Up next in 10
Spooky season has arrived, and Clifton’s diving into bottles he’s been too scared to try… starting with Dough Ball Cookie Dough Flavored Whiskey. In this week’s episode of the Bourbon Bytes Podcast, we’re tasting a whiskey that’s more dessert than dram — plus, we’ve got big whiskey news: Knob Creek 21-Year Bourbon is here Forward Slash Incantation Vol. 2 is a mead-finished bourbon with serious Halloween vibes A Midwinter Night’s Dram Act 13 returns And… fans call the Rock Band 4 delisting “a crime against gaming!” Clifton shares his honest take on Dough Ball’s melted chocolate and toasted cookie flavors. Does it actually deliver, or belong in a candy shop instead of your whiskey shelf? 0:00 Welcome to Bourbon Boos on Bourbon Bytes 1:18 Gaming News: Rock Band 4 Gets Delisted (“A Crime Against Gaming”) 2:56 Whiskey News: Barrell Foundation Double Barrel Gets a Glow-Up 4:21 Forward Slash’s Incantation Vol. 2: Mead-Barrel Magic 6:17 Knob Creek 21-Year Bourbon + Hardin’s Creek Update 8:38 High West’s A Midwinter Night’s Dram Act 13 Announced 10:05 Bourbon Boos #1: Dough Ball Cookie Dough Whiskey Review 19:46 Byte Club Updates, Shoutouts, and Next Week’s Tease
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0:00
On today's episode of the Bourbon Bites podcast, we're looking at several new whiskey releases
0:05
including Jim Beam's Knob Creek 21-Year-Old Bourbon, Forward Slash's Incantation Volume 2 Mead Finished Bourbon
0:13
and the latest release of a Midwinter's Night Dram from High West. Plus, I'm kicking spooky season off with a very scary pour
0:20
Doughball Cookie Dough Flavored Whiskey. Let's see how this goes. Hello everyone and welcome to the Bourbon Bites podcast. I'm your host Clifton and this is the
0:41
week of October 9th, 2025. As I mentioned last week, we're going to get into some spooky pours
0:47
to celebrate this season and today's whiskey review is no exception. But before we get into
0:53
that, we have some whiskey news to talk about. For the past week or so, I've been getting several
0:58
emails from distilleries about their new whiskey releases and new labels coming soon. So we're
1:03
going to highlight a few of those before getting into our review, but welcome to the show. Thank
1:08
you for listening in. If it's your first time here, welcome. This podcast is all about whiskey
1:12
news and reviews with a gaming twist, so we don't really have any gaming news this week
1:17
but I do want to mention something that people are getting very up in arms about. Rock Band 4
1:23
and all the DLC associated with it is going to be delisted from the PlayStation and Xbox stores
1:29
It's been 10 years since this game came out and a lot of the music licenses are expiring
1:34
So fans are calling this a crime against gaming. I think that's one of those things that happens
1:39
when you license real music for a game like that is, you know, they don't have those rights forever
1:44
So while I never really played those games growing up, mainly because, well, if you don't know
1:49
I am an amputee. I am missing my right arm. So I could never play any of those like guitar
1:53
like drumming games it just didn't really work for my setup now i'm sure there's some accessibility
1:58
controls i could you know adapt it to and try it now as an adult but yeah it never really piqued my
2:03
interest but um yeah fans are upset about that and it makes you wonder like should they keep those
2:08
games up with just the other tracks that haven't you know had a license expire or are those even
2:14
playable right like it's like could you continue to sell it and then remove most of the main features
2:19
that came with the game when it first came out. It's an interesting topic. I mean, I guess they could always just replace it with, like, generic, like, library music
2:28
not recognizable songs, but that's not any fun. So I'm curious to hear what you guys think
2:32
Are you guys upset about things like that, or would you rather them keep a version of it up in the store
2:38
Now, I'm not saying there aren't ways that you could probably get that game and a copy of it
2:42
and save it locally, not to advocate against, you know, piracy. But if you own the game, you know, I think ROMs are legal
2:49
So check that out. But before I get this podcast banned, let's go ahead and move into our whiskey news for the week
2:56
Now, the first of these isn't actually a new whiskey, but it's a new to me whiskey
3:00
And it has a brand new label. So a couple of years back, Barrel Craft Spirits released a Barrel Foundation five-year bourbon
3:07
And it was pretty well received. And apparently they launched a double barrel version of it for 2025
3:12
I wasn't aware but they've changed up the label now to make it a little bit more
3:17
unique on the shelves. I think that's something that I've always kind of you know felt about
3:22
Barrel's products is a lot of the labels look pretty similar but this new label for the double
3:27
barrel release has a textured background so it's a similar color but there's a bit of like a I guess
3:34
maybe a barrel looking texture to it. It's very light it's bright orange so it's hard to really
3:37
tell what they're going for here but it's made to help it be a standout against the regular release
3:43
I think maybe there's some confusion among fans of whether it was the double barrel or the regular
3:47
one although the old label I was looking at and it still says double barrel so I guess the coloring
3:52
scheme may have been confusing because it was the same color I don't know but this whiskey did win
3:57
a 96 point score from Wine Enthusiast a 91 point score from Whiskey Advocate and Platinum in the LA
4:04
spirits awards as well as the American spirits council of tasters so I'm gonna keep an eye out
4:10
for this bottle I haven't had it I was a big fan of the regular foundation I thought it was a solid
4:14
addition to their lineup but double barrel sounds really really good so I'll keep an eye out for
4:19
this brand new label now speaking of new labels I'm taking a look over at our friend coming whiskey
4:24
over on instagram that is Jacob if you're not yet following him he is a great resource for the
4:30
whiskey community. And one bottle label caught my eye and mainly because it looks a little Halloween-y
4:35
It's called Incantation Volume 2 and this is from Forward Slash is the brand. I'm not very familiar
4:42
with them but this is a straight bourbon whiskey finished in a mead barrel which is something that
4:46
I've never really heard done. I mean I know people finish things in a honey barrel but I don't think
4:50
I've ever seen a mead finished whiskey. Sounds very very nice though. It's 51.5% ABV so 103 proof
4:58
And they're actually based out of Winter Park, Florida. The back of the bottle says
5:03
For the second release in our mead barrel maturation series, Incantation, we set out to highlight one of the most distinctive aspects of Zymerium meadery barrel meads Treatments This particular barrel once held a mead infused with over 200 vanilla beans allowing its flavor to develop
5:19
richness and depth. Now here's where it gets even more interesting. So that vanilla mead actually
5:25
spent 10 months in apple brandy barrels, and on the day that it was emptied, they filled it with
5:30
their bourbon blend. So there's definitely, I see what they're talking about layers, like we're
5:34
talking about a apple brandy barrel that was used to age mead that had vanilla beans and now they're
5:40
putting bourbon in it so I'm excited to see this I would definitely keep an eye out I've not like I
5:45
said heard of the brand before but I see you know a couple people in the comments excited for this
5:49
release I'm excited especially seeing that it's higher proof you know it's not like it's going to
5:53
be a flavored whiskey which speaking of which we'll get into one of those later today but yeah
5:58
I like all those impacts from those barrels bottling it high proof you know 103 proof is
6:03
a pretty impressive move. Now I wish we knew a little bit about the bourbon. We do know that it
6:07
is a straight bourbon whiskey but that's about it. So I'd love to know more about where this is from
6:12
if I had to guess. Probably Indiana but uh there's nothing wrong with that. All right well another
6:17
email that ended up in my inbox this week was Beam's Fall Bourbon lineup. They've just announced
6:23
two new releases. The Hardin Creek batch for 2025 and the Knob Creek 21 year. Now I'd heard of the
6:30
Knob Creek because our friend Fred actually ended up with a bottle of the 21 year old release
6:35
It seems like quite a bit of folks got a chance to try it at the Kentucky Bourbon Festival. I'm seeing it pop up on a lot of YouTube channels. I know Cameron from Drums and Drums did a review
6:43
as well as Bourbon Junkies. So I am definitely keeping an eye out for that. I am a huge Knob
6:49
Creek fan. I really enjoyed the 18 year that I had. The first 15 year I had was a bit of a miss
6:54
but I've heard that previous or sorry, later batches have come out quite a bit better. Now
6:59
the label for this release was posted on the TTV back in April actually. So that's all I really
7:05
know about it. Like I said 21 years old 100 proof so it's not going to be cast rent that's going to
7:09
be the standard proof as their main core age data lineup. Now retail on this bottle is $250 which I
7:16
think puts it in line with the other releases. I think it's fair for a 21 year old bourbon. That's
7:22
not something you see every day. Would I like it to be maybe a higher proof release for that price
7:26
absolutely but I'm definitely going to keep an eye out for this one now unfortunately I don't think
7:30
I am on Jim Beam's PR list but if anyone has a contact out there that would be willing to send
7:36
me a sample let me know and maybe let Adriana from Whiskey Mountains and Women of Whiskeys know as
7:40
well because I'm sure she is dying to try this bottle now I don't know too much about the Hardin's
7:44
Creek release I know it's going to be launched on October 17th so as I learn more about that new one
7:51
I will share it here on the podcast. So two really cool releases and one that I am very excited. The
7:57
other I'll wait and see. Now one last note. Jim Beam is offering a Friendsgiving event on November
8:04
13th at the Distillery. You get to join Fred and Freddie No for bourbon and Thanksgiving feast
8:10
featuring pours like Little Book the Infinite 2, Booker's the Reserves 2, of course Knob Creek 21
8:16
that we just talked about and Jim Beam Lineage Batch 2. This is happening on November 13th at the
8:22
distillery from 6 to 9 p.m. Price is $150 per person which sounds like a good time. I mean if
8:27
I was there I'd love to absolutely hang with those folks and have a wonderful Thanksgiving meal and
8:32
try some incredible bourbon. So if you are in the area and looking to attend let me know how it goes
8:38
All right well last whiskey release to talk about today is the announcement of the High West
8:42
distillery midwinter nights dram act 13 so the last one i actually had was act 11 so it's been a
8:49
couple years since i've had this one but they just released info on this particular bottle it's going
8:55
to retail for 150 dollars it's available to purchase actually on their website now they say
9:00
it is a blend of straight rye whiskeys ranging in age from 4 to 10 years old finished in ruby and
9:05
tawny port barrels this has always been a favorite of mine i think it's you know just an exceptional
9:11
pour coming in at 98.6 proof. I always think of it as the perfect holiday whiskey and you know now
9:16
is about the time to be buying those uh Thanksgiving and Christmas pours before it's too late. So I'm
9:21
going to keep an eye out for this new release. I'm a big fan of Act 11 and I've always been a fan of
9:25
this lineup so um looking forward to getting a chance to try it. I know people are kind of a
9:30
little upset with the pricing going up to closer to 150. I think I paid 120 ish 130 for my last one
9:36
but that was straight from the distillery. I actually had a chance to buy it after doing a
9:41
tasting and tour of the distillery when I was there so I had to pull the trigger on it then
9:45
but this one I might just wait to see if it pops up locally and then just see how I'm feeling and
9:51
if I'm willing to pull the trigger at the moment but I have traditionally really enjoyed these pours
9:56
and I'm sure this year's release is no exception. All right well that does it for news this week
10:01
I realized last week's episode was a bit long so I'm going to keep this one a little bit shorter but we do still have our bite-sized review
10:16
So like I teased earlier on the month of October I doing things that are either bottles that I had for a while but I been scared to try or bottles that have been eyeing me from the liquor store shelf and I not really had an occasion to buy them but they kind of scare me a little bit But we going to try them for this spooky month this year the first
10:35
of which is a sample bottle that has been sitting in my closet for well over a year and a half now
10:42
I bought this for a live stream like a year and a half ago, and I just had too many flavored
10:46
whiskeys to do. So I set this aside. I was like, it didn't really fit the theme, but I figured since
10:51
it is almost holiday season. You could be cozying up with a bottle of a Midwinner's Night Dram or
10:56
you could be having a shot of this while you're baking cookies with the family. So
11:01
if you don't know already, I'm talking about Dough Ball Cookie Dough Whiskey. This is a whiskey with
11:07
natural flavors and caramel color. Just want to get that out off the bat. And it's coming in at
11:12
35% ABV or 70 proof. Now this is produced and bottled by Patco Brands out of Fairfield, California
11:20
and I will say I've seen these dough ball bottles on the shelves for a couple years now and I think
11:25
they have a pretty good fan base and a nice following now whether or not these are the same
11:29
people that are drinking a midwinter's night dram I highly doubt it um but I've seen a few reviews
11:33
where people are saying like I don't want to like this but I really like it and I kind of feel like
11:37
that's how I am with uh some flavored whiskeys you know I am still a big fan of fireball you know
11:42
it's it's a joke but I feel like on the right occasion um a nice cold pour of that out of the
11:47
freezer will get you going on any day. I also liked, what was that? Screwball, screwball peanut
11:52
butter whiskey that came out probably like five years ago now. But that was one of my favorite
11:56
flavored whiskeys, I think, because it still had a lot of the whiskey flavor and it wasn't
12:00
overwhelming with the sweetness. Now, a couple of weeks back, I did a live stream where I tasted
12:05
through three different new flavored whiskeys, including the Jack Daniels Blackberry, the Jim
12:11
Bean Pineapple and the Crown Royal Chocolate. So if you missed that, check out the YouTube channel
12:16
youtube.com slash bourbon bites. I go live almost every Thursday night at 7 p.m pacific 10 p.m eastern
12:23
Would love to have you as a subscriber and viewer over there if you're just here for the podcast
12:28
You can also find me everywhere on the web bourbonbites.com bites with a y as it's spelled
12:32
here on the podcast. There's a link to my Instagram, my TikTok, my podcast which you
12:37
obviously have already found, the YouTube channel, some really cool merch, and my favorite part the
12:42
Bite Club membership which is your way to support the channel for as little as two dollars a month
12:46
you can make a huge impact allowing me to buy crazy whiskeys like this one and also supporting
12:52
the channel in other ways but do check that out I noticed we've been getting quite a few
12:56
new free members on Patreon which is all great but I would rather if you're going to be a free
13:01
member I'd rather you join the bourbonbites.com Bite Club that way it's just kind of more of a
13:06
my hub for a place on the internet not that Patreon's going anywhere I'll still be posting
13:10
on there as well but i'd like you you know if you're gonna join for free come on down uh to the
13:14
bite club shout out to newest free members chance james rants jim dana and devil dog one like i said
13:23
bourbonbites.com there's also a link to our discord server which includes tons of fun channels to share
13:28
your interests and passions and what you've been drinking lately so check it out bite club members
13:33
get access to exclusive rooms depending on their tier including our monthly movie night where we
13:37
watch a retro movie. It's October, so we're definitely going to do a horror, 80s horror movie
13:42
this month. So I'll start thinking about what we do. I think someone recommended The Fly. I haven't
13:46
seen it, but someone mentioned that as a good 80s horror movie to watch. So let me know if that's
13:49
something you want me to watch or if there's anything else that comes to mind. You also can
13:53
get access to our monthly tasting subscription box, where I send you samples every month. You
13:59
can get that at the bourbon terabyte tier. It's a great group of guys who get together and drink
14:03
whiskey and if you want to join us all you got to do is join the bite club so that's it with the
14:08
plugs let's go ahead and get into this dough ball cookie dough whiskey now perhaps you're supposed
14:15
to be drinking this as either a shot or a cocktail or over ice i'm going to do it neat because i feel
14:21
like putting it over ice is probably going to bring down some of the flavors a bit and i want
14:25
to give an honest first impression of this whiskey um so we're going to do it neat for today's review
14:30
let's go in and give this a nose okay not too much honestly I hope this was going to be like
14:36
crazy sweet on the nose um it's there it's sweet but it's almost like a a chocolate like a melted
14:42
chocolate chip note it doesn't say chocolate chip cookie dough which is kind of why I'm surprised I
14:46
kind of thought it'd be more of just like a generic cookie dough note but there's like a good chocolate note there that kind of reminds me of the uh crown royal chocolate but this one's a
14:55
little bit more of like a melty kind of chocolate like the chocolate that would be in a chocolate
14:59
chip cookie. There's also a good bit of vanilla there. And I think, you know, unfortunately
15:02
that's probably mostly coming from the artificial flavor. I don't think that's really coming from the whiskey itself. We don't know, by the way, if this is a bourbon, if this is a Canadian whiskey
15:11
Most likely it's, you know, it's either American whiskey or Canadian whiskey. A super young whiskey
15:15
usually is what they go for. I know Fireball is, I think, Canadian whiskey, if I remember correctly
15:22
But a lot of them just use, you know, barely aged whiskey. That's why they don't have to call it
15:26
like a straight bourbon or anything like that, they can use, you know, as long as it touches wood and it's been aged in wood, they can call it a whiskey. But honestly, I'm pretty impressed that
15:33
this isn as sweet on the nose Now I hoping the palate holds up because I said this before but I not a fan of flavored whiskeys that are overly sweet It something that I find in almost all of them unfortunately I feel like they try to compensate you know the flavor with just like tons of sugar
15:49
And it's just so overwhelming, especially if you want to use it in a cocktail. It's like you don't need to add any sugar to it because it's so sweet already
15:55
I'd actually prefer things to be a little bit more natural. That way you can, you know, like I said, mix it into a cocktail, add some simple syrup, maybe some vermouth
16:02
but you know making it so sweet it makes it hard to do anything with in my opinion but maybe that's
16:07
just me maybe I'm not the target audience but let's go and give this dough ball cookie dough
16:12
whiskey a taste cheers okay yeah there's the there's the cookie dough flavor I still get a
16:20
little bit of that chocolate chip note like it's like a milk chocolate melty but honestly the flavor
16:27
they kind of nailed it like it kind of does taste like a chewy kind of cookie like you know not
16:32
necessarily like raw cookie dough because I think that has a very specific I don't know there's
16:36
something about raw cookie dough that has a little bit slightly different of a flavor I think it's a little more vanilla whereas a baked cookie has a bit more of those toasty dessert quality elements
16:44
to it like I think this has that I think it has a little bit of like a toasted pie crust kind of
16:49
note that I think attributes really well to a baked cookie I'm gonna go for a second sip I'm
16:53
pleasantly surprised by that first one. Yeah unfortunately it's sweet right? I think I was
16:59
hoping that it wasn't going to be that crazy sweet but I figured with a cookie dough flavored whiskey
17:03
you can't really expect it not to be. It's viscous but in a way that's just because it's the sugar
17:08
sticking to your tongue and finish wise it actually has quite a bit of a kick for 70 proof
17:12
You know I prefer these to be at least 80 proof which some whiskeys have been that are flavored
17:17
but this one unfortunately is 70 and now I guess our target audience probably wants something
17:21
smooth, as I should say. But this is, you know, a pretty complex flavored whiskey. Like I said
17:26
starts out with that melted chocolate. There's a little bit of like toasted marshmallow there as
17:30
well. But there is a baked good note like a, I said pie crust, but I mean, it probably is just
17:36
cookie. Let's be real. But it's a pretty, they've nailed this flavor. You know, it does say made
17:41
with natural flavors. We don't really know what that means, but they at least taste, it tastes
17:46
like a cookie. So if that's their goal, they nailed it. Is it made for someone like you and me that
17:51
just likes to drink a whiskey that tastes like whiskey? Probably not. I'm gonna have to give this
17:56
whiskey a rating based on, you know, my feelings towards it. It is a flavored whiskey, so I'm gonna
18:02
treat it as such. Fun fact, this one actually won double gold at the San Francisco International
18:07
Spirits Competition, as well as the Proof Awards Unmasked, where it won double gold, and Proof Awards
18:12
masked where it won gold so it's doing really well Forbes magazine actually called it the best
18:18
of class flavored whiskey um when they reviewed it so you know I think there is a place for it
18:24
it just may not belong on my whiskey shelf now pricing wise I'm not sure if I mentioned that I
18:28
don't think I did uh this bottle goes for about 24 25 dollars which is relatively high I got a
18:34
mini bottle for about 2.50 but for a flavored whiskey that's you know pretty up there and I
18:40
think the way that this taste is justified but I know that something like fireball which is mass
18:45
reduced is you know not half the price but almost half the price so I do think it's steep in its
18:51
category but that doesn't mean it's bad by any means out of 10 hmm this is tough because I feel
18:56
like I don't think I've ever given a flavored whiskey a rating out of 10 I just feel like I
19:00
say my ratings for like okay this is gonna be mean I like serious whiskeys which you know that's not
19:05
insult i don't think cookie dough flavored whiskey takes itself too seriously in terms of like being a
19:11
well-reviewed uh whiskey in the bourbon influencer circle you know um but i will say it's it's a
19:18
little sweet for me it's a little pricey um but it's not bad by any means so this is going to get
19:23
a five out of ten it's not something i would buy again it's something that i would probably have
19:27
you know as a fun shot with some friends uh maybe make it into a cocktail but even that it's so sweet
19:33
that I don't know if it would even hold up in a cocktail. So this one might be better just enjoyed over ice
19:38
as a way to wind down after a long day. But it's definitely made for somebody
19:43
That somebody just isn't me. So I'm glad I had a chance to try it though
19:47
Let me know if there's other crazy flavored whiskeys you want me to review. Like I said, this month of October
19:51
I'm doing some bottles I've been scared to review for various reasons
19:55
And I say that because I don't actually know what I'm reviewing next week, but I'll figure it out before then
19:59
So let me know if you have any recommendations or suggestions of what I should pick up to review
20:04
And I think that does it for this week's episode. Thank you so much for listening. Like I said, it's a little shorter than usual, I think
20:09
but it doesn't mean it's not a good time. So make sure to follow me on your favorite podcast platform
20:15
If you're watching this on somewhere like YouTube, hit the thumbs up button, leave a comment there on the channel
20:20
But most of all, thank you so, so much for listening. I'll be back next week with even more whiskey and video game news
20:26
plus another Vice Size review. All right, y'all, cheers. Have a great rest of your week
20:31
And until then, this has been Bourbon Bites, a whiskey podcast with a gaming twist. Cheers, and I'll see you next episode
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