The Scotchy Bourbon Boys
The Scotchy Bourbon Boys love Whiskey and every thing about the industry! Martin "Super Nash", Jeff "Tiny", Rachel "Roxy" Karl "Whisky" and Chris "CT" all make up The Scotchy Bourbon Boys! Join us in talking everything and anything Whiskey, with the innovators, and distillers around the globe. Go behind the scenes of making great whiskey and learn how some of the best in the whiskey industry make their product! Remember good whiskey means great friends and good times! Go out and Live Your Life Dangerously!
The Scotchy Bourbon Boys
Knob Creek 9 Year Sets the Standard for Quality Bourbon at a Steal
Knob Creek 9 Year serves as both an incredible value at $35 and a meaningful journey marker for bourbon enthusiasts seeking authentic whiskey experiences without breaking the bank.
• Knob Creek was established in 1992 as part of Jim Beam's small batch collection created by Booker Noe
• The name pays homage to Abraham Lincoln's childhood home in Kentucky
• After temporarily losing its age statement in 2016 due to inventory shortages, the 9-year age statement proudly returned in 2020
• The classic mash bill consists of 75% corn, 13% rye, and 12% malted barley
• Knob Creek's single barrels come in at a robust 120 proof while the standard 9-year holds steady at 100 proof
• For its modest $35 price point, Knob Creek 9 delivers a flavor profile that rivals bourbons costing substantially more
• The nose presents distinct vanilla ice cream cone notes while the palate offers vanilla frosting that transitions to caramel with leather on the finish
• Jim Beam allows their barrels to age naturally in Kentucky's climate without rushing the process
• The current batch earned an impressive 15/18 rating, demonstrating exceptional quality for its price point
Remember, good friends and good bourbon equal good times. Drink responsibly and live your life uncut and unfiltered.
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Speaker 2:We'll be right back.
Speaker 1:All right, welcome back to another podcast of the Scotchy Bourbon Boys, tiny, here Tonight. Ct was trying to make it. I don't think he's going to, but if he pops in will, uh. But we are doing that's kind of cool. But I, you, I bet you I'm making you all nervous when I do that one, but we are doing knob creek tonight, so I want to. It's going to be a fantastic podcast.
Speaker 1:I have actually this brand is the brand of Jeff Mueller, or Jeffrey Mueller or Tiny myself. This is the brand that when I was, my father drank Jack Daniels and I'll get into our sponsorship and everything in a couple seconds. But when my father drank Jack Daniels, I was working as a computer artist in our family commercial arts studio and he drank Jack Daniels and I tried everything to do it to get by it. But we had Jim Beam in about 1995 as one of our design firm's customers. So we worked on a lot of Jim Beam but Knob Creek was one of those bottles. I used other bottles of Knob Creek to make a bottle of Drew. I did this. What would you say? Pixel picture, pixel illustration of the Knob Creek bottle. And when we did that we were given one the bottle as reference, you know. So we had reference to it. So that was really kind of cool. A bunch of you know it's like fantastic bourbon, whatever, but I thought it was strong.
Speaker 1:But, um, we'll go through the. We're going to go through the history like for the nine. What you got there, it's 100 proof and when you deal with some of the single barrels they're 120, which is really cool. All single barrels are 120. But this brand kind of defines my what would you say? I want to say this brand, the Knob Creek brand, defies my journey as the start of drinking bourbon. At first I wasn't sure, but as I went through and whatever, it's become just a favorite staple of mine. So tonight I'm excited to do Knob Creek 9. Now I'm monitoring both Facebook and YouTube right now. David said he has a couple of 15 plus years stash of the single barrels and so that's kind of cool. And then we got Walker Randy so far Randy Ford and Walker Terry Dan there's a bunch of people on tonight, hopefully Gordon. Walker Terry Dant there's a bunch of people on tonight, hopefully. Feel free to comment while we're going.
Speaker 1:Grab a Knob Creek 9 if you can and sip along this. Actually my son is a fan of Knob Creek 9. I was able to flip him, I believe, with the combination of William Dalton and Knob Creek. Those two are what I got in there and kind of cool, so I mean, I was excited about that. Let's see if I get that one in there.
Speaker 1:All right, so we're wwwscotchiebourbonboyscom for all things Scotchie Bourbon Boys. We got t-shirts, we've got Glen Karens. This one needs to be shined up a little bit. Uh, my, I hadn't done any of the polishing. There we go. That's pretty good, because I'm going to show you this and if I don't do the polishing, that really doesn't help. But anyways, um, on the website you can get that, or you can contact me direct on facebook or youtube. Leave a message and I will arrange for you to get one of these awesome Glen Karens or T-shirts of the Scotchy Bourbon Boys.
Speaker 1:All your support, we love. We are on Facebook, instagram, youtube and X, and then also on the major podcast formats of Apple iHeart and Spotify and anywhere else that you might listen to, we're there, and anywhere else that you might listen to, we're there. But no matter if you listen or watch us, make sure you like, listen, comment and leave good feedback. Comment, like, listen, subscribe. That's it. Here we go, subscribe, comment, like and leave. Good, I can't believe I'm screwing that up. Like, listen, subscribe, comment and leave good feedback. There you go Like, listen, subscribe and leave good feedback. There we go. That's awesome. So we're ready to go. We're ready to go. I'm excited.
Speaker 1:Uh, much to my wife's non-approval, I haven't had a bottle of the nine in a while, so this is straight off the the the shelf. So this is what we're going to do. I'm going to open it right now because one of the cool things about it is the wax label. Now I have done, if you go and you do it at the distillery. I've done it twice. We did it on our Scotchy Bourbon Boys bus tour, but that's actually the Scototchie bourbon boys. This actually was our. We'll get into this. I got so much to do and then I'll put that right there. There's so many different bottles, but this one right here on our bus tour this is signed by sandy no, because she came along with it and one of the things is you bottle your own, so it's a 120. You can see that really cool. And then it's got the knobcrete small batch right there.
Speaker 1:Uh, this is a single barrel and it's nine year and then if you look on the top, you get to put your thumbprint so and you get to dip it. So you dip it and put your thumbprint, so it's really kind of cool. You can see that it's not, but look at that little stamp right there. That's cool. This one, I'm sure you can see the difference that one was ragtag right here. And look at how smooth that one is. But the same thing, no top. But you can see that. How nice that that topper is opposed to the one that we did. So that's really kind of cool how that works.
Speaker 1:Um, I've got a lot of different stuff on this tonight, so just bear with me. I've had a lot of single barrels and, um, I went. My very first barrel pick that I ever went on was, um, was Knob Creek single barrel for the Kentucky Bourbon Festival, so that was really kind of cool. I have one bottle of that. I purchased two, drank one, and I have another one put back from that. Uh, and that would have been, I want to say, for the. I want to say it was for the 30th or let's, it was 2020. It's right here. This was the 30th anniversary and it was 2021. No, is this yeah, for the 30th anniversary. So I went on that pick. Now I have another one from. I got the 2022 knob creek from the festival and that's just right there. Kentucky burb justin from justin's house of Bourbon. That was kind of cool to have that 2022. So there's so many different barrel picks, but I'm going to go through the timeline as we go and I've got some cheers Matt, good to see you. Um, randy, senator, garrison, brother, okay. So I've got Michael Jackson's Whiskey, the Definitive World Guide that you can hear about, a little bit of history on the actual. I'm going to get this right here.
Speaker 1:And so Booker started making the small batches. So Booker started making the small batches In 1992, booker's was introduced in 1988 as an uncut, natural-proof and non-chill-filtered bourbon. But in 1992, the complex Oakey Booker's was joined by three more bourbons in the collection. One was the Baker's, one was the basil hayden but twist my hand and balance and the and the robust knob creek, a nine-year-old, 100 proof whiskey named after abraham lincoln's childhood home in kentucky. So when, when Booker started to make his small batch collection, he basically, you know, got this going and one of the things uh, it was pretty cool what and and once he got it going. Fred, who is almost, is one of the co-distillers at the distillery right now with freddie now, um, he really got the small batch, the basil, kept the and the bookers and the basil hating all that is. Um, after booker passed in 2004, but you got to say during fred's time is when the the 90s was the re, re rebirth, but the boom was during fred's time and he really, um, fred and freddie have really done a nice job with the small batches out of Jim Beam.
Speaker 1:Hadn't done a Jim Beam podcast in a while and I really wanted to do this because it's kind of fantastic. You know what I mean Fantastic bourbon. It's something. Hey, leland, good to see you. I would say that this is part of my. If you had to pick a couple, I mean Booker's is right there, because Booker's was what really got me into collecting before, right at the time when I was starting the Scotchy Bourbon Boys group. Booker's was the first ever bourbon I hunted. But Knob Creek is the first bourbon that I would say I could associate myself and that was a big difference in time period because one was probably 1995-96 and the other the Booker's when I started was 2000. It was Kitchen Table, which I believe is a 2000.
Speaker 1:I want to say I started I think it was in 2018 and I was able to obtain it in 2019. And you know, that's kind of like you know the two different things of Jim Beam. Now all the other stuff that came through was was fantastic. You know, right here I've got the right off the knob creek. So the nine-year-old let's just do this again, get the, get the things. The nine-year-old bourbon whiskey.
Speaker 1:When it comes to making knob creek bourbon, there's a lot of waiting, but hardly any sitting around while each barrel patiently ages in white oak. Our distillers continue to raise the standards, fulfilling their commitment to full flavor. The result an unflinching balance of deep, pre-prohibition style bourbon with a robust oak taste complemented with hints of smooth vanilla and layered caramel. Baird Caramel Proof 100. There's 107 reviews. Let's see if I let's read a review. It gets a 4.6 out of 5. And then I'll look at the reviews. Here we go.
Speaker 1:Reminiscent of the French market when I lived in New Orleans, it was fun to be a tourist in my town. A stroll down road through the edge of the French Old Quarter, taking the wharf, so the roasted pecans and creamy prunes was a savory treat. Fun to be a tourist in my town. A stroll down road through the edge of the French Oak Quarter, taking the wharfs of the roasted pecans and creamy prunes was a savory treat. Putting my nose in this glass of Knob Creek 9 instantly took me down. All right. So this is the kind of stuff it's.
Speaker 1:Knob Creek definitely has the Jim Beam profile and I'm going to take you to break. We're going to go to breaking bourbon now. Let's see. We go here. I've got this down really good. So right there, breaking bourbon.
Speaker 1:So it's in its form of nine, it's a hundred proof. But if you're buying it, if you're buying it at nine years, it's a 100 proof. But if you're buying this, um, in a single barrel, you're going to get 120 proof. Both fantastic, perfect drinking things. So if you go there and you see a single barrel, you're going to see 120. If you go there for the the nine year, it's going to be 100 proof. Now there's they. They just real quick. They make also the 12-year, which is whiskey's favorite. Hey, john, it's good to see you.
Speaker 1:John Ritt, just put in 9-year, 120 proof is my favorite. I've never seen a 9-year. Well, I've seen a 9-year 120, but those are single barrels, so they are Leland. Those are all the single barrels that come out and they do release the ones off the shelf at nine-year also. But there were also older ones, just like the Scotchy Bourbon Boys actual pick, right here you can see it.
Speaker 1:I got that here and this was called the Scotchy Bourbon. It was called the Barrel Room, scotchy Bourbon Boys Select, okay, and this was $120. And, honestly, I had it signed by Fred. This one I put up and I have another one left I gave the person who got this year's Crystal the Premier Crystalen club. That was was sarah evans and she got one of the three bottles remaining of that from our barrel pick. So I was able to put that out. I still have the signed one and the one that I have for myself and I believe somewhere else there's an open one that I can sip from.
Speaker 1:But, um, the nine yearyear is all. The mash bill for it's made by it's distillery is Jim Beam, the company's Beam Centauri, their own. It's straight bourbon, nine years age Now. So in 2016, they took that nine-year age statement off because they were using other. The demand was so high during the bourbon boom of what they had. They used younger bourbon, but back in 2020, they put the age statement back on, so it's been back on for five years. I can't believe it's gone that fast. I thought I was going to be like 22, 23 when they put the nine-year. Nope, it was 2020 when they put it back on. The mash bill is 75% corn, 13% rye and 12% malted barley. The MSRP from 2020 was $35. The MSRP today was $34.99. It hasn't changed. It's 100 proof, but for $34.99, it is definitely Now.
Speaker 1:Someone asked what's a good price for the 12-year? Now we got proof. He can't collect, he drinks it too fast. And then Lane said what's a good price for the 12-year? I believe the 12-year Well, I can actually tell you what a good. I don't think they got it on the website. But the 12- well, I can actually tell you what a good. I don't think they got it on the website. But the 12 year was. I want to say this I think it was 79.99. I think it started 59.99, but that when it came out again it was it was 80. So that was a 12 year.
Speaker 1:Now they make a 15, which I have here and I haven't tried, and an 18. Now I've tried the 18 many times. I'm getting this up, get this back over here. I've tried the 18 many times. It's it was really good, um, but it's kind of a oaky kind of thing for me. So it wasn't too oaky and I had interviewed Fred Ngo and that's one of the things that he said in the interview when they're doing these age statements, the older age statements, that he doesn't want it to get too oaky.
Speaker 1:Now, this was the coolest bottle ever. It's got a way to you flip this up and then you can it's got a little wood thing that holds it in place that you slide in like this. I think, yeah, this goes it. No, how does that work? Yeah, I want to say, yeah, get it in like that, drop it in. Like that it holds the bottle in and you drop this, you flip this and the little back thing slides out. You got a little thing and you slide it out. So it's really kind of cool. Display knob creek holding. I love this one. I believe that this display also was used, I want to say, by maker's mark. I think somewhere I actually have a maker's mark in this same kind of box, which is kind of cool.
Speaker 1:But we'll leave the 18 there. We got the 15 here. I'm going to take now the 15s in more of a booker's box you can see that right here um, so I'm going to pull that out for now. Drop the box down, pull the 15. Now. I don't got a lot of 15 left and 15 comes in at 100, proof 2. So 12, 15 and 9. So tonight I'm going to be sipping a little bit of that. I'll drop the box down there. We got some more room here now, um, and then I have a knob creek, um, single barrel.
Speaker 1:But what's really kind of cool is some of this stuff that I've got is in the first bottle before they change it. I love the new bottles, but if you look at the two bottles, what would you think? Do you think that's 750 and that's 750? What you got here going is both are 750, but look at I wonder, I don't see, maybe it's the thickness, but that's. That's taller and it's. This is a little wider. I mean, that's just the way it is on the top or whatever. It's always kind of funny how that works. But this is the 12. I got a 12. That's like that also, but this is one of the first barrel picks that I picked up before I did a barrel pick or whatever, and it's kind of cool. You can see every label down here says where it's from, and this is 120 proof too. So this is what you like.
Speaker 1:But on this one, I'm going to tell you the barrel picks now coming off of store picks. This one was nine year 5-28, 2011 to 9-8. So it was a nine year 20 528, 2011 to 98 um, so it was a nine year. Now ours was actually 2011 to 2022, so it was 11 10, so it was 10 and a half years old. So that's kind of where that's at. So that's kind of cool.
Speaker 1:This one, this 15-year obviously, this is a 15 and that's a 12. Now, those are 100 proofs. So they are 15-year batches that they make and those are 100 proofs. So that's really kind of cool. So what you got here is a lot of different bourbon in different whatever, but it's knob creek and it has that it shares that mash bill. So, um, now, that shouldn't be happening, but it obviously is. I don't know why. I'm not stopping, okay, so we're all good. Um, I will get back in. I'm not stopping, okay, so we're all good, I'll get back in. One, nine, six, five, yep, all right. So it's reloading, breaking Okay, so once again, $35. $35. You got.
Speaker 1:It's one of four bourbons that compromise Jim Beef's small batch collection. We know it's Basil Hayden, booker's and also Baker's. But Beam states that they age every batch in maximum char barrels to pull every bit of natural sweetness from the oak. From its initial release in 1992 up to late 2016, knob Creek carried a nine-year age statement. In 2016, beam removed the age statement, saying that it could not guarantee all barrels would be aged nine years due to inventory issues. In 2020, the nine-year age statement once again returned to the small batch. Now this is what they say presents notes of vanilla, light oak and dab of caramel, a hint of char and a dab of fresh marshmallow things.
Speaker 1:Now this is 2020 and start to sip. I mean, it's like it has a great nose and the finish is oak, vanilla and leather jump out. That's very unique for Booker's and for Knob Creek. Same mash bill. All right, let's see. It's one of the best values in my opinion, at $34.99 and a nine-year, for what you're getting, and I'm going to be tasting it right off the shelf and I will be putting the barrel bottle breakdown with. I'll cover that in a second.
Speaker 1:Now I know you all as we're going. I think I've given it some good going. Good, john, for summer. All right, let's see. Yep, I've given you all the stuff that I need to read. I'm clearing this. I haven't had any bourbon tonight. We're going to put this away, but I can tell you I'm gonna open it and give it a little time.
Speaker 1:Let's uh, I love, like once again, the wax. And just, you got this and they do a good job with it. Um, when macaulay from dark arts didn't put this on and he just put wax, I think I bloodied my fingers right live on the podcast, right in. I've been, I went through this period. Now, once again it's a fresh crack or a fresh open, but I will. I usually like to let it air, give it a sniff, pop the cap back on, because now that air has been let out, and then do a little get that baby like that, let the air come back, the fresh air come through, open that baby up. Now I'm going to let this breathe while I talk about it, but it's nine-year, 100 proof. Now, it's not a bottle, I mean it's not bonded, but it's as good as any bonded. I mean it's gone nine years, it's not four. It's 100 proof and it meets all the standards of bourbon, although it might not have barrels that were from the same season, I don't know. That part's not there. We'll put this back up here. We are going to do the thing.
Speaker 1:But what I'll tell you is so, as an artist, in 1995, I was a computer artist working on commercial art in Milwaukee in my dad's studio we had a high-end commercial. It was called the Quantel Graphic Paintbox and it was a high-end computer doing high-end artwork and we did a lot for the industries. One of our clients was Coors. Another client was Jim Beam. It was at the time. It was uh, at the time. It was not beam, some tory, it was, I believe back then. Uh, either, beam incorporated I want to say that's what it was and they were just starting to go through the push of knob creek.
Speaker 1:So I got a bottle of 100 proof nineob Creek, but in this size bottle, and I had it and I had tasted it, and this was in 95, that puts me at 31. And Jack Daniels had been. But I had no idea what bourbon was like. You know what I mean. I didn't know what. I was still 31 years old. Did I fill it. Nope, I didn't.
Speaker 1:Let's spin this around. See what happens. Let's bring her around. Yeah, there we go rolling it around in the glass. Look at that, it just holds up right off the bat. It coated the glass and there's nothing. Right now. That's how the viscosity of this bourbon is. I mean the corn, the corn oils at 78, I believe, was what it is. It's going to take a while to start running down, so let's let it sit. It's breathing. I could see right at the top the legs starting to happen as it runs back down. This is really kind of cool how you could see that kind of happening.
Speaker 1:And then so in my Scotchy Bourbon Boys, glenn. So I was commissioned to do some artwork and I did it and it didn't turn out quite as good because the label of the bottle, the label, was a little bit light and I used a lot of light pictures. I probably should have used more, but I did and I really got into it. Plus, I was able to keep the bottle. So when I drank the bottle, it was the first really real, um whiskey that I um what would you say? It's the first real whiskey, besides Jack Daniels, that I ever cared to drink. So I hadn't started my bourbon journey at all by then and I really liked what it was doing. I mean, it's done some that did some. This little bit different kind of thing of what I was expecting Kind of went to once it ran. It went to drips, but there's some long. The legs are a little bit thinner Now. That's rocked us fast forward.
Speaker 1:Um, I love bookers. It was, uh, 2018 when I started searching for bookers. Uh, I had no idea it was a bean product. When I was looking for it, I had no idea that booker started knob creek, basil hayden, and and I would buy basil hayden, not knowing knob creek and basil hayden were together. I bought basil Basil Hayden for a gift, for, for it's just, it was a great Christmas gift with that great label. Um, so I was really into Jim Beam before I really got into this without even knowing it, but I will tell you. Um, as we got to know, uh, fred and Freddie and Fred's wife Sandy, uh, we really kind of got to know Fred and Freddie and Fred's wife Sandy. We really kind of got to know them and they're fantastic people, sandy. I keep in touch with Sandy regularly and it really is a quality product that they put out and they have a flavor profile that if you're going to like it.
Speaker 1:I mean, you know, when you ask for a jim beam. You know one time we were out and we asked for a jim beam and we ended up getting a jameson and there wasn't any comparison. We knew that we didn't get jim beam because we know the flavor profile of j Beam, so that is consistent throughout their product. But the Jim Beams, the Jim Beam Blacks all have different. As it goes, you're looking at five, you're looking at four year at Jim Beam. You're looking at five to seven, year depending. You're looking at with Basil Hayden, um, old granddad's, probably a four year. I mean there's just so many. It's just how long it was in the barrel and what's the proof. You're going to put it out.
Speaker 1:So that's kind of how it goes and which rick houses they pull from. So they pull from the same. They know it. They've got a whole, um, what would you say? They've got a whole history of now nine generations of beam distillers. Fred was the eighth, freddy's the ninth, I believe, of distillers that know where their product ages. In some cases the rickhouses are over a hundred years old and they've been doing it. They know the sweet spots, they know where they are, they documented them. So it's really kind of cool how that works and um, the product that they produce is fantastic.
Speaker 1:So for 35 dollars, nom creek, a nine-year bourbon. Um, you know, you've got the 10-year eagle rare but the eagle rare and that's 31 or 33.99 or whatever, but this is held its price at 34.99, so that's really kind of good. And um, yeah, the lineage, although I got it, I mean they make some really high. Um, don't forget um, the japanese larson, uh, legiont, legiont. And then, I believe, if you really want to get into, I mean they have so many different things. They've got their special distillery releases. They got bakers, which is normally seven and it's gone to a single barrel. Now they got baker's 13, uh, fantastic. So there's so many different things that they got. But this particular knob creek, I think it's been in there. But so fast forward to 2000. Um, I've I'm into bookers and what and whatnot. Meet fred and sandy.
Speaker 1:No, so my first ever barrel pick I ever was on I'm getting into this, I'm doing the podcast never even thought I'd be on a barrel pick was with the Kentucky Bourbon Festival. It was during COVID. It was the spring of 21. I was invited to the Brendiamo penthouse which was not the Brendiamo but it was the offices of the Kentucky Bourbon Festival to do a barrel pick. Now, this barrel pick was not, oh, old Tub, don't forget that. That's my favorite. I'm going to be drinking that on April 8th, on Monday, on my fantasy baseball draft that's coming up. So I love Old Tub, love old tub, for that, that's my thing.
Speaker 1:Uh, but I will say that on this barrel pick I was with Steve Coombs. I was with both, both the Justins from Justin's house of bourbon who really know bourbon. I was with Randy Prass, then Freddie Noe and then a couple other people that I don't, but they were friends, friends of Steve Coombs and I from Alaska. It was really kind of cool, but it was up there at the studios, their offices from Kentucky Bourbon Festival, from Kentucky Bourbon Festival, and Freddie came. He brought the lineage which was, I believe, homage to Fred Ngo. That's the one. And he also brought the Hardin's Creek, not the Jacobs, well, but the 15-year one, and we got to taste that. I knew about Hardin's Creek way before they released it.
Speaker 1:Speaking of Hardin's Creek, has there been any releases this year? I haven't seen any, but my favorite is the single barrel that's 10 years. I have another single barrel, a nine-year yeah. Well, the Scotchy Bourbon Boys one was almost 11, 10 and a half years. That's really good. A couple people told me that was the best one that they ever best single barrel they ever tasted.
Speaker 1:I admit it was good, but that 2019 pick was my first ever barrel pick and it was fantastic. I never did it. I picked and was part of the group that picked the one that Freddie picked. So there was a couple. I believe there was one, two, three, four. My wife even got on it. She wasn't. There was eight people with her nine and I went with the one that Freddie picked and it was four to four and Freddie didn't vote and his vote was the one that kind of broke the tiebreaker and then we blinded the two of the three and it ended up being the pick that I liked. I have a bottle of that still. I bought, like I said, I bought two. But you know, hey, ricky, good to see you. Best deal yes, it is Knob Creek nine year $175 at Costco for $50. Yeah, I saw it at $65. That is a deal and Knob Creek's a deal.
Speaker 1:Knob Creek is a really good bourbon, made by Jim Beam, and it's nine years old and it's good. I mean, it's fantastic. So it's been. This has been sitting in there and you know, I know this flavor inside and out, initially, when I initially, my 31 year old palate in 1995 was telling me that this was hot and peppery and very not. And then when I started drinking uh for uh, the podcast it was, initially it was a little bit, I would say, there's a spice. Put it this way, this is a bourbon designed for a person who likes whiskey and they like the actual. They're not looking for something easy, they like something that's got a nice bite to it, a little bit of pepper. Um, it's really kind of cool. So definitely, um, love, love, love this, uh, this thing. And we're gonna do right now, since we're at this point, um, oh, okay, so I did.
Speaker 1:We did the 2021 barrel pick, but then we go along and you got 2022 coming and before 2022, we decide that we're going to do our own Scotchy Bourbon Boys barrel pick. This was 6-9-2022. So, june of 22, scotchy Bourbon Boys aligned with the barrel room here in Canton and Carrie and her friend who owned it split the barrel with us. We wanted to split the barrel because I had never done a barrel pick and I didn't know if the group was gonna move enough bottles. So we split it, which was a good idea, but we would say that it was a great experience.
Speaker 1:We went down with. It was myself, ct had not joined it was Xavier Roxy we could have six and it was Carrie and her friend, and then Mrs Xavier went. So the six of us went down in June and then did the barrel pick Fantastic time we ate at the kitchen table. Oh, sandy Ngo was on the barrel pick too. She came down and I think I'm not sure but I don't think, mrs xavier it was sandy, no, who we invited to come with us too. So we had six that could go. Great time. Super pick had a lot of fun. It worked out great and I still have a couple and very proud of this pick that we did. So, my first barrel picks that I ever were on, one that myself. Now we were able to do many more since then and been on them with the Kentucky Bourbon Festivals Love being on the picks that we were on. Uh, really enjoyed everything about it. Barrel picks are fantastic.
Speaker 1:Um, if you could get to whiskey thief. There's a barrel pick all day, every day, so you can get a feeling and you can walk away with one bottle. You're not having to buy a barrel. But if you talk to walter he'll sell you a barrel if you want. It's just that's how this works. So, no, actually, if you're talking about it, they're finished in casks with cherry blossom casks from. I mean, if you're asking Matt, that's the Legion, it's not sherry, it's not a wine, it's the cherry blossom whatever from Japan, the main master distiller from Suntory. He helped them come up. And then the whole aging process. He thought it was going to have to age for two to four years and it ended up only having the age a year and a half. That's how fast it ages in Kentucky compared to Japan.
Speaker 1:But getting back to this, um, so then we've been I. I was able to go to the beam. I went to the, the a luncheon with um Fred and Freddie. Um, we met them at the first kentucky bourbon festival. I did a painting of fred and freddie and booker and had fred and freddie sign it. Um, I gave them it. Uh, there's so much history in this and I'm looking where, yep, I got a knob creek right above freddie's shoulder in the painting. It's right over there. Fantastic, lots of fun to do that and just really overall, knob Creek has just been a part and Jim Beam has been such a big part of this ride that we're taking here and I just wanted to, you know, let everybody know, I haven't had a nine.
Speaker 1:I went out and gotten it. I've looked at it but you know, as a whiskey connoisseur and a person who gets whiskey all the time to taste, you don't always go out and buy the basic bottles. But sometimes you got to do a podcast and get a basic bottle, much to the chagrin of my wife. She's like why do you want to put? And it's like it doesn't. So we're doing the brand. We got the nine nine year and I am going to. That brings me to the old louisville whiskey company barrel bottle breakdown. It's based off of.
Speaker 1:Knox tiny has his knocker right here, which is a bung hammer purchased at. I want to say this was purchased at wilderness trail on a barrel pick with Macaulay, so I was able to get this. I love this. This is actually an icebreaker but it's in the shape of a. But it is our knocker, so our knock system has evolved so that it's based off of four categories Smell, nose, aroma, body, taste, finish.
Speaker 1:For the nose, you can get up to four knocks. For the body, you can get up to four knocks. For the body, you can get up to four knocks. For the taste, you can get up to five knocks. And for the finish, also five knocks.
Speaker 1:We've evolved this because I feel that if you have something with body and good mouthel and it doesn't taste good, who cares? Because you can taste like crap and it just fills your mouth completely. That's not really a great thing. And then also same thing If it smells okay but tastes fantastic. Really, taste is more important. But also, in the end, your finish in, in my opinion, is what's left over. And if you go upstairs after you're done and you still taste the whiskey, it's kind of an important thing, the last thing or last pour or whatever.
Speaker 1:So that's what we're looking at our old louisville whiskey company barrel bottle breakdown um, you gotta check out old louisville. Um, they're in louisville, kentucky I believe amin is in the process of trying to relocate, but at the current place, uh, there's barrels. Um, you gotta get there. He will make sure it's by appointment at some times and then open, I believe, on the weekend. Stop by see him. You will walk out with some damn good whiskey, there's no doubt about it. His bourbons and his barrels that he picks are fantastic. I mean, he's got a really nice thing going there. So, anyways, that brings us to the rating. So I to already. I kind of see what it did in my glass From a nose.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of vanilla. It almost smells like a vanilla ice cream cone. There's a little bit of a floral but, like I said, smells like a vanilla ice cream cone. Either you like this or you don't. This is Jim Beam. There's no doubt this has a richness, more than the actual, just Jim Beam. The nose that's coming off, this is fantastic. How can you go wrong with a vanilla ice cream cone? That's just my opinion. There's a little bit of oak also and a little bit of pepper, but that vanilla ice cream cone is right there.
Speaker 1:Alright, this is 2000. This bottle should be the newest bottle on the shelf. I mean, there we go. Let me look and see what's on the bottle. I like the nose. I really love the nose. I got them right here. Let's see what it just actually says I never read the bottle.
Speaker 1:Um for this. It says the original knob creek small batch, kentucky straight bourbon whisking eight, nine, age, nine, age, nine years for quality, full flavor, claremont, kentucky, 100 proof. 50% alcohol. Crafted for quality, full proof. Full flavor, 100 proof since 1992. And age nine years? Do I got a 110 OCB? Do 110? 110. 110 OCB, do 110? Just seeing if there's anything that tells you what 122 calories per one and a half point, proof points. Hmm, not for underage, wwwdrinksmartcom. Wwwnobcreekcom. Distilled in bottle James B Bean Distilling Company, claremont. Nope, it just doesn't have anything. What's that? Yeah, since 1992, knob Creek small batch. There you go, not a lot on it, all right. So it's just basic, all right out. There's a lot of complexity on this.
Speaker 1:Like I said, these bourbons, like knob creek, are bourbons for people. You're not looking for dessert or it's not sweet. It's what bourbon whiskey, what somebody would imagine whiskey should taste like. Sometimes you get these sweeter bourbons and when you get the, they pull out some flavors and you're like holy crap, how does it do that? This isn't about that. This is about drinking a bourbon that, for people who don't, it brings out a little bit of leather, there's vanilla and caramel, but then there's a little bit of leather as far as the body goes with the Kentucky Chew, we'll do it now. Now it's amazing.
Speaker 1:This does wow for 100 proof. I've been drinking a lot of 100 proofs lately. I think the last couple have been 100 proof. The body's always on those. You can't compare. But this 100 proof of this batch, I wonder if that's the date on the bottom. Let's see. I saw it on the bottom on this batch, the 100 proof. This body is amazing and the taste is everything that I would want. All right, 587, 37. No, nothing's helping me. I wonder if there's a laser. Oh, there it is. This one is l505, 7, 220, 35, 20, 35, 0900, 1clj 730, 03, 50, 900. That just doesn't help me on the date. I'm sure if I look that up it'll probably tell me. But, like I said, I think this is one of the newer bottles.
Speaker 1:Now, one of the things that people don't understand is that not only does Maker's Mark have the patent on the red wax, and it's not so much. You could put a red wax, but it can't drip. And the same thing. You look, these don't drip. Nobody who has a wax seal drips them, except for maker's mark, because they've got the patent on that, so that's kind of cool.
Speaker 1:Um, some of the single barrels are quite sweet. That's the small batch blend talking about. No, I'm talking, yeah, some of the single barrels have that sweetness because they're single barrels, but when you're talking about the batch of it, they're they're trying to make it not be too sweet. It's sweet enough, okay, it's really good. But this is like, in my opinion, beams um, the part that um creek would do. Oh, swipe up a nine and give it a pour, oh, no. So my opinion is um the. The other one that's close to this is cave hill from rabbit hill.
Speaker 1:Once again, this is like the bourbon that you're gonna, what you think it should taste when you're sitting in the rickhouse and you smell all the barrels aging in the summer. It just has that flavor. It's fantastic. So on that, but the body's amazing. Now let's just go to the taste now, after the palate shot. So straight up, vanilla frosting on the front, if you leave it on the front palette and then, as it goes to the back palette, you pick up a little bit of caramel with that, and then the leather and it's leather, it's not tobacco the leather flavor starts to take over which I think the the classic bourbon flavor is the leather. Now I'm not getting any on this one. I'm not getting any Jim Beam peanut, it's leather caramel. It's sweet enough.
Speaker 1:That batch, this batch of nine year Knob Creek, is probably the best. That's one of the best Knob Creek's on the nine year that I've ever had A lot of times. I'm just going to tell you this is really fantastic. Was not for a small batch at $35. I'm going to say this nine year might be the steal of the year. I might have that as a category 35, nine year. And this tastes sweet vanilla.
Speaker 1:Like you pick up the vanilla frosting flavor, the nose is like a vanilla ice cream cone. The body goes to your cheeks, your, it goes everywhere. And the finish? Um, then you pick up that little bit of leather. Um, I'm trying to think what it finishes with batch blend.
Speaker 1:Talking, some of the single barrels are okay, we got anybody else. Yes, uh, justin nice. Um, I'm slouching. I don't know why I'm slouching. I hate it when I slouch. All right, so, standing straight up again, I will say that it's time to do the bashing, not the bat I used to bash. It's time to do the knocks, this one.
Speaker 1:So we're going to go on the nose. The most you can give it is a four. The ice cream takes it for sure. I love it. I'm going to give the nose a four out of four. Here we go. Four, four bashes. And the next one's going to be on the barrel behind me, which was the William Dalton barrel that had a French oak stave that Alan Bishop allowed me to have. So four on the nose. The body allowed me to have. So four on the nose. The body everywhere gotta go. Four on the body. Four on the body. Taste out of five? I don't, it's just not. I'm going to give it a four out of five. No, yeah, because the leather is a little bit and you got to add that in Four out of five. So right now we are 12 out of 13.
Speaker 1:The finish for a 100 proof nine year, it's there. For a hundred proof, nine year, it's there. But I wish that I pull in. It's just a little too much leather to be a five. It's like what's the finish? What's it left? It's long, it's long.
Speaker 1:Folks, I'm telling you, if you like a little leather and a little bit of tobacco not a lot, not overpowering this is your drink. This is your jam. It's oaky. Sometimes you can pick up the actual flavor of the wood when you pick up the leather and the tobaccos. That's the wood, but it's got, it's taken on not a wood taste. It's been in there long enough to with a little bit of char and everything that makes it there, but the chocolate is when the dark chocolate is now. It doesn't go to dark chocolate, it stays that leather. I prefer a dark chocolate finish or something like is. It's long, but for me the finish is a three of five, which brings us to a score of 15 out of 18. Now, if you're talking, I mean bottles that are $189, get 15s of 18s. This is a $34.99 bottle that just pulled off a 15 of 18. Now it does.
Speaker 1:My palate has evolved over the years, I will tell you this, and honestly, the 15 out of 18 score is a pretty good score. I believe whiskey, in my opinion, has also over the last, since I started, the aging what would you say? The actual aging in kentucky, inside the maturation in the barrel, has become more perfect hotter, there's more, there's more heat, hotter summers, a little bit hotter summers, and then there's a lot of what would you say storms and rain and these rickhouses have their windows open and they just, the barrels, just sit there and they get the wind and the rain and they get the the heat, but they also get the cold of the winters. So Jim Beam ages the way, the natural way that can in Kentucky, of just letting mother nature take its course, and they've got two fantastic Freddie, fred, and I'm sure Fred has taught Freddie that there was a couple years ago they put out five batches of bookers and they started to put out the batches for that next year and they only put out.
Speaker 1:I want to say it was, I want to say three, but they might have put out four that year. They didn't put out five, but I want to say they put out four. That year they didn't put out five, but I want to say they put out. But the reason why they cut back that year was because Fred thought that they were trying to rush it. There was one that was six and a half years. Fred likes to get at least seven into bookers. So they really, really care about this brand and this year's version of Kn knob creek nine that I just bought here in march, uh, today at my local johnny neagle uh of knob creek nine has just it's even better than I remember it and it's really kind of cool. So it's just been such an unbelievable part from tying into my art career to tying into before I started the podcast, with meeting Fred and Freddie at the first Kentucky Bourbon Festival in 2019.
Speaker 1:It just realistically has been one of the bourbons and there's been a couple, but this bourbon has been part of my whiskey journey, so I wanted to give it its due and it pulled off a 15 out of 18 tonight and I think that small batch link. So there we go. So that's where we're at right now. So I'm going to everybody on Facebook and YouTube know that I'm going to end the podcast. As far as on audio, we're going to do our thing and then I'm going to stick around for a little bit because I've got for everybody on Facebook and YouTube. I've got the 15 and the 12. And I want to know your thoughts once we get going. So I want to. You know, cheers for that.
Speaker 1:As far as some of the single barrels, that's the small batch blend talking to you. So, yeah, so let's get this going going, remember, uh, here we go. So, once again, people who just joined on youtube. Hang around. I'm just ending the podcast. Uh, we gave knob creek 9 15 out of 18, and I'm ending the podcast on the audio, but we're going to stick around on youtube. So stick around, because we're going to be talking about the 12 and the 15 and then also the 18. So, uh, that's kind of cool and here goes, we'll get into this.
Speaker 1:Remember wwwscotchiebourbonboys for all things scotchie bourbon boys. Glenn karen's t-shirts. Uh, contact me directly or on the website for all your glass scotchy bourbon glassware needs, and then also your t-shirts. So, thanks very much for all the sales that we're getting off that. And then also remember we're on Facebook, instagram, youtube and X, and then also all the major podcast formats Apple, iheart and Spotify, no matter whether you watch or listen, remember like, listen, comment, subscribe and leave good feedback. Now remember, good friends equal good times. Don't drink and drive Good friends and good bourbon and whiskey equals good times. Don't drink and drive. Drink responsibly and live your life uncut and unfiltered.
Speaker 2:And little Steve-O is going to take us out. Oh don't ask why. Oh don't ask why. Show me the way to the next whiskey bar. Oh don't ask why. Oh don't ask why. For if we don't find the next whiskey bar, I tell you we must die. I tell you we must die, I tell you, I tell you, I tell you we must die. I tell you, we must die. I tell you, I tell you, I tell you, we must die.
