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Sounds like Heaven Hill bib is no more. $100 a bottle sound fair? 
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Sep 26, 2018 20:30
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| # ? May 1, 2024 14:51 |
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As long as Evan Williams BiB keeps flowing I'll make it.
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Sep 26, 2018 23:16
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chitoryu12 posted:This wasn’t even $9 bourbon. Old Crow, Evan Williams, and Jack Daniels are all worlds ahead. This was the first bourbon that was actively gross and tasted like it had gone bad in the bottle. This can happen, on occasion. I'm not saying that Town Branch is good (I've never had it, in all fairness), but there have been occasions where whiskey gets "corked" sort of like wine will. I had a friend who got a bottle of Glengoin, which is usually very good scotch, and the stopper had developed some sort of bacterial colony that was giving off butyric acid. So the stuff ended up smelling of vomit, which was incredibly sad. It's one of the reasons I'm REALLY picky about the stoppers we use, because at our scale that could sink us in a heartbeat. In regards to craft bourbon being overpriced, and underwhelming, I can tick off a number of factors that contribute to that. In no particular order: - Poor cooperage. The barrel market in the US is incredibly tight right now. If you're trying to make bourbon, rye, etc. it's really hard to get barrels, and even harder to get good barrels. Distillers who are making american styles of whiskies are, for the most part, constrained to virgin char barrels, and so most distilleries will get one use off of the barrel, then try to resell it to a brewery or a rum distillery or something. A "good" barrel goes for something close to $300 for a 30 gallon barrel, and for distillers who care, they are willing to pay that. But there's a lot of cut-rate barrel mills out there selling ~$100 barrels. I've been around a few and they have not been impressive. If you have a high quality new-char barrel, you should be able to stick your nose in the bung and it should smell wonderful - oaky, smokey, hints of spice and vanilla, and depending on where the wood was sourced, elements of caramel as well (northern grown oak tends to have a higher wood-sugar content.) But these cut-rate barrels just smell acrid and dusty. If a distillery is thinking with it's wallet instead of it's nose, then it's an easy problem to get into. - "Shallow" blending stocks. Part of why Heaven Hill, etc can really pull out some ace whiskies is because they've got thousands of barrels laid up, and they can pick and choose what they blend. A lot of smaller distilleries might have a couple dozen barrels at best - and the temptation is to push the spirit out the door as soon as it meets the age statement to try and turn some cash around. A 3 year Heaven Hill product might actually have some 10, 12 or older product in it. Certainly not a majority, but it'll probably have a little - and often a little goes a long way to adding complexity and character. - Cookie-cutter mash bills. Unless they're total mash nerds, a lot of craft distilleries tend to either a) find a mash bill online and run with it, or b) pay a consultant to give them a mash bill. Often those consultants tend to give everyone the same mash bill. - "Greedy" cuts. Whiskey is expensive to make, and the temptation during distillation is to keep in the "hearts" what probably ought to have been put to feints. edit: I'm not saying that good craft whiskey doesn't exist - only that it'll probably be pretty rare at least for the few years. If there are smart, and good craft whiskey distilleries out there, they're hoarding back barrels to build blending stock. Weltlich fucked around with this message at 03:46 on Sep 28, 2018 |
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Sep 28, 2018 03:43
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Vox Nihili posted:Welcome to the craft bourbon experience, where you too can pay $40 for a fancy-looking bottle of $9 bourbon.
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Sep 28, 2018 04:29
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I was able to try Swift in store at a Total Wine and really liked it. Definitely worth $45 imo.
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Sep 28, 2018 06:17
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Weltlich posted:This can happen, on occasion. I'm not saying that Town Branch is good (I've never had it, in all fairness), but there have been occasions where whiskey gets "corked" sort of like wine will. I had a friend who got a bottle of Glengoin, which is usually very good scotch, and the stopper had developed some sort of bacterial colony that was giving off butyric acid. So the stuff ended up smelling of vomit, which was incredibly sad. It's one of the reasons I'm REALLY picky about the stoppers we use, because at our scale that could sink us in a heartbeat. You know, you got some excellent goddamned posts.
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Sep 28, 2018 07:21
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Craft bourbon is ridiculous. I remember seeing a bottle of Hudson for €50 and thinking it was expensive for a bourbon without an age statement (did not say straight either). Then I saw it was only a 35cl So $125 for a fifth of underaged ~craft~ bourbon. gently caress. That. poo poo.
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Sep 28, 2018 08:31
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Nice piece of fish posted:You know, you got some excellent goddamned posts. Thanks for quoting it with this because I kinda blipped over the post and now that I read it, yes you are correct.
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Sep 28, 2018 12:33
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As my tastes have changed, I’ve been going through the liquor cabinet and culling it of anything that I’m not likely to reach for often. I think I’d rather have a smaller assortment of things I really enjoy. While I know tastes are subjective, I was curious what people here would stock in different categories if limited to their top couple of picks. Something you really enjoy drinking neat. Doesn’t necessarily have to be expensive. My initial thoughts: Irish: Redbreast, maybe the Lustau or 15. I hear Red Bush is good for the price but I’ve never tried it. Bourbon: I think Evan Williams is a fantastic value and will probably always have a bottle on hand. For something nicer, not sure what I’d pick... I’ve enjoyed Elijah Craig, Blanton’s, and Buffalo Trace in the past. Rye: Always plan to have a bottle of Rittenhouse on hand. I like it enough that I haven’t tried many of the more expensive brands. Rum: Not whisky, I know, but the rum thread seems to be dead. Big fan of El Dorado 12. Haven’t tried the 15 yet but I intend to. Scotch: Still refining my tastes, especially when it comes to the smokier and more phenolic stuff. Oddly I have good memories of Laphroiag the one time I tried it, but I’m still on the fence with something like Highland Park, which doesn’t seem to make sense. I’m ok with Macallan but it’s not my favorite. On the blended side, I have a bottle of Compass Box Great King Street, which is ok but not as flavorful as I’d like.
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Sep 29, 2018 04:05
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mentalcontempt posted:As my tastes have changed, I’ve been going through the liquor cabinet and culling it of anything that I’m not likely to reach for often. I think I’d rather have a smaller assortment of things I really enjoy. While I know tastes are subjective, I was curious what people here would stock in different categories if limited to their top couple of picks. Something you really enjoy drinking neat. Doesn’t necessarily have to be expensive. El Dorado is an ace pick for rum!
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Sep 29, 2018 04:17
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for bourbon I'd always go with a four roses single barrel pick from a store I trust or evan williams single barrel failing that
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Sep 29, 2018 05:33
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DROP TABLE PHIZ posted:for bourbon I'd always go with a four roses single barrel pick from a store I trust or evan williams single barrel failing that The local Total Wine has Single Barrel along with a “OBSV Cask Select”; any thoughts? BevMo seems to be out of stock.
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Sep 29, 2018 06:31
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EWSB is overpriced. It's not bad but it's not that much better than 1783. I've never had a bottle of 4RSingleB I didn't like.
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Sep 29, 2018 06:36
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mentalcontempt posted:The local Total Wine has Single Barrel along with a “OBSV Cask Select”; any thoughts? BevMo seems to be out of stock. Regular Single Barrel is OBSV diluted to 50%. "OBSV Cask Select" is probably bottled at barrel proof.
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Sep 29, 2018 06:39
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TobinHatesYou posted:Regular Single Barrel is OBSV diluted to 50%. "OBSV Cask Select" is probably bottled at barrel proof. Yeah same recipe. I don't know if they age it any differently. The regular stuff is awesome, and concentrated at a higher proof is probably excellent. Wish my Total Wine had things like that. Instead they're crowding the shelves with more and more Spirits Direct garbage. Tried a sample of Clyde May that they were pushing, and it was undrinkable.
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Sep 29, 2018 16:23
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Lately I've been big on the Knob Creek store picks. Both the bourbonz and especially the ryes are pretty good value. K&L seems to regularly get 12-13 year picks on the bourbon side, which tend to pack impressive depth. The ryes by contrast tend to be younger, bright and bursting with flavor. ~$50, near cask strength (115-120 proof).
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Sep 29, 2018 21:13
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Enigma posted:Wish my Total Wine had things like that. Instead they're crowding the shelves with more and more Spirits Direct garbage. Tried a sample of Clyde May that they were pushing, and it was undrinkable. But a TW worker told me they were the best, and science can speed age a whiskey to taste exactly like the big guys!
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Sep 29, 2018 21:25
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Radio Nowhere posted:But a TW worker told me they were the best, and science can speed age a whiskey to taste exactly like the big guys! Just like artificially aging tobacco leaves to maduro! I guess we’ll just rub it in some pig poo poo and microwave it. Dumb-rear end smokers will never find out!
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Sep 30, 2018 11:25
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FYI, if you live in CA, K&L got the latest batch of Elijah Craig Barrel Proof into stock today but haven't yet put it on their list of new arrivals. https://m.klwines.com/p/i?i=1127956
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Oct 2, 2018 23:43
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I bought a bottle of Elijah Craig barrel proof A118 from Hi Time in SoCal over the weekend. Edit: actually it was $80. Good but drat it is expensive.
Mandalay fucked around with this message at 08:03 on Oct 3, 2018 |
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Oct 3, 2018 07:52
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Can we talk about cognac here? I normally really don't like cognac; it's either too syrupy or it just makes me wish I was drinking bourbon instead. I bought a shoulder of Martell VS Single Distillery for making eggnog because it was the cheapest non-trash-tier cognac my liquor store carried; after noggin', I had a little left over and poo poo, that's a surprisingly good very loving affordable cognac. Last night I went and bought a fifth of it and... yeah, I think I really really like it. There's an almost apple-y crispness to it to go along with some plum and apricot and yo, if you want to try a cognac you can get for under $30 I fully fully endorse it.
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Oct 3, 2018 15:31
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I prefer Armagnac which is a bit more flavorful and not as expensive
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Oct 3, 2018 15:40
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I haven't ever had an armagnac on a night where I'm not being terrible to myself, so I always associate them with lovely fuckin' all day hangovers. Any specific brand/bottle recommendations?
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Oct 3, 2018 15:43
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Whalley posted:I haven't ever had an armagnac on a night where I'm not being terrible to myself, so I always associate them with lovely fuckin' all day hangovers. Any specific brand/bottle recommendations? Yeah, this. The liquor store here has them generally priced higher per bottle than I'd want just to try something. There's only a handful <$50.
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Oct 3, 2018 15:50
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I legit like Salignac VO cognac it's cheap but for a vo has a pretty good flavor profile. I also really enjoy Calvados which isn't exactly the same but I find to be a little bit lighter and more enjoyable.
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Oct 3, 2018 18:17
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The coolest thing about Armagnac is that it hasn’t seen much if any hype so you can still find old bottles for reasonable prices compared to other spirits.
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Oct 3, 2018 18:23
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Martell Cordon Bleu is my favorite booze and it costs like twice as much as it used to now, and I’m p sure it’s because of the Chinese.
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Oct 4, 2018 03:57
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They took our booze!
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Oct 4, 2018 15:12
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If you want something even less hyped than Armagnac and thus ridiculously affordable, drink you a Spanish brandy. The availability in North America is still a bit poo poo, but it's generally good stuff especially if you like the fuller-bodied, slightly more rustic style of Armagnac vs. Cognac.
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Oct 4, 2018 16:22
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I'm kinda bored with bourbon and have only found one brandy I like but then I haven't tried many brandies and even fewer cognacs. Maybe I will jot down some of these recommendations.
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Oct 4, 2018 21:36
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wormil posted:I'm kinda bored with bourbon and have only found one brandy I like but then I haven't tried many brandies and even fewer cognacs. Maybe I will jot down some of these recommendations. Try some Scotch if you haven't yet.
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Oct 4, 2018 22:05
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Vox Nihili posted:Try some Scotch if you haven't yet. Of course I have.
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Oct 5, 2018 01:36
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Mezcal is next up my dude.
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Oct 5, 2018 02:27
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wormil posted:Of course I have. Try it more!
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Oct 5, 2018 04:43
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wormil posted:I'm kinda bored with bourbon and have only found one brandy I like but then I haven't tried many brandies and even fewer cognacs. Maybe I will jot down some of these recommendations. How about some Rye? Lot40 is good. Or maybe some Irish stuff like Redbreast. Also try other Scothes. What have you tried?
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Oct 5, 2018 10:50
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General Emergency posted:How about some Rye? Lot40 is good. Or maybe some Irish stuff like Redbreast. Yeah, seconding the Redbreast recommendation. I drank bourbon primarily for a while, but Redbreast is probably my single favorite thing to drink right now. If you haven’t tried Rittenhouse Rye, I think it’s one of the best values out there. Aged rums like El Dorado 12 are also a great value with some complexity. For my own exploration of Scotch, I’ve had Macallan, Highland Park, Glenlivet, and a long time ago I tried Laphroaig and Lagavulin. I like spice, honey/heather, the holiday fruit & spice character of Redbreast, and some smokiness is ok (less keen on the heavy phenolic flavor). What should I try next?
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Oct 5, 2018 17:09
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Perhaps a Nikka Coffey Grain, if you like Bourbons and lighter whiskies? https://whiskyanalysis.com/index.php/2015/12/03/nikka-coffey-grain/
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Oct 5, 2018 17:32
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I managed to get a bottle of Ichiro's Malt & Grain today, it's a great whisky. Had a nip of the version that won a heap of awards recently and it was a real cracker. I was also pleasantly surprised by the Douglas Laing series of blended (regional) malts, the Epicurean, Scallywag, Timorous Beastie & Rock Oyster. Good whisky at a decent price. Haven't tried the Gauldrons (blend of Campbeltown malts) yet but looking forward to giving it a go when I see it.
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Oct 5, 2018 17:51
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Nm,
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Oct 5, 2018 18:28
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| # ? May 1, 2024 14:51 |
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Mandalay posted:Perhaps a Nikka Coffey Grain, if you like Bourbons and lighter whiskies? https://whiskyanalysis.com/index.php/2015/12/03/nikka-coffey-grain/ Thanks. I’ve had my eye on it; but was wary of buying due to the price. But I’ve heard really good things so maybe I’ll just get some.
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Oct 5, 2018 19:00
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