Enjoy the benefits of a premium membership!
Upgrade Account
-
TalkBass has been independent since 1998. Add your voice.
Create a free account to reply to discussions, view embedded media, and browse with fewer display ads.
Join free Log in
Want zero display ads or expanded classifieds tools? Compare plans.
Bourbon...
- Thread starter zachoff
- Start date
Stopped at the local grocery store on the way home from work today. Long story short, I bought a Pepsi and a Snickers, but didn't finish the Pepsi, so I'm now enjoying it with my precious old-school Red Stag. You see, lads and lasses, when Red Stag first hit the shelves, it was pure ol' Jim Beam with cherry flavor added. Sometime around 2014 or 2015, the feds said "Hey, you can't call that bourbon if it has cherries in it!" so they changed the formula to be a cherry liqueur with bourbon flavor added. I found the last handle of bourbon + cherry at the other local grocery store a few years ago and did a few blind taste tests...the new stuff tastes like cherry cough syrup, the old stuff is worthy of being mixed with a Pepsi.
Which reminds me of a weird anecdote from my college years: I bought a bottle of Red Stag (the old, good stuff) and brought it to a party. We did a round of shots, then some jerk (We'll call him Tom) said "Hey Knuckleduster, can I get a shot of that? I'll trade you a can of Coke tomorrow" I said "Sure, Tom, you're a decent guy, and certainly not a mooch."
So, my buddies and I are sitting there, doing all sorts of the gross shots that only kollidje stoodints do, and one guy's like "Hey, where'd your Red Stag go?"
I looked back at Tom, and he was holding a third of my bottle in his hand. He'd take a sip from his can of Coke, then top it off with my Red Stag...then take a sip, and top it off again. Homeboy drank half a fifth of Red Stag, bit by bit!
There was a hot foreign exchange student from Sweden who wound up on my lap, sharing some weird-ass UV Blue drink, then someone passed out and the rest of us got kicked out of the apartment.
And that's my story about Red Stag.
Which reminds me of a weird anecdote from my college years: I bought a bottle of Red Stag (the old, good stuff) and brought it to a party. We did a round of shots, then some jerk (We'll call him Tom) said "Hey Knuckleduster, can I get a shot of that? I'll trade you a can of Coke tomorrow" I said "Sure, Tom, you're a decent guy, and certainly not a mooch."
So, my buddies and I are sitting there, doing all sorts of the gross shots that only kollidje stoodints do, and one guy's like "Hey, where'd your Red Stag go?"
I looked back at Tom, and he was holding a third of my bottle in his hand. He'd take a sip from his can of Coke, then top it off with my Red Stag...then take a sip, and top it off again. Homeboy drank half a fifth of Red Stag, bit by bit!
There was a hot foreign exchange student from Sweden who wound up on my lap, sharing some weird-ass UV Blue drink, then someone passed out and the rest of us got kicked out of the apartment.
And that's my story about Red Stag.
I have no stories about Red Stag, and I'm going to keep it that way.
I'm slowly thinning my herd. We knocked out my two oldest Pinhooks over the weekend. I no longer have an unopened bottle from every year. Sad, but it was delicious.
-Mike
I'm slowly thinning my herd. We knocked out my two oldest Pinhooks over the weekend. I no longer have an unopened bottle from every year. Sad, but it was delicious.
-Mike
Bottled In Bond anyone? Just had a sip of two vastly different BIB bourbons - Mellow Corn and JTS Brown. Both superb for the price. I'm normally an Evan Williams White Label drinker but it's great trying different bottles.
I usually find BiB to be enjoyable. I don't buy it to buy it, but if a brand I like anyway offers it, I'll pick one up for doing taste comparisons with new bourbon drinkers.
-Mike
-Mike
The thing with BIB is that you're getting a guaranteed quality (and age) with the bourbon you are purchasing. I know a few distillers that can be a bit loose with their QC so I think that the market could really benefit from having more of these BIB whiskeys.
Indeed.
Or just require age statements on all bottles. When picking a new to me bourbon, I'm partial to the distillers who put an age statement on the bottle, regardless of the current requirements to do so.
-Mike
Oh yes, could not agree more.
Unfortunately, due to public demand and companies favouring profit over taste, the age statement is becoming rarer by the week. This is true for bourbon and scotch.
I have a Jim Beam 12 year Signature Craft that I don't want to open because there will be no more. I actually just finished a 10 year Evan Williams single barrel which was beyond nice.
Have Eagle Rare dropped their 10 year age statement yet?
A friend of mine is holding on to a bottle of Very Old Barton 90 proof for me when I travel to the States next month. He said the BIB 100 proof version is almost impossible to find nowadays. 
Yeah, bourbon picked up a lot of steam in popularity over the last decade. It kind of coincided with the surge in craft beer and also the big pick up in cigars. I attribute it to my generation not only being of age, but also now having decent jobs with some real disposable income. With the on-demand economy getting popular, I find that a lot of my peers (I turned 40 last year) are still chasing the experience of having to work to get something. Waiting on line outside of breweries or liquor stores for big releases...I'm not into sneakers, but that's a similar scene - with obscene secondary markets that go with it.
I've slowed down a lot over the past few years and stopped chasing the fall releases and mostly stopped drinking entirely. The whole bourbon scene is a bunch of elitist non-sense anyway. More than half of all bourbon comes from LDI and is just packaged and marketed to us with some sort of angle to tickle our fomo bone. The horrible regulation around bourbon also means that anyone can pretty much write anything on a label and get away with it, so it is really hard to know what you are actually getting anyway when you buy something small batch. There's still plenty of great stuff at reasonable prices though, but even regular weller stuff gets jacked up at even retail these days.
I've slowed down a lot over the past few years and stopped chasing the fall releases and mostly stopped drinking entirely. The whole bourbon scene is a bunch of elitist non-sense anyway. More than half of all bourbon comes from LDI and is just packaged and marketed to us with some sort of angle to tickle our fomo bone. The horrible regulation around bourbon also means that anyone can pretty much write anything on a label and get away with it, so it is really hard to know what you are actually getting anyway when you buy something small batch. There's still plenty of great stuff at reasonable prices though, but even regular weller stuff gets jacked up at even retail these days.
Can anyone recommend a tasting room in downtown Louisville where you don't have to do a whiskey/distillery tour of any kind?
Oh my...Jack Daniels Single Barrel, Barrel Proof.
I finally got around to grabbing one and am very pleased. Just a bomb of flavor. And power...133 proof!
Delightful.
I finally got around to grabbing one and am very pleased. Just a bomb of flavor. And power...133 proof!
Delightful.
What a merry photo. I want to come down your chimney on Christmas Eve. I'll bring my own Glencairn glass.
My good friend has already landed the BTAC collection within the last two weeks (except the Sazerac), an Old Rip and a Van Winkle. With a little luck we might be able to wrangle up a Pappy or two. Then come New Years, it’s time to sample them all!
Latest posts
-
-
-
-
-
Questions about added costs on selling used goods to Canada- Latest: beaglesandbass