Ask Arok: Your Questions, My Answers... A Question About Barrel Proof

June 2, 2015 Eric Burke

A few days ago, I got an email from Tom asking about barrel proof.

Hi Arok......

I need a little clarification. I just received a bottle of "Booker’s” in a nice box, as a gift. The label says single barrel 127 proof. It aroused my curiosity. Then I read that Garrison Brothers have a new release "Cowboy Bourbon" @ 134 proof (not for the faint of heart)....! I thought to be "Bourbon.” whiskey had comply with certain criteria one of which is that it couldn't be barreled at higher than 125 proof....... what’s the story here?

Thanks for your help.

Tom

Tom asks a great question. To answer it we need to dig a little into the science behind aging. While it is true that bourbon can’t be barreled at higher than 125 proof, that is only true for the liquid going into the barrel. What happens after that is up to nature.

Let’s take a look at what happens during aging. There are three basic things going on: extraction of flavor, chemical reactions, and then the interaction with the surrounding environment (which is where Tom's question comes in). So to look at each in turn:

Extraction of flavor: Alcohol is a solvent and like all solvents, it loves to dissolve things. In the case of bourbon that is all the caramel and vanilla flavors that burning a piece of oak allows the alcohol access to. This happens pretty quickly in the grand scheme of things. It’s why you can get something that tastes like “bourbon” at six months or less in a small barrel. It doesn’t taste exactly like the large, mainstream bourbons, but it has a lot of the same characteristics. At this point it is basically a wood extract, kind of like the vanilla extract you’d find in your kitchen cupboards. Only in this case, it’s wood flavors dissolved in alcohol not vanilla bean.

Chemical Reactions: This is a function of time. Certain things happen to that extract as time passes while it is in the presence of oxygen. Molecules break down and recombine into tasty combinations that give a well matured whiskey a lot of the tasty flavors we associate with it. How does that oxygen get into the barrel? A properly constructed barrel is very good at keeping liquid inside, but luckily isn’t so good at keeping air inside (or outside).

Which brings us to the answer to Tom's question: interaction with the environment. In general terms, if you were to look at both the ethanol molecule and the water molecule, you would notice something. The ethanol molecule is much larger. As such, the water molecule can more easily pass through the grain of the oak being used in the barrel. This means that two things can happen:

In a hot environment, such as the upper floors of a rick house in Kentucky, water and ethanol evaporate. The water passes through the wood, but the alcohol stays behind. As such the alcohol per volume of the liquid goes up as the volume of liquid goes down due to the water escaping. This is why a barrel proof bourbon such as Bookers or Stag can be higher in proof than the liquid that originally went into the barrel.
In a cool moist environment, such as the bottom floor of a rick house with a dirt floor, just the opposite happens. It’s cool enough that there isn’t as much evaporation happening, but the air going in and out of the barrel, being moist, is bringing water into the barrel. And so the total alcohol by volume goes down as the volume of water goes up. This is why the new Wild Turkey 17 year old can be barrel proof at well below the proof that it went into the barrel.

Of course, this is just a simplified version of the science behind aging. People with degrees in more than art probably can give all the charts and more specific reasons behind these processes, but this is how it was explained to me.

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Don’t look a gift whiskey in the mouth

May 19, 2015 Eric Burke

My wife’s boss doesn’t drink whiskey. I hear he is a nice enough man and though I’ve never met him, I have a feeling we wouldn’t get along. I’ve heard that there are people out there worth talking to that do not drink whiskey, but I don’t know that I’ve found one. I have a hard enough time understanding folks who prefer scotch to bourbon. But no whiskey at all? That’s kind of a stretch.

Anyway, my wife’s boss received a bottle of whiskey from his daughter-in-law who got it at work. He didn’t want it so he gave it to my wife and I since he knew we liked whiskey. When we first found out he would be doing that, we were appreciative, but joked that it would probably be something like Rebel Yell. Rebel Yell being the only bourbon so bad that I couldn’t finish the bottle. (I’m even finishing the Old Crow!)

So it was with a bit of amusement that my wife told me as she got home that, “guess what, it really was Rebel Yell.” It’s an interesting feeling being both amused and disappointed. I was as amused as she was. Because “of course it is.” But here’s the thing. As I pulled it out of the bag, I noticed something. I saw that the label had changed, reminding me of a PR email I received.

I get a lot of people asking if I want samples. I always say no even though sometimes it’s hard, knowing I might not get to taste it otherwise. Other times it is really easy. The Rebel Yell email was an easy one. The gist of my response was: “Sorry, already reviewed that one and I wasn’t nice.” I wish I had read the press release a little closer. It seems that Luxco has released a couple more whiskies under the Rebel Yell name. And the gift whiskey I got was one of those. It’s not Rebel Yell Bourbon. It is Rebel Yell American Whiskey: a blend of bourbon and rye whiskey. So I opened it up. And it wasn’t bad.

Which caused something to crystalize in my brain:

If you’ve never had it, you never know what is going to be in a bottle until you open it.

It’s simple and sounds obvious once you hear it, but it’s worth reminding ourselves sometimes. Too often we tend to judge a whiskey by what we “know” about it, it’s price or who did or didn’t produce it, instead of what it tastes like. In this case I almost let my preconceptions get in the way of something that seems fairly tasty. I have no idea how long that would have remained on the shelf in the closet if I hadn’t taken a closer look at the new label.

So it seems my wife’s boss and I are cool now (even though we’ve still never met). It seems that having someone in your life who doesn’t drink whiskey is an ok thing. I mean how else would I have gotten free whiskey?

(A more formal review will come once I’ve been able to spend some time with the bottle, but I was reminded of this lesson and felt like sharing.)

If this were my last $100 to spend on Bourbon

May 12, 2015 Eric Burke

Occasionally life throws you a curveball. Last week I was laid off from my job. Don’t feel too bad for me though. I’d been thinking of trying my hand at going freelance for a while anyway. Now, I get the chance.

One downside of suddenly finding yourself self-employed is that I will have to watch my bourbon spending for a while until I know for sure how things are going to go. With that in mind, I was reminded of a topic that a lot of folks were writing about the last couple weeks. Some as part of a greater project, some on their own. As in my current work situation, I am going it alone.

Now a regular month sees me spend about $100 on whiskey for the blog. I’d put that budget in place long ago to keep me in line. So deciding what to do with $100 is a common problem. Most months I’d look for something new, interesting or something I hadn’t gotten around to reviewing yet. I pair that with a favorite value pick for “everyday.” Something like Wild Turkey 101 or Four Roses Yellow.

But inspired by current circumstances, what if it were my last $100 to spend on bourbon? Now that is an interesting twist. You could go many ways. You could either go out with a bang and blow it all on one bottle. Something big and rare. But you might have that money in your pocket for a while before you found something suitable. Or you could go the other way and just load up on value bourbons. Things like Old Grand-Dad and Evan Williams Bondeds. Things that cost around $20 for a liter. Of course you could go deep down into a hole that resembles the Bottom Shelf Brackets but even I only do that for the clicks.

But I do have some favorites and if it were my last $100 to spend on bourbon, I know that I couldn’t pass those up.

The first is Wild Turkey Rare Breed. This was the first barrel proof bourbon I had and it is still one of my favorites. I love the deep rich bourbon flavors it brings to the table. And though it can be a little hot, a cube of ice tames it nicely. My wife and I love this one so much I didn’t even get in trouble for getting it for her for Valentine’s Day one year. At my favorite whiskey store this is $36.98 as I type this.

My other favorite regular release bourbon I would need to get with my last $100 would have to be Four Roses Single Barrel. I’m on a budget so none of the Barrel Proof private selections this time. But that isn’t a hardship. The normal Single Barrel has been a favorite since my first visit to the Four Roses distillery way back when their gift shop was the size of a large closet. (And one that it seems I’ve never actually reviewed even though I’ve reviewed a lot of Four Roses. Going to need to file that away…) It just tastes the way I want bourbon to taste and it is consistently good. My favorite whiskey store is selling it for $42.98 right now.

So that brings me to $79.96. And since I never include tax in my budget (just ask my accountant wife how much that bugs her) that leaves me with $20.04 left to spend. I’m afraid that I’m going to have to make a value play here. Probably a liter to carry me through as long as possible. And after looking at my favorite whiskey store I see that Elijah Craig 12, Fighting Cock, Old Grand-Dad Bonded and Bulleit are all under $20. And they would all be good choices. But since I want a liter, I also see that Evan Williams Bonded is only $17.98. This one almost won my most recent Bottom Shelf Bracket so I’m going to go with that.

All I can say is thank goodness this isn’t my last $100 to spend on bourbon, but if it was, I think these would make good choices. And no, Ace did not sponsor this post, but they are my favorite whiskey store (and their prices are available online).

Handcrafted? Yes.

April 7, 2015 Eric Burke

In the last few months there has been a lot of news regarding the lawsuits alleging a misuse of the term handcrafted by members of the bourbon producing community. And on the face of it, it almost sounds legit. The lawyer alleges that something can’t be hand made if it is made in a giant computer controlled factory. If you didn’t know anything about whiskey, that argument might make you believe that the lawyer was onto something. To many people, handcrafted means that there is at least a little skill, a bit of human touch involved in making the product. (To others who are a bit more cynical it is a marketing term that has long since lost all meaning to reasonable folks.) So the lawyer tries to convince people that he knows what he is talking about, because computers.

What this lawyer either doesn’t understand or is betting that a judge doesn’t understand is that there is a very large difference between distillate and whiskey. If Jim Beam, Makers or any other bourbon maker were bottling distillate there might be a case to be argued. Might.

You see distillate is a product that could conceivably be very tightly controlled by people who know what they are doing and, yes, with computers. But bourbon is a natural product. It goes into a barrel and sits there for a good long time. And the longer it sits, the more influence the barrel has in the finished product. But just as each tree is different, so too is the infusion of each tree. The bourbon. Because at a basic level that’s all bourbon is. An infusion of charred new oak by a grain based alcohol solvent.

And yet, the bourbon from each batch tastes so close to the same that if you didn’t have them side by side you’d never know the difference. Or for most people, even if you did. So how does that happen? Well, bourbon manufacturers have a tasting panel. It could be one person, it could be many. And they do quality control. They make sure each batch tastes like the reference sample that they are aiming for within tolerances. And if they are off, they fix it by adding another whiskey until it is right.

Let’s look at an illustration. For this example we are going to pretend that oak changes a distillate’s color instead of flavor. Mostly because it is easier to visualize color than flavor.*

We’ve got three barrels we are using to make whiskey. One produces a light orange color, one a pink color and one a teal color. If you mix all of these together in equal amounts you will get a brown color. And so you’ve got your first batch of bourbon.

But then you go to make you second batch and you realize that what came out of the second batch of barrels are not the same colors as the first three barrels. So you need to go find barrels that will make this batch of whiskey as close as you can get to the first batch. In this case what you find is that if you mix a different pink, a lime green and a light purple together you will get a brown that is extremely close to the initial batch. So close you couldn’t tell the difference.

One more example, this time we want to make a lot of whiskey. So once again based on our reference sample, we mix and match until we find that if we take 6.5 parts of light orange, 6.5 parts of pink, 6 parts of teal, 4.5 parts of the other pink, 5 parts of lime green and 5.5 parts of light purple we once again end up with almost the exact same brown as our sample.**

In each of these examples we are trying to match that initial reference sample. And in each case the art, the skill, the human touch comes in while taking the different results you get from many different barrels and mixing them together to get a consistent result that matches the reference. You may argue that distillate can be computer-made in a factory but to me, bourbon qualifies as handcrafted.

The Maker's Mark tasting panel. Shot in September 2014 while on the Beyond the Mark tour.

*They are in mason jars because this idea came from a bourbon 101 presentation I used to do where I would invite volunteers to mix a color based on a reference sample to show this very topic. All of the colored waters were stored in mason jars and that shape just stuck in my mind.

**Don’t believe me? Take the illustrations into photoshop, sample the colors and mix them in the same proportions. It works.

What the Hell? (An exploration of the Craigslist secondary market)

March 3, 2015 Eric Burke

Want a laugh? Go troll Craigslist looking for bourbon. You will find legitimate collectable items of both the liquid and memorabilia types. But mixed in among the legit collectables are those that people only wish were collectable. Folks looking to make a buck (or hundred) by preying on the unsuspecting and uninformed.

A while back, I solicited people on twitter to send me some of their favorites. What follows are the ones I liked best out those submissions. Thanks to all who participated.

St. Petersburg

Let's start with something that really is hard to find, But seriously? This is over a 300% markup. Glad to have paid gift shop prices for mine.

That's a little better. Only a 200% markup (roughly). It must be on sale though. I mean "Ther prise is Final !" after all.

"It may not have the same demand as (That which will not be named) but that won't stop me from charging the same price as it."

I was starting to worry that this guy wouldn't be able to feed his family after the last two which were listed at only a 200% markup. But here we are, back to 400% or so. whew!

Chicago/Illinois

I like the bourbon...but damn.

In case you were curious, you shouldn't drink this $100 bourbon. It's for display only.

Apparently if you leave the city, the price drops. Those poor suckers in Champaign/Urbana. (shakes head) But if you want tasting notes with your gouging, this is your guy.

Missouri

$125 for a liter of "Poor Man's Pappy." Apparently the definition of poor is different in Missouri. Having traveled through much of it, I wouldn't have guessed that.

Dallas

It's Booker's! with keywords of Buffalo Trace, Angel's Envy and (That which will not be named).

New York

It's impossible to find as shown by all the Weller 12 listings we've found. Though by this point in the list, this asking price feels almost...reasonable.

Damn! Man! At least leave the store parking lot before you sell that collectible bit of HAZMAT!

Minneapolis

Can't leave my home town out, can I?

Feel like trading your Booker's 25th, Four Roses Limiteds, or Buffalo Trace Antique Collections for a bit of Old Weller Antique 107 proof? Yeah, me neither.

"The value is in the collectable (sic) container, its label, not contents inside." Finally one I agree with. The stuff inside is terrible. Though if you want, the container that bad I'll give you mine. I'll even throw in the last quarter bottle or so for good measure

Alaska

Nothing seems shady here. $75-$100 for an ounce and a half of liquid in an unmarked bottle? Or I can get all 12 and save $100!?! Where do I sign up?

Louisville

And before you think it's just folks who don't know bourbon, here's one from the heart of Bourbon Country.

I just want to know how much he's charging for that collectible mason jar filled with a "representation of a 50/50 mixture that has mingled for two weeks" in a mason jar. I mean, I'd also imagine it'd be delicious (if it were intended for consumption).

Tiffiny: a Jim Beam poodle

February 5, 2015 Eric Burke

My family has a log cabin in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. It was built by my grandfather, his brother and father. It’s not a big place or a fancy place, but it is a comfortable place. And aside from necessary maintenance, it’s the perfect place to unplug and relax.

You almost have to. Unplug that is. There is electricity, but no phone, no tv, very little cell reception and no running water. This last one is a bit inconvenient and is one of the reasons that I tend to bring my camper to stay in. (The other being the previously mentioned lack of size.) One of the side effects of the lack of running water is that I find an excuse at least once a day to make a trip into the nearest town.

It’s not that hard to find an excuse. I like going into town. It’s a area who’s major industry is tourism. Lots of folks out fishing means that there are also lots of people who don’t like to fish who need something to do. Main Street is usually a busy place. There are shops that sell everything from kitsch to charming, a candy store that makes it’s own chocolate and taffy, a winery and, of course, numerous bars.

The town also has plenty of liquor stores. You could probably find a Fleischmann’s Rye if you wanted. You probably shouldn’t want to though. I’ve visited most of them looking for dusties, but these places tend to discount unsold merchandise to get it out the door.

That doesn’t mean a dusty hunter there is out of luck though. I’ve had a lot of luck at small town antique stores. And a tourist spot like this has a ton of antique stores. On one trip last summer I found an adorable little poodle decanter, which was unopened and full of 8 year old Jim Beam from the early 70s. Tiffiny, the poodle, was the mascot of the National Association of Jim Beam Bottle & Specialties Clubs. And since Jim Beam made decanters to celebrate almost everything (seriously, I once saw one for a chili cook-off) it’s only natural that they made one for one of the clubs that celebrated that fact.

The upside is yummy old Jim Beam. The downside is that there is a possibility that, in the 40 years it sat in that glazed decanter, the alcohol leached lead out of the glaze and into the liquid*. I’ve read conflicting reports online, but to this point I haven’t had it tested.

I did take the risk to have a small amount of it tasted. By me.

Bourbon from Jim Beam Tiffiny Poodle Decanter

Purchase Info: Antique store, Hayward, WI

Details: Aged “100 months.” 86 proof.

Nose: Brown Sugar and maple. Cherries. Leather. Dark chocolate. Faint floral notes.

Mouth: Nice and Thick. Leather and chocolate covered cherries. There is a nice tingle on the sides of your tongue. Lots of floral notes and baking spices, plus the classic bourbon notes of caramel and vanilla.

Finish: Nice. A tingle all the way down. Classic bourbon notes of caramel and vanilla. A Hint of baking spices.

Thoughts: (unlike the normal measured thoughts, these are just transcribed from a stream of conscious set of notes I made while tasting it) “Wow! I just want to keep smelling this. The nose is almost alive in it’s complexity. It keeps evolving and changing. The mouth and finish have such a nice tingle. It’s crazy that the proof is so low. It’s relationship to today’s Jim Beam is apparent, but this is so much richer. This is a bourbon you smell for a half hour before tasting it, and then realize 20 minutes later that you’re still smelling way more than tasting. It isn’t that the taste is bad, far from it. It’s that the nose is so pleasurable. I wish I could drink like this more often.”

So yeah, I liked it…but on the whole, I’m not sure I’m willing to sit down and have a glass of this without further testing. Even though it’s really good, I’m not sure that risking my health is worth it.**

*http://www.straightbourbon.com/forums/showthread.php?16193-Leaching-of-Lead-into-Whiskey-from-Ceramic-Decanter-Glazing

**For more information on lead poisoning visit: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002473.htm

A Case for Flavored Whiskey

January 27, 2015 Eric Burke

In the whiskey community, flavored whiskey has a bad reputation. And if you are only looking at it through the lens of a bourbon purist, you may feel it’s deserved. More than once I’ve heard someone say something along the lines of: “there’s a whiskey shortage and they go use some of that precious liquid for [insert name of your most hated brand here, Fireball, PieHole, Jim Beam Maple, etc].”

I believe this is a misplaced view. In fact, I have a theory that in today’s whiskey environment, the existence of flavored whiskey might even make the bourbon you drink neat taste better. Let me propose a simplistic thought experiment (since admittedly blending is much more complex than this).

To keep it simple, let’s say you fill 100 barrels. Due to the nature of barrels and aging, each of those barrels taste a little different. Some are amazing, a couple are downright funky. Once upon a time you may only have had a couple of brands. You took the barrels that hit a certain flavor profile and blended them to make that brand. The rest might go into a different brand or be sold off to another producer. Today though everyone (both producer and consumer) wants a premium single barrel or small batch bourbon. And while it is possible that about 25-30 years ago everyone got really good at making bourbon at the same time, it’s more likely that they started pulling out the really good barrels that they’d previously been putting into the regular releases.

So back to that thought experiment. You’ve got 100 barrels of fully matured bourbon. You have three products that you put out. You have a single barrel premium expression at a high proof, a “small batch” expression at a lower proof and an entry level expression that’s right at 80 proof to make it as affordable as possible. So let’s look at how you might select barrels for each of these three expressions.

First the single barrel. This is going to get the tastiest barrels. They have to each be able to stand on their own. So if you have amazing barrels, they should probably go here. And out of 100 barrels you’ll get what? Maybe 10 that are that amazing? (Yes, I pulled that number out of my ass and yes, I think that 10% is extremely generous.)

Next is your “small batch” expression. You plan to use a smallish number of barrels to create this rather just dumping everything together. So let’s say you are holding back 25 barrels to make this. These are barrels of varying quality. Each adding just what you need to make it taste just right. Some will be light and fruity, some spicy and rich, maybe even a couple that are basically wood extract. Blending is hard. Even in the small scale experiments I do here at home, using only amazing whiskey, some come out damn near undrinkable. So you are going to have to chose just the right ones.

Finally, the entry level expression. This is whatever is left, right? I really hope not, you took out all the really good ones. Plus, you’re still trying to hit a flavor profile. If you just dumped everything else in there, the funky ones mentioned above are now a higher percentage of what’s left than they were of the original. For simplicity’s sake let’s go with 10% funky barrels to match our 10% honey barrels. 10 funky barrels in the 65 remaining barrels is about 15% funk instead of 10%.

So if you can’t blend funk away as easily, what can you do? Sell them to another producer, of course. But who’d buy them? What if, maybe, there is an in-house market for that. Maybe you dump a bunch of flavor in there, cover up the funk, call it Cinnamon Whiskey and sell it to frat boys.

And so even though neither you nor I drink it, that’s why I like flavored whiskey. But, you are going to say “that’s just a simplistic thought experiment.” Yep, in real life you also make apple pie, honey, maple and black cherry whiskey too.

UPDATE: I mistakenly forgot to mention that Josh Wright of SipologyBlog was kind enough to read this one over before I published it to make sure I didn't say anything too stupid. Any mistakes are mine. Josh, you have my deepest thanks!

Adding Water to Your Bourbon: Exploring Dilution

December 4, 2014 Eric Burke

It feels like there are so many proof chasers out there. You always hear things like: “this would be great if there was just a little more proof on it.” Obviously things that are too diluted are less than tasty. But I propose that too high of a proof can be just as bad too. Especially in this era of “I only drink things neat” that many new whiskey drinkers seem to think is cool.

The old timers like to say that a higher proof whiskey is better because then you can water it down as much as you like. I like that. I’ve always seem to prefer things that are in the goldilocks zone. Not too high, not too low.

But being a blogger, I need to put my money where my mouth is. And coincidentally it just so happens that the final two pours of my attempt at blending a barrel proof Four Roses Yellow Label were slated for removal (drinking down after reaching 1/4 full to free up shelf space and prevent hoarding). I thought they were amazing, spicy and complex. They were also barrel proof. So what’s a poor blogger to do but water them down in the name of science?

Using math (and water), I diluted the initial 56.24% ABV sample down to 50%, 45% and 40% ABV. I let them sit for a while to incorporate and then my wife and I tasted them together.

40% ABV sample

Nose: Bubble gum, oak, thick caramel and a hint of mint.

Mouth: thick mouthfeel, odd for an 80 proofer. sharp ginger, sweet caramel

Finish: lingering spice and warmth.

Thoughts: Like a spicy cookie. There is ginger and caramel, but not much more. Tasty though.

45% ABV sample

Nose: A bit soapy at first. Juicyfruit gum, caramel and oak.

Mouth: Sweet and spicy again. There is a nice roundness to the mouthfeel. Baking spices, cayenne, caramel and vanilla.

Finish: Warm, but mellow (this lives up to the Four Roses marketing even if they didn’t blend it). A slight lingering sharpness that transistions to dark chocolate.

Thoughts: This makes me wish for a slightly older Yellow Label with just a bit less water in it. This is delicious and a vast improvement over the 80 proofer. It’s sweeter and the spice is more complex and less sharp. The mouthfeel was round and pleasant. I enjoyed this very much.

50% ABV sample

Nose: Rich. Buttery brown sugar, cinamon spice, mint.

Mouth: Sugery sweet on entry, sharp oak flavors as it moves back.

Finish: Tannic. Baking spices and lingering warmth.

Thoughts: The higher proof on this one shows the oak a little too much. It’s tasty, but a bit hot and sharp compared to the others.

Comparison Thoughts:

All of the single barrels that went into this belnd were at least 8-9 years old with some edging into the 11 year range. As such, it is quite a bit older than what I assume to be in the regular Yellow Label Four Roses. It is just about perfect at 90 proof.

I’m struck by how different each of these are considering they were all poured out of the same bottle at the same time. Water is an amazing addition to whiskey. I agree with the old timers here, the main benefit to buying whiskey that is of a higher proof is so you can water it down to where you feel it’s best. Even if that is barrel proof.

(And yes, I do really want an older and higher proof yellow label…)