Tastes

FWGS single barrel pick, bottled 4-24-17, a solid offering!

Pours clear golden orange color with short legs (for you bourbon nerds, please note that I come from the beer world which is currently dominated by turbid, murky looking hazy IPAs that look like chicken broth, so any alcoholic liquid that is clear is a sight to behold). Also, and this is a stupid observation, but it’s significantly lighter in color than the 23. I mean, yeah, duh, right? But still. Smells very nice, caramel, oak, and a little vanilla, with a slight dusting of spice lurking in the background. Of my nose? Sure, I guess, I’m not particularly great at bourbon tasting notes. Really nice balance and complexity in the nose though, and it really opens up after a few minutes; more vanilla and almost cake-like sweetness, I could sniff this glass all night. Taste hits a lot of those same notes, caramel, oak, and vanilla, with some spicy highlights. Mouthfeel is medium bodied and very easy going, obviously boozy to this beer drinker’s baby palate (like, I’m not used to drinking high test liquor, not like I eat babies or something, gah), but nowhere near the hazmat monsters I’ve been known to drink. Overall, this is really good bourbon, but I’m not entirely sure it justifies the hype or premium. The nose is really fantastic, but it’s writing checks the taste/palate can’t cash. Beer Nerd Musings: Anything in Pappy’s orbit, even if it’s beer aged in a Pappy barrel, is subjected to massive gravitational hype. But this is technically not “Pappy”, and thus I don’t think I’ve (knowingly) had anything aged in one of these barrels. On the other hand, Weller 12 is often used, and that’s basically the same juice, right? The BCBS Anniversary edition from 2020 is aged in Weller 12 for 2 years, and update to this review - it’s phenomenal.

State Line Liquors selection from 2016, aged 9 years, 7 months. Very good!

Pours a clear golden orange color with big legs. Smells quite oaky, lots of wood, vanilla, coconut, caramel, rye spice, something a little bready and mineraly too. Taste has a nice rich caramel and molasses sort of thing going on, minerals, a little spicebox in the middle and finish. Oaky without being overly so, which is certainly in my wheelhouse. Mouthfeel is rich and coating, lots of alcohol heat, but in a pleasant, mellow way, with a finish that lasts a while. Overall, this is fabulous stuff, complex and balanced, great. Compares favorably to my favorite bourbons. Beer Nerd Musings: The notion of each batch being unique (and not just from a “each single barrel is unique” sort of situation) is interesting and certainly speaks to the explosion of craft beer offerings. I mean, it’s not Tired Hands with their ~300 different named beers a year, but there’s something to be said for the experience of drinking something you know you’ll probably never get again. I have not ever had a beer aged in a George Dickel barrel, but they do exist, even if they don’t seem particularly common. There are some beers that only specify being aged in a Tennessee whiskey barrel, which I suppose could also mean Dickel. If this bourbon is any indication, I think these barrels would work pretty well with beer (though this is perhaps too good to waste on homebrew!)

Pours a deep, dark coppery orange color with plenty of legs. Smells great, lots of oak, some caramel, spicebox, cinnamon, dark fruit, vanilla. Taste follows the nose, lots of oak, moar spicebox, cinnamon and the like, a little dark fruit, more oak, and vanilla. Like the regular Elijah Craig, it’s very oaky, but this time, it feels more balanced with the rest, which is interesting. Mouthfeel is rich, full bodied, and quite hot. I mean, yeah, keep in mind my baby beer palate, and this isn’t the hottest thing I’ve drank, but it’s clearly there. Overall, a nice improvement over the base offering, and one of the better barrel strength offerings I’ve had (noticeably better than the younger offerings, like Booker’s or Stagg Jr.) Beer Nerd Musings: EC12 barrels seem to be prized amongst beer brewers. It historically played a role in BCBS (though their barrel program is so large at this point that who knows anymore). Interestingly, one of the most reliable EC12 barrel aged beers, FiftyFifty’s purple waxed Eclipse variant, seemed to be rarer in the most recent release. I’m unsure if that’s due to lack of barrels, some result of the loss of age statement, or probably most likely, just FiftyFifty’s desire to shake things up a bit (this year’s lineup featured a lot of adjuncts like maple, coffee, and vanilla, as well as more diverse barrels from apple brandy, rye, and even mead). Whatever the case, if a beer specifies that it’s aged in Elijah Craig barrels, it’s usually a good indication. The barrel proof offering is probably too expensive to use for homebrew (something the standard expression would be great for), but will make a great addition to my infinity bottle someday