Bottom-Shelf Brackets 2021: Round 1: Very Old Barton 86 proof vs. Old Grand-Dad 80 proof

March 25, 2021 Eric Burke

IMAGE: Number 1 seed Very Old Barton 86 proof sitting next to number 4 seed Old Grand-Dad 80 proof.

Fun fact. Both of the names on tonight’s labels have won this annual contest before. In the case of Very Old Barton, the 86 proof version was the winner in 2016. For Old Grand-Dad, it was the Bottled-in-Bond version that won in 2018. Old Grand-Dad 80 proof has never made it out of the first round. Let’s see if history repeats itself tonight.

Our first whiskey is our number one seed for Division Two. Coming in at 86 proof and looking to notch its second bracket championship, please welcome: Very Old Barton 86 proof!

And their opponent is the lowest-proof bourbon in Beam’s Old Grand-Dad line. The lower price (and lower quality?) version of Basil Hayden’s, please welcome Old Grand-Dad 80 proof!

Reminder, all of the competitions this year were tasted blind and we knew the winner of the competition prior to any reveal. Notes, thoughts, and conclusions were all from before we knew what was what. Needless to say, some of my conclusions were surprising to me. Tasting notes may be a little unusual since they were being tasted at the same time and could have influenced the perceptions of one another.

Whiskey 1 (Very Old Barton)

Purchase Info: $15.99 for a 1-liter bottle, Total Wine, Burnsville, MN

Price Per Drink (50 mL): $0.80

Details: 43% ABV.

Nose: Delicate. Mint, cinnamon, and floral notes.

Mouth: Follows the nose with mint, cinnamon, caramel, and floral notes.

Finish: Medium length and warm. Cinnamon and dried grains with a little caramel thrown in.

Thoughts: The nose is so delicate as to be almost non-existent. The mouth and finish provide more punch than the nose would suggest. Not a bad value bourbon.

Whiskey 2 (Old Grand-Dad)

Purchase Info: $17.99 for a 1-liter bottle, Blue Max, Burnsville, MN

Price Per Drink (50 mL): $0.90

Details: 40% ABV.

Nose: Caramel, red fruit, and a hint of mint.

Mouth: Caramel, cinnamon, vanilla, red fruit.

Finish: Gentle and medium length. Caramel, cinnamon, and a mineral note.

Thoughts: This is ok. That mineral note on the finish is throwing me a little. There is definitely a lot of flavor, I'm just not sure that it's a good flavor.

Winner: This was a fairly easy decision. #1 has a classic "value bourbon" flavor. Good, uncomplicated, tasty, and showing a touch of grain. #2 is a caramel bomb with an odd funk to it. It isn't bad, but I'm not sure I'm likely to reach for it once I know what it is. #1 wins easily.

IMAGE: Very Old Barton 86 proof advances to Round two over Old Grand Dad 80 proof.

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Bottom-Shelf Brackets 2021: Round 1: Evan Williams vs. Jim Beam

March 23, 2021 Eric Burke

IMAGE: Jim Beam White Label sitting next two Evan Williams Black Label. The number one and two best selling bourbons in the world respectively.

What a cool matchup we have in store tonight. We are featuring the world’s top two selling bourbons by volume (if you set aside that one from Tennessee that doesn’t want to be called a bourbon). Jim Beam is the world’s top-selling bourbon and Evan Williams is right behind them at number two. I didn’t plan this, it was luck of the seeding that set these two titans against each other, but that doesn’t mean that I wasn’t super excited once I realized it.

First up is our number two seed for Division One. Coming in at 86 proof and looking so good in black, please welcome: Evan Williams!

And its opponent is the number one selling bourbon across the world. Behemoth barely begins to describe this white-labeled giant, please welcome: Jim Beam!

Whiskey 1 (Evan Williams)

Purchase Info: $12.99 for a 1-liter bottle, Total Wine, Burnsville, MN

Price Per Drink (50 mL): $0.65

Details: 43% ABV.

Nose: Spearmint, caramel, and nutmeg.

Mouth: Caramel, mint, cinnamon candies.

Finish: Shorter side of medium. Notes of cinnamon and peanut butter cookies.

Thoughts: Not bad. Not bad at all. Classic value bourbon flavor profile.

Whiskey 2 (Jim Beam)

Purchase Info: $13.99 for a 750 mL bottle, Total Wine, Burnsville, MN

Price Per Drink (50 mL): $0.93

Details: 40% ABV.

Nose: Peanut, caramel, green vegetables.

Mouth: Thin mouthfeel. Caramel and cinnamon.

Finish: Medium length and warm. Peanuts and dried grains.

Thoughts: Even blind, I think I know what this is. The distinctive peanut note gives it away. though considering at least half of the participants are made by-or source from- Beam, I am fully prepared to be wrong. I like the finish, the mouth leaves a bit to be desired and I'm ambivalent regarding the nose.

Winner: I like the finish on #2 better but I prefer the nose and mouth on #1. #1 wins.

IMAGE: Evan Williams advances to Round 2 over Jim Beam

8th Annual BourbonGuy.com Bottom-Shelf Brackets: The "Find Joy in the Ordinary" Edition

March 16, 2021 Eric Burke

IMAGE: A screen capture of the time with the words “Find Joy in the Ordinary” below it.

I like to use a Chrome plugin called Momentum as a home screen for my instance of the Chrome browser. It has a new pretty photo every day. It tells me the time, local weather, and helps me with my to-do list. Recently it started showing “Mantras” below the time. I found the one pictured above to be particularly meaningful. “Find Joy in the Ordinary.”

It’s sometimes hard to do as a bourbon lover, finding joy in the ordinary. The entire purpose of a site like this is to give people a sense of what is new and exciting. Even if it is only new and exciting to me. So, this year I’ve made a commitment to myself to step back a little and to do what the computer screen told me to do. Find Joy in the Ordinary.

And, perfect timing, it’s time for the Bottom Shelf Bourbon Brackets again. Maybe it is just me, but I haven’t heard a lot of talk about the NCAA tournament this year…and I’m fully willing to admit that it may be because my beloved Golden Gophers were bad enough this year that the coach was fired at the end of the season. I might just be hiding from any news that has to do with the yearly basketball tournament.

Of course, as long-time readers know, I don’t really like basketball anyway. In fact, this series was started eight years ago as a way to play along with all the folks around me filling out their brackets, while not caring about basketball.

In recent years, I’ve gotten caught up in the excitement of more “interesting” bourbons. Two years ago, I decided to let the readers choose who participated. Last year, I threw out the concept of “Bottom-Shelf” entirely. But this year, following the advice of the computer screen, I’ve decided to find joy in the ordinary. And as such, I’m going old-school on this one. Back to the original rules. Back to some really “ordinary” bourbons. Things that would have been participants from the first few years before I started messing with the rules.

Here are the rules:

In keeping with the theme, it had to be “ordinary.” No Single barrel, no small batch. No Bottled in Bond. Anything that might be used to call something special was thrown out. This is for true entry-level bourbons.
The original rules stated that it had to be under $15 for a 750 mL bottle or under $20 for a liter bottle. I decided to keep that.
The original rules also stated that entries had to be Straight Bourbon Whiskey. I saw no reason to change that.
Participants were seeded based on proof and then age. Higher proof equals a higher seeding. If you stated a bourbon’s age when you didn’t have to, you got a nod over those, at the same proof, who didn’t. If you stated a bourbon’s age because you were young enough that the law required it, someone else got the nod over you.
These were tasted blind. I had no idea what each of the participants was when I tasted them. I poured 200mL bottles of each bourbon. I labeled them with an alphanumeric code and then filled out an initial bracket with those codes. Until we were finished I never saw the bracket or the bottles that were being poured again. My wife (who didn’t know which code corresponded to each bourbon) poured each round and filled out the winners in secret.

So, let’s meet the 2021 competition, shall we? Coming in at the number one overall seed is Ezra Brooks from Lux Row Distillery. This seeding comes down to proof, at 90 proof, this was the highest proof bourbon in the competition. They will initially match up against number four seed, Benchmark Bourbon from Buffalo Trace. At only “36 months” and 80 proof, this was the lowest seed in the competition. Rounding out Division One is a matchup between Heaven Hill’s Evan Williams Black Label and BeamSuntory’s Jim Beam White Label. Due to being 86 proof, Evan Williams was the second seed and due to stating its age, Jim Beam White gets the nod over other 80 proof offerings to take the first number three seed.

Over in Division Two, we have Very Old Barton (86 proof) from the Barton 1792 Distillery as the number one seed. They match up against Beam Suntory’s number four seed Old Grand Dad (80 Proof). In the second matchup, we have number two seed Wild Turkey (81 proof) against number three seed Rebel Yell from Lux Row.

This should be fun. Let’s go find joy in ordinary bourbon. So who’ve you got? Let everyone know down in the comments.

Basil Hayden's 10 Year Old Rye

February 2, 2021 Eric Burke

It is Groundhog Day today. And though I’m not one to put much faith in the weather-related prognostications of a large rodent, I did really enjoy the Bill Murray movie of the same name as a kid. I mean, I’m sure I would still like it, but it played on our HBO subscription so often that I haven’t felt the need to dive back in for the last 25 years or so.

So, being Groundhog Day today, it is fitting that I am taking a look at a Basil Hayden’s release. Like the main character reliving the same day over and over in the movie, I feel like I’m reliving the same experience every time I purchase one of these. Every single time that I buy one, I buy it expressly to review. But every time I do, I think to myself: “well, the last few haven’t been great, but maybe this one will surprise me.”

And then I’m never surprised.

In fact, after the 10-year-old bourbon, I was hesitant to ever buy a bottle of Basil Hayden’s again. Here is what I said about that:

In the past, I have excused the price of the original Basil Hayden. I had the thought that it was less of a cash grab for underproofed bourbon and more a brilliant way to get new bourbon drinkers into the fold. Knowing, from my own experiences that people new to any liquor category, at least those that don’t live on the bottom shelf, want “something good” to try out and also knowing that for most uniformed people “something good” actually means “something with a pretty bottle that has a bit of a higher price tag,” it stands to reason that this new-to-bourbon person might grab a bottle of super gentle Basil Hayden with it’s higher price and pretty bottle. Then after trying it—and not being scared off by the “burn”—maybe find they enjoy it. And then eventually move on to real bourbon. And that probably worked when there weren’t so many crap bourbons in pretty bottles on your local shelf with a price tag over $50. These days, original Basil Hayden can be one of the less expensive of the “pretty bottle crowd.” I saw it on sale for less than $30 as I was researching its local price tonight and have seen it that low (and bought it) in the past. So I thought Beam was reacting to the changing market by correcting the price downward. With the recent brand expansions, we have seen that is not the case. Original Basil Hayden may be cheaper these days, but all the new ones that share its name are not. And the worst offender is this 10 year old version. Like I said earlier, this is a perfectly acceptable bourbon. In fact, I wish more of the Old Grand Dad line had this kind of barrel influence on it. But the flavor is comparable to Buffalo Trace or maybe Henry McKenna Bottled in Bond. Notice I said flavor, not heat or complexity. This suffers from the same issue that Original Basil Hayden’s has: it’s too gentle and low proof for the price, but this doesn’t have the excuse of being a “gateway” bourbon.

So yeah…I knew this and yet the idea of a new experience for a well-aged rye whiskey was too good to pass up. I love a good rye. I love making cocktails with it. Let’s see if I’ve finally broken out of Groundhog Day or if this is just another repeat in a long line of repeats.

Basil Hayden's 10-Year-Old Rye

Purchase Info: $65.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Viking Liquor Barrel, Prior Lake, MN

Price per Drink (50 mL): $4.40

Details: 10 years old. 40% ABV

Nose: Cinnamon, clove, and mint.

Mouth: Thin in the mouth. Cinnamon, mint, almond, and oak.

Finish: Short and kinda bitter. Cinnamon, clove, oak, and cinnamon.

Thoughts: Wow. Not much to this one. I know I talked about my theories as to why Basil Hayden's exists above, but even for Basil Hayden's this is disappointing. It isn't bad, per se. But it isn't good either. It's just sort of... there. I'd give this one a pass unless you like oak flavors that have been diluted to the point of bitterness.

I think I’m done with Basil Hayden’s releases. This one finally killed it for me. I love most of the stuff that Beam is doing these days, but this one just isn’t for me. Maybe I’m finally breaking free of Groundhog Day…either that or I’m still stuck and will get to relive yet another repeat when the next release draws me in.

Booker's Bourbon: Batch 2020-03 "Pigskin Batch"

January 26, 2021 Eric Burke

I’d like to thank the folks at Jim Beam for providing the following review sample with no strings attached.

IMAGE: a small sample bottle of Booker’s Bourbon. 2020-03. Pigskin Batch.

I’m having a hard time believing that it has been since September of 2018 since I last had a bottle of Booker’s in the house. Truth be told, I don’t have a bottle of Booker’s in the house now either. The small sample I got of their most recent batch was finished this past weekend when I did the tasting notes below.

I’ve been meaning to pick up a bottle. But I’m always so distracted by the next “shiney” new thing to remember the old favorites. Because even with the price increases the brand has experienced, it is still one of the few $50+ bottles that I never regret buying. Sure since the price went up, it no longer sits on the “every day” bourbon shelf and is instead on the “special occasion” shelf. But honestly, that’s just a trick I play on myself to make it last longer. Which, at a recommended price of $89.99, is a good thing.

So, knowing all of that, it was an easy decision to inquire about a sample when the most recent batch of 2020 was introduced. This one is named for the fact that Booker Noe, like many of us, was a big fan of football. And since I was doing the tasting notes while I watched my Green Bay Packers lose on Sunday, it seemed fitting to grab this one for this week.

Booker's Bourbon: Batch 2020-03 "Pigskin Batch"

Purchase Info: This sample was graciously provided by the distillery for review purposes. The suggested retail price is $89.99

Price per Drink (50 mL): $6.00

Details: 6 years, 7 months, 7 days old. 63.65% ABV.

Nose: Caramel, vanilla, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Mouth: Thick mouthfeel. Caramel, cinnamon.

Finish: Warm and long. Sweet and spicy.

Thoughts: This reminds me that I need to buy Booker's more often. It's been way too long since I dropped the coin on it and it is always worth the cost to me. As expected, I'm really liking this one.

Knob Creek 12-Year-Old Cask Strength Bourbon

January 12, 2021 Eric Burke

IMAGE: The front label of Knob Creek Limited Edition Cask Strength Bourbon. 120.5 proof.

At just a hair over six feet tall, I am not the tallest person in the world, but I am the tallest in my family. I could literally look over a sea of in-laws, back when we could have holiday gatherings. I wasn’t just taller, but taller by a foot or more in some cases.

That’s right, I married into a family of short people.

And I’m here to tell you that this is a great thing. Sure, my wife asks me to get things off of the top shelf all the time but in return, I get a little something too. I have someone who can easily look on the bottom shelf at stores. Which is how we found this particular bottle.

We were at Total Wine to grab a handle of Wild Turkey 101. At $31 per 1.75-liter bottle, it’s the cheapest way to stock up on Wild Turkey within easy driving distance. And, as you do, as long as I was there I needed to browse the shelves. I noticed a couple of facings of Knob Creek 12-year-old down on the bottom shelf but didn’t think much of them as I’d already had it.

My wife, however, being much closer to the ground, noticed that each of the facings had a different price. One is almost twice the price of the other. After she pointed this out to me, I needed to take a closer look. It turns out that what I thought was two facings of Knob Creek 12 year old was in fact one facing of Knob Creek 12-year-old and one of Knob Creek 12-year-old Cask Strength. Obviously, this bottle came home with me.

I don’t feel too bad though as I’ve heard from friends that they also noticed the price difference without noticing the proof difference. To be fair to all of us, the labels look a lot alike. But enough of what the labels look like, let’s see how this one tastes.

Knob Creek 12-Year-Old Cask Strength Bourbon, Limited Edition

Purchase Info: $92.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Total Wine, Burnsville, MN

Price per Drink (50mL): $6.20

Details: 60.25% ABV. 12 years old.

Nose: Caramel, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla

Mouth: Spicy heat. Vanilla, caramel, oak, cinnamon red hots.

Finish: Medium to long with a big hit of oak initially which fades to reveal lingering cinnamon and mint.

Thoughts: I love this one. It's thick and chewy with the stereotypical bourbon notes that I just love. Damn. I really wish that I'd have bought two of these. But I'm guessing that my wife would have shot down the idea of spending about $250 when we had anticipated $35. Still though...

Later that day: OK, I couldn’t help myself. Right after I typed that, I went and looked at my local liquor store (Viking Liquor Barrel, Prior Lake, MN). And huzzah! They had it too. So I grabbed another one. This one had a higher proof (124.3) and a lower price ($84.99). I tasted them side-by-side and they are very similar with the higher proof one being a touch hotter and brighter. Still love it though. Really glad I got my hands on a second one.

Jim Beam Single Barrel - 108 proof

December 15, 2020 Eric Burke

IMAGE: Front label of the newish Jim Beam Single Barrel. Now 108° proof.

September 9th, 2020 was the last day that I saw any of my family in person. In this case, it was my mother-in-law and brother-in-law who needed tech support getting a wi-fi signal into a steel garage sitting a couple of hundred feet from her house. The combination of a large house, a steel garage, and the distance between them made for a tricky issue. You couldn’t get even a weak signal inside the building.

I like problems like this. I know enough to do the research on how to solve the problem and it allows me to learn something new. Thankfully, I knew that if I could get a signal into the building, a wi-fi repeater would allow the computer that they used in there to get a connection. And with a little time and experimentation with the position of the router and repeater, I got everything to work.

It was a fun project. I’d originally set up the network quite a few years ago when there was no need to get a connection to the outbuildings (and when the tech would have necessitated a physical connection to get there anyway). But as time passed, needs (and tech) changed. And so I got to do something new and interesting with it.

On the way home, I stopped into one of the liquor stores I traveled past in order to see what I could get in the state of Wisconsin that I couldn’t get in my home state of Minnesota. And while I was picking up my bottle of Four Roses Small Batch Select, I also noticed a bottle of Jim Beam Single Barrel that was 108 proof.

Now as you are probably aware, I usually know a fair bit of what goes on in the bourbon world just because the companies reach out and tell me. But somehow I’d missed that in late 2019, Jim Beam Single Barrel was refreshed. The old white-labeled 95 proof version was retired in favor of a new 108 proof version. Much like with my mother-in-law’s home network, tastes changed since the original was created. The bourbon public wants higher proof, non-chill filtered options. And it seems that Beam was happy to cater to those changing tastes.

Jim Beam Single Barrel - 108 proof

Purchase Info: $38.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Marketplace Foods, Menomonie, WI

Price per Drink (50 mL): $2.60

Details: 54% ABV. Barrel#: JB 000207013

Nose: Mint, ginger, caramel, light citrus, and peanut.

Mouth: Caramel, mint, cinnamon.

Finish: Medium length and warmth. Lingering notes of cinnamon, peanut, and oak.

Thoughts: This bottle is deceptively drinkable at 108° proof. I like it neat with no ice. Overall, I’d say that it is a very nice upgrade/refresh from the old 95° version. And I like that the price stayed about the same even more.

New Baker's Bourbon Website Allows You to Learn More About Your Bourbon

November 19, 2020 Eric Burke

So yeah, I know I don’t normally post news and really don’t go out of my way to highlight brand promotions, but when I got a press release about the new website for Baker’s bourbon, I was intrigued.

You know I am big on transparency. I’m a bourbon geek who loves to know everything there is to know about the juice in my bottle. It’s one reason I wish companies that source their whiskey would disclose the source of that whiskey. It’s more fun, and interesting, to know that the bourbon you are drinking is a mixture of Heaven Hill and Jim Beam than it is to wonder just where the juice in that bottle came from.

And that’s why I was intrigued by the new Baker’s bourbon website. They are giving you the chance to learn just a little more about the barrel your whiskey came from. Which since Baker’s is now a single barrel product is welcome. At least to me.

Sure, it’s a marketing gimmick to get you to buy more bottles. But if it helps you understand the differences between bourbon aged in different warehouses and on different floors, I’d say we all win.

Here’s how it works:

Grab your bottle of Baker’s and go to www.bakersbourbon.com/single-barrel-journey.

IMAGE: Landing page for https://www.bakersbourbon.com/single-barrel-journey

After you get through the age gate, enter the serial number on the neck tag of your bottle of Baker’s. Mine was 000426906.

IMAGE: Enter your Serial number in the box provided.

From there you’ll learn what campus, what floor and rack the whiskey was aged in.

Some of this is already available on the label. But between the website and the label, you’ll know the campus, the warehouse, the floor, and the rack where the whiskey in your bottle was aged. Mine says warehouse CL-P on the label which seems to be a non-Baker’s warehouse by the map they give of the Clermont Campus.

IMAGE: provided map of the Clermont Campus showing which warehouses Baker’

From there you can discover the timeline of your bourbon.

You’ll get the barrel date, the dump date, exactly how old it is, and you’ll also get some fun facts about what happened in the meantime. Including what happened in history the month your whiskey was barreled and the weather it was subjected to while it aged.

IMAGE: An example of the “Fun Facts” you’ll learn about the barrel. In this case the hottest day.

At the end, you’ll get a summary image of the info you learned. And for a limited time, they are offering a little more. I’ll let the PR email talk now:

To Go Even Further “Behind The Barrel” (For A Limited Time!)

At the end of the journey, you will be prompted to enter the limited-time program with your name, email and date of birth
Check your email to see if you were one of the first people to make the cut for our one-of-a-kind special offer - a unique photo with Baker Beam himself in front of your bottle’s rackhouse and/or an exclusive tasting with Freddie Noe!

So there you have it. I know this reeks of a paid ad, but it isn’t. I just thought it was neat and agreed to share in case you also think it is neat. I even turned down a free bottle of Baker’s and bought my own down at my corner liquor store. (I really enjoy Baker’s so that wasn’t a hardship.)

Regular posts back tonight.

Blog

Whiskey 1 (Very Old Barton)

Whiskey 2 (Old Grand-Dad)

Whiskey 1 (Evan Williams)

Whiskey 2 (Jim Beam)

Basil Hayden's 10-Year-Old Rye

Booker's Bourbon: Batch 2020-03 "Pigskin Batch"

Knob Creek 12-Year-Old Cask Strength Bourbon, Limited Edition

Jim Beam Single Barrel - 108 proof

Grab your bottle of Baker’s and go to www.bakersbourbon.com/single-barrel-journey.

After you get through the age gate, enter the serial number on the neck tag of your bottle of Baker’s. Mine was 000426906.

From there you’ll learn what campus, what floor and rack the whiskey was aged in.

From there you can discover the timeline of your bourbon.