Black Eagle Bourbon

July 14, 2016 Eric Burke

You’re sitting in a meeting. You’ve run out of things to say. Everyone is looking at you. You know you have to say something, but you’re not sure what. It’s awkward. You just sit there looking around. Thinking to yourself that eventually maybe someone else will say something.

The silence get longer. It gets more awkward. You’re starting to fidget now. People around you are looking out the window, trying not to stare as you just sit there.

Finally you squeak: “Individually barreled?”

This is how I picture the label meeting going for Total Wine’s Black Eagle Bourbon. I mean when you describe your bourbon as “Old-style, individual barreled bourbon whiskey, distilled from only the finest ingredients for a genuine full-bourbon character” you know someone somewhere was wracking their brain trying to come up with something nice to say on the spot.

I find this label to be hilarious. So much so that I had to buy this bottle immediately. I mean, no matter the size of the barrel, it is going to be an individual. And what the hell is full-bourbon character?

I guess we’ll find out.

Black Eagle Bourbon Whiskey

Purchase Info: $11.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Total Wine, Burnsville, MN.

Details: 40% ABV. 3 years old.

Nose: Lightly fruity with delicate floral and mint notes

Mouth: Grain forward with light notes of baking spice and mint.

Finish: Short and grain forward.

Thoughts: When I saw this I expected something pretty bad. I mean the marketing people literally couldn’t say anything nice about it. When even marketing people can’t find a superlative that feels right to describe something you know that there’s nothing to say about a product. And though there isn’t much going on here, what is going on isn’t bad. It’s just sort of meh. To be honest this reminds me a lot of Old Crow. An ok well bourbon should you need one, but otherwise something to avoid.

I’ll probably use the rest of mine in the Cherry Bounce recipe from Michael Dietsch’s cocktail book Whiskey that I reviewed a while back. After three months soaking up cherry juice, it probably won’t matter what I used to begin with.

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Michter’s Barrel Strength Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey

June 21, 2016 Eric Burke

So there I was. At a Maker’s Mark Ambassador event in Andover, Minnesota. It was interesting. I got a couple black dipped glasses that I will probably never use, I had a free bratwurst for lunch and I was hanging out with other Maker’s Ambassadors trying cocktails and sipping a little bourbon. I didn’t end up buying any Maker’s that day. But I did buy something that sorta surprised my wife.

I don’t normally buy Michter’s products. The juice is alright, but each purchase comes with a little baggage for me. When I first got into bourbon they were an NDP. Now there isn’t anything inherently wrong with that, but they were a more than a little dishonest about it. They were selling a story about how they could trace the company back to the American Revolution. The fact of the matter was that they registered an abandoned trademark and ran with it.

I don’t like being deceived and sometimes I hold a bit of a grudge. Which is why now, when they seem to have become much more honest in their story and have actually started distilling (according to Chuck Cowdery they produce more than 500,000 gallons per year), I still seem to find myself reaching for something else when I see them on the shelf.

But on that day, something made me go grab the manager on duty to open the case this was in. Like maybe this grudge had gone on long enough and I should give them another shot. I used to like their Straight Rye quite a bit, so a Barrel Strength version was a bit intriguing.

Michter’s Barrel Strength Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey

Purchase Info: $71.99 for a 750 mL at G-Will Liquors, Andover, MN.

Details: Barrel No: 15C200. 54.4% ABV. Single Barrel (as is the regular release of their Rye)

Nose: Cedar, mint, cloves and a hint of earthiness.

Mouth: Bold and sweet in the mouth. Mint, caramel, vanilla, cloves and cedar chips.

Finish: Very sweet. A nice long warmth that lingers with herbal mint and spicy cloves numbing you tongue.

Thoughts: This is very good whiskey. Price and availability will demand that this be a treat not a shelf staple but if you see it and can see yourself through to it, pick it up. Because though I’m still a little upset at being deceived years ago, maybe it’s time to let that be in the past and let the whiskey speak for itself. And this whiskey is saying some very nice things.

Hoffman Originals, Mr. Lucky Series, The Carolers

June 14, 2016 Eric Burke

A very long time ago, by today’s standards, bourbon was not popular. It was so not popular that many people selling it almost of included it as a kind of “value-add” when they sold ceramic decanters. Ceramic decanters seem to have been immensely popular during the 1970s. I have people in my own family who will reminisce about purchasing a couple of them for a decent amount of money and then claim: “I don’t know that [the buyer] ever did drink any of that…”

Now the buyer in question above was a prolific drinker. And if he didn’t drink the bourbon, you can bet that he was not an edge case. This is born out by the fact that I have bought multiple ceramic decanters that are still full and sealed at antique stores or shows for under $25. Including the one above. That one only cost me $18. $18 at a bottle and advertising show where I saw a piece of Four Roses ad signage marked up to over $100.

The piece was put out by the Hoffman Distilling Company from Lawrenceburg, KY. Haven’t heard of them? Well, don’t feel bad, I hadn’t either. They seem to be one of those pieces of history that has left very little mark on the internet. But here is what I have collected.

Sam Cecil, in his book Bourbon: The Evolution of Kentucky Whiskey claims that the distillery was built in 1880 and after passing through many hands, was in disrepair by the mid 1970s. Saying on page 98 of his book: “I visited the distillery in the mid-1970s, and the still house was falling down.”
Mike Veach tells us on BourbonEnthusiast.com that in 1966 “The Hoffman Distilling Company of Lawrenceburg, Ky. with a capacity of 300 bushels per day is listed with Ezra Brooks as one of its four brands. The executives of the distillery are Ben G, Ripy, William R. Ripy, and Robert Ripy (1966 Red Book, p.33).”
He also says on another post “The Hoffman distillery is the distillery that created Ezra Brooks in the 60's. It went out of business in the 70s and Julian Van Winkle bought the old distillery.”
Speaking of Ezra Brooks, our friend Brian at Sipp’n Corn mentions Hoffman in his post on the lawsuit where Jack Daniel’s sued Ezra Brooks over the marketing of Ezra Brooks in the 1950s and 60s. If you want to read more about that lawsuit, you can.
Ellenjaye.com has a post about what became of the Hoffman Distillery after it was purchased and renamed by one Julian Van Winkle III. You may have heard of him. He really doesn’t figure into this story except as a footnote though.
And finally a reclaimed wood supplier in Oregon has a nice long post about the distillery from the point of view of one who might want to sell you wood from the rick houses.

Most of the research I found claims the distillery went out of business in the mid-1970s and the location was used as a bottling house by various brands and run by a member of the Ripy family at that time. One of the brands that seems to have been bottled there was Hoffman Originals, a brand that seems to have survived the distillery proper (though I can find no mention of any actual relation between them other than having the same name and bottling location) by selling ceramic decanters of the variety described above. They put out quite a few decanters throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Jim Crawford at jimsbottles.com has an extensive set of posts on their Mr Lucky series (the series of decanters which included the Carolers decanter shown below, click for larger images).

This decanter depicts two leprechauns singing Christmas Carols. It is a full sized (4/5ths quart) decanter bottled by the Hoffman Distilling Company, Lawrenceburg, KY. And because neither bourbon nor the bottle were enough to sell this, it is of course also a music box. It is from 1979. The cork was intact and the tax stamp was unbroken. It was $18. I decided to pick it up.

Hoffman Originals, Mr. Lucky Series, The Carolers plus the box

Hoffman Originals, Mr. Lucky Series, The Carolers Base (front)

Hoffman Originals, Mr. Lucky Series, The Carolers Base (back)

Hoffman Originals, Mr. Lucky Series, Carolers, 1979: The Bourbon.

Purchase info: $18 at a bottle and advertising show.

Nose: As is to be expected from a bottle that has been closed for over 35 years, this smells of acetone at the initial pouring. After letting it sit in the glass for a while, we started picking up notes of rich butterscotch, cloves, ripe apples, fresh flowers and hints of lemon zest.

Mouth: Peppery and sweet with more butterscotch and cloves along with a large dose of floral notes.

Finish: The finish follows the mouth and nose with lingering sweet, clove and floral notes along with a gentle, medium length burn.

Thoughts: This whiskey is pretty tasty though not to the standards of other older bottlings I’ve found. Being sourced whiskey, maybe this was lower end stuff bought only to fill the bottle? Or maybe, time just hasn’t been kind to this one. I don’t know. It’s fine, just kinda…meh when neat. Adding water does open it up allowing more sweet notes to come to the forefront, but it loses it’s burn. It goes to show that just because a whiskey is a “dusty” doesn’t necessarily follow that it is really good. Fun to try though.

A word on lead: There is a forum thread on straightbourbon.com that details the story of a man getting the whiskey from one of his decanters tested for lead and finding very high levels of it. I do not have the equipment to test this myself. I did however allow the bourbon from this decanter to evaporate and then drip the contents of a lead paint tester into the residue (saving a drop or two for the conformation strip) and there was no red for lead. I won’t say this bourbon doesn’t contain lead or that any of the bourbon from old decanters you find will or will not contain lead. But this test satisfied my curiosity enough to allow me to do the small tasting I did for this post.

For more information on lead poisoning visit: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/002473.htm

High West Rendezvous Rye, finished in used bourbon barrels

June 7, 2016 Eric Burke

High West Rendezvous Rye, Barrel Select, finished in used Bourbon barrels

Funny thing happened to me on the way to write this post tonight. Though let me step back a bit first.

A month or so ago my little girl (she’s in her mid twenties) decided that she was going to buy herself a motorcycle. Everyone asked if I was upset. I wasn’t. She’s a grown woman. It’s her decision to make. She got her motorcycle permit and tried for her license. She didn’t get it the first time so she decided to practice a bit more.

One day, when she comes over to show it off, the bike won’t start. Battery was dead. On top of that as she was trying to start it, she hit the throttle and flooded it. After we charge the battery it starts and because she’s never had a vehicle old enough to flood, she immediately kills it trying to hit the throttle. So she fires it up again and this time she listens to me and lets it run. Everything seems to be going good. She rides home and I go back to work.

The next day it does it again only this time she is at work. Luckily she works in an auto garage and someone there can give the bike a jump. At this point she starts thinking she needs a battery. It’s a thirty year old bike and who knows how old the battery is, so I help her change it.

Yesterday, two days after changing the battery, it does it again. As she is complaining about the new battery, I mention that the dead battery is probably just a symptom of something else. She’s young and still knows everything so she placates me with a yes. She’s near a friend’s house so she pushes it over there and decides she is going to try to ride it home today.

Today, she get’s a couple miles down the road when it dies again and she calls me for a jump. Now, by this time we both know that a jump is only a half-measure so she can try to limp it home. By the time I get there, she’s found out it’s not even going to limp. It won’t stay running long enough to even get into gear, much less go down the road. Luckily about this time, a nice (strong) guy on his own bike stops by. Together we devise a plan to get her bike in the back of the truck.

I have a tall truck, unfortunately. But luckily, there is a park and a business with a large lawn on the side of the road. And even luckier, there is a walkway with a slight hill between the road and the park. So I drive the truck into the lawn so that my tailgate is even with the top of the berm. The nice strong guy and I push the bike into the back. I tie it down as best I can and drive slowly down the side roads to get home.

Once home though, I realize I have no strong guy to help me get it out of the truck. Just my wife and daughter. Luckily my driveway is on a hill and the neighbors here are nice. We put a few pallets behind the truck and stair step it onto the driveway. Now I have a broken down motorcycle to sit next to the broken down jeep she is storing in my garage. And after man handling a 450 pound motorcycle for a few hours, I’m too tired to write a post that is in-depth and well researched. Instead, I’m just going to grab a whiskey and relax for a moment.

Detail label from High West Rendezvous Rye Limited

And what whiskey will I relax with tonight? Recently I bought a bottle of High West Rendezvous Rye that had been finished in used Bourbon Barrels for an additional 1.9 years. This is a tasty rye that according to their website is made up of a six year old MGP rye and a 16 year old Barton Rye. This is normally a very tasty rye. The additional couple years in the bourbon barrel add a bit of sweetness to round it out.

Neat this is a tasty rye, but recently I tried something else with it. I had an ounce left of Very Old Barton 86 proof. I got to thinking that I might try a blend with it so I had a full pour. I added three-quarters of an ounce of this rye and then a quarter ounce of Mellow Corn. It’s a real Franken-Whiskey. But you know what? It was really good. The rye shone through as the star with the bourbon and the corn whiskey adding a touch of sweetness and a nice mouthfeel. that is an experiment to revisit someday, but not tonight. Tonight it will be my favorite cocktail.

Whiskey in a glass.

High West Rendezvous Rye, finished in used bourbon barrels

Purchase info: $59.99 for a 750 bottle, Ace Spirits, Hopkins, MN

Details: 52.4% ABV Barrel # 2065. Bottle # 24. Store selection by Ace Spirits. Finished in used bourbon barrels for an additional 1.9 years.

Nose: Pumpernickel rye bread, mint, allspice and nutmeg.

Mouth: Hot and spicy with sweet caramel, vanilla, mint, oak and baking spices.

Finish: Long and sweet with mint that fades to reveal more baking spices underneath.

Thoughts: This is a delicious rye. The blend of old and younger ryes lend spiciness and depth while the finishing adds sweetness. This is fantastic and I can highly recommend giving it (or another like it) a try.

Hochstadter's Vatted Straight Rye Whiskey

May 24, 2016 Eric Burke

It was with no little amount of sadness that I learned that Robert J Cooper had passed away. It’s not like I knew him or even knew who he was. Though I probably should have since he was the creator of such spirits brands as St. Germain, Lock Stock & Barrel Rye, and Hochstadter's Low & Slow Rock and Rye.

No I was sad for an entirely selfish reason. As I learned of his death, I also learned of his age, which happens to be the same as mine. 39 years old. That’s really young and any time you hear of someone your age dying, doesn’t matter how, you start to look at your own mortality. To question if you are where you want to be in life or if there is something else that you should be doing. To examine how you are going to get there.

In the past when I’ve done this evaluation whether it was from the death of a friend or a stranger, I’ve found my life wanting. I was in a soul-sucking job or working without passion. This time however, I’m happy to say that I find I’m in a good place. Business is good, I’m happy with the work I’m doing as a designer and I have people who are interested in what I have to say as a writer.

So here’s to Robert J. Cooper, a man I never even heard of, that has helped in some small way to remind me that life is pretty good.

Hochstadter's Vatted Straight Rye Whiskey

Purchase Info: Apple Valley Liquors, Apple Valley, MN $35.99 for a 750 mL

Details: 50% ABV. On bottle there is no age statement so assumed 4 years old. The website backs that up claiming it is “A complex blend of hand-selected straight rye whiskeys, aged 4-15 years and curated from distilleries across North America. Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Indiana and Alberta.” The site also mentions that the whiskey is non-chill filtered.

Nose: Caramel, cloves and cedar.

Mouth: Soft in the mouth with cloves, cinnamon, mint and brown sugar.

Finish: Starts hot and slowly fades to sweet with just a hint of pickle and bubble gum.

Thoughts: I’m a big fan of the theory of this one. Take rye’s from all over, from many different distilleries in many different places and just blend them together to get something new. Very cool idea. It is also a very tasty whiskey and has become one of my favorite ryes in the two months I’ve had it in my house. Who knows what will happen to the brand now that the founder is gone, but for now, I’ll keep buying it as long as I can keep finding it.

Bottom-Shelf Bourbon Brackets 2016: The Brackets

March 15, 2016 Eric Burke

Bottom Shelf Bourbon Brackets 2016 bracket

Its that time of year again. The time of year when in the spirit of the season, America pretends to enjoy college basketball. The time when intraoffice gambling on the backs of unpaid athletes is not only condoned, but practically expected. The time when paper or online brackets are filled, mostly with guesses because what normal person really knows what the hell a Gonzaga is anyway.

I’m not immune to the lure. But instead of trying to figure out whether a Holy Cross can beat a Southern University, I’d rather spend my time figuring out if I like Evan Williams 1783 or Wild Turkey 81 proof better. Because honestly I really don’t like basketball. Plus I work out of my home so I have no coworkers with whom to pretend that I care whether an FGCU wins or not.

Because I am a frugal person, this annual competition started out as a way to find new inexpensive bourbons with which to drown my sorrows as I waited for winter to end. But with both winters and inexpensive bourbons that I haven’t tried are becoming increasingly rare, I actually was worried that I wasn’t going to be able to find enough bourbons to qualify this year.

But there is good news frugal fans of bourbon! Minnesota is smack dab in the middle of the Total Wine effect. Items that didn’t qualify in years past are now priced within reach due to the increased price competition and items that were intended to be store exclusives are now being stocked on store shelves across the Metro. Prices are dropping and selection is rising. And this makes this year’s brackets a little more interesting than normal.

As it has been a year since we did this last, let’s go over the guidelines for selection:

I'm defining Bottom-Shelf as under $20 per liter or $15 per 750 mL bottle.
It must be Straight Bourbon
It must be available in Minnesota
I am hoping to try new things so when possible, I looked for things I hadn’t reviewed before.

After the bottles were purchased here are the guidelines I used to seed them.

Previous Winners. JW Dant Bottled in Bond won two years ago and Fighting Cock won last year year so they get an automatic #1 seed.
Stated (or assumed age). Straight bourbon has to be at least two years old. But unless it is under four years old you don’t have to put an age on it. So if someone does it’s either a good thing or a bad thing. I like to reward good things and punish bad things.
Proof. Higher proof often equals better flavor. Not always, but it can be a good rule of thumb.
Minimize corporate cousins. I figured I could introduce a little more difference into each initial pairing if they didn’t come off the same still, or at the very least wasn’t sold by the same company. Since four of these are from Heaven Hill and two are originally from Sazerac, it's a guideline, not a hard rule, and is overridden by the above guidelines.

So who are the contestants? Well, as mentioned above, Fighting Cock and JW Dant are our return winners so they get the number one seeds in each division. There were no age stated bottles this year so that one has been set aside, though I did knock Very Old Barton down a notch for their misleading “6.” So the next two highest proof bottles are Evan Williams 1783 and Very Old Barton 6 are both 86 proof and they become the number 2 seeds. After that the newly renamed Wild Turkey bourbon is 81 proof so it becomes our first 3 seed. The last three were dropped in what I thought might be an order to provide the most interesting match ups with Jim Beam White becoming the last 3 three seed going against Barton while Buckhorn (a Total Wine “exclusive” from Buffalo Trace) and Heaven Hill’s Blue State picking up the slack as 4 seeds.

Due to the Total Wine effect, this was an interesting year. Stay tuned.

Johnny Drum Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, 80 proof

March 10, 2016 Eric Burke

Johnny Drum. Not actually Kentucky's finest bourbon.

My wife and I were sitting in a bar in Louisville. We’d been there once before, earlier in the week. On that earlier visit, we’d been made to feel so welcome and appreciated that we’d decided to stop back in on our last day in town to give the place a little more business.

Behind the bar was the same welcoming person we’d met earlier in the week. We chatted with him for quite a while. He was a fairly young man, not from Louisville originally, but loving living so close to the center of all things bourbon. While we chatted, he decided to perfect his bourbon sour recipe. There were very few people in the place, it being mid-afternoon, so as he tried different variations he would pour a little in a glass for us to taste in order to get another set of opinions. We obligingly told him which ones we liked, which we didn’t and why.

That was my first experience with Johnny Drum. The bartender chose it because he didn’t care for it and was looking for something else to do with it that he could recommend. Because he was so emphatic about not liking it, I didn’t question him on it. Knowing there were plenty of bourbons out there, I decided to take the advice and pass it by.

Recently I was doing my yearly late-winter tour of liquor stores looking for inexpensive bourbon when I happened to notice a small green-labeled bottle of Johnny Drum. It was only 80 proof but I decided that, since it less than $20, the time had come to see if that bartender was correct in his judgement of the product or not.

Johnny Drum Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, 80 proof

Purchase Info: $15.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Blue Max, Burnsville, MN

Details: 40% ABV

Nose: Tart Apples, caramel and oak

Mouth: Sweet and gentle with just a slight tingle. Caramel/vanilla, wet rock and a good hit of oak.

Finish: Short and gentle as befits its proof with lingering sweetness and oak.

Thoughts: Contrary to what I was told, this is not terrible. That doesn’t mean it is particularly good, but I’m now more than willing to pick up a bottle of it’s higher proof sibling.

The Worst American Whiskies I've Had

March 1, 2016 Eric Burke

A Great Big Frowny face because I dislike all of these.

I’ve said it before. I don’t review a lot of bourbon that I don’t like. You might think I am too Minnesotan and don't want to say anything mean or that maybe I don’t have a discerning palate. You might think that I’ve been bought off or that I’m hoping to get free whiskey. You might think a lot of things, but unless you are a long time reader, you’d probably be wrong.

You see, there is a very simple explanation for why I don’t review a lot of bourbons I dislike. I buy almost all of the whiskey I review and I really don’t want to spend money on things I’ll dislike. I’m experienced enough at buying American Whiskey that I kind of know what I like and what I don’t. Of course, that doesn’t mean I haven’t had a stinker or two slip through. And just because I didn’t buy it doesn’t mean that I haven’t tried it.

So in the name of helping you to avoid the stinkers, and because I do get asked this on occasion, tonight I’m presenting you with my list of the 5 worst American Whiskies I’ve had. To qualify, I had to have had it and I have to have wished I hadn’t.

My 5 Worst American Whiskies

(as decided by me and in alphabetical order.)

Hayes Parker Reserve: Terre Pure bourbon aged at least six months. I made the mistake of picking up two minis of this. I think my wife’s comments sum it up perfectly: “You can’t make me put more in my mouth.”

Masterson’s Straight Wheat and Straight Barley Whiskey: These are technically a set of Canadian whiskies, but since they are sold by a US company I’m going to include them here. When these were released, I made a comment about buying them and these are so bad that I had someone in another country volunteer to send me a sample of each so that I didn’t waste my money on them. To this day, I consider that lady to be a very good friend. I tried my samples in nosing glasses in a nice hotel room while feeling very relaxed. A good set up for being forgiving to a whiskey. It didn’t help. I struggled through half a sample of each before dumping them out and finding something tastier to get the flavor out of my mouth.

Rebel Yell: I bought this bourbon as part of the Bottom Shelf Bourbon Brackets the first year I did them. It lost in the first round to Old Crow Reserve. At the time, I said I didn’t know what I would do with the bottle because I wasn’t going to drink it. I’ve tried blending it, I tried cooking with it. Nothing worked. Eventually I did find a use for it. It became “Prop Bourbon.” When I need to take a photo for a review, but already finished the bottle, I pour my prop bourbon into the empty bottle for the photo. Afterward I dump it back into the Rebel Yell bottle and stick it back in the closet.

Town Branch Bourbon: I have never purchased this bourbon, but I’ve given this a shot on numerous occasions. I keep thinking that it must just be me. But no matter how many times I come back to it, I just don’t like it. It’s a very pretty bottle, but what’s inside I find repugnant.

Woodford Reserve Master’s Collection Double Malt Selection: This release was two different Malt Whiskies that needed to be purchased separately. I had them at a friend’s house in Louisville. We were both extremely excited to try them and well…he dumped his out. I tried to be polite and finish mine, but was convinced to do the same. This might be the worst thing Woodford has ever released under their name.

Dis-Honorable Mentions

These were also very bad whiskies, but for one reason or another I decided to drop them out of the main category. Either they weren’t quite as bad as the ones above or they are no longer available or available in such limited quantities that they won’t be much help to anyone.

11Wells Rye: This is a small craft distiller here in the Twin Cities. I tasted this at a local retailer along with a group of friends after an event. I also tasted it again at Whiskey on Ice, a local whiskey festival. It’s…not good. Hopefully after some time it will get better but I’ll need to be convinced of that when it happens.

Fleischmann’s Straight Rye: Only available as a plastic handle in Kentucky and Northern Wisconsin, this is not a whiskey to seek out. In fact, it’s not available even in those two places as a “straight” whiskey anymore, that part of the label having been changed. When I bought it, it was less than $12 for a 1.75 L bottle and it was over priced.

Woodford Reserve Master’s Collection Sonoma-Cutrer Pinot Noir Finish: This is bad. If the Double Malt is the worst thing that Woodford ever put their name on, this is the second worst. I’ve had people tell me I’m crazy, but I found this to be terrible.

Yellow Rose Bourbon: I had this at a tasting event that was held at a local chain a couple years ago. My notes at the time mentioned musty, wet corn flakes. And unfortunately, the $70 price tag on a bottle won’t let me give them another chance. There is very little chance you’ll be seeing this on the site as a full-blown review.

So there you have it. Your list will probably be very different. We all taste things differently and we all like different things, but for me these are the worst American whiskies I’ve ever had. What about you though? What’s the worst you’ve had? Let me know in the comments.

UPDATE: So, after fourteen hundred and some odd days after I first made my opinion known on Rebel Yell, I finally got around to trying it again. Here are my updated thoughts: Rebel Yell: Revisited.

Blog

Black Eagle Bourbon Whiskey

Michter’s Barrel Strength Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey

Hoffman Originals, Mr. Lucky Series, Carolers, 1979: The Bourbon.

High West Rendezvous Rye, finished in used bourbon barrels

Hochstadter's Vatted Straight Rye Whiskey

Johnny Drum Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey, 80 proof

My 5 Worst American Whiskies

Dis-Honorable Mentions