SmokyBeast: January 2015

January 27, 2015

Review and Distillery Tour - Garrison Brothers Distillery - & Our First Guest Post!

Hi all, this is sort of a special occasion - our first guest post! Welcome Dave Robertson hailing from Lexington, KY, a 20+ year bourbon enthusiast, avid writer / traveler, and all around good guy! Say hi to Dave.

I admit it.

I was proud to be a “Bourbon snob”. In fact, it would have been hard for me to not have been. As an alumnus of the University of Kentucky, I live about 25 miles from Woodford Reserve. I’ve been to most of the stops along the Bourbon Trail, I have a fairly well stocked cabinet (with the required 23 year old Pappy and multiple bottles of George T. Stagg of course) and most importantly, I like bourbon. No, I mean I really like bourbon. OK, I really REALLY like bourbon and rarely drink anything else. And finally, though it may be called bourbon, if it didn’t come from inside those white horse farm fences in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, it was just a pretender.

But that all ended this past Saturday during the most bizarre distillery or brewery tour I have ever been on, and for the record that’s a couple of dozen from Seattle to Scotland. It ended in the booming metropolis of Hye, TX (population 105) at the Garrison Brothers Distillery.

Hye, Texas is not the end of the world – but you can see it from there.

I freely admit that I went there prepared to not like the place or their so called “straight Texas bourbon whiskey”. And first impressions kept me right on track. Hye, Texas is not the end of the world – but you can see it from there. And then there’s the brand new multi-million dollar high technology welcome center. Well, the welcome center is indeed new, but I don’t believe anyone would ever mistake it for “high tech”.

“We only had enough money for technology or liquor. We bought more liquor.”

S'mores!!

No one was even there to welcome us for that matter. But there was a nice fire going in one of the several pits, which was much appreciated on a chilly day, and there was complimentary beer, wine and S’mores. No, that wasn’t a typo. Free beer, wine and S’mores – so pull up a chair and start toasting marshmallows!

Don't Let The Snakes Out

And if no chairs are available, there are benches that double as storage boxes. The kind where the seat is also the lid for the box. Nothing particularly notable about them, except the lids on these all say “PLEASE DON’T LET THE SNAKES OUT”. So, it was at this point that I came to the very reasonable conclusion that there was no tour, there was no distillery, and this was a well executed practical joke. But at that moment the “limo” arrived to take us to the distillery itself.

Fat Man & Little Boy

From this point things got as normal as they were going to be for the day and we got the usual “this is bourbon” lecture. But when the tour moved on and we found ourselves in the distilling room, the inmates had clearly taken over the asylum once more. They now have three stills, but for quite a while they only had two. And being that the two don’t resemble each other at all, they have named them “Fat Man and Little Boy”. And that confirmed it for me. These people are either disturbed, deranged, or as they say down here just plain “bat shit crazy”.

“Yep, that’s what we named them. And anyone that is even remotely offended by that probably needs to go somewhere else. This is Texas, we don’t give a damn.”

When we (finally!) got to the tasting room, I was more than prepared to run like hell if we were offered blue Kool-Aid, but instead what I got was a sample of some of the best bourbon I’ve had in a long time. So let’s skip the customary “nutty with hints of oak and honey” and let me say straight up – this is damned good whiskey! Damned good! And these people are having a damned good time making it. It has a distinct sweetness that some people may not care for (I loved it!) but my party unanimously gave it a big thumbs up.

Excellent bourbon made by genuinely nice people apparently having the time of their lives. So what’s not to like? Well, if there is anything to find fault with, it’s the price point. Their 2014 release is $89.00 and their single barrel is $109.00 and to me, that presents a problem. I’ll say it again, I absolutely loved the stuff….but there are a hell of a lot of excellent bourbons to be bought in that price range.

But the bottom line is still that great bourbon, made by great people makes for a great time. So, if you’re ever in the area (no, you go Google it yourself), do yourself a favor and go. Reservations are required, but the S’mores are still free. Enjoy!

Reviews from the Beasts

We happened to get a bottle of Garrison Brothers from some friends (thanks Ali!) right around the time that Dave was at the distillery, so here's our take.

Mrs. Beast: A lot of apple in the nose. A very light bourbon. I like it a lot. Still has a lot of sweetness but not very rich, kind of a crisp nose. The taste has a little pumpkin, like toasted pumpkin seeds, also some salty brine. A good balance of salt and sweet. It opened up very well after having the bottle open for a while.

Mr. Beast: I get the apples, and also some butterscotch and vanilla, some char, and some rye spice on the nose. There's also some harshness, like rubber cement and tin foil. Lots of stuff banging around in the nose... The taste is kind of nice. It's well balanced and pretty rich. There's not much of a finish to speak of, but there's also a noticeable lack of alcohol burn for this young a whiskey. But overall this one is not for me, certainly not at $90. It's a good product from a craft distillery but would have to come in around half the price to get a solid recommendation.

Thanks Dave for our first guest post! Hope to have you back on the beast soon. Cheers!

January 20, 2015

Jim Beam Signature Craft Series Brandy Finish Bourbon

The answer is yes.

There is a difference between bottom shelf bourbons. The difference is simple: Jim Beam is the best. It's bourbon (Jack Daniels is not), it's crisp and clean, and at $13 you just can't mess with it. And it's our lifelong companion when it comes to shooters.

We'd like to put Jim Beam white label in a blind tasting against some of the $60/bottle craft bourbons on the market today. We think it would probably do pretty well. Mental note...

Anyway, a friend sent us a sample of the higher end Jim Beam "Signature Craft Series" so we figured why not? We'd put it to the test...

What They Say

Jim Beam Signature Craft Bourbon Whiskey Rare Spanish Brandy Finish is a limited edition bourbon that pays homage to a bourbon that was released in Australia. Rather than finishing the bourbon in casks that were previously used to mature brandy, Jim Beam Signature Craft Rare Spanish Brandy is made by adding a small aliquot of rare Spanish brandy to the bourbon. As a result, the bourbon has sweet notes of dates, raisins and figs that give way to graceful notes of caramel, vanilla and cinnamon. The finish is gentle and satisfying, with a crisp, sweet finish.

What We Say

Nose: Pleasant if a little too sweet, it's got a lot of honey, red grapes, rock salt and char.

Palate: In our professional opinion: It ain't bad. That's about as far as we can go. It's like Beam with a little sweetness, a little more polish, and a little sherry/grape thing going on.

Finish: Nothing too notable here either. It's very smooth, which is to be expected at 86 proof (but can't be taken for granted) and has a fairly nice lingering finish of cherries and honey.

Conclusion

Meh, skip it. Hope we don't sound like jerks here, but this is something for someone who knows absolutely nothing about whiskey to buy as a present because they recognize the brand and it costs a few extra bucks. It you're a whiskey fan (and if you're reading this, you're probably a whiskey fan) then there are so many better choices for the money (Smooth Ambler, Four Roses, and EH Taylor come to mind). If you're a big Beam fan and a big brandy fan, maybe this is for you, but we don't know anyone who fits that description.

Here's what you do...

Instead of spending $40 on this, buy a bottle of Jim Beam white label for $13. Then buy a case of PBR for $16. You'll still have enough cash for a suitcase of White Castle. And make it THAT kind of night. You deserve it. Cheers/SB

January 13, 2015

Review: Bowmore Devil's Cask

It's time to continue with our Devilish malt series. Last week we reviewed The Arran Malt's Devil's Punchbowl. It was, in a nutshell, not very devilish. So, fiending for something truly devilish, we looked to Islay - the motherland of sinfully peaty beasts - for something with a little more teeth. Enter Bowmore's Devil's Cask.

The requisite marketing pitch on this one is pretty entertaining so here it is from Bowmore:

Legend has it that the devil once visited the church in Bowmore. Now if you’ve ever seen it,you’ll know that the church is circular, built that way (so it’s said) so there would be no corner in which the devil could hide. The local congregation spotted the devil and chased him down through the village, into the gates of Bowmore Distillery. Here, the warehousemen were filling casks and loading them aboard the paddle steamer, The Maid of Islay. Gates and doors locked tight shut, every inch of the distillery was searched, but to no avail. As legend goes, the devil escaped in a cask of Bowmore bound for the mainland.

What Is It?

It's a ten year, cask strength (56.9%) malt that's exclusively sherry matured. Bowmore is well-known for lightly peated malts that spend a decade or more in bourbon barrels. The older Bowmore versions (15, 18, 25 year) are finished in various combinations of sherry casks. So a 100% first-fill sherry cask is very unusual for them.

Tasting Notes

Appearance: It's super dark. Like root beer dark. But we know Bowmore is heavy handed with the food coloring (seriously) so this may or may not be natural.

Nose: This smells entirely like wood polish. Super thick hot mercurial tarry phenol mess. Don't know whether this is a good thing or a bad thing.

Palate: Well it's super thick on the plums/raisins old sherry and peat. We're reaching right for some water on this one. With water it opens up to some approachable-ness. It's quite peaty, which is nice, but the overwhelming sherry and that furniture polish funk still make the taste very tight and not very pleasant. Definitely over-sherried, totally dominating what would be a nice peat, and also some weird bottom-of-the-raisin-box funk.

Finish: The finish is straight up weird. It's all of the things that come out in the nose and palate: mushy raisin funk, heavy peat, and way too much sherry, and they're all banging into each other in un-good ways.

Review

Basically what this is - is a decent peated malt that's been over-sherried and then dumped with enough E150 caramel food coloring to give Benedict Cumberbatch a tan. If you drink enough heavily colored malts you start to develop a taste and smell for the stuff. It's that mushy raisin funk, half overripe fruit and half furniture polish. In moderation it's hard to detect, but when totally abused like with this bottle it's really obvious. And totally ruins the whisky.

While there's no shortage of beast in this one, it's not for us. Try it on for size. A lot of people love it. But for us it's just not the ticket...

Rant

Just one more note about coloring: We're not going to say that coloring is always completely evil. Lagavulin does add coloring, and it's still a star. But what does piss us off is adding coloring and then specifically talking about how beautiful and dark your whisky is. Here's what Bowmore says about Devil's Casks color:

"On the eye deep mahogany Breathe in dark fruits, birch tar, the seductive warmth of old leather, brandy, fruitcake and maple syrup."

Ok yeah, it's like talking about how lovely the red color is on Hawaiian Punch. And not to mention that they actually named their 15 year Bowmore "Darkest" and here's the description:

"Matured in an inspired combination of both bourbon and sherry casks, it's the final three years spent in Oloroso sherry casks that gives Bowmore 15 Years Old 'Darkest', one of the most beautifully balanced Bowmores, the rich, deep colour reflected in its name, and its warming finish."

Ok well that's a flat out lie. It's not the three years in sherry casks that give it the rich, deep color, it's the food coloring. Sorry guys, adding a drop of color to even out the batches and make your whiskey a little more attractive is one thing, but over-doing it and then making the color a marketing gimmick is too much. -end of rant-

Cheers/SB

********

Update, there was a bunch of back and forth about the issue of artificial coloring in Bowmore. We were able to determine that Bowmore 15 "Darkest" does have e150 caramel coloring. Bottles in Germany are required to disclose coloring on the label, and here's a shot of the "Darkest" label from a German bottle:

You can see "med karamel" clearly in the bottom left. By that same logic, the German version of the Devil's Cask bottle should have the same label, but it doesn't (German on the left, UK on the right):

So perhaps we were wrong about this one. Maybe it is in fact natural color! Well you can't accuse us of lacking an opinion... We'd still like to see "Darkest" come clean, ditch the e150, and go natural!

Let us know your thoughts on the Devil's Cask. It certainly wasn't our favorite, but maybe that was just due to too much sherry or something in the wood... Have you tried it? What do you think? cheers/sb

January 6, 2015

Review: The Arran Devil's Punchbowl Chapter III

Bam! Now that's some freakin' packaging!

So What The Hell Is It?

With all this smoke and fire on the cover, we're hoping for a peat monster here. Turns out that's not what we're working with. It's a vatting of 8 Sherry butts, 8 French oak casks and 5 bourbon barrels. No age statements, and likely a mix of Arran malts including lightly peated and non-peated.

Tasting Notes

Nose: Ton of musk going on here, like a fine cologne. Just from the nose you can tell it's a skillful blend of different woods. It's got a lot of the fresh river moss / wet rocks thing going on. Equal parts perfume, fresh river rocks, and sherried malt.

Palate: It's very fresh and smooth. A lot of citrus, honey, and cake.

Finish: Very smooth with little perfume notes trickling up the nasal passages. Guess there's a little spice thing going on at the end, but this is hardly 'devilish'.

Review

It's $130. Is it good? Yes, we'd say it's very good. It's a very skillful mix of casks showing off the sweetness of bourbon casks, the rich sherry notes, and it all really comes together into this fine perfume. If you want to pick it up, you can find it online here or here.

It's supposedly the last of these Devil's Punchbowl releases, hence the "Fiendish Finale" title. Maybe it's sort of collectible? But a couple issues here. One, this isn't really our thing since it's not peated nor does it have a lot of big flavor to it. Much more finesse than boldness. Two, it's tough to spend over a hundred bucks on a NAS (No Age Statement) bottle. If you're going to put out a very expensive NAS, it had better be stupendously good (like Glenmorangie Signet). Otherwise you should just buck up and list the ages of all the ingredients. Why not? They certainly have enough space on the intricate packaging to tell you what's in it. The packaging is so over the top, you have to feel like you're paying a lot just for the box.

Ok maybe we're being too negative. This is a delicious dram, it's very drinkable. Certainly a head and shoulders better than the Machrie Moor that we didn't care for at all. But we're not running out to pick up a bottle. It's a lot of hype for something that at the end of the day is a big mix of casks from a distillery that we don't love. Tons of illustrations with little information about what's in it. And with all that fire, we want more smoke!

Until next time. Cheers/SB

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