Smooth Ambler Big Level Wheated Bourbon

June 14, 2021June 20, 2022 The Scotch NoobReviews4 Comments 11577 views

Apparently running with the “awkward naming convention” thing, “Big Level” is named after West Virginia’s local mountainous terrain. The bourbon is made from a mashbill of 71% corn, 21% wheat, and 8% malted barley, making it a wheated bourbon in the style of Maker’s Mark, Weller, or yes, Pappy Van Winkle. The process water is local West Virginian Appalachian spring water, and some of the grain comes from both local West Virginian farms that produce non-GMO grain. The rest of the grain…

Stellum Spirits Bourbon

May 17, 2021May 18, 2021 The Scotch NoobReviews1 Comment 12414 views

This one is a blend of bourbons from unnamed sources, although the label indicates that they originate from Kentucky, Tennessee, and Indiana. The last one suggests MGP bourbon, but there is a growing list of Tennessee producers and Kentucky could mean anything. Trying to guess the components is probably an exercise in futility. The marketing materials indicate that this is actually a blend of…

Broken Barrel Cask Strength Bourbon

April 5, 2021April 3, 2021 The Scotch NoobReviews1 Comment 13073 views

So here we are, today, once again taking a look at a well-marketed bourbon without the faintest clue to where the liquid is actually distilled. At least Infuse Spirits, makers of the Broken Barrel brand as well as a slew of – hah – infused spirits, is trying to do something innovative. They are doing something similar to what John Glaser of Compass Box wanted to do with the original Spice Tree…

Knob Creek Small Batch Bourbon (9 year) Revisited

March 15, 2021March 13, 2021 The Scotch NoobReviews5 Comments 14092 views

Knob Creek, a Beam brand, was created by bourbon legend and Beam master distiller Booker Noe in 1992. It’s aged longer than most bourbons (9 years), and bottled at a respectable 100 proof. It’s part of Beam’s “Small Batch” collection. In this review, I revisit the whiskey seven years later after buying a 1.75L bottle of it at Costco.

OOLA Waitsburg Bourbon

January 18, 2021October 9, 2021 The Scotch NoobReviews1 Comment 12491 views

This is 5 year-old bourbon which was previously sourced and blended but is now all made with a four-grain mashbill distillate from OOLA’s own small distillery in Seattle. They’re using locally-grown Washington State soft white winter wheat and organic corn from Waitsburg, WA, along with locally-sourced barley and rye. The mashbill, which probably changes based on grain availability, is around…

Wild Turkey Longbranch

January 4, 2021December 20, 2020 The Scotch NoobReviews3 Comments 17114 views

For less than 40 bones you get 8 year-old Wild Turkey Kentucky Straight Bourbon, which has been mellowed using a similar process to Jack Daniel’s and other Tennessee Whiskies. Instead of filtering it through 10 feet or whatever of sugar maple charcoal, Longbranch is circulated first through American white oak charcoal (the same oak used for barrels) and then through Mesquite charcoal from McConaughey’s native state of Texas.

Old Tub Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon

December 21, 2020December 21, 2020 The Scotch NoobReviews5 Comments 18110 views

Old Tub is what Jim Beam used to be called a century ago when it was first sold in bottled form. The name changed to “Jim Beam” in 1943 and the previous brand name was relegated to a Kentucky-only low-volume release. Now, in 2020, Beam has released a limited edition renewal of the Old Tub brand. It’s still bottled-in-bond, and in an effort to lend the release some authenticity the whiskey is not chill-filtered and also not charcoal filtered. Honestly, I don’t know why in 2020 any whisky company still…

Old Soul Blended Straight Bourbon

December 7, 2020December 5, 2020 The Scotch NoobReviewsLeave a comment 11604 views

…Cathead has taken three straight bourbons and blended them together, so the term is apropos. The first two (totaling 90% of the blend) are 4 year-old MGP sourced bourbons and the third (at 10% of the blend) is Cathead’s own 2-year-and-1-month-old Mississippi bourbon. It’s not specified on the website, but I’m guessing there’s not much of the own-distilled juice to go around so they decided to…

Very Old Barton 86 Proof

November 9, 2020August 9, 2021 The Scotch NoobReviews8 Comments 18352 views

First in the series, we have Very Old Barton 86 Proof. The whiskey is all from the Barton distillery in Bardstown, Kentucky which is owned by Sazerac (Buffalo Trace), and was renamed to the Barton 1792 Distillery in 2009. Very Old Barton (which is not old, and certainly not Very Old) used to have a “6 years old” age statement on the bottle, which was changed to a lonely misleading “6” on the neck, and then dropped altogether. The company claims…

Very Old Barton 90 Proof

November 9, 2020November 7, 2020 The Scotch NoobReviewsLeave a comment 15811 views

It seems pretty silly to follow a bourbon review with a second review of the exact same thing, but 2% stronger. As far as I can tell online, there’s no other difference. Same age “ish” (4-6 years), same mash bill (75% corn, 15% rye, and 10% malted barley), same distillery (Barton 1792 Distillery)… 2% stronger. Woo. But why tho? Why indeed…