Coopers' Craft Bourbon

I state in my Statement of Ethics that if I accept a review sample, I will disclose it at the beginning of the article. Please consider it disclosed. I’d like to thank Green Olive Media for providing this sample to me with no strings attached. 

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen that this past weekend I bought a barrel. It's for a series of projects that I'm currently working on behind the scenes. The thought of purchasing a barrel is one that I think a lot of whiskey fans at least consider at one point or another. For me, it's because I want to use the wood. As such, after I got it home, I immediately took it apart. 

Taking the barrel apart gave me an appreciation for the people that put the things together. The barrel heads are pretty heavy. The staves are pretty heavy. And you need to balance things, so the whole mess doesn't fall over. Holding the pieces in my hands was much more informative to the process than watching the demonstrations at a cooperage. It's really pretty cool. 

It was one of those weird coincidences that life sometimes throws at you when I noticed that this week's first post was about a bourbon that is dedicated to those people that make barrels for a living. Coopers' Craft is a bourbon released by Brown-Forman. As they are the only Kentucky Bourbon maker that also owns it's own cooperage, it is fitting that they exploit that for marketing purposes. But don't think that this is just Old Forester in a different bottle. According to news reports when the product was released, this has a slightly different mash bill than Old Forester. More corn, less rye. 

Does that make for a better bourbon than Old Forester, though? Let's find out.

Coopers' Craft Bourbon

Purchase info: This review sample was supplied by Green Olive Media. Suggested retail price is $29 for a 750 mL. (I did purchase two 50 mL bottles at the Party Source in Bellevue, KY for $0.99 each.)

Details: 41.1% ABV

Nose: Wintergreen candies, honey, vanilla pudding and oak.

Mouth: Vanilla Pudding, baked apple, baking spices and oak.

Finish: Short finish with vanilla, grapefruit peel, baked apple and oak. 

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Thoughts: This is an ok bourbon when taken neat. It's nothing to write home about, honestly. It's good for playing cards or chatting with friends, but nothing for deep contemplation. Think something on the level of Evan Williams black, except with more oak and less grain. So fine, but not great neat. But here's the thing, this really shines in an Old Fashioned. I made mine with Angostura Bitters and the smoky simple syrup made from the Smoked Sugar from BourbonBarrel Foods. The wintergreen from the nose really shows up in the mouth as well. It's sweet but interesting. 

I'd say this is a very nice mixer that'll work neat in a pinch.


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Belle Meade Bourbon, Madeira Cask Finish

I state in my Statement of Ethics that if I accept a review sample, I will disclose it at the beginning of the article. Please consider it disclosed. I’d like to thank simoneink for providing this sample to me with no strings attached. 

Every time I post a review of a cask-finished bourbon there is one reaction I can be sure to get from at least a portion of the audience: 

"Ugh, flavored whiskey." 

And they have a point, to an extent. Bourbon is put into a second barrel to pick up some of the flavors of that cask. When the cask previously held another spirit (or wine or beer), those are the flavors you are trying to get. Is this bad? Not in my estimation, but then I tend to like cask-finished bourbons and ryes. I even like the occasional infused bourbon. I get that not everyone does but to each their own. I'm not here to judge what a person likes. I'm only here to judge a bourbon. 

In this case, the bourbon in question is Belle Meade Bourbon finished in used Madeira barrels. It is a limited edition release from the folks at Nelson's Green Briar Distillery in Nashville, Tennessee. Belle Meade Bourbon is the brand name that they use for the sourced bourbon that they sell while they work on making their distilled-in-house whiskeys. Sku tells us they source from MGP in Indiana. 

At this point, I'm sure you know what bourbon is. (If not, shoot me an email. I'll personally bring you up to speed.) You might be asking yourself what Madeira is, though. I know I was. The only thing I knew about it was that it is a type of wine and it was a favorite of George Washington and other Founding Fathers. And since it is the finish that is the difference in this one, I thought it might be worthwhile to take a minute to discover just what Madeira is. 

Madeira is a Portuguese fortified wine (a wine, like sherry or port, where the wine has had spirits added to it) produced on the Madeira Islands which lie off the coast of Morroco. Initially, the islands' winemakers added grape spirits to the barrel to help it survive the sea voyage to the intended destination. During the trip, the wine would be subject to subtropical heat which would give the wine a different flavor. And although it's no longer necessary to fortify the wine to allow it to survive a sea voyage, Madeira producers still add spirits to the wine. They even intentionally heat it to maintain the flavor profile that their predecessors accidentally developed centuries ago. (Here is a more in-depth link to learn more about Madeira.)

Belle Meade Bourbon, Madeira Cask Finish

Purchase Info: This review sample was supplied by simoneink. Suggested retail price is $74.99.

Details: 45.2% ABV. Bourbon finished in a Malmsey Madeira cask.

Nose: Sweet and delicately fruity with dried fruits, brown sugar, and oak. 

Mouth: Fruity and peppery in the mouth. Plums, black cherries, baking spices, maple, and cocoa. 

Finish: Warm and of decent length. The whiskey and the wine notes both hang around a while. 

Thoughts: On my first sip of this, I was struck by a distinct brandy flavor at the front of my mouth. As it moved back, the whiskey showed itself. It was kind of like a spirit mullet. After a few more sips, this experience settled down, and I was able to start to pick out individual notes. 

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Overall this is a nice spirit. I found it to be quite tasty. If it sold for $45-$50, it would be an easy one to recommend. As it stands, I doubt I would personally spend $75 on this one. But price/value is subjective so if you are looking for something tasty and different, and if $75 is easy for you to come by, then give this a shot. I will say that it was good enough that I would consider spending the $35 they ask for the regular release the next time I'm visiting a place where it is sold.


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Not Whiskey, But Tangential: A Selection From BourbonBarrel Foods.

I’ve lived most of my life in Minnesconsin. It’s my name for a region that encompasses a good sized portion of both Minnesota and Wisconsin. Having lived on both sides of the imaginary line that runs down the center of the St. Croix and Mississippi rivers, I know from experience that the culture of both is essentially the same. They both celebrate deer hunting in the Fall and fishing pretty much any time of year. They both call a casserole a “hotdish.” They both have a weird fondness for Jello with other foodstuffs inserted into it. And farming, both dairy and corn, is a major industry. I guess the major point of difference is whether the football teams you root for wear green and yellow and red and white or purple and yellow and maroon and gold.  

Historically, in both places, the food has been bland and tended to be either white or transparent. I don’t think it was until I started to travel to St. Paul as a teenager that I realized that food should have spices. The fanciest we got was to sprinkle a little garlic salt on the venison when Mom wasn’t looking. 

I think this might be why I like to cook so much. I love flavor. I love to see how various ingredients play and meld and sometimes create something new. It’s the reason I love bourbon too. It is seldom that you will describe a bourbon's flavor as delicate. 

It was with all this in mind that, while at the Kentucky Bourbon Festival, I stopped by the Bourbon Barrel Foods booth. I like bourbon, good things tend to come from barrels, and I like foods. I was curious to see what sort of concoctions came from a combination of the three. 

Initially, I grabbed a container of Bourbon Smoked Pepper and the Woodford Reserve Bourbon Smoked Chef’s Spice Blend. Both were wonderfully rich and smokey. I use the black pepper to season eggs for breakfast, and I love the Chef’s Spice Blend on every meat I cook on the grill. Hamburgers, chicken, steak, you name it, it works on all of them. It even tastes good on potatoes. Really some killer stuff.

I liked that Bourbon Smoked Chef’s Spice Blend so much that I soon used it up. Luckily they also sell on their website. So I popped another container of the spice blend in my cart and went looking at the rest of the items they offered. 

Woodford Reserve Bourbon Smoked Lemon Pepper
This uses the Bourbon Smoked Pepper, lemon peel, onion, garlic and various other spices. It’s tasty enough. I tried it on chicken and fish, but I suppose it would work on anything you might want lemon pepper flavored. 

Bourbon Smoked Sugar
Beautifully smoky on the nose and mouth. Once I purchased this, I had a hard time deciding how I was going to use this. I wouldn’t want that kind of smoke flavor on my morning oatmeal. And though it might taste good in a cookie, I didn’t buy it in a package big enough to use that way. Eventually, I came up with the perfect use for it, though. Simple syrup for an Old Fashioned. It adds just a hint of smoke and complexity to the drink. 

Bourbon Smoked Garlic Salt
I can see the salt crystals. I can see the dried garlic. I can certainly smell the garlic, but I don’t get any overt smoke on this one. That said it is still one of the better garlic salts I’ve used. Unfortunately, I use only a bare minimum of salt in my cooking, and I use garlic salt even less. Good thing I only sprung for the .75 ounce container. I have a feeling this one will stick around for a while.  

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These folks are creating some excellent stuff. I’m enjoying almost all of them and will certainly be looking for more. Thankfully it looks like some of their products are available in Minnesota. Apparently, I’m not the only Minnesconsin resident that has woken up to the fact that it is ok to have flavorful food.


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Blade and Bow Bourbon

I state in my Statement of Ethics that if I accept a review sample, I will disclose it at the beginning of the article. Please consider it disclosed. I’d like to thank Taylor Strategy for providing this sample to me with no strings attached. 

The first time I tried Blade and Bow, I was at the 2015 Kentucky Bourbon Festival All-Star Sampler. I tried it mostly to satisfy my curiosity. In hindsight, it was a pretty poor place to try it. I'd had one or two other bourbons, I'd had some delightful food, and I was probably giving it less attention than I normally would to a bourbon I had never tried before. 

I had a taste of it again this year when I visited the Bulleit Experience at Stitzel-Weller. It was after the tour, and it was going head-to-head with Bulleit Barrel Strength. Also not a fair comparison since the proof of a barrel strength bourbon will obliterate a 90-ish proof every time.

I didn't walk away with a great impression of the Blade and Bow from my two previous experiences with it, and so it was with no small amount of interest that I accepted an offer from a Diageo PR rep for a sample of the Blade and Bow. I was very curious to see what I would think of this bourbon when it wasn't trying to live up to unfair competition or circumstances. 

You know something a little more "real-life." Because seriously, I try not to have a lot of different bourbons in one night and I especially tend to be mindful of the barrel-proof ones.

Blade and Bow

Purchase Info: This was a review sample provided by Taylor Strategy. 

Details: 45.5% ABV

Nose: Caramel, peanut, green oak and a hint of mint

Mouth: Peppery on the mouth with honey, peanut, nutmeg, clove and oak.

Finish: Warm and of medium length. Lingering bubblegum, peanut, and mint.

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Thoughts: Even today, on my first sip, I wasn't impressed by this one. But, as I got lower in my glass, my opinion changed. It grew on me. I was regretting the tiny sample bottle they sent as I would have loved to have just one more splash.

I like this bourbon and if it were half the price, I would probably want to buy it as part of the regular rotation. At around $50 per bottle though? This is going to be a change of pace bourbon for me, at best. It's tasty enough, it's just not a bourbon I'd regularly be willing to drop half a Benjamin on.


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Willett-Distilled Bourbon: Old Bardstown Bottled in Bond

Tomorrow I’m heading back to northern Wisconsin to shoot my youngest brother’s wedding. Yep, among my many skills is the skill of photography. But I don’t normally take photos of people. I shoot landscapes, animals, etc. Things that are outside and surrounded by all sorts of natural light. So this will be fun. 

If by fun you mean learning as you go, flying by the seat of my pants and hoping no one notices that I only kinda know what I’m doing. All while trying not to screw up the only memento that my brother and his new wife will have of their happy day. And also while trying to explain that no, you can’t do night time shots during the day. That no, rain isn’t the end of the world. And that yes, trying to take all your wedding pictures in the rain as it is getting dark is probably asking for them to not turn out as well as they would have if you’d have done it before the ceremony, before it rained, except that you were too superstitious to let him see you.…

Shit. 

I don’t normally do this, but this might be one of those times that the flask comes with. If there is any chance at all that I end up with a Bridezilla on my hands, I want to be prepared. Especially since I’m going to be … well … faking it and trying not to scream for most of the day.

So what will be in that flask? Well there is a good chance that it will be the recently released Old Bardstown Bottled-in-Bond, Willett-distilled bourbon. It's 100 proof to help fortify the will. And it's inexpensive enough that I won’t feel too bad taking a snort from the flask. Plus I have a couple bottles of it so I won’t miss it too much.

Old Bardstown Bottled in Bond

Purchase Info: $22 for a 750 mL bottle at the Willett Distillery Gift Shop

Details: 50% ABV. NAS (but bottled in bond so at least four years old). Distilled at DSP-KY-78 (Willett).

Nose: Grassy, caramel, mint, spiced gum drops and oak.

Mouth: Sweet and spicy with caramel and vanilla backed by allspice, black pepper, mint and a grassy note.

Finish: Sweet and of medium length. Lingering allspice, mint and dried grass.

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Thoughts: Twenty. Two. Dollars. For. A. Craft. Distilled. Bourbon! And it’s good!

OK to be fair this is no world beater, but at $22 it doesn’t have to be. What it needs to be is solid, tasty and work well either neat or in a cocktail. This does that. It’s a nice addition to the ranks of tasty, inexpensive bottled-in-bond bourbons. If you visit Kentucky, make sure this is in your bag when you leave.


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A Visit to Glenn's Creek Distillery

If you read the last post, You've already seen what the outside of this small distillery looks like. Located in the old bottling and shipping building of the former Old Crow Distillery, Glenn's Creek Distillery is surrounded by history. Outside is the place to be inspired by what came before, but inside is the time to focus on what is yet to come.

Glenn's Creek Distillery is much smaller than the former occupant of the property. In this one shot you can see almost the entire production area. Off to the right is the aging area. Beyond that (in the Lowes wrapping) is the yeast growing and storage area. Grain storage is beyond that. On the right right of the photo you see fermenters with a cooker peaking up behind them. All the way to the back are their four stills. The only thing you don't see is the bottling area. Which is behind us.

Here it is. Four bottles at a time. And their initials underneath.

The aging portion of the distillery was interesting. On these racks are barrels of two kinds of Bourbon, Rye, and Rum. Two distilled on site and two sourced from MGP in Indiana, but aged on site. The racks themselves are made from reclaimed wood from the Old Crow warehouses outside. If they get big enough there is hope to use one of those to put their own barrels in one day.

This video is about Dane Stirring

They are small-time and hands on. In this case the agitation on the cooker comes from a person holding a drill with a long paddle on the end. The man stirring was our tour guide for the day. Dane is the Lead Distiller at Glenn's Creek.

This is Tiny Tim, the 12 gallon experimental still. It was the first still they had made and they survived using it as the only one for a while. Now it is kept around to run experimental batches.

This is Double D. Named so because it has two doublers, not for any other reason you might think of. It is a 34 gallon still.

This still is Rumsfeld. Rumsfeld is where the rum is distilled. It is a 600 gallon still. They currently run it at 450 gallons but this gives them some room to expand as needed. 

This is Dr. Crow. Named for the man who lent his name to the former occupants of the property, Dr. Crow is where the whiskey is made. The still was originally set up to be heated by a steam boiler, but that portion was too expensive to buy so they converted it to direct heat with the use of the burners from some heaters found around the old distillery.

And this is the current Glenn's Creek Distillery product line-up. From left to right, the Ryskey Rye and the Stave + Barrel bourbon are purchased from MGP and delivered in the barrel to be aged on site. Skipping one, Prohibition Kentucky Rum is the rum distilled in Rumsfeld and aged in barrels that formerly held bourbon.

OCD #5 is an interesting one. It is a bourbon fermented using yeast that was recovered from the sealed Old Crow fermenter number 5 (a photo of it is shown in the Old Crow post). The story goes that since the fermenters were mostly sealed, one day they had the idea to see if there was anything living in there. Yeast can survive a long time in spore form, but 20-30 years is a bit past it's best by date. Most of the fermenters didn't do anything and the mash was spoiled. All but fermenter #5. That one was happily fermenting away when they checked on it. So they pulled it out in buckets, grew it up some and used it to create OCD #5. Did they really catch a yeast that had been previously used by Old Crow? No idea, it may have just been a wild yeast that they caught. Either way, no one else has it and it is a pretty interesting story.

Before I left, I had the chance to take a taste of each of these. As we weren't tasting in the ideal conditions, these aren't real tasting notes, only impressions.

Ryskey Rye Whiskey

Details: 59% ABV. 95% Rye whiskey sourced from MGP in Indiana. Aged on site in full-size barrels with toasted staves added to each barrel. This is a single barrel product.

Thoughts: Spicy with a nice finish.

Prohibition Kentucky Rum

Details: 58.5% ABV. Distilled on site. Made from fermented molasses. 

Thoughts: Hot, molasses, maple syrup, rock candy. Has a rum funk to it. It was quite tasty in a Rum-mosa cocktail (Rum, OJ and cinnamon sticks).

OCD #5

Details: 53.8% ABV. Fermented using yeast caught on site. Aged in full-size barrels with added staves. Staves were smoked.

Thoughts: Slight smoke, herbal. Some corn flake notes. There is a cinnamon note at the tip of the tongue and a slight rum funk. He asked how old we thought this was, we knew it was young, so we guessed 2-3 years. It turns out that it was only six months old. Pretty tasty for that.

Stave + Barrel

Details: 59.4% ABV. Bourbon whiskey sourced from MGP in Indiana. Aged on site in full-size barrels with toasted staves added to each barrel. This is a single barrel product. Six months old.

Thoughts: This is a high-rye recipe MGP bourbon. It's tasty, though young. The added staves make it taste older than the six months it is.

UPDATE: Since I initially wrote this I've noticed that Glenn's Creek Distillery have started a GoFundMe project to help fund the restoration of the Old Crow distillery ruins. If you have the means, think about helping save a piece of history.


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Using Old Forester Birthday Bourbon to Celebrate a Serious Milestone

Old Forester Birthday Bourbon is one of those releases that my wife probably shouldn’t want as much as she does. The gimmick is that it is the product of one day’s production. The good thing is that it is also 12 years old. The bad thing is that it is now $79.99. 

As it is announced on September 2 each year and both of our birthdays and our wedding anniversary follow closely behind that, the coincidence of it is too much for her. She asks for it every year as a belated birthday present. And it is a present that is getting harder and harder to get my hands on. This year I actually had to pull a few strings with a local retailer (who asked not to be named) in order to make my lady happy. Next year? No idea what will happen. 

September is a pretty good month for us. Not only do we each get a birthday present and take a trip to Kentucky to celebrate our anniversary with friends, but it is also Bourbon Heritage Month. As we are big bourbon fans, that just adds to the nice set of coincidences. 

But September has another meaning for us as well. September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness month. It’s hard to notice the teal sometimes when the pink for breast cancer is so much more pervasive and spills over it’s month on both ends. Buying something pink feels good. Like you are making a difference. And to be honest who doesn’t love boobs? None of us would be alive if ovaries didn’t exist, but they are inside. In the parts that make boys squeamish. The parts that are near where a period happens. The parts that people don’t talk about in polite company. Right? 

Wrong. Grow up boys. 

Today my wife had her four and a half year check-up after surviving Ovarian Cancer. Once again, she is all clear. One more good check-up and the cancer doctor turns her over to a regular doctor to monitor her. This is great news. But it almost wasn’t. When she was diagnosed, it was a fluke accident. She knew something wasn’t right with her body and every doctor she talked to told her she was fine. 

A year later she ended up having a cyst on an ovary surgically removed and the doctor that was supposed to do the surgery had a family emergency and so his boss took over. His boss was one of the best gynecological oncologists in the state. Since it was her specialty, she nosed around a little while she was inside and found something. My wife had multiple tumors. Tests confirmed that they were cancerous. She was at Stage 3. She went into immediate chemotherapy and within a few months she was given the all clear. She was lucky on so many levels. She happened to have another issue in the same area, she ended up with a specialist doing the surgery instead of the scheduled doctor and she had a particularly slow growing form of the cancer. 

Today 1 in 75 women will develop Ovarian Cancer in their lifetime. And not just old women, but women as young as preteen have died of this horrible disease. 75% of those diagnosed are still alive after one year, but that number drops to only 44% at five years. Less than half of the women diagnosed will survive five years. Think about that. There are over 150 million women in the US. That means over two million of them will develop Ovarian Cancer in their lifetime and after diagnosis almost 1.5 million will be dead within 5 years.

But the good news is that in those women where it is diagnosed early, 94% survive to five years. And more and more women are being diagnosed early. Three years ago it was less than 15%. Today it is about 20%. Still not a lot, but trending the right direction. The problem is that many of the symptoms are also symptoms of other things. Bloating, pelvic pain, feeling full quickly and needing to pee are not exactly uncommon in women. And many doctors are willing to dismiss them. What we’ve learned through this is that if your doctor won’t listen to you when you know something isn’t right, find a new doctor. And keep doing it until you find one will at least check it out.

My wife was lucky, but if the first doctor had listened to her maybe should wouldn’t have needed to be. Tonight we are celebrating four and a half years clear with the Old Forester Birthday Bourbon I mentioned above. I’m thinking that we might even do two pours before the night is over.

If you want to know more about this disease, please go to http://www.ovariancancer.org. I know this is a whiskey blog. But what is whiskey without someone to share it with? My wife loves whiskey. She helps with the tasting notes and is the “silent” partner of this site. I want each and every one of you to have someone to share your whiskey with and I don’t want you to lose them or yourself because talking about “girl parts” is hard.

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Old Forester Birthday Bourbon 2016

Purchase Info: $79.99 at a retailer who has requested to be left unnamed.

Details: 12 years old. 48.5% ABV.

Nose: Warm and rich with brown sugar, pipe tobacco, apricot and baking spices.

Mouth: Sweet and oaky with brown sugar, baking spices, dried apples, and that “Brown Forman Latex Paint” note typical of their bourbons.

Finish: Warm and of decent length with oak, baking spices and fruity latex paint.

Thoughts: This used to be a fun release to pick up on a whim back when you could find it. It was $40 or less, it was tasty enough and the gimmick was fun. Today, you could be excused for wondering why someone would pay $80 for a 12 year old bourbon. But then I’d point you to sites online where people pay over $100 for Weller 12. That said, I feel like this has reached the point where if the price goes up any further, I’ll probably find another way to celebrate my wife’s birthday each year. I like this, but the quality to price ratio gives me pause.


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Premixed Cocktail: Hochstadter’s Slow & Low Rock and Rye

It should come as no surprise by now that I like cocktails. Especially if they have whiskey in them. Manhattan, Old Fashioned, Toronto, Whiskey Smash, Sazerac are among the favorites in my house and Michael Dietsch’s Whiskey cocktail book is never far from where I keep the cocktail making equipment.

It was during my research for the review of that book that I noticed the Rock and Rye batched cocktail recipe in the book. Which reminded me that there is a bottled version for sale as well. I’d never had a Rock and Rye in any form so before I committed an entire bottle of whiskey to the endeavor of making my own, I decided to pick up a bottle and make sure it was something I might want to try making for myself.

Which is how I ended up with a bottle of Hochstadter’s Slow & Low Rock and Rye. This is the regular release black label version. I picked up the limited release orange label as well, but that will have to wait for another post.

Hochstadter’s Slow & Low Rock and Rye

Purchase Info: $17.99 for a 750 mL bottle at South Lyndal Liquors, Minneapolis, MN

Details: 42% ABV

Nose: Honey and bitter orange peel

Mouth: Honey, orange zest and an alcohol bite

Finish: Some whiskey shows up in the finish along with lingering orange zest. There is a nice warmth that settles in the chest. 

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Thoughts: This is very tasty. And it’s a cocktail that I don’t have to make before I enjoy it. It is very sweet so giving it a chill helps it out. It’s good over ice, but I just keep mine in the fridge so I don’t need to dilute it. After trying this, I would say that I’d be happy to donate a bottle to trying to make some for myself.


BourbonGuy.com accepts no advertising. It is solely supported by the sale of the hand-made products I sell at the BourbonGuy Gifts Etsy store. If you'd like to support BourbonGuy.com, visit BourbonGuyGifts.com. Thanks!