Hmmm - no bourbon thread?

Gotten into the bourbon scene in the past few years. I usually keep a rotation of 8 bottles on hand. Within the next month or so I will be down to 7 so I will need to pick up another bottle. Any suggestions?

Here is what I have currently to give you a sense of what I have/like.

Stagg (jr.) but first batch that did not have the jr. label

Blantons (2 bottles currently, one is the one thats going out the door so need to find a replace)

Elijiah Craig Toasted Barrel

Elijiah Craig Barrel Proof A122

Heaven Hill Bottle-in-Bond

Eagle Rare

Knob Creek 12

Was thinking Ezra BP or Larceny BP but could be talked into others.

Elijah Craig BP C923 is probably the best whiskey around as far as taste, price, and availability. Absolute palate puncher.

I'm not a big wheater fan but the Larceny BPs from this year all have received high praise. Breaking Bourbon put 523 in their top 5 whiskies of the year and Fred Minnick put A123 and C923 3 and 2 respectively.

Green River only produces banger bottles as well. Their Bourbon is punchy despite being ~30$ and 90 proof. I don't think paying more for the single barrel gets you much so would recommend sticking with the base offering.

Some potentially less known things I've been sipping on lately

Buzzards Roost Cigar Rye: Pretty standard rye until the finish which coats your mouth with a delicate tobacco flavor that is delightful if you enjoy cigars. They achieve this by toasting their barrel with tobacco leaves

Kings County Single Barrel store pick: Rich with dark fruits, has this rising bitterness in the mid palate that makes you think things are about to fly off the rails then it mellows into a viscous oily mouth coating that I describe as blackberry pie. Unique and delightful

Copper Sky Copper Accord: This is their yearly experimental release and they have a bunch of finished wheaters blended together. Merlot, Amaretto, and Apple Cider finishes. The nose is fantastic. Wine fruits and cider spices mix with the wheat to create a pies/pastries effect. Still can't decide if I like the palate. My two main notes are the wine finish and the wheat, which aren't exactly my jams.

I had Jack Daniel's Bonded Rye a few weeks ago. Surprisingly good and pretty easy to drink. Surprising since normal JD sucks. Worth trying anything else from them?

The Barrel Strength Single Barrel Rye is incredible. Like peanut butter covered banana bread. Pretty hard to find most places though.

Similarly the Barrel Strength Single Barrel Whiskey is quite good and readily available, around me at least.

All their recent special releases have received rave reviews. The 10, the 12, the Double Barrels, all good but highly allocated.

Big fan of the bonded rye as well.

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Basil Hayden is quite good.

Maybe 20 years ago I bought a bottle of Jack Daniel's Monogram at a duty free shop because the bottle had leather around it and looked cool. Also pretty good and easy to drink. Still have half the bottle somewhere though.

This is the correct response to Jim Beam. It's hard to imagine there's anything considerably worse out there among all liquors. Base-level Jack Daniels is not good, but Jim Beam finds a way to be like 2-3 levels worse.

You need a Michters, I don't know where you are but if there is a Bluenote around you should try it

It’s embarrassing how little I know about bourbon/whiskey esp because I’m old af.

The last two nights I went out to dinner I ordered old fashioneds.

Here’s the first and the better of the two:

Vanilla Orange Old Fashioned
1792 small batch bourbon, vanilla-orange syrup - orange & angostura bitters

Would this be considered a decent drink?

Feel like that’s a profile that leans toward that sweeter side. Have you tried an Old Forester 1910 or 1920 before? Around 50 bucks most places, super available, lot of banana and caramel flavors.

Bardstown Discovery around that same price point is one I tried recently and really liked.

So this is just my opinion:

Several years ago, as can be attested to on this forum, I was a big sushi snob. But as far as what other people have and enjoy, who really cares?

Same goes for booze/cocktails. Like what you drink and drink what you like.

(that sounds like a fine cocktail to me as long as it goes light on the syrup, I don't like an old fashioned to be overly sweet)

Drink what you like; eat what you like; enjoy what you like. Life is too short to waste it trying to impress others.

I will pick up a bottle, thank you.

I appreciate everyone’s feedback.

Anyone tried Middle West Whiskeys? If so, any thoughts? Former Whiskey specialist at Total Wine and Spirits recommended it to me after I told her I like Uncle Nearest.

I got a bottle of J. Rieger Straight Bourbon bottled in bond for Christmas: https://www.jriegerco.com/our-spirits/ri...

Couple years ago someone gave me their Straight Rye botted in bond. Unfortunately I have the same feeling with those that I have with most other stuff from young distilleries. Stuff is pretty decent but because it's a local product and the distillery is still relatively new, they charge the same for a 6 YO whiskey than what you pay for a bottle of something like a Glenfiddich 15. That's just ridiculous to me.

I haven't, but I have enjoyed High West lol, like is there a Low West?

Their base offering is solid for a 4 year product. They are doing grain to glass so a true craft whiskey. I tend to like bourbon in the 8 year range and proofed up so it doesn't really do it for me.

I second people that have said Eagle Rare. If you like Buffalo Trace, you’ll love Eagle Rare. I wanna say it’s like $60-75 for 1L, but I don’t know how that compares to upside-down-land.

If you’re going high end, in my opinion Pappy Van Winkle is the best bourbon money can buy. It’s expensive, hard to find, and supply is artificially constrained, though.

If you find any, drink it neat. The person who got it for me (bit of a bourbon snob) was AGHAST that I wanted it on the rocks.

Likely you're just consuming more alcohol, unless you're measuring your drinks and doing napkin algebra while drinking to ensure you're consuming the same amount of alcohol when drinking wine, whiskey, or beer.

Your sleep is being affected whether you think it is or not. How do you think you're getting good sleep when your liver is metabolizing a bunch of booze while you're sleeping?

Also, as you're aware, alcohol is a depressant so it makes sense why when you consume large amounts that your mind has the opposite reaction when it's detoxifying: anxiety.

But hey, if you're down for an old fashioned OOT experiment, let us know what the ABV of the whiskey, wine, and beer you drink, and let's have you consume equal amounts (e.g., 9 ounces of 40% whiskey vs 60oz of 6% beer vs 24oz of 15% wine) alternating each night for a few weeks and document the results each day.

I think the question will also depend if you are mixing spirits vs. having them neat. Mixing them with caffeinated or sugary drinks is going to leave you either not being able to get to sleep as easy or if you wake up in the middle of the morning not being able to get back to sleep as easy. Beer generally has a much better effect of sending you to sleep (including on the couch - haha).

Yeah, I don’t mix scotch or bourbon with anything.

Definitely drinking nothing is the best way to get a better sleep. Then…sometimes I seem to manage to find a good sleep despite drinking, other times not so much. I think it depends what’s on my mind and how things are going.

I mean…I always slept better after a poker win than a big loss for similar reasons

They do this to get teenager girls to drink, don't they?