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Any particular recommendations for rye whiskey? I've had Jim Beam, Wild Turkey, and Old Overholt, but the larger liquor stores around here are getting a wider variety these days and I'm not sure what to try out. Especially since so much tends to be in the premium price range.
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Oct 9, 2011 05:52
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A lot of blindness and other illness/death from bootleg liquor over the years has also been industrial product being mixed in or the like too. Also I suspect that if you're running a commercial moonshine operation you're going to produce a lot more heads in the distilling process, and you're more likely not going to throw out the bad if you think you can sell it to some broke and desperate drunk without repercussion compared to a home distiller looking to make some good stuff. Past that, a moonshining operation selling unaged liquor might just bottle as it comes out, whereas if you're trying to make drinkable stuff yourself even if you keep some bad parts it's going to mix and dilute in the barrel to just make your hangovers worse. So even if you actually do end up with some excessive amount of methanol in your batch, there are a lot of other differences from larger scale moonshining that make you less likely to hurt yourself.
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Oct 12, 2011 07:17
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uncle spero posted:Anyone else tried this stuff? Seen the stuff, I haven't tried it though. I'll have to look it up next time I'm looking to buy something premium. I didn't realize you could have a 100% corn bourbon either, I thought it needed to have more than half but under 80%. Looks like I was mistaken though. Finally got around to trying that Bulleit Rye too, and that is pretty great stuff at the price. Thanks to all who mentioned that one.
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Nov 18, 2011 12:03
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pork never goes bad posted:I know a lot of people on whisky forums or in the mags talk about it as if it's relatively normal, but I haven't seen anybody own up to doing it themselves. The transferring to smaller bottles is much more common. Even if I saw need to do this, I'd be fretting at not being able to tell how much whiskey is in the bottle by looking at it.
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Nov 19, 2011 03:30
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kidsafe posted:Alberta Premium being one of the exceptions, though even that doesn't have the same edge as American ryes for whatever reason. I haven't tried that one yet, but it might not do the new barrel aging like American ryes and bourbons do. The wood characteristics are a pretty major part of what makes American whiskeys, as I understand it.
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Dec 10, 2011 00:15
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muscat_gummy posted:So my boyfriend suggested that I buy him some good whiskey for Christmas, specifically bourbon. Any recommendations? I'm looking to stay in the $40 - $60 range. I don't usually spend more than $20/750ml, so I'd really like to find something that's at least a good deal. Scotch is really different from bourbon, so you can't substitute. Check out the "Boutique Bourbon" section on that site, it has more of the more expensive specialty varieties. Note that section also has the rye in it, which isn't the same as bourbon either. Out of what I know in the price range, Wild Turkey Kentucky Spirit is good stuff and it's at a decent price there for what I've seen. It also comes in a sort of "decorative" bottle, which I consider a plus for a gift whiskey.
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Dec 11, 2011 20:56
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RHIN0002 posted:I've never had any type of scotch. That being said, I went to a local package store this evening and looked around until I found a reasonably priced bottle to try out. I settled on a bottle of Ballantine's Finest. It was ~$15 and I figured that it would be a decent introductory blend. I got home an hour or so ago and poured a bit for myself and when I tasted it, I almost spit it back out. I'm not really sure how to even describe the taste, except that it's got sort of a chemical kind of aftertaste, if that makes any sense. Now my question is this: Is this the typical aftertaste for scotches, or is something wrong with this bottle? I haven't tried that one, but scotch in my experience is one of those liquors where the "drinkable" price range is higher than most, so something harsh and chemically smoky sounds about right. It's not like vodka or rum where you can spend $15 and get something palatable, you're looking more twice that to start. The first I ever really enjoyed was Johnnie Walker Black, say. What I'd suggest if you want to experiment a little with scotch without major investment is the little single serve bottles, assuming they're available in your area.
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Dec 17, 2011 06:24
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For Christmas my mother got my father a bottle of Booker's bourbon, and I got him a bottle of High West Rendezvous Rye. The rye was interesting, strong flavor and kinda smoky tasting for an American whiskey. As for the Booker's, I haven't had too much of barrel proof bourbons before, just the rather milder Wild Turkey Rare Breed, so it was a very different sort of thing. I might need to get that some time. Also when I was at the big liquor store picking it up I saw a few wheat whiskeys. Is that a new thing? What sort of character do those have relative to corn or rye?
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Dec 29, 2011 23:03
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wormil posted:I'm curious as to your take on it. I bought a bottle awhile back and it tasted like dust and not much else. Based on other reviews I must have had a bad bottle. I just tried a little taste more of it. This bottle was pretty heavy on oak and vanilla, though that got a little clearer with a bit of water added: at 128 proof I think it's strong enough that the alcohol burn overwhelms a lot of the flavor. On the one hand, it's a pity saying you need to water down a whiskey that expensive, but on the other hand, if you cut it to 80 proof the price per shot would be more like a $30 bottle than a $50 one so I guess it all evens out.
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Dec 30, 2011 05:18
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Fireball cinnamon whisky and Bulleit Rye, both out of these novelty candy cane shot glasses my sister-in-law got. Hey, not the best NYE drinks I've had, but did the trick.
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Jan 1, 2012 23:24
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DoctaFun posted:Also, I was just thinking of how hard it would be to start a new distillery to make and sell scotch. I mean aren't you looking at 10-12 years before you can even sell product? That's a long time and a lot of operating cost you have to eat before you can make any money. Very true, though there are ways around it. I was looking at High West Distillery when I bought some of theirs. They were established just a few years ago, so they so far just sell vodka that doesn't have to be aged, unaged whiskeys, and rye they bought from other distilleries to blend and bottle themselves while they're working on their own aged products. I don't think there's unaged whisky made in Scotland like there are in the US and Ireland, but you could still make vodka and other unaged spirits for some income while sitting on the barrels.
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Jan 3, 2012 23:45
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To be a little more detailed on Canadian whisky, the thing is that it's not really terribly defined. They're usually mostly corn based, but there's no requirement for them to be. They often are called "rye" but don't actually have to have rye either. They need to be barrel-aged, but it doesn't need to be any particular type of barrels so may or may not add flavor. It can be distilled, as Kenning says, to nearly pure alcohol before that aging, which reduces the grain character. So really it's totally up to what the distiller wants to make, as long as it's made in Canada. Crown Royal isn't a bad one but isn't amazing, there are doubtless better brands I'm not familiar with, but at the lower end you're basically getting brown vodka that at best is mixing material. This contrasts strongly with bourbon and American rye, which as noted has requirements giving strong character from the grain and the barrel. Which doesn't mean a given bourbon is necessarily better, just it has more defined characteristics implied by the label.
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Jan 13, 2012 01:51
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bunnielab posted:Hello whiskey thread. Rendezvous Rye is all I've had on theirs, but it's pretty good stuff. As I understand they've only got a couple of older rye blends and then some unaged whiskeys and vodkas though.
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Jan 16, 2012 22:19
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Best thing about high proof whiskeys is that a little water and you have exactly what the 80 proof version would be anyway.
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Jan 24, 2012 08:36
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Hey, if we're going to be talking about what to put in your whiskey, who knows boilermakers? Specifically, had them now and then before but I'm specifically thinking that matching the right style of whiskey with the right style of beer could make for some very different effects. I guess scotch and scotch ale are an obvious one, I need to try that.
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Jan 25, 2012 12:14
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Kenning posted:All things equal, higher proof is usually better. It's certainly better when using it for mixing, since it gets less dilute, and since lower proof just means more water was added prior to bottling there's more flavor in higher proof whiskey. I've had whiskey that was too strong to really get much flavor outside of the alcohol burn before, but all the same you can always dilute that down to taste, while you can't just go the other way. Barring unreasonable prices, I'll always buy a higher proof version of the same product over a lower proof for that reason.
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Feb 3, 2012 02:10
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I just picked up some Redbreast 12, since I haven't had it in years, and I'd forgotten how good it was, and definitely distinct from other styles. I never really thought I'd describe a whiskey as "oily" and mean it in a good way. While at the liquor store I also saw a couple new things in the novelty section: Balcones Baby Blue Corn Whiskey, and High West Silver Oat Whiskey. Anyone familiar with those? I'm happy to try experimental or unaged stuff, but they're expensive enough that I don't want to drop the cash just on the idea.
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Mar 13, 2012 01:01
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attila posted:From an article about Boston area distilling in the The Improper Bostonian. Given that many of the unaged whiskeys I've been seeing appear recently are priced similarly to aged ones, I've got to imagine the margin is pretty good. I more wonder why you would want to buy one as more than a novelty, especially at those prices.
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May 26, 2012 22:37
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I don't mind JD myself, but I can't really imagine buying it again when there are bourbons I like which cost less. My relative bottom shelf American whiskey of choice is Evan Williams.
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Jul 29, 2012 05:07
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NightConqueror posted:EDIT: There's also the annoying trend among bourbon distillers to sell unaged corn whiskey at full price. This one really bugs me. I'd like to try some unaged corn/rye/wheat whiskeys with them available, but I don't want to pay $50 a bottle when I can get a good aged whiskey at that price point. It's certainly cheaper for them to make, they can pass it on.
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Sep 5, 2012 18:57
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MrOnBicycle posted:I know. It kinda sucks, but I have to comfort myself that the $75/L of 100% ethanol tax (excluding additional 25% VAT) goes to pay for good stuff.... I was going to say I'd had that and enjoyed it, but I had High West Rendezvous Rye instead, which isn't actually the same. But from what I tell they're making some pretty good blends while waiting for their own stock to age up properly. I just can't be bothered to pay what they want for unaged whiskey. Rye's more easily compared to bourbon than malt whiskey, just since the process is overall the same other than the base grain mixture. Like a bourbon you've got the aging in new charred oak so there's the caramel and vanilla from the wood, but rye is drier and spicier compared to the sweeter corn that dominates in bourbon.
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Oct 7, 2012 10:54
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NightConqueror posted:It boggles my mind why they want to dump Green Label. I'll definitely agree with you that its probably their best (I haven't tried Blue) and the price is reasonable enough to make it buy. I'm guessing the upward trend on single malts is making them want to stop doing all-malt vattings. Blue isn't bad, it's just bad at its price point. In particular, it's not better than Green which is a fraction of the price. But I think that's probably it too. It's still at a price point where most people shopping today will go right to the single malt rack without looking its way.
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Oct 15, 2012 22:57
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why oh WHY posted:My budget is pretty flexible in this department because I enjoy actually drinking good alcohol not chugging good alcohol but for a more solid number I'm thinking my max is about 150. If I want to get drunk I go and buy a cheap bottle of vodka and down half of it in one sitting, so yeah price isn't something I worry too much about. Hey, even when you want to get drunk, go good and cheap, which is totally possible with bourbon. Evan Williams is enjoyable stuff at a bottom shelf price, and it's not alone. Though to add on a more premium bourbon I liked, Booker's is pretty great. Though since it's a small batch and cask strength, the exact quality can vary and if you don't add some water it will mostly taste like fire.
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Oct 23, 2012 22:26
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$50 is what I've generally seen a 750 of Green go for in NY. It's not better than the comparably priced single malts driving it out of the market, but it's good at its price point and I'll be sad to see it go. Related, last night I finished the bottle of Blue I got at duty-free prices ages ago. Not buying that one again unless they cut the price in half or something. Though it does make me curious, if I ever get it in my mind to spend $150 on a bottle of whiskey again, any suggestions?
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Nov 7, 2012 21:58
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I just had a neat discovery. Staying at my grandmother's for the new year, where my brother lives too now to help her out, and was talking with my sister in law about what we need to get for a New Year's Eve get together. I decided to check the high cabinet where my grandfather used to keep the liquor. Found an open bottle of wine which had been there for maybe 20 years and got immediately dumped, half bottles of cognac(cork sealed) and amaretto(capped) which I guess won't be noxious but probably aren't much good, and then three unopened boxed bottles of Old Granddad he probably got as gifts when he was in local political office during the 1980s. Not like it ages any in the bottle, of course, but guess we don't need bourbon this year.
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Dec 30, 2012 20:20
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Are there any unaged whiskeys that aren't $50 or so? Other than Georgia Moon I guess. It's really too bad since I'd love to try some if they weren't priced the same as good stuff.
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Mar 18, 2013 06:32
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Kenning posted:I've started a rum thread for you and everyone else who was interested. Just waiting on bart or Happy Abobo to change the tag Also glad for this. I like rum, but most of what I've really ever known about it is that it's maybe the only major segment ahead of bourbon for getting flavorful and very drinkable liquor for rather little money, and where bourbon prices are trending that's only going to get more true. Fortunately, while still losing weight I drink a lot less often too, so there's that. Speaking of bourbon that isn't cheap, I finally got around to picking up a bottle of Booker's, which I'd sampled before, and while tasting mostly of fire as is, it really comes out more with a bit of extra water added. Also picked up a bottle of Redemption Rye, which I think I like nicely for the price, especially with how Bulleit has gone up around here.
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May 31, 2013 03:47
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. Oh, and for the record I've heard that Pyrat is actually fairly decent, but nothing outrageous.
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I was at a beer festival here in Rochester, and there was the head of a new distillery in town passing out cards. Black Button Distillery, local grains. Immediately (rather, as of October) they'll be selling unaged gin and moonshine, but longer term plans involve wheated bourbon, an American malt whiskey, and maybe rye. Of course, who knows if it will be any good, but it's cool to see a local distillery get started.
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Jun 16, 2013 04:56
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Politicalrancor posted:See if you can get Hudson for cheaper than they gouge you for the 375 ml they charge out of state. Sadly, Hudson is just as expensive in state. I'd try it at its price for 750ml, but 375 I still haven't tried. The guy running the new place said he's aiming for more reasonable prices, but we'll see how it works out.
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Jun 17, 2013 20:49
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