Old Tub Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon

December 21, 2020December 21, 2020 The Scotch NoobReviews5 Comments 23502 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 13467 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 NoobReviews9 Comments 27055 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 20148 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…

Very Old Barton 100 Proof

November 9, 2020November 7, 2020 The Scotch NoobReviews6 Comments 22682 views

This one is a little confusing – there are actually TWO Very Old Barton straight bourbons that are 100 proof. One says “Bottled-in-Bond” on it, the other – this one – doesn’t. Internet scuttlebutt (there’s a word I don’t get to use often enough) claims that parent company Sazerac was forced to mix VOB from different distilling seasons when one of its warehouses collapsed in June (and then finished collapsing in July) of 2018. Mixing distilling seasons means…

J.H. Cutter Whiskey

August 31, 2020August 29, 2020 The Scotch NoobReviewsLeave a comment 16537 views

The liquid, in fact, is a blend of 73% sourced bourbon from Bardstown (aka Kentucky Bourbon Distillers / KBD aka Willett), 17% Old Potrero 18th Century Style Rye Whiskey (which is 100% malted rye), and 10% Old Potrero Port Finish Rye Whiskey. Old Potrero is one of Anchor’s whiskey brands, distilled and aged in San Francisco, California. The reported ages of the components…

Barrell Cask Strength Bourbon (Batch 017)

August 3, 2020October 18, 2021 The Scotch NoobReviews5 Comments 13223 views

So here we are, a day late and about ninety dollars short to talk about a bottle you can’t buy anymore. Batch 017 was released in early 2019 and is intended to be an homage to “classic” bourbon — the kind that is suddenly hard to find on shelves. It’s a blend of straight bourbon whiskies from Tennessee, Indiana, and Kentucky. The three component whiskies were all rye-flavored bourbons (mash bill corn, rye, and malted barley) aged 10 years and 4 months, 14 years, and 15 years so this bottle is “officially” 10 years and 4 months old. It’s up to you if you want to mentally count the extra age…

Woodinville Straight Bourbon

July 20, 2020July 18, 2020 The Scotch NoobReviews1 Comment 15788 views

Woodinville Straight Bourbon is a Washington State straight bourbon that is pot distilled by Woodinville Whiskey Company in Woodinville, Washington state. The distillery, established in 2010, was acquired in 2017 by Moët Hennessy (LVMH), which might explain why it’s now popping up on store shelves. All of the grain for distillation comes locally, from…

McKenzie Bottled-in-Bond Wheated Bourbon

June 8, 2020April 11, 2022 The Scotch NoobReviewsLeave a comment 16039 views

The distillery uses local New York grains milled using their on-site hammer mill. The mash for the Wheated Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon – 70% local corn, 20% red winter wheat, 10% malted barley – is double-distilled using a Vendome continuous still and copper thumper (basically a secondary spirit still), although the company also has a…

Henry McKenna Bourbon

May 4, 2020July 26, 2021 The Scotch NoobReviews2 Comments 23372 views

In fact, Henry McKenna is made from the same mashbill (75% corn, 13% rye, 12% barley) as Elijah Craig and Evan Williams. Bottles can be found for $15 or less, and even 1-liter bottles are available in some markets for about the same. That’s some inexpensive whiskey, even though it’s definitely younger and lower ABV (40%) than its cousin brands.