RichUT

I’ve gotta spend the weekend in Dallas for a kids swim meet. I’m completely out of touch on the BBQ scene there. Where would this crowd send me?

Anyone have plans to pick up the new Cask Strength bottle from Still Austin? Hoping they continue to put out different expressions. I’ve liked what I’ve had so far.

Damn right. Barrell is delicious. I had my second date with Seagrass and I might be in love. That one is fan-fuckin-tastic.

Don’t think we can, actually. It’s over priced for sure, but it’s most certainly not swill in my book. I quite like it.

I thought the general belief was that Elmer has gotten increasingly younger due to how high demand has gotten. I was reading a comparison to Blanton’s somewhere that said at this point both are 5-7 years old. Full disclosure, the guy that takes care of our group pulled out an Elmer for us last week at a price of $55. We bought it, but there were more than a couple of guys openly asking if we’d be smarter selling it. We aren’t about to burn our supplier like that so we cracked it this weekend, but nobody was able to discern why it sells for 6x retail on the secondary.

What’s the allure of Elmer? It’s essentially Blanton’s, no? I’m not looking to pick a fight or suggest that it’s not a fine dram, but it’s also not particularly unique. It’s a crushable low proof bourbon, and I can’t figure out why something like that is so sought after.

There were 6 of us there and we wanted to bring some home for a few that were supposed to be there but could not make it. Our order was: 6lbs of brisket (3 sliced, 3 wrapped to go) 4 links of sausage (2 regular, 2 jalapeño) 2 lbs spare ribs 1 pound pork steak Half a chicken $277 and change.

Snow’s this morning.

Well don’t go doing anything rash and pouring it down the drain.

Better than Hye Rye.

Cracked the Laguna Madre last night. I'd say it climbed to the top of my GB rankings, though it's a tough value proposition both in absolute terms and relative to Balmorhea. It has a lot of the normal GB profile, but there are other things on top of it that make it a more complex whiskey. I'd rather have it over Balmorhea if money isn't involved, but I'd rather have a bottle of Balmorhea and $140 than a bottle of Laguna Madre. We also cracked open a bottle of Barrell Seagrass and I really really liked it. I wasn't quite sure what to expect after buying Armida and not really loving how heavily the casks influenced the bourbon, but they got it right with this one. The rye backbone is definitely there, but there are all kinds of other delicious things happening alongside of it.

Not a bad evening

No angst here. I don't hunt. I've got a spot where I get a reasonable number of allocated bottles at MSRP in exchange for funneling most of my business their way. I definitely don't get everything, but I get enough. If there is something specific I want, the secondary market always has it. If the cost is too much there, then I must not want it that much. There is also a shit load of really good stuff consistently available such that I don't need to fall back on having any one daily drinker or value bourbon in my collection. There is a happy medium between drinking the cheap stuff all the time and suffering from FOMO over not having every single unicorn out there.

Even one bottle of Cigar Blend Batch 25 (which also uses batch numbers) at $97 would have been cool.

I didn’t go for this one. I’m in a neighborhood whiskey club, and two other guys made the trek to pick up a couple of bottles for the group. They left at 5 AM. Not sure of their place in line, but I saw GB post around noon on Saturday that they still had a few bottle left for sale. I really thought this one would sell out before the line ended. Going forward, I’m thinking arriving around noon for launch events is the smart play, as the big line will be gone and they’ll still have bottles available for sale.

At the distillery this past Saturday. That was release day for the 2021 edition.

Retail is still $160-ish. Secondary value tops out at $200, so $232 is a healthy markup. I think Balmorhea is their best expression, but I haven’t had Laguna Madre yet. Trying that one tonight.

You quoted a reply I made that was specific to Magnus Cigar Blend. Given that, I (daftly?) assumed that the purchase you made was….Magnus Cigar Blend. I guess I’m the idoit?

How’d you get it at 50% off MSRP and can you get any more??

I am not an expert, but have had a couple of batches (24 and 25, I think?) and would buy it 10 out of 10 times at MSRP. It's pretty fantastic.

There are no generic batches, but the way they manage their releases and the sheer breadth of product they are distributing does take some work to stay on top of. The core Bourbon and Rye expressions use a linear and straight forward batch numbering format, although once in awhile you will see a derivative batch that ends in b (e.g., Batch 8b). That apparently happened more earlier, when some of the blended batches sat in a barrel for longer than expected and developed a different flavor profile than the original batch number. I haven't see one of those in awhile. You can read about each of the core batch releases at https://www.barrellbourbon.com/bourbon and https://www.barrellbourbon.com/rye. Beyond those, they have the Craft Spirits line (15 year old and very expensive), experimental stuff (Dovetail, Armida, Seagrass, Infinity, etc.), a barrel pick program (usually has a weird alpha numeric batch like DSX1), and the new Private Release bourbon (micro blended releases using KY/TN/IN distillate of varying ages and percentages). I haven't tried the Private Release stuff yet, as I need to dial back on buying for a minute to right size my collection. I'd suggest sticking to the core Bourbon releases unless you really seek out things that are unique and different to the point of not necessarily reading like a traditional bourbon or rye. 25 and 26 were the first batches that used a wheated bourbon as part of the blend, and everyone I have share those with has come away a big fan.

If you’re buying Dovetail and using that to pass judgement on their full line, then I can’t help you. Their standard bourbon releases are really fucking great. They like to experiment with different blends and finishes, but always sell those under a clearly identified sub-brand. Batches 25 and 26 of the bourbon were fantastic pours and well worth the $80 price tag. I’ve heard similarly positive reviews of 27 and 28.

Yep. Please keep passing on Barrell. It’s piss and everyone should leave it on the shelf so I can continue to find it easily.

In addition to the advice I provided above, I want to clarify that they can’t haul any OPEN bottles of alcohol. They can absolutely haul anything that still has the original seal intact.

Tip the movers an extra $50 and tell them you won’t hold them responsible for any bottles that may break. 90%+ chance they will take that deal and your bottles will arrive with no problems.