Rant/Rave: Bourbon

[jim]

And we love you anyway Michael.

[33anda3rd]

Fun fact about rye: Basically all of it comes from the same place in Indiana. The same is true for most "small batch" bourbons as well.

This info has been making the rounds on the internet every once in a while the last few years. Many whiskeys are all the same base distillate. Bulleit and Templeton are advertising/marketing machines and nothing more. The whole thing w/ Templeton being real Prohibition whiskey or whatever is just a line. Redemption is the same stuff, it's just a tall thin sexy-looking bottle. At $32+/750mL for these you're getting hosed, paying for marketing and not what's in the bottle. This is why Buffalo Trace is at a shortage and 100,000 bbl behind demand while Templeton and Bulleit are in endless supply--savvy drinkers know that Stagg does Buffalo all in-house (the same house that distills Pappy) and the product is unique.

This guy keeps a good running list of who's doing what, who's new, who's distilling their own and who's not. Go down to Midwest Grain Products in Indiana, and you'll see the list of all the whiskeys that come from the same distillate. If that matters to you. There's a lot to be said for it in the positive, especially from an achievement-of-consistency perspective, though I think the negative outweighs the positive: yeah, it's consistent, but how is it special/different from other whiskeys? If the grain bill is the same and all we are dealing with is people putting stuff in barrels--without much variety to the barrels, really--then the difference in all those is....labels? That's a big price to pay for consistency, and it's probably keeping some "distilleries" in business who are really good at marketing but not good enough to distill their own booze. That's backwards.

I really love Journeyman Distillery in Michigan. Their product line is across-the-board great, and their Fetherbone Bourbon is no exception. They make small-batch whiskey by hand, producing about 10-12 gallons/day. It goes $45-50/750mL, so it's not cheap, but compared to a $35 Templeton or Bulleit I think it's worth the extra 10-15 bucks. For you Chicago guys, it's about a 1h15m drive from the city to their distillery/tasting room, and well worth the trip, not only is the booze delicious the distillery and tasting room are beautiful, up there just off the east side of the lake.

[Jocephus]

[33anda3rd]

I use these:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CFL ... UTF8&psc=1
and these:
http://www.amazon.com/Tovolo-Sphere-Ice ... +ice+cubes

Another fun way to do it if you want the joy of hand-cutting it is:
Igloo six-pack cooler
Mallet
Meat cleaver
Clean hand saw

Fill the cooler with water. Put it in the freezer with the lid open. The lid open thing is clutch. The air will run from where the water is freezing at the top of the cooler and settle to the bottom. When you're done you can chip off the little bit of haze at the bottom and the rest will be perfectly clear. (You will have haze with the silicon trays, there is no insulation on the sides so the ice is freezing from all directions.)

After 2 days take the cooler out, sit in on a counter to temper so you can slide the block out. Slide the block out on to a clean towel. Cut 2.5in wide lines across the top top-to-bottom, then left-to-right. Put the cleaver on the scores and lightly tap it with the mallet. It will pop right off, separating itself cleanly into a nice neat row about 95% of the time. Take that row, score it at 2in per side, and repeat, tapping off individual cubes, so you end up w/ 2X2X2.5 cubes perfect for an old fashioned glass.

[thrill]

I use these:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CFL ... UTF8&psc=1
and these:
http://www.amazon.com/Tovolo-Sphere-Ice ... +ice+cubes

Another fun way to do it if you want the joy of hand-cutting it is:
Igloo six-pack cooler
Mallet
Meat cleaver
Clean hand saw

Fill the cooler with water. Put it in the freezer with the lid open. The lid open thing is clutch. The air will run from where the water is freezing at the top of the cooler and settle to the bottom. When you're done you can chip off the little bit of haze at the bottom and the rest will be perfectly clear. (You will have haze with the silicon trays, there is no insulation on the sides so the ice is freezing from all directions.)

After 2 days take the cooler out, sit in on a counter to temper so you can slide the block out. Slide the block out on to a clean towel. Cut 2.5in wide lines across the top top-to-bottom, then left-to-right. Put the cleaver on the scores and lightly tap it with the mallet. It will pop right off, separating itself cleanly into a nice neat row about 95% of the time. Take that row, score it at 2in per side, and repeat, tapping off individual cubes, so you end up w/ 2X2X2.5 cubes perfect for an old fashioned glass.

This kind of unnecessary attention to obsessive detail to make something I like just a little bit better is so right up my alley. I guarantee I will be doing this tomorrow.

[jim]

I use these:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CFL ... UTF8&psc=1
and these:
http://www.amazon.com/Tovolo-Sphere-Ice ... +ice+cubes

Another fun way to do it if you want the joy of hand-cutting it is:
Igloo six-pack cooler
Mallet
Meat cleaver
Clean hand saw

Fill the cooler with water. Put it in the freezer with the lid open. The lid open thing is clutch. The air will run from where the water is freezing at the top of the cooler and settle to the bottom. When you're done you can chip off the little bit of haze at the bottom and the rest will be perfectly clear. (You will have haze with the silicon trays, there is no insulation on the sides so the ice is freezing from all directions.)

After 2 days take the cooler out, sit in on a counter to temper so you can slide the block out. Slide the block out on to a clean towel. Cut 2.5in wide lines across the top top-to-bottom, then left-to-right. Put the cleaver on the scores and lightly tap it with the mallet. It will pop right off, separating itself cleanly into a nice neat row about 95% of the time. Take that row, score it at 2in per side, and repeat, tapping off individual cubes, so you end up w/ 2X2X2.5 cubes perfect for an old fashioned glass.

This kind of unnecessary attention to obsessive detail to make something I like just a little bit better is so right up my alley. I guarantee I will be doing this tomorrow.

I'm too lazy to even finish reading the words he wrote, let alone actually put them into action.

[Jocephus]

same

[jim]

I saw "Meat cleaver" and "Clean hand saw" and then scanned for a few more words to see what the hell this was all about, and then realized he was actually serious about something and wasn't planning on killing something so I stopped.

[Fat_Bulldog]

Same here.

Makes me wonder what his morning routine involves.

[Popeye_Card]

I drink Pendleton with a regular [expletive] ice cube.