Bourbon+ Premiere Issue

October 18, 2018 Eric Burke

I state in my Statement of Ethics that, if I ever discuss a product that is produced by one of my friends, I will disclose it at the beginning of the article. Fred Minnick is my friend. And while I don’t know his exact relationship with the publication he is Editor-in-Chief of, I did buy the subscription to support his work. All opinions on that work are my own, but it won’t hurt to keep in mind that I might be biased.

IMAGE: The premiere issue of Bourbon+. A magazine about bourbon.

It’s been over 15 years now since I started my career. My second career, actually. My first was as a shipping coordinator at a metal stamping factory. Eventually, the grind of factory work wore on me to the point where a change was needed. Enter college and a fancy degree in graphic design.

My first real job in my new career was as one of a team of designers for a log home magazine. I eventually worked my way up to the Design Director position. I had a team of designers and was in charge of how the magazine looked and the experience our readers had as they interacted with it.

One of the proudest moments of my working life was when I walked into a random Barnes & Noble, in a part of the country that was nowhere near home, and found one of “my” issues of the magazine on the newsstand. If the world had developed smartphones yet, I would have probably snapped a photo of the page with my name on it.

Eventually, that job went away, and I moved on to other areas of design work. First newspapers, then agencies, marketing departments and now freelance. But my love of magazines never went away. Somewhere in the back of my head was a little dream that one day I would make my own. So it was with great interest that I learned that my friend Fred Minnick was going to be the Editor-in-Chief of a new Bourbon-focused publication. If I wasn’t going to realize my little idea, I couldn’t think of a better person to vicariously realize it through.

Bourbon+ Premiere Issue

Purchase Info: I subscribed to this at a $35 yearly subscription price. I see on the Bourbon+ website that you can do it for $30 if you so desire.

Nose: The delightful odor of ink on paper.

Mouth: Are you kidding? I’m not tasting this… I will however keep tasting the Four Roses OESQ single barrel that I was sipping on while I read the issue.

The issue is delightful. The book is a satisfying nine by eleven-ish inches in size. The paper feels like it has a slightly “soft-touch” coating to it. Most people like this…I’m not a fan, but I can live with it. The issue is beautiful. The layout is easy to read, with large and luxurious margins. It’s filled with beautiful large full-page, full-color photos. Even the ads are good looking. And the content?

Well, the content is fantastic. I mean, with names like Fred Minnick, Carla Carlton, Chuck Cowdery and Lew Bryson in the issue excellent content is expected. And the excellent content was delivered. There are departments and columns covering everything from entertaining to cocktails to craft distilling. Feature articles include a profile on Maker’s Mark’s Bill Samuels Jr., the science of corn, and even rum. This is a wide-ranging and comprehensive read covering all of the interests of the bourbon lover. I loved it and can’t wait until the next issue.

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Four Roses Single Barrel: Private Selections from Binny's, OESQ and OESF

August 23, 2018 Eric Burke

IMAGE: Side label of 2 Private Selections of Four Roses Single Barrel showing they were purchased from Binny's Beverage Depot

Well, my wife left.

Not forever, just for the weekend. It's times like this when I realize just how much she does around here. Sure, I do a fair bit of the cooking even when she is here but that isn't what I'm talking about. No, she performs that greatest of all tasks: she deflects the kid.

My daughter is a bit of a worrier. Add in the fact that she is in her mid-twenties, and hasn't realized that other people know things yet, and you have the makings of a doting and slightly condescending young lady. One who is pretty sure that I can't take care of myself for a few days even though I took care of her for somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 years.

Luckily I convinced her that I wouldn't starve this evening and she decided to go out to see her boyfriend...now I just need to find something to eat. I had planned to run to the store before she left but I didn't, and she took the car. Guess she wasn't that worried.

But even though I may not know what I am going to eat, I have a pretty good idea of what I am going to drink this evening. Last weekend my wife and I tasted two different private selections of Four Roses from Binny's in Bloomington, Illinois. Binny's is mostly a Chicago chain, but they have a couple of locations further south in Illinois that I drive past on my to and from Kentucky.

These particular Four Roses Private Selections are OESF and OESQ. To my palate, these are the yeasts that are furthest from the classic bourbon flavor profile of caramel and spice. The F and Q yeasts tend to bring in more floral, fruity, and herbal notes. As such, they are some of my favorites to buy as private selections as they are both delicious and add a bit of fun to any blends I happen to make.

Four Roses Single Barrel Private Selections: Binny's OESQ and OESF

Purchase Info: Each bottle was $59.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Binny's Beverage Depot, Bloomington, IL.

Details: OESQ: 9 years 5 months old and 57% ABV. OESF: 9 years 6 months old and 56.7% ABV.

Nose:
OESQ: Caramel, cherry, dusty oak, and hints of leather.
OESF: Caramel, mint and citrus.

Mouth:
OESQ: Nice mouthfeel. Floral, fruity and mint notes. The proof brings a nice tingly warmth.
OESF: Proof brings a lot of heat. Once you get past that it follows the nose with sweet sweet caramel, herbal mintiness, and fruity citrus notes.

Finish:
OESQ: Longer side of medium. Dusty oak precedes lingering spicy, floral, and cherry notes.
OESF: Long and warm. Lingering cherry and mint.

IMAGE: A hand drawn heart because I love these!

Thoughts: I was super excited to find the F and Q versions of this on the same shelf. I had to talk my wife into allowing both to travel home with us, but we are both very glad that they did. The Q is my favorite of the two as I am loving the floral notes. My wife prefers the rich caramel of the F.

A refreshing summer cherry limeade...with booze!

August 21, 2018 Eric Burke

IMAGE: An antique collins glass filled with liquid ranging from clear at the top to a cloudy red at the bottom. Two cherries on a skewer are balanced on the rim as a garnish.

Even though tonight I'm sitting here with the windows open enjoying a nice breeze and temps in the low 70s—low 20s if you use the less precise space points that most of the world uses—this has been an overly warm summer here in Minnesota. Multiple instances of 110°+ (40°+ LSSP) heat index has driven me indoors for a good portion of the summer.

Now, I'm not one to complain about heat. Legitimate chances of snow 9-10 months out of the year will do that to you after 40-plus years of dealing with it. No, but that doesn't mean I don't want to enjoy a nice refreshing drink when the heat proves to be a little too much to handle (or sometimes even when it doesn't). And it just so happens that I stumbled across just such a refreshing drink while making this year's batch of Orange-Spiced Cocktail Cherries. It's really simple actually. I just mixed equal amounts of the syrup and lime juice and topped with soda water. But since much of the country has ripe cherries in the store at the moment and probably also has a few more months of lemonade weather, I thought it might be nice to share the recipe. And the recipe you'll need to make the recipe.

Arok's Cherry Limeade

2 oz Orange Spiced Cherry Syrup (see recipe below)
2 oz fresh squeezed lime juice (use less if it gets too tart or add some sugar...I like it tart though)
1 oz 100° proof bourbon (or higher, if you'd like)
Ice
Soda water

Pour all your ingredients, except soda water, over ice. Top with soda water. Take a photo if you are the type, then stir and sip this tart cherry goodness.

Arok's Orange Spiced Cherry Syrup

Syrup Ingredients

2 cups cherry puree (puree pitted sweet cherries in a blender, run it through a fine mesh screen sieve, discard the solids)
1 cup water
3 cups sugar

Syrup Spices

2 tbsp cinnamon chunks (crushed cinnamon sticks)
2 tbsp Juniper berries
2 tbsp whole Allspice
2 whole Star Anise (broken up slightly)

Syrup Sprits

6 fluid ounce Pierre Ferrand Dry Curaçao
3.5 fluid ounce new make rye (I used Buffalo Trace)
9.5 fluid ounce Bourbon (I used Knob Creek)

In a medium saucepan, combine the cherry juice, water, sugar and the spices and bring almost to a boil. (If you want to avoid straining it later, tie the spices up loosely in a piece of cheesecloth so you can fish them out). Once the mixture is at a simmer, let it simmer for 5 minutes to infuse the spices.

Allow the cherry juice to cool to at least below 160 degrees (don’t want that alcohol boiling off), remove the spices, add your spirits and stir.

At this point, you can bottle it and refrigerate. It made just under a quart and a half of syrup. My math says that with the spirits I used the proof of this syrup is roughly 40° proof, so it should keep a little while. But your proof will vary depending on the proof of the spirits you use.

Woodford Reserve Master's Collection: Batch Proof (2018)

July 25, 2018 Eric Burke

I haven't been very flattering to the Woodford Reserve Master's Collection in the past. While I applaud the experimentation and find them interesting, many of the ones I've tried had have just not clicked for me as an enjoyable drink. Because of that, I've tended to stop buying the Master's Collection releases. $100+ is a lot for one drink you will be extremely interested in and the rest of the bottle that you don't know what to do with.

But I should step back for those of you who haven't been reading every post for the last six years. What is the Woodford Reserve Master's Collection? Every year, Woodford Reserve releases a new, Limited Edition whiskey under the Master’s Collection name. Each release is an expression of curiosity and experimentation. Woodford likes to tout its “five sources of flavor: (water, grain, fermentation, distillation, and maturation).” In each release of the Master’s Collection, they change one of those five things. Previous years have mostly included changing either the grain (making it a rye whiskey, a malt whiskey, using a different type of corn, etc) or the maturation (mostly the addition of barrel finishes), plus there was also a sweet mash fermentation instead of the typical sour mash. In other words, this is their chance to mix things up and give you an appreciation of what each part of the process can do.

A couple of years ago, I said:

"I’d love to see them come out with a version where they change out the water. Not because I’d want to buy it, necessarily. But I’d love to see every pundit on the internet explode when they release the Woodford Reserve Master’s Collection: Bardstown Water edition for $100."

Well, earlier this year, Woodford kinda did just that. Only instead of getting a different water source to cut their product to proof, they just didn't cut the proof down at all. It's an interesting change. And I decided I need to jump back in and give this one a try.

Not that I didn't have to do a little fast talking to convince my wife of the soundness of my plan. See this sounds as if it is going to be a yearly release so jumping on it at that exact moment in time probably wasn't high on her list of things that needed to happen. Plus it's a little more expensive than their typical Master's Collection releases. And by a little, I mean it's $130 for this release. But in the end, she relented since she's just as curious as I am about these things.

Woodford Reserve Master's Collection: Batch Proof (2018)

Purchase Info: $119.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Binny's Beverage Depot, Bloomington, IL

Details: 62.9% ABV

Nose: Caramel, Vanilla, green apple and a hint of charred oak.

Mouth: Thick mouthfeel. Very sweet with a nice spicy heat. Vanilla, nutmeg, and cinnamon.

Finish: Warm and long with lingering vanilla and cinnamon.

Thoughts: This is very good. Warm and thick with a wonderful sweet spiciness. I love this one. Don't love the price and doubt I'll be buying another, so I'll just enjoy this one and see if I can make it last a little while.

Mead: The Libations, Legends, and Lore of History's Oldest Drink by Fred Minnick

July 12, 2018 Eric Burke

Disclaimer: Fred Minnick is a friend of mine and in my statement of ethics I promised to disclose when I am reviewing one of my friend’s products and to only review them when it was truly something I really liked. This is one of those times.

IMAGE: The book Mead: The Libations, Legends, and Lore of History's Oldest Drink by Fred Minnick laying on a table by a glass of mead and a partially filled bottle of mead.

I first became aware of mead as a drink in my mid-twenties. I was reading American Gods, the new book by my soon-to-be favorite fiction author Neil Gaiman. In the book, there is an early scene where the characters seal a contract by drinking mead. The characters are not impressed with the quality of the drink describing it as "evil, vile fucking mead" and as tasting of pickled honey.

Needless to say, as my first real exposure to the concept of mead, I wasn't in a real big hurry to try it. That's even if I could have found any in the small Western Wisconsin college town, that unbeknownst to me, I shared with the author of the book.

It wasn't until I happened upon a meadery on my way to a family reunion in extreme Northern Wisconsin many years later that I once again considered mead as a drink. At the time I favored dry white wines and craft beers as my libations of choice. I was ready to expand the range of my palate though and picked up a bottle of the dry mead they were producing. I found it a delicious addition to the family festivities.

And sadly, that was where my mead drinking experiment ended for the time being. I knew of it, knew I could find it, but soon moved on to spirits, found bourbon, and forgot to pick it up again.

Until right now. Bourbon legend, my friend, and Wall Street Journal-Bestselling Author, Fred Minnick had released his seventh book. And it just so happens to be about Mead. Reading it, inspired me to go to the liquor store and finally pick up another bottle of Mead. This one is a sweet Mead, but I will be keeping my eye out for a dryer version as I am not really a fan of sweet wines, ciders, or apparently Meads.

If you are at all interested in Mead (or just like Fred's writing style) I highly recommend you pick up Mead: The Libations, Legends, and Lore of History's Oldest Drink. As the subtitle suggests, it goes into the history and legends about the drink's origins. But it also gives you information on bees and honey, the brewing of mead, and some cocktail recipes where you might want to use some of that home-brewed mead.

You can pick up Mead: The Libations, Legends, and Lore of History's Oldest Drink at your local bookseller or on Amazon for somewhere around $25.

Maker's Mark: Seared Bu 1-3

May 22, 2018 Eric Burke

I state in my Statement of Ethics that if I accept a review sample, I will disclose it at the beginning of the article. Please consider it disclosed. I’d like to thank Maker's Mark for providing this sample to me with no strings attached. As always, all thoughts are just my opinion and should be taken as just that.

Image: close up of the label of the Maker's Mark: Seared Bu 1-3 bottle

I have spent the last two evenings re-mulching the flower beds in front of my house. If I did it all at once, this would be a much more onerous task, but luckily the pick-up truck can only hold so many cubic yards of mulch. So I get to break it up into three much more manageable (though, to this out of shape drinker, still tiring) jobs. We like to get the ruby red mulch. Not only is it an attractive color, but it nicely accents the green plants that it surrounds.

Does this have anything to do with tonight's whiskey? Not really. I just wanted to whine about my sore back for a bit.

Well, maybe there is one connection. Red. Tonight I'm tasting a lovely limited edition, gift shop only, version of bourbon's favorite redhead, Maker's Mark. It is a sold out release, so I'm basically bragging at this point. But the knowledge of how good, or not, this release is might help you decide whether or not to make the trip to Maker's to stand in line the next time they announce a super limited, distillery only release.

In case you hadn't guessed it already, I'm tasting the Maker's Mark Seared Bu 1-3 bourbon tonight. It is an off-shoot of the Private Select program we discussed back in December. This time they are featuring a new stave that wasn't included in the Private Select program. Not because it didn't taste good, but because it didn't play well with others.

So what is this Stave Bu 1-3? According to the press release, it is a "virgin seared and sous-vide French oak stave." And according to author Carla Carlton, that means precisely what it sounds like: the seared staves were soaked in temperature-controlled water for some length of time. How does this help the stave make the whiskey taste different? No idea. I'm not a wood scientist (though if a wood scientist is reading this, I would love to know, and will happily publish, the answer).

But for now, you probably don't care about that. You just want to know how it tastes.

Maker's Mark Seared Bu 1-3

Purchase info: This sample was kindly provided to me free of charge by Maker's Mark. The suggested price was $39.99 for a 375 mL bottle.

Details: 55.35% ABV. Batch #1. Sample date April 24, 2018. Stave profile 10 Seared Bu 1-3.

Nose: Caramel, vanilla, ripe cherries.

Mouth: Very warm when neat. Buttered toffee, honey, baking spices, and a light fruitiness.

Finish: Long and warm. Lingering dark chocolate and cinnamon.

Thoughts: This is delicious. Forget making me want to drive down to buy it; this bourbon makes me want to live near the distillery so I could be first in line on the off chance there is something like this put out again. I'd love it if this one was added to the permanent line-up along side Maker's Mark, Maker's 46, and the cask strength ones.

As this is a barrel-strength release, I'll let you know that this holds its own with, and can benefit from, a little water. All the flavors stick around, but the heat gets knocked down some so you can enjoy them. I absolutely love this one. I'll be sticking this in the closet to share when company comes over.

Neat: The Story of Bourbon and Blanton's Straight From the Barrel

February 22, 2018 Eric Burke

Last night, I settled in with my glass of Wild Turkey Rare Breed to watch Neat: The Story of Bourbon, a documentary about bourbon. I rented it off of Amazon, but it sounds others have it as well.

I don't really have much to say about it. It heavily features Jimmy Russell of Wild Turkey, Denny Potter of Heaven Hill, Marianne Barnes of Castle and Key, Brent Elliot of Four Roses, Freddie Johnson of Buffalo Trace and bourbon historians Chet Zoeller and Mike Veach. There were also segments on various bartenders, a farmer, a team of archeologists, and a few other Master Distillers. Oh, and there was a segment about a guy and his wife who have a bar in their basement. They hold parties. The segment also followed him to a store where he goes and buys bourbon that doesn't make it to the shelf.

Oh and Marshall, Minnesota native: Steve Zahn. He, um, lightened the mood?

So here's the thing. This wasn't a bad documentary by any stretch of the imagination. I loved seeing the passion that Marianne Barnes spoke with. I could listen to Jimmy Russell read the phone book and be happy. And Freddie Johnson is a national treasure. I was confused by the addition of Steve Zahn. The movie was beautifully shot and had a serious tone until his segments hit and then it abruptly switched to goofy. The tonal switch was jarring. The couple with the bar in the basement was filler that could have easily been cut since it didn't seem to fit with the rest of the narrative.

But overall, it was worth the $6 I paid to rent it.

I did make a mistake though. My wife chose Rare Breed to watch with it because we knew that Jimmy Russell was featured in the documentary. I completely forgot to tell her that Freddie Johnson was in it too. If I had, we could have enjoyed the subject of tonight's other review while listening to Freddie tell the story of how his father and grandfather had a hand in its creation. If you've been on one of his tours, you may have heard the story, but if not I'll leave you with a teaser to either watch the movie or go on one of his tours. It's a good story, and I don't want to steal it.

Blanton's Straight from the Barrel

Purchase Info: £70.79 for a 700 mL bottle from MasterOfMalt.com ($98.78 US at today's exchange rate).

Details: 63.8% ABV. Barrel 885, dumped 7-13-17, aged in warehouse H, rick 14.

Nose: Caramel, wet rocks, cinnamon, nutmeg and just the tiniest hint of chocolate.

Mouth: Oily mouthfeel. Sweet and spicy with butterscotch and nutmeg.

Finish: Long and spicy. Dry and floral.

Thoughts: Even at $100 plus shipping, I am already planning to buy a second bottle. I love this one.

Bar Review: Carnival Glory's Alchemy Bar

January 2, 2018 Eric Burke

Between Christmas and New Year's I took my first ever cruise. It was a leap for me because I didn't have a high opinion of cruises. In my brain, they were nothing more than excuses for people to overeat, drink too much cheap booze and see sanitized and "safe" versions of other cultures. And for some of the people on the ship with us, this was certainly true. People abounded who drank nothing but premixed, sugary blended daiquiris and margaritas and Bud Light. These also tended to be the people who never left the gated and guarded confines of the poolside cabana rentals and shops that sold nothing but luxury goods, people whose only interaction with the local people trying recover from multiple recent hurricanes was with the waitstaff at the swim up bar.

Luckily, though this was a sizable portion of my fellow passengers, this wasn't everybody. Knowing that there was a wide variety of passengers with a wide range of tastes, the cruise line made sure to cater to a wide range of expectations. Sure there was a Guy's Burger Joint on board for when you want some grease on a bun, but there was also a fine-dining restaurant that you had to dress up to visit. And, sure, there were plenty of places willing to blend you up an umbrella drink made with flavored syrup, cheap rum, and ice. But on the other end of the spectrum was the subject of tonight's review: the Alchemy Bar.

The Alchemy Bar was the place I visited most often outside of my cabin. I was there every evening for a post-dinner cocktail. Behind the bar were three very talented cocktail creators, Jakub, Andriy, and Majda. I like watching people make cocktails, and these three did that with style. It was my entertainment for each evening. And they didn't just have panache, they also had talent. Yes, there was a menu of tasty drinks for just about every palate. But these folks were adept at making anything they had the ingredients to make. I saw many people just walk up and say: "surprise me." Sometimes, they would make something off the menu, but other times—if you were a regular that talked to them and tipped a buck or two per drink—they would know your likes and dislikes and use that knowledge to make something off the top of their head.

Jakub was great. After talking with me the first night, he knew I was a big fan of bourbon and rye and had no problem making me a Manhattan or a Sazerac. He even let me talk him through making me my version of a Black Manhattan which uses Campari to up the bitterness.

Majda made me a drink that had me worried at first but turned out to be extremely tasty. It contained bourbon, Chambord liqueur, and Grand Marnier. I didn't know how the combination of raspberry and bourbon would go, but it was delicious, though very sweet. She also knew that before I left the bar, I'd want a Buffalo Trace to take back to the room with me.

And there was one menu drink that I particularly liked. It was called the Island Old Fashioned. You guessed it; it was an Old Fashioned. They made it with eight-year-old rum that they had infused with cinnamon and other spices, house-made bitters, and simple syrup. I ended up having this made for me at least once by all three bartenders. Out of the three, I liked Andriy's version of that the best. I think he added an extra dash of bitters that upped the spice level and made it much more interesting.

I don't know that you should pay for a cruise just to go to the Alchemy bar. But if you happen to be on a Carnival ship that has one, I think you owe yourself a visit or six. You probably won't have the same folks making you drinks that I had. But I'm sure they will be just as entertaining and talented. And why not toss them a buck while you are at it. You're already paying $11 for a drink, you might as well make it $12. They really seemed to appreciate it.

Blog

Bourbon+ Premiere Issue

Four Roses Single Barrel Private Selections: Binny's OESQ and OESF

Arok's Cherry Limeade

Arok's Orange Spiced Cherry Syrup

Woodford Reserve Master's Collection: Batch Proof (2018)

Maker's Mark Seared Bu 1-3

Blanton's Straight from the Barrel