Hey, you are listening to another episode of Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast, and we're doing your Q and A's. Well, we're doing your Q's. We're A-ing your Q's. Hey, hey, hey, hey, calm down. A roomful of A-holes to answer your Q's. Well, that just took it too far. I'm Greg, I do communications at Binny's. Yeah, Pat, I'm a loud-mouthed A guy at Binny's. Hey. Hey. Roger, beer. Chris, I do wine-related things. Jonah, also communications. We're team Q on this one. Yes, we are. For the most part. Except we're opinionated and might lean in with our own A's. Can I remain anonymous for this one? No. All right, so here's the shtick. We used to do it, but now our episodes are so long that we don't have time for the Q's anymore at the end of the show. But we still like interaction with listeners, so we're doing another episode where we answer your questions. If we answer your question on the podcast, you win a $20 Binny's Gift Card. These questions were submitted to us via comments at binnys.com and also on social media, at Binny's Bev, on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, briefly TikTok. We have a bunch of questions, so rapid fire, hilarious, cutting us off, editing, go. All right, first question. This is going to be for you, Roger. Okay. For Russian Imperial Stouts, especially Barrel-aged, what is your preferred packaging? Specifically, Revolution does four packs of 12-ounce cans for their Deepwood series and I bulk at paying $48 for a single beer. Most other brewers do two packs of either 12-ounce or 16-ounce, which more closely resemble the old bomber size. This question is from Mark, sent in via email. We were just discussing this the other day, actually. Barrel-aged beer formats and pricing is all over the place now. I think it stems from the fact that everybody's jumped into the game and is making them, and everybody's production scale is different. A lot of it has to do with what ingredients they're using. Adjuncts are super popular. I can already tell this is going to be a non-answer. I know, when you have bombers or a 22-ounce bottle or a 16.9, during the lockdown, the big joke was if you're not going to bottle shares, so I would sit there and stare at these bombers like, I'm not going to just sit down and drink 22 ounces of Roger, you weren't going to bottle share, but you also weren't going anywhere either. So just suck it up and suck it down. So that's the point, though, is especially with the style of Barrel-aged stout that people are making right now, if it's flavor blasted and there's like five adjuncts in it, it's basically physically impossible to want to drink that much. It's like if the dessert cart came by and you were like, I'll take it all, I don't want one of them, I want all of them. Really? A seven ounce nip would be nice. Yeah. I mean, that's actually what we would joke about is there's the little cutie eight ounce cans. That would really be my preferred format. The only brewery that's really doing that, St. Aaron's doing it and Hoppin Frog, the kings of the bomber. They actually bought a canning line that can do the little eight ounce and they're like the coffee eight ounce. They're not the stubby. They're not like a 12 ounce can like Wiss. They're tall and lean, like Red Bullers and Slim eight ounce. They're like 200 ml cans. So, I mean, ideally, I guess if something's not super rare to the point where you can't buy as much as you'd like, I would rather have the smaller like a 12 ounce size package. So then if you want to drink an entire thing yourself, you don't have to feel obligated to like share it with somebody else to get through it. But the beers vary too. Like you drink a Central Waters, you can drink a whole 12 ounce Central Waters barrel aged beer and it's balanced enough that you can open up another one. So, it really depends on the beer. Bourbon County is so heavy, rich, it's got more residual sugar in it. I don't want more than 12 ounces of Bourbon County. Yeah, I agree. I mean, just take a look at the way any of these beers would be served at the actual pub. You'd get a snifter of it rather than you're not getting a pint glass. Yeah, you'd get like a nine ounce pour. So, since we don't really have that as an option, your best bet, I think, is these 12 ounce. But again, if you like enjoying these with friends and stuff, 16 ounces is cool too. I think you're going to see 16 ounce can two packs is going to be the new like. This guy was getting at it. He was really just complaining about how expensive four packs were. So, sure, bud, we agree. Two packs, 16 ounce, cheaper, easier. I disagree. I think the two beers tied together is bull. It pisses me off. The first time I saw two tall boys together, I was like, what is this horse s***? Sell me one of them for half the price and if I want to, I'll go ahead and do that. If they were two different beers, maybe that would make sense. Now that said, that seemed absurd to me, but the idea of two 12 ounce cans tied together, I would just... So from... Yeah, right? And it had some breweries have done it and it looks dumb and it just doesn't feel right. Like two 12 ounce cans looks goofy. Right. And so, I think the future is 16 ounce two packs and to be honest, as a retailer, we don't like when you show up with a case of 24 loose 16 ounce cans that looks on the shelf. People accidentally are knocking them over. They're hitting the ground. You drop a can on the ground. Now the aluminum is so thin that it like it looks like it got shot out of a cannon. Nobody's going to pick it up and go, oh, I'll buy that one. So I think the future is two pack 16 ounce, I feel for you. However, there's still quite a few breweries doing four pack 12 ounce bottles and we might be swinging back around, you never know. But I think if you had to bet on something, I think a good format and what more people are going to do is two pack 16 ounce, because then that way too, you know, part of the problem if everyone's making a BA beer is that you have so many at your house that you can't get through, you know. So if you can buy less, then you can try more. Fine. All right, Mark got us 20 bucks. Yay, Mark. And then some. Next question comes from James via Facebook. What are some of the rare and exclusive beers that you sell besides Sam Adams' Utopias? Like, good news, it's most of the beers. Dre Fontaine, Hommage, there's some rare Dre Fontaines at various Binny's right now. There's a lot of like random one-off Barrel Age beers that only see distribution of just a couple of stores, right? Yeah, it's funny. There's not as many that people are chasing the way they used to. Half Acres Barrel Age program has always been pretty small, so Benthic is still a pretty rare small release. Obviously, the Bourbon counties, especially the variants. I'd say in general, it leans towards Barrel Age stuff. I mean, you'll see a lot of one-off type things in the Barrel Age realm. Every once in a while, you'll see something from other half there. Barrel Age stuff's pretty sought after and pretty rare. There's that Vietnamese Coffee Beer that we can't have anymore. Actually, you know what the rare ones are then, in that vein, are the Binny's Barrel Age Collabs. Raj mentioned other half. There's a few more other halves coming. I'm not sure. This will air in January. You'll probably be able to still find some of them. We've got Beer Aging at Bells right now. There's Beer Aging at Central Waters. Roger, just to tease something that's going to be a long ways off, Raj finally got something going with Ailsmith recently. Amen. Yeah. Secrets out. Yeah. This is like three emails in, though. So we got a long way to go on that. But I would argue that those are probably the rarest stuff we can get. If you want great barrel-age beer, when you have the chance to use a better barrel, you're going to end up with better beer. So you do not want to sleep on our barrel-age stuff, and a lot of times, it's pretty limited. So. Where do the little ice beers fall into that? Yeah. We got a small drop of those in the past. That would be what's considered the world's strongest beer, is Schorzbach, if you remember a few years ago. There was the playful competition between them and the goofballs at BrewDog, and they had things like Tactical Nuclear Penguin, Sink the Bismarck. So these icebox are fractally distilled via cold instead of hot. So you end up with beers that are 40 percent alcohol. Or more. Or more. So we have a few of them floating around, but that's not something we get with any kind of regularity. So there's a few left in the chain, but. If you're interested in tracking one down, send an email to beer at binnys.com and we can help you out. What they did, you know, speaking of Utopias, I want to throw this in here real quick. Utopias now, they do a, they did a limited edition of Worldwide Style from Dogfish Ed, where they aged it in Utopias barrels. I liked that better. It was so good. Than Utopias. Like it had more beer identity because Utopias ends up tasting more like a a sortified wine almost or a brandy. That is an extremely strong beer. At one time, Worldwide Style was the strongest beer in the world at like 23%. So now it's like between 18 and 20 depending on the release. That's a rare one that you should always keep a lookout. They did, they do variants on that sometimes with vanillas, coffee. So that's a, that's one that kind of comes and goes and is sought after and should get more attention than it does. Pat, I was very excited when I saw this question come through. Could not wait to ask it of you. You don't look that excited. Yeah, I'm just, I'm so excited for your answer. Why are store picks special? Isn't it just the same barrel as the one they would choose to bottle anyway? Oh yeah. Why does putting a sticker on the bottle increase value? Anybody can do a barrel pick if they have the money. Yeah, Pat, f*** you. This was sent by Nick on Facebook. Please elaborate for us. Nick, I would challenge you to do a blind tasting of barrel picks then because some are better and also history and relationships by access that a newfangled club of quote unquote whiskey connoisseurs and their Facebook page don't regularly have the That's a very polite way of saying that. Well, I mean, you know. Everybody's an authority these days. That's true, but there's something to be said for people that do this professionally thousands of times in a year versus people that do it from a hobby perspective and do it in an intoxicating way far, far less often. I agree you're not that fun to hang out with while drinking. I mean, the big thing too that I feel like the whiskey hotline was really unique and ahead of its time in this too was really putting an emphasis on cast strength and barrel proof expressions. What we always say is we believe in selling you whiskey and not water. So whenever possible, we try to do cast strength stuff just as you can water it down. There's no reason to pay somebody to water it down. You can't take it out. If it were going to be exactly the same bottle as what's on the shelf already, just a Binny's version, do we upcharge or do we charge the same? We try to charge the same. Some distilleries do upcharge for barrel picks. We generally fight pretty heavily on that. There's some new barrel picks coming from Heaven Hill that are going to be an upcharge to their standard stuff, even though they are bottled at the same proof, which really sucks, but we did want to try some of those barrels and there are some really good barrels. So we did purchase some. We're never going to put the Binny's name on something that we don't feel delivers added value versus the normal goods on the shelf. I will say that. This part of the question too, I think, maybe if we could elaborate more on, because I think it's important, isn't it just the same barrel as the one they would choose to bottle anyway? Well, what they choose to bottle anyway is going to get batched and everything. And an argument could be made that blending could produce more complex, interesting, and also more consistent products. But that's part of the fun of single barrels is exploring the different things that can be found within a brand. That being said, we generally try to be brand loyal, at least with bigger brands like Buffalo Trace, with it's something like Traverse City Bourbon or something. Like we're just going to taste their barrel samples and take what we feel is the best bourbon. Plus, you know, now that a lot of the beer community has entered the whiskey realm and they're used to where they can get a new beer every other day, they can't necessarily do that with whiskeys. I see that. They can with barrel picks though. Yeah. That's a good point. You know, and it's if you taste them side by side, you know that they're not the same thing. So, if you're interested in trying a whole bunch of different stuff, then that's then store picks will appeal to you. If you want to have the same whiskey every time you try a particular brand, then I would stay away from a store pick, you know, it's not for everybody. All right. Thank you, Nick. $20 gift card coming your way. I think it's time for a wine question. Mike writes in on Facebook and asks, what's the difference between a Barolo, Brunello and barbaresco? Of course, we turn to Pat who recently went to Italy. I don't know if I told you guys, but I had recently vacationed in Italy where I- Good at them on that bit. One of those is actually from Tuscany. All right, Chris, the three scary sounding Italian wines that I'll start with be Barolo, Brunello and barbaresco. Yes, the killer bees. It's really quite simple. The two more related bees are Barolo and barbaresco. They are adjacent growing areas in the Piedmont region, and they both make 100 percent Nebbiolo based wines. Put in a simple and maybe slightly anachronistic terms, Barolo is often said to be masculine, powerful, very tannic and structured. Whereas, barbaresco also has good structure and good acidity, but is considered to be the more elegant and feminine style, but there's lots of crossover. Everything has to be a light switch. Human beings just can't experience subtlety without sorting. There are many shades of red here. Barolo has longer required barrel aging and bottle aging before release, correct? That's true too. But because- See, I'm an expert in Italy now. I told you guys. All it takes is a trip there. People have modified the way they make both Barolo and barbaresco. Traditionally, they would both be made in very large Slavonian oak boaty, and be relatively exposed to oxygen. Traditional style might be a little more oxidative. But now, in both regions, the reason you get more and more crossover because they're more modernist now too in both regions who might put it into small Berrics like you'd use in- Berrics versus the Slavonian Booty. Yeah, exactly, Slavonian Booty. I'm trying to make this as simple as possible without going into too much detail. But then the last one is Brunello di Montalcino. This comes from Tuscany, from the area of Montalcino, and the great variety is actually Brunello here. It's one of those weird circumstances. Italy does this more than a lot of European countries where they append the grape name to the region name instead of just writing on the region for whatever reason. Like Moscato di Asti. Exactly. Back in Piedmont, Moscato di Asti, Barbera di Alba, Barbera di Asti, and they like to do that. That's one of these cases. It means the little brown one, Brunello. Brunello related to San Giovese. Brunello is a form of San Giovese. It's called San Giovese Grosso. It's particular to Brunello. And they're brown and small berries. And it makes a very powerful San Giovese based wine. And what also separates this from most other San Giovese wines, at least historically, like Chianti, Chianti classico or Vino Nobile, things like that, is they have to be 100% San Giovese. There's nothing that they blend in with it. These days, you can do that in Chianti, but you didn't used to even be able to make 100% San Giovese. I wouldn't call it Chianti. Really? Yeah. There was actually like a recipe. It was weird. At one point, included white wine. You had to include white wine, and now you can't include white wine. It was disallowed. They didn't even know what they're doing. Yeah. For the benefit of our listeners, Chris, you instinctively used your hands when answering this question. That's right. Really wildly, even on the voice, but wild gesticulations with the hands. So there you go, Mike. $20 Binny's Gift Card coming to you. You can buy part of a bottle of most of those things. Yeah. Maybe a half bottle. Let me just say that these are all very high-quality wines. These are well-respected appellations, all three. So you're looking at the cream of the crop of Italy. Totally. Cream of the crop. Put that in your eggnog. That was weird. I considered doing this whole episode in my Macho Man Randy Savage voice, so now you just gave me an excuse. Oh God. All right. For our next question, we're going to go in a more general way, but I think this is kind of geared more towards Roger and Chris. What kind of alcoholic beverages would have been common in a 1950s or 1960s USA home? This question was set in by Ryan on Twitter. Have fun old guys. Oh, man. Well, Brown Spirits, vodka was an unknown thing back then, and it was kids rebelling against their parents, drinking things like brandy and whiskey to start drinking clear spirits, things like vodka. I would say by the time the 60s roll around, you get the vodka martini coming in, especially with James Bond touting it in popular movies starting in whatever, 60s. Gin got very popular then too though, right? Yeah. You got more like giblets and Collins' and stuff. Yeah. Was that gimlets? Gimlets. Gimlets. I got turkey on the brain still from Thanksgiving, sorry. A Gibson gimlet. Yeah. I mean, the 50s was interesting. Unfortunately, a lot of the cocktail culture that was more popular in the 20s, you know, kind of thanks to good old Prohibition, a lot of that died off. So, I feel like 50s cocktails, a lot of like the food culture in general was simplification. So, not necessarily a lot of complex multi-ingredient, you know, like a highball was a super popular drink. Right. Highball, old-fashioned Manhattan. On all those shows like Mad Men, they have a drink cart and there's always like a bottle of Beefeater and there's always a bottle of some kind of bourbon. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, like gimlets, you know. Yeah. Again, real simple like roses, lime juice and gin. Not necessarily the most exciting things in the world, but people also drink, when they drank their cocktails, they were smaller and they drank a lot of them. Oh yeah. The old Nick and Nora glasses that people used to use more regularly, I mean, three ounces or something, you know, tiny little. Maybe people just, you know, it wasn't like, oh, do you want another cocktail? Like, you will tell me if you don't want another cocktail. The other thing that we're not talking about- It's my kind of bar service. More beer, beer served in glasses, light beer, after prohibition, after the war, but beer wasn't as dumb as it was in the 70s and 80s. That's true. There were a lot more regional breweries that were around through the 50s and 60s. By the time the 70s rolled around, we really lost most of that brewing heritage. But I think people were also drinking some of the real, they're drinking regional beers. I know that my dad was. Things, smaller breweries, some that still exists like Rining Cougles or Point. The Grain Belt. Yeah, Grain Belt. Yeah, a lot of the ones that- Genesee. A lot of the ones that are heritage brands now that are basically all made by Miller on the behalf of Pabst, some of those breweries are actually still around. In the 50s, you could still have some all grain beers, as opposed to we hadn't really moved towards A, no light beer yet, B, cereal grains and hop extracts were not shortcuts that had been employed quite yet. If you were having a nice dinner party and want to serve a beer, you might serve one of those fancy footed Michelob bottles poured into a nice tall Pilsner glass. Carling. That's a good one to bring up. Michelob was always did make a point of that they were an all malt lager. That was a fancy beer. They didn't take that shortcut of putting like corner rice in it, and that was the difference. I feel like with a lot of beers in this country, you'll talk to someone older and they go, that used to be a good beer. That Point beer, that used to be a good beer. Schlitz used to taste good. These are the same people that used to grow Michel bananas as well. And then I would say if we're gonna expand over to wine, there was a lot of California wine being consumed under names like Chablis, Burgundy, Sauternes even, just generic wines that used borrowed European names for them. Although some people were certainly drinking finer wines, there's no doubt about that. I mean, you can look at the influence of Julia Child in the early 60s and people like that. James Beard, who were actually drinking things like real Chablis. You had to seek that out more. Yes. Roger, you do a good Julia Child impression, right? This is a goose. Bon appétit. I think also really, I mean this is- I didn't expect them to do it. I didn't expect them to f**k you. One of the things that a lot of people will remember are things like German sweet wines after the war. They were sold and people derisively called them Zuckerwasser, because they were just lacking in character, but very sweet. Things like Liebfrau milk and Seller's Schwarzkatze. Liebfraug milk? Liebfrausch milk. Liebfrausch what? Liebfraugsch frau-misch. What's next? Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Ryan. We will be sending you a $20 gift card. Moving on. Our next question comes from Guallano Jr. on Instagram. How about a question about our fearless hosts? In the spirits of Spotify wrapped, what are we all listening to these days? Are you a country girl, rude boy, emo kid? It's funny. I already answered the question. I answered the question. There we go. Quite fast and answered. Thank you. So you're a country girl? What? Okay. So what are you guys listening to? I listen to economics podcasts. Oh, so nerdy. So definitely a rude boy. Also, can confirm after- Can you skank to an economics podcast? After a, what was it, four-hour drive to and from both ways, so eight hours altogether in the car with Pat Brophy, we listened to many podcasts, one of which now I can never look at raccoons the same way again because it was about rabies and I'm I hate them all listening to this horrifying rabies podcast. raccoons are so adorable and now I don't even want to go near one because I'm like, you're going to kill me. Get away from me with your adorable little hands. In the worst way imaginable, who's going to kill you? Yeah. Oh, terrifying. Yeah. I know I listen to science and economics podcasts. Yeah. I don't really listen to music. I know that's weird. I'm sorry. Roger, All Rush Mixtape. There's a Rush beer that's probably coming out soon. I've had it. It's disappointing. I bet it's technically adequate, but not inspiring. Oh, Rush sucks. You're in the minority now, buddy. I've got Spear here. This is an All Rush podcast. All Rush sucks. I am not a Rush fan, by the way. You're making your listeners imply that I am. Their music's okay. I can't stand Geddy Lee's voice. And people have gotten in some borderline fights about that. It's a pretty integral part of Rush fans. Fly by night. Lately? I don't know. I just miss new rock. So some of the older rock of listening to is getting just a little played out at this point. So I've been trying to listen to some older, grungier, garage-y kind of stuff. Like, I mean, the Stooges are awesome and there's not a lot to listen to from the Stooges though. So I was listening to the Sonics the other day. Oh yeah. They're pretty rad. They're great. And then, you know- Strict 9, baby. Kind of the second, the, you know, that if it weren't for a band like them, you wouldn't even have the second, you know, I grew up listening to like the new wave of that type of stuff. Yeah, from Seattle, the original grunge band from Seattle. And I've always, like, you know, grunge was influenced by that kind of stuff for sure, too. Like Mudhoney. Mudhoney was one of the best shows I've ever seen in the basement of a bar in Northampton, Massachusetts. So grungy, dirty rock and roll. Chris? Ooh, I'm down with everything Roger said, but I listen to a ridiculously broad array of music. Can attest? This is like, if you thought Chris had a long answer to the last question. Yeah, I'm not gonna go like the music encyclopedia. When he says I listen to everything, he actually means he listens to everything. I do in a lot of ways. I'm particularly obsessed with all of the 20th century American music, everything going back to early folk, country, jazz, and Delta Blues, up through the rock and roll, and by extension, of course, English versions of that, that started appearing in But literally everything in between, like punk, because you had a mohawk in high school. Yeah, punk rock, he mentioned Rude Boy. I listen to Ska occasionally, but only first wave Ska from Jamaica and second wave English Ska. I don't get down with the modern bands for whatever reason. Not that I wouldn't like them. I just don't pay any attention to them. See, previous podcasts, we discussed that in length. Yeah. I hate modern country, Nashville country. That's a thorn in my side. Rock country. Yeah, because the guitar solos are no longer country solos. They're 70s rock guitar solos, and the songs are just pop songs with a country accent. I hate it. We all already know this gripe. Yeah. I'll just wrap it up by saying, lately, when I've been driving home, I've been listening to classical to make me sane while in traffic. So I've listened to some lovely things lately. I discovered that if I get on the highway the other day, exactly when Zarathustra started, I got off the highway just as it was ending. 2001 theme is the way most people will know that. Zarathustra. Dude, with the way people drive now, you can't be listening to classical music. You're listening to thrash metal. People are maniacs now. Not to cut this short, but I've sent all the big Lebowski gifts to my friends. I could in 10 seconds while not listening to you guys. So is this question still going? Anyway, my turn. Definitely an emo kid. I think my top, my number one genre on my Spotify rap was Pump Pock. Pump, pop. It should be Pump Pock. Pop punk. Oh my God, I have the Pump Pocks. My most listened to band was Rainbow Kitten Surprise. And- That's not a Rainbow Kitten Surprise. And I think Indie Rock too, like Band of Horses, Manchester Orchestra, those kinds of things. There are a lot of bands that I listen to. Although you're bringing up classical, Vitamin String Quartet, I listen to a lot. They do modern music, but string quartet version. You guys trying to get my eggnog too warm to drink? What's going on? We haven't heard from Greg yet. I definitely listen to a lot of politics podcasts, the occasional hardcore and taco Bell podcast, and my own music more than anything else. I have listened to my own music, which is incredibly narcissistic. It's a very Joe movie. Somebody's got to mix those tracks down. Having kids, I end up listening to the stupid ass Disney songs that they ask for all the time. Also having kids, I have to temper my more edgy side. So I've been listening to a lot of like Wolf Alice and Blonde Redhead, you know, like more dreamy girl rock kind of soft. A lot of true crime podcasts, because I like to plot my future endeavors, just in case. You don't have to call them endeavors. Just say, I like to murder. And on long road trips, I fall back into Stone Temple Pilots, Queens of the Stone Age. Nice. And I don't know. Well, when you're driving, there's a vast desert before you. Flaming lips, that kind of crap. All right, next question. Thanks for asking about our lives there, while on a- Yeah, that was very considerate. We appreciate that. What do you listen to? Tell us. Oh, that's obviously. Moving on, next question. What affects the shelf life of beer the most? Type of beer, type of bottle, clear verse dark glass or can? Temperature, it's stored, garage verse basement verse fridge. And does taking it in and out of the fridge multiple times affect the taste? Oh, that's a whole spreadsheet of questions and one big one at the end there. And you know what's so ironic about that question? Probably the most important thing that affects it, they did not mention, it's how it was packaged. So unfortunately, while I love supporting local people that are startups, the advent of the mobile canning line, the Johnny Come Lately pull up with something as complex, canning is a game of millimeters, it has to be absolutely perfectly calibrated, so seams are tight, so you don't have leakage, and so that there's not excessive dissolved oxygen. That is what makes it so impossible to calculate shelf life. It is completely different how long the shelf life is on an IPA produced at one brewery versus another. If you have a totally fine-tuned set up with a dissolved oxygen meter in line, the beer could last no changes easy 90 days. If you had a well-made IPA, but it was canned on a set up where there's a bunch of oxygen in the beer when they can it, it'll taste like garbage in three, four days. It's that dramatic, it's that crazy, so I really do wish there was more of a conversation about quality control in beer. It would really be better if consumers knew more about it and knew to hold breweries to bear about it. Part of the reason cans are so popular, cans are better than bottles as far as keeping the beer protected. The can is gonna protect it from light. Light and oxygen are the two things you want to avoid. Green glass is bad for beer, that's what's gonna produce the skunk thing. We've talked about that many times. The biggest myth that I think is most pervasive, I believed this when I was really young, is if you have these temperature changes that affects the beer, it does not. What you do want to avoid is extreme temperatures and a lot of people tend to keep beer in their garage. That's a terrible place for beer. You don't want somewhere where beer is gonna be subjected to really extremely cold or extremely hot. You never want beer to be in a warm place. You wanna keep it cool, cold if possible, and away from light. Think of it like those ASPCA commercials, where if it's not comfortable for them outside, bring them inside. Now I'm gonna cry. Well, thank you, Colorado Wayne from Twitter. We'll be in touch about your $20 gift card. All right, our next question is, does age matter with bourbon? From Myra on Facebook. Yes and no. Next question. Next question. I think really young bourbon tends to show its youth and its fairly thin and undeveloped in its complexity. Doesn't mean there's not a use for it. Everybody likes an old fashioned or a Manhattan or a punch or something or just a pint glass full of bourbon with ice cubes. Maybe that's just me. But- What do you call that again? The tall water? Tall water. Yeah, I love that. I thought it was a Monday morning. I was actually just telling a customer, I was at Geneva a lot recently because it's holidays, and I was telling a customer the other day, I tend to gravitate towards six to eight, six to nine year old type stuff usually. I think over that, for my taste, tends to be a little heavy on the wood. There are of course exceptions, as there always will be. But I think bourbon needs to age a couple of years longer than something like rye. The kind of potency of the flavor profile in rye tends to cover up what I would call the flaws of youth, although they're not technically flaws. It's just, it covers up more of that youthful green wood character. And bourbon has a tougher time covering that up. So I think, yes, age matters, but is it worth chasing down 16 to 20 year old bourbons? Rarely, because it is truly a minuscule percentage of bourbons aged that long are actually good. They're also- Most get a little too woody. Yeah. I mean, how many times have you poured an older bourbon for somebody and you can tell they don't really like it as much because there's so much drier. Yeah, they're drier and spicier and they can be leaner. Depends on the proof of their bottle. That has a lot to do with the perception of the mouthfeel of it. But yeah, I think people like fruit and caramel in a bourbon and that's generally not the super old stuff. I'm just going to play the customer here and say, but Pat, if I buy four-year-old bottled in non-bourbon, will it be better in four more years? No, of course not. Will it be an eight-year then? Yeah, will it be an eight-year? As soon as it's out of the barrel, it's done aging. Glass is neutral and it oxidizes at such an incredibly small rate once it's bottled. There goes my bourbon seller theory. Although, if you open the bottle and let it breathe a little bit, that was from our previous episode, the stunner was that Bottled and Bond JTS Brown that you had opened for a couple of years. I advocate doing that with old rip 10-year or 107 proof, like the one Van Winkle product that tends to be more broadly available. When you open that bottle initially, it tends to be a little lean and on the woody side. You got to get the neck pour out, bro. But exactly. So I don't want to give credence to the neck pour, but if you take a couple ounces out of it and introduce just enough oxygen and then forget you have it for a while, it tends to soften up quite a bit. That's fine. Keep it and when you run out, you grab your other bottle that you already opened, and then you go buy a new closed bottle. Yeah. All right. Well, thank you, Myra, and I hope you spend your $20 on some aged bourbon. Yes. Between six and eight years old, of course. Yes, naturally. This question can be geared towards everybody. How many different countries do you carry brands from? There we go. All right. Done. The end. Thank you, Becky, on Facebook. We'll be in touch about your gift card. All right. Next question comes from J. Wilbs. F***ing Instagram handles. J. Wilbs on Instagram. What kind of long-term impact do you see the global supply issues having on overall alcohol trends? This is such a deep question. Rarely do you give large multinational beverage alcohol companies an excuse to raise prices where they don't capitalize on raising prices. Shipping costs will go down, gas costs will go down. All of a sudden, the added 10 bucks a case they had to charge initially to compensate for gas prices never goes away. Bottles have gotten really tough for them and shipping has gotten tough. It seems like the glass loosens up a bit. Glass has somewhat loosened. It hit particular categories. It was worse in Cognac and Champagne because France got hit harder than other parts of Europe. What the hell? It also depends on how things are bottled. I brought this up before at times because I think I brought this up before in the podcast. Patrone, for example, everything is bottled by hand. Then so when they couldn't literally cram people into a sardine can, shoulder to shoulder on a bottling line because of COVID, two-thirds of their workforce had to not be there on any given day, so they only bottled the tequilas and they stopped bottling the liqueurs and they stopped bottling the high-end stuff for a while. So things like that happen to really the effect is increased prices. All of these things, however, are transient and not long-term other than prices, which will not go down. Well, yeah, I mean, like people might genuinely steer away from scotch now because they have gotten substantially more expensive through- Spoken like a guy that hasn't been on sales floor recently. scotch is all of a sudden affordable compared to bourbon. Is it? Like new bourbons cost $70 to $100 now. Well, okay, bourbon is bourbon. That's crazy. And you can still get 12-year-old scotch for 70 bucks or under. And the bourbon you pay $70 to $100 for is four to six-year-old bourbon. So it's all in the eye of the beholder there. Did all those tariffs end or? The tariffs have been taken away on scotch, yeah. Oh, so the prices have come back down on those? That's good. Well, yeah, to an extent. Yeah, right. But they're always kind of... The scotch always... They're always messing with the prices. What about some of the... I mean, I've heard some murmurings with agricultural ramifications of Ukraine that that might affect a little bit. So that could... I think that could... We could see more with imported gin and vodka. So Ukraine grows a huge amount of wheat and a lot of the neutral rectified spirits made in Europe are distilled from wheat. France grows a ton of wheat, too, though, and a ton of malt. Obviously, the UK grows a ton of malt. There's some corn grown in Europe, too, now, right? I mean, I think I read it in Spain or something. I brought it up in relation actually to beer. I mean, I thought I had heard that it could potentially have some effects on beer. Yeah, Ukraine is traditionally known as the bread basket of Eastern Europe. I mean, they just have vast, vast fields of grains. Yeah, but it's wheat and barley. Yeah, but also, it's a problem, but interestingly, Russia and Ukraine, through intermediaries, have an agreement to allow ships to leave port with grain, which was halted for a while. It's under constant threat, so they're going to revoke it. Yeah, and then, obviously, Russia has been a bad actor, well, Russia has been a bad actor, period, but some of the agreement to let certain grain ships leave, at some times, you hear these reports that they were blocked and stuff. But supply chain issues have one very clear, unanimous result, and that is increased prices. Funny stuff. Next question. Thanks, Jay Wilbs. Next question, is Bottle Shock a real thing with wine? This was sent in from SuburbanMom, underscore drinks and bourbon is spelled like bourbon, the spirit. I like that. She's a spicy suburban mom. It is. It's a great movie. It sounds nice and whimsy. Make the wine, captain. You're talking about Bottle Shock, the movie? Yeah, with Chris, isn't Chris Pine? Chris Pine, yeah, and Alan Rickman. Yeah, it's fine. Alan Rickman. So, people may- Hey, Julia Childs is better. May or may not like or agree with my answer here, but I do not subscribe to this idea. Really? I don't know what the scientific explanation would be. I don't know anyone who has ever figured out why it would be. You got to let it settle down. Right. It's like you lose bonds and molecules, and they have to come back together. I don't know what- Oxidation, bro. Oxidation in the post-bottling. Yeah, stirring up the sediment. These are all stupid questions. Why would oxidation make the wine dumb? It theoretically would make it open up more. Yeah. So, I mean, it could be- All I know is a very freshly canned or bottled beer, especially a hoppy beer, I usually find is better like two or three days later. People say this, I mean, have been saying this for ever. I've tried this many, many times with like immediately canned beer and immediately bottled beer. I think probably a different thing, because the bottle shock they're describing is it has been in transit. So, there is one study I know of that studied like travel, because along with the idea of bottle shock, it goes right hand in hand with it, is people for centuries have said that a wine doesn't travel. It doesn't travel well, and people chalk it up to a million different things. It's not takeout food. What kind of comment is that? Well, right. It's like if you gotta drink it where it's made or it doesn't taste good, and there's all kinds of versions of this. I went to Italy, it tasted great. Doesn't taste the same here. We all know. Oh, you went to Italy, too? Don't do it. Yeah. We've all heard variations on that, and we all know it's the same juice in the bottle, and why this is happening is probably a vacation effect. But there was actually a guy who, and I'm not gonna give you the exact details because I'm not sure I know them, but he basically worked in conjunction with a winery. I think he was working on his master of wine diploma. This was like a thesis he was writing. So, same wine stays at the winery, gets shipped out on trucks, goes around kind of locally, and third batch is flown far afield, and then they're all brought back and tasted by a panel of experts. That's great. Nobody can tell the difference. All right. So it's bull****. There is a litany of reasons, excuses that wine reps will give you when they open up something and it's not as good as they're promising, and that's one of them, or, oh, it needs to blow off, let it breathe for an hour. Which like, tell that to everybody who buys that bottle. Are they all going to a little post the note on there? Well, you're going to love this in an hour. I mean, yeah, there are lots of, that's true. There are sometimes it's an excuse in that case, and sometimes you open a bottle and there's a common, and also a common thing about a dumb phase, like wines go through periods where they're open and then they get dumb and they're not giving you anything and then they reemerge. Now, that seems more plausible to me because there are complex chemical reactions happening over long periods of time. So, at 10 years, maybe it is shut down for some reason. But also- Seems like a lot of that would change also at the instant you open a bottle. Correct. So I don't totally buy into that either because yeah, there could be a flaw in this bottle. There's lots of bottle variation and sometimes, when you get a corked or an off bottle, it doesn't so much scream TCA or that wet cardboard aroma, as it's just muted, dull, the fruit is not there. So, you may have pulled a Bordeaux out of a case, and you drank one two years ago and it was delicious, and now this one is all flat and you're like, oh, dumb phase, so you wait another two years, and then, oh, wait, it's delicious again. You know, that's not a good sample size to really say that that's happening. And then sometimes you like open a bottle and there's like a mouse in there. No joke, we found a paring knife in a bottle of Malbec once. Like it was a field worker's paring knife that got dropped into the bottle. Amazing. Bonus. Yeah, that's a good one. Thank you, Suburban Mom. Do you have anything to add, Jenna? Do you have a point of view on this? No, that's why I thought it was an interesting question. I've never actually given Bottle Shock much consideration outside of the movie. Jenna, do you prefer smooth or chunky peanut butter? Smooth. Okay, interesting. It's the wrong choice. What's the next question? The whole psychopath goes for chunky peanut butter. I'll just eat peanuts. I'm a chunky guy too. This all checks out. Hey, you guys are nuts. I was just going to say though, this is one of those things that's impossible to dissuade the believers from or I mean, it would take a lot to persuade me. I'd need like science. Yeah, right. Just give us some study. I know. I have a bar and it's set at science. Next question. Long time listener, Katie Rice Cakes writes in, what are the Fruit King's favorite fruit liqueurs and is there anything to steer clear of? Well, that's an interesting question. It's Roger Fan Club. I have to say, Chinola is probably we've talked about that. That's probably my, I don't know, that's the one that probably comes to mind. It's superb, but it's also one thing. And it's chocolate too. It is exactly passion fruit. It doesn't make it chocolate. I actually don't buy a ton. Kind of like when I rail on beers. How do I have more answers to this than you? I mean, I kind of like, I like the St. George. I was gonna say, your memory just needs to be jogged. The St. George stuff, both the Spice Pear and the Raspberry are no readily available. Yep. And in Shamborg for just readily available, that's nice and it's good to mix with and stuff. A good imported cassis. The Methide cassis and their stuff is nice, especially their Framboise is- You're making margaritas. What's your orange liqueur? Ooh, all around the room. I'm going Cointreau. Yeah, I most often use Cointreau, but I'm not above- You guys both have a sweet tooth, huh? No, I like a brighter margarita, and I think Grand Marnier drags it down. Grand Gala is the better option. Grand Gala is my choice, and I feel like it's the poor man's Marnier. Yeah, it is, but like Pat says, it introduces a richer, oaky element to it. And if you want- It's brighter, too. I mean, it's real orangey. Yeah, it's brighter, it's more spirited and in a brandy sense instead of a liqueur sense, and it's not as sweet. Did you have any of that when you were over there, Pat? Have any what? Grand Gala when you were over there? I did not. I did not. I mean, next trip to Italy. Everyone's favorite fruit liqueur, of course, should be a Southern Italian style Amaro. Obviously. I would say in general, know the limitations of the budget schnapps arena. You're looking at a lot of flavorings and artificialness that is not going to be too pleasant. So you want to, a lot of the time- Sometimes used from Castor as well. So if you want to drink Beaver Butt, you go for artificial strawberry and raspberry. Gross. Yeah, so- That's my favorite expression. I mean, when I- St., the number escapes me now, but St. George did a really good job of conveying the amount of fruit that it takes to make one bottle of their framboise is insane. So I mean, there's some money involved, especially nowadays with some fruit prices, especially raspberries being through the roof. But yeah. Then that doesn't even touch on like if you're getting a really good French Odovie or a real schnapps. It's very expensive to make. Yeah. If you're distilling from fruit, yeah. I mean, it's crazy. Yeah. Arnold Schwarzenegger is a big fan of the, that I used to buy those every once in a while. What's that? Slater? Slaughterer. Yeah, Slaughterer. I always have a bottle of Slaughterer Kirschwasser around. Yeah, $43 Kirschwasser. Talking up the Tempest Fugit earlier today. Oh, yeah. Those are. I was about to mention there the creme de noyau. But other than that, it's just, well, actually, OK. Dude, he was slobbering all over the creme de cacao. The creme de banane from Tempest Fugit is unreal and it just tastes like liquified banana bread. That's a pretty good fruit liqueur. You weren't in the meeting earlier, but last night, just out of the blue, Sherry asked for a chocolate banana cocktail. So I made basically, you mentioned the creme de noyau. I made a riff on the pink squirrel, but I subbed in creme de banane with the Tempest Fugit creme de cacao, which is so chocolatey. The best creme de cacao there is. It's incredible. I bottled a bottle a while ago and I had never opened it. Oh my God, it's insane. I need to try both of these. It's a $40 creme de cacao and it's worth paying double of every other, or quadruple of every creme de cacao. The flavor impact of vanilla and chocolate in that bottle is off the charts. Yeah, it really is. Do you have one of those open? I need to try both of these apparently. Yeah, I've got them all open. Especially because I've tried the creme de benin from like Mathede, which is usually really good stuff and I'm impressed. Thank you, Katie Rice Cakes. Your question is adding to Roger's shopping list. He might be using your gift card. All right. I'm going to cut us off right there. We have gone on way too long with the Qs and As so far. I'm calling it right now. We're going to have to make it a two-parter. We'll be back. We already answered all the questions. So we'll be back next week with more As in your A-hole. Whoa. It's As in your ear-hole. No, I meant to say A-hole. It's fine. We'll be back next week with more As in your ear-hole. Thank you. All right. Great. All right, we'll see you next week.

Hey, you're listening to Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. And this is part two of a two-parter because we answered a bunch of questions and it's way too much for a single show. We got all the A's for your Q's. We ate all those Q's and didn't fit in a single show. So you're ready for more Q's? Yeah, I guess. Do I have to? I, yes. Okay, then yes, I'm ready. I guess you could go listen to an economy podcast if you want to. Occasionally, I listen to other podcasts. Other podcasts. Besides this one, Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. What's the next question? Enjoy. All right. Our next question comes from Adam, who emailed us. How old were you when you stopped drinking just to get drunk and started enjoying what you were drinking while still getting drunk? Also, was there a wine, spirit, or beer that made you appreciate drinking? Everybody can insult future self to know when you quit drinking and get drunk. Yeah. This is another one of those false dichotomy questions. It's an either or kind of thing. But I think this is such an interesting question and a difficult one to grapple with because the first thing you drank was probably gross. If the first thing you ever drank was an amazing flavor experience, then you are one of the most lucky human beings in the history of the world. To have that be your first thing and appreciate it too. Yeah. You're not going to... I kind of fall into that category. I was lucky. I'm not going to tell you how precocious I was because it's kind of ridiculous. But we've done the question before of what's the thing that turned you onto it. So we don't necessarily have to retread that, especially because of the inconsistencies and answers of those, we'll go back and look at it later. But other than that, it's an evolution, right? One adage I would say because I was just talking to somebody about this actually, people tend to sometimes give up too soon with a category. So they just decide like, oh, I don't like Scotch. Scotch is a great example of it too because all Scotch is not the same thing. The first thing you have is like Johnny Red Label or Dewar's White Label. Yeah, like something that's, even if it's not the classic smoke argument, it could just be you drank something that was 80 proof on the rocks and it was washed out and it wasn't for you type of thing. That can be the case with a whole bunch of different categories and beer styles can be the same thing too. Just because you think you don't like IPAs, like there's a million different kinds of IPAs, a lot of different breweries approach it differently. So there's IPAs now too, they're not bitter at all. So my advice would be to just, as you've listened to some of these episodes, we really kind of cover all bases and try to get people to open their minds a little bit about the variety that's out there. I actually do have a specific answer for this. I was gonna say, did anyone actually answer this question? I've got a couple, but the one that I quote most often is Oban 14-year-old. It was not the first high-end scotch I had tasted, and it's not what kicked me off on my scotch journey, but it's what I started to buy with some regularity and really savor and try to pick apart and approach from a different point of view, and I That's really weird, Pat, because Oban is probably the first scotch that I started drinking to, based entirely on a good friend in college who loved it, and so, of course, he had around, so I started drinking it. That's weird. I'd buy one bottle a semester at the Dominics at Broadway in Granville up in Rogers Park or in Edgewater. I was a senior in college and it's nothing fancy. It was just Bogle Sauvignon Blanc, but it was the first time I started to get into like, oh, wine can pair with food. I can drink this more than just to get drunk. There's a purpose for these things, and don't get me wrong, I was still and still am getting drunk on anything I drink, but I started to actually appreciate it. I too had a bit too much holiday cheer on Friday night. I started to really understand there's more thought that goes into making these products than just trying to make tasty alcohol for people. Make it palatable to get in you. Yes, yes, exactly. I mean, my answer is kind of comical. I mean, I was buying books about beer and spirits when I was like 17, 16 or 17 years old before I could even go buy it. I remember buying Michael Jackson's both his book on Scotch and his- And off the wall on the same day. Knock it off his beer thing when I was 17 or whatever. So one of the benefits of what's kind of sad is that people I feel don't check out books about this stuff as much anymore, but they can be a fun way to get some ideas. Well, this ties back into the guy who asked about the barrel picks. It's like there used to be a time when there were expert voices that people turned to for these categories, and now we have democratized criticism so thoroughly through the internet that there is no- I don't know that I'm anti that though. I'm not saying I'm anti that, but yeah, you are. There needs to be a finer balance. It is interesting to hear what people think about things, but should you put equal weight on what some guy on the internet says as opposed to, just like with the barrel pick, somebody whose actual profession it is, who has done the due diligence, spent the time putting in the hours of tasting and learning and reading and talking to people in the know. Amateurs can certainly get up to that level if they're really interested. Because I feel what gets so much lost when it's the amateur, they get too caught up in the what's not available, scarcity, what's rare, and that inherently you should, if you want a good bourbon, you have to spend $100 plus, which is just completely One of my biggest annoyances in the store were people who would, he'd recommend a wine and then they would look at the Vino score and then turn it down if it didn't have a high enough score. Well, the Vino scores are just curated from users. So anyone can put in their rating and a score. And I'm not saying that's bad. Like you said, it's nice to know what other people are thinking of this wine. But if you're comparing that, if you're looking at scores in general and you're comparing that to Wine Spectator, et cetera. Or you, as a trained professional, giving advice in real time about a product you know very well, and they're going to turn to casual drinkers to get the real answer. I mean, it's a little weird. Yeah. And I think there's, because it's published on an app or it's published on a website, there's this perceived authority to it that there's actually not. There's also a complete reality to that you have, if you are drinking something and trying to evaluate it and you're intoxicated, pointless. Yes, yes. It's completely, you're going to have a that's more on point with that. Yeah, professional spit people. Yeah. So I think a lot of these, that's where it becomes dubious and it's not, when it's anybody blogging about something, you don't know if they're intoxicated, then it's going to be a completely like, was this a valid take on something? Well, and more on that is we absolutely put a lot of faith in blind tasting, and kind of decry the critic who knows what they're tasting because that is undermined. Absolutely. That's hugely important. So if you've paid money for something and you have an expectation of it beforehand, then your opinion is swayed before you ever even crack it. True enough. I mean, blind tasting is the real way to assess quality, and we do it all the time. You know what? It takes chops to do that, quite frankly. Yeah. Well, that went off the rails, huh? Yeah. Oh, yeah, it did. Hope we answered your question, Adam, and you'll be getting a gift card from us. Next question comes from TheRealLauraP on Instagram. This is a good one too. What's your go-to mixer at a party bar? I'm going to assume that this is not like a fancy catered cocktail hour, but this is a party bar. It's in somebody's basement. Gin and tonic. Tonic, right? Yeah, tonic. I'm a soda, soda water, because I don't like the flavor of tonic, but same principle, same idea. I'm not sure. What's the question here? You find yourself at a party, and there's some booze and there's some cans floating in the ice that's not beer, and you got to make yourself a cocktail. What are you reaching for? What's your mixer? I'll tell you one thing that you guys haven't said that I always look for, just because I'd rather drink whiskey than gin, and that is ginger beer. Tea or lemonade or both? Because you can usually make yourself a pretty solid something with some tea or some lemonade. I would go tonic all the time, but if I find a ginger beer or a ginger ale, that would change my liquor of choice, too, probably. Yeah. Yeah, ginger beer, ginger ale. Interesting question. Interesting question, right? Enjoy your 20 bucks. Thanks, Real Laura P, Instagram. Brophy, you would just pick bitters. So you would drink straight bitters of Angostura. It's funny you mentioned that. When I'm up in Ely, Minnesota, where they don't have Amaro or Vermouth at the bars, I do. I will have just a pour of Angostura bitters. What? Yeah. You know, on Washington Island, Wisconsin, there's a bar that has like a bitters club. Yeah. Where you got to take a shot of Angostura bitters. There's nothing wrong with a shot of Angostura bitters. They purchase more Angostura than any account in the world, I think. Sherry has a certificate from that place from some time in the early 90s. People were drinking, the owners supposedly drank a pint every day. Wow. That's like 44% alcohol. One drop at a time. So, our next question, rum, R-H-U-M versus rum, R-U-M. What's the difference? If it's from a traditional French colonized area, it spells it with an H. It's all about the colonizer. That's it. It's often a rum agri-coal. Often a rum agri-coal, but not necessarily anymore. Now, it's just however the producer wants to spell it, but the tradition is if it's a French speaking country, it's going to spell it with an H. If it is a true rum agri-coal, it's always going to be an H. It's always going to be an H, yeah. Wait, is this like an E in whiskey kind of thing? Yeah. Exactly. I didn't even know that. Yeah, it's not. I would say in general, the reason that people bring that up is to then talk about rum agri-coals. And that rum agri-coals are made from fresh pressed sugar cane juice ruses. I would argue that we have just as many brands that aren't rum agri-coals that spell it with an H now. But they're all from French colonized areas. Pretenders. Oh, so it's becoming bullsh**. Yeah. All right. Well, thank you, Mark, for your question. Gift card coming to you. Next question. Angel Share is a significant source of product loss for whiskey makers and a source of high consumer costs for old whiskey. This may be blasphemous and a stupid question, but have any distillers tried to seal an aging barrel and airtight plastic like a Matthew Saver? Or has anyone tried to age whiskey in an airtight non-wooden barrel with charred wood pieces to minimize the Angel Share loss? Science! Yes, and yes. Diageo and Chivas back in the 70s and 80s were experimenting, maybe even before we were experimenting with plastic-wrapped barrels to decrease the Angel Share. They were just too lazy to unwrap their barrels. It turns out they just inflated like a balloon. Yeah. Well, it's not just that you lose whiskey, you also need the introduction of oxygen. You rely on chemical changes through oxidation to soften unwanted characteristics that come out during both fermentation and distillation. There's subtractive aging, there's additive aging, and there's oxidative aging. Those three things need to work in harmony to make a palatable aged spirit. As far as the neutral vessel with wood chips added, people have tried that as well, but you don't get the oxidative character if it's in a stainless steel tank. You get the additive if you have wood, you get the subtractive if you have char, but you don't get oxidative. People have tried to pressurize them in heat cyclone and stuff. That brings us to the boiler. It all s***s and we're not going to talk about it anymore because it sucks. I mean, there's a clear corollary in wine too because people do age in stainless steel tanks with no oxygen exposure and they age in oak. That's a stylistic choice though. Correct. The only reason I bring it up is it is a valid stylistic choice in wine, but you can see how radically different the wine turns out if you taste a Chardonnay that was barrel-aged versus a Chardonnay that was aged in tank. The oxygen is a really important player. Yeah. Yep. Sometimes I'll try a barrel-aged beer and I'll go, did you age this in a small barrel? They're like, how did you know? Because it kind of tastes minty. It kind of reminds me of the sharpening pencils as a kid. No shortcuts, kids. All right. All right. Good question. Well, yeah. Thank you, RP. We'll be sending you a gift card. Next one via email from Mark. What's the best way to open a bottle of spirits that has been sealed with wax when the producer has failed to provide a pull tab for easy access to the juice? We're on a roll here. These are good questions. Although Pat's yawning like, I'm answering the question. Here's the answer to the question. Okay. Have you tried a knife? You just carve it like a bar of soap. Listen, either spring, or maddening, but I like it too. Sometimes these guys use these space age blends of plastic and stuff. Yeah. Nothing wrong with taking a cigarette lighter to it. Seriously? Or like a stick lighter and just softening it a little bit, and then taking the foil cutter of your corkscrew or a small pocket knife to- Yeah, but- Just carefully with a knife. Just carefully wringing around like you're cutting the circumference of an orange. Yeah. Yeah, because there's that- Like you're cutting an orange like a sociopath. There's a little gap between bottle and cap that you can get your blade into. Totally. And just go around. When it comes to wine that are sealed that way, people spend all this time trying to chip it off and stuff. I just corkscrew go straight through it. You just corkscrew right through that thing? It's the only way to do it. I mean- It's so dumb. I hate when they put that stuff on there. It looks cool, but it's just so inconvenient. It's really easy because usually a perfectly round capsule of wax will pop up with a cork, and then you can just peel the rest of it back a little bit. I mean, for safety's sake, I would say that the wine key has things figured out in that it's curved, and it's serrated. It's a little hooked sometimes. I mean, a good wine key is a good investment, even if you don't like using them for their intended purpose. That is good. We sell Binny's labeled pull-taps brand, and those are the best wine openers they are, and they're like seven or eight dollars. They're better than wine openers that are four times the price, because the snake is great, and just like Roger just said, the blade is serrated and hooked. I have way more designer one. The snake won't bend and warp over time. The blade is good as they're sturdy. They got the two-step little thing for the bottle lip. They're the perfect wine opener, and they're seven or eight bucks. I agree. That's the best wine opener out there. I keep one close to my heart. One tip I'll say for beer, even though you don't see them as much anymore, but I think you see me do this, Brof. Since you don't want any of the wax or wax plastic blend anymore when you open the beer bottle, I often cut an X in the top. So then even if you can't get it all the way off doing it the traditional way, you can usually pick off the wax in the top, and then you can open the bottle cap off. Now, I will say about my softening with the lighter. One time, I was many, many beers deep in doing that and not paying attention, and I melted the stuff onto my hand and it burned me pretty bad. Don't do Pat's method. It burned me, Bro. The lighter, that doesn't make any sense. Pat's fetish origin story. Yeah, don't even do Pat's method with an aim and flame. Just don't. Anyway, fun question. So, two different questions asked by two different people, but they kind of relate, so I'm going to ask them at the same time. Congratulations, you guys both get gift cards. So, first, Tina asks, can you explain what allocation is in relation to bourbon? Oh, no. And then, related to that, Pete from Facebook asked, even with all the expansion at several distillers in Kentucky, will bourbon producers ever catch up with demand and eliminate allocation? Okay. So, allocation implies that the product is not regularly available to order. So, the distillery bottles this at not a set schedule normally, sends it to the wholesaler. The wholesaler then quote unquote allocates it to the various retail and bar accounts. And so, accounts like us will receive an allocation that then in our case, we have to divvy up between 45 stores. That's what allocation is. Dirty word. It means the demand for a product has outstripped the supply. That's what allocation means. Cool, Wiley. Just charge more. So, we could. We try not to do that. Some do. Many do. You know, I tell people like, you can find some of these things that we can't get you at other accounts, at other small liquor stores if you're willing to pay an extreme. And many people are, I would implore you not to because it only further encourages that kind of behavior. As, what was the other half of the quote? When is it going to stop? That's a tough question to answer. So, about the fur of the modern, like Kentucky bourbon distillery expansions, we'll use them as an example. Wild Turkey was the first to double their capacity. This was probably like 12 years ago. Buffalo Trace doubled their capacity like 10 years ago. Buffalo Trace doubled their capacity again last year. So, in theory, we might in a couple of more years, we're going to see a whole lot more Weller 12-year-old. That's the hope. But on the other hand, not a single drop of Buffalo Trace product is sold on the continent of Asia. They could just open up the Asian market and things could say that's not true. That is true. And things could stay exactly the same in America. Are you counting Blanton's there we've seen? Blanton's is sold there, but Blanton's isn't owned by Buffalo Trace. It's produced by Buffalo Trace, which is another issue specifically with Blanton's as far as allocation goes. When Times weren't as rosy, the company that owned the Buffalo Trace distillery, what is now the Buffalo Trace distillery at the time, sold off the Blanton's brand to a company based out of Japan, and they produce it technically on contract for them with X amount of bottles per year. They're not producing more of that until that company sells them the brand back. Obviously, that's a valuable asset. That is rough. That explains that, I guess. Again, the one thing worth mentioning though is that the one way that this could change a little is if people change their attitude some. If people are more open to trying other brands. If people want to drink whiskeys and not collect trophies, that we have a lot of great whiskeys on the shelf. We have a very limited amount of trophies on the shelf. Here's my ray of hope for you guys. We have stacks of zombie dust right now. Something happened. Now, we have stacks of zombie dust. Yeah. I'm convinced that we'll get through this. I think we're a few years away, just be patient, but in the meantime, try to find some other stuff. There's so many things on the shelf. You've never been a better time to be specifically a bourbon drinker in America. I would argue it's never been a better time to be a Scotch drinker in America. Yes, the Scotch we were drinking in the 90s was generally older and less expensive and in casks that some might consider of higher quality, but the selection was nowhere close to what it is now. It's never been a better time to be a whiskey drinker. So to limit yourself to trying to trophy hunt like four brands is just, you're wasting your time and it's- There's so much good bourbon out there. So much good stuff out there. And it's so sad when people just ask for the same stuff and then are unwilling when we offer recommendations to take them. I did a staff training recently in one of our stores where I took the highly sought after stuff and then what we would normally recommend is the alternative, and I made everybody taste them blind, and the alternatives won most of the time. Nice. So, it's just there is other stuff out there. If you need a recommendation, just ask the folks at your local Binny's store. They're happy to make one. Oh, they would be so happy for that question. It's exhausting answering, where's Pappy over and over again? Well, no one likes saying no. So, I mean, the way of answering that question is a lot of bourbon isn't on allocation. Take a look around. Yeah. Yeah. And look for our hand picks. And look for our hand picks. Some of those makers' private ones you do, I mean, when people are asking me same thing every year, Christmas comes around, ask for Pappy, I'm like, have you tried our hand picks of Makers Mark? You need to. I had some great guests there. And our staff would be so excited to talk about these products on the shelf and to sell these things rather than, yeah, like you have having to say no. I mean, this is like Pappy was old answer, but now it's literally everything for Buffalo Trace. And that's like we get more requests for Blanton's and Eagle Rare than we do for Pappy now. People know they can't get Pappy. Yeah, I was just throwing out any, but the point is, yeah. And so, there's a lot more out there if you want to drink bourbon and not collect trophies. Yes. So, thank you, Pete and Tina, back to back, gift cards coming at you. Pete and Tina. Pete and Tina. Thanks. Next one, question from McSteezy, which is terrific. McSteezy. McSteezy asks, my wife, my wife wants to find a bourbon cocktail that gets her interested in exploring the spirit. An old fashioned was apparently not the right one to start. Push her in the deep end. What's the right bourbon cocktail to get a non-bourbon drinker to start off that bypasses the whiskey burn? Wisconsin old fashioned. Wisconsin old fashioned. Gross. I would say we need one follow up question here before we can make an honest recommendation, and that is what other cocktails this person enjoys. There you go. I would like to say a Gold Rush, but if they don't enjoy acidity in a cocktail or in a drink, then they probably wouldn't like that. Everybody likes lemons and honey. If they don't like fruit, maybe like, what did Roger call them, a smash or a bramble or something. There's other ways to go about this. Or if the whisky part is it what you don't like, try like a reverse Manhattan and go a little heavier on the Vermouth or- I was thinking of a more gentle entry, like start with a highball, a long drink that really stretches out the bourbon. You can still taste it. I know. Bourbon and ginger ale or something like that is the simplest way to actually be- or even bourbon and soda. Whiskey Coke is a- Whiskey and Coke. Pretty classic cocktail for a reason. Jack Pepsi. Jack and Pepsi. Yeah. Yeah. Not to bring up our favorite, the people that we should really sponsor this podcast, Fever Tree. I mean, just walk down the Fever Tree line up, and you have so many good options with their distillers, Cola, their grapefruit soda, and then obviously all the tonics. Right. But I think it needs to be something that makes it into a simple highball. Ginger ale and ginger beer with whiskey is awesome. Whiskey and ginger ale, that's a deluxe. If this person is trying to get into bourbon and has never been into whiskey, start with Irish whiskey. And get your feet on the Irish whiskey and then move to bourbon. Okay. I think what we're really trying to say, McSteezy, is have you considered talking to her? I know what she likes. Listen to her. Listen to the things she's telling you. I don't want to try bourbon. Nobody said bourbon cream, by the way, just saying nobody said bourbon cream. Because that's gross. How's it get? Because it's not great. Equivalent at all. All right. Say the people who are about to drink eggnog. Give the aged eggnog. You're drinking that, not bourbon cream. F***ing. Bourbon cream and root beer is a good drink. Speaking of good old Buffalo Trades, that's like the first thing they give you when you go there. Yeah. It's the only thing they have enough of. Yeah. It's the only thing they'll let you buy. Drink your big black cow and get out of here. Thanks. Mixed easy though. $20 Binny's gift card. Get your wife something nice. All right. Our next question is from Megan on Facebook. How many different types of wine are there? 54. Ask and answer. Just for the record, that was varietals in our system in stock. It doesn't make any damn sense. But I guess a Russian River Valley Chardonnay and a Chablis are completely different things. Either way. So more than that even. You were on. Yeah. So many, many different kinds of wines. Does that mean types of grapes or types of regions or types of combinations of thereof? Okay. So the answer is either 54 or that's such a kaleidoscopically complex and absurd question that it's still probably worth $20. Let's go on to the next one. Well, just take Riesling. It's just going to take time for one of you slags to do your damn job and count. I counted. No, you didn't count. It's uncountable. The limit does not exist. Next question comes from Amber via email. All the Vouvres I've had have been sparkling. Are all of them sparkling? No. No. No. There is plenty of sparkling Vouvres in both brute and demisex styles. However, most of the production is still wine. Everything from bone dry to dessert. Rock and roll. And for some good examples, check out our French wine aisle. Oui, oui. All right. That's the only place you'll find them. Next question. Although you might find them in the dessert aisle. All right. Thank you. Amber, $20 Binny's gift card coming to you. Phil on Facebook asks, what is the difference between bottled and bond, single barrel, and select batch bourbons? Select batch is a marketing term and means nothing. Single barrel means it's bottled from one single barrel. Bourbon is aged usually in an ASB, an American standard barrel, which is 53 gallons. Bottled and bond bourbon means it's at least four years old, was distilled at one distillery in one distilling season. That means January to June or July to December, and is aged at least four years and bottled at 100 proof with no added flavoring, coloring, anything else. Phil asks a follow-up question, which is better? Whatever you enjoy the best, Phil, we don't care what you drink as long as you buy it from us. Yeah. Thanks, Phil. $20 Binny's gift card coming to you. Bottled and bond. Bottled and bond, you could buy quite a few good bottled and bond bourbons with that $20 gift card. Roger's weighing in with the value proposition of affordable. Roger hasn't been in the store lately. I hate to break it to you, Roger, but there was an egregious mellocorn price increase recently. Oh no, really? What is a good wine that goes well with cheese salami and different kinds of meats and cheese? An Italian wine, naturally. All right. Next question by A. Jacobs, 328. I've seen a trend with more options for non-alcoholic beers. Where do you think the next expansion of non-alcoholic drink options will be? I mean, I think we're already kind of seeing it. Soda. Yeah. No. I mean, we're seeing a lot of- We're seeing a really big expansion with NA wines and NA spirits slash pre-made cocktails. I mean, well, those already kind of existed, but- There's nothing left. I mean, yeah, it's all there. I mean, nicotine-less cigars. Yeah. We've seen a kind of shocking explosion of non-alcoholic wines in the last 24 months or so, which I never would have expected. Nobody loves a good cash grab like the wine industry. Yeah. There are a lot of other these days, but it's not a new thing. I think that the newest thing out there is the alcohol-free spiritual. Quote, unquote, spirit. It's the best bottled water I've ever had. It just comes 10 times what it should. It's pretty weird. I had to buy one the other day for a gift for a wife's co-worker. Terrible. My wife's co-worker, sorry, not a wife's. I know they're not always marketed this way, but I think people have started to use this angle now is considering hop water an alternative to like an NA beer. Yeah, kind of. Since it's adjacent and you're going to see more hop waters. Gross. Yeah, I haven't had one that really lit me on fire. Some of them are pretty good. Some of them are not good. I totally agree. I lied. You know who makes a good one? Oh no, maybe it's not made with hops though. What? Microphone makes a flavor of sparkling water called the Hotel Lobby Water that has cucumber and mint and lemon and something else in it. It's actually pretty good, but I think it might have hops in it. Goofy name, but it's actually pretty good. That honestly, if you're looking for a non-alcoholic beverage to enjoy, next year or at any time when you think you want to make a healthy decision or a responsible decision, have you tried putting fruit in water? Yeah. Put fruit in water and then pour the water off and enjoy the water. You'll have a haunting and subtle notes of fruit and you'll be hydrated. Indeed. There's nothing more than refreshing than a subtly cucumber glass of water. Liz asks on Facebook, what makes different types of tequila different? For example, Plata, Reposado, and Inejo, which is best for sipping versus using in a margarita? Yeah. Plata, Blanco, et cetera is unaged. Although they usually sit in stainless steel tanks for a couple of weeks. Reposado means it's aged in barrel for two months to 12 months. Inejo means it's aged 12 months or more. Extra Inejo, three years or more. There's a new category called Cristalino. It's not official yet, but that is aged tequilas with color filtered out through activated carbon of some form. The other thing you have to know with tequila is it's either labeled 100% agave or not. Do not drink tequila that's not labeled 100% agave. It is not worth your time. The other thing to consider with the flavor profile of tequila is the elevation at which the agaves are grown. High elevation grown agaves tend to give you more honeyed agave, nectar, roast agave character, lowland grown agaves tend to give off more of the classic green pepper, asparagus-y, vegetal character. That's all there is to know about tequila in 30 seconds. Thank you, and here's $20. What you like in a margarita is the one that you like. Yes, I like a rapasado because I do like a little bit of some spice and vanilla. Same. Layered throughout my tequila and most people would prefer a Blanco. Really? I don't know if I'd say most. I think most people drinking tequila now are former vodka drinkers. Or they're drinking Jose Cuervo Gold in their margaritas. No, dude, we don't sell much mixed oat tequila. We have two mixed oat tequilas or three. If you go to a restaurant- Like our largest spirits category. I think rapasado is where it's at. Frontera Grill or something. Or somewhere good. Yes. We'll take that, Bayless. Zing. You will see margarita is made with all three types. All three, yeah. So it's really a matter of choice and they get richer as obviously things go up. This is where the argument about the orange spirit comes into play. When I'm using an Ineo tequila, I will use a Grand Marnier. Precisely. Just because it needs to battle, you need an orange liqueur that is willing to go toe-to-toe with more aggressively profiles. Exactly what Decave is going to say. Right on. All right, last question. It's like that time you and I siropped each other while sipping Sauternes, Roger. Yes. Like eating a Zimbabwe. Yes. Thank you, Greg, for picking up on that. I want to do something for Art partly because Art writes us all the time. He wrote us three times this year so far. Oh, Art's the shit. Art's a longtime listener and he went out of his way to say that he took mine and Brett's and Barb's picks of the year, but specifically not Jeff's. Nice. Jeff took it very personally. I think you might have already answered Art, but so longtime listener Art who is really engaged here, he writes, does Brett or Pat have a tequila or agave of the year? Either available now or one of those coming back around again and one to watch out for in 2023. Still check the Binny site every few weeks to see if the ancestral pops up again. Although if Greg asks, I check on the app. Thanks Art. Nicely done Art. Wow. Okay. On the spot, agave of the year, there is, what is my agave of the year? Geez. Nothing. I'm trying to think what I've had, what I tried specifically this year. We had the moves like jagger one that tastes like chocolate covered cherries. Art, if you get a chance to try anything from, it's very expensive but it's really cool from the Neta line up, NETA, that is some Mezcal, some non-denominational agave spirits imported by this dude named Nick Palazzi that brings in other weird stuff. This is a hipster choice. Totally hipster choice. What are you doing? They're all between 100 bucks and 200 bucks. Hey, hey, Artie. Hey, I have communicated with Art many times over the last probably eight or nine years. He collects Compass Box and some other stuff. I'm not doxing him, but I know the kind of cool stuff that he likes, and I think he would really appreciate these. On the more reasonable side, there's a new Blanco Tequila from the El Pandeo Distillery, which is run by Felipe Camarena called Primo. That is very, very good stuff. All right. That's great insider info for art, and anybody else who's into that. That's my agave of the year. Agave scene. All right. Awesome. Two hours later. That was a bunch of questions. We'll see how many make it in. As always, write to us. We love to answer your questions. That's literally our jobs, ultimately what we do on the sales floor and in the office, and through the e-mails that we write in the first place, everything that we do. It's really great to know that you guys are listening and love to help you out. Email us your questions, comments at binnys.com. Hit us up on social media, at Binny's Bev on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. All right. We'll see you next week. Yeah. Thanks for listening. Back in your feed with something that's a little more structured and led by somebody. Until then, I'm Craig. I'm Jenna. I'm Chris. I'm Roger. And I'm Pat. Keep Tasting