Larceny Barrel Proof, Batch B520

I’m sitting in my office right now. I’m enjoying a breeze come through the window and listening to the birds sing as they fly around my yard. Well, when someone isn’t revving their truck engine as they accelerate down one of the roads in my neighborhood. Unfortunately, that guy with the overactive accelerator scared away the little male Cardinal that was perched on a fence, singing in my vegetable garden.

It’s not that big of a deal though. After he hides in a tree for a moment to calm himself, he will be back.

The bird, not the driver.

He and his lady friend have been living in my yard for years now. This year, however, they have been getting a little bolder. They are more visible and have taken to singing outside our windows more frequently. I’d like to make some big observations about the state of the world and blah, blah blah…but honestly, it’s probably just because there aren’t as many dogs running around the yard.

Something else that has grown bolder and more visible in recent months is Larceny Bourbon from Heaven Hill. A few months ago the first batch of Larceny Barrel Proof was released. I liked it, a lot. Many others did not. Let’s see how the Spring release is.

Larceny Barrel Proof, Batch B520

Purchase info: This was graciously provided by Heaven Hill for review purposes. Suggested retail price is $49.99.

Price Per Drink (50 mL): $3.33

Details: Batch number: B520. 61.1% ABV

Nose: Mint, cinnamon candy, vanilla sugar

Mouth: Very hot, both from the alcohol level and the spice. Vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, and oak

Finish: Long and warm. Lingering cinnamon spice and roasted nuts.

Thoughts: Wow! That's a hot one! This screams for water. And it doesn't suffer from even the addition of a fairly substantial splash. In fact, after trying a couple of different dilution levels, I think my favorite was 100° proof. Water brings out the sweet notes of caramel and brown sugar, tames the heat, transforms the individual spice notes on the mouth and finish into a more generic "baking spice" note, and allows the oak notes to move more to the forefront of the experience.

I heard some rumbling about how A120 was too hot. And for those who thought that, watch out, this is even hotter. I’m ok with it though. That’s what water is for, and this way I can have my preferred level of dilution.

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Bourbon Gouda from Cheese Brothers, Inc.

Bourbon and cheese are two of my favorite things. And if I had to choose only one, it would probably be cheese. I love cheese of all kinds. Everything from 15-year-old sharp cheddar to crumbly, stinky blue, to process cheese food. I love it all.

And before you get on me for including process cheese food, remember I grew up poor enough to stand in line for free government cheese. You develop a taste for things after you have enough of it. Besides, there isn’t a burger or a grilled cheese sandwich that can’t be made better with the addition of a little melty American Cheese. (I tend to use both process cheese and a blend of Cheddar, and Monterey Jack for both if I have the opportunity…I like my cheeseburgers cheesy and that American really helps get the other cheeses melting.) I’ve even made my own process cheese out of an eight-year cheddar and this recipe from Serious Eats. I’ve made my own fresh mozzarella too, but that doesn’t make as good of a story.

As you might have noticed, when I get geeky about something, I tend to get really geeky about something. That said, one thing I never did geek out about was combining bourbon and cheese. To be honest, it never occurred to me to combine the two before consuming them. I’ve had plenty of cheeses with bourbon and plenty of bourbons with cheese. But only once before have I had a cheese that has bourbon as one of its ingredients. And I really liked it. When we saw that a cheese company headquartered in my wife’s hometown was selling a Bourbon Gouda as well, well we had to try that one too.

Cheese Bros. Inc. is a company created by a pair of friends with cheese in their genes. The story starts over 100 years ago with a Swiss immigrant to the US. He settled in Northwestern Wisconsin and started making cheese. Eventually, his family sold the business to a large international dairy firm. Apparently, the family couldn’t quite get cheese out of their blood as not one, but two further cheese businesses were formed by the descendants. One became the largest producer of Italian-style cheeses in the country (and employer of many of my family members at one time or another). And the other is Cheese Bros, Inc.

Cheese Bros. Inc. is a small firm that sells cheeses sourced from all over Wisconsin. Their store is located in the Mall of America, where I discovered them. Interesting to me that they started just a few miles from where I started and I found them at their store just a few miles from where am now. Of course, you don’t need to live in any of the places I have lived to enjoy their cheeses. They have a website that will ship it to where you happen to be from.

I’m a big fan of the smoked provolone and the eight-year-old cheddar. Let’s see how I feel about their Bourbon Gouda.

Cheese Bros. Bourbon Gouda

Purchase Info: $5.99 from the Cheese Bros. website.

Nose: Buttery with a hint of smoke and bourbon.

Mouth: Buttery and sweet with subtly smoky, bourbon notes on the "finish."

Thoughts: This tastes great on a cracker and pairs amazingly with Henry McKenna Bottled in Bond. I think I like this one more than the Red Apple one I reviewed earlier.

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George Dickel Rye Whiskey

Damn, I’m tired.

I’m not sure if you noticed this, but I am a wonderful husband. So much so that I took today “off” from work in order to build my wife a permanent fence around her garden. Well, start building anyway. This is going to be a much bigger job than I had anticipated when I told her that my building this was her Mother’s Day present. Today I used an auger to dig 14 two-foot holes and put in 14 posts. If I had good soil, it probably wouldn’t have taken as long (or been nearly as hard) but I live on clay. Very wet clay.

The good news is that if I ever decide to get into pottery, I have all I would ever need just a few inches below the surface of my yard.

Luckily for me, my wife is an amazing wife too. As I finished cleaning up and sat down to write, a Sazerac magically appeared at hand. She decided that I needed to have a post-work cocktail. And knowing what I was writing about tonight, she used that.

George Dickel Rye is the whiskey that made me realize that I’d never reviewed most of the Dickel lineup. I seriously thought I had. I bought it right after it came out for the express purpose of reviewing it. It was an era when most of the rye coming out was from MGP. This probably was as well, though I doubt anyone actually admitted as much. But I remember that the word on the street was that they bought it fully aged and then ran it through charcoal. Kinda the opposite of the Lincoln County process that Dickel usually uses.

But I wanted to see what the filtering did to the product. At the time, I really didn’t notice much and I’ve bought it as a cocktail rye off and on since. And yes, the entire time, I thought I had reviewed it. So here I am finally making up for lost time and letting you know what I think of one of my rotating cocktail ryes (I guess that might be a hint right there).

George Dickel Rye Whiskey

Purchase Info: $24.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Village Liquors, Prior Lake, MN

Price per Drink (50 mL): $1.67

Details: 95% Rye whiskey mash. 45% ABV. Filtered through maple charcoal.

Nose: Cedar, mint, hints of brown sugar.

Mouth: Brown sugar, mint, cedar.

Finish: Gentle and on the shorter end of medium length. Notes of mint, baking spice, and a hint of maple.

Thoughts: I like this one as a cocktail rye. It has a lot of the typical 95% Rye-Style flavor notes but is just a bit sweeter than I like my rye to be when I sip on it. I really like it in an Old Fashioned or Sazerac though.

OK. Now. I am off to take my second shower of the day because, honestly, I stink.

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Book Review: Camp Cocktails by Emily Vikre

I have enjoyed camping my entire life. But, as I got older, the way I camped and the things I enjoyed about it changed.

When I was a little boy, my father took my brother and me on a twice-yearly fishing trip to Northern Minnesota. We’d pack all of our gear into a boat, drive to an island campsite and pitch a tent for the week. There was no running water, no toilets that you didn’t dig for yourself, and best of all no one else around. My dad and the other adults would be out fishing no matter what. Rain or shine. Once the rest of us stayed in the tent for the week due to heavy downpours. Another time there was a tornado that went over the island. But no matter what, we always had fun. For a kid like me, it was complete freedom. I’d swim in the lake, gather the wood and tend the fire all day, I’d read ten books while I was there and listen to the music that I wanted to listen to. Those trips are some of my best memories as a kid.

As I got older, I took trips with the Boy Scouts. Once we went on a canoe trip to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, also in Northern Minnesota. I had fun on this one, but the Boy Scouts didn’t allow nearly the freedom that I enjoyed on my other trips to the area. The hiking and canoeing and hanging out with friends was fun, but I bristled under the structure that they put in place.

After I got married, my wife and I started tent camping again with our daughter. I mostly went with other family members, so I still bristled a bit at the forced structure that the family’s planners saddled us with. But that was made up for by the family gathering around the bonfire at night. My family likes their drinks and we can get a bit rowdy. We were asked not to come back to campgrounds on more than one occasion.

After a while, I realized that waking up sore because of the cold damp ground and sticks that somehow appeared under the tent (even though you were positive that you cleaned the area) was no longer for me. I’ve had a couple of different camping trailers. Sold one, should probably sell the other. But these days, when I camp, I’m almost always in a cabin. I love campgrounds, I love the campfire and the camp drinks. But I don’t love dragging a trailer across the country when I can get just as good of an experience in a cabin that is already at my destination. And if I decide to splurge on a hotel for one night of my trip, I don’t need to find a place to park the trailer overnight.

Luckily for me, a recent book I bought can help no matter what type of camping I am doing. If I have access to ice, there are recipes for that. If I have a cabin with all the amenities, there are recipes for that. And if for some reason I were to try camping as I did as a kid (not likely) then there are recipes for that as well. The book is called Camp Cocktails and it is by Emily Vikre. Ms. Vikre is the owner of Vikre Distillery in Duluth, Minnesota. I’ve reviewed one of their gins in my gin line-up a while back. I didn’t make the connection when I ordered the book, I just thought it sounded interesting.

And it was!. The writing is fun. The foraging tips are super cool. And best of all, the cocktails are great. At least those that I’ve tried. The next time I go camping, even if I’m just pretending on the deck for the evening, I’m going to make sure I plan ahead and get the ingredients for some of these cocktails.

I really liked this book. It is available on Amazon for about $20 and I highly recommend it.

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BourboDid you enjoy this post? If so, maybe you’d like to buy me a cup of coffee in return. Go to ko-fi.com/bourbonguy to support. And thank you, BourbonGuy.com is solely supported via your generosity.

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Or if you click the Amazon links above, and make any purchase (doesn’t have to be this book), they will give me a little affiliate money. And hey, if you are an iOS user, look for Bourbon Guy in Apple News. Thanks!

The BourbonGuy.com "Stuck at Home" Bourbon Brackets: Four Roses Small Batch Select vs Knob Creek & Henry McKenna Bonded vs 1792 Bonded

It has been a super weird week. On Saturday I was on the deck having drinks in a t-shirt. Sunday and Monday it snowed almost half a foot. And now today, everything has melted and you could be back out there in a light jacket since it is about 45°F or so. But it wasn’t only the weather that has led this to be a bit weird. Monday morning we had a freezer scare since it was so overloaded that the door popped back open after we left the room (luckily we didn’t lose much). Tuesday our washing machine broke, filled with water and overflowed even though it was not on. And yesterday I fixed said washing machine after the new part arrived. As I said, it’s been a weird week.

I also ventured out of the house for basically the first time since our lockdown (I’ve gone on walks with our pups). Man. Folks at my local ACE Hardware do not give a shit about social distancing. No masks or gloves for the employees. To pay you need to stand on either side of a counter that’s only a foot and a half wide. And the employees sidle right up next to you to ask if you need help. It took all I had to not answer with “Yeah, you can get your ass 6 feet back outta my face!” If I get this damn thing, I’m blaming my local ACE Hardware.

Anyway, that’s not why you’re here. You want to know what happens in Round Two of the “Stuck/Stay at Home” Brackets.

Four Roses Small Batch Select vs Knob Creek Bourbon

Whiskey 1 (Knob Creek)

Nose: Mint, caramel, wintergreen, brown sugar cinnamon candies

Mouth: Mint, cinnamon candies, caramel, hints of vanilla

Finish: Medium length, notes of cinnamon and dried grains

Whiskey 2 (Four Roses Small Batch Select)

Nose: Anise, cinnamon, nutmeg, caramel, vanilla

Mouth: Follows the nose with anise, cinnamon, mint, caramel, and vanilla

Finish: Medium length. Notes of anise, cinnamon, mint, and vanilla.

Pre-Reveal Thoughts:

Whiskey # 2 is the clear winner here. #1 is good and I could see it winning against other competition but the rich and layered spiciness of #2 is too much.

Reveal: Based on price alone, this should have come as no surprise. Whiskey 2 cost me twice as much as Whiskey 1. But as price and quality are only kinda connected in the whiskey world, we still needed to do the tasting. But in this case, the more expensive whiskey won. No upset: Number 1 Seed Four Roses Small Batch Select advances to the Finals over Number 5 seed Knob Creek.

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Henry McKenna Bottled in Bond vs 1792 Bottled in Bond (store selection)

Whiskey 1 (1792 Bottled in Bond, South Lyndale Liquors selection)

Nose: Vanilla, caramel, cherry, nutmeg

Mouth: Nutmeg, caramel, vanilla

Finish: Medium length and warm. Dusty oak and caramel.

Whiskey 2 (Henry McKenna Bottled in Bond)

Nose: Vanilla sugar, cinnamon, mint, tropical fruit

Mouth: Vanilla, cinnamon, mint

Finish: Medium length and warm. There is a "pop" of fruit, tannic oak, and baking spice.

Pre-Reveal Thoughts:

Kind of a boring matchup compared to the others. These are both right along the lines of your stereotypical "bourbon" notes with very little variance from that baseline. That said, I'm enjoying #2 just a little more so #2 wins.

Reveal: Though I would happily take a glass of either of these, it looks like we have our first upset of the second round. It is only an upset because of where I bought this particular bottle, though. Most of the stores that I frequent sell Henry McKenna for over $40, but Total Wine offers it for just over $30, though they don’t have it very often. And since I bought it at that $30-ish price point, Henry McKenna got the #3 seed while the bourbon that it beat cost over $40, sat at #2 and got a first-round bye. Henry McKenna Bottled in Bond wins and advances to the Finals over a local store selection of 1792 Bottled in Bond.

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The BourbonGuy.com "Stuck at Home" Bourbon Brackets: Four Roses Single Barrel vs Wild Turkey 101 & Henry McKenna Bonded vs JW Dant Bonded

You know. I’ve been doing bracket type competitions for a long time. This is the eighth contest in seven years. You wouldn’t have thought that it would take a comment on the last post to make me realize that I could do all these rounds at once and have a completely blind competition. But it did. I started these as a way to try cheap bourbons that I hadn’t had before so I really didn’t have any preconceived notions about any of them. As I’ve included more and more bourbons that I’d had before, I guess it never dawned on me to change the way I run these.

Until now. Starting with the competitors in this post, this is not just a blind matchup of two known bourbons but is instead a completely blind competition. So what changes got made? Well, the main one was instituting another layer of blindness to the competition.

• I poured 200mL of each contestant into a sample bottle. I labeled each sample bottle with a 10 digit random code. (10 digits so it was just a garbage thing that my brain wouldn’t try to remember on the off chance I saw the bottle)

• I made a bracket that just had codes on it for my wife (she doesn’t pay attention to the brackets as we do this, she just tastes what is put in front of her). This way she knew which codes go against each other, but not what those codes represent.

• She then takes that bracket and chooses any of the contests that are available and pours us each a 1-ounce sample of each contestant. She places those samples on our tasting pads and leaves the room after recording in a notebook what code was placed on which letter.

• The tasting pads have four circles on them, labeled 1, 2, A, and B respectively. After she leaves the room, I choose whether to move number 1 to letter A or letter B (and then the other goes to remaining circle) and make a note of which bourbon I moved to which circle.

• She then reenters and if all has gone as planned neither of us knows what is in our glass beyond narrowing it down to one of the 10 remaining bourbons in the contest.

• Then over the course of Friday night through Monday night, we tasted the rest of the competition and … well, let’s just say we were amazed at some of the results when we had zero preconceived notions.

Now let’s get to it.

Wild Turkey 101 vs. Four Roses Single Barrel

Whiskey 1 (Wild Turkey)

Nose: Mint, Big Red cinnamon gum, vanilla, caramel, almond

Mouth: Warm and spicy. Notes of mint, dried grains, and oak

Finish: On the longer side of medium and warm. Dusty grains and vanilla

Whiskey 2 (Four Roses)

Nose: Nutmeg, cinnamon, raisin, and a slight antiseptic note.

Mouth: Spicy with notes of cinnamon and nutmeg, leather, mint and dried fruit

Finish: Medium length and sweet. Notes of dark chocolate, ripe fruit, brown sugar, and baking spice

Pre-Reveal Thoughts:

If we had chosen based just on the nose, # 1 would have been a clear winner. As a whole though, #2 is much more complex and enjoyable. I'd take a glass of either though. # 2 wins.

Reveal: So there goes the King of the Bottom-Shelf Brackets. Its first crack at the more expensive competition and DOWN GOES TURKEY! Four Roses Single Barrel advances.

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Henry McKenna Bottled in Bond vs. JW Dant Bottled in Bond

Whiskey 1 (McKenna)

Nose: Cinnamon, mint, lots of oak

Mouth: Caramel, vanilla, cinnamon, oak

Finish: Medium with lasting warmth. Dusty oak, ripe red fruits, and baking spice.

Whiskey 2 (Dant)

Nose: Caramel corn, cinnamon

Mouth: Butterscotch, cinnamon, dried grains, vanilla, caramel

Finish: Medium and warm. Lingering Butterscotch and dried grains.

Pre-Reveal Thoughts:

Not to knock #2, but #1 is just so much better. #2 is just sweet and heat. Nice in a glass when watching tv or to sip before bed. But #1 is much more complex and interesting. #1 wins.

Reveal: Well, I guess this shouldn’t be a surprise, Henry McKenna Bottled in Bond is more than twice the age and over twice the price. It should have won. And it did Henry McKenna Bottled in Bond advances.

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The BourbonGuy.com "Stuck at Home" Bourbon Brackets: Round 1, Knob Creek vs. Johnny Drum and Old Forester vs. Very Old Barton

If you are like most Americans, you are stuck in the house right now. The novel Coronavirus has most of us living under a Stay-at-Home order. If you’re like me, this isn’t a huge change. I mean, I hardly ever leave the house anyway. Mostly what is has meant is that my wife is working from home. But she is in her office in the basement while I’m in my office upstairs. We hardly ever see each other during the day unless I am delivering her a coffee refill.

Huh, starting to sound like working from home has gained her an assistant. I wonder how much that pays…

Anyway, this is the first competition in the Stuck at Home Bourbon Brackets. The brackets created because I can’t leave the house to go whiskey shopping and I don’t want to sit on the phone asking the poor guy on the other end which of the many things I’ve never reviewed that he has on the shelf in order to place a delivery order.

First up, is our division one, number four seed Johnny Drum Private Stock versus number five seed Knob Creek.

Johnny Drum is a product of the Willett distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky. Long known for their prowess in sourcing barrels, they started distilling their own juice early on in the last decade. Now that their own distillate has started to come of age, they are using that in some of their brands. Not having followed up with Willett lately, I have no idea if Johnny Drum is one of those.

Knob Creek is a product of the Jim Beam Distillery in Clermont, Kentucky. It was a founding member of the Small Batch Collection and one of the first Small Batch bourbons to be advertised as such. It is supposed to regain its nine-year age statement soon, though this particular bottle doesn’t have that yet.

Johnny Drum vs. Knob Creek

Note: These were tasted blind in the following order. The tasting notes may be a bit strange as these were tasted at the same time and may have influenced one another.

Whiskey 1-Knob Creek

Nose: Oak, mint, almond, nutmeg and a hint of brown sugar.

Mouth: Dry and spicy. Nutmeg, cinnamon, mint and dried grains.

Finish: Hot and of medium length. Mint, nutmeg, oak and a hint of fruit.

Whiskey 2-Johnny Drum

Nose: Toffee, strawberry jam, and a hint of oak at the end.

Mouth: Lots of caramel and cinnamon. Ripe red fruit.

Finish: Warm and on the longer side of medium length. Lingering Strawberry jam.

Pre-Reveal Thoughts:

This is an interesting set. Both are good but one is sweeter and fruitier and one is much drier. Usually, when we do these head to head, the sweeter one wins. But in this case, I am enjoying the spicy dryness more than the sweet strawberry jam notes. I'm picking whiskey 1 to move on.

Reveal: Whiskey 1 is #5 Knob Creek. Whiskey 2 is #4 Johnny Drum. Knob Creek wins. I get Knob Creek for $25 and Johnny Drum is almost $10 more for a 750 mL. Neither of these are terribly expensive, but it is interesting to see the lower price come out on top. Though when the lower-priced option is from the largest producer of bourbon on the planet…maybe not so surprising.

Very Old Barton 100 proof vs. Old Forester 100 proof

Note: These were tasted blind in the following order. The tasting notes may be a bit strange as these were tasted at the same time and may have influenced one another.

Whiskey 1-Very Old Barton 100 proof

Nose: Mint, cotton candy, ginger

Mouth: Warm and spicy with cinnamon, vanilla, caramel, and oak

Finish: Warm and of medium length with a pleasant oaky bitterness.

Whiskey 2-Old Forester 100 proof

Nose: Toffee, mint, Cedar, vanilla

Mouth: Thick mouthfeel. Sweet with a lot of caramel, cinnamon, nutmeg, cedar

Finish: Warm and medium length with an antiseptic note of mint, caramel, and oak.

Pre-Reveal Thoughts:

The antiseptic notes on whiskey two just aren't sitting right with me today. On another day the thick and sweet mouthfeel might be enough to carry the day. But today at least, Whiskey One is tasting oh-so-good. Whiskey One advances.

Reveal: Whiskey one is Very Old Barton 100 proof. Whiskey two is Old Forester 100 proof. Very Old Barton wins. Talk about an upset! When I travel to Kentucky, Very Old Barton 100 proof is often available for less than $15. When available, it is my “drinking back at the campsite” bourbon while I stay in Kentucky. $12.99 is a whole other level of value. I put it in the brackets because I was originally basing this competition on 100 proof versions of what was in the Bottom-Shelf Brackets, but I really didn’t expect it to hang with the more expensive competition. I should have guessed that this delicious bourbon wouldn’t disappoint.

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Bottom-Shelf Brackets 2020: Round 1: Buffalo Trace vs. Old Forester 100 proof

Tonight we finish Round 1 of the 2020 BourbonGuy.com Bottom Shelf Brackets. Tonight’s competition is between Division 2 Number 2 seed Old Forester 100 proof and Number 3 seed Buffalo Trace. By a strange coincidence, this is a repeat matchup of last year. In that competition, Old Forester won. Let’s see if my taste buds (and the producers) are at all consistent from year to year.

So here we go. First up: the Pride of Louisville, the first Bottled Bourbon, let’s welcome to the stage: Old Forester 100 proof!

And their opponent is the Pride of Frankfort. The bourbon that’s so good they decided to name the distillery after it: Buffalo Trace!

We strive to have a clean competition so these were tasted blind in the following order. Tasting notes are from before the reveal and may be a little unusual since they were being tasted at the same time and may influence one another.

Whiskey 1 (Buffalo Trace)

Purchase Info: $24.99 for a 750 mL bottle, Total Wine, Burnsville, MN

Details: 45% ABV.

Nose: Dried mint leaves, vanilla sugar, cinnamon.

Mouth: Vanilla sugar, caramel, cinnamon, oak.

Finish: Medium length. Mint, cinnamon, oak.

Whiskey 2 (Old Forester 100 proof)

Purchase Info: $24.99 for a 750 mL bottle, Total Wine, Burnsville, MN

Details: 50% ABV.

Nose: Bubble gum, almond, citrus peel.

Mouth: Almond, cinnamon, clove, hint of orange.

Finish: Longer side of medium. Almond, cinnamon.

Pre-reveal Thoughts: Whiskey number one is sweeter and a bit of a cinnamon bomb. Whiskey number two is super enjoyable in a holistic way. The "heat" or "burn" is better which adds to the enjoyment of the product. Which ultimately is what decided this one. I like the flavor of whiskey one better and if it had the heat of whiskey two, it would be the clear winner. But it doesn't and this is close enough that I am weighting overall experience higher than just flavor. So whiskey two is the winner here.

Post-Reveal Thoughts: In another case of proof making the difference in a head to head matchup Old Forester 100 proof advances to Round 2, just like last year. Buffalo Trace put up a good fight in this one, but the Old Forester brought the heat and that made the experience more enjoyable.

Make your guesses and check back next time to see who comes out on top.

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