Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.
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How about another "what are you drinking" thread?
I picked up a bottle of Noah's Mill bourbon based on the recommendation of @yofuckreddit a few months back, and I really enjoy it so far. I usually find the "bourbon" category pretty homogeneous in terms of smell and taste, so I tend to seek out whiskeys with more varied flavors like rye and scotch. But this bottle has some wonderful nutty vanilla notes on the nose with a lingering woody, waxy flavor that helps set it apart from a typical bourbon.
At a friend's place I finally got to try Octomore for the first time. Peated scotch is probably my favorite kind of spirit, and Octomore's claim to fame is having the highest concentration of peat smoke--something like 2-5 times as much as other heavily-peated whiskeys like Laphroaig. The difference is impressive on paper, but on the palate it doesn't really taste much smokier than a Laphroaig or a Port Charlotte; maybe 5-10% smokier. Still an excellent whiskey, and I'm glad I got to try it to satisfy my curiosity, but I don't feel any desire to pay $300 for a bottle of my own.
I'm unreasonably psyched that you both tried a rec and liked it. I've had an excellent hit rate with that in the past and I'm glad it worked out.
Tonight I'll be having people over for a round of the Dune board game, which means I'll need to be alert enough to teach but then get drunk enough to give someone else a fighting chance. I'll be building espresso martinis on top of some elusive, limited run "Bensa Bomb" Ethiopian from my subscription, or I'll eschew the temperamental light roast for a Counter Culture staple. The homemade coffee liqueur gifted by some of my buddies really steps these up a notch over what I can get at a bar, but finding the right time to fuck up your sleep schedule when you have kids is difficult.
I may take the coward's path and just make margaritas.
When visiting Kansas a few weeks ago I dropped almost $500 on whiskey which should last me a significant amount of time, since I have cut back and largely stuck with it since January. I was able to grab Heaven Hill's 7y BiB for something like $40 and I quite enjoy it. The cheap 6 year expression was never available where I live so I don't have the FOMO that kills the taste for those who did have access.
Speaking of FOMO, I'm still milking my 2017 bottle of Rendezvous Rye from High West. I'm preparing to kill it once I have a small group over of people who actually give a shit and have a developed palate, because holy crap the old version is so much better. It doesn't even have the 16-year-old juice in it like the stuff pre-2016 did, but it's perhaps the most succinct way to explain to someone how fucking hard making great whiskey is and why MGP is such a dominant force. The current version is still drinkable, but when you put it alongside its older brother manufactured by someone else it becomes borderline unpalatable.
I attribute a lot of the homogeneity of modern American whiskey to suppliers like MGP. It's not bad, but it's ubiquitous, and I worry that a lot of potential variety and novelty of flavor is missing because so many brands are just bottling one mega-producer's spirits. If it's not MGP, it's often some other supplier of "sourced" whiskey. I've started following this rule-of-thumb: only buy bourbon or rye that says on the label "Distilled AND bottled by..." instead of just "bottled by..." Whiskey needs to come pretty highly-recommended for me to break this rule nowadays.
How do you feel about esoteric finishing and blending though? Things like what Barrell and Bardstown have done have produced pretty interesting results. I don't want Seagrass all the time, but when I do, it's really good.
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