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Is there a time of year more "interesting" bourbons tend go get released? I'm not hunting for any of the rare/allocated stuff, but it seems like all the liquor stores around here have *nothing* but the most common bourbons lately when they usually have a sprinkling of some weird stuff here and there.
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Oct 26, 2021 14:59
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GD_American posted:I forgot to mention that at the last event I went to, there was a 43 year Canadian Club. Maybe used barrels plus cold climate means it's not that bad? 
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Oct 29, 2021 03:43
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Got a Knob Creek single barrel select rye store pick, it's 6 years old, 115 proof and is pretty great!GD_American posted:Reviews seem pretty complimentary, but it's still 350 bucks for a bottle of Canadian Club. Yeah, I'd never, ever buy that lol
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Oct 29, 2021 13:30
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Nimmy posted:Wild Turkey 101 Rye is pretty good, I just picked up a bottle along with a store pick Russell's. I'm dangerously close to becoming a full on Wild Turkey fanboy. Wild Turkey is one of those things where either the particular "funk" in their whiskeys agrees with you, in which case you just just keep buying different Wild Turkey products forever, or it just tastes like charred moldy raisins or something and will never agree with you. I think it's like cilantro where to a certain % of people it tastes like soap and everyone else thinks it's fine. spankmeister posted:What do you guys use your bad or mediocre whisk(e)y for? You know, the ones you were gifted, or you got as part of a deal but aren't happy with, or just didn't live up to expectations and are now just sitting on your shelf collecting dust. Lemon flavored soda water (like LaCroix or whatever), ice and mediocre whiskey often tastes surprisingly good mixed together.
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Oct 30, 2021 16:23
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Man this is some cursed poo poo. Makes me feel less bad about my irrational enthusiasm for Knob Creek 9 year I guess? E: some snipe lol
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Dec 13, 2021 14:01
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spankmeister posted:No bourbon is worth a penny ober $60 change my mind OF1920 seems to be $65 around here instead of $60?
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Jan 12, 2022 21:35
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As long as KC9 is uncool forever I'll be OK.
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Jan 14, 2022 23:08
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Professor Shark posted:You guys seem to like Wild Turkey and I’m intrigued. We have 81 and 101 available in my province, are either of those good? 101 is widely seen as a bang for the buck king in the US, but it has a kind of funky note that people either a) don't pick up on at all, b) love or c) hate.
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Jan 20, 2022 15:44
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spankmeister posted:The 81 I'd leave on the shelf, the 101 is good and the Rare Breed is great. IIRC the old WT80 was younger/shittier than 101 in addition to being lower proof, while the 81 that replaced it is literally 101 + H2O. I think the price difference is pretty much proportional to the proof difference lol
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Jan 20, 2022 20:20
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Professor Shark posted:There is also Buffalo Trace for a couple bucks more. Which would be better as an intro to bourbon? BT availability is incredibly hit or miss, but if you can get it for a couple bucks more than 101 I'd go with BT
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Jan 21, 2022 12:26
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WT101 has a lot of fans but it's more of a love it or hate it product IMO. It's also a bit hot for a bourbon newbie.
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Jan 21, 2022 15:43
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Pikesville rules, I got a KC rye barrel pick just over 6 years old that's pretty good too but Pikesville is still my rye king.
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Jan 24, 2022 23:05
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Professor Shark posted:The place I went to had sold out of Buffalo Trace and based on what I like the guy said WT101 might be a bit out of my league. They didn’t have any in, but he said Knob Creek is a pretty good starting point. They had the rye version, but I think I want to try the original before going to the flankers. FWIW I like the standard Knob Creek 9 year bourbon better than either BT or WT101. It's usually easy to get too.
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Jan 27, 2022 02:46
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My take is that MGP is generally making good poo poo, it's just that bottlers trying to pass it off as SUPER PREMIUM HEIRLOOM CRAFT SMALL BATCH ARTISNAL  with distilled in Indiana hidden on the back are absolute fuckfaces.
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Jan 29, 2022 21:50
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I just got a bottle of Pikesville Rye at MSRP, and holy poo poo it's good  Have a bottle of 6 year old Knob Creek single barrel rye that I thought was good, but it tastes like battery acid compared to Pikesville even though they're almost the same age and proof.
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Jan 31, 2022 19:48
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OK, let's go more in depth here and have a 3-way  rye-offPikesville (110 proof, at least 6 years old, $50) - This is basically my straight rye benchmark now. Great balance of sweet, fruity and spicy, drinks nowhere near as hot as 110 proof suggests, I'm a fussy baby and can't pick out any flaws in it. I always want to have some of this stuff on hand now. Rittenhouse Bottled in Bond (100 proof, 4 years old, $25) - Like Pikesville it's distilled by Heaven Hill, and both have the same mashbill, so on paper Rittenhouse is just younger and a touch lower proof. In reality it tastes much, much worse. It has a weird solvent note and tastes kind of musty. Can seem a bit grassy? Fine for mixing but doesn't cut it neat. It's half the price and is half as good as Pikesville, so that's fair I guess? Knob Creek Single Barrel Rye (115 proof, just over 6 years, $45) - On paper it's a Pikesville competitor, but in reality it's not. It doesn't have the weird off notes of Rittenhouse but it drinks hot as BALLS for only having 5 more proof and the BLACK PEPPER JESUS WEPT just overwhelms everything. Here's the experience 1) *sniff* that's nice, 2) *sip* kind of sweet OH poo poo BLACK PEPPER 3) finish is fine? It's a single barrel so God knows what a different barrel might taste like
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Feb 1, 2022 20:39
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Josh Lyman posted:I picked up a new EWSB to be my daily drinker. This one was aged for a month under 8 years. It's fine but at this point in my whiskey journey it just tastes flat, like water. I'm guess Rare Breed will be my daily drinker. I mean yeah, it's going to seem watery compared to Rare Breed, because...it has substantially more water in it. 
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Feb 5, 2022 12:18
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Just tried Blanton's and... it's fine? It seems more like it lacks negative flavors than has any amazing good ones. I hate to be That Guy but I don't get the hype.
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Feb 10, 2022 00:29
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Got my taste of Blanton's from a half empty bottle at a bar FWIW. Stagg Jr first taste! It's definitely better than Blanton's. It has a very faint note that I don't care for, but it at least tastes like something. Pretty hot but didn't blow my head off like I thought it might. A little water really helps. Is there some kind of cherry/black liquorice thing going on here?
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Feb 10, 2022 23:09
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Professor Shark posted:I picked up a bottle of Knob Creek (Store Clearance, saved $7CAD) and it tastes pretty good. Not blown away by it, but I found it very similar to some Scotches I've had. I always got the impression that the old Kentucky master distiller guys tend to be pretty chill with each other.
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Feb 13, 2022 04:30
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Carillon posted:I tend to like the knob creek 9 a fair bit as a daily driver. I'm not sure how it compares to the regular bottle, but the 9 is good. Pretty sure KC 9 year is the regular one now. It replaced the generic KC small batch a few years ago.
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Feb 13, 2022 12:46
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spankmeister posted:I like how Dickel puts Dickel on the label like it's a good thing.
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Feb 17, 2022 12:47
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What do people think of Makers Mark 46 vs the regular version? 46 isn't the best thing I ever had but I liked it a lot better than the generic version.
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Feb 24, 2022 13:20
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Data Graham posted:I'm in the Nashville airport. Any of these particularly worth getting? No
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Mar 25, 2022 17:06
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For me ice amplifies the bad flavors in whiskey. If it's too hot I add a little water. It's not a macho thing, just a figuring out what suits your personal tastes thing. But I also think WT101 has a gross weird burnt sour funk that ruins it, so my taste buds might just be weird.
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May 4, 2022 14:46
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A local place had Larceny barrel picks that were 8 years old for like $25+tax, seemed like a deal so I grabbed one. I like it but it's a completely different flavor profile than I'm used to, like the nose/taste have a noticeable apple note and then there's a kind of prickly spiciness at the end.
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Aug 5, 2022 11:52
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Maybe I just got a bad botte, but I bought some Woodford Reserve orange bitters a while back and they were nasty.
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Aug 31, 2022 21:37
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I just got a bottle of New Riff 6 year malted rye, and I like it... but my brain can't figure out wtf I'm tasting specifically. Like I'm not great at elaborate tasting notes anyway, but this is throwing me hard. Uh...powdered sugar, dried orange, herbal tea? I just made that poo poo up, I really can't parse this because it's way different from every other rye I've had.
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Oct 13, 2022 01:34
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Infinite Karma posted:Four Roses Single Barrel/Barrel Proof private picks are usually pretty stellar, same with the Elijah Craig SBBP. Those are the ones that stand out to me too FWIW
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Oct 13, 2022 22:01
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Bouillon Rube posted:This for sure I like Diplomatico Riserva Exclusiva.
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Oct 15, 2022 22:13
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Lily Catts posted:What's rye whisky like? Anything notably different? It's got a kind of spicy taste compared to bourbon.
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Dec 12, 2022 13:27
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Bottled in Bond is kind of archaic now, but it basically invented modern good American whiskey as a real thing you could consistently buy and know what you were getting every time. Before that American whiskey could literally be any kind of gross dumb poo poo and be legal. I guess it's interesting to require all the barrels mixed for the bottling to be from the same season, but it's not innately "better" than any other 100 proof straight whiskey with the same minimum age. I believe it also has some tax advantages for the distillery. sean10mm fucked around with this message at 21:02 on Dec 15, 2022 |
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Dec 15, 2022 20:59
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Ogmius815 posted:I can confirm that Wild Turkey 101 is indeed a good whiskey for people who like rye. More of a “classic bourbon” taste than something like Bulleit. There are so many cheap whiskeys that are just crap, but this one is pretty good. My only real complaint, given the $20 price point, is that, like a lot of whiskey above about 90 proof, it has a kind of weird viscosity and stickiness to it that I don’t care for when taken neat. Probably enjoy this one on the rocks. I almost like WT101, but It just has this weird burnt musty note I can't put my finger on that ruins it for me.
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Dec 17, 2022 20:46
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Piss Creep posted:Is the standard version Buffalo Trace any good? I mean if you like it who cares? But yeah, it's generally seen as a very good affordable bourbon whose only real problem is that it's hard to get or heavily marked up in some areas of the country (while being in gas stations for $20 in others.)
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Jan 20, 2023 12:35
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Data Graham posted:The thing is after a long time trying I'm still very unclear on what makes a whiskey "good" or "bad". I can tell them apart with practice, but as far as making a quality judgment I don't know what the criteria should be. Not trying to be an rear end, but the quality judgment is literally "do you, personally, like the taste or not?" It's INSANELY subjective and "expert" reviewers regularly disagree all over the price spectrum. Other than complying with quality laws there's virtually nothing objective about it. The only truly bad whiskey is either bottom shelf cheap garbage (and some cheap whiskey is still OK!) or deceptively labeled/marketed/massively overpriced. Hell, even then you have whiskey simps saying Sweetens Cove made from rejected Dickel barrels that smelled like expired beef jerky and sold for triple the price of Dickel is actually good (to use a hilariously exaggerated example.)
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Jan 20, 2023 12:47
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adnam posted:Maybe it's time for us to start Hyper-Decanting our whiskeys a la The Menu New Riff Backsetter?
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Jan 20, 2023 23:00
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stratego posted:Don't get the Willet 8 unless you're planning to flip it. (Don't) Yeah my instinct was that the Willet 8 was the weakest option. Of course it's all subjective.
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Jan 21, 2023 03:31
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Maybe a dumb question, but what is the point of Baker's 7 when Knob Creek single barrels from the same distillery are older and higher proof? Are the Baker's supposed to be "nicer" cherry-picked barrels or something, or is it just a worse product?
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Feb 2, 2023 03:34
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Was surprised to see a bottle of Sazerac Rye for $29.99 instead of an empty space labeled $50+ and bought it. It's nice! Has a fruit note (cherry?) along with the usual vanilla + rye spice.
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Feb 21, 2023 04:56
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 21:11 |
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Casu Marzu posted:I feel like it's hard to find actual rot gut on the bottom shelf anymore. Pretty much everything I've had was fine, if a little sweet or boring. Yeah, most cheap straight bourbon from the big guys is at least drinkable. Gimmicks are where the real bottled piss is at.
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Feb 23, 2023 20:09
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