Distilled Bourbon Podcast
Distilled: The Bourbon Podcast discovers all that America's spirit has to offer from trails to distilleries and everything in between. Co-hosts Brent Bridges, Chuck Stinnett, Aaron Nelson and Brian McDaniel bring unique perspectives to this popular topic. Brian is an Army veteran and owner of the Beverage Barn liquor stores. He knows how to find those rare unicorn bottles. Chuck is a member of the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame and is best described as a walking encyclopedia. Chuck and his wife Donna are experts in many things including maneuvering the Bourbon Trail(s). Aaron brings his knowledge of whiskey and bar tending skills to the team to make us look good. Brent...well he owns a few microphones and loves bourbon.
Distilled Bourbon Podcast
E50.The Bourbon Battle: Missouri vs Kentucky
Kentucky has been the king of Bourbons for 250 years. Can a Missouri contender dethrone the champ? We call in some help to solve this one!
In this episode we're comparing and contrasting two of America's most iconic spirits: bourbon from Kentucky and from Missouri. We'll be looking at the different aspects of each whisky, and crowning a bourbon champion!
Which bourbon is best? You be the judge as we battle it out in this bourbon battle! Kentucky vs Missouri: the battle of the States!
Is this Missouri Bourbon really as good as Kentucky? We're gonna have to call out some help on this one.
Speaker 2:Let's do this.
Speaker 1:Alright . The Commonwealth of Kentucky known for basketball horses. And what else? Bourbon. So is there a bourbon better than a Kentucky bourbon?
Speaker 3:I know Texas has some pretty good bourbon. I've had some bourbon from Florida. Uh, they typically age in smaller barrels that , but they're very good. Uh, I've had bourbon from Oregon and from Florida and from Indiana. And the answer is, Nope. <laugh> <laugh> .
Speaker 1:Yeah, I remember. I'm thinking about that. Uh , bourbon we tried from New York that just didn't fly here in the turret <laugh> . Yeah . But , uh, to help us figure out if Missouri makes a worthy bourbon, we brought in superfan. Chuck, would you introduce our special guest for today? So
Speaker 3:Gary Harrelson is , uh, has been living in the St. Louis area for, I don't want to give your age way , but like a quarter century <laugh> at least. Yeah. What , what do you do there?
Speaker 4:I'm the , uh, multimedia director at the St. Louis Post Dispatch newspaper there. And , uh, I , uh, I, I cut my teeth at the Gleaner when I was a little snotty nose high school kid. Worked with this guy and , uh, matter fact , matter fact , before even had a driver's license, you know, he and Tom Coddle and other people would take me around to , uh, to , to my assignments. And so, but anyway, I got into photojournalism. I've , I've worked in four or five different states in Jackson, Tennessee, which I didn't realize that all . I didn't actually cross paths there, and we did. Didn't realize it, but , uh, uh, but , uh, but yeah, I oversee photo, video and podcasting there at the , uh, St. Louis Post Dispatch . And
Speaker 3:I think, I think you're the , our very first top fan. Oh, yeah,
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah. I got that , uh, right before Christmas and I'm like, I'm not sure what this is, but I'm gonna accept it anyway . So
Speaker 3:<laugh> , it's the gift that just keeps on giving . Yeah , I know right?
Speaker 4:<laugh> ? Well, the Jelly of the Month Club. Right .
Speaker 3:<laugh>
Speaker 4:And
Speaker 3:I , I , I believe you have taken some recommendations from us about some whiskeys to
Speaker 4:Try . Of course. Yeah. Yeah. I've learned a lot. Learned a lot.
Speaker 3:And maybe some , uh, just generalities to visit. Yes.
Speaker 4:Yeah. I've been to , uh, um, Casey Jones, MB Rowland Peerless is probably my, my favorite. Mostly because of the Henderson Sure . Uh , connection to it . Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> . Right . Uh , I met quirky about four years ago, right after, about three years ago after Covid hit. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> . He was walking down the street on Water Street. So there was some event going on down there. Had a bottle of BLANs in his hand, <laugh>. So of course I stopped him, but I didn't know who he was . I didn't know who he was
Speaker 1:At time .
Speaker 4:And so, anyway , we got to talking and , uh, you know, and he gave me a card, told me who he was, and so we chatted a little bit, told him I was from St. Louis. And, and so , uh, make a long story short, we toured , uh, Peerless , uh, back in April of this year. And , uh, and , uh, ended up , uh, buying four bottles of the , uh, single barrel that they had and had 'em autograph 'em . So I've got , uh, nice, nice . Yeah. I've got , uh, three , uh, actually one bottle left, but , uh, <laugh> ,
Speaker 1:<laugh> , you dropped the other forever . <laugh> , right
Speaker 4:Now I gave one away as a gift and gave one , uh, actually I was putting , put one back from my , uh, new grandchild, so , uh, when she turns 21.
Speaker 1:So when you're not drinking bourbon, or maybe while you're drinking bourbon, you also have a couple of other hobbies. Uh, you're into a little barbecue, is that right? Yeah, I
Speaker 4:Deal bit with everything actually. I, I, I , I smoke meats , uh, coming from my Jackson, west Tennessee roots , uh,
Speaker 1:Three little pigs .
Speaker 4:Yeah. The west, west, west Tennessee , uh, style of , uh, smoking meat. They ,
Speaker 1:Something about barbecue
Speaker 4:Down there. Uh , just a little bit. Yeah . My gosh . Just
Speaker 1:A little bit negative with sauce on the side. That's all I can say, man. <laugh> . Yeah .
Speaker 4:But you know, St. Louis is actually , uh, actually has blown up now probably since about 2010 with, with , uh, uh, with barbecue. And it used to be Kansas City. Uh, but I , I think St . Louis actually has the, has the corner on on barbecue. I
Speaker 1:Remember where I lived there, Pappy's was the big thing that , that was the place to go to. Downtown's,
Speaker 4:Pappy's
Speaker 5:Grandfathers about smoked meat . We're not talking about bourbon <laugh> , we're
Speaker 1:Talking about smoked meat . Right , right . There you go .
Speaker 4:Right . Yeah, yeah , yeah . So Pappy's , I , I call Pappy's the grandfather of barbecue in St. Louis , uh, because they're the ones who actually got it going because the food networking came in and did a big story on them . Yeah . So it blew up from there. And now we have tons and tons of amazing barbecue places in St . Louis. So, but I , I just, I freelance it. I just do it on my own. And I've been smoking meat since, probably since I graduated from high school and , uh, been doing it ever since. So ,
Speaker 1:Gary Harrelson , uh, Renaissance man here in the turret . <laugh> . Love it. So Aaron , we're gonna find out if Missouri Bourbon can match or keep up or maybe even exceed Kentucky , uh, bourbon. Yep . How are we gonna do that? So,
Speaker 5:We've got a blind in front of us, as you can see. Normally we would have our bottles , uh, out here and on the table, and there are no bottles , um, because we don't wanna be influenced , uh, on the, we got a pour on the left and we got a pour on the right. Both of them are bottled in bond. Um, I know the one from Missouri is coming in at six years. And , uh, the one from Kentucky is somewhere around the same age. Uh, but we've got a bottom bond from Missouri. We've got a bottom in bond from Kentucky. Well,
Speaker 1:That's a 10 year , it's a 10 year .
Speaker 5:It's 10 year . Alright . So the one from Kentucky's gonna be just a little bit older, don't wanna influence your nose or anything, but
Speaker 1:The color are very similar,
Speaker 5:Very, very similar. They're both sour mash process. So this is gonna be a little bit older for the one in Kentucky. But other than that, we're , uh, we're gonna be able to , uh, hopefully pick out the winner . So we're
Speaker 1:Gonna start with the left, then go
Speaker 5:To, right. Gonna pick on the left and go to the right.
Speaker 1:Let's take a little nose of the left. Um , left classic nose. Mm .
Speaker 5:Oh man.
Speaker 1:Smells good.
Speaker 4:Smooth.
Speaker 1:Oh , vanilla. No ethanol,
Speaker 5:Caramel ,
Speaker 1:You all the typical bourbon notes . Yep .
Speaker 5:Everything you would , everything . Yep . So, Gary, while we're tasting this, I'm, I'm a huge St. Louis Cardinals fan. You said St . Louis dispatch, like, do you get a ring and stuff too? I mean, how does that work?
Speaker 3:<laugh>?
Speaker 4:Yeah. You know, our , uh, our , uh, marketing department , uh, used to sell these , um, promotional rings to fans. You know, they were actually , uh, um, um, replicas of Super Bowl , I mean Super Bowl of, of World Series rings. And so, yeah. So, yeah, I got those <laugh>
Speaker 3:<laugh> are , are they plastic or gold? No,
Speaker 4:Actually they're middle . They're middle . Yeah. I've got a whole settlement home on my , uh, TV stand . So
Speaker 1:Now I, I'd really like to be able to tell you I've never had a Missouri bourbon ever in my life , uh, except that , um, there was this one time, like 30 minutes ago when I forgot to hit the record button <laugh> , and we had probably the best episode we've ever recorded in our , well, the best episode we didn't record. That's it. Um, so , uh, hopefully we'll be able to, to , uh, change things up. We got some, some different , um, pores here. So we, we couldn't tell what we had. But let me ask you , Chuck, what do you think about this first one? Oh , I
Speaker 3:Like it a lot.
Speaker 1:Pretty good stuff. I
Speaker 3:Like it a lot. Um,
Speaker 1:I like it a lot.
Speaker 3:<laugh>, <laugh> . Uh , I , I , I don't recognize it at all. Uh, little bit of burn. Might be a little , little , might be a little higher proof . There you go. Um , not real sure. Uh , I , it's, well, I don't think I've had either of these bourbons before, so , um, but I'm liking, I'm liking the left. I'm liking number one. Alright .
Speaker 1:Brian, what you got buddy?
Speaker 6:Yeah. One, I mean, it's, it's okay. It's been a while since I've had Henry McKenna 10 year , uh, at the time. I , I really enjoyed it. Um, I've drank a lot of bourbon since then though, so my pallet's changed a lot. Um, so
Speaker 1:Sure . So the Kentucky Contender is Henry McKenna 10 year It is.
Speaker 6:And then I guess Ben Holiday six year , uh, BIB . Okay . Uh ,
Speaker 3:Okay. So I'm don't think I knew that Henry McKenna was actually the other contender. I've had it before. I , I have a friend who , who's a big fan. I was not a big McKenna fan myself. Um, I'm, I'm lucky number one. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay , fine. Aaron , what do you think?
Speaker 5:I like it. It's standard bourbon. Yeah . Um, not a lot of burn. I mean, like Brian said, all the, all the bourbon notes that you would expect from a typical bourbon. Uh, it's nothing that I would pay too , too much for. I'd probably pay 45
Speaker 1:For just a Chevy Silverado Bourbon version for you. Yeah . Not
Speaker 5:Gets the
Speaker 1:Job done. Is , is
Speaker 6:It too , too well dry. Yeah. That's it . <laugh>.
Speaker 1:Well, Gary, what do you think about this first one ? You like that nose, you like
Speaker 4:The taste ? You know , I think I do like the nose a lot and it's got a bit of a burn for me, Uhhuh . And I think I probably like it better with maybe an ice cube.
Speaker 1:Okay. I agree. Yeah.
Speaker 3:Uh , just
Speaker 4:To , uh, you know, kind of ,
Speaker 1:We are trying all these needs , smooth
Speaker 4:It out a little bit, but , um, um, but yeah, the nose is wonderful and , uh, the , uh, the, the flavor's really nice.
Speaker 1:Cool. Well , should we try the one on the right?
Speaker 5:Let's try the one on the right.
Speaker 3:I don't, I don't think you said what you thought the first one, or did I miss that?
Speaker 1:I , I think it's middle of the road. Good. I would I buy a bottle of this? I don't, I don't know that I would've bought bottle of the one on the left. I think it's a good solid bourbon that I, I enjoy, but I don't know that I would go back to when there's so many good bourbons out there.
Speaker 4:It seems like the ethanol for me kind of comes through when I take that taste. It kind of comes through my nose a little bit.
Speaker 1:I wish you could see the smile on Aaron's face. No . Is that a good smile?
Speaker 5:Yeah. I like this one.
Speaker 1:<laugh>. Yeah, I like this one. <laugh>.
Speaker 3:Okay. On , on the second one, I'm getting ethanol, but I'm also getting fruit. Yes. Same here. Yeah . Jerry ,
Speaker 5:There's Jerry Fruit. So Gary, while we're sipping and pouring this one, I'll ask you another question, sir. Mm-Hmm . <affirmative> what bourbon got you into the bourbon game? Like, what was the one that one pour that you had that said, yep , I'm gonna drink this. I
Speaker 3:Love it. Yeah.
Speaker 4:For me it was , uh, Blanton's, about
Speaker 3:2009
Speaker 1:<laugh> .
Speaker 5:I'm just kidding.
Speaker 3:We were
Speaker 4:On a riverboat cruise , uh, back in about 2009 or 2010 in , in New Orleans. And , uh, we had , uh, um, uh, they had a bar on , on the riverboat and , uh, they lantis was their house, house bourbon, and so their
Speaker 3:House, yeah. Wow. That was a long time. Yeah . I think oh nine <laugh> .
Speaker 1:Yeah .
Speaker 4:Wow . And so , uh, so I , you know , I'd never had it before and, you know, probably until that point I was probably drinking cheap bourbon and , you know, and , uh, just, you know , probably never really had a decent quality bourbon, but it just, it just knocked me off my feet when I tasted it. Uh, the, the caramel, the, the , the notes came out, it's just, it just blew me away. So I kind of hold everything to that standard now. Yeah. Uh , like it sort of , if I get that reaction, like I did with , uh, with, with Blanton's is, you know, for me it's like, it's , it's gonna be a good bourbon.
Speaker 3:Yeah. You , you know, I think there's a lot of Blanton haters out there these days. And I think part of it is because it used to be so available and now it's so hard to find and expensive and treasured. And I , I think there , there's some resentment. I like Blanton's just fine. Yeah . I've always liked Blanton's.
Speaker 5:Well, Chuck, when you work at a liquor store, <laugh> , and every single day you've gotta deal with the guy that walks in and says, can I help you find anything? Yeah. Where's the Blanton <laugh> ? Man, we hadn't had Blanton's on the shelf in 15 years. I'm sorry. It's not there .
Speaker 1:So I think Blands is just fine. I
Speaker 3:I get that <laugh> , I'm , I'm , I'm I'm a customer. Yeah . Uh , I remember the old days when you didn't have to ask for it. It was just there. It was right there . And LAN's was fine. It was , it was Akay.
Speaker 1:I think it's fine. I , I enjoy Blanton's every once in a while , but lemme tell you this one on the right. Ooh . I'm like , I would rather have, this is a bland zine day of the week. This is very
Speaker 3:Good. This is awfully
Speaker 1:Like that one. Brian ,
Speaker 3:I think I'm about to eat some crow here. <laugh> ,
Speaker 5:If I had to guess there a cherry note to it, if
Speaker 6:I had to guess , and I will start this with saying Aaron was wrong on the first one. That <laugh>
Speaker 5:Recorded .
Speaker 1:<laugh> .
Speaker 6:Uh , so I'll go first this time, just, you know, just in case I am wrong , uh, I think this is Henry McKenna.
Speaker 5:You think this is the one on the right's? Henry McKen
Speaker 6:On the right is Henry McKenna, number two.
Speaker 1:Okay . Number . I'm gonna be surprised if that's the case, but , uh, I like it, you know, a lot more about bourbon than I do.
Speaker 5:Hmm . It's smoother than one. It doesn't have as much burn for me.
Speaker 1:Well, standing just off camera is a lovely Donna stint . Donna, can you tell us what the one on the left is? So thanks to the lovely Donna Santa , we now know that the one on the left, the one that we thought was good, but not maybe , uh, above our expectations is the Missouri holiday. And the one on the right is the McKenna. Or does that surprise you there, Brian?
Speaker 6:No, it doesn't. Reminds me of the , uh, Tyson Holyfield fight. You know, <laugh> a fair fight until Tyson could use his teeth
Speaker 1:<laugh>.
Speaker 5:So
Speaker 6:I kind of figured McKinna would win.
Speaker 1:Yeah. Well you think that's an age statement kinda thing? I
Speaker 6:Don't think , I think it's just the age of it. You know, it takes out some of those imperfections of , of the product, you know, as it ages longer. That's why most Kentucky or Kentucky straight bourbons , uh, are at least four years old. If they're not, they have to be aged ated on the bottle. And I think that's the reason.
Speaker 1:All right . Aaron , does this surprise you at all?
Speaker 5:It does, but if I were playing the , uh, buy a bottle, buy a pour, buy or leave it on the shelf. Yeah . I'm gonna buy a bottle of this one,
Speaker 1:Which is this one you're talking about
Speaker 5:One on the left. The Missouri. Okay .
Speaker 1:You like the one nice. Yeah,
Speaker 5:I , I absolutely
Speaker 1:Enjoy . I probably would buy a bottle of both of these. Just be , you know, if nothing else, how many times have we said it's all about the experiences? Uh, having these two bourbons with you gentlemen today is just , uh, so much fun. And , uh, I'll remember it forever. And I want a bottle to remember what we drank today. And I will definitely give McKenna another shot. Uh , yeah, Henry , because I'd written it off. Henry McKenna
Speaker 5:In my mind is, is redeemed. It's Oh , it's good stuff. Yeah. Now here's my thing with Henry McKenna, I would buy a bottle of Henry McKenna at 45.99 mm-Hmm. <affirmative> 72.99. What it's gotten to, I'm buying, all right . Now the bottle from Missouri is 59 ish. It's like 60 bucks. Yeah. 60 bucks. Absolutely. I'm buying that one over this one. It's Yes. After tasting them blind , this one has a better taste value, though. I'm going with that all day, every day .
Speaker 1:Oh, okay. That's a good way to look at. Yeah.
Speaker 6:And to Aaron's point, the one thing I like to support are the craft distillers. I mean, love 'em , uh, Henry and McKennan , they could sell it all day for $40 and make just as much as they're probably making that for 60. So , uh, I mean, Ben Holiday is a great poor , uh, I would, I'd buy a bottle as well.
Speaker 1:Gary, lemme ask you this. Can you walk up and , um, uh, go to the distillery and have, do they have a visitor center and tours and that sort of thing? Uh ,
Speaker 4:They do, but it's in west of Missouri. It's near Kansas City. Okay. Um , and I think they do tours and all that kind of stuff, but , uh, it's about four hours from St. Louis, so I've not been there. It's gonna be, it's on my list to hit it. Uh , one of these , uh, one of these, one of these days. But , um, um, but , uh, um, but yeah, yeah, you , you can tour it. So you
Speaker 1:Could go there and have also some Kansas City barbecue as well .
Speaker 4:<laugh> , or you should eat in St. Louis. Eat the barbecue in St. Louis and then , then go, and then go. Yeah. And
Speaker 5:Yeah . Alright . Ben Holiday is, I mean, the history there is crazy. Like it's the oldest distillery west of the Mississippi. Like, it's, it's definitely a , a spot after doing some research that Heather and I want to go hundred 70,
Speaker 1:180 years old. Yeah . That's cool.
Speaker 4:That , that's what actually attracted me about it. And plus, you know, he's from , from Kentucky. Yeah. He's a Kentucky native. Okay. And , uh, I think I , I think he was like a entrepreneur stage coach that
Speaker 1:Explains a lot. <laugh>. <laugh> . He started in Kentucky .
Speaker 5:Yeah . Started
Speaker 4:In Kentucky and , uh, you know, and , uh, he , he, you know, the limestone , uh, springs and all that stuff. Yeah . It's, it's, it , you know, it's probably, you know , uh, a you know, like a brother from another mother Yeah . In the bourbon world, you know, but , uh, but it just happened to be
Speaker 1:Missouri . They have all the oak, they have all the lime sewn , all the water, all the corn. Exactly. I , he's doing how I've gotta , I've gotta go visit them. Yeah . I've gotta go there. Now, doesn't Missouri have some crazy rules about being a, called a Missouri bourbon?
Speaker 5:Yeah, it's, it's interesting. I mean, they have to follow all the federal guidelines and then they , uh, have to be aged in a oak tree from Missouri. That happened, that law happened in 2019. I had to be distilled , um, aged the whole process in Missouri. Uh, and then in 2021 they passed a law that said you can't even get corn outside the state of Missouri for it to be real Missouri bourbon. So , um, yeah, I mean, they're to be real Missouri bourbon. It's coming from Missouri. I mean, that's it. Uh, other than their secondary greens, their secondary greens could come from Yeah . Wherever. But cool.
Speaker 4:I hear some people think that that's just a big gimmick. But then I also hear that there's some people who actually live for those things. They actually travel around the world, around the country looking for things like that, you know, authenticity.
Speaker 5:Yeah. This , uh, mashville for this ben holiday too is it's 73 15. 12, yeah . 73 corn , 15 rye, 12 malted barley. So cool. High corn. Yep . Uh , low rye. It's, it's sweet. I , man, I enjoy it. Yeah . It's your
Speaker 6:Traditional bourbon. I mean, if you thought about bourbon back in the 18 hundreds, that was your ash bill . That's
Speaker 5:It.
Speaker 1:Well, there you go. In true distilled bourbon podcast fashion, we totally skirted the question whatsoever. Uh, I think we kinda all like this Missouri bourbon. Yeah , sure . Is it better than Kentucky? We'll live to fight another day and, and see what we think. There's more than one , uh, Missouri bourbon out there. And we've gotta try some more. What ? More coming. All right . Gary, thank you for being here, my friend. Thanks . Inviting . It was so nice to have you finally in the Turt. And , uh, I'm glad we hit the record button today, <laugh> . Well that said, please drink responsibly.