Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast, Bourbon County Brandstout episode, spectacular. We tried them and we're going to tell you what we think about them, and then you're going to come to Binny's on Black Friday and you're going to buy them. Oh yeah. You're listening to Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. I'm Greg, I do communications at Binny's. Hi, I'm Chris, I do wine. Lexi, I do socials. And I'm Roger, I do beer, and it is stout season. Black Friday really officially kicks off the bourbon barrel-aged insanity, with Fobab happening in Chicago, that always gets people pretty excited for barrel-aged stouts. Another year, another lineup of Bourbon County, this year is a little abbreviated from years past. I think they kind of shored up, circled the wagons, and they were looking to present some greatest hits, as well as taking some interesting chances, which I always salute. Are we talking about how there's two props this year? I didn't ask them about that, we'd give them the opportunity. Yeah, it's funny. This will be the first year where prop is not a stout. I think you'll get some pitchfork sharpening, and people will rabble, rabble, rabble, rabble. But yeah, when we get to that one, we'll share our take on it. But why don't we start things off as we always do, by talking about the original? So. The OG. Don't call it regular. Regular. I like my decaf. So, this year's original clocks in at 14.7. One thing that was interesting from when we had the discussion with them, and tasted through these, it is made from a mixture of the original Bourbon County recipe, aged in barrels from four different distilleries. Again, we're working with Buffalo Trace, Heaven Hill, Four Roses, and Wild Turkey. When they cuvade these together and batch them before a bottling run, they have to do that several times. So, it's not all the same formula every single time. Right, yeah. So, it's... They're, you know, one batch might have a slightly higher percentage of liquid that came out of Four Roses barrels, and some would be, you know, vice versa any of the four. They do this on purpose. So, they kind of like that, and that's where we've seen the variance over the years in ABV. What they were somewhat surprised is that in this randomized sampling of cuveeing these, all the batches came in at 14.7. So, I mean, honestly, I think by government standards, you have like a.3 swing, so they can kind of just be like, yeah, it's all 14.7, even if some is 14.9. We don't talk about averages, Roger. And didn't they leave it a little longer in Barrel this year? They did. Typically, Bourbon County averages, when you mix these together, around 12 months in Barrel, and they were saying that this year, the average is closer to 16 months. Which is cool. In a beer where the Barrel is an ingredient, they're always, I think, wisely emphasize that. You spend more time in Barrel, you're going to get more Barrel character. Well, let's talk about it. I think it shows. I think it's the wittiest one that I can remember. And that's not a bad thing. Yeah. I think that the Oak was more prominent in this year, but that having been said, that classic Bourbon County, like fudgy chocolate is still very much there. I totally agree. It was all there. All the classic notes were there. I thought it was slightly more oxidative than usual, showing a little more umami and nuts and stuff like that. I agree with that as well. Yeah. So when we tasted these, they served them relatively cold, and we got to see the evolution as they warmed up. I thought as they got warmer, it had showed more of that classic rich fudgy caramely profile, but when it was cool, the nose was giving me lots of savory umami notes. Like it reminded me of older bourbon county styles that I've had. Not that it's overwhelming, but it definitely had a vein of that. Right. Yeah. I mean, I don't think it's super oxidized or anything, but I do think that there are oxidative notes that are pleasant in this. Yep. Which kind of ties into what they always like to say is that this beer, regardless of the release, is designed to be enjoyed the minute it's released. They often emphasize that if you are choosing to seller one and you want to see how it develops with time, original is your best bet, because you're not playing with the cards of if it's an adjuncted one. They often joke, cinnamon cannot be destroyed. It's like the thing that will go nowhere and will always taste like cinnamon. But you could conversely have a fruit note or vanilla note that will fade with time. Right. So if you have a complex blend of adjuncts, some may fade, some may not, and then your balance is totally different, which is not necessarily a bad thing, it's just different. So you have to know that going into it. Lexi, this is your first time sitting down for this whole gauntlet. It's old school for us, but I'm very curious to get your opinion on these, and being somebody who I know has- you've enjoyed this style before, but you don't necessarily geek out on it, like us nerds. Yeah. What do you think? It was a lot for sure. I enjoyed this. This is something that takes it back to when I first started drinking beer, and you get a whole bunch of little beers and you try them all, and you see what's good, and you go through that process, and going through this was my favorite part about that, and it brought it back. I've never had bourbon county stout from this. I've definitely had bourbon barrel-age beers, and Imperials, and this, that, and the other thing. But this had a really nice oak character to it, and it also had a really nice chocolate molasses situation going on. Molasses and anise, like licorice, and then a fruity quality too. It's pretty classic, bourbon county. Yeah. I think that licorice flavor is kind of an oxidative note too, and I thought that stood out this year. Okay. I like that this herb too is too cold, because then I could take the tiny little Glencairn glass and my big mitts and feel like a giant, as I cradle this tiny little cup and warm it up with my fingers. It was definitely fun to watch it evolve. For me, one of the descriptors that always comes to mind with Bourbon County is cherry cola. I felt that with this, you could conversely say like cherry cordial. Never give up a chance to mention an old-timey candy that very few people talk about. But so like a chocolate covered cherry with cream in the middle, like that and slash cherry cola are two very distinctive memories for me when it comes to Bourbon County. And I think it's there this year as well. So, that could be something to look for again, depending on the batch. If you really want to geek out, I'm sure there'll be people on the Internet talking about, what they think of specific bottling runs. So, there's a lot of opportunity to majorly geek out on, not every single bottle of original exactly tastes the same. This is true. Although, you can't stand in the same river twice also. I think that this original here also gives you the theme of the year. They said it was recipes because they're really going back to their original recipes. I think that they're making this product even more elegant and classy, with the additional wood, with the exposed oxidative notes. I think that this sets the foundation for a year of flavors that, even when they seem kind of goofy when you hear about them, they all seem like really serious. It always blows my mind how they stand apart from this massive brown glob in my mind of adjuncted Imperial stouts. I definitely think that, yeah. If you're looking at, we like to jokingly call it the pastryarchy. I'm imagining the planet made out of all of the pastryarchy, just smooshed into one. It's not a black hole. It's not that massive, but it drips. Yeah. Sorry, Roger. I think this is trying... They, I think, approach these again. A lot of the inspirations for some of the adjuncted ones are specific dessert inspirations. Maybe they're a little more refined and not quite as a little more dessert cart and maybe less the aisle at the grocery store, the cookie aisle at the grocery store. I agree with this. I'm glad that it's not a black hole glob because I want to escape velocity from the patriarchy. I do not want to be ripped apart slowly by gravitation. Just say event horizon and we'll move on. Event horizon. My point about adjuncts is though, what really sets them apart is their incredible judicious use of adjuncts. And authenticity too. Yeah. How real everything is and how well-judged everything was this year. That really came across on all of these bottlings. Yeah, for sure. We'll get to that when we start trying the adjunct ones. But before we get to that, let's talk about the other offering this year, which is barrel centric and that is going to be. Bardstown Origin Series Rye Barrels. Wait, what is it actually called? Cask? I just have Cask. I think Bardstown Cask finish, maybe. Origin Series? No, those Origin Series was the barrels. Origin Series Rye. It's called Origin Series Rye? No, that's the wisdom. I'm going to Google it. That's the wisdom. Yeah, Google it. Well, yes, it's not called that, but the barrels were rye barrels. Thanks for the amazing segue into it though, Roger. That was really good. All right, so it's called Bardstown Cask Finish. Okay. Okay. I'm confirming all of them now. Bardstown what now? Cask Finish? Yeah. Bardstown Cask Finish. All right. Well, so anyway, we're on Bardstown Cask Finish. Finish. I would like this podcast to just be that over. Never gets old. Never gets old. He sounds like a robot running out of juice. And you're like, Fergie at the end. Fergie at the end. Bardstown partnered with Goose Island previously by offering a whiskey where they went to great lengths to get these freshly dumped Bourbon County style barrels and fill them with whiskey. And those have been great whiskeys. Yeah, that was a that was a very excellent whiskey. So they really like dealing with the people from Bardstown. Bardstown is very much emphasizing how can we take a spirit like Bourbon and rethink the practices and add additional flavor, re-approach the way that it's finished. I think we've all seen that Bourbon finishing is the direction that the Bourbon category is moving. You've got a lot of people from the beer world that are now really geeking out on Bourbon. They're used to in the beer world having a bunch of different variants, and Bourbon doesn't necessarily have that. Well, it does now, because Dave Finney got involved, and he put things in Cabernet barrels, and Angel's Envy, and on and on. Yep, for sure. So, this one is less about a unique spirit like that, or an unconventional barrel. Instead, they actually made these unique barrels that have almost like a zebra stripe appearance to them. We got a chance to actually walk the barrel warehouse and take a look at these. They're really cool looking. They are a rotating pattern of both oak staves, which is what you're usually using in a bourbon barrel, and then cherry wood staves. Normally, bourbon barrels are charred in the inside prior to putting the liquid in. Some ways that distilleries have experimented is to toast the staves as opposed to charring them. So, that's what Bardstown opted to do. Instead of using a traditional heat source, they used UV, right? Infrared. Infrared, yeah. Ultraviolet. Sorry. That wouldn't do much. Like, yep, looking at it. This barrel is severely sunburned. So, essentially, it was like a two-stage process for this. So, first, the bourbon county went into Bardstown's straight, wire whiskey barrels. Then after a period of aging in those, it was decanted and added to these hybrid oak and cherry wood barrels. That's crazy. Definitely some effort. It brings out the fruit in this beer. I agree. It's kind of weird when you hear cherry wood. I think all of us are kind of like, well, this actually tastes more like cherry. And you're like, is this the power of suggestion or is there something to that? But it's not cherry in the way that you think, oh, this is a cherry beer. It's really far in the back end almost, and it's not overwhelmingly cherry. Agreed. Yeah. On the nose, way more fruit, apricot also, along with, like on the nose, I thought the cherry comes across more like a cherry licorice, like it's a confection. And Roger's going to kill me for saying this, but I smelled green apple and it was cold, like green apple skin, like there was a tart freshness. And as it warmed up, that faded out and the plushness took over the nose. I harp on green apple and beers because it's sometimes a brewing flaw. That wouldn't be where it's from here. Here, I think it could be two things. One of the things it could be is your mind playing a trick on you because I picked up a ton of dessert spice and we associate dessert spice with apples so heavily that your mind might have been like, oh, like there's that cinnamon pie spice. But either way, like totally agree, lots of fruit. I noted apricot as well. I picked up on some date to this too, but that was really interesting, especially on the nose. Yeah. Especially on the nose. I agree with everything that was said. I would point out that green apple is often a result of oxidation. That would be an aldehydic note like you'd get in sherry. It's not impossible that there's a little bit in here. It can be a flan beer, but it doesn't necessarily have to be. Especially as part of the two-barrel process. Yeah, exactly. The other thing that really stood out to me in the nose, I got all of the apricot and sherry and all of that, but I also got a lot of the rye barrel going on. There was all that dessert spice, but then I was picking up big time on like root beer, wintergreen, mint, a lot of herbaceous notes, which you could consider to be green or herbal notes. I don't know how that fits with apple, but- I mean, maybe. Those are along the same section of the spectrum. Yeah. Loads of spice, herbs, and rootbeery and cola flavors along with all that typical richness. I thought it drank a little leaner than the original though. It felt like it was maybe not quite as weighty on the palate. I thought it was like they took cherry cola and then blooped a handful of chocolate-covered cherries into the cherry cola and stirred it around. Bloop. Just bloop, bloop, bloop. Then as it warmed up, it became more like liqueur-like, like cherry liqueur, kind of a sharpness to it. But yeah, chocolate and cherries, and if you like those things, you better try this one. It was 16% alcohol, so that definitely, I think, can make you think that it's a little leaner, that it has a little more heat. I think that may be it. It felt less, just a little, slightly less weighty on the palate to me. But I did think the finish, I wrote very long, fruity and spicy and vanilla-laden finish. One thing that I wanted to mention with this one is that when we talk about the pastryarchy and the bent of a lot of Barrel-aged beers these days, the residual sugar can be so high that you really do need to drink the beer a little cool, or even cold sometimes helps cut that. If you let some of those very rich pastry stouts get to room temperature, they're just cloyingly sweet to the point of it's really not enjoyable. And I think one of the differentiators for Bourbon County is that it's delicious at room temp and it can pull that off because it has enough balance. This one got really interesting when it was warmed up. Yep. So let it warm up. I think that one's a winner. It is. As someone who doesn't like or enjoy a lot of rice, it had a nice spiciness to it, but it wasn't overly aggressive like a rye. Speaking of rye, vanilla rye. This was really interesting to see. So vanilla rye was a massively popular fan favorite. So in a way, this is an homage to that, but there's a little riff to it. So the previous batch of vanilla rye aged in bourbon barrels, this was instead aged in rye barrels. And also of note, this uses a different stout base. So this was a different recipe of Imperial stout that incorporates rye into the mash bill of the stout. And not just a little, though, they said over 30% rye in the bill. Which is very interesting. And again, they were talking about they own a mash filter and how like... You said very interesting, but he said beta-glucans and proteins. I don't know if it was that interesting. I mean, so distillers and brewers hate working with wheat and rye, especially rye, because it's so gummy and it makes the... everything it touches dirty, sticky, hard to clean. A lot of brewers will add some rye to a mash bill, but not a lot. They'll add a little bit so that it's not a complete mess. We actually went on quite a rabbit hole of talking about how the mash filter is like an accordion. I don't know. Yeah, it was a whole thing. It was a beer geek rabbit hole. That's what we like to go down. But for you, the average consumer who, you know, likes these kind of beers, I think that this beer definitely shows its rye, you know, spirit, the rye character is there without being like overbearing. I agree with you eventually because right when it was cold and right out of the glass, it smelled like a marshmallow. I loved that part. It is loaded with Madagascar vanilla. Yeah, so we're talking about the rye, but the vanilla is also like this is the yin and the yang. Yeah, and the vanilla is a big part of it. Yeah, that core of vanilla flavor is just remarkable. It's... So once again, he was like 16,000 pounds of fresh vanilla. I'm like, what the hell are you talking about? That's a lot. I know it's a lot, but there's a lot of... I have no idea. So basically, this goes into a vessel and they put so many vanilla beans in it that it would be up to someone's chest where they be to be walking in this tank. Okay. With vanilla beans. So it's a lot. Okay. But like you throw that in the ocean, it's not that much. I know. Well, I told them they need to do a calculation for you where it comes out to like, how many vanilla beans would go into a bourbon barrel so that you can wrap your mind around them. Here's the problem with that. If they did that, they'll be like, oh, we can't do this anymore. All right. Well, it is- 30 vanilla beans per bottle. Yeah. So it is worth mentioning that whole vanilla beans, the price of vanilla beans is bonkers. Yes. It's come down a little bit, but it's still crazy expensive. Yes. So this is where we get on the soapbox and say, adjunct doesn't have to be a dirty word. Extract is almost always a dirty word, depending on what the quality of it is. Mike Siegel over at Goose Island, he jokes about how he's become the purveyor in chief of sourcing all these different ingredients, and he really goes the extra mile to source the highest quality that they can get their hands on. Madagascar vanilla beans are kind of considered the gold standard. There's probably some forum where people are duking it out and geeking out on vanilla beans. Don't act like you haven't been to vanillabeanforum.php. You know, Madagascar vanilla beans, the aromatics are just off the charts. I mean, I just kept smelling this glass like you would an aromatherapy stick or something, like you just, it's unbelievable, the aroma. Yeah, it's gorgeous. It didn't have, as someone who has a huge sweet tooth, it wasn't overwhelmingly sweet. Agreed. It had like just enough where, you know, too much more it would have been. And the warmer it got, the more the rye spice shone through, even on the nose. So bringing together two things that both of you said on previous releases, the finish on this, I totally picked up on the mintiness that you get from rye, but then I also picked up on that marshmallow character. Yeah. So it reminded me of one of my favorite like old timey Fannie Mae candies, is this like big mint marshmallow dipped in chocolate. I was going to say that in the room, but then I didn't want to immediately make a comparison to the frango mints. It's not theirs, so I just left it alone. But yeah. But that is, and that is a classic example of, you know, mint beers can be very hard to pull off. So if you can extract mint character just from the ingredients and the barrel, very cool. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I again, I thought this had all the requisite caramel and chocolate notes and all of that and so much vanilla as to be almost ridiculous. But as Lexi pointed out, it's not overly sweet. So I mean, it just comes off really beautifully. I thought the finish, like Roger said, was showing lots of spice and minty lift for sure. Yeah, I thought this was great. One last thing we did talk about too was that the usage of vanilla we associate with sweetness, but it was cool to have a perceived sweetness versus an actual sweetness in this one. Totally. Totally. Yep. Macaron. No. Sorry. Redo. Macaron. I didn't know the difference between those things. Most people do not. Yeah. Macaron, it was one of these. It's pretty cool for those that aren't familiar. The way that they come up with many of these recipes is to allow Goose Island employees to take home. They're always big that it's a Nalgene bottle, which I find kind of bizarre. But dude, Nalgene is so- they should be like, it's a Stanley Cup. Give them a growler or a crowler. Honestly. They give them some- Kind of beaker. They give them some Bourbon County base original to take home and then say, this is where you can workshop the next Bourbon County release. Play around with adjuncts, try steeping them in there, maybe use one of those coffee presses like we've done on the podcast before. This is what I'm saying, two props. This is a prop. This is the prop process. But they just had two of them this year. Even though you forget, come on, this is how a ton of Bourbon County years are. I guess backwoods, backwords, backyards. What was the berry one? All of them are like this. What? Pizzel? Almond cookie. Oh, yeah. No, they called that biscotti. Biscotti. Biscotti with all of them. All of the prop is. All right. Jim, if you wanted to include yourself on this episode, you should have f**king gone. So yes, Jim is correct. This is standard operating procedure. The difference with prop is that it's only available in Illinois, whereas you can get a lot of or in the Chicagoland area. But we'll get to prop. That'll be the way we'll close things out. Let's talk about macaroon first. So, Paul Spiller is the employee who proposed this recipe. He was inspired by making macaroons with his mom. And the kind of interesting thing, you know, you can make macaroons a lot of different ways. This was a macaroon that is kind of the old school one that has a lot of coconut in it. It's mainly coconut. And then they also incorporated candy ginger into it. The ginger made it. Pretty interesting. And then chocolate was in the original actual macaroon. So, Goose Island incorporated some cocoa nibs to represent the chocolate element of the cookie. Right. So, this is a classic chocolate dipped coconut macaroon. We're talking about a mounds bar, right? Yes. Basically. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. As opposed to the little meringue based cookies that people love so much. Macarons. Marcones. Macarons. The president of France. Yeah. If anyone has been lucky enough to travel to Hawaii, think like what they eat there. Like this, to me, that's what I associate with that school. Because they have so many coconuts that it's like, here's a vehicle to consume a lot of coconut. Sure. Okay. And he said there were 13,500 pounds of coconut and 4,000 pounds of cocoa nibs. Again, completely abstract concepts to me. But a lot. I didn't get the chance to say this at Goose Island, but when I was in Hawaii a couple of months ago, you pull over to the side of the road and everyone's selling coconut chips, right? You get them everywhere. This tasted so much like that of the fresh toasted coconut chips. I don't even know if I brought them back for you guys or I just hoarded them on my desk. But it's like two or three dollars and you just get this huge bag of them and it's like a ziplock and this was very reminiscent of that. As I was saying earlier, the use of adjuncts here by Goose Island is relatively brilliant. This one is where it really stood out to me. This candied ginger, the toasted coconut, and the cocoa nibs all came together. They were integrated, but they were all distinct at the same time, and it was like a delicious journey. I thought this was fantastic. The ginger offers a wonderful building spice. Yes. And it was spot on, absolutely, and it gives the whole thing like this ethereal quality that keeps it from being just a candy, and it gives it a lifted experience. I just absolutely adored it. Totally agree. You could really overdo ginger, or you could underdo it and miss it, but I think it was absolutely nailed here. The first thing I smelled when I picked up the glass was just a whiff of ginger. It wasn't like insane. But the genuine toasted coconut aroma and flavor here is incredible, too. I agree. As Lexi was saying, it doesn't smell like suntan lotion. We want toasted coconut, not copper tone. Yeah. And that flavor is so perfectly echoed in this beer, you know that it's real toasted coconut. There's just no two ways about it. You can't replicate that any other way, I don't think. Yeah. I want to say one more thing about it. I thought on first impression that this was probably the standout for me, it's my favorite. And then quite a while later, when I went back to taste through everything, I mean like an hour and a half later, I think that this one didn't stand up to the air as well as the others. And I think that I'm taking that as once again, a reinforcement to drink this right away because they made it to be drank right away. And I wouldn't age this one. Just enjoy it. Yeah, I've always been of the mindset that with the adjuncted ones, as Chris pointed out, it's everything works right now. And you just, it's a wild card if you age it. You don't know if something's going to fall out. They have dialed in the balance on the Spear so perfectly. Do not, I agree completely. Don't sit on it. Why wait to see what happens? You can if you buy a bunch of them, sure, sit on some, who cares? But I don't see this getting better. I see it getting different, but not better, because it is almost perfect. I would also just finish up and say, if the ginger gives you pause, it is there. I think it was cool to incorporate it, but this is not a spicy beer. I also didn't get a lot of ginger. Oh, it's like this whisper across the top. I keep saying ethereal, but also it accumulated. I was looking for it. I agree. I think it is perfectly judged, but I also think on the finish, even after you swallow and just sit with it for a while, that ginger heat is just laying on your tongue. Very subtly, but it's there. You could miss it if you didn't know ginger was in there. You'd wonder what you're experiencing maybe. You're not a real ginger head. What a lot of people probably don't consider is that a major part of this process from the brewer's standpoint is that when they put these together and dial in the adjuncts, we're so used to these beers being shared or poured at a festival or something where you just get a little taste. But it also has to make sense that if you were to sit down and pour yourself an entire glass and drink it, you wouldn't want for something like ginger to be so spicy that by the time you finished a glass, Right. I think it does build after a few sips. I think it's very subtle. But once you've had a little bit, you definitely know it's there. I know I'm going to find out because I'm going to do what Roger just said. Yeah. On Black Friday night, I'm going to sit down with a 16.9 ounce bottle of macaroon, and I'm going to house that bottle. That brings us to the final member of this year's lineup, which incorporates chili peppers, which is the exact- Not again. Remember those couple of years in a row, they did that, they made them all. Wow, wow. It was so crazy back then. Yeah. People were very mixed in their opinions of them, so they took a real chance with this one, but I thought it was pretty interesting. Proprietors Barley Wine. First year that Proprietors is a barley wine and not a stout. Again, this is one that was sourced from inspiration from a employee, Colby McGrotten, took inspiration from Mexican spoon candy. So, of course, a major character of that dessert, if you've never had it before, is tamarind. So, they use two different types of tamarind in this, whole limes, like whole lime pulp, the whole lime skin and all, guajillo chilies, and then pioncillo sugar. Say that again. Pioncillo sugar. How would I say it if I was reading it off the label? Pioncillo? Yeah, yeah. Okay, just making sure. It's the little like a volcano looking cones of sugar, Mexican. Raw sugar. Yeah, raw sugar. So, it's like a brown sugar. If you're wondering, I very much thought of you, Greg, saying hat on a hat. Yeah, I know. We're putting sugar in a barley wine, especially an English one, and yes, that's a little weird. I'm sure that they arrange this after the fact because diling in tamarind is extremely sour, as well as obviously limes. And just the fact that Mexican candy sugar, like there's some caramelized aspect to the barley wine, but they really want to do a nod to the dessert. It would, you know, this fits as well. So talk about setting yourself up for a hard task, though. There are pitfall after pitfall of why this beer could have been a disaster. I told them all of those flavors, spiciness and citrus fruit and sugar and sweetness, because in the wrong combination, that's vomit. That's vomit. And they were like, yeah. Yes. Yet, this is fantastic. It is. It's wildly complex. Yes. There's so much lime lift from whole limes, the pith and everything. Yeah. You know, lime oil, lime juice. So the oil, and I don't know how tamarind adds to this. I've really only experienced tamarind in the form of juice at the PETA Inn. Yeah. I mean, it's definitely sweet and very tangy. There's an oily viscosity, a salinic, oily roundness in the middle of the palate here that is wild. It's just crazy. Yeah. I think tamarind, if you're not familiar, you've never tried it. A, you should go try some. There, tamarind nectar is pretty readily available. You can even buy like Mexican soda, tamarind flavored. Also, just buy it regular. In my house, we call it Nature's Fruit Snack. It's got this interesting gumminess to it, but it's also sour and sweet. You can also buy tamarind pulp in block. In that form, in that paste form, it reminds me of when you said nature's candy, this tracks for that too, like a date. Yeah, exactly. Sweetness and consistency and flavor, raisinated flavors, so all of that, but with the sour instead of the super sweet. Like a medjool date with a sour side to it. Right. The other thing that they pointed out when they were using sourcing the tamarind is that some tamarind expresses in a very watermelon-y way, and that I thought was definitely here, which was super interesting and different. Yeah. Yeah. Tamarind also has that earthiness to it. So, I mean, again, you already said it, but the complexity of this beer was, I mean, you could sit and talk about it for hours. The peppers also have that earthiness. Yeah, guajillos. And they were like in check. Yeah. They're there, but that was just a little grace note. Again, the adjuncts are so well judged here. It's remarkable. You get this lime lift, you get that sweet tangy tamarind going on, and the guajillos, they're spicy, but they are earthy and fruity and complex at the same time. They have a fruitiness to them. The dried form is, it reminds me of dates and raisins and stuff. Yeah, exactly. If you smell them, they smell almost like raisins. So again, if we're talking about the base beer here, synergistic flavors for sure. So it's very interesting that they came about this, because if you were to describe just a traditional, you know, Bourbon County barley wine, it has that kind of date, raisin fig character to it. Yeah, it's almost like they had some barley wine sitting around. Yes, they were berated that we want just some normal barley wine too. So we always express that. So any of you who love barley wine, we're working on it. Yeah, I was super impressed with this one. I think it was really interesting. And again, don't let the pepper scare you, because I don't tend to really like pepper beers. I like some mole stouts, but few and far between. When they're done right, they can be super interesting, and this one was. Totally agree. All right. Another great year of Verbin County Stout. I always leave with my jaw on the floor, and it drives me nuts because I want to find a little, I want things to pick at. I want to criticize and I want to say, you guys need to straighten up. But they're all really good. Again, I'm going to have to buy them. That always makes Greg nervous when he just praises things. He doesn't have something bad to say. I don't know how to do that. Yeah. I think this is a great lineup. I'm really excited to see Barley Wine back. I think my initial reaction when I read it, I'm like, but they nailed it. It was awesome. It's the most interesting one, I think, of the year. Yeah. It's very interesting. It's so interesting. Yeah. I have no negative notes either. I love that they paired the offerings on a little bit. I thought that was a smart move this year. I think all of them were excellent. They told a little story. There's a through line. There's a lot of the connection with the rye and everything. It was just a fun year to taste. These will be fun to share with friends. Stop in, grab some, open them up at the holidays. They're going on sale next Friday from when this episode drops. So Black Friday, just come in and buy some. You don't have to stand in a line. You don't have to do a drawing. Just come buy some beer. Yeah. Just like the good old days. I'm going to buy some. My mom's going to be in town, so I'm not going to share. No one else drinks beer like this when I go to holidays. No one drinks beer like this. I always open a bottle or two for everybody. They're all like, oh, yeah. No, thank you. I'm just drinking wine. I'm like, well, it's not, but you should try it anyway. Yeah. Well, I hope you enjoy listening to Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast as much as I enjoy gushing about Bourbon County apparently. And we will be back in your feed real soon with something just as sweet. And lots of negative comments from you. And me coming up with something negative to say. Yeah. All right. Until then, I'm Greg. I'm Chris. I'm Lexi. And I'm Roger. Keep tasting.