whiskey

yay i am going to bottling day next weekend (to make up for being sick last time). i will force myself to be unsick and report back on the awesome.

hooray! whiskey bottling was fun!

the distillery is very small. they're certified organic and kosher, locally owned, and they basically do it all themselves (a former computer scientist who got tired of the grind and his chemical engineer wife). they're great people. they gave us an overview of how they make the whiskey, and we got to go into the fermentation tent and see batches bubbling away.

they waste nothing - the heads of each batch are reused as cleaning solution, the tails are steeped with a 'tea bag' and redistilled to become gin, and they give the unused mash (basically all the grain, etc.) to a local cow farmer.

to bottle: whiskey is pumped through the whiskey cow 4 bottles at a time, then corked, sealed, labeled, packed. my job was putting the seals on over the tops (you know that shrink wrapped plastic part?). it was a lot of fun and we did 65 cases in about an hour!

yay!
http://a3.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/248495_10150209692789076_98590104075_6886555_7189632_n.jpg

in other news, my abc now has bulleit rye! i tried some last night but i think my throat is still a bit raw/off from being sick so i don't know if i was really appreciating it :(

I'm really not enjoying my bottle of Bulleit rye tbh. Has a great taste, but it burns like cheap whiskey. Would absolutely fuck up a 12 or 16 year version.

i grew to quite like the bulleit, but i can no longer afford it

A new whisky-centric spirits shop has opened in town, with a very nice selection. I'm particularly interested in their American whiskeys right now...

Old Fitzgerald 12 y/o
Elijah Craig 12 y/o & 18 y/o
Bernheim Original
Heaven Hill
J W Dant Special Reserve
Johnny Drum Green Label
Evan Williams Single Barrel 2000
Old Rip Van Winkle 10 y/o

Pikesville Supreme Rye
Van Winkle Family Reserve Rye 13 y/o

Any thoughts from those?

grab that van winkle rye if you can swing it--it's a v. scarce whiskey.

I picked up some of that new Jim Beam Devil's Cut stuff. Pretty decent! It's a lot sweeter than I expected.

everything on that list other than the van winkles and johnny drum (which might well be heaven hill stock) is from the heaven hill distillery, which has a multitude of brands and agings. evan williams sb is always worth a look, and i'd be real interested to try the fitzgerald too.

xp i just saw devil's cut in a store for the first time--definitely planning to check it out.

Thanks!

The Van Winkle Rye is most likely out of my price range at £67! I do see a lot of very good things being said about it though.

There are a few that are more within my price bracket and it would be good to try something totally new to me. Thus far I have tried & liked Knob Creek, Buffalo Trace, Jim Beam Black & Woodford Reserve on the American front. I'd really like to try a rye whiskey, so may give the Pikesville a punt, while lusting after the Van Winkle. Anyone got opinions on Pikesville rye?

haven't had it, but i think i can say i am not a fan of the bulleit rye. i've tried it plain and mixed in bevs. it was ok in a manhattan, but i like redemption a lot more.

I wish that transatlantic posting of booze were more doable - I'd love to do whisky/whiskey swappage with U.S. folks.

i'd def check the pikesville--same maker and mashbill as my beloved rittenhouse. i'm pretty sure i've had it in bars once or twice but it's not generally available in retail around here.

I like the Devil's Cut and it seems like a good summer whiskey - I infused half the bottle with tea - but I'm not sure I can see spending that much on a Beam-branded product again. At my liquor store, it's priced about the same as Maker's Mark, Bulleit, etc., which is just nuts.

Still have not tried the Bulleit Rye, even though it's carried here and I love both Bulleit and rye. Stubbornly resisting. Will probably give in sometime this summer.

i think i saw it at about 28 bucks? but that was the expensive store.

It's a few bucks less than that here - probably about $24, cause I got that, Aperol, and Q Tonic at the same time and it came to 50-something. So that's the same price as the Bulleit rye or Eagle Rare, a couple bucks more than Maker's Mark, a couple bucks less than Knob Creek. It's not as bad as the ridiculously high price point of ri(1), but it seems off.

Of course, part of me wants to travel the country buying up cases of it, just to encourage them to continue in this direction instead of cranking out more Black Cherry Flavored Red Stag.

ri(1) is so ridiculously-priced!

ri(1) just makes me angry. A GOOD rye wouldn't sell that high at that age - the only thing comparable is microdistillery rye, and nothing inflating the price there is applicable to a Beam product - but adding insult to wallet injury is that it isn't even as good as Old Overholt. It seems like a completely tone-deaf entry, a whiskey marketed with the awareness of the new popularity of rye but with an eye on the quadruple-distilled vodka drinkers, the same way Red Stag is whiskey's Parrot Bay.

Whiskey can be a lot of goddamn things, but it should never be bland.

Quick: aberlour 10 year or glengoyne 10 year?

xp i think basil hayden drives me crazier--do a nice 8-year aging, then water it down to 80 proof, stick it in a bottle with a weird label, and charge a premium price.

xp Both good, Aberlour 10 a personal preference.

And what else sets Basil Hayden apart? It's Beam's high-rye bourbon! See, as soon as rye gets involved they just fuck everything up.

But you're right, the price on that one is way out of proportion, given that the same company offers the cheaper Knob Creek and the better/higher-proof Booker's. It's one thing when a company's products are all overpriced, but Beam has such weird inconsistency in relative prices.

Booker's is definitely my favorite offering of those.

I want to try Old Potrero, but the one store that carries it around here keeps selling the couple bottles they get in stock before I get there.

And what else sets Basil Hayden apart? It's Beam's high-rye bourbon! See, as soon as rye gets involved they just fuck everything up.

yes! i knew there was something else that bothered me--hayden is actually extra-aged old grand-dad--how good would that be at 100 proof?

Probably a lot better!

They have a little booklet attached to Knob Creek/Basil Hayden's/Booker's bottles that have serving ideas. I think they recommend soda water for BH's and a splash of water for Booker's?

yeah i like basil hayden but i have never understood the pricing!!

yeah it seems like bh has a following as a soda/ginger mixer and as a hot-weather bourbon. i would be 100% down w/this if it was 10-15 bucks cheaper.

I want some Booker's right now, after having mentioned it again!

The worst is when you see Basil Hayden on a whiskey list somewhere where you'll be paying $10 for a shot of it. It's just not that kind of whiskey.

I mean, even ri(1) might be reasonable as a mixer - if it had a less ridiculous name and came at $18 a bottle, I might have a totally different opinion of it! But there are expectations that come with Criterion Collection prices.

sometimes i see it at the same price or $1 more than makers, knob, etc. and that's what gets me - why is a bottle so much more expensive than a bottle of makers?

makers is pretty much the gold standard for what whiskey snobs think is boring and overpriced, but is consistent in quality and gives you enough neutral bourbon flavor that isn't bland that it sells like hotcakes

i don't think anyone's dissing makers. i think we're confused about bh.

I'm somewhat dissing makers!

bh is indeed confusing

lol i thought you were defending it

No I like it quite a bit but I feel it's more of a commodity than a hot commodity, if you get my drift

definitely a safe bet, makers

One of the great things about Makers is that it's a good baseline bourbon - it's going to work in any cocktail recipe you find, whether you dredged it up from the Savoy or made a special trip to buy kalamansi and rau ram for a recipe from Rogue/Beta. If it doesn't work with Makers, the cocktail's no good.

absolutely, makers is very utilitarian.

i find the same for bulleit. (not the rye)

I love Bulleit in anything, but I've never been sure how objective I am about its versatility - probably one of my five favorite spirits. Well. Five favorite I can afford. The Charbay hopped whiskeys are mindblowing and I would drink them every day, but I'm never going to be able to afford to replace my review samples.

the sainsburys irish single malt is srsly good for £15

Yep, it's excellent. One of the best things Cooley is making at the moment.

There's been a great sale on there recently - a third off a lot of malts (Cardhu, Dalwhinnie, etc).

Very impressed with the Macallan Fine Oak 10 y/o that I just finished off.

I like to keep my old bottles after I finish the whisk(e)y, for display & memory purposes, but should I definitely be washing the bottles out or can I leave them?

I've been washing them thus far, but was wondering if I could leave them in order to maintain the slight smell of the whisk(e)y... Would this be a bad idea?

Won't hurt to leave them unwashed.

went to the store today, one bottle on the shelf, i thought all this stuff had been distributed:

http://www.astorwines.com/images/itemimages/hr/24889_hr.jpg

My mum is heading to Chicago & Vancouver & environs in a few weeks & I am going to push her to try and pick me up some american whiskey once again...

I'd love George T Stagg or something relatively high-end in the bourbon or rye department that's a hell of a lot cheaper in the states if possible (from my understanding such things are roughly half the UK price if you can find them). I will have to get the low-down on her itinerary...

Aiding & abetting in this endeavour welcome!

I'm used to spending £20-£30 for my single malts & ALL american whiskey is £20+ here, so I'd be willing to spend up to $60 or so (and possibly more for something worth it), to give you a price ballpark for ideas. Thanks!