Hey, welcome back to Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. I'm Pat from the Spirits Department here at Binny's. It is St. Patrick's Day week, so we're talking about all kinds of awesome Irish stuff, what's new in Ireland, and Roger brought some beer too, that some new, some old. So who else is here? I'm Jenna, I communicate for Binny's Beverage Depot, and I'm ready to drink some Irish s***. Let's do it. Communicate. Communicate. Hey, I'm Chris. I do wine, drink beer, and cocktails. And I also communicate occasionally. Roger here. Beer, seltzer, hard tea, miscellaneous. Emphasis on hard tea, of course. So CBD water, is that you too, Roger? No, not yet, thankfully. Yes. Keyword there, yes. Yeah, last time we did St. Patrick's Day thing, we kind of talked about, what did we talk about, Jim? We tasted some Irish whiskeys. I'm asking producer Jim, like there's a microphone in front of him. I got a solid thumbs up, a resounding thumbs up. We talked about some Irish whiskeys. Why don't you just ask your own cardboard cutout? You might get just a bit of an answer. Hey, I'm not recording this from home, so there's no cardboard cutout here. And we talked about some Irish creams, and Roger found a new favorite. Roger loved, when tasted blind, the Declan's Irish cream style wine based cocktail. Citrus based wine product. And we've never let him live it down. So maybe Roger will find a new sub $7 Irish cream favorite today. I still stand by it. We should start with beer because our beer is cold. So Roger wants to do a comparative tasting here. What are we getting into here, Roger? I think if you're going to think of St. Patrick's Day, you're going to think of stout, and odds are you're going to think of Guinness. I kind of wanted to just talk about Guinness a little bit and demystify it some. I think it's one of the most misunderstood beers that we sell, especially for how popular it is and how iconic and how many bars pour it. We're going to taste through Guinness draft. So the first point to make is that Guinness has been around for hundreds of years. They've developed different products over the years. The Guinness that you see in most bars and the Guinness that most of us know when we think of Guinness is specifically their Guinness draft stout. This was essentially an effort to bring a draft pour like you would get at the pub into the convenience of your own home or wherever it is you want to drink besides the bar. This required a military-like multi-year project to figure out how to get this now super famous cascade of little teeny nitrogen bubbles to make this beautiful black stout with a thick, creamy head on it that is unlike just about any other beer. It really is the most gorgeous pour of beer on the planet. It does beg the question, Jenna, is this yet another beer you have not tried? I have had Guinness many a times. Okay. Just getting that out of the way now. So we are all on the same page here. I don't think I have had Murphy's though. Never had a Murphy's. All right. Sorry. I didn't want to interrupt there, Raj, but it's worth saying how beautiful that Guinness pour is. They really just turned a simple draft pour pint into just a work of art. Let me just say that I greatly prefer Ireland's military industrial complex as defined by Roger, to our own. This project to develop this widget actually had a code name. This is really a trade secret even for years to the point that now there's some other companies that have developed the widget technology, but even American craft brewers didn't really have access to a true widget nitrogenated beer until the 2000s. So, the beauty of this, maybe if you're very careful, I don't want to encourage people to cut themselves, but if you take a can of Guinness, you cut it in half, you can actually open it up and see what we're talking about. There's this little, kind of looks like a ping pong ball, and if you shake, like Brophy just did, you shake the can, you'll hear this thing bouncing around in there. Without nerding out too much on the science, essentially what's happening is when you pop that can, there's a pressure change going on where it bursts this ball of liquid nitrogen in the can, and it basically rockets around inside the beer and is ping ponging around, spraying nitrogen gas out into the beer. So that's why you end up with this luxuriously soft and creamy pour, which is so different from your typical carbonated beer. One of the main features here is that the nitrogen doesn't really stay dissolved in the liquid. It forms that creamy head, but then you have a really smooth carbon dioxide list of essentially body. I love Guinness, but get a load of this bull on this can now. So the famous Guinness can is 14.9 ounces and it has been for a long time. Now on the bottom of the can, it claims it's nitrogenated for smoothness. Get out of here with that. And it's got serving sizes. It's a 14.9 ounce can, serving size 12 fluid ounces, servings per container 1.25, 125 calories is only 12 ounces. Who's drinking three quarters of a can of Guinness? Get out of here with that. I'm playing the rest of this podcast under protest. No. So I'm really glad you brought that up because there's a very important reason that they put that on there. This is the most misconstrued, misunderstood thing about Guinness. If you're drinking Guinness draft, and now we're not talking about the extra stout, which is a whole different type of Guinness, an older form. We're talking about Guinness. Yeah, it's very delicious. It's very different. It definitely has a different flavor profile, different amount of calories, different amount of alcohol. But what we want to focus on here is Guinness draft. What most people are exposed to. We've heard countless times over the years, people will say they don't like Guinness because it's too heavy. Or they say it's too dark. I don't even know really know what that second part means. But the idea that it's too heavy is very much a misnomer. It's crazy full flavored. It has a really roasty, dark, almost tangy character to it. But as far as body goes, it's literally so light of a beer that it will float on top of a beer that you may think of as a much lighter beer, like Harp or Bass. It'll literally float on top and stay separated, like oil and water, in a drink called a Black and Tan or a Half and Half. But is that all 14 ounces or is that only 12 ounces that floats? All right. We're getting to that. Give me one second. The key to this lightness of body isn't just the nitrogen, it's that this is ultimately a well-fermented beer that doesn't have much residual sugar in it. It's actually a very low calorie beer. For years, I've always jokingly, I know when people ask me what the best light beer is, they expect me to say some conventional low calorie beer, but my answer has always been Guinness. They look at me all puzzled. The reason Guinness uses this 12-ounce quantity in the nutrition facts is that if we're considering the typical beverage container in the US, that's something like a Miller Light or a Bud Light would come in, it would be 12 ounces. And there are literally only 10 or 12 more calories in a Guinness draft than in products like Bud Light and Coors Light. This is one of the world's greatest session beers. It's light on its feet, it's easy to drink, it's full flavored. And there's no comparison between a light beer and this in quality or character. It's just ridiculous. I will point out that the truthful chaps at Murphy's have their serving sizes, 14.9 ounces, even though they have to list a higher calorie count on the can, because they're not afraid of bad press with the Southern California crowd or something. Yeah, so I salute them. I think you're right. In the long run, Guinness should just have the calories per 14.9 ounces on the can. Chris and I are actually drinking the Guinness draft out of bottles, because that was the only thing we had in this smaller format today. Who drinks Guinness draft in bottles? It doesn't even have the widget. Exactly. So I wanted to bring up a couple of points here. One, if you've had Guinness draft in bottles, it's gotten a lot better. So initially when it rolled out, they had a widget that fit in the bottle. I think that required a really thicker, expensive glass, so they abandoned it. Now it is just like force-nitrogenated, and it tastes a lot closer to the can now than it used to. I would always suggest getting the can. Roger, have you ever drank Guinness out of the can? At concerts, yes. I have at a concert where I was not given, yeah. I've done it at the House of Blues many times, other venues as well where- Wait, you bought a Guinness from a bar and were just handed a can, and they're just like, yeah, good luck, buddy. Yeah. So like at a concert, I think, in fact, I think I might have drank Guinness out of a can at Motorhead. When you're at a show like that, they're not handing you a glass pint, glass trophy because someone would throw it at someone's head. So the Guinness draft in the bottle, to their credit, at least the nutrition facts are correct on that, because the bottle is 11.2 ounces. So they're actually a little high then because they do it per 12 ounces on that. I will say that the bottles have come a long way. Again, I just grabbed the six pack because all we had were eight packs, and I didn't want to take two cans out of an eight pack. But if I buy Guinness draft, I buy it in the cans. I certainly have had the bottled Guinness before, but the can is much better. The widget produces a much bigger, creamier head that doesn't really dissipate over time, like a good draft pour would. But the bottle raised a small head and it is completely collapsed already. But it tastes okay. Chris, I assume you have been to Ireland. Where do you stand on the Guinness taste better in Ireland versus the US discussion? I actually have never been to Ireland. Really? Oh. Yeah. I'll chime in. I think it does taste better in Ireland. Is there a reason for that? Cause you're drunken in Ireland. That makes sense, yeah. The same reason Caribe on the beach in the Dominican is the greatest beer you've ever had. It's some of that and I think it's also just the age old. A lot of bars have dirty draft lines and if you're pouring exponentially more Guinness in Ireland, it's going to be much fresher and the lines have more movement through them. It's probably a much cleaner and product than what you're getting in a lot of the places here. I'm actually going to Ireland in exactly 40 days or something. I'll report back. Let's try the Guinness Zero. Guinness has always been coming up with kind of these gadgets. They famously had this surge pour thing, where it was like this plate that would send vibrations through the beer. The new product that hits the market right now that we wanted to talk about is that NA beers are on fire. Tons of people are looking for non-alcoholic options. Guinness has entered the game. Unlike a lot of the craft non-alcoholic beers that are available today, this utilizes what's inevitably probably much more expensive technology. They're taking a brewed beer with alcohol and removing it through a cold process. And a lot of the NA beers now are actually done on the fermentation side, so it's not producing alcohol in the first place. So the arguments I've heard is that this Guinness Zero is pretty darn close. So we have both of them side by side. I'm curious what you guys think. Well, my first initial thought is it is not bad. This may be one of the better NA beers I've ever tasted. But one thing that really leaps out at me is Guinness itself always has a slight tang to it, unlike Angerstein. I think the non-alcoholic version, actually the tang is accentuated. I get more of that. I was going to say the same, yeah. Yeah, I do agree with that. Listen, as producer Jim will attest to, I mean, only a sith deals in absolutes. And I don't want to say it tastes exactly the same as regular Guinness, but it's about as close to the same as regular Guinness as I think it can realistically be expected to be. And this is one of the surprises. I'm really, really sick of Roger talking about non-alcoholic beer, like anybody cares. But, you know, this is a non-alcoholic beer I tried, and I was really, really impressed with. Here's a question for you. Retaste them both right now, and I want you to think about chocolate, and the chocolate that you get typically from, you know, malted barley or roasted unmalted barley is more of a dark chocolate flavor. I would say that is present in normal Guinness. In this Zero One, I get a milk chocolate almost like a cocoa powder taste. Does anyone else taste that? Or am I crazy? Is this about to turn into a fruit episode? Or a sugar episode where we're going to break down the different chocolate stuff? Always read the fine print, especially on what's considered beer these days. And there's a suspicious little caveat on here, which is also on the Guinness Coffee, which says malt beverage with natural flavors. I'm picking up what you're putting down here, Roger, and I do think there's a bit of a smooth milk chocolate kind of note in there. And I don't care. It's delicious. I agree. I think the one place where there's a real pronounced difference, other than that, is in the body. Although Guinness is very light in body already, you can really feel the weight difference when you try these side by side. Yeah, I agree. We're talking about this, but it's also really subtle too, all of this. I don't think if I was out with friends and someone gave me the non-alcoholic Guinness that I'd be like, this is non-alcoholic, you've scammed me. I would just think it's Guinness. No, that's true. That was my first thought. So I didn't try it side by side with the regular Guinness when I first tried it earlier in the week. And if I was served it at a bar, I would just be like, okay, yeah, it's Guinness. Yeah. And I've had a lot of Guinness. Maybe this is a lesson for NA brewers. Maybe they would be better off making dark beers with more roasty malt flavors. Maybe those just naturally cover up things better. I don't know because there aren't that many out there. Oh, I thought you were going to just say make real beer. Well, I mean, first and foremost, but... I've had some NA stouts and they've been arguably pretty problematic. A lot of them have had... They've decided to add junk to them too, and they've been kind of a mess for that reason. Yeah, I've had some of the Untitled Art ones. They're not bad, but they are flavor blasted a bit. All right, so we've been doing this for half an hour, and I've talked about two different Guinness so far. So what about Murphy's? Yeah, so Murphy's is the stout that just sort of sits quietly in the background. And as Pat will tell you, if you go to Ireland, they're very territorial. And if you're in a particular part of Ireland, they don't drink Guinness. I was in Killarney with 34 other brofies shortly before COVID in the fall of 2019. We rented this big house, and one of my southside uncles called up the guy we were renting it from at a time and said, hey, you know, we'd like to have a keg on tap in the kitchen. Do you know someone locally who can arrange to have like a keg of Guinness on hand? And he was quickly reprimanded. And this guy, Donald, whose house it was, he said, sir, in this part of the country, we drink Murphys. And so Uncle Tom was just like, okay, we'll have a keg of Murphys, friend. And we killed a 50-liter keg of Murphys the first night we were there. And then got two more from the local pub down the street. We went there and they had the extra on hand, and they gave us a price for the thing, and we said, okay, well, here's an extra, you know, 50, if you can drive it down the street and hook it up for us. If you're in the south of Ireland, it is just Murphys everywhere. Murphys, Murphys, Murphys. Which I'm okay with, because it's a little like richer. I'm not sure, but there's a distinct difference. Also worth noting, there's some definite value in, one thing that's worth mentioning when you buy Guinness, it is one of those bizarre brands where depending on the number, like the format you buy, you can potentially save a lot of money. So if you do format to format, what I was going to say is that you save a lot of money on Murphy's, like a four pack is $6.99, whereas a four pack at Guinness is $10. Sometimes you see Murphy's on sale for like $3.99, a four pack around St. Patrick's Day too. Yeah. So sale pricing is, these are also famously brands that both do the sale pricing game. But as far as regular prices are concerned, like the Guinness four pack price is $10, but an eight pack is $15. So you save a lot more if you buy bulk. But anyway, Murphy's, if you just want four cans of beer, is only $6.99. Besides that, it's kind of famous for, so when a lot of people say they don't like Guinness because they say it's too heavy, what I think they're picking up on is the flavor profile, not necessarily the finish or the body of the beer. Guinness definitely has this tanginess to it. You know, there's this whole process behind Guinness that dates back to back when beers had a bit of lactobacillus in them, and it's kind of a closely guarded secret at Guinness that they do still impart a just tiny touch of this in Guinness. When you drink the Murphy's now, I would argue that that is absent from Murphy's. Yeah, I agree. Murphy's is creamier and a little just, I don't know, a little fuller, I think. Yeah, I think you're right. It does not have that lactic tang, and I think here is where milk chocolate really comes into the plate, even more so. I would also say, interestingly, even though it's got that soft milk chocolate flavor, the finish is a little more heavy on dark roasted barley. There's a bit of a bitter barley notes to it. I interpret that as not so much bitterness. They hang their hat on that it's quote unquote less bitter than Guinness, but it's more coffee note to me than Guinness. I think this reminds me of people compare this to chocolate and cappuccino. Why can't it be both? Mochaccino. This reminds me of a cold mochaccino. Cold mochaccino. All right. So if Stout is just not your thing, and you're like, I don't want Stout for St. Patrick's Day. Sorry, we just put you through that. 40 minutes then. I've got on a beer alternative for you, and then Brof's got a whole bunch of spirits to try as well. So to wrap up a beer here, I just want to finish with a very Americanized take on an Irish style with Three Floyd's Brian Brew. Kind of another nod to their historical Warlord series between this and Robert the Brewster. The historical Warlord series. Why is that not on the package? They should be paying you, Roger. They call this an Irish style red. I would argue this tastes a lot like a OG American pale ale. I was gonna say this is kind of an IPA. Yeah, I mean, it's very hoppy. It does, to its credit, Three Floyd still refuses because of the Amarillo crisis when Gumball had appeared. They won't ever say and divulge what hops they use. They do give us the little nugget of hint that it's a combination of American hops and European hops. I think especially in the nose of this beer, there's a floral quality and a bit of herbaceousness that speaks to some English style hops. That maybe is the thing that's the most. Everything else about it is very American, but there's definitely some European hops in here. I think there are European and American hops evident in the nose, personally. I would say that Amarillo is a good guess, but I don't know. It's very orangey, like orange creamsicle, like an Amarillo hop would deliver. It's a delicious beer, that's for sure. But it's a really nice multi-beer that's also hoppy. Jenna probably never had this one either because she was shamed out of liking all three Floyd's. I'm going to be honest, I hadn't even heard of this beer until we started this podcast, but it's great. It used to just be in Bombers for one month a year, way back in the day. Yeah, and they hadn't released this for ages. It was when Floyd's started putting some of the old Bomber beers into six-packs, as a nod to that a lot of their beers were English, Irish, UK-type styles. I was elated. They put their ESB in a six-pack. They put Brian Brew in a six-pack. So this hasn't really been around. So it's not I'm not surprised at all that it's foreign to you. But they released it for the first time in six-packs last year. And it sold like crazy because, as I've said many times, I think a lot of people are really thirsty for Malty or beer. They just get shamed out of it because everything is an IPA these days. So don't even get me started. This is a good in-between. This is a hoppy beer with some malt character. I think you're absolutely right. I think this strikes an amazing balance between a malt-forward style and an American sensibility for hop use. I mean, they are not shy on the hops at all here. But that kind of sweet malt character comes through no problem too. So check it out, Six Packs, $12.99. It's really good. Yeah. It is. A little walkthrough, obviously, of the classics. St. Patty's Day would be a nice Irish stout. Otherwise, you got some Irish Reds, and this Americanized one is one of our faves. So thanks, Roger. These were exactly the beers I needed in the middle of my workday. But what's St. Pat's without some Irish whiskey? To this, I look to you, Patrick. You know, I couldn't just bring two things, so I have six things. Three were whiskies, and something that hit me, before I came here to record this today, I was at our store up in Portage Park, doing a staff training on different styles of whiskies. And I had these three Irish whiskies with me, and it hit me then that we have a representative from each of the three different styles of whiskey they make in Ireland, that they then make, usually, less spectacular blended whiskey out of. We actually have a single grain whiskey, a single malt whiskey, and a single pot still whiskey all to taste, which is kind of fun. How predictable that we're doing beer and whiskey for St. Patrick's Day? Listen, yes, it's predictable. Could have thrown in some wine, I guess. The only thing more predictable is that Roger would find a way to have to talk about non-alcoholic beer, I suppose. Just wait, Jackfruit will come up before the episode's over, and then your Barrel to Bottle bingo board will be complete. No, you didn't hit bottle condition. Oh yeah, bottle condition, excuse me. I mean, you can always put green food coloring in just about anything. And then it's Irish, yeah. Pick a sparkling wine, and then boom, flavor blast it. That's what makes it Irish this whole time. I've been wearing hats that make me look like a weirdo. That's not the thing that makes you look like a weirdo. You talking crap about my unshaved neck? All right, so we're going to start on the lightest end of the spectrum here with the Irish whiskeys I brought, and that's the single grain whisky. So, I brought us a Kilbeggan single grain. This is actually a hand-picked batch that we did. It's a 16-year-old grain whisky. It was aged, obviously, in bourbon barrels. It smells and tastes like bourbon barrels, and not a lot else, and that is grain whisky in a nutshell. So, when you're talking about a blended Irish whisky, a blended Irish whisky is a blend of at least two of the three styles of whisky that they make in Ireland, single grain, single malt, or single pot still. The single grain whisky always is the, I'm sure I've used this before, is kind of the rice and the burrito of the blended whisky, right? It's taking up space, and it's providing minimal flavor, okay? It's providing some flavor, but minimal. I hate rice and burritos. Oh, you hate, come on. You just gotta accept it as part of the burrito. You can't have beans without rice. Yeah, come on, Roger. Yeah, you can. I beg to differ. Those big fatty Mission Street style burritos that like... Rice is for the yuppie chains. Yeah, you're right. Rice binds it all together. That's the original burrito. Oh, God. Look what we did. We let them talk about some weird regional style of burrito now. God damn it. All right, Killbeggin, Single Grain, 16 year old select batch bourbon barrel. So this is a 16 year old whiskey, handpicked batch. It is on the shelf for like less than $70 or it might be 80. No, because we're running on sale. It's like 70 bucks. This is ridiculous. If this was a bourbon, this would cost like $300. What's the proof on this, bro? 92, respectable proof. And it's just oozing that bourbon barrel lactone character. A lot of the character in the nose is all about bourbon barrel. But there are some fruity notes riding on top too. What actually is surprising me a little bit, and I'm not sure if this is just my palate bouncing back from the dry stuff, but it's surprisingly sweet on the palate. That's exactly what I was going to say. It's Irish whiskey. It's fruity and sweet. It's very sweet. You double down on the fruity, on that tropical note with that American O'Glac tone. It's like coconut and fruit and honey. Yeah. It's pretty tasty though. Yeah. It's damn good. But again, since Roger hates rice, we'll just move on. All right. So check that out at your local Binny's. It was a big custom batch that we hand selected. It'll be on the shelf and then it'll be gone forever, but it's a hell of a value and it's available everywhere. So the next one we're going to talk about is the single malt component of the Irish whiskey spectrum. And this is Limavadi. This is a new to us whiskey. Whistle Pig is somehow involved in this. I don't know if they're if they're a partner in the brand or they're just working on the import side of it. They're not really totally open about that. Is there a reason for the bottleneck? It's got an obnoxious bottle. So when I was at Roger's house the other night or the other day trying to pour this bottle off into little sample bottles for him and Chris, I was literally pouring it all over his front porch. It was just like there was just like huge puddle of whiskey on the front porch. It is an obnoxious bottle and it's got one of those glass tops I hate. So it's a single malt Irish whiskey. So single malt means of course 100% malted barley from a single distillery. It is in the Irish tradition, this is triple distilled in a pot still. The more times you distill some, the lighter and fruitier it gets. This was aged in bourbon and PX sherry casks. And Limavadi as a brand, this is also 46% alcohol, so 92 proof. Limavadi as a brand is exclusively single barrel. So the single most obnoxious statement I've seen on a vendor presentation in a while was that this was the, quote, Blanton's of Irish whiskey, simply because it is a single barrel. So Limavadi, I think you got to... Because it has that bulbous top. No, just because it's a single barrel. Now listen, this is a great product. I don't mean to distract from that, but I wasn't going to let them off the hook for claiming that this was the Blanton's of Irish whiskey. The Blanton's of Ireland. So this is a newer brand from master distiller Darrell McNally, who was at Bushmills for many, many years. So you can guess where this whiskey was probably sourced from. Plus Bushmills makes exclusively single malt. Is this a Northern Ireland product then? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. So Limmavati was actually McNally's like way back in the day, the town that his family had a distillery in. So he's kind of like bringing it back. Thus why they can get away with 1750 being on embossed in the glass. But typical of Irish single malt though, this is just tons of fruit, tons of orchard fruit, pear, apple, honey. It's nice, it's round, but it's not too heavy. It is still triple distilled. This is a really nice whiskey and this is on the shelf for like 50 bucks. Depending on when this airs in March, it's running on sale as well. It's very silky. Okay. One, I like that it has a butterscotch quality to it. Which I find pretty interesting. I mean, we are catering to the 80-plus candy crowd. Werther's original fans, take notice. This might be the whiskey for you. Do you think one would fit in that little weird thing in the top? Like pour the whiskey 100% through a Werther's. They put a whole bag of Werther's in a gin basket when they distilled it. But yeah, I think it really has a nice richness to it and a fuller body than a lot of Irish whiskeys. It's very toffee and sweet and makes me think of caramel, English toffee. There's some spice on the back end, but. Hey, folks, you heard it from Roger. It's the Blanton's of Irish whisky. If anything, Tarkonel with its horsey on the label is the Blanton's of Irish whisky. This is absolutely loaded with orchard fruit and maybe even a hint of some dried fruits, like a dried apple or pear. And there is that kind of caramely, butterscotch thing going on, but there's also a counterpoint of maybe what I would call dark chocolate or something in there too. Yeah, I agree. And it is a nice value, honestly. It's very tasty. Yeah, good, right? So that's a pleasant new surprise. That's the newest Irish whisky to hit the shelves at Binny's. So we tasted a 92 proof single grain, a 92 proof single malt, and now we're gonna taste a 92 proof single pot still whiskey. So from the masters of the pot still style, the Middleton Distillery, this is the Method and Madness single pot still. So Method and Madness was launched several years ago as kind of the experimental, kind of crafty arm from Middleton, kind of separate from Red Breast, Jameson, all that kind of jazz powers, etc. And they launched in the US. There's a gin available, but it's only available over there. And they have some other one-off whiskies available over there. But what they sent to the US initially was a single grain, a single malt, and the single pot still. They sent them once a couple years ago. They sold out really quickly, but they're back and they're actually lowered in price now. They're 10 bucks cheaper than they were the first time around. I want to say this regular price is $70 for this single pot still right now. It was matured in sherry and bourbon barrels and then finished in chestnut casks, which used to be a big traditional thing in France, right Chris? I mean, there was a lot of cognac in chestnut and even wine, and then it kind of fell out of favor for a long time. That's really interesting. I think on the nose you can get that real nutty, I mean, maybe a suggestion, but chestnutty aroma almost. I definitely pick up on a woody character to the nose that I like in a good way. The finish is super unique, so maybe that's from the chestnut as well. I get banana on the finish. That is classic Irish whiskey though. Irish whiskey tends to have a lot of tropical fruit character to it, partially owed to the triple distillation, of course. We talked about single pot still style whiskey on our last St. Patrick's Day episode, because I want to say we tasted Glendalock and Kilbeggen or something. So like many Irish traditions, this was in response to British oppression, of course. So what was going on is there was a lot of rebellious behavior, rebellious meaning like how dare you colonize us type of behavior. So the Brits thought that they could control the rebelliousness if they controlled the drinking level. Okay, fair. So they put a large tax on malt barley because you had needed it to make beer and whiskey. So the Irish distillers responded by creating this style now known as single pot still or pure pot still, that is a mix of malted and unmalted barley. So the unmalted barley in the pot still gives it an oilier mouthfeel and spiciness, and that's really what it's known for. So many listeners have probably had this style. This would be like red breast, the higher end powers, the spots, green spot, yellow spot, those type of things. And it's growing, and some of the newer distillers are doing them, and even some American craft distillers are trying their hand at it. Leopold, I believe out in Denver was making one. You may have said this, Pat, but correct me if I'm wrong, but this distillery, Middleton, makes green spot and red breast. They make all three of those, yeah. So we might have talked about this before. That's a great distillery. Oh yeah, phenomenal. One of my favorite things to do when I'm doing an Irish whiskey training for the staff is to taste Red Breast 12, Powers John Lane, which is also 12 years old, and Yellow Spot, which is 12 years old, altogether. And they're all 12 year old pure pot still style whiskeys made at the same distillery, but they're vastly different, not just from cask finishing and proofing, but the difference they use is they actually, it's the percentage of unmalted barley in each of the recipes varies. And Powers has the highest percentage of unmalted barley in it. And so it's really doubles down on that, and that slickness and fatness in the mouth and real spiciness. That Powers John Lane at 65 is one of my favorites, but this method in madness is really unique with this chestnut cask is that I haven't tasted an Irish whiskey like this before. It's really great. Yeah, it's very interesting. Yeah, absolutely fascinating. It's totally different than anything I've ever tried too. And I feel like in the nose, you get a clear sense of actual barley grain. And that whatever that chestnut is contributing is fascinating on the nose and on the palate. It's really different. Yeah, I don't have enough experience, I think, with chestnut cask spirits. I mean, I've had a cognac that was finished in chestnut once from Pierre Ferrand. This is one of the best Irish whiskeys I've ever tasted. Really? I mean, I have a feeling I would like it because I love all those, you know, pot still whiskies. I loved this the first time I tasted it. One of the best. You've had a lot of Irish whisky, Roger, that's big words. I'm a huge Irish whisky guy and I love particularly yellow spot, green spot, red breast 15, 12 and all the red breast expressions, but especially the 15. The 15 is so thick you could cut it with a knife. The 15 red breast is something else. The layers of flavor on this are remarkable and it has the tropical flavors that I love so much in Irish whiskeys, but it also has some other more traditional that you would associate with whisky with the vanilla characteristics. But it has to be, I would say, these chestnut things that give the je ne sais quoi that makes this next level. What a whisky. Completely fascinating. I'm going to endorse it for sure. How much is this? Seventy bucks. It's not bad at all. I mean, that's like what regular red breast is, right? Yeah, about. Pretty damn good. This is a must try. Is this a one-off or something that people are going to be able to find? This is the second time we've seen it. So, in theory, it's a limited release, but it's in pretty ample stock right now across the chain. So, it's got a goofy looking label. I don't know if that's why it's getting passed over a little button. Kind of a little modern art. What do you like to call me? $13 bourbon? Is that what you usually pigeonhole me at, Brofee? Yeah, $13, $12. $13 bourbon Roger is going to buy a bottle of the $70 whiskey. Oh, you know it's good then. All right. Pour it into a very old Barton bottle, so nobody knows he has it. Well, he's got a safe face. Everyone's got to assume that he's a- Hey, I have officially given up on VOB by the way, I'm done. The love affair is, I'm divorced with that. Not the same whiskey. Yeah, so those are the three styles of whiskey produced in Ireland. Now, a blended Irish whiskey, something like a Jameson or a Powers Gold Label, or Glendalock Double Barrel, something like that, those are blends of at least two of the three styles, and that's what you see usually with Irish whiskey, is that blended Say you don't like beer and you don't like whiskey either. Is there another Irish option, Pat? Who the hell are you? Roger, I've got two other styles of Irish option for you. I've got some Irish cream, and I've got an Irish gin that's quite good. Which would you like to taste first? Gin. All right, cool. Cream for dessert, friend. You're right. So, moving on to our Irish gin. Irish gin has exploded the past few years. It's kind of got its own little subsection within the gin aisle at your friendly neighborhood Binny's. You'll see all kinds of different Irish brands. One I wanted to highlight that's currently on sale is Glendalock. And this is their wild botanical gin. This is hand-foraged botanicals from around their distillery up in the mountains. This is really, really nice gin, but it's at a lower proof. So I'm kind of curious to see what you guys think. This is only 41% alcohol. Only. Well, right off the bat, the nose is pretty incredible. Very tiny, but not necessarily ginnipery. It's like legitimately pine-scented, in my opinion. I'll second that. It kind of reminds me of how spruce tips are very lemony. So it's like a citrusy pine sprucey kind of. The citrus is there, but it's not like traditional gin citrus, I feel. I don't know what's going on in this. Yeah, I was going to say, ginniper is in there, but I think this major pine thrust might be, I mean, I don't have any idea, but might be from actual pine tips or something. It just smells much more like an actual pine. It is 41 percent alcohol and non-chill filtered, so props to them for that. Big fan of non-chill filtration. I get a lot of, this bouquet is super unique. It's very perfumed. I get a lot of peppercorn, especially if you've ever had the Dalmatian or mixed peppercorn blends that have some white pepper in there too. What the hell? When I was at Roger's place, it's cold as hell and I'm standing on his porch and it's super windy, and I'm pouring out the samples, and I opened this bottle up and the whole front of his house smelled like gin. It was pretty remarkable. Like what an aromatic gin this is, even when we were outside in the windy cold. It's very floral. It just tastes like flowers to me. Yeah, it's super floral. I think it's beautiful. It's a really nice gin with a pretty straightforward tonic. I bet this is just great. Wow. I just tasted it for the first time. It is pretty remarkable. It's very round and supple on the palate, and that floral note just explodes in the mouth. Yeah. I mean, it's really like flowers. I think for that reason, this would make a really interesting martini with white or blanco vermouth. I don't think you would want dry, I don't think you'd want traditional sweet, but I really like those. I like like the old school, almost equal parts, gin. You want this with some camos? And orange bitters. Yep. Roger loves camos. Get that clown in there. I mean, this is fascinating. And I never drink gin like on the rocks or alone. And I love gin, but I would drink this by itself. I think it's that interesting. Yeah, it's a really great gin. And this is under $30. I mean, come on, most gin now is $30, $35. I think this is on sale for like $27 or something right now. Pretty awesome. If you really wanted to double down on the floral character, this would also be interesting in an Aviation. Right, good one. Because with the creme de violette, like. I've seen Aviation's getting a lot of hate on social media recently. Kind of an interesting cocktail. I never really thought about it in that sense. I think it always has, people say it's unbalanced or something, but I actually like that cocktail. But this is absolutely fascinating. I mean, the entry is subtly sweet and fruity, and then there's all that floral fills up the mouth. But then I think you're giving the citrus component short trip. I think on the finish, you get like a sense of maybe lime or something. I don't know what that is if they're using local botanicals, but I think it does have a citrus element. No, for sure. I agree. There's a lot of citrus here. It's just the floral is so pronounced and so different from a lot of gins that I think that- But it's not overly perfumey though, which I appreciate. No, yeah, I agree. Like sometimes when gins are too floral, like how I talk crap about Bombay Sapphire or something, I find them perfumey. And this isn't that. It's still maybe because it's got such a strong pine to balance. This is a thousand times more perfumey than Bombay Sapphire. You have some sort of weirder version of Bombay Sapphire. I think it's a bad memory that you might not want to share via podcast. I'll share most slash all memories via podcast. For me, in the nose, it's a lot about that piney note and maybe some like coriander, things like that, but it's really in the mouth where that floral component really blossom. All right, enough with our single gin that took the same amount of time to talk about as three different Guinness or whatever. So we're moving on to Irish cream, it's dessert time, guys. We're gonna start with McGrath's Original Country Cream, which I think may be a contender to dethrone Declan's for Roger. This smells like just straight butterscotch. Yeah, I mean, listen, I know my audience here. You already heard Roger talk about Werther's Originals once. So this is a Irish cream liqueur crafted on the Emerald Isle of Ireland, really, with a rich, velvety, smooth, and creamy taste. It is 13.9% alcohol. Of note, this is made with actual cream and grape wine and grain neutral spirits, with natural flavor and caramel color. Ooh, there's that wine. Grape wine and grain neutral spirits. Well, at least, I mean, I know Declan's was just wine, right? Note how they don't say it's made with whiskey, which is a shame. Oh man. But this is pretty good. I like this quite a bit, and I tasted this blind recently against several other Irish creams, and both me and Joey picked this over some of these more bigger established brands, really based off the mouthfeel and the richness of it, and it was just more flavorful. I thought it was great, and it's like $9.99 or something or $8.99. So this is great. When I said butterscotch before, I was forgetting really butterscotch. Yeah. This is a dumb dumb butterscotch lollipop in liquid form. Totally agree to Roger. Right up front, it just explodes with straight up butterscotch. Is that a bad thing? Interestingly, I think on the finish, you actually get a vinous scent, like the base of this, the wine base actually comes through on the finish. What do you think about that? Maybe. There's a citrusy quality to it, unless that's just my palate from the gin. That's interesting. I get a bit of orange. That might be what I'm interpreting as vinous. Okay. What's always existed in the Irish cream category that's worth mentioning is that, Bailey's is the iconic one. They won't divulge what exactly the Bailey's flavor profile is. I would say chocolate is the most predominant flavor, but there's always been- I would say vodka with fake cream. I thought it was pink moons and orange stars and green camera. I think Bailey's has a neutral spirit burn to it. But it doesn't taste butterscotch at all, and other Irish creams are, they go this route. Just know that if you're looking for a Bailey's sub, I think this is not bad. I mean, it's decent for $10, but it's very different from Bailey's. So if we got it down to the Declan's $6.99, maybe. My beloved Declan's was very Bailey's-esque. It was no butterscotch boy. All right. So yeah, McGrath's Country Cream, we have this one, and there's also a peanut butter one that's not bad, but I didn't want to mess around with the flavored creams today. So this is pretty good, available at your local Binny's. We're going to take it up a notch though. So moving on to our second Irish cream, and that's from The Whistler, Small Batch Irish Cream Liqueur. Of note, this is much stronger. This is 19% alcohol. That is about as strong as it gets for Irish cream. And this is made with grass-fed, real dairy cream and Irish whiskey. This is a next level cream comparatively to what we just tasted. Yeah, it doesn't. It tastes like it's a completely different caliber, that's for sure. You have to chew this. This is ridiculous. It's very thick. Yeah, that tastes like real cream. It is. And it is real cream. And it's heavy cream. And it's 30 bucks. Which, considering the giant price leap for Baileys is what? Like $3 more than Baileys? Baileys is like $26 now. You know, and that was, listen, last year we tasted my beloved favorite, Five Farms Irish Cream. And we were running that for like $25 over the holidays, the same price as Baileys. Like, get out of here. Five Farms every time. And Whistler too. I would probably argue that this and Five Farms are the best of the whole category, in my mind. Yeah, this is delicious. This is awesome. And it tastes real. For $4 more, it's, for $4 more, I mean, this is just gonna blow Baileys away. It's a no brainer. Blow Baileys away, I mean. The just decadence of this is just one step beyond. The cream is just so rich. I find the nose absolutely compelling in the weirdest way. What do you, describe the nose for me, somebody. It's just blowing my mind. Chocolate, orange. Lot of chocolate. A dusting of like, kind of reminds me of, there's this very subtle coffee note in the background, but. It's interesting. Maybe I'm crazy, but the fact that this is grass fed cream, I think is coming through. Is that enough? Do you smell the grass? I was going to say, my outlier sounds like an a**hole comment, was going to say I smell violets in it, but that might be to your point. There's a freshness that I see what you're getting. I'll tell you what I don't smell. I don't smell butterscotch. Exactly. Yeah. I think it could use a little butterscotch personally. Little butterscotch. What you do taste on the other hand is actual whiskey. This has got to be made with real whiskey. Oh, yeah. I mean, this tastes deliciously whisky-ish. And it's strong too. It's got a bit of a burn on the finish, which I don't necessarily need. I don't know if it's a burn. It's like a small bite. You're right, Jen. I think bite is a more appropriate word than burn here. That's worth talking about too, right? So when you talk about Irish creams, like I wouldn't want to do anything with this except just enjoy it as is. Like I don't even think it needs ice. If maybe you want to put it on the rocks, fine. But it is worth mentioning that a lot of people take Irish creams and then they put them in most famously coffee or they put them on the rocks. Maybe they add Kahlua to make a mudslide. Apple juice. Yeah, I mean. Travel coffee mug. I mean, usually it's one of these things where it gets added to something else. But this is just so good that you would want to just enjoy it as is. Like this isn't your car bomb Irish cream. Yeah, I agree. This is something to drink on its own. And I do agree with you that I think even ice would be a sinier because you would be diluting this amazing rich creamy body. Yeah. Which, why would you do that? I've gone to all this trouble to make this over the top decadent expression. And then it just shouldn't have any water added to it in any way. Get the whiskey stones out if you want it cold. There you go. So yeah, just chill the bottle in the fridge. I mean, you could do that. I kept mine in the fridge. So yeah, but yeah, no, I totally agree in retrospect now that Chris said that. Yeah, I really I'm normally always pro ice, but this really doesn't you wouldn't want to kill that luxuriously rich mouth. Roger, is this worth four Declan's? Oh, that's tough. But it's definitely worth buying. It is absolutely worth the the pittance difference in price between the category leader and Bailey's. Yeah, pretty good. Pretty damn good. Available at your local Binny's. All right, that's all I got. That's it. That's a show. Yep. Yep. It's over. Happy St. Pat's from Pat. Yeah, so that was a bit of a roundup of what's new and interesting in Ireland. We had some older beers. That new Guinness Zero is awesome. We got Brine Baru from Three Floyd's. Check out these new Irish whiskeys. The handpicked Kilbeggan, the Limavadi Malt, Method and Madness, Pure Pot Still, one of Roger's all-time favorite Irish whiskeys, apparently. We had some awesome gin. That was a great whisky. Expensive and inexpensive Irish cream, both were outstanding. What else you got to say about this, Roger? St. Pat's, treat yourself to something better than just stop doing car bombs. Sit back and sip and enjoy and slowly appreciate some of the amazing beers and Irish whiskeys and Irish creams that we have available to us. It's a great time to be a fan of Irish whisky. We've never had a selection like we do now. Well, it's been fun. If you enjoyed this stuff, do us a favor, leave us a review on Apple Podcast. It helps new listeners find the show. Hey, you got to encourage them to tell your friends, tell your mom, tell your next door neighbor. Tell your mom we said hi, tell your friends to review the show. Until next week, I'm Pat. I'm Jenna. I'm Chris. I'm Roger. Keep tasting.