OT: Bourbon/Whiskey
- Thread starter rufan3860
- Start date
Legally (and for tax and customs purposes) Jack Daniels is bourbon. Their keeping the word "bourbon" off the label is mostly a marketing ploy to differentiate it from the run of the mill Kentucky bourbons.
I've tasted Jack Daniels. The crap isn't bourbon, its lighter fluid![banana]
Damn, I knew I liked you for some reason!
lol
It's hard to find - but I like it. First had it in Hugo's Cellar restaurant (fav Vegas restaurant - old school) at the Four Queens in Vegas.....
American Whiskey
Bourbon
Irish Whiskey
Scotch
4 different drinks people confuse all the time.
Bourbon
Irish Whiskey
Scotch
4 different drinks people confuse all the time.
Apparently you confuse them too.
Bourbon is American Whiskey. (Rye is the other common type of American Whiskey).
Is that 4 different drinks or two different drinks? Or does Rye make it 3? Or 5? Now I'm more confused....
Alright, more Ardbeg for you! By the way, we had a bottle of it at our tailgate for the Spring Game!
I think Bourbon would be a sub-category of American Whiskey, as would Rye Whiskey. Irish Whisky and Scotch are also separate categories, as would be Canadian Whiskey.
How you doin'?
Where does Canadian Whiskey fall into the discussion? I enjoy an occasional Crown Royal.
- American Rye Whiskey (from US)
- Bourbon Whiskey (from US)
- Canadian Whisky (from Canada)
- Irish Whiskey (from Ireland)
- Scotch Whisky (from Scotland)
More of a beer drinker but tried Laphroaig for the first time. Quite tasty! Good stuff.
Several years ago I had some local whisky in Nova Scotia which was absolutely delicious. I no longer remember the name, but I tried to find it in NJ to no avail.
If you're just going to pour it into a cup of Coke, you might as well buy the cheapest crap you can find.
My buddy up in Binghamton had some a while back: I just pinged him to see if he remembered the name.
For that matter, use Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum instead!
How you doin'?
Hah, and he came through for me right away. It's called Glen Breton from the Glenora Distillery on Cape Breton Island. Here's the link:
Whiskies - Glenora Distillery
How you doin'?
Whiskies - Glenora Distillery
How you doin'?
That's it! And according to their website, it is available in NJ:
NEW JERSEY
HICKORY WINE CELLAR 641 SHUNPIKE RD CHATHAM 7928 (973)822-2121
HUDSON WINE MARKET 1638 SCHLOSSER ST FORT LEE 7024 (201)346-0101
THE WINE SHOP 704 MORRIS TRNPK SHORT HILLS 7078 (973)379-7135
TOTAL WINE & MORE 135 KINDERKAMACK RD RIVER EDGE 7661 (201)968-1777
WINE CHATEAU 160 DURHAM AVE METUCHEN 8840 (732)548-3266
So my good friends at Neshaminy Creek Brewing have a few reason to celebrate. Last night they won their 3rd straight Brewery of the Year from Philly Beer Scene and tonight they are having a soft opening of their second location in Jenkintown called Neshaminy Creek's Borough Brewhouse.
So a crappy bottle of champagne wasn't going to do. So I bought this puppy for them. Anyone ever had this? I'm sure I'll get a taste.
So a crappy bottle of champagne wasn't going to do. So I bought this puppy for them. Anyone ever had this? I'm sure I'll get a taste.
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I thought all bourbons were from bourbon county kentucky, just like all champaigns are from there, labelling wise. You can make bourbons in other places but can't label it a boirbon.
Ardberg is a bit too peaty for me. I am a glenmorengie guy. Jack Daniel 1.75 litre is my everyday whiskey.
You must have a hell of a tolerance! Do you buy it by the case?
I'm partial to the Glenmorangie Port Wood myself.
It is more local custom. Scotland and Canada are typically Whisky. US and Ireland are typically Whiskey.
Utter bullshit.
The only entities that "support" such an absurdity are the DISCUS members, i.e. the multinational beverage conglomerates that now own most of the Kentucky distilleries.
They're producing crap, they're getting their asses handed to them by the craft guys at all the tasting awards and they're panicking.
A couple of years ago I was tailgating and my crew was enjoying some of my own product. An adjacent tailgate crew stopped by to chat and one of the young women among them was in the marketing department at Diageo, which owns Johnnie Walker, Crown Royal, Bulleit, Seagram's, George Dickel, Caol Ila, Talisker, Lagavulin, Oban, J&B, Bell's, Buchanan's and Cardhu.
She was very candid. She said that the DISCUS members (Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S.) were extremely concerned about the growing craft movement. She used the word "panic".
It's really simple. Those companies, which in the whiskey / bourbon industry account for the ownership of nearly all the major brands, have made significant changes to the distillation process in the name of efficiency, as large corporations are wont to do. With one exception, the major bourbon brands no longer use traditional pot stills. They've all moved to fractional column stills. They do this so that they can pull distillate at the 160 proof maximum in a single run. The resulting distillate is, at that point, almost entirely stripped of any of the flavors that are imparted by traditional pot distillation. Additionally, they no longer use cracked grains in their mash. They use corn flour, rye flour and wheat flour. They don't use malted barley at all in the conversion process, having opted instead for the utilization of amylase enzymes.
I made the declaration a while back that "whiskey should taste like more than alcohol and wood." It's appropriate because the industrial distillation processes in place in most large distilleries are such that the resulting product tastes exactly like that. You're not tasting the grain, all you're tasting is the barrel.
We heard almost exactly the same thing at the Talisker distillery on the island of Skye, right down to the column thingy! Would really like to try some Old Spye one of these days!
So my good friends at Neshaminy Creek Brewing have a few reason to celebrate. Last night they won their 3rd straight Brewery of the Year from Philly Beer Scene and tonight they are having a soft opening of their second location in Jenkintown called Neshaminy Creek's Borough Brewhouse.
So a crappy bottle of champagne wasn't going to do. So I bought this puppy for them. Anyone ever had this? I'm sure I'll get a taste.
Yes! My neighbors are big bourbon guys, so I've tried many of these mentioned in this thread, including some of the Van Winkles. This is another from Buffalo Trace and it's very good. If I recall, it's a bit spicier than some of my preferred bottles.
We'll get there. I hate being patient.
BTW, as far as commercial brands go...
Buffalo Trace is a solid choice for the money. It's my personal "decanter whiskey", the stuff I keep in the crystal decanter on my kitchen counter for pouring at the end of the day.
Maker's Mark is also good and, because it's wheated and has no rye in the mash bill, is a good choice for people who don't like that back-palate burn that comes with a lot of bourbons and is a product of the rye in the mash.
Eagle Rare - also very good, for something in a price point a bit higher than Buffalo Trace.
For all the people who like High West - expand your horizons. High West products are blends. Some of the distillate is produced on site by the distiller, but the majority of it is produced by an outfit called Midwest Grain Products, located in Indiana. MGP is basically an ethanol factory. They pull quantities of product for barreling on site, which they then sell to small distilleries. The rest of their product gets blended with Exxon and finds its way to your local gas pump.
Here's a label tip. An American whiskey label will say one of two things: "Distilled by / at" or "Bottled by / at", where "at" is the name of the distillery and / or location.
If it says "bottled by" or "bottled at", that's your queue to put the bottle down because the product in the bottle wasn't made by the people who are selling it.
I guess you missed my Jack Daniels comment and by a volume standpoint most of bourbons(90+%) sold in the US come from the big guys in Kentucky.
Its no different in the beer industry. There are now over 5,300 breweries in the US but the big boys still control over almost 90% of sales. Doesnt make it good but they are still the leader of the pack.
There's only so much pie and that's what the DISCUS guys understand more than anything. They've seen the large brewery market shares eroded by local breweries and they've taken the lesson to heart.
The problem is that consumers aren't idiots, at least not in the premium beverage space. if Brown-Forman's products suck, eventually they'll lose market share.
Personally, I believe that traditional American alcoholic beverages - beers and whiskeys - should ALL be local. "Back in the day", that was the rule rather than the exception. There were local and regional brewers and distillers, their products were made with locally sourced grain and local water. They had flavor and character and no two were alike. Consumers in the space should insist on that kind of variety and that kind of quality.
Its happening a little faster in the beer industry of having a local brewer.
Im sitting in Neshaminy Creek Brewings second neighborhood bar. And it will get there in spirits too. Neither are a fad as the big guys try to claim. People are willing to spend for quality.
About the same as my take on the PVW mythology. The only difference is that the Hirsch stuff was pretty small batch to begin with (400 barrels, as I recall), so there was probably a little more care in its construct than is the case with PVH, which is basically just Buffalo Trace left in barrels for a really long time. So it probably tastes "better". Does it taste the better part of 3 large worth of better? Sure, if somebody else is paying the bill.
A cautionary note, though, on "old bourbons". Bourbon left on the wood longer than about 12 years is a waste of good alcohol. You see very old single malt scotches that have great character, but they come about it differently. Bourbon is aged in barrels that are, by law, no larger than 53 gallons and that's the size that all the volume producers use. Scotch is aged in casks which can be as large as 350 gallons. So the amount of "wood" (all the various tannins and vanillins and other flavors imparted thereby) that gets into the spirit is a LOT greater over any given amount of time for American whiskey than scotch. Anything left in 53 gallon barrel longer than a dozen years is going to taste, first and foremost, like charred oak and very little else.
