We have a dozen? Okay, so I was pulling bottles, and then I was like, well, we have to include this one. Oh, how could we not include this? Well, I mean, of course, I forgot about this. This has to be, how can we taste this if we don't compare it against that? Yeah, so for context, this is originally going to be bottled in Bond. No, no, it was never going to be bottled in Bond. It was 100 proof, right? 100 proof, no, no, no, because the whole point is that too many idiots are married to the term bottled in Bond, and there's plenty of other 100 proof juice out there, and the only difference is that a couple barrels in the blend were from the spring Are you talking about Bernie Lubbers? I'm talking about a certain gentleman next to me's abhorrent pandering to bottled in Bond. Yeah, it's something you can trust. And Roger's favorite whiskey is no longer bottled in Bond. They took the age statement off and then they took the bottled in Bond off. Lame. And now it just says crafted. Roger's frowning. So, we're gonna blind taste 12 bourbons. All 100 proof. All 100 proof or more? No, 100 proof. 100 proof. No 101, no 99. No 101, no 99. There's no 101? I said 100 proof only. And he still found 12 of them. I was in my magical whiskey hotline room of samples and I'm just in front of shelves with like 4,000 open bottles. Sampling them and then all of a sudden the Goalpost moved all over the field. After Pat. Goalpost implies a competition here. This is just purely a way to enlighten people on maybe we'll learn some new things, maybe we won't. So hold on a second. After Pat packed up all of the samples, 12 of them and schlepped them to Chris so that he could do it remotely. Then he called me to apologize that he overdid it a little bit. And then we have 12 samples. You know, this is why the bottle and bond thing came around in the first place. Nobody could follow the rules and somebody had to regulate it. Jokes on you guys. I cut every one of these bottles with orange juice and tobacco juice. Okay. So here is what we're going to do. We are going to lightning round blind taste these. We're going to say everything we think about them. And then when we do the reveals, we're going to splice in the answers up front so that people know what we're talking about. So that's what's going to happen. You're going to know what we're tasting even though we don't know what we're tasting. And then when we react at the end, we won't have to do the entire recap of everything. And we'll see if cheap ones are better than expensive ones or vice versa. That was the longest cold open ever. And now we've got to actually roll the thing, like actual start of a podcast. I'm excited for this, for the latest edition of Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. I'm Roger, I do beer for Binny's, and also with me is... Hey, I'm Pat, I do spirit stuff at Binny's. I also use the phrase, you know, roughly 180 times per podcast episode. Yeah, he really had to edit you out, but it doesn't matter. I'm Greg, I do communications at Binny's. I'm Chris, I do wine at Binny's Beverage Depot. And we actually have Jim on mic this time. Yeah. So he's not just laughing in the background. I'm Jim, I edit out the ums and the yunnos. Well, yunno, I tend to say it a lot. All right. I'm really excited today because we're going to be talking about inexpensive bourbon, which if you listen to the- And so expensive bourbon. Well, okay. Again, I forgot, everything got initially changed from the conception at the beginning. I am a big fan of budget bourbon, but I also like high-end bourbon. So today, we're going to put that to the test. We're going to try some inexpensive stuff, some stuff that's a little more money, but the key here is that it's all 100 proof. So yes, we're talking about bourbon. Everybody wants bourbon. Everybody's not obsessed with bottled and bond these days, but it's growing more popular. But there's a lot more 100 proof bourbons available than just bottled and bond bourbons. Which is hilarious because for a long time, no one gave a crap. No one gave a crap. But it's bourbon. It's the new hotness. It's what all the kids want. So we're going to talk bourbon today, but it's not a 101, just the 100 proof stuff. So actually, we should say the difference between a bottled and bond and 100 proof. Bottled and bond what? It's the government owns it, right? Well, no. The government has access to the barrels. There are four rules that make a bourbon bottled and bond. It has to be aged at least four years, bottled at exactly 100 proof, distilled by one distiller in one distilling season. So traditionally, that is halves of the year, and it has to be aged in a government-bonded warehouse. All liquor aging warehouses now are government-bonded, so that part is the antiquated part of the law. So does that mean if you go to get a distillery tour somewhere and they show you the QT locked-off area, that that's just complete whore shit now? Total whore shit. Oh. Every warehouse they have that's aging bourbon that they're paying taxes on is government-bonded. That's what government-bonded means. Those damn Revenoevers. They always want to get their hands on money. The four-year minimum and the- Hundred proof. One hundred proof and the single, so like no multi-year blends. Yeah, no multi-distillery blends. So like even though Buffalo Trace owns the Barton and the Buffalo Trace distilleries, or Sazerac rather, they can't take a Bourbon distilled in April 2000, and each of those distilleries blend them together, proof it down to a hundred and call it Or they couldn't do one that's five years and one that's seven years to juice it up a little. Well, yeah. Correct. Okay. Right. The Bond Act doesn't just relate to whiskey, it could be rum or whatever age spirit if you wanted to do it, right? Sure, I guess. I'm really not sure. Yeah, because they have bottled- I know it's Ryan Bourbon. Yeah, no, because they have bottled them. They have bottled-and-bond brandy with the Laird stuff. It's true. There's Mellow Corn, that's an oddball, that's not Bourbon, that's bottled-and-bond. Yeah, and there's the hell, you can get a Christian Brothers bottled-and-bond, Christian Brothers' sacred bond brandy now is a four-year-old, 100-proof bonded Christian Brothers. Okay. Don't knock it till you try it. One thing I like about it is, it's a guarantee of what you know what you're getting. If you know the producer, you already know it's at least four years old, it's bottled at 100 proof, so it's going to be great for cocktail mixing. So you have just inherent guarantees with this act, and you can't do all that tricky blending. Also important to note that the Bottled-and-Bond Act predates any food safety act in the United States of America. So we cared more about that people were adulterating whiskey than we did about that they were adulterating food. That's a fun fact. It is the world's first food safety law was around whiskey. Yikes. Upton Sinclair hadn't dreamed of the jungle when this act went into effect. We were still letting our soldiers in World War I eat rancid horse meat that was recanned, but we also had whiskey standards. At least they got a free pack of smokes every day. There's nothing wrong with recanned horse meat, Roger. All right, enough of this s***. Let's drink bourbon number one. So speaking of knowing what you're getting, we're blind tasting number one, which Future Pat is going to tell us what it is. Number one, early times bottled in bond bourbon. That Future Pat is such a kidder. Smells green. It's pretty oak heavy, I think. It's nice caramel and toffee, brown sugar character on the nose, but then there's a distinct twang, I think, of younger oak, and it finishes with a lot of oak too. I like it though. Yeah, I would say it seems quite sweet to me. It's fat and rich. It's nice. Yeah. It has a green appley note. Yeah. It's very fruit forward. I'm not really a fan of this one. I'm not really a fan of it either. I like it good enough. I don't think it's great. I'm giving it a good plus plus on the Pat rating scale, which we could do a whole episode on my rating scale. Plus plus, that's like an A. You're like one of those old mobile travel guides. No, a good plus plus is just below a very good minus. Is that what the Motel 6 gets? We'll leave the light on for you. I don't know, maybe it's just the first whiskey of the day and it's hitting my palate. Maybe it's the fact that I'm full of Tom Yum soup. But I don't know. Number two, Mellow Corn, bottled in Bond Corn Whiskey. Oh, I look at the pale color on number two here. Number two, pouring the color of 10 High. Yeah, very pale. Smells like straw. It's like a raw graininess. Yeah. The color of 10 High. It's very grainy in the nose, almost weedy like the cereal weedy. And it's hot too. Wow. I didn't really care for number one, but number two is like a number one. See, you're knocking the good plus plus. It smells really different, right? And there's like limestone and cut grass. Yeah. Agreed. Minerally, grainy. Not nearly as fruit driven. And yet it's relatively soft and sweet on the palate. Yeah, no. Can they mix it down like with flavoring or? No. Well, I mean, if this one's not bottled in bond, maybe. I think I know what this is. I'm just thinking those ones are good. Well, that's the trick here, right? So since these aren't all bottled in bond, there could be additives in some of these, right? Yeah. No peeking. But if they're throwing in additives too, you think that they would throw in some caramel color and brown it up a little bit. It looks young. It looks like a Canadian whiskey. Well, if it's labeled straight, they can't be thrown in additives. Are they all straight? I think so. We would have known that if they were all bottled in bond, but somebody had to change things up. Why don't we define straight whiskey or straight bourbon for the listeners too? So straight bourbon- Two years old minimum? Yeah, two years old, and it's going to be non-adulterated with any kind of flavoring or additive or coloring. No GNS. There is some kind of rule about, like you can have stuff, this only got clarified recently with the advent of some of these non-distiller producers where High West has stuff that's labeled a blend of straight bourbon whiskeys because those straight bourbon whiskeys come from different states. I think they can come from different distilleries in the same state, and you can still label it straight bourbon whisky, but if they come from different states and it's a blend of straight bourbon whisky, When did that happen? People only started carrying when all these non-distiller producers started popping up over the last 15 years. Rectifiers. Thanks for clearing that up. Yeah, not at all. They are all labeled straight or bottled and bonned. Oh, nice. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Suck it, Roger. I didn't ask, just as he intended. Okay. Sticking to my rules here. So again, Jim poured himself sample number three and nobody else. If you're playing bar bets with your friends, straight whiskey, straight bourbon that is, has to be a minimum of two years old. And that's probably one of the most screwed up bourbon trivia things. People always go, oh, bourbon has to be two years old. And it doesn't. It only has to be two years old if it's labeled straight. It has to be a minute old in, you know, there's no time limit. As long as you can rinse it through new chart oak, every time per batch, it could be seconds old. But nobody would waste the new oak. All right. Future Pat, tell us number three. Number three, Remus Repeal Reserve 5. We're back to dark again, darkish, maybe in the middle. I find the nose on this one to be softer, little peachy, little peach blossom, almost floral. Reminds me of like really young brandy. Yeah, it's fruity. Yeah, it's fruity and there's a little bit of confectioner sugar on the very front too. It is all fruit cocktail on the finish. I guess Chris, do you get any acetone on the nose? It is high toned in its profile. I don't know if I'd go that far, but yeah, it could be verging on that. I like it quite a bit. I don't know, I got a distinct corn smell too. Not going to go so far as say corn pudding, but that's trademarked. Roger, I get acetone, and it didn't help that you were saying that word as it was in my mouth, and I went, yep, there it is. Yeah, I got it too. I could definitely smell it. It's very high toned and floral, and definitely on that acetone border. I'm really susceptible to that, so I don't know. But other than that, it's delightful. It's light on its feet and it's soft and fruity. Yeah. I think the finish is a little flat. I think it gets a very good minus. Very good minus is better than good plus plus. Yes, it is. There's some good spice here though. You want to guess if it's rye? You want to guess if it's more weeded? You want to guess how much it is? I think this one is honestly maybe the most expensive one we've had so far. Of course, I poured out all of one and two. I'm going to need more samples of those at some point, because I'm going to have to go back before I give it a final ranking. That's why I was trying to get fat pours to everyone. I know. We just didn't appreciate what you're doing, because we're jerks. My bad. All right, cool. Number four. Whiskey Acres bottled in Bond bourbon. I already know what Roger is going to say about this one. Whoa. Welcome to the lumber yard. Woof. Well, I like it, but yeah, it does smell like raw oak. It is younger, greener oak. Wow. I like it though. I like it. Oh, wow. What could this be? It's so young. Yeah. Okay, so it's not just that. There's some peach and cherry too. Yeah, smashed on a two by four. You say that like it's a bad thing. Yeah. I'd eat smashed pieces off the end of a two by four. It's pretty spicy on the finish too. It's like licking a two by four, but it's like licking a two by four. Yeah. I mean, you really get a raw tannic sense. You know those cardboard peg boards? Cardboard. Not cardboard, but those wood peg boards in your garage. Yes. That smell. Oh yeah. Were you hanging tools from? Yeah, fiberboard. I don't mean that in a bad way. I like it better than number two, but that's all I can really say about it right now. Are these all full size barrels? Yeah. Nothing here was a small barrel. So if it's getting this much oak, is that from like not as charred oak or? No, it could be more of the environment it's aged in. If it was aged somewhere real hot. Or real dry maybe. So here's the thing. It's overwhelmingly woody, but it's not mature. You're calling it overwhelmingly woody? Honestly, I think it's overwhelmingly grain-forward. Could be. And it's just that kind of accentuates the wood. Yeah. But this is a grainy, this is like, it's like a toasted corn nut kind of corniness to it. So that's what I was trying to get at here. Instead of just, I want to try to expand and understand this better. So I'm wondering, as you've described in the past, like so it's a process when things are aged in the oak. And is this maybe the way the oak's presenting is more raw here just because it wasn't aged as long and I'm still picking up more of the grain and the oak? Probably. And like some of the vanillin and stuff hasn't had a chance to come out yet, maybe, or? If it, like. So we're saying the curing is shorter on this barrel? Yeah, and that's possible, too, is that these staves were only yard aged for, you know, four or six months or something instead of a year and a half. Seasoning is important, too. Very important. Man, that's kind of the way I read it, but I don't know. What about the effect of changing temperatures in the rick house? I mean, if we're talking about absorbing a lot of oak or really green tasting oak. I'm not sure how it would affect with the green oak because as the temperature fluctuates and seasonal change, it forces the whiskey into the oak itself and then pulls it back out of the oak. And it goes over and over into and out of the oak. And as it's moving into and out of the oak, it's passing through the layer of barrel char. And so that's acting as a filter each time it moves through it because that's really what the char is for. Char doesn't add any kind of flavor. It's just neutral carbon. And it's acting as a filter to filter out some of the more off flavors. We could call them for fermentation and distillation. So every single place in America, at least, that's aging bourbon is experiencing some pretty, you know, strong temperature changes seasonally. We believe, right, that that toast is going to come through, through this process of absorbing and pushing out, even through that charcoal layer. So would that not also be true of greener, less mature wood flavors? I suppose. I'm not a wood chemist, but I think that logically would make sense. Yeah, you buy into the toast though, right? Yeah, because I do buy into the toast. And when you toast though, you're breaking down lignin. And so you're really just like softening it up and making, I think you're coaxing more softer, fruitier, especially more lactone, vanilla, coconut flavors out sooner when you toast a barrel. Yeah, right. Oak, you know, we've all tasted this oak flavor in any whiskey that's been aged in a charred barrel. I mean, it definitely comes through. The charcoal layers, they're more, I think that acts more of a filter for some of those higher boil point alcohols that tend to be like really gamey or nasty things like fur-fur-alls and stuff that have those super high boil temperatures. They were having a fur-fur-all convention at Rosemont. Hello. Number five, JTS Brown bottled in Bond. Okay, this is sample number five. Number five, this is delightful. This is fruity too, but it's bananas and tropical fruits. It seems to be, to me, the mellowest kind of softest, easiest drinking one so far. And the most traditional caramel vanilla forward of the bunch so far. It has a really good cut on the back end, like a really crisp, really bourbon-y bourbon. This is good. This is really good. This is really good. Very good. This gets a very, very good from my rating scale. Very, very? That's such a thing? Is like good plus, like the bottom of the barrel? Well, meh is the bottom of the barrel, goes meh, and then it goes okay, and then good, good plus, good plus plus, very good minus, very good, very good plus, very good plus plus, very, very good, and wow, and oh yeah. Oh yeah. Not precise enough for my taste. Yeah. Much like Macho Man or any other. Any more layers. You are ridiculous. No, he's the Kool-Aid man jumping through the wall. Oh yeah. This is awesome. We should talk about this some more, because the spice too, the whole spice box going on in here. You said something earlier that gave me a big clue as to what I think it is, and I'll have to save that for later. You think it's old foe? Yes. Yeah. It has all of those tropical fruits. Tropical fruits, a dead giveaway. I'm leaning that way too. It's got that little- It's gonna be funny when it's not, but it makes me think that it is. Yeah. As signature? Yeah. Too delicate for signature, I think. You think it's one of the numbers? I don't know. It's a great whiskey. It has a really nice balance of, like you said with the spice box, I love the level of dessert spice quality of this. This is superb. And it finishes with just enough bite from the oak that it doesn't make it too sweet and flabby. When it's got this much caramel and banana and stuff on the front end, too often it can just fall apart over the back half of your tongue. And this is still, it's got a lot of point and character to it. This is great. Pretty soft for 100 proof too. I don't know that I even guessed it was 100. Yeah. 100 proof. That's what was surprising me. It's very soft and easy to drink and round. I think it's delicious. I hope it's very inexpensive. Me too. Yeah, me too. I hope it's cheap. I hope it's the Declan's of bourbon. That's why I was like, I've drank some old Forrester's signature in my day. And I'm like, I don't think it's, if it is, that's awesome. This is a particularly good batch, but let's try number six. Number six, Uncle Nearest 1856. Okay, so this one's deserty too, but it's like banana foster, bananas foster, creamy, banana cream pie. It shows a bit more alcohol too. That's true. The nose is a little sharp. The finish is hotter and definitely much more wood tannin on the finish too. But overall, it's really nice on the entry, I think. I like it quite a bit. It's not as good as five, but it's really well balanced. On the palate, it starts off with the plush bubblegum quality, and then the wood takes over across the palate, and it swells into this screaming alcohol finish. You said balanced? I don't know if it's balanced, but it's complete. It's a journey. It changes from start to finish pretty radically. Yeah. That's what I mean. I think you nailed it with bubblegum, and I don't really like that. I really like you. That's Bazooka Joe, baby. It is though, right? Yeah. The pinkest of gums. It's reminding me, which is essentially Bazooka Joe-esque of the bubblegum ice cream. That could be Old Forrester too. I know. It could also because it's fruity. Old Forrester, I like to think it's more banany and tropical, but sometimes it's real bubblegummy. As Roger said, the number five might have been a little gentle for that, and this definitely has a little more spirit. I'm calling this one Little Richard. It's too fruity. Good golly. He looks so self-satisfied. He's so happy he just did that. Oh man. Number seven, Old Grandad, Bottled and Bond. Okay, we're getting into spray paint with number seven. No, I think this is- And orange peel. Immediately, I was about to say this is another grain forward one. This is just grainy. Rye? I don't think so. I do not care for the way this smells. I think it's corn and wheat. And pepper, pepper on the nose. Yeah, like white pepper, that musty kind of grainy. I don't mind it on the palate though. No, palate and finish, I really like. It's soft and then it gets spritzy, like it's a soft, mellow- And it finishes with some nice kind of caramel, not quite butterscotch-y. It's nice, but the nose is just leaner and grainier and grassier. Kind of like a big caramel corn finish, like popcorn ball. Who doesn't like caramel corn? You're right. Yeah, with the caramel and the butter. Yeah. Huh. This isn't bad, but I don't like the nose. I bet that this is, I kind of hope it's a little less expensive than some of the others. It's a classic example of a good plus plus. A good plus plus. I don't even know where that falls on the scale now. Is that like a B minus? It's like a B. It's like a B, B plus. Okay. He has no idea. His own grading scale. That's bull. I absolutely know. I have more grades than there are traditional letter grades. Yeah, I got you. Even with pluses and minuses. So it's just hard to... I have as many points as one of those compasses that breaks it down by like north, northwest, west, northwest, east, northeast. Like all those ones that nobody gives a sh** about on a compass. I have... Those are all my grades. If you're into crosswords, you have to know those. Yes. This coming from the person who asked. Orienteering. Weren't you the same person that gave me sh** by using quarter stars? Can we go back to like your system makes more sense than just breaking... What the hell kind of star can you divide into four? Exactly. My system makes sense. Yours doesn't. All right. 0.25, sir. Everyone at home is like, unless they're trying to figure out, unless they have a board up with the numbers. Assigning numbers to things skews people's opinions. It's better to have just random letters like I do. Assigning numbers to things is also like so temporary and fleeting and based on your experience. If I wasn't full of Tom Yum, I might have a completely different number. Number eight, Old Forrester 100 proof. This is the Bubblegum Bourbon. Holy cow. Number eight. Number eight. Here's your Bazooka Joe, Roger. I get more floral than gum on this. I like the nose. I get more fruit. More fruit than gum. Although gum is a combination of fruit flavors. Smells like lilacs. What is Juicy Fruit? Yeah, have you guys ever heard about the fruit that Juicy Fruit gum is modeled after? Dusting off that chestnut, huh? It's been a while. Would you guys be talking about the largest tree-hanging fruit? They see he just threw it back in our faces. Finish on this. Not so great. That is as menthol cherry as it gets. I love this. I like it. I don't love it. You're calling it menthol cherry, I'm calling it bubble gum. But it's minty and it could be- Oh, it is minty. The alcohol, but that, yeah, it's like both kinds of ludens at the same time. Yeah. That soup, I think really dialed in your palate today, Greg. I'm so full of sodium. I think you nailed it again with the ludens cherry on this. It is like cherry candy. I quite like it. I don't dislike it, but it's pretty weird. It's very disjointed, very aggresive, super aromatic, really fruit forward, kind of hot. I would describe it as streamlined and easy. Really, I'm going to go with Roger on this. I think it's a bit hot on the finish. A bit hot. A bit hot. What an enjoyable hot though, I think. Yeah. Yeah. It doesn't distract from the flavor. Drink it again and think of like cherry candy. I mean, it's what I've been thinking the whole time. We're saying the same things, but we like it and you guys don't like it as much, probably because you're looking for a more classic style. This is not classic style. But it's awesome. Chris, are you taking notes this time? I actually am. Oh. He remembered his pencil. Yes. Number nine, Evan Williams bottled in bond. All right. Number nine. If the last one wasn't classic, this one seems more classic. It's got the caramel coming from the wood. Other than that, it's pretty easy on the nose. This is one that I think Melonia would probably call buttered corn on the nose. Definitely corny. And it's a little green through the palate, and it has that corn sweetness. And confection too. It's not just raw corn. It's fat on the palate. I like it. It has sweetness and sugar. But it leans out a bit at the end. There's a lingering oak grip to it, but the flavor itself, I just think, falls into just kind of caramel-y sugar and oak, and that's it. I think this is old school. Old school bourbon. Yeah, very straight forward. This is not a style that's adorned with a lot of fruitiness or a lot of ancillary flavors and aromas. It's just straight on pretty classic. Yeah. This is a good bourbon. Somebody wants to know, what does bourbon taste like? Adam, this. This is what bourbon tastes like. This is the classic. What I always describe as tasting like Bitto Honey, that really old timey filling ripper candy. We've never talked about that candy either. Well, I mean, tell me this isn't dead on for that taste. I can't tell you that because the first time I saw that candy when I was three years old, I knew right then and there that I should never try that candy. I think the only way you can buy it is in 25 pound bags on Amazon. Come on. Bitto Honey is one of the great candies of all time. Yeah, of all time is the candy we're talking about. You just called it the goat of candies? One of the greatest candies of all time. And as a honey lover, I don't know why you don't like it. I do love honey, but I don't know. I am going to bring a pinata over to your house filled with old people candy, all this s***. We're at like nut rolls, paydays, I love nut rolls. Where there's original. But see, I won't eat them, so I'll save them for Halloween and then my house will get egged. This is the kind of bourbon that I guarantee you can recommend to someone and because it's on the sweeter side, it's very candied. I totally get that it's classic bourbon, but a lot of people new to bourbon would kind of scratch their head, I think. This is kind of like recommending the bottom shelf to people. These are how a lot of them taste and some of them are so used to more mature bourbons, that they struggle sometimes with a bourbon like this. This is classic. I totally agree. I like it, but when people are used to buying some of the whales and some of the older stuff, if you give them something like this, I think they kind of either shake their head or scratch their head or like kind of poo poo it is like. I think you're onto something here. I think this might be one of those classic four, four and a half year old bottom shelf bottled in bonds. Yeah. I could see this being, I'm not sure it's old granddad, it could be dant. I'm not sure that it's quite spicy enough to be old granddad, but I could see this being like JW dant or something. That's the point. The reply to what Roger just said is, those guys are drinking 70, 80, $120 bourbons and this is probably under 25 bucks. Yeah. This is probably under 20 bucks. That's awesome. For that, that's awesome. This is a gray whiskey. This should be one of Roger's favorites. I gave it a flat VG. I think this could very easily be old granddad bonded. I'm glad Jim appreciates my grading system. Oh, he's SVGA. That's a video signal type. Yeah. Now, if you try old granddad bonded and you enjoy it, I highly recommend seeking out a bit of a sleeper. Basil Hayden? The old granddad. Shut up. Fun fact, that's who old granddad was, Basil Hayden. It's another bar bet you can win. Old granddad 114 is a great bourbon, especially if you're going to drink your bourbon with some ice. Great bourbon. It has a little more complexity than this. If this is an old granddad, you know, it's old granddad-esque. And find old granddad 114, give it a try and definitely try it with some ice. I've got a bottle of old granddad 114 stashed on **** in the boundary waters. We're going to have to bleep that. Number 10, Smoke Wagon Small Batch. Woo! Yee-haw! Number 10. This is the Bee's Knees. You think so? That's another Bitto Honey reference, I think. It's an old cocktail that you should know. I know the Bee's Knees. I was thinking of a cute honey and gin, baby. I was thinking waxy, actually, and citrus, strangely enough. I mean, that knows where it's at. So it's bright and it's light and it's fresh. But it's rich on the finish. Spicy and oaky and caramelized. This is awesome. Yeah. Even better on the palate, in my opinion. Wow. Oh, yeah. I like this. It is. Wow, it really is. This is an awesome whiskey. That's multi-dimensional and it's delicious and easy. And there's definitely, Greg, a distinct citrus note here for sure. It's almost like a Meyer lemon. So like a soft lemon. I wonder if that's from Rye. I agree. So on the nose, I think it comes across like orange blossom and lemon peel, spritz, zest, but on the palate, yeah. Like orange peel and weighty orange citrus. Did you put any hand picks in here? No. This is superb. This is not going to be inexpensive. No. This is maybe my favorite so far. This is flirting with oh yeah territory here. Flirting with? The Kool-Aid man has already entered the room. Yeah, this is really good. He just took the bottle away from Jim, through the wall. Okay. Well, where are we going to go from here? Because we still have two more to go. Number 11, JW. Dant bottled in Bond. Dude, I just smelled two again. It is stinky and young. I find it offensive smelling. Let's back to green. Green, cheesy, funky. Yeah, it's not just me, okay. Like barley, they got left out. Yeah, it's just, I don't know, it's grainy and grassy. I don't hate it though. It has more like ginger snap or graham cracker, you know, that kind of stuff. It's really sweet on the finish. It's got a nice mouthfeel to it though. Yeah. Brown sugar. It's just compared to the last one. The last one was alive and fresh and expressive. And by contrast, this is like brooding and dark and spicy. I like it, but I think it's probably a cheaper, younger whiskey. You think so? I don't know. To get that kind of, well, you would know better than me, but to get that kind of darkness, I associate it with more age. I think it's good. I think it's on the high end of the middle of what we've tried for me. So what's that? It's a good plus plus. Plus plus, okay. It's got good heat too. It's got good grip. I like it. Compared to the one before, the nose is lacking. Yeah. My only complaint is the nose is a little lacking and lean. The nose is very shy on this one. The mouthfeel is very good. Now, the more I go back to it on the nose, though, it's getting a little bit more of that kind of caramelized popcorn ball type character to it. It's just austere. It's just mild. All right, cool. Some black pepper too. Number 12, Jepson's Bourbon. All right, last one, number 12. I've had an Yehose with that note. Here is your cherry candy. Yeah, dark cherry fruit on the nose for sure. This one's awesome. It's so fat and round. Yeah, so fat and round. Kind of like Greg after a bowl of Tom Yum soup. It was so good. Number 12 is awesome. Number 12 is pretty good. I wouldn't say awesome. I'd say pretty good. Is awesome one of your words or is that just the word that you say? It's a little too much for me. Too sweet. It's pure frosting. Roger doesn't like it because it's too much dessert. Yeah. I like it a lot. I think it's almost as good as number 10. Number 10 is much better. I have it on par with number 5. Number 5 is good. I agree. 10 is much better and it is very rich. It's like cherry-scented vanilla buttercream on the palate. Cherry-scented vanilla buttercream. Chris, I was going to say this reminds me of a heavily glazed cherry fritter. Yeah. Right? There's one gas station in Darien that sold that sold it at both these assholes. Bought it from one morning. Yeah. Chris and I enjoy talking about old-timey doughnut shops, especially in the St. Louis area. Before we do the reveal, anybody have a glaring favorite? Oh, God. Probably, I mean, for me, it was 10. Yeah. 10 and five. Yep. And I gotta say, 12 was up there, too. And eight was pretty good. Yeah, I really like 12 as well. Eight was very good, nine was pretty good. Nine, I think, is one of the cheapies. Chris really liked 10, Roger liked 10, I liked 10, Greg liked 10. Greg and I liked five a lot. Yeah. Anybody else have any strong favorites? Two, if it's what I think it is. And regardless, I think two is kind of a sleeper for if people didn't worry about what it costs or what the bottle looks like, they might really enjoy it. I think, I'll just go ahead and say it. I think it's mellow corn. And mellow corn is a really interesting whiskey. I would say I wouldn't be surprised if number two was mellow corn, but I also give it the lowest rating I give any whiskey here. Which was a good plus? Which was a straight good. Oh. It's good. Well, then why did you only give it a good? Because that's all it is. It was one of the drier whiskies and it had the most mineral limestone type aspect to it. I didn't. The most important thing is that if it is mellow corn, you broke your own rule because mellow corn is not bourbon whiskey because it's aged in pre-used barrels. You're assuming that I have rules and I'm well aware it's not a bourbon. Okay. You think I wasn't going to throw a curveball in here somewhere? Mellow corn is in here somewhere. Look at this guy with his contingency plan. He can talk his way out of anything. Order breaking rules. I thought about throwing a Ryan too, but I was like, we just talked about Ryan. I shouldn't put a Ryan. I didn't want to give it away. I was almost going to wear my mellow corn shirt. You have a mellow corn shirt? I got it at the distillery just a couple of weeks ago. That's pretty cool. I mean, mellow corn is like, what, $18? It's super cheap. That's why you love it. That's the only reason you're defending it right now. It's good and nothing more than good. In this lineup, if it's number two- In this lineup, it's dog. Well, I mean, it's ridiculous. Do you really want to go on to say that it's dog? No, I said it's good whiskey compared to everything else we tasted here. It's on the low end of what we tasted. It's stunningly subpar. And if it is what it is, which apparently you guys are pretty hard-core into to use. Any day, I would take this- I bet it's PBR. It'll be great when it's not. I would take this, whatever it is, over the super lumbery, which are no doubt some small craft producer. Probably. Probably. I would take the mellocorn over both of those. I would not. Not at all. All right, guys, money where your mouth is, let's find out what they are. All right. Number one is early times. Early times, bottled and bond. Early times. Here, pull the bottle. Early times. It was fine. I'm going to continue not drinking it. Yeah. How much is- Roger was ready to say I broke the bourbon rule again. This is early times bottled and bond bourbon. How much is early times bottled and bond? It just came back in stock. It was out of because Brown Forman sold the early times brand to Sazerac earlier this year, or early last year maybe. The years are running together. It looks pretty now and it will be worth drinking now. This is how it looked before. No, because it's the same juice. No, the old old early times is not a bourbon. Well, the old old, and that's still around. If you go buy regular early times, it's a blended American whiskey, but early times does make this straight bourbon bottled and bond. It's 18.99. No, that's the 175. Oh, no, one liter. Oh, that's one liter? Yeah, no, that's about right. It tastes like it's 18.99. I think it's fine. It's fine. I thought it was a little too sweet for my palate. Number two, mellocorn. Don't ever doubt me. Yes. No one doubted you. Well, Roger nailed it. The worst whiskey we tasted today. That's false. It does say Kentucky's finest, so truth in advertising. That is bottle mount. Number three. Wow. Remus repeal reserve five. This is 100 proof not bottled and bond is $90. That's not. Which one is it? Number three. I said don't sleep on number three. I liked it. I wrote not bad. That's right, folks. It's $90 not bad. Yeah, it's not worth $90. Oh, I think it is. Give me a break. I actually thought that was pretty good. I thought it was soft and peachy on the nose. I liked it quite a bit. It was a bit corny and peach blossom going on. Sold out anyway. I did just okay after I wrote all that. All right, number four. Walking Tall is? Whiskey Acres Bottled and Bond. Nice. That was my guess. Shout out to my dad who was a listener of the podcast and loves Whiskey Acres. Yeah, Whiskey Acres is good. So what's this like 45 bucks? 50. 50 bucks? It wears its wood on its sleeve. It does. And as a stock to bottle. Well, like I said, I think- Grain to glass. It is a grain forward whiskey. That whiskey is about the grains more than anything else. One star. All right. Number five. JTS Brown. Oh, nice. Bottled and Bond, number five. We love number five. We did love number five. Yeah, that's a cheap one too. JTS Brown, I believe, is 16.99, I think. JTS Brown, yeah, 17.99. 17.99, JTS Brown. I thought that was sweet, a little sweeter. That's a Heaven Hill product, right? Yes, that is a Heaven Hill product. For 17.99, that could be a go-to. Not showing that Heaven Hill mint as much as I would have thought. Very fruity, very fruity. Number six, Uncle Nearest 1856. Bananas, Foster and Plush. Yep, that totally- Tennessee whiskey. Totally rings, true. 100 proof, this is 8 to 11 year old juice. This is pretty expensive though, right? It's 60 bucks, I think. Uncle Nearest 1856, 54.99. Not bad. It's fair. That's a nice whiskey, especially considering that age. Again, it's like 8 to 11 year old stuff in there. It's awesome, according to Fawn Weaver. I said it was very good. I think it punches above its expectations. At least people will assume it's just, oh, it's just sourced Tennessee whiskey. It's all a story or something. It's good juice in there. Again, this is bourbon? Sure. It's Tennessee whiskey. It's technically bourbon. As I had to explain on Twitter this week to a Twitter follower. The Tennessee whiskey is technically bourbon with the Lincoln County process? The bourbon, most bourbons go through that. Lincoln through charcoal filtration too. Okay. It took Tennessee multiple decades to convince the government that to allow them to label it Tennessee whiskey and not bourbon. The government said, screw you, this is bourbon. You have to label it bourbon forever. I can see the government's point. Yeah, it's bourbon. All right. JTS Brown still hittin above all the competition when you factor in the value to quality. Oh, for sure, for sure. That's absolutely true. I'm with you on that, Roger. Number seven. Number seven. Old Grandad, Bottled and Bond. Pretty good, but it's no JTS Brown. So Roger was talking up Old Grandad, Bottled and Bond, but this was not necessarily one of my favorites in this line up. This was not what I thought was Old Grandad, too. I thought number nine was. I think it showed well. It was a good plus plus for those keeping track at home. Plus plus. Yeah. Number eight. Old Forrester Hunter. This is the one I wouldn't shut up about the bubble gum on. All Fruit, Cherry, Mempho, Old Faux were my notes. Old Faux? So which Old Forrester is it? Old Forrester, Hunter Proof. Signature. Just plain old and a Hunter Proof. Yeah, it's good. Very cherry forward for sure. I liked it, but I rated JTS Brown higher. So did I. Okay. Number nine. Evan Williams, Bottled and Bond. This is the one I thought was dant maybe. This is the one that is bourbon for the sake of bourbon. The bourbon classic, Bourbon Just. And that makes sense. And that makes sense because that's exactly what you guys called it, which is your affordable on the bottom shelf. We have handles of this now for less than $35. Are you serious? Yeah. I may have a new basement whiskey. Yeah. We have 175s that I think we were running on sale recently for $3199 or something. Don't tell me that. Yeah. Pretty ridiculous. People used to always bad-mouth regular black label Evan Williams. I think this is a perfect example of how it really can make a huge difference jumping from 80 proof to 100 proof and the overall flavor that you get on the finish. Not even just whether or not you can put ice in it, but this I think expresses itself in a completely different way than the 80 proof. Roger, I think that's important. A lot of people, especially neophytes when it comes to bourbon and whiskeys in general, think that higher proof just means more alcohol and more burn, but it also means more intense flavor. More body too. Yeah. Because it doesn't have water. Notably richer fatter bodies. Less water. Yeah. I mean, they're literally watering it back to hit 80, well, 100 too, but less water. We went through this phase maybe a couple of decades ago before the big bourbon boom where everybody was just buying standard 80 proof whisky. Everybody was ignoring bottled and bond. But bartenders have got to know that these are going to mix better in drinks. So more intensities stand up to other ingredients. Between the JTS Brown that I really like and I think is a great value, and the Evan Williams Hunter Proof that I think is a great value, I think the Evan Williams will make a better cocktail, a more classic cocktail. Because it has more cut. It has more traditional bourbon character. I could see that. All right. Number 10. This was everybody's favorite. Smoke Wagon Small Batch. Oh, the expensive one was everybody's favorite. It's not expensive. Seriously, how much is it? This is like 40 or 50 bucks. Why does it come in such a chintzy bottle? Because- 20 bucks, so it's more expensive than most of them. It's more money than Roger's ever going to spend on a bourbon, for sure. I guarantee you- That is false. I know it's false. I know it's false. Your grandma has a tea set that would go great with that. Yeah. I'm not a huge fan of the Ornate Bottle. How much does this burn your britches? You get tired of everybody seeking out smoke wagons. Everybody's all over the smoke wagon. I'm glad it's- Oh, yeah. This is a tater darling. What are we selling smoke wagon small batch for? It's on the website. Oh, of course it's not. We can't put it on the website because some tater tries to buy it all. Is this around? Is this available? I pulled it off the shelf at Lincoln Park yesterday. I seen it at Lincoln Hall. Two days ago. Yeah, some dentist is going to go without a bottle because of you. Why am I bad mouthing this? It's really good. No, this is really, really good. Number 11. Here's the dant. Number 11 is the dant. Good. Interesting. Low-lung. You know what? This absolutely lines up with my memory of dant. Remember, we did the old dant and the new dant, and they both had that rich baking spice, and it was a difference of degrees. This is it. Now, the last time I did a blind bourbon tasting, I had dant and JTS Brown, and I preferred dant to JTS Brown that day. That bottle of JTS Brown is from that taste, and it's been open for a long time. This is a fresh bottle of dant that I pulled off the shelf and cracked. So I think we are slightly skewed in that, our JTS Brown here has had a couple years worth of oxidation on it at this point, so it's really softened up. But it was lively and fruity. Oh, softened up. Yeah. I've bought plenty of dant in the past. I wouldn't have... This tastes sweeter than I remember dant brand. Brand new bottle of dant. It was good. It was the good plus plus. So put that on the back of the bottle. Quote, huh. Roger Adepson. All right. And finally, number 12. I really like number 12 as well. Yeah. Oh, this is Jepson's bourbon. Is this the handpicked one? No. No, this is the regular Jepson's bourbon that's on the shelf for like $22 or $21 or something. MGP, baby. Yep. And it's... Well, no, it's MGP and Tennessee though. They blend it. What's the back label say? Does it say Tennessee and Indiana? A blend of straight bourbon whiskeys aged a minimum of four years. Yep. Tennessee and Indiana. So do they do all of that? It's finished at CH, right? Yeah. Or do they just buy it? Well, I mean, it's finished at CH. So they have barrel contracts with whoever they have in Tennessee and the MGP in Indiana, and they bring truckloads at a time, and then they blend them and bottle it. Mix it up in a big bucket and put it in this bottle, and you can get it for 22 bucks, and it's fabulous. Wow. Jepson's. Good job. Yeah. I mean, obviously, they have some really good whisky there. We've done a lot of hand picks there, and we wouldn't if we didn't have exceptional whiskeys. But for this everyday shelf item, this is awesome. It's terrific. That is terrific. Wow. Smokewagon with the big win today. Good for them. I'm not familiar with that brand, and I'm surprised. So it is from Las Vegas. It is. You should check them out on Instagram, because the guy is a total hoot on Instagram. This is the guy who buys all the whisky too in Vegas. They're rectifiers. Yeah. Well, yeah. I mean, so- They don't have a distillery, do they? He has a still. I think essentially he bought a still without having done any research until like whether it was allowed or not. Nice. I don't know. I'm actually going to like see the guy in a couple of weeks, and I'm curious to ask him a few more questions. But so he's got this contract with MGP, and he brings in truckloads MGP barrels, and then they sit in the desert for a little while longer, and then he blends them up and bottles them. So they have a small batch. They have an uncut, unfiltered. They have a straight bourbon. And I think that might be it. That doesn't explain why this is so good. This is just their small batch. Yeah, I'm going to give this guy props for his blending chops, I guess. Yeah. Well said. I mean, you also should give them credit. Their bottles are beautiful. It's like an embossed bottle with- Yeah, it's got the wax coin in it with the crossed guns. I don't know. It's not my style. It's more... It would really fit the decor of a truck stop in South Dakota. Antique Storp has- A wall drug. Of course you like this, Rodger. Right next to your decorative soaps. It looks like something... Yeah, I'm just saying people are going to walk past this and want to buy this. There's no denying that. It fits all the trends. It's got this massive heavy bottom. If they like decorative soaps, yes. Yeah. I think if somebody is going to Tombstone, for example, this has that Tombstone vibe. Yeah, exactly. If somebody really appreciates walled drug, then they really like this. Yeah. Ornate wallpaper. Well, the fact is the juice is good. That's all that matters. The juice is fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. The running joke and why I bring it up is that bourbons like JTS Brown, when I was in the store trying to recommend these to people, look at this label. They would look at me and be like, are you kidding me? I'm not buying that. Right. Does it come with a pack of smokes? They probably think that same bottle has been on the shelf for 20 years. Yeah. It's a plastic screw top with the UPC on the neck label. Yeah. Well, okay. So it's so is Mellow Corn and so is Dant. Yeah. I mean, they're all from Heaven Hill. They're labels that they're proud of that, that these are really just the same label. I mean, they redid the stupid granddad label and made them look creepy. Yeah. They modernized granddad, which is like- Because that old Kentucky man didn't look creepy before. Yeah. Look at him. He's like grinning and he's giving you the hairy eyeball, the Kubrick stare, this thing. Hey. Wow. That's Basil Hayden. Get out of here, grandpa. Anyway, so for people that are looking for the cheat sheet, the insider info, that is one of the things about this industry is that people get too hung up on what the bottle looks like. If you really just care about the juice inside and don't care if it has this neat little wax medallion on it, you should try some of these things like JTS Brown. Again, the old school label and the price point make tons of people shy away. They just completely write it off. This is too cheap, it's too corny, no way could this be good. I think JTS Brown, when you factor in the flavor versus what you pay at the end of the day, was one of the top showing in this. How did Pat wander out of the room while Roger was championing the classic affordable 100 proof bourbon? Because that's the most predictable thing that's happened this podcast. I don't need to be in the room for that. Because he wants you to buy the more expensive stuff. No, no, no, because I mean, I'm a champion of dant and I have been forever. The one I gave the highest rating to was the Smoke Wagon Small Batch. That's on the shelf when it's on the shelf for $54.99. I think that's a damn good price for a bourbon of that quality. If I'm buying a bottle today, I'm going to be buying probably the Jepsen's, I think, or the JTS Brown. That's the other thing, the Jepsen's, I wanted to say, is still met online with smirks. Like, oh God, how bad is that? And it's glorious. It's awesome. That's very true and worth pointing out. They're kind of playing with fire here, making people think that it's going to have something to do with Malort because of the branding. Obviously, it doesn't. Yeah. So yeah, don't think the harshness of Malort by any means. I don't know that people do, but it's just like- Of course they do. The Jepsen's brand was just such a more widely known brand than CH Distillery. Okay, so just as much as that wax seal on the smoke wagon costs an extra five bucks, the Jepsen's name on there costs an extra five bucks. It was like $18 as a CH bourbon. It was $18.99 and then we only got liters for like 22 bucks and now it's $7.50 for like 22 bucks. Oh, well then it's apples to apples now. I mean, it's also been like six years ago. Yeah, it's been like six years. I think that's a reasonable price increase from the last time we had it. But when it was just CH bourbon, we couldn't give it away. Right. And it's the exact same juice. Talk about, you'd rather have an old timey mellocorn Daigle orange label than that crappy... Go back and listen to our CH episode, everybody. CH great people, but it was like a vodka bottle. You know, with a vodka label on it, essentially. All right. Well, not a stinker on the table, unless you're looking at the mellocorn. It was kind of a stinker. Millicorn was indeed a stinker. That is ridiculous. Next time, I think maybe you should apply some of that scientific precision you made us go through at the ice episode to your sampling instead of being Joe, this was open for like three years, and this is a freshie. What, am I gonna pull 12 fresh bottles for you assholes? The whole point of having the sample library is that I don't have to pull them every single time. If we sent you to pull 12 bottles, you'd come back with 18. That's true. So, thank you for bringing all these whiskeys, Pat, despite the fact that I've given you plenty of shit about your selection process. 100 proof. There was one criteria, 100 proof and bourbon. That's a post-hoc, but that's okay. Now, the only thing I did wrong was bring mellocorn, but that was on purpose. All right, so. Roger sniffed it out like one of those pigs finds a truffle. Because it sucks and it's easy to sniff out. All right. Yeah, fine, it doesn't suck. I like mellocorn, but it's clearly a different thing than the rest of these pretty awesome bourbons. Well said. Said. I don't know if well. But I think the overarching theme here, like we've always encouraged everyone, is to be open minded, always taste things blind whenever possible. This can be a great way to educate your palate, but also this is proof that there's a lot of excellent bourbon whiskies out there that are obtainable. We're just as frustrated as you get when people can't find the most talked about, most Instagram bourbons out there. But this is proof that there's great bourbon out there and there's some really great bourbon that's really friendly on the wallet as well. So when you get together with friends, family, you're trying bourbons, make them try some stuff blind and it can be a fun experiment. But thanks for listening to this. If you liked it, please let us know. Leave a comment, follow us on whatever podcast platform you choose, tell your friends, tell your family, tell your mom especially to listen to Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. Tell your mom Roger says hi. So until next time, I'm Roger. I'm Greg. I'm Jim. I'm Chris. And I'm Pat. Keep tasting.