First try of Bourbon

[IrondeQuer]

Quick update: Since this first posting and my hesitancy to move away from Scotch, I've tried Wild Turkey Rare Breed, Makers Mark, Bulleit and Knob Creek. With the exception of the Rare Breed, I might now be hooked on bourbon. I never would have thought it!

[_John_]

Wild Turkey is definitely the outlier there. Can you taste them well enough to know what it is you don't like? That Rare Breed has really high ABV so that would be my guess.

[IrondeQuer]

Not sure _John_, but it tastes medicinal or metallic to me. There's a chemical after taste to it that I don't care for. There's none of that in the others.

[David Parrish]

I love me some Knob Creek. It's my current fav.

[emil.glatz]

Hiram Walker and Sons. Long discontinued. Too bad. Anyone remember what the actual name was? My grandpa called it "Loudmouth." And my great uncle claimed it made him smarter...

[Livermoron]

For me, the Costco sized Bulleit is the best "bang for the buck", but I've been working over the Michter's offerings lately.

We call it "dessert bourbon"...

[Henrik]

Knob creek is really good, so is Bulleitt and Woodford reserve.

For those of you that either:

A: don't add any water/ice, or
B: just add ice, or
C: add both,

Here's a taste challenge for you. Pour yourself a shot (say 5 cl) of your favorite bourbon in two glasses. That is two glasses, with 5 cl each. Now add just water, 1-2 cl to one glass.

Now sample the one with the water added, and notice how much smoother it is. The water removes a bit of that edge, and opens up the flavors. Now try the unmodified one and compare. Which one do you prefer?

I find that ice cools off the drink too much. Colder drink means less flavor. And if someone spent 15-20 years making it I want all the flavor that's in there 😄

I'm not trying to tell anyone how to enjoy their bourbon, you know that best yourselves, but if you haven't done the A/B test with a splash of water I can recommend it. Most (but definitely not all) whiskies/bourbons tun out better in my opinion.

[fzxdoc]

Blanton's. Delicious!

Kathryn

[JCBBQ]

Yes!! That's my favorite.

[JeffJ]

I like bourbon but I'm a single malt scotch guy all the way.

[learning pellets]

In the under $50 group
Angels Envy - very good, similar to scotch since its aged in port barrels
Elmer T Lee - same recipe as Pappy, although getting hard to find on OH, NKY

[fzxdoc]

Angels Envy, mmmMMMMmmm.

Kathryn

[IrondeQuer]

Y'all have turned me into a bourbon drinker (although I can't turn fully away from single malts). A little cooking help for the holidays:

[David Parrish]

NICE, Share!

[choffert]

Best kept secret out there for affordable/drinkable bourbon....wait for it......Evan Williams Single Barrel...talk about bang for your buck....mmmmmmmmmmm, tasty.

[IrondeQuer]

Gonna put that one on the list, choffert

[billg71]

You should, it's as good as any single-barrel up to about twice it's price. I like the Woodford, too.

[LangInGibsonia]

Evan Williams makes a cherry bourbon that is terrible for drinking on its own but is great mixed with lemonade in the summer.

[Huskee]

I bought some of that to try many months ago. If you don't like Nyquil or Robitusssin you won't like it!

[Rfuilrez]

So since this is where we are talking about booze, I'll share this here.

Recently, my brother bought me an OakBottle for my birthday. He got himself one. While I haven't had a chance to use mine, he said the results are incredible.

Basically it's a bottle made of oak, hence the name. Lol. You put alcohol of your choice in it and it ages it. Fast.

Http://www.oakbottle.com/

Apparently it works really well. The left jar is plain Johnny Walker Red. The right is after 72hours in the barrel. He lives 900miles away, so I didn't get to try it. But he said it was significantly smoother.

[Huskee]

That's pretty cool. How long does it last? Can you keep reusing & reusing it?

[Atalanta]

I just missed the kickstarter for that. I want to try aging some of my bitters in oak to see what happens.