Bourbon

[Onboard 2.0 9083]

On 5/29/2020 at 4:23 PM, Neonmoon said:

Bourbon is a business. Local craft can’t compete with the quality and price point of the Big 6. They just can’t. Why you ask? Bourbon requires too much time in the barrel, meaning too much Capex for most startups. BT, MM, 4R, WT, HH, BF is selling fantastic bourbon at cheap ass prices. Weller 12 for $30. Eagle Rare for $30. OF 1910 for $50. RRSB for $55. MM for $30. 4RSB for $40. EWSB at $30. 

This isn’t beer. Beer doesn’t take 2-10 years for product to hit shelves. Any asshole can make a batch of beer in their garage. You can spend as low as 100K to start a craft brewery and start selling product after two months. You will know in 2 months if people like your product or don’t like it. Beer is perfect for thriving locally. 

Local has to charge so much to cover cost. Barrels, building rent, Production equipment, staff, supplies, etc. Not to mention the product is different because of climate. 
 

in summary, lot of ins, lot of outs
 

Don't forget the what-have-you's.

[BigDHornfan 6638]

What year?

Batch 2

[billfromlaketravis 11899]

7 hours ago, BigDHornfan said:

Batch 2

Nice...

[HenryJames 67614]

This guy know what he’s talking about?

[BigDHornfan 6638]

Fresh bottle tonight:

[ISUCyclones 216]

Fresh bottle tonight:

I've got one of those stashed away but not opened yet, how is it?

[BigDHornfan 6638]

I've got one of those stashed away but not opened yet, how is it?

Had it in a blind rye flight the other night and it beat out a THH and a M10 Rye.
It’s stupid good.

[billfromlaketravis 11899]

22 hours ago, BigDHornfan said:

Had it in a blind rye flight the other night and it beat out a THH and a M10 Rye.
It’s stupid good.

Handy isn’t for everybody, so I get that one. But Michter’s Barrel Strength beating M10 Rye is a bit surprising. All the Michter’s guys rave about M10 Rye. 

I’ll probably never see a bottle of M10 while I have a bottle of BS sitting in the cabinet. Good to know. 

Any guess on the Michter’s Rye Mashbill? 

[billfromlaketravis 11899]

On 5/31/2020 at 6:30 PM, HenryJames said:

This guy know what he’s talking about?

Kristopher Hart definitely knows his stuff. Whiskey Neat is a terrific, mostly bourbon podcast. 

The Irish style whiskey made in Balcones sounds interesting. Not bottle interesting, but pour interesting. 

[BigDHornfan 6638]

Handy isn’t for everybody, so I get that one. But Michter’s Barrel Strength beating M10 Rye is a bit surprising. All the Michter’s guys rave about M10 Rye. 
I’ll probably never see a bottle of M10 while I have a bottle of BS sitting in the cabinet. Good to know. 
Any guess on the Michter’s Rye Mashbill? 

Gonna do another one with this in the next day or so

[GreenspointTexas 10016]

Got dayum I love Balmorhea

[billfromlaketravis 11899]

24 minutes ago, GreenspointTexas said:

Got dayum I love Balmorhea

Please continue...

[Constant 6955]

On 5/31/2020 at 8:20 PM, BigDHornfan said:

Fresh bottle tonight:

You spend the proper amount of time out on your patio. Bravo, sir. 

[brown water 3790]

On 3/24/2020 at 7:14 AM, billfromlaketravis said:

I liked Shiny, but I passed when I saw some recently. It’s good enough to buy once, but it’s not worth the encore in my opinion. 
 

Kentucky Chew was on another level. 

Just found 2 dusty bottles at a local shop.  Cheers. 

[BigDHornfan 6638]

Glad a buddy had to go to OK for a meeting.

[BigDHornfan 6638]

That ECBP is fucking .
136.6 but pairs very well with a Rose of Sharon Southern Draw.

[ousuxndallas 65]

Picked up a regular Larceny yesterday for about $21. Is it any good, or is the single barrel that much better?

[billfromlaketravis 11899]

2 hours ago, ousuxndallas said:

Picked up a regular Larceny yesterday for about $21. Is it any good, or is the single barrel that much better?

You can never go wrong with Larceny for 21 bucks. 

Edited June 3, 2020 by billfromlaketravis

[billfromlaketravis 11899]

I don't want to be that guy that bourbon snobs everybody. Larceny is good. Wild Turkey 101 is good. Old Grand Dad 114 is good. 

I'm not sure what happened with Larceny Barrel Proof for me. It was hot and quick. Never settled down and become complex. I might have caught a bad bottle. I know I was pissed off I had to pay a premium for it. And I unfortunately kept thinking about how Elijah Craig Barrel Proof was much better. It's possible I don't like high proof (110 and above) wheaters with the exception of William Larue Weller. There's just not many proofer/wheaters out there to formulate an consensus. 

I sort of pity the Russells/Wild Turkey. You can tell they put a lot into Kentucky Spirit, and people just don't buy it. Rare Breed and Russell's Reserve picks cannibalize that segment of their market share. If they could makes the economics work,  I think they would be better off going 8 years and up on 101 and eliminating Spirit. I know I'd glad pay $30 for 8 years and older 101. 

Edited June 3, 2020 by billfromlaketravis

[Bozo_Casanova 27011]

 

3 hours ago, ousuxndallas said:

Picked up a regular Larceny yesterday for about $21. Is it any good, or is the single barrel that much better?

It's fine. Those people are dipshits. 

EDIT: I'll go a step further. The SB is idiosyncratic, as are all SBs, so unless you get lucky it's not a lot better, and it's possible to be much worse. 

Edited June 3, 2020 by Bozo_Casanova

[deft 7092]

My first bottle

[Redneck Mutha 8312]

7 hours ago, billfromlaketravis said:

You can never go wrong with Larceny for 21 bucks. 

I keep forgetting to pick one of those up to try making the Poorer Man's Pappy.  I picked up the other half of that recipe a while back, keep forgetting the Larceny.  2/3 Maker's Cask Strength, 1/3 Larceny.

When I'm doing blends like that, do I need to age in barrel or just pour and mix in a carafe or empty bottle and go from there?

[ISUCyclones 216]

I keep forgetting to pick one of those up to try making the Poorer Man's Pappy.  I picked up the other half of that recipe a while back, keep forgetting the Larceny.  2/3 Maker's Cask Strength, 1/3 Larceny.
When I'm doing blends like that, do I need to age in barrel or just pour and mix in a carafe or empty bottle and go from there?

Curious on this too, I was thinking about making a poor man's 4 grain

[billfromlaketravis 11899]

1 hour ago, Redneck Mutha said:

I keep forgetting to pick one of those up to try making the Poorer Man's Pappy.  I picked up the other half of that recipe a while back, keep forgetting the Larceny.  2/3 Maker's Cask Strength, 1/3 Larceny.

When I'm doing blends like that, do I need to age in barrel or just pour and mix in a carafe or empty bottle and go from there?

I’ve never blended a Poorer Man’s Pappy. I think your recipe is spot on. I couldn’t bring myself to do that to a bottle of Maker’s Private Select, but Cask Strength is a good idea. If you have a funnel and a mL measuring cup it’s pretty easy to measure everything out and blend it. I always use an empty bottle IW  Harper 15 because I’d rather drink my decanter than pay for an empty glass vessel. Any empty bottle with a good cork will work. I will warn you that the IW Harper cork will fail after 4-5 uses/dishwasher runs. 

I think the home barrel thing is a a scam. They leak if you don’t roll the barrel a couple times a week,  and the staves  soak up at 25% of your yield. It will marginally improve some bourbons/ryes, but the juice isn’t worth the squeeze. 

[billfromlaketravis 11899]

Poorer Man’s Pappy feels like an excellent Twin Liquors’ Dollar Days experiment. 

Edited June 4, 2020 by billfromlaketravis

[Yev Kassem 1078]

2 hours ago, deft said:

My first bottle

Nice. I scored one myself today at Total Wine (Sunset Valley). Lucky for me I got the last one they had. 

[BigDHornfan 6638]

Trying a new rye tonight.
It’s surprisingly tasty for being only 2 years.
It’s distilled in Indiana so pretty sure it’s MGP.

[Redneck Mutha 8312]

1 hour ago, billfromlaketravis said:

I’ve never blended a Poorer Man’s Pappy. I think your recipe is spot on. I couldn’t bring myself to do that to a bottle of Maker’s Private Select, but Cask Strength is a good idea. If you have a funnel and a mL measuring cup it’s pretty easy to measure everything out and blend it. I always use an empty bottle IW  Harper 15 because I’d rather drink my decanter than pay for an empty glass vessel. Any empty bottle with a good cork will work. I will warn you that the IW Harper cork will fail after 4-5 uses/dishwasher runs. 

I think the home barrel thing is a a scam. They leak if you don’t roll the barrel a couple times a week,  and the staves  soak up at 25% of your yield. It will marginally improve some bourbons/ryes, but the juice isn’t worth the squeeze. 

Thanks for the tips.  I'll see if I have an empty with a cork still around. 

The link below was where I got saw the recipe.  I've got the Antique and Weller 12 to do the Poor Man's version, but I like both of those so well, I can't get myself to try the blend.  Maybe I'll do just a small batch to try it... 

https://gardenandgun.com/articles/make-almost-pappy-van-winkle/

[billfromlaketravis 11899]

7 minutes ago, Redneck Mutha said:

Thanks for the tips.  I'll see if I have an empty with a cork still around. 

The link below was where I got saw the recipe.  I've got the Antique and Weller 12 to do the Poor Man's version, but I like both of those so well, I can't get myself to try the blend.  Maybe I'll do just a small batch to try it... 

https://gardenandgun.com/articles/make-almost-pappy-van-winkle/

Yeah to keep the numbers simple, I’ll probably blend a 750 mL bottle and an 8 ounce flask. That’ll kill the bottle of Maker’s Cask Strength, and put a pretty good dent in the bottle of Larceny. 

I agree the sum of their parts should be better than the originals. 

[RichUT 1943]

As days go, this was a good one.

[USCATX 1099]

On 6/1/2020 at 9:12 PM, GreenspointTexas said:

Got dayum I love Balmorhea

It really is good, but I’m pretty sure it’s not $139 good.  Tastes like they’re trying to hide something and got 90% of the way there.  But it’s easily my favorite Texas bourbon so far among a sea of turds.  
 

My favorite recent pick ups are Kentucky Owl Batch 9 ($260, no regerts) and Remus Repeal Reserve Batch II.  The KO tastes like a really good Stagg batch with a little more fruit and a little less oak.  

[billfromlaketravis 11899]

10 minutes ago, USCATX said:

It really is good, but I’m pretty sure it’s not $139 good.  Tastes like they’re trying to hide something and got 90% of the way there.  But it’s easily my favorite Texas bourbon so far among a sea of turds.  
 

My favorite recent pick ups are Kentucky Owl Batch 9 ($260, no regerts) and Remus Repeal Reserve Batch II.  The KO tastes like a really good Stagg batch with a little more fruit and a little less oak.  

Grade on the Balmorhea? 

[USCATX 1099]

7 minutes ago, billfromlaketravis said:

Grade on the Balmorhea? 

I was going to say 6/10 on the Kentucky/Indiana scale and 8/10 on the Texas scale, which only goes up to 8 from what I’ve seen.   There’s still a note I can’t quite put my finger on that’s a little off.  
 

But after you asked I tried it after a pour of KO Batch 9 and kind of hated the Garrison. I want to try it with OF1910 and Yellowstone 2018 LE to see how it stacks up with some other double barreled bourbons. 

[billfromlaketravis 11899]

8 hours ago, USCATX said:

I was going to say 6/10 on the Kentucky/Indiana scale and 8/10 on the Texas scale, which only goes up to 8 from what I’ve seen.   There’s still a note I can’t quite put my finger on that’s a little off.  
 

But after you asked I tried it after a pour of KO Batch 9 and kind of hated the Garrison. I want to try it with OF1910 and Yellowstone 2018 LE to see how it stacks up with some other double barreled bourbons. 

Less than ideal. It’s sitting on the shelf at Spec’s. I think I might have been duped.

[Party_Taco 3915]

I was going to say 6/10 on the Kentucky/Indiana scale and 8/10 on the Texas scale, which only goes up to 8 from what I’ve seen.   There’s still a note I can’t quite put my finger on that’s a little off.  
 
But after you asked I tried it after a pour of KO Batch 9 and kind of hated the Garrison. I want to try it with OF1910 and Yellowstone 2018 LE to see how it stacks up with some other double barreled bourbons. 

Lemme know how that works out... just got this in the mail from the FiL so I’m interested to see how it stacks up.

[thrillhammer 686]

29 minutes ago, Party_Taco said:

Lemme know how that works out... just got this in the mail from the FiL so I’m interested to see how it stacks up.

how it stacks up?  that's the new release he just rated and compared to Kentucky owl.  i'm a garrison fan, and am tempted to buy another bottle just so I can have one to drink.  I still have a 375 ml of the original release.   took a bottle of that to paris with me and it was excellent each and every night in my hotel room.    fuck the haters.  I'm not sure I don't like the estacado better, but this balmorhea release is supposed to be pretty good.

none of us will probably ever see it but they released a laguna madre, aged in limousin oak. i'd love to try it but doubt it will live up to the search.

[billfromlaketravis 11899]

Did Garrison Bros drop the 375 mL bottles? Total Wine is the only place I’ve ever seen them, and it’s been well over a year. 

[billfromlaketravis 11899]

Other than the price point, I don’t get the Kentucky Owl hate. Every bottle they’ve put out has been good. 

Put yourself in Dixon Dedman’s shoes. You’re running the family business . A small bed and breakfast in a smaller town in Kentucky. You talk/luck/run yourself into into some exceptional sourced barrels, skillfully blend them, and become a sensation. Stoli takes notice and offers you a ton of money, and the purchasing power to buy any barrel you want in Kentucky. Would anyone tell them no? 

Edited June 5, 2020 by billfromlaketravis

[thrillhammer 686]

18 minutes ago, billfromlaketravis said:

Other than the price point, I don’t get the Kentucky Owl hate. Every bottle they’ve put out has been good. 

Put yourself in Dixon Dedman’s shoes. You’re running the family business . A small bed and breakfast in a smaller town in Kentucky. You talk/luck/run yourself into into some exceptional sourced barrels, skillfully blend them, and become a sensation. Stoli takes notice and offers you a ton of money, and the purchasing power to buy any barrel you want in Kentucky. Would anyone tell them no? 

as much as I bitch about garrisons prices, Kentucky owl is laughable.  I own a confiscated but refuse to pay $200+ for their regular bourbon.   i'd be hard pressed to pay that for pappy or any of the btac's.  they are not in that league so to try to price themselves there is asinine.  I get a chuckle that I see it on the shelf in every store. 

[Party_Taco 3915]

Other than the price point, I don’t get the Kentucky Owl hate. Every bottle they’ve put out has been good. 
Put yourself in Dixon Dedman’s shoes. You’re running the family business . A small bed and breakfast in a smaller town in Kentucky. You talk/luck/run yourself into into some exceptional sourced barrels, skillfully blend them, and become a sensation. Stoli takes notice and offers you a ton of money, and the purchasing power to buy any barrel you want in Kentucky. Would anyone tell them no? 

Absolutely not, but it doesn’t mean I have to like the end result.

Need to branch out and try more of their offerings at a restaurant but my bottle of KO is middling at best.

[billfromlaketravis 11899]

1 minute ago, thrillhammer said:

as much as I bitch about garrisons prices, Kentucky owl is laughable.  I own a confiscated but refuse to pay $200+ for their regular bourbon.   i'd be hard pressed to pay that for pappy or any of the btac's.  they are not in that league so to try to price themselves there is asinine.  I get a chuckle that I see it on the shelf in every store. 

I think the Garrison Bros price gouging is much worse. 4 years in Texas is not the same as 20 years in Kentucky. Texas is hot, but we don’t live in another dimension. 

I bought the last batches of Kentucky Owl bourbon and rye before the Stoli takeover. They’re certainly keepers for a special occasion. Confiscated was good, but my goodness they muffed the PR with that release. More transparency and knocking off $30 would have headed off much of the outrage. 

[billfromlaketravis 11899]

That said, the Big 6 can put out excellent products for less than $30. Bourbon is always going to be a bargain compared to scotch and cognac. We should count ourselves lucky. 

[BigDHornfan 6638]

Fresh kill tonight.
Hard to beat this one at retail.

[BigDHornfan 6638]

He’s cut off.

[billfromlaketravis 11899]

I found some more $50 Maker’s Private Select. If you’re interested and in Houston, feel free to PM me. 

[thrillhammer 686]

I found some oat grain tonight, but don't pm me, because fuck off.  It's for me.

[Neonmoon 38130]

Today’s haul was Eagle Rare, OF 1870, and 6th Street 10 year. 

My neighbor wanted the 6th Street bottle for whatever reason, and I love MGP, so I told him I would gladly drink the bourbon so he could have the empty bottle. 

Also never tried 1870 and wanted to see how it stacked up in their lineup 

[billfromlaketravis 11899]

19 minutes ago, Neonmoon said:

Today’s haul was Eagle Rare, OF 1870, and 6th Street 10 year. 

My neighbor wanted the 6th Street bottle for whatever reason, and I love MGP, so I told him I would gladly drink the bourbon so he could have the empty bottle. 

Also never tried 1870 and wanted to see how it stacked up in their lineup 

Spec's guy tried to sell me some 6th Street 10 year. I politely listened to pitch and told him I'd think about it. I kind of wish I had pulled the trigger on that one. It's priced pretty well for 10 year old MGP. 

Nobody loves MGP more than you Brick Top. 

[Party_Taco 3915]

Reporting back on the Balmorhea - I’m glad y’all like it, but it’s not my jam. Has too many scotch qualities to have the word bourbon in the description, and the distinct taste of saddle leather made for a peculiar distillate.

It was nice as a change of pace, but I’m not itching to revisit.

[billfromlaketravis 11899]

31 minutes ago, Party_Taco said:

Reporting back on the Balmorhea - I’m glad y’all like it, but it’s not my jam. Has too many scotch qualities to have the word bourbon in the description, and the distinct taste of saddle leather made for a peculiar distillate.

It was nice as a change of pace, but I’m not itching to revisit.

S***. I hate scotch.