The Whiskey/Bourbon/Rye/Scotch Thread

Brownski wrote

I feel like there is no whiskey with a better quality to price ratio then the 101.

Eh, what the heck do you know about this stuff?!?

JTG4eva! wrote

Brownski wrote

I feel like there is no whiskey with a better quality to price ratio then the 101.

Eh, what the heck do you know about this stuff?!?

Ha! So much more then I ever intended to know... but now that I think of it Elijah Craig Small Batch might be just as good a value

My aunt had the Elijah Craig 12 year (before it went NAS) once and it didn’t leave a lasting impression, but I should give it another go.

As to the Rare Breed, Viscount has it for under $40, which is relatively cheap for a quality barrel proof.  I tend to not mix most of the bourbons I buy, and with a little ice Rare Breed is very smooth for 116 proof.  

Larceny is my house bourbon, so when I mix I use that, mostly in a Kentucky Mule.

Now, I do like a good Old Fashioned, but I consider that a cocktail (in 19th Century terms), not a mixed drink!

JTG4eva! wrote

My aunt had the Elijah Craig 12 year (before it went NAS) once and it didn’t leave a lasting impression, but I should give it another go.

As to the Rare Breed, Viscount has it for under $40, which is relatively cheap for a quality barrel proof.  I tend to not mix most of the bourbons I buy, and with a little ice Rare Breed is very smooth for 116 proof.  

Larceny is my house bourbon, so when I mix I use that, mostly in a Kentucky Mule.

Now, I do like a good Old Fashioned, but I consider that a cocktail (in 19th Century terms), not a mixed drink!

Viscount? We're basically in the same town. I prefer something less potent than 116 proof.

Jim Beam the fish killer

https://cnycentral.com/news/nation-world/jim-beam-fined-in-massive-bourbon-spill-that-killed-fish?

I guess because my palate isn’t refined enough to be a fan of single malts, I actually find this blended Johnny Walker scotch to be enjoyable!  When does the Witcher line come out?

Enticed by this last night.  Basil Hayden is generally good stuff, I like a good rye, and the addition of port intrigued me.

It’s good, but far from a traditional rye, if that is what you are looking for.  The port adds a dominating sweet note that overpowers the traditional rye spice.  Not a bad sweet, mind you.  Smooth drinking and enjoyable, but a departure from traditional whiskies for the purist.

The addition of port wine to the distilled rye makes me think back to the bottle of Armagnac I had a few years ago.

The go-to stuff. Was gifted to me a few holidays back by a coworker. Followed his lead and so far whoever I gift it to likes it.

I came across half a bottle of H McKenna 10 yr bonded in my garage. It cracks me up that this is a semi-allocated product now. For years it was almost a secret in the business how good it was and it retailed for only about $30. The bottle I found I originally opened to sample my customers to convince them it was good. I can remember when I had to sell people on the idea of carrying Buffalo Trace and Eagle bourbon.
Thangs sure have changed but McKenna is still great fucking bourbon.

Not to hijack thread but my efforts are with beer's physical chemical properties specifically related to foam properties.

Ref. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/health/soap-coronavirus-handwashing-germs.html
Why Soap Works
At the molecular level, soap breaks things apart. At the level of society, it helps hold everything together.
When you wash your hands with soap and water, you surround any microorganisms on your skin with soap molecules. The hydrophobic tails of the free-floating soap molecules attempt to evade water; in the process, they wedge themselves into the lipid envelopes of certain microbes and viruses, prying them apart.

A BS case of/for Beer
Beer foamology 
Ref. https://www.craftbeer.com/craft-beer-muses/the-science-behind-beer-foam
The physics of nucleation as a whole isn’t entirely understood, and there are a large group of proteins and smaller polypeptides (additional proteins) that can act as a group and individually as foam positive agents. One particular protein naturally found in barley is Lipid Transfer Protein 1 (LTP1), and it plays a large role in a beer’s foam.

LTP1 has a high rate of “hydrophobicity” (meaning it doesn’t like water), so in order to help alleviate its predicament, it grabs hold of a bubble of CO2—produced in fermentation as well as introduced in bottling/kegging—and then rises to the surface alongside the CO2 bubble (or N2, for nitrogen beers…but more on that in a bit).

Once at the surface, the LTP1 protein forms a coating on the bubbles which helps maintain the foam. Hops also come into play as the hydrophobic polypeptides derived from grain cross link with bitter iso-alpha acids from hops to render foam more ridged, stable and clingy.

There are dozens of variables that impact the differences in head-foam quality, texture and retention, but quantities of LTP1 in a specific batch of beer can be traced back to factors like how wet or warm the climate was that produced the barley.


Small sips, swish, bubbles increase, gargle, down the hatch... Lather, rinse, repeat. Moderation is advised. Don't operate equipment, drive, etc....Not suitable for children but they really don't come down with symptoms from the bat virus either. But can be asymptomatic carriers.

Italians drink more wine germans drink more beer, not to be prejudice.
There' this too.https://www.beerhistory.com/library/holdings/patron_saints.shtml 

Sick Bird Rider wrote

Oooh, Camp's comment reminds me that is also Flu Shot season, so better get some vodka. Thread drift into clear alcohol territory, I know. Can anyone suggest a whisky/bourbon/rye to mix with mandarin orange juice?


Like the thread drift...Copper Plate vodka, sold at Wegmans, has a striking resemblance in taste to Titos (and is lower in price). I wouldn't be surprised if Titos is the distiller of this product.

tirolski wrote

Not to hijack thread but my efforts are with beer's physical chemical properties specifically related to foam properties.

Why Soap Works
At the molecular level, soap breaks things apart....  soap molecules.... free-floating soap molecules... microbes and viruses....

A BS case of/for Beer
Beer foamology 
The physics of nucleation... proteins... One particular protein naturally found in barley is Lipid Transfer Protein....

LTP1 has a high rate of “hydrophobicity” .... alleviate its predicament, it grabs hold of a bubble of CO2....

Not for nothing but there are two beer threads available. Fascinating foam discussion though

"You want your skis? Go get 'em!" -W. Miller

Jon951 wrote

I wouldn't be surprised if Titos is the distiller of this product.

I doubt it. A lot of big brands are just everyday product in a more expensive package but Tito’s is actually produced in copper stills last I knew, which is a genuinely expensive process. Also they’re still independent. The operations that do that kind of stuff are associated with big pan-national conglomerates.

Jon951 wrote

Can anyone suggest a whisky/bourbon/rye to mix with mandarin orange juice?

The answer is always (almost always) Wild Turkey- in this case WT Rye 101- the higher alcohol will help cut through the sweetness of the orange juice. If you want to spend more money then Knob Creek rye. Rittenhouse or Old Overholt are pretty good too.

In these days, weeks, months of world turmoil, thoughts turned to a contemporary of mine while studying Pharmacognosy at Ole Miss, John Grisham, and his reading of Soggy Sweat's "Whiskey Speech"
Stay safe and strong, lather rinse repeat.

From 2010
For years Soggy Sweats Whiskey Speech has been discussed as a particularly fine piece of southern oratory.  Judge Noah S. Soggy Sweat was John Grishams law professor at Ole Miss and a former state legislator.   Here Grisham remembers his professor at the Oxford Conference for the Book...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPzUcJcgXUA&fbclid=IwAR24Za-2SnRGkkMIlkFBXzq57QfqsxWlgOGnP983hgMxTh-AmPBsMpYule4

It’s Tuesday (?).....so I’m breaking out the Absinthe!  Time to make THE oldest cocktail....the Sazerac.

Made my daughter (she’s 21!) a Death in the Afternoon (Absinthe with sparkling wine).

And the Henry McKenna is gone... I guess I’ll have to check the garage tomorrow.

I’m too lazy to look back, but have we talked much about flavored whiskies?  Outside of a little Jack Honey now and again for a change I’m generally not a fan.  What I am a fan of, however, is anything salted caramel.  Makes me want to try this, although I suspect it may be way too sweet.  If anyone knows let me know.



Infused whiskies....that’s a little different.  I like this one, aged in Tabasco barrels.  Subtle pop of spice without the cloying cinnamon-sweetness of Fireball and the like.  Some claim this should be done as a shot (a’la Fireball), but it sips just fine and adds an interesting note of heat to an Old Fashioned.

I'm a big fan of the knob creek smoked maple , the crown maple was ok, sweet than the kc, but they dc'd it. last year i probably could have made a brown jacket lol, plenty of spare goggle bags

As an booze industry guy, there are few things that are as frustrating as this flavor craze. Flavored vodkas are bad enough. Even now, after the trend has more or less died, the big brands still  continue to me-too each other. Currently vodka producers  are trying to glom onto the Ketel botanicals concept but in the past it was much worse. For a year or two after the whipped cream thing blew up I was dealing with brands introducing multiple new flavors at once multiple times a year. Anything that shows the littlest success has a hundred imitators. Wild Turkey sort of started this in the whiskey world when they repackaged the WT liquor into American Honey, which led to Red Stag and Fireball which led to 2 or 3 more Red Stag flavors which led to Jack honey which was so big it had all kinds of people who had honey in their recipes all along adding the word “honey” to their labels (“No, I swear to god, ma’am. Celtic crossing honey is not any different then the old Celtic crossing.” You never win that conversation). Fireball led to hot pepper flavored everything, vodka, whiskey, tequila. Van Gogh Double Espresso & Patron XO led to coffee flavored everything which led to Kahlua questioning itself and introducing a dozen or so line extensions and then putting “rum” on its label to try to convince people it was just as good as Patron XO (“I swear to god ma’am, it’s the same Kahlua you bought last week” another losing conversation). All the Jack flavors led to Beam questioning itself, disco’ing its red stag line extensions and repackaging them as beam flavors. Apple did kind of ok so everybody tried out apple flavored shit again. There have been so many runs at maple flavored booze (google Mamma Walker’s maple bacon). At least the knob Creek Maple tastes pretty good, unlike most of them. Ditto the Carmel flavors. So many introductory close outs over the years, I can’t even count them. Some of my customers I walk in and look at the shelves and see 20 bad ideas I sold him in a decade ago. I’m lucky these guys still talk to me.

So that’s how I feel about flavors.

I like the Peach Bourbon/Arnie Palmer combo at the golf course.