Smooth Ambler Old Scout American Whiskey Review

I've covered Smooth Ambler quite a few times so I won't go into it again but my overall feeling about them is that they sourced some great whiskey and sold it at really good prices. The well on those great stocks seems to be running dry though as we've seen the discontinuation of nearly every MGP sourced product they've ever offered other than the occasional gift shop only release. Other than the pure MGP bourbons and ryes, there have been a couple of blended experiments, the latest of which we have here today. According to the label, this is a blend of whiskeys distilled in Indiana and Tennessee, one aged in fresh oak casks and the other in used, re-charred bourbon barrels. I'm assuming the Indiana component is a straight bourbon and Tennessee portion was the second use aging, particularly because a couple of years ago George Dickel's parent company Diageo was trying to change the TN laws around what could be considered Tennessee whiskey to include aging in used barrels. 

No Age Statement; 49.5% ABV; Batch No. 4; $35

Nose: Corn and rye spice. Typically on the nose rye spice comes through as menthol for me and that's the case here. There are hints of that familiar Dickel multivitamin mineral note. Smells like a blend of high rye bourbon, Dickel bourbon, and Mellow Corn. 

Taste: The initial palate entry is very sweet forward, like corn butterscotch pudding. The spice notes are toned back but come through with a little tingle in the finish along with some subtle Dickel vitamin notes. That's about all there is in the finish though as it's amazingly short - it fades so quickly I would have suspected this more for 80 proof than nearly 100 proof. There is a little smokey barrel char kind of like burnt marshmallows that lingers but that's all I am really getting. Overall the best way to describe it is mellow.

Thoughts: I haven't liked this since the day I opened it and that's the case again today. It's not really that it's horrible but it's more that it's light and odd. I'm not sure of the proportions on the blend here but it tasted heavily towards a whiskey that was aged in reused barrels - the oak flavors are rather muted and dull and the sweet notes are more mash forward than oak forward. I appreciate the experiment and luckily it didn't cost a lot but this is a swing and a miss for me.

Rating: D

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating.

Balcones Brimstone Review

Here's a bottle that was bequeathed to me during /u/tvraisedme's whiskey dumpster giveaway before he moved away from the Nashville area. Of all the craft distilleries out there, I feel like Balcones is one of the better ones but like the rest, the major rub is you're paying a lot for what you are getting. As such, I would have never purchased this bottle on my own, not only because of the price but also because it's such a divisive pour. Looking at how it's made, it's easy to see why. What we have here is a 100% blue corn whisky that as been smoked with Texas scrub oak via some proprietary process. Not that I think it matters but some may like to know that this particular bottle was released when Chip Tate was still the Balcones master distiller. I'm expecting something pungent like the corn whisky equivalent of a heavily peated Islay Scotch.

Batch BRM12-2, 02/08/2012; No Age Statement; 53% ABV; $60

Nose: Very corn and smoke forward. It smells like Fritos corn chips that have been left in a smoker for days. The smokey notes here have a very distinctive yet strange quality to them that I can't quite describe. It's sort of medicinal but mostly like an old mesquite barbecue grill. 

Taste: The palate has all of the notes from the nose but with some added honey. It's sweet, corny, and that oddball oily mesquite barbecue smoke note. It tastes like honey coated mesquite smoked barbecue Frito corn chips. It's a bruiser of flavors with not really much oak influence so the alcohol still has some of that off-putting young craft new make vibe to it. 

Thoughts: This stuff is batshit crazy. It's not as wild as some other ridiculous things I've tasted like the Bourbon Crusader's Charbay or Charbay RIII but it's up there. If they were going for something that tasted like smoke bombed corn chips then they succeeded with flying colors and kudos to them for trying something different. I can barely drink this though and every time I get an odd craving for a pour I can't help but ask how much I hate myself for wanting to try this again. And yet that's a scenario that's played out at least several times so there is something oddly memorable/enticing about it.

Rating: 100/100 if you want high proof smoked corn chips, 80/100 if you're a whisky voyeur/masochist, 60/100 if you wanted a drinkable whisky

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating. 

Charbay Release III vs. Bourbon Crusaders Charbay Single Barrel Reviews

Over the years I've been fortunate enough to make internet friends with some really nice people in the whiskey hobby. Some of those friends happen to be members of a whiskey group known as the Bourbon Crusaders who do some private single barrel selections. Their most recent selection was a ridiculously high proofed Charbay and one of my connections there was generous enough to send me a sample. I also happened to have another high proof Charbay sample on hand so I thought it would be fun to do a little side by side. 

Charbay Release III

Distilled from a barley beer that had hops added before it was distilled. It was aged for 6 years in charred oak and then left to mingle for an additional 8 years in "netural vessels" before being bottled. The release was very limited at 224 cases, bottled at 132.4 proof, and currently retails for $425 (ouch).

On the nose it smells like high proof, high IBU, stout beer. Imagine a 130 proof Goose Island Bourbon County IPA / APA / stout as it has characteristics of all those types of beers with the syrupy richness I usually only find in the Goose Island limited editions. On the palate it tastes a lot like the nose but the hoppy funk is more amped up than the stout notes. Intense would be an understatement to describe the flavors here. For all intents and purposes this tastes like barrel proof weed. It's so dank and funky but underneath all that is the deep, sweet, rich backbone of freshly charred oak notes that come from a cask strength American whiskey. It's incredibly wild and bizarre. 

I wouldn't want to drink this very often and the retail cost is many times beyond my comfort zone but it gets an A for uniqueness and A- for taste.

Bourbon Crusaders Charbay Single Barrel

Distilled from rye beer, IPA beer, and stout beer that was aged 2 years in glass, then combined with more stout beer distillate and malt distillate and aged 5 years in charred oak. It was bottled at 147 (!!!) proof. No word on cost but who cares because you can't buy it anyway.

On the nose there is a lot of fruity citrus and American Pale Ale beer notes. The ethanol content is undeniably strong but it's 147 million proof so no surprises there. The taste is absolutely fucking mental. It's really hot but I've had lower proof whiskeys that were harder to drink. Once you get past the heat, there's a crazy density of fresh charred oak sweet notes followed by skunky hops and intense citrus. It's still pretty dank but this one is less of a skunk weed bomb and more like a barrel proof Ballast Point Grapefruit Sculpin beer.

Again, not something you would want to drink very often and I still can't justify retail Charbay pricing here but this is one of the craziest things I have ever drank in my life. I'll give it an A+ for uniqueness and A for taste.

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating.

Stranahan's Diamond Peak Review

There are a lot of craft distillers out there these days and most of them are either selling really young spirits or selling someone else's spirits while their own distillate matures. In the self made category, frankly there's a lot of shitty whiskey out there. In that sea of crap however Stranahan's is one that stands out in terms of quality as I was surprised by how much I enjoyed their standard product. The combo of new charred oak and malt makes an interesting profile despite the fact that it's not very old. As with most craft whiskies though, the biggest deterrent from me buying it again was the price. That's why I was very intrigued when Stranahan's announced Diamond Peak which is basically the same product but aged at least twice as long with a ~$15 price bump.

No Age Statement (so at least 4 years); 47% ABV; $70; Batch 001

Nose: Grapes, cereal grains, roasted coffee. Smells like my memory of the original product.

Taste: Tastes like the nose. Roasted barley, coffee, and raisin bran cereal with extra raisins. Again, this tastes a lot like the original product though with less raw new make and ethanol notes. The extra age has helped smoothed things out and give it a little more depth, especially in the finish.

Thoughts: It's a nice step up over the standard Stranahan's which these days I'd rate about a C / C+. It has the same core profile as the regular but with extra depth and more refinement. If you're a fan of the original you'll love this and probably never look back to the other one. While it's a nice change of pace and certainly very unique compared to a bourbon or rye, I would have a hard time bringing myself to buy another one of these again. At $70, there are many whiskeys available with more age, depth, proof, and quality at a significantly better price. 

Rating: B- / C+

Additional Notes on Batch 002: I also had a sample from batch 002 on hand. Tasted side by side, I found batch 001 to be noticeably better in terms of richness and depth of flavor. Batch 002 was thinner and had less intensity in the finish so I would knock it down to C+ territory.

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating.

High West Bourye (2016 Release) Review

There is a lot of grumpiness in the whiskey world regarding Non Distiller Producers these days and for good reason - prices keep going up, quality is often going down, transparency is rare, and some bottlers are pushing lame backstories in order to sell product. Yes, I’m looking at you Diageo and your entire stupid fucking Orphan Barrel line. Yet despite those trends, there are a few companies selling sourced whiskey who are doing things right and a shining example of that is High West.

One of the many reasons people love High West is because they are doing interesting things with finishes and blends to create some unique products that aren’t ridiculously expensive. Once such product is their Bourye which has come in a few versions over the years with gist being a blend of straight bourbon and straight rye whiskeys. I enjoyed the 2015 version which made me perk up when I heard the details of their newest 2016 batch. Here are the specs straight from the High West website:

• 9-year-old straight bourbon (mash bill: 75% corn, 21% rye, 4% barley malt) Source: MGP/LDI/Seagrams, Indiana
• 13-year-old straight rye whiskey (mash bill: 95% rye, 5% barley malt) Source: MGP/LDI/Seagrams, Indiana
• 17-year-old straight rye whiskey (mash bill: 95% rye, 5% barley malt) Source: MGP/LDI/Seagrams, Indiana

You have to love the transparency there. Those are some very respectable numbers with some older whiskey than the previous batch in the mix. The stats had me curious if this batch would be even better than the last so let’s find out.

No age statement; Batch No. 16A13; 46% ABV; $75

Nose: Lots of sweet and lots of wood. It’s not as spicy as I expected but there is some prickly menthol in there. Smells like an early teenage high rye bourbon.

Taste: A lot like the nose - very sweet, lots of wood, and not overly spicy. The front palate is dominated by your typical sweet caramel and vanilla notes. The spice starts to come through in the mid palate in the form of cinnamon red hots which ride out all the way through to the finish. The finish also sees a transition of the sweet flavors into darker notes like cocoa powder. The wood depth here is pretty great as it has hints of some really decent age.

Thoughts: High West are damn good at blending and this is another prime example of that. It’s a nice mix of sweet, spice, and a decent amount of age without being overly bitter. I have an affection for sweeter bourbons and this one definitely hits home there as it is on the sweeter side. I haven’t tasted them side by side and I’m only going off memory here but I’m not sold that it’s a major improvement over the previous batch. That’s okay though because it’s still a great product and now it appears to have consistency on its side which is more than you can say for many other batched NDP products.

Rating: B+ / B

Value: As always, I don’t factor price into my ratings. The price here is a little high for what you get and there are better values to be had. I feel like Rendezvous Rye at around $25 less is still a better buy but it isn’t as unique as this which is what you are really paying for here.

High West Bourye (2015 Release) Review

Like many other startup distilleries, High West is on the “sell sourced whiskey while our own product comes of age plan”. Unlike a lot of other startups though, High West is very transparent about the source of their whiskey. One such whiskey in their portfolio is Bourye, named as such for being a blend of straight bourbon and straight rye. In late 2014 / early 2015, High West released another version of Bourye, this time replacing the Bourbon component that was once Four Roses with whiskey sourced from MGP. Here's the full breakdown per the High West website:

• 9-year-old straight bourbon - mash bill: 75% corn, 21% rye, 4% barley malt - source: MGP/LDI/Seagrams Indiana
• 10-year-old straight rye whiskey - mash bill: 95% rye, 5% barley malt - source: MGP/LDI/Seagrams Indiana
• 16-year-old straight rye whiskey - mash bill: 95% rye, 5% barley malt - source: MGP/LDI/Seagrams Indiana
• 16-year-old straight rye whiskey - mash bill: 80% rye, 10% corn, 10% malt - Source: Barton Distillery, Bardstown KY

Their complete transparency is one of the many reasons whiskey geeks praise High West but really it’s their skill at blending quality stock that make people love them.

No Age Statement; 46% ABV; Batch 15B09; $80

Nose: The nose has a fruit cake like sweetness with more bourbon than rye influence along with a pretty heavy dose of wood. If I dig in I get a little menthol spice note but it’s subdued. It smells on the old side.

Taste: The initial taste is a lot like the nose. Typical bourbon sweetness of caramel and vanilla up front with the woodiness in the back. You can really taste the older aged whiskey components here as it tapers off in the finish with some slightly bitter/tannic spiced tea. The one surprising thing though is how subdued the spice level is here - it’s only in the finish that I get a light menthol/clove tingle.

Thoughts: Really good stuff with a nice balance of sweet, older wood, and spice. High West continues to flex their muscles at being master blenders but it’s not hurting them that the MGP and Barton base components are already stellar whiskeys on their own. The only real fault I can find here is the price is a bit of an issue. At $80 I am not sure the quality to price ratio is the best and honestly I’d prefer Rendezvous Rye which is around $25 cheaper over this. All in all it’s a easy to find, unique, and enjoyable whiskey that is a nice change of pace from most everything else out there on the shelves.

Rating: B / B+

Balcones Single Malt Texas Whisky Review

Balcones is a well respected craft brand in the whiskey industry and from what I can tell the Single Malt is their most recommend product. I don’t have a lot of experience with American malts but to be fair there aren’t that many out there. I’m not sure if this is how it is still produced but the Coopered Tot has an intricate writeup on how the first batches of this were made. The TLDR; version is this starts out in small 5 gallon yard-aged white oak barrels and is then later transferred to larger 53+ gallon barrels. The interesting thing to me about the yard-aged oak is that it is seasoned 2-3 years which is much longer than the standard ~6 months used for curing oak used in Bourbon barrels.

No Age Statement; 53% ABV; Batch SM 14.3 
(thanks to /u/tequilajunction for the samples)

Nose: Surprising amount of ethanol aroma - it breathes hotter than I expected even after about 30 minutes of air in a Canadian glencairn. When you get beyond the heat there are classic malt aromas as well as some toffee and dark raisin-like fruitiness. Adding water didn’t really seem to help tone down the heat.

Taste: The taste starts out less warm than the nose. On the front and mid palate wood sweets such as vanilla and some light honey come through. Throughout the whole experience a fruity sweet raisin note is very present. Towards the back palate and into the finish the toffee note takes on a deeper taste and develops more into a dark roast coffee flavor. The finish also has a little spice bite to it. My one complaint would be that the finish is hotter than it should be much like the initial nose. Adding water seemed to soften up the front to mid palate and didn’t really tame the heat on the back.

Thoughts: This reminds me a lot of Stranahan’s Colorado Whiskey in terms of taste. I really enjoy the dark fruit and roasted coffee flavors but I feel like this one breathes and tastes hotter than it should. I attribute that to what is young whiskey that has been subjected to a harsh Texas climate. Much like my impression of Stranahan’s I would love to taste this with quite a few more years in the wood to smooth out some of the rough edges and give it more wood depth though I am not sure how much longer it could survive in the dry, hot Texas climate. Overall, it’s interesting and worth trying once but I personally can’t justify the $70 cost.

Rating: C+ / B-

Stranahan's Colorado Whiskey Review

Tonight is another review of a bottle I'm powering through to make room in the bunker for the impending bourbon monsoon this fall. I first heard about Stranahan's when I took a tour of their distillery back in 2012 on a trip to Denver. Here's a picture of my tour group, that's me in the striped shirt. The tour was pretty cool and the guides were very knowledgeable - our guide wasn't just a guide but someone who was very active in their distilling process. I bought a bottle as a memento because at the time it was not sold in my home state of TN. That bottle was the new post-proximo style bottle and not the one I am reviewing here. This bottle is a pre-prixmo bottle that I later found collecting dust last year.

47.0% ABV; Aged "a minimum of 2 years"; Batch #62; Distilled 09/10/2008, $60

Whoever bottled it was listening to CCR. I think the current music is a nice personal touch on the label.

The nose is unbelievably fruity. I tend to get lot of intense banana flavors in young bourbons. I would say this is similar except replace the bananas with grapes, prunes, and raisins. It might be the fruitiest nose I've ever experienced in a non specialty finished whiskey.

The taste is a wild ride with lots of odd flavors for someone who usually drinks bourbon whiskey. I know the mashbill here is primarily barley like scotch and while I don't have a lot of scotch experience outside of Islays this tastes nothing like scotch either. It's intensely fruity - all of the notes from the nose are heavily reinforced. Raisins, prunes, nugrape soda, blackberry wine. With all those comes lots of inherent sweetness. Towards the finish though comes perhaps my favorite note about Stranahan's: coffee. I swear the finish tastes like dark roasted coffee. I'm not one to add water to something below 100 proof but I have added water to this in the past and I know water makes the coffee note even more present. That combination of notes is really, really odd but rather remarkable in a batshit crazy way.

This is a very strange one. It's really good in some ways but it's also not so great once you pick it apart. On the fruit scale it's off the charts and coffee note is unlike anything I've ever experience in a whiskey. That's also all it really offers as those two elements really dominate everything else. It's worth buying a bottle at least once to see how it suits you but I'd probably pass on future bottles at this price point. Having said that, I would love to revisit this at 4, 6, or 8 years. I think it has real potential if they would let the wood smooth out some of the odd characteristics and give it some layers.

Rating: B-