Green Tea. Wild Turkey 81 soon. Gotta punch down the sunflower-millet bread dough and prep for the second rise. Then its bourbon time.

Bulleit

My first try at bourbon. It was inexpensive and reviews seemed to be generally positive so why not?

I'm liking it a lot! Buffalo Trace or Blanton's next.

If you like Bulleit try Four Roses. Both very high rye. Both made at Four Roses.

And If you like Blantons try Elmer T Lee. Same juice. Read this:

http://redwhiteandbourbon.com/...-barrel-warehouse-h/

Thanks for the suggestions. Is it just me or are there simply more good choices in the entry level Bourbon category than Scotch? Do you enjoy Irish and Canadian too? Of course I'd love to try some of the nice Japanese whiskys too.

And I just wanted to pick the brains of some of the more experienced whiskey drinkers. What are your favorite "daily" drinkers? The ones you always have in stock?

Bushmills Honey.

quote:

Originally posted by Ian111:
Thanks for the suggestions. Is it just me or are there simply more good choices in the entry level Bourbon category than Scotch? Do you enjoy Irish and Canadian too? Of course I'd love to try some of the nice Japanese whiskys too.

And I just wanted to pick the brains of some of the more experienced whiskey drinkers. What are your favorite "daily" drinkers? The ones you always have in stock?

there are many good Bourbons and Ryes in the $25-50 range which are generally available.

My bar is a mix of commonly available and hard to track down, and the prices range from ~$30 (Elmer T Lee) to upwards of $200 (Van Winkle 20yr), but 18 were less than $100/ea, and around 6 of them are $50 or less, IIRC. But, again, there are many choices < $60/ea.

So I've discussed before, I make a point to stock 20 different Bourbons and Ryes at home, and specifically 20 (because it fits perfectly in a shelving unit where I keep them and is an easy nunumber and some sort of limit) after trying 250 or so - pretty much everything available in the last 20yrs, and at times having as many as 45 open bottles at once, which gets to be too much. So I've spent a few years now tweaking the list, and it's hard to keep it to 20 because there are many good ones. And a few rotate out because of availability, but most of the list is static.

I tend to favor higher proofs, love Ryes and Wheaters in particular, and intentionally seek diversity in terms of which physical Distillery it comes from (there are only 7 or so that matter, each with one to several proprietary mashes, and 99% of all Bourbon and Rye comes from the same big ones). Anyway, that's my approach, guided most importantly by what tastes good to me.

That said, my 20 are (listed by Proof, then Age, Descending):

George T Stagg Barrel Strength
EH Taylor Barrel Strength
WL Weller Barrel Strength
Elijah Craig Barrel Strength
Thomas Handy Barrel Strength Rye

Four Roses Single Barrel Barrel Strength
Makers Mark Barrel Strength
Old Grand Dad 114
Willett 4yo Rye Single Barrel
Van Winkle Pappy 15

Knob Creek Single Barrel
Wild Turkey Barrel Strength
EHTaylor Bottled in Bond Rye
Van Winkle Rye
Van Winkle Pappy 20

Bulleit 10yo
Van Winkle Lot B
Woodford Reserve
Buffalo Trace Lost Barrels (17yr 7mo old Old Charter)
ElmerTLee Single Barrel

facts:
8 Barrel Strength expressions from 7 physical Distilleries
coverage of 9 physical Distilleries
Barrel Strength expressions of Rye, Wheater Bourbons, and Ryed Bourbons (high and low Rye)
5 Single Barrels
1 from lost barrels
1 bottled in bond
1 from copper stills
Age ranges from 4yo to 20yo
Proof ranges from 90 to 143

(pardon the length and any mistakes, it's from memory and via my phone...)

All that said, one needn't go to such lengths or spend that much.

In the common and good and reasonably priced range, I enjoy:

from Beam: Bookers, Bakers, Basil Hayden, Knob Creek, Old Grand Dad 114
from Buffalo Trace: Buffalo Trace, Blantons, Elmer, Sazerac Rye, all Wellers.
from Heaven Hill: Elijah Craig 12yo, Henry McKenna.
from Four Roses: any of them, and any Bulleit.

As well as Woodford, anything Wild Turkey or Russels Reserve, Templeton Rye, shit, more than I can recall offhand.

And lastly, I promise:

even as a person of Scots-Irish ancestry, and one who likes some Irish and Scotch and Canadian and Japanese whiskeys, I prefer Bourbon and Rye by a country mile, so much so that I'll drink the others but wouldn't trade a spot on my shelf of even my cheapest Bourbon for *any* Scotch or otherwise. And to date I've had most every Irish whiskey (Red Breast 12 and Green Spot are where its at) and maybe 40 Scotches (I enjoy Macallan 12 and Barrel Strength, Balvenie Double Wood, Glenmorangie 10, a few others). different strokes...

cheers.

I'll shut up now.

No, no go on. I can listen to whiskey talk all day. Thanks esp the last post. I want to try all of them.


Sidebar: Growing up I remember my father liked to drink Scotch and all he drank were Johnny Walker Red and sometimes Chivas Regal. I know he could have bought more expensive stuff but he never allowed himself to indulge in that way his focus being providing enough and maybe more for his family. One day he came over to my house last year and I caught him holding and looking at my bottle of JW Black. He no longer drinks but I wish I could have offered him a glass.

Anyways my thoughts went to my father as I drink this bourbon. Cheers dad. And cheers to you.

cheers indeed, to dads and whiskey.

my father doesn't drink much (quantity or frequency) but he's always drank Crown and Jack, with Coke or 7up. it all started there. I drank such things too, until maybe 10yrs ago when my whiskey tastes matured and developed fully. we have a drink on occasion.

here's a sort of whiskey primer, off the top of my head:

The most popular and best selling whiskey in the world, hands down, is and has been Jack Daniels. Jack is a "Tennessee Whiskey", which is really just an inexpensive Bourbon by another name. Thus, without a doubt - but not so obviously, Bourbon is the most popular and best selling whiskey in the world. Far more than any Scotch or otherwise.

And 98% of it (across many brands and expressions) comes from the Buffalo Trace, Heaven Hill, and Beam Distilleries. The other physical Distilleries of note are Makers, Wild Turkey, Four Roses, Woodford, EHTaylor, and Jack and Dickel on the Tennessee side. And probably another one or two in the smaller range.

a Barrel Strength whiskey IS whiskey, in its purest form, straight from Barrel to Bottle passing only though a particulate filter to catch the chunks of char or wood fragments. ALL other "whiskey" (so 99.99% of all whiskey) is watered down (barrels are vatted in Stainless Steel, and water is added to dilute it down to whatever proof they're shooting for / bottling at. In a sense, if you want to taste the very essence of what Beam is, or what Wild Turkey is, or the Macallan for that matter, etc, try the Barrel Strength version. *That's* whiskey, and everything else (however good or rare or popular) is watered down whiskey, an often overlooked fact and perspective.

99% of all Bourbon has Rye as the secondary grain. And most of those are Low Rye (5-15% or there about). Four Roses Single Barrel is the highest High Rye (34%), and Bulleit is 20% IIRC. And Old Grand Dad (and Basil Hayden) are also decidedly High Rye. (Basically) only Makers, Weller, and Van Winkle use Wheat as the secondary grain. So, really, American Whiskey can be looked at as a spectrum of how much Rye is used in the Mash. Straight Rye has the most, followed by High Rye Bourbons, then Low Rye / regular Bourbons (and so called Tennesee whiskey), then lastly Wheater Bourbons (which have no Rye). They're all very close cousins... And across all four, there are many good ones.

cheers.

quote:

Originally posted by Ian111:

...What are your favorite "daily" drinkers? The ones you always have in stock?

FWIW, many expressions come and go in my cabinet, but I keep these four "friends" on hand.



-BK

quote:

Originally posted by 46and2:

...The most popular and best selling whiskey in the world, hands down, is and has been Jack Daniels. Jack is a "Tennessee Whiskey", which is really just an inexpensive Bourbon by another name. Thus, without a doubt - but not so obviously, Bourbon is the most popular and best selling whiskey in the world. Far more than any Scotch or otherwise...

I haven't checked the data, but I'm fairly certain that McDonald's sells more hamburgers than anyone else.

Does that mean that McDonald's makes "the best" or even "decent" hamburgers? Hardly!

quote:

Originally posted by 46and2:

...a Barrel Strength whiskey IS whiskey, in its purest form, straight from Barrel to Bottle passing only though a particulate filter to catch the chunks of char or wood fragments. ALL other "whiskey" (so 99.99% of all whiskey) is watered down (barrels are vatted in Stainless Steel, and water is added to dilute it down to whatever proof they're shooting for / bottling at. In a sense, if you want to taste the very essence of what Beam is, or what Wild Turkey is, or the Macallan for that matter, etc, try the Barrel Strength version. *That's* whiskey, and everything else (however good or rare or popular) is watered down whiskey, an often overlooked fact and perspective...

I'm tracking you, amigo, but I'm not certain that your point is all that relevant given the palates and consumption habits of most consumers. I enjoy a dram from "cask strength" (a.k.a. "barrel strength") expressions every so often, but there's plenty of flavor, aroma and substance to many quality non-cask strength expressions. For example, while diluted from its original cask strength, a dram of Laphroaig 18 (48% ABV or 96 Proof) possesses abundant character and absolutely reflects the "essence" of an Islay malt.

Distilleries dilute spirits down from their original "cask strength" for two reasons: (1) to stretch their supply because approximately 2% of the spirit is lost in the cask on an annual basis due to the porosity of the wooden casks/barrels and resultant evaporation and (2) because most consumers (especially most Americans) prefer "easy drinking" spirits without a lot of punch.

Personally, I prefer fairly robust whisky (46% to 60% ABV or 92 to 120 Proof) and I ordinarily consume my dram neat. Occasionally, I'll add a drop or two of room-temperature spring water to a dram of cask strength whisky, but that's it. Having said that, a gargantuan number of drinkers regularly add copious amounts of water, soda and even chunks of ice (yikes!) to their spirit of choice resulting in a total alteration of the spirit's character and, of course, further dilution. Additionally, many distilleries add all sorts of artificial ingredients, coloring agents, caramel, cinnamon, sugar, etc., to their spirits in order to make them more aesthetically pleasing and palatable for the casual drinker and his/her palate. Alas, the chill filtration process employed by most distilleries further alters the spirit's "natural character" by removing ethyl esters of lauric, palmitic and palmitoleic acids from the end product.

Personally, I prefer non-chill filtered whisky like Springbank (which has never chill filtered any of their whisky) and specific Laphroaig expressions (e.g., Laphroaig 10 Original Cask Strength and Laphroaig 18 to name two). IMHO, proper whisky is comprised of four ingredients: (1) malted barley, (2) water, (3) yeast and (4) time.

Slàinte,

-BK

^ Oh no deep down points being made, just mildly interesting factoids and opinions.

And trust me, it's not that I think McD's or Jack are good, despite their popularity, but it does say something about tastes across the board. And any poking fun at Scotch or Irish and the like is just fun and purely subjective anyway. I have an actual beef with Crown Royal, as an aside, as they suck up a large portion of 15yr Bourbon for their bland product.

to my tastes, and peppered with a humorous dose of 'Merica, I think Americans finally got whiskey right (with Bourbon and Rye), or that we've improved upon it dramatically, much like we (America and our system) improved upon what England and Ireland and elsewhere started. Most everything we do here is v2 and an improvement upon our roots.

as for Cask/Barrel Strength expressions, to me it's as much about just knowing and understanding what you're drinking than anything else. the "whiskey" most everyone knows, whether Beam or Jack or Bushmills or anything else, is actually, say, 80% whiskey and 20% water by the time it's bottled at 90proof. the real whiskey came out of the cask at, say, 125proof. and as such, both the drink itself and the meaning of whiskey has been diluted (largely for the reasons you mentioned). I like to know the true thing, so to speak, and am perfectly capable of adding water myself, and would prefer that vs paying someone else to do so (that 20% water is pretty expensive when you think about it).

it's part taste, part philosophy, part knowledge, and part fun. nothing more.

quote:

Originally posted by 46and2:

...it's part taste, part philosophy, part knowledge, and part fun. nothing more.

Agreed, dude.

-BK

I like Kentucky STRAIGHT bourbon whisky. The word "straight" means that no coloring or flavoring has been added, among other things. The Tennessee whiskies are not straight whiskies. Dickle says the No 12 is a blend. Jack? Who knows.

Scotches are also blended, colored and flavored, according to some who are very familiar with them.

The Kentucky distillers got it right,and I think bourbon will be kicking some butt later on.

quote:

Originally posted by Iron bottom:
I like Kentucky STRAIGHT bourbon whisky. The word "straight" means that no coloring or flavoring has been added, among other things. The Tennessee whiskies are not straight whiskies. Dickle says the No 12 is a blend. Jack? Who knows.

Scotches are also blended, colored and flavored, according to some who are very familiar with them.

The Kentucky distillers got it right,and I think bourbon will be kicking some butt later on.

sort of, but no...

Start here, and rest assured, few people know more about it all that the author:

http://chuckcowdery.blogspot.c...sus-bourbon.html?m=1

and here:

http://whiskyadvocate.com/whis...bourbon-regulations/

I have to run and can't respond in detail right now...

* That's not what Straight means.
* Dickel 12 isn't blended.
* only some Scotches are blended
* you're confusing different meanings of blended.
etc

Ok, blended whiskey...

Blended, in the whiskey world, specifically means a mixture of *different whiskies*. Notable examples are Crown Royal (whose largest and most important ingredient is 15yo Bourbon plus other less fancy and younger whiskies to create that unique blend and flavor profile). Johnnie Walker in its many variations is another notable example of blended.

then there's what Wild Turkey, and Jack, and Dickel, and countless others do when crafting.their product which is to mix, in a stainless vat, many different barrels of *the same whiskey*, just from different corners of whatever warehouse and a mix of years... 10 barrels of 4yo + 4 barrels of 8yo + 1 barrel of 12yo, and then called Wild Turkey 101... That's not Blended Whiskey, and it's still pure Bourbon by law and common thinking.

See the difference?

I know that,46. Here's what's on their site:

"We blend older whiskies to achieve deep assertive flavors with an incredibly smooth finish". Lots of questions with that.

It's about time for some Pumpking.

For my birthday my best friend and his wife bought me Balvenie 21 year old single malt scotch whisky. Its claim to fame is that it is finished in Port casks.

I had my first glass this evening and it is absolutely marvelous. Very smooth, and an absolutely unique smell that almost smells like an expensive rum. If you get a chance to get a glass, I highly recommend it.