Tincup American Whiskey

June 15, 2017 Eric Burke

Shout out to Patreon Ken Ray for reminding me that the subject of tonight's review exists during an email conversation we had. Ken is the host of Mac OS Ken a daily technology podcast focusing on Apple news and news related to Apple news. Check it out. And if you would also like to suggest a topic for an upcoming post, feel free to reach out via any of the contact mechanisms in the site navigation.

I have a bad habit. If something isn't continually shoved in my face, I don't think about it. And if that goes on for long enough, I forget it exists. And this applies to everything from NFL football to extended family. And this goes on until one day I'll be reminded of whatever-it-is, and feel bad for having neglected it (or in the case of NFL football, feel relieved that it is no longer such a big part of my life).

This recently happened with the subject of tonight's post, Tincup American Whiskey. I remember when Tincup was released. I remember thinking "huh, another MGP whiskey." Then I didn't think about it again. I'd see it every once in a while, until one day I didn't. It wasn't gone, I was just looking past it toward whatever had recently caught my attention. My mother refers to this as my "Shiny Object Syndrome." I've always had an eye open for whatever is new and have looked past whatever is still there.

And so, this blend of MGPi Bourbon and Stranahan's Malt Whiskey escaped my notice until mentioned in an email from a Patreon supporter. The next time I went to the liquor store, I saw it and decided it was time to stop overlooking it. So, how does it taste? Should I have continued to pass it over?

Tincup American Whiskey

Purchase Info: $24.99 for a 750mL bottle at Total Wine, Burnsville, MN.

Details: 42% ABV. Bourbon distilled in Indiana mixed with a "small amount of Colorado single malt whiskey." "Cut with Rocky Mountain Water"

Nose: Sweet with citrus, mint, and almond.

Mouth: Sweet with a nice spice. Almond, ginger, and a hint of oak.

Finish: Warm and spicy with lingering citrus, mint, and ginger.

Thoughts: This a good value at $25. It isn't an amazing whiskey, but it is a good one. At $25, I like this very much. If it were priced higher, I'd probably be much more critical. In any case, I like this and might even buy another bottle someday since I am finding the citrus/mint combo very tasty and interesting.

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Minor Case Straight Rye Whiskey

April 4, 2017 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 Common Ground PR for providing this sample to me with no strings attached.

The Beam brothers of Limestone Branch are acquaintances of the "friends of a friend" variety. They seem like good people, and they tell some good stories. And ever since I spent an "off-the-record" evening discussing the state of the Kentucky bourbon industry with one of them, I've been keeping half an eye on the things they are producing, both with their own distillate and with that available through their partnership with Luxco.

One of their more recent releases is Minor Case Straight Rye whiskey. Named after Steve and Paul Beam's great-grandfather (and distiller in his own right until Prohibition), this two-year-old Indiana Rye is bottled at 45% ABV after having been finished in Sherry Casks.

The first thing you'll notice about this is the very lovely bottle it comes in. This is certainly one that I will probably see in an antique store when I am older. It is very reminiscent of the ones I find now from 100 years ago.

The juice inside the bottle might be more interesting, though. At least to me. Finishing a whiskey is nothing new. Scotland has been doing it practically forever. In bourbon, it has been going on for years as well. I bought my first finished bourbon well before I started this site. I've seen a lot fewer barrel finished ryes, though. And when I saw the announcement come past, my curiosity got the better of me and I knew I needed to request a sample.

Minor Case Straight Rye

Purchase info: This sample was provided by Common Ground PR. Suggested retail price is $49.99.

Details: 45% ABV. Sherry cask finished. Distilled in Indiana. Two years old.

Nose: This is a nose that takes some time to develop fully. I'd say this took about 20 minutes or more to open up. Mint, cedar, brown sugar, ripe fruit, and baking spices.

Mouth: Peppery but not overly hot. Ripe fruit, hints of citrus, mint and baking spices.

Finish: Spicy and warm with lingering cedar, rye spices, mint and hints of citrus.

Thoughts: I've been really impressed with the products coming out of Limestone Branch and Luxco lately. This is no exception. If I had to describe it in one word, that word would be "elegant." It is young but interesting. It has the same "ginger beer" quality that Ezra Brooks rye has, and the sherry finish plays with that very nicely. I'm not completely convinced that I'm ready to pay $50 for a two-year-old whiskey, but if I were going to, this would be the one that would convince me to.

A Visit to Glenn's Creek Distillery

October 6, 2016 Eric Burke

If you read the last post, You've already seen what the outside of this small distillery looks like. Located in the old bottling and shipping building of the former Old Crow Distillery, Glenn's Creek Distillery is surrounded by history. Outside is the place to be inspired by what came before, but inside is the time to focus on what is yet to come.

A look at the entire operation. Barrels, yeast, fermenters, cooker and stills.

Glenn's Creek Distillery is much smaller than the former occupant of the property. In this one shot you can see almost the entire production area. Off to the right is the aging area. Beyond that (in the Lowes wrapping) is the yeast growing and storage area. Grain storage is beyond that. On the right right of the photo you see fermenters with a cooker peaking up behind them. All the way to the back are their four stills. The only thing you don't see is the bottling area. Which is behind us.

Here it is. Four bottles at a time. And their initials underneath.

Aging Racks built from wood reclaimed from the Old Crow Distillery

The aging portion of the distillery was interesting. On these racks are barrels of two kinds of Bourbon, Rye, and Rum. Two distilled on site and two sourced from MGP in Indiana, but aged on site. The racks themselves are made from reclaimed wood from the Old Crow warehouses outside. If they get big enough there is hope to use one of those to put their own barrels in one day.

This video is about Dane Stirring

They are small-time and hands on. In this case the agitation on the cooker comes from a person holding a drill with a long paddle on the end. The man stirring was our tour guide for the day. Dane is the Lead Distiller at Glenn's Creek.

This is Tiny Tim, the 12 gallon experimental still. It was the first still they had made and they survived using it as the only one for a while. Now it is kept around to run experimental batches.

This is Double D. Named so because it has two doublers, not for any other reason you might think of. It is a 34 gallon still.

This still is Rumsfeld. Rumsfeld is where the rum is distilled. It is a 600 gallon still. They currently run it at 450 gallons but this gives them some room to expand as needed.

This is Dr. Crow. Named for the man who lent his name to the former occupants of the property, Dr. Crow is where the whiskey is made. The still was originally set up to be heated by a steam boiler, but that portion was too expensive to buy so they converted it to direct heat with the use of the burners from some heaters found around the old distillery.

The Glenn's Creek Product Line Up. A rye whiskey, a sourced bourbon, a bourbon distilled on site and a rum distilled on site.

And this is the current Glenn's Creek Distillery product line-up. From left to right, the Ryskey Rye and the Stave + Barrel bourbon are purchased from MGP and delivered in the barrel to be aged on site. Skipping one, Prohibition Kentucky Rum is the rum distilled in Rumsfeld and aged in barrels that formerly held bourbon.

OCD #5 is an interesting one. It is a bourbon fermented using yeast that was recovered from the sealed Old Crow fermenter number 5 (a photo of it is shown in the Old Crow post). The story goes that since the fermenters were mostly sealed, one day they had the idea to see if there was anything living in there. Yeast can survive a long time in spore form, but 20-30 years is a bit past it's best by date. Most of the fermenters didn't do anything and the mash was spoiled. All but fermenter #5. That one was happily fermenting away when they checked on it. So they pulled it out in buckets, grew it up some and used it to create OCD #5. Did they really catch a yeast that had been previously used by Old Crow? No idea, it may have just been a wild yeast that they caught. Either way, no one else has it and it is a pretty interesting story.

Before I left, I had the chance to take a taste of each of these. As we weren't tasting in the ideal conditions, these aren't real tasting notes, only impressions.

Ryskey Rye Whiskey

Details: 59% ABV. 95% Rye whiskey sourced from MGP in Indiana. Aged on site in full-size barrels with toasted staves added to each barrel. This is a single barrel product.

Thoughts: Spicy with a nice finish.

Prohibition Kentucky Rum

Details: 58.5% ABV. Distilled on site. Made from fermented molasses.

Thoughts: Hot, molasses, maple syrup, rock candy. Has a rum funk to it. It was quite tasty in a Rum-mosa cocktail (Rum, OJ and cinnamon sticks).

OCD #5

Details: 53.8% ABV. Fermented using yeast caught on site. Aged in full-size barrels with added staves. Staves were smoked.

Thoughts: Slight smoke, herbal. Some corn flake notes. There is a cinnamon note at the tip of the tongue and a slight rum funk. He asked how old we thought this was, we knew it was young, so we guessed 2-3 years. It turns out that it was only six months old. Pretty tasty for that.

Stave + Barrel

Details: 59.4% ABV. Bourbon whiskey sourced from MGP in Indiana. Aged on site in full-size barrels with toasted staves added to each barrel. This is a single barrel product. Six months old.

Thoughts: This is a high-rye recipe MGP bourbon. It's tasty, though young. The added staves make it taste older than the six months it is.

UPDATE: Since I initially wrote this I've noticed that Glenn's Creek Distillery have started a GoFundMe project to help fund the restoration of the Old Crow distillery ruins. If you have the means, think about helping save a piece of history.

James E. Pepper 1776 Straight Bourbon Whiskey

November 17, 2015 Eric Burke

I’m a bit odd when it comes to places. Certain ones just make me a bit uncomfortable. And I’m not talking high crime areas either. As an example, the small town my wife is from happened to be on the route that my father took when he picked me up to spend a weekend with him. I always hated that town, specifically one end of the town. I just always got a creepy-crawly feeling whenever we’d drive through.

I get a similar feeling when I drive through Indianapolis. I often joke to my wife as we drive through that I don’t quite believe that it exists. That maybe it is just a giant hallucination we’ve all bought into. There does’t seem to be any reason why it is in the particular location it’s in other than someone pointed to a map and said “that looks like the middle.” (Exaggerating for effect, but read for yourself.) In any case, I get that same creepy-crawly feeling whenever we drive through Indianapolis. As if my body just doesn’t want to be there. And since it is pretty much the only thing worth noting on a drive through Indiana, by extension, I tend to not like Indiana. At least not to drive through.

Which brings me to my main point. I’m about to say something that to some folks will be controversial. Even though I tend to not like driving through Indiana, I do tend to like whiskey from Indiana. Specifically I tend to like products that come from the MGP distillery in Lawrenceburg, IN. I seldom like the (probably fake or at least borrowed) histories that come along with the whiskeys, but unfortunately few folks are willing to let the whiskey inside the bottle be the draw. Which is too bad, those that do tend to do well with them especially when they have a little age on them. High West and Smooth Ambler come to mind.

So it was with interest that I noticed the “Aged 6 Years” on the front label and the “Distilled in Indiana” on the back label when I picked up a bottle of James E. Pepper 1776 bourbon to review.

James E. Pepper 1776 Straight Bourbon Whiskey

Purchase Info: $35.99 for a 750 mL bottle. Casanova Liquors, Hudson, WI.

Details: Distilled in Indiana. Stated age: 6 years. 46% ABV.

Nose: Dessert-like with baking spices and brown sugar.

Mouth: Mouth follows the nose with more baking spices, toffee and brown sugar but with the addition of what can only be described as eucalyptus.

Finish: Sweet with a gentle burn. Lingering baking spices.

Thoughts: MGP makes very good bourbon. This is no exception. Six years old, 90+ proof, for about $35? Yes all around. I’d recommend this one and will be happy to pick up another if it is similarly priced.

Rebel Yell American Whiskey

May 28, 2015 Eric Burke

This is the second part of a two part post. The first being the story of how I got the bottle and a reminder that you don’t know what’s in a bottle of whiskey until you open it and take a taste.

Well. I’ve spent two weeks with this whiskey. It’s half gone and now I think I can talk about it. I’ve turned the bottle over and over in my hands looking at what is said and what is not said on the label. And I noticed a few things.

The most obvious is that it is a blend of bourbon and rye. The back label says: “Our original, time-honored recipe, perfectly blended with the rebellious spirit of rye.” From that I’m guessing it is the normal Rebel Yell wheated bourbon mixed with rye.
“Distilled and aged in Kentucky and Indiana.” So I’m going out on a pretty sturdy limb and saying that rye is from MGPi.
This is a two-year age-stated whiskey. Remember, that’s the youngest whiskey in the bottle, there might be older whiskey in there. In fact I would guess there is since the flavor has a depth I wouldn’t expect from a two year whiskey.
Though it is two year, nowhere does it say “straight.” We’ve learned from Templeton that you can add minute amounts of flavoring to whiskey that isn’t labeled “straight.” Just throwing that out there. Though it is very possibly not applicable, I get a little nervous when a whiskey doesn’t say straight when it could.

I’m breaking format and telling you my thoughts now since this is such an odd situation. I can find next to nothing about this online aside from the Rebel Yell website, the COLAs and Chuck Cowdery’s blog announcing it back in February. I can’t even tell if it is for sale yet so I have no idea if this is a good value. I’d say if you get it for free in a regifting situation, the value is excellent. If you pay more than $20-25 you are probably over paying. It’s tasty but not on par with many other widely available whiskeys at that price point. Some even sold by Luxco, the company who makes this.

Rebel Yell American Bourbon

Purchase Info: Didn’t I just say I got it in a regifting situation?

Details: A Blend of bourbon and rye whiskey, 45% ABV

Nose: Cedar, mint, white sugar, leather and hints of vanilla

Mouth: Thin in the mouth, but it has a nice tingle to it. Oak, cloves, dark chocolate and a nice earthiness.

Finish: Fades quickly. The mint is back along with chocolate and cedar.

Thoughts: As detailed in the previous post, I went into this expecting something terrible. As such, it exceeded expectations. As a two-year age stated whiskey, I’m very impressed with it’s depth of flavor. Overall, for what it is, this is an impressive whiskey. I just don’t think I’d pay more than $25 for it.

Who knew all you needed to do to make Rebel Yell bourbon drinkable was add some MGP rye? So we've learned that.

A nice treat to share: Angel's Envy Rye

April 30, 2015 Eric Burke

Every morning my dog, Whiskey, begs for her morning treats. She will sit nicely, take the treat from you, run into the living room, set it down and come back for the next one. She does this twice as she gets two treats every morning.

If it is the weekend, she will eat them right away while we eat our breakfast. On work days she does something a little odd. She leaves them on the floor until we get home. Once we get the running around outside taken care of, she will grab the treats and bring them to where we are sitting and proceed to eat them. It is almost as if she understands that good things are even better with friends.

Even if she doesn’t understand it, I do. Think about it. A romantic movie is better when watched with someone you love. A good meal is better with good company. And a good whiskey is better when shared with friends. In fact, the better the whiskey, the more apt I am to share it.

When I finally bought a bottle of Angel’s Envy Rye, the first thing I thought about was who I wanted to pour samples for. It is only fair, I first tasted it after receiving a sample from a friend. Angel’s Envy Rye is a fairly new arrival to Minnesota. I started seeing it on the shelf when Total Wine appeared on the scene. It’s expensive for what it is. You don’t expect something that starts with MGP Rye to go for near $90.

Angel’s Envy Rye is finished in rum casks. And it shows. There is little to none of the typical MGP profile here. It has been completely changed by the rum. It is sweeter and has picked up more complexity. It really is a treat worth sharing with friends.

Angel’s Envy Rye

Purchase Info: $84.99, 750 mL. Total Wine, Burnsville, MN

Details: Batch#: 3F, Bottle#: 1696, 50% ABV, rye whiskey finished in rum casks

Nose: This smells like a good candy store. Fresh chocolate, nuts and a bit of fruitiness. Also pumpkin pie.

Mouth: Warm with ginger spiciness. Very sweet with nutty cocoa, cloves and molasses.

Finish: Surprisingly little burn for 100 proof but a lingering spicy sweetness.

Thoughts: This is a ginger molasses cookie in a glass. It’s very sweet and so not something I’d want all the time but tasty enough to have with (or for) dessert occasionally.

A nice reward for a job well done: Smooth Ambler Old Scout Rye

March 10, 2015 Eric Burke

Some days you just want a good whiskey. Something to relax with after a job well done. For me today is one of those days. My wife recently informed me that the washing machine wasn’t working. It wouldn’t advance through the cycles on its own. Though I know next to nothing about washing machines, we decided that it was worth it to pick up the offending part and give fixing it a shot.

I like fixing things. If it’s already broken, what’s the harm? The worst that can happen is that I still have something broken. So I pulled it out from the wall and took a look. The control area was accessed by removing three screws and sliding the front to one side until it popped free. After that it was just a matter of removing the old timer and plugging in the new one. Easy enough. I put everything back together and it worked. The machine advanced through the cycles just fine…except…

Why wasn’t the water stopping where it should? I shut the machine off and had myself a think. I seemed to remember that at one point my mother-in-law was house-sitting for us and had the washing machine break down. It wouldn’t agitate. The solution, once the repair guy got there, was to clean a hose leading from the pressure sensor to the bottom of the tub.

Well, I guess there is nothing more to do than take the front off and take a look at it. Coincidently enough, it was plugged with gunk. I guess there were two things wrong with it. After cleaning out the hose and getting all the gunk out, I reattached it and tried it out. Worked perfectly.

Now that deserves a nice whiskey. And boy did I choose a good one. I’ve sung the praises of Smooth Ambler before. I respect the hell out of those guys. They distill their own stuff, but they are also merchant bottlers. And unlike a lot of the more notorious companies out there doing this, they have no problem telling you this. It’s right on the bottle. It’s on the website. They’ll even tell you when you visit without being asked. Good whiskey sold by good people. Can’t think of a better whiskey with which to celebrate a job well done.

Smooth Ambler Old Scout Rye

Purchase info: Ace Spirits, 750 mL bottle, $36.99

Details: 49.5% ABV, 7 years old, Batch #38, Bottled on 6/6/14

Nose: Mint, dill, sweet cinnamon, vanilla and a hint of oak

Mouth: A nice heat. Black tea, mint, bubblegum, black pepper and cloves

Finish: Nice and long with a good warmth. Lingering black pepper, dill and baking spices

Thoughts: I love this one. It’s spicy, sweet and delicious. It’s a very nice MGPi Rye, and I tend to really like those (especially as they get in the 6+ year range). This batch is highly recommended.

New Stash Addition and Review: Bulleit Rye

June 17, 2012 Eric Burke

Can I tell you a little something about this week? This week, I moved my daughter into her first place that wasn't a dorm room. She's decided not to go back to college and wants to start her own life. Which, I can respect. I did something similar after my first year of college. Took me three years, but I finally went back. And I ended up on path I would have never even thought of if I had stayed in school and not taken the break.

So, I'm moving her out of our house. She's about half packed. (Hopefully she'll be back for the other half soon.) I'm carrying her boxes along with her boyfriend who is just the tiniest bit closer to my age than hers. Just past the halfway point, in fact. And, of course, fatherly disapproval is in full effect. So we're moving things, I'm trying to be nice (and mostly succeeding) when he asks me if I'd seen the last MadMen. I love that show, so the question gets me talking. We have a little chat, nothing worth hugging it out over, but things are going good. When we get home, I tell my wife to let our kid know that the ban on her boyfriend coming over has been lifted. Not because I'm all of a sudden going to be friends with this "old man" (28) dating my daughter (20), but because I felt I needed to revisit my feelings regarding him. To keep the kid happy. And maybe to keep her visiting more often.

Which brings me to the new addition to my stash. Bulleit Rye is another thing I felt like I needed to revisit to see where my feelings currently were at. Unlike the kid's boyfriend, my initial feelings for this whiskey were very positive. But not unlike the kid's boyfriend, my first impressions were made at a time when I didn't know a lot about what I was judging. I'd just started my whiskey journey when I first tried Bulleit Bourbon. The Rye came out very shortly after that and I tried it as soon as I could get my hands on a bottle. I fell in love. It was the first rye, I'd had and I loved it. The flavors were so different from all the bourbons I'd been drinking. It was exciting and strange. I tasted more than just vanilla or carmel. There was something else. Something that overpowered all of that. And it excited me.

Fast forward a bit. I've tried other ryes now. I like them all, but most seem like they could almost be bourbons. My guess is a few percentage points the right way on either corn or rye on the mashbill and a lot of them would be bourbons. They are sweet and just not as exciting as that first rye was. So a revisit was in order. And let me tell you, my memory wasn't fooling me. I still love this rye.

Nose: Clean, almost antiseptic. Cherry and pipe tobacco.

Taste: Initially just more cherry and tobacco, but after citrus, mint and some cinnamon candies come out to play after a bit.

Finish: This sticks with you a while. The flavor is there for long after the warmth fades.

Rating: For the price of this whiskey, there is no reason for it to not always be on your shelf. It works great in cocktails and I love to drink it neat. Inexpensive, tasty and versatile. Love this one.

Hello from the Future! I just wanted to let you know that I have revisited this review. Come see how I liked Bulleit Rye in 2018!

Blog

Tincup American Whiskey

Minor Case Straight Rye

Ryskey Rye Whiskey

Prohibition Kentucky Rum

OCD #5

Stave + Barrel

James E. Pepper 1776 Straight Bourbon Whiskey

Rebel Yell American Bourbon

Angel’s Envy Rye

Smooth Ambler Old Scout Rye