You actually have a game plan for this one? Not really. So, I thought that Canadian Whisky was basically just rye mixed with grain neutral spirit, and that just adds up to a whole bunch of lousy... Canadians will get really angry about that and defend the whiskey. And old people, old Americans will say, well, yeah, of course, that's what I'm drinking at. Canadians will get all offended and say that that's American blended whiskey. Yeah, they'll shake their fists and say Kessler. And how dare you call Canadian whiskey that? And in reality, the truth is a little bit in between. Sure, technically not grain neutral spirit, but a lot of the stuff in that bottle was distilled to 94% alcohol. So how much flavor does it really have left? And the Canadians are responsible for American whiskey. Well, we're going to find out on this episode. You're listening to another episode of Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. I am Pat. I do spirit stuff at Binny's. Got two people in the room with me today. Actually in the room, we are socially distanced at the Lincoln Park store. Way over there. Hey, Greg, how are you doing? Another beautiful day at Binny's. I do communications for Binny's. And we brought The Whisky Hotline top dog back, Brett Pontani's with us today. Hello. Hello. Yeah, that's Brett. And I thought we needed a spirits episode. We want to talk about something we haven't really talked about much before. And I thought something that immediately came to my mind that gets totally overlooked, especially in the age of all these like limited release bourbons and collectible single malts and Yamazaki 55 year old selling for 6.8 million Hong Kong dollars or How much is a Hong Kong dollar? A lot less than an American dollar, but it was still over a million. There was $880,000 American dollars, something like that. Yeah, the most expensive bottle of whiskey ever sold at auctions so far. The most expensive bottle of Japanese whiskey sold at auctions. Of Japanese whiskey, yes. There was a couple of 1926 McCallans that sold for more. There have been four or five now that have been over a million American. Yeah. This is all to say in contrast to boring old Canadian whiskey. Let's talk about boring old Canadian whiskey because we're not going to crack open a bottle of Yamazaki 55 to tell you guys what it tastes like. But Canadian whiskey is getting overlooked. It's a bit of a growing category. There are some really good brands out there. Brett and I actually about a year ago got a chance to go up to the Corby Distillery, which is the old Canadian Club Distillery in Windsor, Ontario. It's a really cool, impressive operation. They really put a lot of thoughtfulness and a lot of science into what they do with Canadian whiskey. But the problem is there's a bunch of cheap crap that gives the whole category a bad name sometimes. Right. The whiskey, I think everybody thinks first and foremost, the Canadian whiskey is very light, very soft, very simple. And the reality of constructing a Canadian whiskey is the opposite. It's significantly more difficult to construct a Canadian blend than it is to make bourbon, quite frankly. Is that like the Budweiser problem where it's light and very basic? So in order to keep it consistent, you don't have anywhere to hide? No, it was more of an, I think historically, it was addressing changing tastes. So the history of Canadian whiskey being huge. I mean, what was it? It's only been in the last five to six years that American whiskey has passed Canadian whiskey sales in the United States. And American whiskey lagged behind because for a long time, a lot of what people associated with American whiskey was actually driven by the Seagrams Company, which were Canadians. So what's that, Crown Royal and Seagram Seven? Seagram Seven, Crown, Four Roses was turned from a wonderful well-regarded bourbon distillery to just a generic light blend by Seagrams. Oh, yeah. And then the whiskey wasn't even doing that well, so they kind of dive bombed it and made a bunch of vodka, right? Yep. Correct. Well, that was part of it is they, part of the adjustment from bourbon and rye, well, rye kind of started dying down after prohibition ended, bourbon started dying down when taste started shifting to white goods and wine, and that would have been kind of started in the late 60s. James Bond is often- Yeah. I mean, my favorite pastime, blaming all problems on the British, goes right back to James Bond where overnight, he kind of made this clear, strong, neutral spirit, the man's choice, the manly man's choice for beverage alcohol, and that had a But right around that time, Miller, I mean, tastes were skewing that way anyway. Miller Light came out. Because, right, the Miller Brewing Company bought Meister Brau and took the Meister Brau Light recipe, which was very popular and turned it into Miller Light, which happened in the mid 70s, and things started kind of declining. But because Seagrams, it behooved Seagrams to push their primary products much, much harder than they were pushing their American-owned properties, you started seeing a massive amount of growth in Canadian whiskey. And look, Canadian whiskey, after Prohibition, started out of the gates as number one, because most of what people drank, or a lot of what people drank during Prohibition, was Canadian whiskey. And rum. There was being- Or smuggled them north and south. There was rum, there was a bit of scotch, there was whatever little bits of American whiskey that people like George Remus could drink. And there was a flood of Canadian whiskey. And they never stopped producing them that whole time when American distillery- No, they had millions and millions and millions of barrels of age stock, as our Prohibition ended. Interesting. So where we had only, I think it was what, six distilleries had medicinal licenses, or six or twelve. Six had medicinal licenses. Yeah. And those were the only ones in America that kept producing it all. Right. Now, so which creates a whole for age product, because you only have the ones that are allowed to produce. And a lot of that was industrial grade alcohol. So you have a whole developing there. Nobody needed fine barrel aged whiskey as a base for the cough syrup. Well, it's because you didn't, but they had, but you were getting during Prohibition. I mean, some Prohibition whiskeys are profoundly fantastic because they just, it's like, all right, this stuff is getting old. In a lot of cases, people would have just dumped the oldest barrels first because they're getting old and they're getting too witty. Let's just put in barrel 1908. Well, it's 1931 now. This is getting long the tooth. Put it in a medicinal pints. And sell it for a medicinal alcohol price, which if I understand wasn't super expensive. I don't think so. I'm not sure, though. Prohibition was a golden age for drinkers. Yeah. Okay. So like most conversations with two-thirds of the whiskey hotline, this has become a meandering tangent. Well, okay. But my whole thought with Canadian whiskey is you can't... It's hard for people, because Canadian whiskey has this reputation, it's hard to taste it objectively when you know what you're tasting. So I grabbed six things that, in my opinion, are Canadian whiskeys to look out for, mostly. And we're going to taste them blind, and I want to hear what people have to say about these as we taste through them. And if you want to keep a ranking internally or something, or on a sheet of paper, you're welcome to. Okay, so we're about to taste number one, and Pat from The Future is going to cut in and tell you what we're tasting, but we're not going to know until the end. So here we go. Number one, JP. Weiser's Triple Barrel Rye. Oh, it's always, so when I taste, when I taste, I like to taste like everything at once. And every time we do this blind, we don't have like six samples in front of us. We just have the one. So like going into the first one, it's always like, you know, your palate's not configured to where you're supposed to be. Yeah. Which right now, my palate is configured to raspberry pure leaf brewed tea. And premixed Negroni. Don't forget that. And that premixed Negroni. We tried that premixed Negroni. Yeah. It smells buttery and smells a little bit citric. I really am initially hit by the mouthfeel on this. Like this is a nice plush full-bodied whiskey. And I think it's kind of showing that signature Canadian grain too. You know, it's funny. There is, I mean, I would kind of call it medium-bodied. I could maybe guess this is a Canadian. It doesn't have quite as much mouthfeel to me as a bourbon would, for instance, would not as much fatness and structure as a bourbon does. But you can, there's some interesting complexity to it, I think, because you can pick out like different pieces. If knowing that we're drinking Canadian Whisky, but not knowing which Canadian Whisky we are, it's like, okay, I could see that this is something that was built up off of some sort of base. It seems high-toned. It seems bright. It seems citric and maybe like a little bit grassy. Yes. So citric and grassy, I mean, those are definitely qualities of rye when they're made in Canada, for sure. We tend to think of American rye as like heavy spice and menthol and mint. Canadian rye tends to have, I think, a little more of a grassy component to it, sometimes a little more herbal, and I definitely picked up on that, and that's why I thought this was- Bready herbal and bready. Yeah, bready for sure. They can be kind of bready. It's funny because people don't, when you get bready notes in American whiskey, bourbon, rye and corn, you tend to get more bready notes from rye than you do from wheat or corn, even though wheat is probably a bigger- Yeah, rye gives more doughy character. Is it rye the one that clogs up the machines when you're trying to- Oh, yeah. Yeah, rye turns into glue when you get it wet. Gelatinizes, yeah, gelatinizes really well. So is that like enzymes or gluten or something in the rye? It's gluten. It's gelatinizes. I think this is pretty good whiskey though. What do you think a whiskey like this costs, Greg? Oh, gosh. I would hope it would be 40 or south of 40. Just I guess on the record, I don't think it's that good. You're allowed to say it's not that good. You're used to pretty big bourbons. Yeah, I like syrupy bourbons. I think this is a pretty good whiskey, but I know what it is. I think it's high toned. I don't know. I would hope to pay 35 bucks for it. I'd say 30, 35. Pretty good whiskey. Cool. Number two, Canadian LTD. All right. Number two. Number two. Number two. This is less apparent on the nose. There's less bursting out of you. Seems low lying. It also, I think it looks darker, which I don't know what that means in Canadian whiskey. Well, Canadian whiskey can contain coloring. Oh. Important to note. Yeah, so it could mean nothing. It could mean nothing at all. This tastes more like the stereotypical Canadian whiskey, I think. This tastes like light blended whiskey. Yeah, this is a little, I mean, it's got burnt graham cracker. Yeah, yeah. Like burnt graham cracker. But that implies too much flavor, because this kind of tastes like whiskey-flavored vodka. I drink a lot of Windsor Canadian whiskey when I'm in the Northwoods of Minnesota, and this reminds me of that. This just reminds me of just cheap, cheap Canadian whiskey. I mean, I don't want to tear it up too much, but it definitely has. Well, because I don't think it's horrible. I've had worse whiskies. I've had worse craft whiskies that were expensive. But this has an alcohol quality. That's like the watered down white dog. So it's like a little bit like aloe. That maybe it's 49 percent, that maybe it's 49 percent GNS with other flavoring whiskies. Well, okay. So the GNS thing. So technically, GNS would imply that a grain has been distilled to, I believe it's 96. 95. Over 95, 190. Just because we're in the world of acronyms, grain neutral spirit. So it's been distilled to a point of neutrality, meaning all of the flavor, any inherent flavor that would be reminiscent of that grain is gone. Well, how's that different than vodka? It's not different than vodka. That's the thing. And so that's what American whiskeys like Kessler- In fact, that's the law in vodka, by the way, is vodka is a neutral, it has to be a neutral spirit. So blended American whiskeys like Seagram 7, Crown or Kessler are like Kessler's 75% grain neutral spirits blended in with a little bit of aged whiskey. So Canadian Whisky is a blended whiskey, but essentially each distillery makes two different styles of whiskey. They make what they refer to as base whisky and what they refer to as flavoring whisky. So base whisky is distilled in a column still and distilled to 94% alcohol normally. So yes. Americans would call it light. That would be the top end of light whisky. Technically, it's not a grain neutral spirit, but you're literally 1% alcohol away from being a grain neutral spirit. So come on. And then the flavoring whisky is usually distilled in a combination of pot stills and column stills. And that is going to be like usually the rye heavy whisky. They can also make it with wheat or something too, but whereas the base whisky is really a base of corn and it's like triple distilled in these big industrial column stills, the flavoring whisky is distilled to a lower proof. Still normally touches a column still, but it's aged in new wood, new cupboards, whereas the base whisky is aged in used cupboards. So here's why I don't want to totally trash this one. I get a delightful little dusting of cocoa powder underneath, and I bet you that the flavoring whisky is actually really good, but then they just put a bunch of water it down. But there's not a lot of the flavoring whisky in there. Yeah. So this is number two. Of note with Canadian whisky that they have some similar laws to Scotland and Ireland, where all Canadian whisky has to be aged at least three years. So even that base whisky that's distilled to near neutrality and put in a barrel that has nothing left to give, still sits in that barrel for at least three years. Anything that goes into the component, because the other piece of Canadian whisky, which I'm sure we'll get into, they're allowed to have 9.09 percent. The 909 law. In a bottle of Canadian whisky, up to 9.09 percent of the total volume can be a flavoring. But that flavoring has to be a wine or a spirit that has been aged at least two years in wood. Wait a minute. A wine or a spirit aged in wood. So that's why you can make a Canadian whisky that's 89 point whatever percent whisky and then the rest could be sherry. A 90.01 percent whisky. Yeah, 90 point, yeah. Plus sherry. Weird. Yeah. Or it could be rum. Does it have to be from Canada or Canada? No, no. It just has to be wine or spirit aged in wood for two years. When Hiram Walker still owned Canadian Club before Hiram Walker was disbanded and broken up, Canadian Club had a sherry cask, a Canadian Club 15-year-old sherry cask whisky. That was 8 percent Harvey's Bristol cream. That had been aged 15 years and it was a 15-year age statement. So it was essentially 15-year-old Harvey's Bristol cream was blended in. Harvey's Bristol cream was the only alcohol I've ever seen my grandmother drink. That's so weird. Yeah, they would flavor this whisky with your grandma's favorite sherry. Yeah. But that's so weird that I mean, that's got to give it such a strange flavor. They're really shooting for the young audience with that one. Yeah. Well, the Canadian Club 15 years. There's a cocoa. This one is what a pleasant drinking, high selling Canadian whisky ought to be. So what do you think that costs? I mean, we know what those whiskeys cost. $18.99 a handle. Yeah, probably. I mean, yeah, $20. For a 175 liter bottle? Yeah, for a big one. Probably made of plastic. Are you painting? Canadian Mask, maybe. Is that Canadian Hunter? You will find out. I don't even think we carry Canadian Hunter anymore. Is there a maple leaf? Every once in a while, someone driving a Buick asks for it, but they don't listen to podcasts, so I don't mind saying that. Well, sure, they. If you could listen to a podcast on a flip phone, they would do it in a heartbeat. There's some Buick driver right now who's like, hey, he just drove up the road. Yeah, his name is Doug Jeffress. A puff of cigar smoke just wafted out of his window. Number three, Signal Hill. Number three, it's a little grainier, a little more brown sugar, a little more bourbon quality, a lot more brown sugar. A lot more brown sugar. Now, see, I kind of like this one. Yeah, this one's good. I like this one a lot. This is very nice. Caramelized brown sugar. It's got a bit of almost like a bananas foster thing going on. Yeah. Right, because there's some cinnamon. I mean, you're starting to get a little bit of characteristic baking spice character that might tell you there's some rye involved in this. You could fool me into believing that this is a rum, like a light rum or like a lighter dark rum. Cold rum? I don't know. Like a molasses-based rum that's been aged a bit, but only a bit. You might be on to something there. Interesting. No, I like that round, chewy, spicy fatter. Like there's more, like just more weight. It's very easy drinking though. The one thing I think that's been obvious with all three of these so far is they are probably baseline minimum 80 proof. Whereas if this one we just tried, number three here was awesome. If this was like a little higher proof, say that was 100 proof or something, I bet it would be an awesome cocktail whiskey. But right now, I think it's pretty soft though. I'm willing to bet it's not that high of a proof, but I'm not sure. It would be lost on ice. Yeah, totally. It would be lost on ice. I like that. I like it a lot. That one. You said, I like that one, eh? Number four, Lot 40 12 year old cask strength. Number four. This whiskey is a beautiful color. Yeah. Again, not that that means much. Ah, now we're getting cherry fruit like this is. This is definitely more rye heavy too. Yeah. Like it's got like the cherry stone fruit thing, that kind of like cherry pit, that almondy kind of, you know? Yeah. Oh yeah, that is varietally labeled rye. That's 100% rye. Mm. It's so buttery and round on the palate, like butterscotch and I don't know, like a little oily. It finishes with so much spice. Coriander and baking spice. Coriander and yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's fantastic. It's almost got a floral thing going on that lingers. This is terrific. But like rose petal, violet petal, rose petal sort of thing. Because it's dry. Like the flower there. But it's a drying flower. Yeah, it's drying flower. Also thinking like a little bit of cracked pepper on the finish that cuts against the sweeter like, I don't know, not lemon candy, lemon curd, but like fresh. Oh, backing up real quick. I didn't ask you what you thought number three cost. Oh, right. 60. 60? Not a lot of Canadian Whisky. That's 60 bucks. How much is your hand picked? Caribou Crossing or whatever that one's called. Caribou Crossing is 50 bucks or 45 bucks. 50 bucks. No, 55 now. It went up a little bit. All right. Well, this one's pretty good. I think this guy is probably on that premium edge. This is on the premium edge for Canadian would be 40 to 50, broadly 40 to 50. That's where I would put this one. If this was a bourbon, this would be 80 to $100. Yeah. If I tried this blind, my first guess, if I tried this blind, I would say certainly there is a very high Rye content. I mean, the Rye really shines. Yeah, this is really good. It's great. And I guess we're not stressing the mouthfeel. It's like palate filling and expressive in a way that most of these others have been a little angular and lean. This one stands out in body so far. Yeah, that's what it does, but not flabby. Not flabby, right? No, mouth-filling. Yeah, yeah. What do you think the proof is on this? Do you think it's higher? I think it tastes higher. I mean, but higher, maybe 45, 40. Yeah, I was going to say like around 90 proof. Around 90, though. You're not talking like- Right at the unshell filtered. That would make sense for the body too, if it was at that level. All right, that was number four. All right, and we're paying premium price for number four. Number five, Pendleton Midnight. Number five, seems less dark. A little bit less on the nose than the last one. I agree. Also, like a little cheesy or funky on the nose. And more like open-faced grain, like more apparent grain. There's a little more sweetness in it. Yeah. But not rounder. I mean, I like the mouth. I like the mouth feel. That's nice. It's got some heft. It's got some weight. I think it's also slightly higher proof. More graceful. Although it's like, it's not orange, but there's something like that, like a mellow. I would say like a burnt orange oil type of thing. Yeah. I could see calling this out as a premium Canadian. Yeah. Or a premium American whiskey, but thinking American whiskey along the lines of like Michter's American whiskey. Yeah. Yeah. With a funky Mash Bill American Whisky. American Whisky in name only. You said sweeter, right? Like it does have more of a sweetness across. Yeah, a little bit more lush. The spice isn't as forward and apparent. And then like a tiny little bit of that ester that you get in some of those pithy. Well, when you're talking about orange or citrus, but it's like pithy. Pithy. Or like a pulpy pithy sort of. Creamsicle. A little bit of creaminess there too. That's not bad. What do you think it costs? 35. Yeah, that's probably about right. 35, 40. It's a nice whiskey though. I could see that making like a pretty decent old fashioned. Yes. You know, I think that natural kind of citrus character in there is going to work really well with that. It's rounder and softer, but this also has more than 40. This is more than 40% ABV. I agree with that. This is probably 90. It was probably sitting right around 90, 92. And number six, Alberta Premium 20-year-old limited edition. Number six, the last one. Catch that nose. That smells like rum. I think it smells like wood and plastic. No, that smells like rum. Right? Yeah. If I did, if I had to judge by nose alone, I would not fault anybody for guessing rum. Yeah. Jamaican rum. There's like orange marmalade. Yeah. Or orange peel, or like candied orange peel, sort of. I think it's pretty good. This has this particular quality that I can't stand, but oftentimes people like talk about how they like it. You know, it's estuary, it's bruised up fruit, bruised up tropical fruit. It's like Ethiopian coffee has this quality, and it just smells and tastes like diaper to me. I hate it. It does kind of, it's got that estuary rum character. Yeah. So you find it, so that could mean that there's a little bit of butyl alcohol, just like butyric in beer, butyl alcohol will cause you to taste those sorts of things. That's a really high boil point alcohol though. You got to be really deep into distillation. Yeah. Deep into the tails. Then along with that, it's mashed up cherries and a tiny bit of menthol. Little bit of menthol keeps it Canadian, I suppose. There's like some. Well, the cherries, that's the last alcohol. That's furfural. Furfural. Let's never get Brett and Chris Beer on an episode at the same time. We'll never get to the topic at hand. It's just like breaking down molecular chemical compositions. Wow. Okay. Well, I'm going to guess it as more expensive because I think it's really rich and robust and intense in those flavors, even though I don't like them. It is really rich and robust. They can be, and I can see what you mean by the polarization because honestly, those are flavors that I'm not actually thrilled with because I don't like that sort of candied orange peel flavor. It's like pimento a little bit without it being as green bell peppery. Wait, by pimento, you mean the thing inside of an olive or the thing that's all spice in Jamaica that I learned because of Roger? The thing that's all spice in Jamaica. Okay. More of that. I don't know. No, pimento is like- I would say this is like clove. This would be like if you stuck whole cloves into an orange peel, and then took a searzol to it. Another, and again, and I'm not a big clove fan. So I don't like clove and nutmeg all that much. I like this one. I thought this was quite good. This is a nice sitting outside on the front porch and cooling fall weather type of whiskey. I mean, it is another standout here in this lineup, and that it's like atypical because it's so broad. Yeah. I think this probably has less of that base whiskey. I'm going to guess that this is Signal Hill, if I can guess, and you can cut it if I'm wrong. You can guess, and you are wrong. Jim, don't cut it. But Signal Hill is in here, but it's not that one. Oh, then it's got to be number three. I think it was. Let's go find out. I don't even know what Signal Hill is, but right? Signal Hill was this softer. Signal Hill is a brand that's coming out of Corby's, that was constructed by Dr. Don Livermore's predecessor. So Pat's setting out the bottles here so that we can see all of them. Is that the order? That is the order. Number one. All right, JP Weiser's. Brett's been touting this whiskey for the last several years. We talk about it in all our staff trainings with Rye as a varietal. Because that is a 1999 retail. Yeah, as a $20 bottle of whiskey. There's other Weiser's though, right? There are other Weiser's. There's also more expensive Weiser's. There's an 18-year-old Weiser's and a 15-year-old. The 18-year-old is gorgeous too. Yes. No. So Weiser's would be Corby's competitive. It's like if there's Jack Daniel's, Jim Beam, Evan Williams, and Wild Turkey and Four Roses, there's Weiser's, Crown Royal, Canadian Club, Windsor Mist. Weiser's is Corby's fighting brand. Okay. But they're not all labeled rye, right? This one stands out as being labeled rye. No. This one is very specifically labeled rye with that kind of the token green label on the rye. Yeah. Yes, because they also have Weiser's Deluxe, which is more the entry level. Do you think that they call it rye to- This is 90 proof too, to its credit at 20 bucks. You think they call it rye to hit an American audience? Yes. Yes. Right? Because 100 percent. So I thought that one for sure when tasting, I was like, this is obviously, I think I said this is obviously 80 proof Canadian whiskey, and that's 90 proof, so to its credit, it's very soft and easy. At the risk of going into a meandering tangent, are there big requirements to label Canadian whiskey as rye? No. Okay. So most Canadian whiskey, now the thing is in Canada, rye is like a synonym for whiskey. So a Canadian whiskey can be made with no rye at all, and people in Canada will refer to it as rye. Because that's just like rye equals whiskey. They would say, rye, eh? Rye, eh? Most Canadian whiskies are made with rye. Now the thing is very differently in Canada compared to American whiskies. They don't have mashbills in Canada. These, when you're making a Canadian whiskey, you are making and distilling, you're fermenting and distilling and even aging these grains separately. You make 100 percent corn whiskey, 100 percent malt barley whiskey, 100 percent rye whiskey, and 100 percent wheat whiskey. That's tedious. And you age them all and then you blend them. There are two exceptions to that rule. Black Velvet and Canadian Club are blended, they're still distilled separately, but they're blended before being put into the barrel for aging. You know what, that's a uniquely Canadian thing. Well, in the wine side of things, like a lot of wineries that are doing big production need to know the exact qualities of all of the ingredients before going into the blend. So bigger California producers will do that with the red blends too, and even they're like, they're varietally labeled Cabernet. Well, that's where the science of this really comes in. So, I mean, yes, they're blended whiskies in the sense that they are multiple whiskies blended together, but I think a more appropriate term for them would be single distillery whiskies. Yeah. The same way you have blended Japanese whisky, like Hibiki is a blended whisky. It's really just different styles of whisky made at the same distillery. It's a single distillery whisky, but it's a blend of different styles. Well, Hibiki will have- It might have Hakushu in it. It might have Hakushu and Cheetah, so it's three. It's going to be regular unpeated single malt from Yamazaki, peated single malt from Hakushu, very small amounts. Very small amounts. And then- Grain whisky from Cheetah. The grain base is from Cheetah. So yeah, anyway, so that's how the blending works there with Canadian whisky, which is, so we'll get more to it at the Lot 40, I guess. I'll go into that more. Number two? Number two, Canadian LTD. The ugliest, plasticist thing I could find. Yes, well, what you can be guaranteed is that nobody that drinks LTD actually listens to podcasts. Yes. When I first started working for Binny's, LTD was $8.99 a handle. So you literally found the biggest plastic bottle. Well, you know, you can't talk about Canadian whisky without talking about some of the big plastic bottles. So, you know, I alluded to in the staff trainings, we taste all of the big plastic bottles. And we taste them blind. And I'm not going to say that this one won last time, but you know what? It showed pretty well here. This is truly the 10 high of Canadian whisky. Dude, we were all like, yeah, that's a $20 whiskey. This is a $11 whiskey. Wait, $11 for that bottle? Yeah, I think so. $11 for a handle. Yeah, you can't fault it for, Jesus. Man, that's why it tastes so much like vodka though. Yeah, totally. It tastes like vodka with caramel coloring and a splash of whiskey. That was a G&S base or a very, very high. Again, if you say G&S, you'll offend the Canadians. So a high alcohol content light whiskey. You mix this with some squirt and throw in one of those bright red cherries, and you're fine. It's fine. Totally. Number three, Signal Hill. So did we figure that out? No, because number six, this was the other one with that S3 quality like number six. Well, I would say this didn't have an S3 quality. This is the one where you specifically kept saying brown sugar and molasses, which is a clue to some of the barrels that are used in this. So this is non-chill filter, despite the fact that it's only 80 proof. So it is a lower proof. I thought it was a little higher proof, but it really has that really nice mouthfeel. Yeah, I still would believe that this is rum. Well, it doesn't say on here. What? Here, we have to get there. I'm 99.9% sure this was Demerara Rum Cast. Yes, some of it was Demerara Rum Cast. There is a blend. It was a blend that was constructed by Don Livermore's predecessor at Corby at the Canadian Club Distillery. Yeah. That's a really nice whiskey. We guessed premium pricing on that. How much is premium? Well, I think you had mentioned maybe 40 bucks or something. That's 35. That's a $35 bottle. Yeah. I think we might even be running on sale for 30. That's a really nice whiskey. I agree. Number four, Lot 40 Cast Strength, and this is a 12 year old. So this was their- That's not a US release. Not a US release. This was their first edition. This is 110 proof. This came out a couple of years ago. Wait a minute, this is not a US release? Not a US release. So this is just some liquor that you keystered in here? Maybe. They had this Corby Limited Release line a couple of years ago that had a 35 year old JP Weiser, a 21 year old- Gooderman-Warts. No, they did a 17 year old Gooderman-Warts. We got that. 21 year old Pike Creek and then this 12 year old Castor Lake Lot 40. They did not come to the States, but this started a conversation with us at The Whisky Hotline and the importer in the distillery. So Lot 40 is a 100 percent pot distilled, 100 percent rye whiskey made at Corby, at the old Canadian Club distillery. And they are releasing a limited release Cast Strength every year. This year is the first year it's going to come to the US. Nice. And the cool thing about this is, I mentioned earlier, Brett and I got to go to the distillery. Last June, Brett and I actually got to blend what will be the US release of Lot 40 Cast Strength with Dr. Don Livermore, the master distiller and blender at the distillery. Well, we better have a good allocation. We barely are getting any. We were there with some friends from a liquor store in Boston, and so what's coming to the US will come here and there. So not a whole lot is coming to the US because it's a big hyped thing in Canada every year, but we will be getting some and it's pretty cool. And so what's coming this year is not 12 years, it's 10 and 11 years old if I remember correctly, and there was a big mix of French oak in it this time around, which was not the case here. So this one out of the lineup was maybe my favorite. It was awesome. And I hope I get a chance to try this one you guys are bringing in. So you mentioned that if this was a bourbon, this would be 80 or 90 bucks. This is 12 year cast strength, 110 proof. Like yeah, that's 80 or 90 bucks is a bourbon for sure. Absolutely. Maybe a buck 20. How much is this? To be determined, but not that much. It's not going to be 80 bucks. No. Nice. Buy it as soon as you see it nerds, otherwise you'll miss out. Yep. Number five was Pendleton Midnight. So Pendleton is a Canadian whiskey brand bottled by a US-based company. The cable channel. I wasn't allowed to watch as a kid. It also smells like a man's cologne if he exposes too much chest. Well, it's 90 proof, so it's got that going for it. This is also brandy barrel finished. How do you go about adopting that sensation into your olfactory library? How does one acquire that sensation for it to be in your olfactory library? I'm just reacting to the words, man. All right. Well, either way, listen, man. Pendleton, pretty good Canadian whiskey. It's had a following for a long time with fans of rodeo and stuff, but this is a nice whiskey, and we've recently put this into more stores, and it's on the top shelf in our Canadian whiskey sets. This is a whiskey worth picking up, and this is like 30 or 35 bucks. Hood River was the original importer and creator and now Proxima owns it. Yeah, 90 proof, brandy barrel finished, pretty good Canadian whiskey. That's interesting, brandy barrel finished. Canadian brandy barrels? No, specifically American brandy barrels. Golly. Yeah, for sure. Whisky number six is a special treat and kind of a sneak peek. This is Alberta Premium 20-year-old. Alberta is a big distillery in Alberta Springs, and they produce a lot of the juice that goes into Whistlepig, for example. They do a lot of other stuff too. Masterson's Canadian whiskey is made up there. I was wondering if we were going to see some Vermont Rye in this Canadian lineup. We toyed with the idea, but we couldn't find the one I was looking for. This is 84 proof, kind of a goofy proof, 20-year-old. This is owned by Jim Beam, like we were talking about earlier, Beam-Suntory. They are actually going to be bringing this for the first time, the Alberta Premium label to the US, I believe, first quarter of 2021. It's supposed to be Get It First at Binny's. It'll be Get It First at Binny's forever. Now, are we getting the 20 or the 25 year? I'm either one. They just need to give me an answer. Yeah. So why is it so funky? How much did you say it was going to be? I did not say. That will be 100, 120 bucks. Yeah. Okay. Well, Roger is going to like this one. Yeah. I don't know. I think it's got, I think it's a combination of new and used wood and different grains, and it's that funkier style of rye. It's older. That's the other thing where you're talking about getting those wood characters because it's 20 years old. Well, Alberta Springs is famous for making 100 percent rye whiskey too. Where it's like 95 percent unmalted rye, five percent malted rye. Standouts. I got to get me some of that lot 40, except that's like the only bottle in America. Yeah. Well, we're going to have a version of that that is A, we're going to have a version of it that's A, just as good, B, the regular lot 40, the standard release is on mops right now and is incredible. It's like 40 bucks or something. Yeah, for 40 bucks. With a jar of cherries, not only- Oh yeah, you can get regular lot 40 with a jar of Luxardo Marichino cherries for a penny. For 40 bucks and a jar of Luxardo Marichino cherries. That's amazing. That's amazing. Those are $20 cherries. It's the kind of shit you only get at Binny's. Thank you, Bradford, showing Binny's once again. Yeah, Binny's is the place to get these great whiskeys. All right. There's more to talk about with Canadian Whisky, I guess, but I think this is a good primer that covers it. We got a wide range of styles here that all, when tasted blind, I would say showed pretty favorably. Even the hated LTD showed pretty nice. We did an episode that had American blended whisky a long time ago. It was probably Kessler's that we tried. This wasn't that bad. No. I think that- You're not drinking it on its own, but that's not the point. I think that we need to do a follow-up, I think is a promise to the listeners. We need to do a follow-up. Now that we have done our primer Canadian Whisky episode, we need to do a 201 or a 301 follow-up and get together with Dr. Don, and talk a little bit more about the technology and the techniques behind creating all these things. We mentioned the different styles of whisky, so they're making all these different styles of whisky, different grains, distilling potentially different proofs, putting in different wood. When Brett and I were there blending the Lot 40 Cast Strength, we were in a blending lab with 150 different whiskeys in front of us that we could have used to make this thing. I mean, it's absolutely ridiculous. And his dissertation is on wood chemistry and lactone break up in different sorts of wood, of ages, toasts, charred. Yeah. I mean, he's very much a scientist first. And so he's looking at whisky on a molecular level and trying to blend it to maximize flavor and consistency. And there's some pretty good stuff coming out of there. And retains the ability to have, not to scare people off on a future podcast, but maintains the ability to talk about that in a manner that you would understand. In a relatable way, for sure. Without a doctorate in chemistry. Hey guys, subtle a bit. So a friend of mine was reading the offer that you wrote the other day. What was it? Toasted over charcoal. Oh, the Whisky Acres bottle and bond was made with Kelvin Cooper's barrels, which are charred over a charcoal fire instead of a propane jet. So, I mean, that's the propane and propane accessories. Taste the meat and not the heat. Whoever I was talking to said, everything tastes better over charcoal. And I was like, well, that's not, I don't know, like if it's imbuing a smoky quality into the wood, then it's going to affect the flavor that way. But the char itself is supposed to be neutral, right? The char is new. So, char is neutral. Yeah, that's what I thought of. I specifically thought of you, Brett. Char doesn't taste like char. Char is neutral. Char is a filter. So, what char... The difference in... It tastes like less wood. The difference in charring it over charcoal rather than charring it over propane is exactly what Pat said. It's the time. In other words, propane, you're blasting it. You're causing an immediate flame up and an immediate char, which almost makes like... Creosote is a bad way to put it, but it makes almost like an impermeable membrane in there. Whereas if you let it heat up, warm up, heat up, it's like lighting a cigar by just taking a torch, blasting it. Like letting it... Blasting the cigar open versus... Through the wood more evenly. Yeah, so the charcoal, whether you order a toasted barrel or not from Kelvin, because it's charred over charcoal and it just takes a little longer to catch on fire and char, it does have some toast to it. So the longer it sits on a fire that isn't on a heat source, that isn't actually igniting the wood, is toasting the wood more. It's breaking down the lignin layers in the wood, and you're developing more of that vanilla and the... Well, Brett mentioned lactone earlier. Lactone is responsible for vanilla flavors and toasted coconut flavors and things like that, and American oak. And so you have just... I would argue you're drawing a bit more complexity out of the wood. You're still toasting some, and you're going to get... It's not like a propane charred barrel isn't going to give you vanilla flavors. No, but it's hot and cold. It's like the difference between trying to cook... It's like cooking a steak on a grill, and a lot of people tell you when you cook a steak on a grill, you want the steak to rise to room temperature if you want to cook a steak correctly, and you can get a char. If you want to cook a rare steak that has actually gotten heat, but hasn't... Like blackened on the outside, but still pink on the inside. Blackened on the inside, but has actually started to cook a little bit on the inside, you wouldn't be able to do that with a refrigerator temperature steak, because boom, slap, slap, it's on the grill. You just char the outside of it, but the heat never penetrates. Actually, Pat said it perfectly, the heat is allowed to penetrate and it does its thing much, much deeper into the wood, so it starts changing chemical structure. It breaks down some of the grainy, rougher flavors in the barrel, really, to put it simply. Whereas if you hit it with high heat immediately, you've got char and raw wood. Because you know how they tell when the barrel is charred, when it lights on fire. But I mean, that's the much more like beautiful, like inspiring photograph. It's the big flame burst coming up on the middle. You still get that at Kelvin. Oh, right. Oh yeah. Brett and I have personally made a barrel at the Kelvin Cupridge before. So is that really common to do the charcoal toast? They're like one of the only guys left. It's only the, I mean, they're a big Cupridge and they have an operation here. I think they still have an operation in Scotland. But outside of them, only like little weird craft barrel guys are going to do it. And Independent Stave does, but in their boutique lab. R&D kind of thing, yeah. But like any commercial pump-em-out coming out of Independent Stave or Space Eye Cupridge is all going to be propane jet. So then a handful of producers who are really taking the care to buy this more arduous process toasted barrels. I mean, most producers use a combination of barrels from a lot of different people. That's one thing that I've seen consistently over the last 10 years, is you ask somebody where their barrels come from, almost never have I heard one answer. It's always a combination. I think that really allows them flexibility on the back end. When they're batching a whiskey and they've got to put 12 different barrels to make this release or something, or even if it's just Whisky Acres, Bottle and Bin, which was seven barrels. The next Bottle and Bin Whisky Acres release is like 40 barrels. If they have a couple of different barrel sources, they just have a little more flexibility. Right. Obviously, this one Whisky Acres was just Kelvin, but I don't know about what else they have. If it's one, it's either a Brown-Forman product, which means that it's Bluegrass or one of the two Bluegrass Coopridges. If it's anybody else, it's probably Independence Day because they have Arkansas, Lebanon, Kentucky, Lebanon, Missouri. Lebanon, Missouri, Lebanon, Kentucky. Lebanon, Kentucky, Lebanon, Missouri. They couldn't find a Lebanon in Arkansas, so it's another name-town, but- I thought they were opening one in Lebanon, Indiana, I thought maybe, or Lebanon, Ohio. That was a really weird gimmick. Yes, Radio Lab. I listened to a radio podcast recently of a Lebanese guy who made his mission to go to all 47 Lebanon's in the USA. That's one of my two un-listened to Radio Lab. No, it's great. And then he eventually got cedar trees and planted cedar trees in nine of them. Yeah, because a bunch of them had sister city relationships with Lebanon, and they all had these Lebanese cedar of Lebanon, and he's like, this isn't a cedar of Lebanon, this is a juniper. All right, so thanks for listening to Barrel to Bottle. Go listen to Radio Lab. It's a great podcast. Bonus Lebanese cedar content. Pat, this is pretty cool. I haven't had this kind of variety of Canadian whiskeys, that my experience has been pretty limited, and it's cool to see more breadth than I'm used to seeing. Yeah, most people's experience with Canadian whisky is like cheap stuff, that's who knows why you're drinking it, Crown Royal. Everybody's grandparents used to have Crown Royal sitting around or something like that, but there's a lot more to Canadian whisky than Crown Royal. Like so much of Canadian whisky now is a purple box or the same whisky flavored with peach. And they're making actually, they get this bad rap for this blended stuff, but they make some really fantastic whiskeys up there. And we just need to be a little more open to trying them with a blind eye. And for now, it's still kind of cheap compared to totally the American whisky market. All right. Well, it's been fun talking about Canadian whisky. We'll be back with more Canadian whisky, hopefully with our friend Dr. Don Livermore at some point. So until next week, I'm Pat. I'm Greg. I'm Brett. Keep tasting. I'm Brett, thank you for listening to from Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. Say keep tasting. Keep tasting.