend that comes to lighter in life, this would be something for them. Absolutely. Absolutely.

Well, it was a great, a great bottle to try today, Mike. I really enjoyed it and I look forward to future batches from Blackins.

If you're a distillery out there, you're a distillery and you want us to review your whiskey, reach out to us on Instagram, on Twitter, on Facebook, or go to our website. You'll see our emails on there. Reach out to us, figure out how to get the whiskey to us, and we'll make sure to review it. That's what me and Jim love doing is helping build your distilleries, helping. We love tasting whiskey, right, Jim?

Absolutely. We do two of these shows a week. We do a short format whiskey review every Monday. It's called our craft distillery Monday. And that's what this episode is. Uh, and then on every Wednesday we come up with a full length episode. Sometimes we'll have a guest on a distillery, a personality in the, in the industry, or sometimes, you know, a musician or a, or, or an author or a, or a chef or somebody else who wants to sit down and drink some bourbon with us. We love to drink bourbon with people. Don't we, Mike?

Love it. We love drinking whiskey from people from around the world is what we really love to do. It doesn't just have to be bourbon, right? Even though we're the bourbon road, we want to just try everything out there. So yeah. If you're listening to this and you like this, go ahead and scroll up and hit that subscribe button for us. Help our numbers out. It'll actually put it on a playlist for you and you'll get it every week from us. Once you're done with that, if you really like it, scroll down and give us a five star review. We would really appreciate that. If you give us a one star, hey, we're fine with that. Just leave us some notes there to tell us how we can make this better so that you enjoy listening to it.

Absolutely. And you can find us on all the social medias. You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter at The Bourbon Road. We're also on YouTube. We're audio only on YouTube, but you can definitely listen to our podcast there. We do have a website, right, Mike?

We do the bourbonroad.com. You can find the blogs on there. I mainly write those. Sometimes Jim will throw in a hand and write those with us. It's not about the episode itself, but it's more just kind of our thoughts on whiskey that day. What we're thinking about sometimes about that company, just about different stuff. You can find all of our information on their photos. We also have a private Facebook group called the bourbon roadies. You got to answer three questions to join. Do you like whiskey? Are you a 21? And do you agree to play nice?

Cause we don't tolerate know what no rudeness.

Yeah. We word about 1100 members right now. Um, a lot of sharing of whiskey in their sharing of whiskey knowledge about bourbon. You name it, we have master distillers, industry folks in there, just your everyday Joe. There's nobody that's in there pretentious. They love each other. We consider a family. Me and Jim go in there and participate. We also do a lot of giveaways in there. So sometimes you gotta be a roadie to get a giveaway.

And we do have a barrel pick coming up, so you don't want to miss that.

I think the art for that barrel pick is pretty damn awesome, too. There's been a couple people that have seen it. They love it. And I can't wait for it. I think there's going to be around 212 bottles of it. I know that's limited, but that's usually what you get out of a barrel, right, Jim?

Absolutely. Absolutely. We expect them to go pretty quick. So keep your eyes up. Keep your ears open, I should say. And Mike, it's been a great show. A lot of fun, great bottle of whiskey. Look forward to next week's Craft Distillery Monday. Always look forward to Craft Distillery Monday.

I do too, man. I love them. Well, tomorrow is my birthday, so I will probably be in a distillery on my birthday.

And Mike, if somebody finds you the distillery, they ought to buy you one, right?

Heck yeah. I'll buy you one. It doesn't matter to me. I enjoy buying people around a whiskey or around a bourbon. I think it's a great time. I just, I love what we're doing, Jim. I think we're hitting our stride here and we're doing a great job. So you can find me at one big chief.

I'm Jay Shannon 63 and we will see you down the bourbon road. We do appreciate all of our listeners, and we'd like to thank you for taking time out of your day to hang out with us here on the Bourbon Road. We hope you enjoyed today's show, and if so, we would appreciate it if you'd subscribe and rate us a 5-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.