ChiTuckyBourbonBrothers
The “Chitucky Bourbon Brothers” podcast, hosted by Mike Nielsen and Tony Meyers, serves as a delightful exploration of bourbon and whiskey culture, offering insightful reviews and discussions about various bourbons and whiskeys. The hosts share their passion for sipping “brown water,” a colloquial term for bourbon and whiskey, and aim to blend music with their love for these beverages, creating an engaging auditory experience for listeners. The podcast not only provides detailed reviews of different bourbons and whiskeys but also promotes a relaxed atmosphere where enthusiasts can enjoy the nuances of their favorite drinks alongside music that complements the experience.
ChiTuckyBourbonBrothers
Episode 137 - Colonial E.H. Taylor Small Batch
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You know that moment when a bottle has been “a thing” for years, yet somehow you’ve never sat down and given it a proper, no-distractions review? That’s us with Colonel E.H. Taylor Small Batch, and we fix it with a full tasting plus the kind of bourbon talk you can actually use at the liquor store.
We start with some music nostalgia and a detour into Kentucky Colonel lore, then get serious about what’s in the glass. We explain what “bottled-in-bond” really signals (yes, that 100 proof shows up), why Buffalo Trace mash bill #1 matters, and how this label can share DNA with other fan favorites while still tasting like its own classic pour. If you’ve ever wondered why people describe a bourbon as “traditional,” this is a great example: big caramel energy, a touch of honey, a late pop of orange peel, then a finish that dries out into oak and char.
We also tackle the practical question: small batch vs single barrel. We lay out why single barrels can be amazing or disappointing depending on the barrel, why small batch aims for consistency, and how that plays into price when Small Batch hovers around $40 retail and Single Barrel creeps higher. Along the way, we talk gifting value, shelf sightings, and the simple rule we use to avoid getting ripped off when bourbon markup starts creeping in.
If you’re building a bourbon list, hunting Buffalo Trace bottles, or just looking for a dependable, giftable bottled-in-bond bourbon, come taste this one with us. Subscribe, share this with a bourbon friend, and leave a review with your own E.H. Taylor Small Batch take: instant classic or just solid for the money?
311 Nostalgia And Opening Banter
SPEAKER_02That the beginning kind of starts out really kind of heavy, like people that don't like heavy music would go, what the fuck is this? But then 311 kind of goes into like oh they it gets a lot simpler and a lot softer and then This is a great song. This is a great well hi Mike. How you doing, buddy? Uh great, great song. Glad I thought of it.
SPEAKER_01That's Mike. This is a Mike selection and this brought this brings back uh Man, really what? I think it college, really. I think their their big song, their big album came out in college for me. Maybe high school for you. Yeah, I don't know. Mid 90s.
SPEAKER_02I would say, yeah, yeah, yeah. So for sure. High school and college. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um yeah, did they say they're they're touring?
SPEAKER_02They're touring?
SPEAKER_01They are. I couldn't believe it when I looked up their name when you said 311. I was like, oh, I remember them. This isn't a song I remember first, but I do know this.
SPEAKER_02I do like their like well maybe after the podcast we will play a song that you like a little bit more. Well, I don't know if I've like a couple like it's got it's got a different listen to it. It's like uh I'm listening. I'm fully listening. You said they have four they had 14 studio albums. Wow. I mean they were really milking the uh the teenage wallets, just collecting all the money from grunge, right? Is this grunge 101? I wouldn't write in the grunge category. Kind of like 90. I was like, kind of, yeah, the time was right, but it almost seems like it was a little kind of post-grunge, but some would disagree. Try Tucky Burton Brothers! Mike and Tony. I like all the whiskey, and we're gonna drink, we're gonna listen to some. I know the drums are great, that's why I like the song so much, but um we're gonna listen to some 311 drinking some whiskey. Yeah, what are we doing today?
SPEAKER_01We're doing one. I can't believe
Becoming A Kentucky Colonel
SPEAKER_01we've never done this before, actually. Well, hey, Colonel. I know Colonel David Tony, David Anthony Myers Jr. I got my new colonel thing today. Guys, if you saw Tony's little kernel card, oh dude, I got a brass one too.
SPEAKER_02It's solid like metal. Maybe I'm just jealous, but it looked pretty, pretty kind of silly and cheesy and kind of broke.
SPEAKER_01Broke. So rude. Rude. You weird. Now you're flat out jealous. You're a kernel. You're right.
SPEAKER_02I am I want to be I want to be a colonel in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
SPEAKER_01And I I can I be I could probably put you up for it. You have to be, you have to have a couple of us. I have to, I need like a sponsor. Oh yeah, and then you go in front of the Kentucky legislation. No way.
SPEAKER_02I swear to God, they love you. You're not even smiling. That's real.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'm dead soon.
SPEAKER_02Oh my god. I get wow. I take back everything. It's Kentucky's ambassadors of goodwill and fellowship around the world. Whoa.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_02Well, what if we'll put a picture of it on Insta
Why E.H. Taylor Small Batch
SPEAKER_02uh because the card that Tony gets in the mail is pretty pretty spectacular. Anyway, so uh we're gonna do two Colonel E.H. Taylors today. And we're gonna start with um the cheapest, uh which is called the small batch. Um, it is all the also the youngest. And then we are going to move on into the next podcast uh to Colonel E.H. Taylor single barrel. It confuses me too. Uh, what is a small batch? What is a single barrel? So that one's a lot easier, a lot easier because a single barrel is just them dumping it from the barrel to the bottle. Where a small batch is kind of a blend of multiple multiple barrels for consistency. So um we're gonna again start with the small batch and we're gonna move on to the next podcast to the single barrel.
SPEAKER_01So we've done a single barrel a few years back when we uh did a podcast with uh that bourbon and smoke guy, Jason. We both had single barrels and we were we tasted it with him and we were just kind of doing a little quick interview and stuff. But I wish he would have told me that. We haven't we haven't actually done just a review on one barrel, but because that was more of an interview.
SPEAKER_02I could have pulled him back in. I could have been like, yo, let's uh Bluetooth Jason into the call, but not possible.
SPEAKER_01Um you can try. No idea if he's gonna pick up right this time or what he's doing. He's probably a lot like us.
Small Batch Vs Single Barrel
SPEAKER_02Drinking on a Friday afternoon. Friday! Okay, small batch, couple things. You're going to the store, don't get ripped off, because they usually both of these can come in near a hundred bucks. But the small batch retails $40. $40, $220, $410. I keep going, but I won't.
SPEAKER_03Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Good job. Uh the math small batch is non-age stated. Sorry, Colonel. Mr. Colonel, he's so good at math. Non-age stated, rumored. Rumored, rumored. Oh, the colonels always have rumors, don't they? Rumored to be over seven years old. And both of these are bottled in bond, which means they are a hundred-proof. Uh, bottles look similar. Some of the labeling and the uh fake tax strip on the top is a different color. Uh, the juice, I think, is a little is a little dark darker on the single barrel. Which makes sense if it's older. Which makes sense. Um, what else do you have for? I've I've got to the big thing is the mash bill.
SPEAKER_01So both of these are um the you know, the low rye buffalo trace mash bill. So it's mash bill number one. So that then nobody, as people know or don't know, or don't remember, uh Buffalo Trace does not, you know, divulge their specific mash bills. They don't give it out. But everyone estimates the uh mash bill number one being between 75 and 78 percent corn, less than 10% barley, or rye rather, and the rest being barley.
SPEAKER_02So less than 10?
SPEAKER_01Less than 10.
SPEAKER_02So seven, so can we just call it like 78, 10, and 10?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, probably 78, 10, 12 would be better, but yes. Okay, and then this is similar, so all the tailors are the same, by the way. So the small batch, the single barrel, the barrel proof, the all those special 18 years, all that stuff. Anything that's not like a four-grain or something where they introduce something else is the same. But it's also the same mash bill they use for Eagle Rare, Stag, Buffalo Trace, you know, things like that.
SPEAKER_02These are all the same mash bills.
SPEAKER_01Correct.
SPEAKER_02Say that one more time. Colonel E. H. Taylor, which is a Buffalo Trace product, has let's just forget about the second two, but has a high corn, 78% corn estimated. Yeah. These aren't actual, and that is the same as you mentioned, stag. Yes, eagle rare, eagle rare, buffalo trace.
unknownWow.
SPEAKER_02And I I've never thought of those as as being personally and honestly, like that similar.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. No, because then so people that know like Buffalo, Buffalo Trace, they really only have two uh bourbon um uh mash bills. So mash bill number one, which is your which is the one we just went over, which is the low rye, and then mash bill number two, which is the high rye. And the high rye still has corn in that 70 range, but it's got its rye up to 15%.
SPEAKER_02Ooh, so that's really shows, and really what are those? Why are those are like so much different, better, worse, whatever you think?
SPEAKER_01Yeah, those would be like it's age, it's and it's age, it's proof, it's you know, because like think about it. What's Blanton's? A 90 90 proof, I think. Um, you know, Buffalo Trace, I think is a ninety or ninety-four, maybe. I don't know. Eagle, I know Eagle Rare's 90. Steg can be high, you know, even a little that's probably regular stag. It's the old Steg Junior is what they're talking about there, not the not the antique collection.
SPEAKER_02So they bond this, they water it down a little bit, and at least this one is plus or minus seven years old. So let's um, but man, it
Tasting Notes From Nose To Palate
SPEAKER_02uh let's smell it first.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, for sure. This is uh I just can't believe out of all these episodes, we never did this one. And it's funny that I've seen so many more of these up on the shelves. They're definitely more available now than they used to be in the Chicagoland area. I feel like I see this small batch around town a lot.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, hey people, there's a lot more whiskey on the shelves, um, or at least a lot more um, I feel the good stuff, because that's uh I I guess that's kind of my eyes are open a little bit more. But um if you haven't popped in the store in a while, um Yeah, you're gonna see a lot more of the low. Like I don't go to liquor stores a lot. Like probably I used to go a lot more. Yeah, maybe once a month. Now I'm kind of like, oh, I better get out there because there's they probably have stuff that I used to not be able to get.
SPEAKER_01Well, we're getting into the the bourbon market. We're closer to fall we get, the more you gotta pop in. That's when the more stuff gets released. But so on the nose for me, this is a this is a caramel. Um I got a little bit of light honey. Caramel bomb. Yeah. I mean, this is just caramel, caramel, caramel. And then like a little bit of light honey and some oak. And I and I do get a little bit of the of the alcohol in it. Uh, a little more than I'd like, to tell you the truth.
SPEAKER_02Is it um are you getting like a cand, like with all the corn, therefore the sweetness? Are you getting a lot of are you getting like candy? I would say yeah. A little bit. I definitely have some it's not like rich, like sugar candy. It's like it's literally like a little caramel square. Yeah, like something.
SPEAKER_01I think it's the sugar that I the very similar sugar that I also uh classify as caramel, to tell you the truth. Little burnt a little burnt. For sure. I think that's that oak, little char. Not much though. Not enough, not enough that you're gonna. I mean, I don't feel like I'm stretching to get anything other than like a little bit of honey, to tell you the truth. Everything else is very consistent uh bourbon.
SPEAKER_02That smells great though.
SPEAKER_01It does. I just wish I had a little less alcohol smell.
SPEAKER_02I had a whiskey last night, but I feel like I this just kind of hit my lips and I was like, sweet.
SPEAKER_01And when it touches your lips, it's got a little bit more sweet up front than I was anticipating. Because I didn't get a lot of like like you said, you got a little bit of a fruit or you know, some sweetness or some kind of a sugar or candy on the smell, but I wasn't really getting that besides caramel.
SPEAKER_02And this has a little I've been smelled it at smelling it a ton while you've been kind of researching. So I think that's how I got through that alcohol, but I was definitely smelling the alcohol early, and then that alcohol kind of turned into like like a little citrusy, um, but a lot of sweet and a ton of caramel. And then on the um I'm getting a little orange peel. I feel like I'm getting a little orange. Midway through towards the end. But back to the caramel. I mean, it's like oh, it's there. It's still that like it's like it's almost like sticky like caramel. It just feels like it's top of your mouth. Yeah, when you're kind of biting into a cookie or something with actual caramel. Would you call it caramel? What's the difference between caramel and caramel? I think I've heard it both ways. You've been known to say words differently, that's why I'm asking you. It's caramel where I'm from. Okay, caramel. But I I have heard people say caramel. Listeners. That sounds like uh that sounds like a town.
SPEAKER_01That's why it sounds like somebody just trying to pronounce something differently because it's a town they live in.
SPEAKER_02Caramel, um butterscot. Like that, like those, yeah, that toffee, that creamy, uh, richer, sweeter um caramel flavor. I think I've seen it. I like I've always liked Taylor.
SPEAKER_01I love I've always liked Taylor. This this, I mean, to me, when people talk about different classic tastes, this is like a classic bourbon taste. This Taylor, this is like this had this hits all of their consistent profiles. There, it's that's it's just a very classic bourbon taste. I will say though it does have a little bit of heat though. Sorry to interrupt you. A little heat for people that aren't aren't that are drinking more on the makers, bullets, you know, Woodford Reserves. Uh this one's gonna have this is this bondage gonna have a little kick on
Availability, Pricing, And Gifting Value
SPEAKER_01it for them.
SPEAKER_02Why do we not drink it more? It's 40 fucking dollars. I don't think it's been so readily advanced.
SPEAKER_01I don't think it's been as readily available as it is now. It used to be hard to do it.
SPEAKER_02But do you do you order it? Do you I don't uh do you always buy it if you see it or did you? Yes, like I don't know if it's Whoa, what is that? Ambulance going by. Wow, that sounds cool. We're inside. That was still really hard. What's the right next door?
SPEAKER_01Um, no windows are open.
SPEAKER_02Well, like why like but do you see what I'm saying? Like we get into wellers, we get into a lot of Buffalo Trace products, we get into a ton of um I would say that the small products, like I don't feel like this is like the hey, pull out that tailor where how I used to why I used to buy these when I would find them.
SPEAKER_01A lot of times they were actually at $60, not $40. You know, people were marking them up back then. Um, but to me they were as hard to get as wellers. Um your first Eagle Rare were hard to get. You have to ask for them, and I just for some reason always honestly because I think I prefer the Eagle Rare 10 over it. And if I'm picking something out of the back room to drink every day, I'm picking the Eagle Rare 10 over this. And it's not that I dislike this, I just I really like that Eagle Rare 10. That's my that's my go-to $35 bottle.
SPEAKER_02Good answer because I was gonna call bullshit on that you just that you picked it up that you bought one every time you saw one, because I know when you buy something every time you see it, you end up with a lot of it at home and here. And we don't, we don't have, but not that much. You're right. I've seen you with a dozen wellers because you're just like it was there, I had to buy it. I'm like, yeah, you're right. The price is right, and it was there, and I'm the same way. But this I'm I know I'm gonna stop not buying this. I think this is a great, reasonably priced whiskey that is would also be a great gift. It shows well.
SPEAKER_01It comes in the tin too. Like when you buy these, they come in a tin.
SPEAKER_02They just come in a tube, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, which is cool for gifts.
SPEAKER_02Um, okay. So can't believe that just popped out of my mouth. So we beat that into the ground. But uh uh I wanted to because I that's exactly how I feel. I feel like we don't uh look, we've never even 100 something, 130 podcasts. We've never even fucking done a small tailor small batch. The single barrel that's next, as Tony said we've done.
SPEAKER_01Um and we're but I don't think we did it as a as much of a as a tasting thing, like we're done on these, because we were kind of interviewing Jason. We we get definitely gave our opinions and stuff, but we didn't really dive deep into the single barrel. So it'll be fun to do a couple of these. Now we did do the new antique collection, the Colonel Taylor. That new Taylor one correct. And we paid up for that. Remember, we traded some juice. We trade up.
SPEAKER_02The trade-up.
SPEAKER_01Right. But if you like this Taylor profile, that's excellent. Um this is definitely the entry level of that, and I think it's just because, like you said earlier, it's just the age. Last question. Yes.
SPEAKER_02The finish. I need you to take another sip. That's all I got left. Still that sweet up front, still that little burn. Still that little medium alcohol burn. Still with me.
SPEAKER_01And it's gone.
SPEAKER_02Fading fast.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Boom. Gone. To almost a dry oak. A little bit of a dry oak at the end.
SPEAKER_02Whoa, smart words. Dry oak. Almost like a little dry oak at the end. It's dry and it's like Char Woody.
SPEAKER_01Right at the end, like sucks it back out of you.
SPEAKER_02He's man, the colonel. The colonel is in house today. When he's reviewed, when the colonel is reviewing a colonel, he's just a genius.
SPEAKER_01Every once in a while. I actually got my new card and I texted it to a couple buddies of mine that are also colonels, and I'm like, I'm back, baby. I've I've had a couple phone calls with those guys too.
SPEAKER_02It must be a really cool guy text thread. You and a bunch of your colonel buddies.
SPEAKER_01I'm jealous again. There I go again. I mean, I mean, you don't want to shoot it down. I've seen some of these text threads you're on. I happen to be on some of them. They're bad.
SPEAKER_02They're brutal. Yeah, there's there's ones where Tony will be like, hey, what were all those people saying? I'm like, I don't know. I didn't even read it. You get out of like a meeting or uh something with your family, and you're like, 19. Okay, I'm not reading any of that. I don't have time for this. All right. So um tip
Colonel Taylor’s Legacy And Final Ratings
SPEAKER_02method and your ranking all at once.
SPEAKER_01All right. Shareable, yes, influence. We didn't really talk about the influence. I think the influence is cool. After you give your rating, I can talk about it a little bit. Yeah, but I mean, just like, you know, Colonel Edmund Hayes Taylor Jr., EH means Edmund Hayes. He's one of the like earliest people from the late 1800s, man. He was like pushing for cleaner distilleries, modern production standards. I mean, he's he founded many of these operational standards that the uh 1987 battle 1897 bottle and bond act was found on.
SPEAKER_02Oh wow.
SPEAKER_01So that's so like he's a big deal. He's like he's probably like super anal and super clean and didn't like all the shit people were putting in whiskeys, and he started trying to get it to be standardized. Um, you know, he he's super influential. He kind of started the OFC distillery. I mean, that's yeah, it's one of the oldest, coolest things. I mean, unfortunately, that was real good juice for back then, too. Taylor went away at Prohibition. So, I mean, it went it went away, it was gone. It was gone, it didn't get one of the medicinal licenses, it's gone. And then Buffalo Trace revived it in like 2010. This thing's only been back for like 15 years. Geniuses. It's kind of crazy, really. Um, but anyway, that's that's the influence.
SPEAKER_02So the influence to me is super high because I like great job working a little bit of knowledge into your influence. Real, I mean, really betting a thousand here and then. I'll take it on the kernel.
SPEAKER_01Price if you get it for 40 bucks, great. If you get it for 50, okay. Anything more than that, I would say don't do it. Uh siparating to me, this is a this is a solid three.
SPEAKER_02Um I'm sharing it. I'm gifting it. Uh I love Buffalo Trace, and the price I is the only part of what you said I will disagree with. I think 40 is a steal. I think 50 is a deal. I think 60, which we were gonna get we will get into, is the retail price of the single barrel, which is next, which is older, and most would say better, but we'll get there. Um I'm just for next week. I gotta think about that one. I'm still not uh uh thinking even 60 is too much. I would say my whoa is probably 75, but um for 40 is spectacular, and uh sip rating. I'm gonna edge you a little eighth. I'm gonna go three and an eighth.
SPEAKER_01All right, that's cool. I mean, I think it's better than it's it's better than any of our average everyday drinkers, and I don't know why we don't drink more of this. We should drink more of this. I've gifted this to many people. Um, Rob, at our I I I have no idea about it. I I feel like I gift this away more than I actually drink it, and that's a bad thing to do. I should drink it more. That's where it all went. I do gift it. I don't I don't think that's where it all went, but I don't I don't gift my wellers as much because I kind of I kind of stash those. I like those so much.
SPEAKER_02You are a hoarder. We've been through that before.
SPEAKER_01Oh, come on, come on. It's a collection. It's a collection. It's a collection. I feel like I'm part of a Seinfeld show here.
Wrap Up And Single Barrel Tease
SPEAKER_02Speaking of uh music, uh, we should go out with some more 311, I think. I am staying on 311. Okay, so uh to put a bow on this, small batch retail 40, coming podcast next, not small, but single and retail 60. Both 100 proof. Um single barrel known to be upwards to maybe even 12 years old. Is it gonna be that much better? Is it gonna be $20 or 50% better?
SPEAKER_01And a lot of it's gonna depend on the single barrel we have because everybody knows about single barrels is you get good ones and you don't. You get bad ones. So I don't know which one we have is where we're at with that. But I've only got one single barrel here at the hut. I probably have a few more at my house. Maybe I'll grab a couple, maybe I should grab a couple different ones and we can taste all the different single barrels and see what they're different.
SPEAKER_02What's the hut? Here at the hut? It's called the SIP.
SPEAKER_01It's here. It's here. The hut? I'm sorry, it's just I just talk.
SPEAKER_02I'm like, I've never heard that before. Hut? It sounds like we're in like a little grass shed. Come on. Or in Kentucky. Uh he bourbon brothers, Mike and Tony. We take care of the whiskey so you can focus on with whom you share it. I'm here sitting here with Colonel David. And Colonel H Taylor. And oh yeah, this one, everybody knows this one a little better. I I I the other one, I think.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, this is this you're you're right. You're right, you're right. Why am I disagreeing? This is more popular for the thing. I don't think this is their their number one song, but this is this is a song I remember for sure.
SPEAKER_02Good one, dude. Good one, dude. That was really fun, and I'd love for people that were doing something really good. Three plus rating. Um, they're on under 40 bucks.
SPEAKER_01Go get a small bat. But I'll tell you what, the last few times I've been to Disney X team. They all stay limit one, but you know, the only one three out. Thanks for listening.
