Tasting Three Four Roses Single Barrels, NASA Liquors and Elliot's Select Limited Release

October 4, 2016

Tasting Three Four Roses Single Barrels, NASA Liquors and Elliot's Select Limited Release

Dear faithful beasties,

Sorry for the lack of new reviews over the past few weeks!  We've been up to our necks getting Beast Masters Club off the ground.  (Thanks to those who've signed up so far!!). We had our first event on Friday with Joe Beatrice of Barrell Bourbon and it was awesome. The podcast of our interview will be up in the next couple of days, and our first private barrel pick is already on sale.

Back to the Grind

Anyway, last night we got the chance to catch up on some bottle tasting, and the first thing we wanted to dive into were some of the new Four Roses single barrels. Our friends at NASA Liquors just released two barrels, and they always pick great stuff. Plus, we had a bottle of the 2016 Limited Release Single Barrel, the first one chosen by new Master Distiller Brent Elliot on hand.  So why not a three-way?  (Is there ever a good answer to that question?)

NASA Liquors Four Roses Private Barrel 36-2D
8-Years, 9-Months Old OBSQ 57.7%

Nose: This one comes at you with a fairly punchy nose, mostly honey, mint, and some citrus (grapefruit?). Coming back in you get a nice dose of leather. There's not a ton going on here with the nose but it's nice and composed.

Palate: Fairly thin mouthfeel with lots more mint coming through on the tongue.

Finish: Pretty hot finish, like pink peppercorns and spirit heat.

Review: This is a nice bourbon.  It's super drinkable for over 115 proof!  The spice and mint flavors are way out front.  It lacks the rich vanilla, molasses, char, cocoa that we'd look for in a top-level Four Roses bourbon, but all-in-all we'd definitely buy more of this if we found it on the shelf.


"Elliott's Select" 2016 Limited Edition Single Barrel
14 Years Old OESK Barrel 47-16 Warehouse QN 53.1%

Nose: There's something strange about the nose on this one. You can tell it's got some age on it, and that's good. The wood is there and it's nicely integrated into the spirit. But there's a weird kind of funk to the nose here that's just not doing it for us. It's kind of meaty, but not the good bbq meaty that we like, more of a chunky meaty. Ok that made no sense.  It's hard to explain.

Palate: It's got a CrackerJacks thing going on with caramel, popcorn, and nuts.

Finish: It goes pretty sour and wood heavy on the finish.  Not really an enjoyable aftertaste on this guy.

Review: Not a bad whiskey per se, but there's just some weird stuff here. It goes from meaty to sour. There's something nice in between with some richness and wood, but it doesn't carry through to the end. While all of the limited release Four Roses bottles have been pretty good in the last few years, this one isn't a standout.


NASA Liquors Four Roses Private Barrel 1-2M
9-Years, 6-Months Old OBSV Warehouse JE 59.7%

Nose: This one's hitting all the right notes: rich, woody, char, mint, spice, a really nice complex nose going on here.

Palate: Fuller on the mouth than the other two and packing a brilliant punch of good spirit warmth, spice, sweetness, and nuts. Hersey's chocolate with almonds.

Finish: For the highest proof bottle so far, this one finishes up beautifully. It has less heat than the first bottle, and way more richness and length in the finish than the 4RLE.

Review: This is the great thing about private barrels, sometimes you just get a gem. This one is definitely that. Granted, we're big fans of the OBSV recipe with its spicy high-rye mashbill and its creamy and fruity yeast, so some of this may be personal preference. But this one drinks like a dream. At almost 120 proof, with big bold flavors, this is a beast of the highest caliber.




Thanks again for the patience over the last month. We've really been putting a ton of work into Beast Masters Club and we hope that you all join and listen as we explore whiskey with some of the brightest minds in the game. But we are also committed to continuing to write the reviews that brought you to this site in the first place.  Keep in touch, and let us know what you'd like to read about!

Cheers/SB

The Last Unicorn - Smooth Ambler Old Scout Rye Unicorn Private Barrel

August 23, 2016

The Last Unicorn - Smooth Ambler Old Scout Rye Unicorn Private Barrel

Trying to find funny things to say about unicorns got weird quickly.  First there were some decent memes, like this one.

Cute, self-deprecating and using an animal photo - pretty much everything a meme should be.  But then the very next link was... this.

Guess that's one way to win an argument.  Really don't know what to say here. But then... well there's just really nothing to say about this guy.

Errrr.... So yeah let's just get on to the review.

Today we're tasting a true unicorn, one of the last Smooth Ambler private barrel ryes. The "unicorn" was a local Kentucky selection (from Liquor Barn? someone pls confirm). Sadly Smooth Ambler ran out of stock for its private barrel rye program last year and this was the last release. Like all the SOAS private ryes, it's a cask strength 99% rye that's unchillfiltered and straight from the barrel. This one comes in at 119 proof. 

Tasting Notes

Nose: Mint and toffee forward on this one. It lacks the fullness of some of the epic SOAS ryes, but it's got many of the elements we're looking for. Oak, vanilla, little bit of leather and honey. It's not a particularly spicy one, and doesn't have super big richness, but still a very respectable nose.

Palate: It drinks incredibly well for a near 120 proof monster. We didn't reach for water. The mouthfeel is thin, but the flavor is very nice, adding a little pepper to the mint and honey. 

Finish: Nice lasting finish for a rye, this one leaves you with a little spirit burn that's not quite balanced by the other flavors, but all-in-all it's a good finish.

Review

MAN we're going to miss these awesome private rye barrels! There were some seriously incredible bottles in this line. Astor Wines' 9-year rye was outstanding. The Anniversary Smooth Ambler 10-Year was dynamite. And of course SmokyBeast Rye #1 was... like... duh.  Maybe it's not super surprising that the unicorn was the last barrel chosen. It's not in the same league as the others. But it's still a righteous bottle. Seeing as all these ryes come from MGP/LDI, we'd like to appeal to the whiskey Gods for more of these releases. Surely they must have more stock aging somewhere. Right??  Anyway this was a treat and we're saving the last few drams of this.  The end of an era!  Unicorn man would surely approve. Also, your argument is invalid.  SB out.

Malts of Scotland - Eilean a Chuirn Lighthouse

August 4, 2016

Malts of Scotland - Eilean a Chuirn Lighthouse

We keep finding ourselves buying more of these Malts of Scotland independent bottlings. What's not to like? They are all uncolored, unfiltered, cask strength monsters. They come in the coolest squat medicinal bottles.  And they seem to have limitless supplies of super peaty Islay malts. So far so good.

The "Images of Islay" line appears to be a range of single malts from distilleries that asked Malts of Scotland for non-disclosure as to the source of the whisky. This is pretty common for distilleries like Ardbeg and Lagavulin which will agree to sell barrels to various bottlers but would prefer it not made public. This is why you rarely see an independent bottling of Lagavulin, though there are a few out there labelled anonymously. Each Images of Islay features a different Islay landmark on the label like "Cattle at Islay Graveyard" "Round Church of Bowmore" "Port Ellen Lighthouse" "Soldier's Rock", or this one, "Eilean a Chuirn Lighthouse".

In this case, the stuff is almost certainly Ardbeg. It's got the flavor profile written all over it. Also the Eilean a Chuirn lighthouse is located on the southeastern tip of Islay, with the closest distillery being Ardbeg. Also the guy in the store told us it was Ardbeg.

We want to get in touch with Malts of Scotland! We dropped a note on their 'contact us' page, but didn't hear back. If anyone knows them, please introduce us!

Tasting Notes

Nose:  Brilliant phenolic explosion on this one. Limes and bandaids, tons of tropical fruit all wrapped up in the smoke like grilled pineapple, mango, coconut, maybe just the whole palm tree. Some little bursts of skunky cactus, aloe vera, or - agave? (have we been drinking too much mezcal?? No it's there!)

Palate: Lighly oily mouthfeel on this one. Some more traditional flavors come out in the mouth - white grapes, some light oak tannins, white chocolate.

Finish: Damn is this just incredibly smooth for a cask strength (106.4 proof) whisky! Not a big bruiser of a finish at all, this is all elegance. Everything comes together nicely with the smoke carrying a brush of sweetness. That strange fruity skunk aspect remains (not using "skunk" in a bad way here, it's quite nice).

Review

This is a great straight-ahead Islay malt. Strong, smooth, smoky, and sweet without too much cask influence. Guessing this is in the 8-9 year age range and just a lovely expression of what a simple well-treated Islay malt can do.

Cheers/SB

A Wheater Tasting at Wheated Brooklyn

April 19, 2016

A Wheater Tasting at Wheated Brooklyn

People ask us all the time where to go for bourbon in NYC. The truth is, it's tough. Anyone with a decent selection gets swamped with investment bankers until they either run out or take a hint and raise their prices through the roof. Luckily a new solution has presented itself in the form of a slightly off-the-beaten-path whiskey & pizza joint near Prospect Park.  Meet Wheated.

The Bar at Wheated

"Lesson learned," says owner David Sheridan, "don't name your bar after a very specific spirit that's about to become nearly impossible to supply!" He's talking of course about the explosion in popularity of wheated bourbon that's been taking place over the last few years inspired by Pappy Van Winkle.

The solution? Buy your own barrel of wheated bourbon from a local craft distiller and make it your house brand. David purchased his cask of McKenzie Single Barrel Bourbon from Finger Lakes Distilling in upstate New York.

David Sheridan - Proprietor

You'd be happy too... It's a 4.5 year old high-corn wheated mashbill bourbon that only produced 129 bottles at cask strength.

The McKenzie is really nice, very fresh with a familiar rich wheat nose (not unlike a young Van Winkle) that's popping with mint and florals, vanilla, honey, and a nice drop of saddle leather. It definitely tastes older than it is and sits in a really smooth place for almost 110 proof.

The other nice part about this bottle is that it's sitting on a table full of brother and sister wheaters. It turns out Wheated is a good place to go if you like drinking wheated bourbon.

We taste through this lovely mix of craft wheaters and some all time favorites.

Dry Fly was a big surprise. Looking at the bottle you'd think "ok we're in for another super young marketing experiment gone awry." But not at all! Dry Fly is a serious farm to bottle operation with a real eye for quality and craftsmanship. The product was deceptively rich and lovely for a three year bourbon. They use a higher percentage of malt (20%) than you'd usually find in a bourbon. It was very drinkable, and captured some of that spice and molasses that you look for in an older wheated bourbon. A very nice surprise.  (Maybe a bottle redesign would help this brand??)

After our last experience with the Jim Beam Signature Spanish Brandy Whiskey, we almost passed on this one without tasting it. That would have been a big mistake! We were pleasantly surprised. The "Red Wheat" Beam bottle was lovely with a combination of smoothness with rich notes, sweets, and earthiness.  SOOO much better than the brandy, they're not even in the same league.

This Buffalo Trace Single Oak Project #168 was one of the best in this lineup that we've tasted. Another cracking wheater, it had a very dry and sophisticated palate going on with subtle spice, grass/hay, and vanilla.

For reference sake, David threw in a couple of old standards: Weller 12 Year and Old Rip Van Winkle 10 Year.  These were superior bourbons to the craft brands, yet we both marveled at how well both the McKenzie and the Dry Fly held up. Considering folks are paying $300 a bottle for the Van Winkle, and the Weller is getting extremely hard to come by, it's great to see new wheaters coming out. If these two continue to put aside some stock for aging, we bet that in a few years they'll be right on par, if not better, than the older mass produced stuff. Still, both Weller 12 and ORVW are delicious whiskies and a righteous addition to any wheater party.

It's time for dinner. If we keep drinking at this pace on empty stomachs we're going to end up singing Commodores' numbers with our pants down (don't ask). Luckily David's crew makes the meanest meatball calzone in recent memory, served with homemade Sriracha sauce. Pair that with a smoked meat and hot pepper pizza and we're in heaven.

"Won't all that spicy food blow your palate?" you may be asking? Well luckily the next whiskey on our list is a real barn-burner (no pun intended).

We've been resisting the Garrison Brothers Cowboy Bourbon because it's $200/bottle. Generally speaking, we need another $200 craft bourbon like we need a hole in the head. But lo and behold it's pretty fuggin awesome. The most comparable thing would be the Balcones Texas Single Barrel that we got to taste recently (aka the bottle that does not exist). It's like a huge George T Stagg of craft corn/wheat whiskey. Just exploding with richness and flavor. Are we going to run out and spend $200 on it? It's still a big ask, but we were surprised by how good it was for sure.

Finally, since we'd never tasted it, David brought out one more treat to finish the night. The Kavalan Soloist. Now here's a whiskey that's gotten so much fanfare we figured it had to be something special. And maybe it was just because we'd been drinking so much nice mellow wheated whiskey all night, but this stuff was so cloyingly sweet it was almost hard to get down. Sort of like a Speyside malt whisky with so much sherry influence it totally overwhelms the whisky. It must be a first fill sherry cask (really it tastes like they actually added sherry to the malt). This one was a big miss, but still a cool way to end the night. David carries an impressive menu of single malts in addition to the American whiskey list. We may have to go back and sample through more of those...

Anyway Wheated is a winner. A very warm environment, good family style place for an early dinner, and one of the best whiskey lists in NYC.  Cheers to David for showing us a great time and if you're in the area, tell 'em the beast sent you!

Review: Smooth Ambler 8-Year Rye - Private Barrel Program of the Year

July 15, 2014

Review: Smooth Ambler 8-Year Rye - Private Barrel Program of the Year

The hottest private barrel program this year is Smooth Ambler's Old Scout Rye.  John Little and company have been dipping into their stash of LDI (Lawrenceburg Distillers, Indiana) rye and bottling eight year cask strength goodness for liquor outfits around the country.  These brilliant picks have been bottled for spots around the country like Astor Wines in New York, Kenwood Liquors in Chicago, and Red Dog Wine & Spirits in Nashville.  Basically anyone who's anyone has their own barrel of Smooth Ambler by now.

8-Year Single Barrel Cask Strength Smooth Ambler Old Scout Rye, 63.4% ABV

What Are Private Barrels?

We've been getting this question a lot lately, so here's a quick summary about private barrels.  Whiskey brands like Smooth Ambler, Four Roses, Willett, High West, Buffalo Trace, and Jefferson's distribute to retailers in a few different ways.  They sell cases of their standard bottles, for example Four Roses Small Batch or Buffalo Trace Bourbon.  They also sell limited release bottles which are allocated, like Four Roses 125th Anniversary and Buffalo Trace Antique Collection - of which stores would be lucky to get five or six bottles.

Another option for retail stores is to buy a whole barrel of whiskey.  Typically when a store buys a barrel, they're not literally purchasing a barrel full of whiskey.  In other words there's no man with a donkey cart rolling up and dropping a full barrel on their stoop.  The seller still takes care of the bottling, delivering cases of bottles to the store.  They will often use a custom label denoting who's chosen the barrel.  A barrel is anywhere from 100-250 bottles, so the store gets a big shipment of custom bottles from their private barrel.  Here are various private barrel labels of Smooth Ambler:

Kenwood Liquors and other private barrel picks (photo: Josh Nibert Photography)

In addition to liquor stores, various whiskey clubs, restaurants, and bars can also participate in the private barrel program. SmokyBeast hasn't (yet!) gotten to choose our own barrel, but it sounds like a fun task.  You either visit the producer or receive barrel pick samples in the mail.  Then you taste your way through all the available barrels until you find your ideal choice.  There are sometimes options of different proofs (cask strength vs standard proof), ages, recipes, and different finishes (whiskey that completed its aging in a port or sherry cask).  Liquor stores will sometimes request to keep the empty barrel for display purposes.

Private Barrel Display at Healthy Spirits 

Much like a great butcher will become famous for selecting the best cuts of meat, barrel selection is also an art form.  There are huge differences in barrels from the same distillery.  Some would say that the warehouse and barrel of a particular whiskey you're drinking is even more important than the age or the recipe.  You may also notice that very premium whiskies like Van Winkle, BTAC, or Willett can be the same age and from the same distillery as much cheaper bottles.  What is the difference?  Most likely proof and barrel selection...  We've done extensive "research" into drinking different Willett private barrels, and we can verify that there are gems of barrels that have been chosen by the wise zen master barrel pickers.  For this reason, private barrel programs become very hot, and when one shop's barrel is deemed to be very good, everyone wants to choose a barrel from that brand.

Astor Wines Smooth Ambler Private Barrel

One final note, we've been using words like "brand" and "producer" instead of "distillery" because many of these companies are NDPs (non-distiller producers).  In other words the barrels being selected were not distilled by Smooth Ambler or High West, they were sourced by them from one of the big distilleries.  In Smooth Ambler's case this is Lawrenceburg Distillers Indiana.  So in effect, they've been selected from a small subset of barrels that were already chosen via a similar process on a much larger scale.

Appalachian Whiskey Society Private Barrel (photo: Josh Nibert Photography)

This year's private Smooth Ambler barrel from Kenwood Liquors seems to have set the trend, and now stores are hot on Smooth Ambler picks.  While these private barrels won't reach the lunatic collectibility of the uber-aged Willett and Van Winkle private barrels, they are some of the best ryes to come out this year.  With a very reasonable price point ($45-$65 or so) there are a lot of people stocking up on these at the moment.

Tasting Notes - Smooth Ambler 8 Year Rye Single Barrel 63.4%

Nose:  Sweet buttered popcorn, mint, pops of vanilla, bbq sauce, oak, and a tiny hint of pickle brine. 

Palate:  Very drinkable, staying in the sweet category with mocha/cocoa, a little citrus, some hot chiles, oak & char.   

Finish:  Solid spirit warmth, a little more char/smoke, sweets and wood.  

Line of Smooth Ambler Whiskies (photo: Josh Nibert Photography)

Review

Just about everything Smooth Ambler has put out is pretty good.  The 7-year Old Scout Rye, and the 10-year Old Scout Bourbon are both worth picking up.  Their former releases of 11, 14, and 19-year Very Old Scout bottles were awesome.  But if you can get your hands on any of these cask strength private barrels, pull the trigger without hesitation.  Hopefully the success of the first run of this program will mean more honey barrel of SAOS coming soon!

It looks like San Francisco Wine Trading Company has a private Smooth Ambler barrel in stock now.  If you're interested, don't wait!

Cheers/SB