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RichUT

Burnt Ends
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Everything posted by RichUT

  1. I picked up the pick that Deb’s did last year, and it is drinking really damn well. That crew is doing good work up in the PNW.
  2. The smooth word trips me up every.single.time. I see it. Is smooth really a characteristic that people actively look for in whiskey? I hear smooth and I lose almost all interest in trying whatever it's attached to. Don't get me wrong, I don't like harsh whiskey. But, I definitely want spicy and bold bourbons and I enjoy many of the physical responses (i.e., "the burn") that come with those pours. Am I misunderstanding the use of this term, or is it more of a personal preference sort of thing?
  3. Calumet 14 is widely believed to be Barton distillate. A neighbor bought a bottle and I think that belief is accurate. I’ve had the SH14 too, and that’s definitely the better bottle if you’re in a position to choose. That said, the Calumet 14 is not bad bourbon by any means. It’s maybe a touch too oaky, but has some really good flavors that help to balance it out. I think it ultimately falls a little short of the price tag, but it’s something I’d be happy to drink if I saw it out.
  4. Did a Discovery blind taster with two buddies using series 2, 3, and 4 last night. First off, they are all awesome. Helluva of a flight if you can put them together. Second, having the three of them together was genuinely tough as they were all so good so it was tough to delineate any major differences. I’m not sure that if I did them head to head over a few nights (2v3, 2v4, 3v4) that I’d arrive at the same rankings but that’s an exercise for another time. At any rate, we rated them batch 2, 3, and then 4 in that order. They were not presented in that order, so that ranking is coincidental. I was torn between 2 and 3 for 1st place, but again all of them were great.
  5. Visiting Kentucky is high up on my list of things to do in the next 1-3 years, but I am in no way expecting to find shelves full of allocated bottles at MSRP. At best, I would hope for maybe a gift store only bottle or two and perhaps a few bottles from distilleries that aren't distributing in Texas. I haven't read anything online that leads me to believe Kentucky is in any way immune to what's happening with bourbon pricing and availability.
  6. I have Discovery 2, 3, and 4. I have not blinded them against each other yet, but I think 4 is the best of the bunch based on tasting them individually.
  7. I’ll take “Things that don’t fucking matter” for $1,000, Alex.
  8. I don’t know anything about the batches between 2-12 personally. I bought the very first batch and struggled to finish it. I wrote it off based on that and then started hearing how much better it had gotten online. I can’t imagine trading or selling 6 or 7 would be hard with all the BT hysteria out there. They go for $150+ on Unicorn Auctions no matter the batch number.
  9. Batch 14: https://www.breakingbourbon.com/review/stagg-jr-bourbon-batch-14
  10. The only one(s) to avoid are the very early ones that you’re not going to find anyway. 12-15 are all highly regarded. 12 and 15 are standouts. I’ve had 13, which is also very good. Batch numbers are not on the bottle. You have to go by the proof to know what batch it is.
  11. Yes. TBH, you should go for Stagg Jr regardless. Blanton’s can’t hold a candle to it, unless we’re talking about SFTB.
  12. I have 15 and it’s incredible. Should be a buy on site if any of you guys are lucky enough to come across one.
  13. Yes.
  14. I picked up the OF SiB barrel strength pick from the Shaker yesterday. Going to share it with a local group that I am part of. I agree that reviews of those have been all over the map. We’ll see if we got a good one or not in a couple of weeks.
  15. Anything over 130.
  16. Deb’s apparently got one that was 147 proof but the bottle count was super low. They also made a 6 year single barrel pick at the same time, and they put that on sale today. I assume they aren’t even putting the 147 up for sale. I know one of the guys on the tasting committee and he said it wasn’t great. He greatly preferred the 6 year, which I picked up this afternoon and am sipping on now. It’s really damn good. I know people are curious about the high proof stuff, but I think there is a law of diminishing returns with that. To each their own and everything, but that’s not something I’m interested in chasing.
  17. What the fuck is going on in here right now?
  18. Keep me honest, but the timeline I recall is that news broke about Chang leaving on the 16th and Drew Hughes was made official on the 17th. So we're up in arms about the role being "vacant" for 24 hours? As I see it, Sark acted quickly to keep the staff functional and made a critical hire in Hughes, who will head up this aspect of the staff. There have already been plenty of reports of Hughes following and reaching out to recruits, so I am sitting here with the belief that we are no worse off than we were before. If there is evidence to the contrary I would be happy to consider that. For all we know, Chang was given the chance to stick around as part of the expansion of the support staff and he didn't like the idea of working under Hughes. That's a very real possibility, as I can't imagine he loved the optics of taking a step backwards. The specific point that I took issue with is that we should have already expanded the size of the support staff in parallel with filling out the on-field coaching staff. Criticism to that effect feels mis-placed to me, as I believe the basic premise of just keeping the old support staff and adding everyone else on as incremental is ill conceived. It's not as simple of a process to overhaul an organization as people are suggesting.
  19. He’s retiring.
  20. Maybe because he interviewed them and they were not on the same page philosophically? Maybe because he already has other people in mind that he can now focus on hiring because his coaching staff was a bigger priority? Jesus fucking Christ. This isn’t hard shit to figure out. Let the dude do his damn job.
  21. https://weaintgotnohistory.sbnation.com/2021/1/25/22212820/official-chelsea-sack-frank-lampard I suppose this was always an inevitability, but I still hate to see it. Farewell, Lamps.
  22. Had a sample of Uncle Nearest once. It was whatever version is considered the better one. It was fine enough at first, but finished with a heavy mineral/vitamin note that left me wanting to drink almost anything to get rid of that taste. No chance in hell I’m drinking that shit again.
  23. If it's not that, then what is it? I don't know the particulars in intimate detail, but I think it has to do with justifying what we want to pay a coach relative to the broader market of people employed with the same title. It's stupid, but I could see where a state run institution could come under fire for paying a LB coach $1MM/year when the industry average is $350k. That sort of delta might be deemed unnecessarily excessive, hence the addition of titles to justify the higher pay.
  24. If you consider a few hundred thousand more dollars per year in compensation substance, then yes.
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