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Today I'm reviewing a cask strength craft rye whiskey from Dog and Shrub Distillery out of Lake Mills, WI. This was sent to me by Edd from The Rotgut Review, who happens to work at Dog and Shrub. I'm also touching on some upcoming whiskey news, including the new Woodford Reserve Honey Barrel Finish Distillery Series, Wild Turkey Master's Keep, and Heaven Hill's 20 Year Old Corn Whiskey. Plus, sharing the title for the Breath of the Wild sequel, The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom!
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Today on the Bourbon Bites Podcast, I'm reviewing a craft cast strength rye whiskey from Dog and Shrub Distillery
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and talking about some new sweet and mellow whiskeys coming soon. Hello and welcome to the Bourbon Bites Podcast. I'm your host Clifton, and today I am reviewing another whiskey sent to me by you guys
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this whiskey comes to us from fellow whiskey tuber ed from the rock gut review or you may know him as
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agnomio from dungeons and drams which is our dnd campaign we do over on youtube but fun fact ed
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has been working for a distillery for the past few months and he sent out samples of one of their
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first cast strength whiskeys so i'm super excited to be reviewing this this is a whiskey from dog and
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Shrub Distillery out of Lake Mills, Wisconsin. So this is a very new distillery. It actually
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started in June of 2020 and is run by co-owners and chemists Rob and Kim. So what they're actually
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doing is they're doing a lot of focus on some clear spirits like vodka and gin right now while
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their whiskey is aging. And fun fact about the name. So it's called Dog and Shrub. So Dog is a
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reference to the Dotsons that the owners have. Apparently they run around the distillery. They're
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on all the branding. And shrub, I actually learned this previously, is a type of sugar vinegar syrup
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It was originally made to preserve fruits and vegetables before refrigeration. I had my first
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experience with this at a winery out here in California. There was like a small local craft
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shrubbery, I guess they're called, that made these. And I had never heard the term before, but it's
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really interesting flavor. It definitely has some of those vinegar characteristics, but it's a lot
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fruitier and it kind of really amplifies especially when you're dealing with like sparkling water
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I actually haven't had it in a cocktail but I've had it with sparkling water and it does taste
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really interesting so I'd be really curious to try some of the cocktails they have at Dog and
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Shrub but the whiskey I'm reviewing today is a cask strength whiskey distilled on site now they
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are releasing other bourbons and actually an apple brandy that they're sourcing from other locations
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which I love by the way that they're super clear about the fact that they are sourced however this
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is a cast strength version of some of the first barrels of the rye whiskey that they distilled on
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site so i'm really excited to try this you know kind of on the ground floor of this distillery i
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mean you know it's pretty young in terms of whiskey when you think about it but again like i said they
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just started in june of 2020 so the whiskey we're drinking tonight is aged for one year and seven
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months in 15 gallon char number two barrels now the marshmallow in this one is really interesting
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It is a 86% rye, 14% malted barley mash. I don't think I've ever seen anything that has a similar mash bill to that
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I'm really curious to see how this is going to taste. And apparently this was from barrel 006
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So Ed calls it the Sean Bean barrel. So like I said, this is the sixth barrel at the distillery
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It is a single barrel product. And like I said, you know, one year, seven months
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But I'm really excited to give this a try because, you know, how often do you get a chance to try some of the first distillate coming out of a distillery
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especially a small craft one like this. By the way, this one comes in at 120 proof
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It is for sale at the distillery. They do have the cast strength single barrels. They also have a
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90 proof version as well. So I'm going to try this neat first, but I'm going to add a little bit of
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water at the end just to kind of have a little bit of the experience of a lower proof version
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So let's go ahead and give this dog and shrub cast strength rye whiskey a nose. Oh wow. Yeah
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you can definitely tell that this mash bill is something very unique It very malty up front And I expected to get a little bit more of the rye with it being you know a rye whiskey but man this this is malt forward I mean it almost expressing itself like an oatmeal like
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I'm getting a little bit of like fresh freshly made oatmeal maybe with a little bit of cinnamon
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sugar sprinkled on top but it doesn't really smell you know what I would expect a you know
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one year seven month whiskey to be now it is aged in 15 gallon barrels so it is smaller barrels so
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you're getting that oak impact a lot quicker. I have not been to Wisconsin, unfortunately
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so I'm not exactly sure how the weather is. I know it's cold during a lot of the year
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so I don't actually know in terms of how much that wood is interacting with the whiskey based
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on the weather. So it's not necessarily smelling oaky, but this is so grain forward. But I mean
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that in a really good way, because the grains in this one are really shining, and like I said
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it smells like a really good oatmeal, so I can't wait to give it a try. Cheers! Wow, that is so different than most of what I've had
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I mean, normally when we're dealing with craft distilleries, they're either making a bourbon or a 100% rye whiskey or 95.5 rye
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With this Dog & Shrub release, we are dealing with an 86.14 rye
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which, again, I've never heard of being done, and I love when distilleries do their own thing
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They don't rely on, you know, oh, well, everyone else makes it this way, let's make it this way
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I like that it's unique, and honestly, it really benefits it because this is a really good palate
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Especially with the whiskey being so young, I mean, we're getting such impact from those grains
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It's sweeter on the palate for sure. More of like a honey sweetness
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Again, it's still malty. Like malty milk chocolate. Maybe even like, you know, those kowtow candies
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I'm kind of getting similar notes from that on this whiskey. And honestly, on first sip, it drank hot
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I didn't know the proof of this when I first tried it. I would have guessed like 130. But Ed reassured me that it is 120
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Now, revisiting it, like I said, when I'm tasting it for this review, it has seemed to tame itself a bit I think just fresh crack out of the the sample bottle it was
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it definitely rang hot but I mean I love a good 120 proof whiskey and it definitely mellows out
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after some time but up front I mean that maltiness almost makes you think this is like an American
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single malt one of the categories I have the least experience with I need to try more of it
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but man I that maltiness even though it is only you know it's still a rye whiskey the malt is
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forward with this one and I think you know it's definitely different than some of the the maltiness
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I've gotten on some Scotch whiskeys. This is like a darker, richer malt, less of like the
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kind of acidic sour malt that I get on some, you know, Highland Scotches. This one is dark and rich
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and man, that proof really does bring out that flavor. Like I said on the nose, it's not super
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oaky. You're not getting some of the typical notes that you expect from, you know, an American whiskey
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or especially a bourbon. I'm not getting any of that vanilla necessarily, nor the caramel. There
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is some caramel kind of malty milkiness going on, like I said, with the Cow Tales note, but very
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very different than any other American whiskeys I own and even though I don't typically like
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whiskeys aged in smaller barrels I think this one has been aged for you know such a I don't want to
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say short amount of time but a much less amount of time than what I've had other experience with
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that I think it works really well and we're not dealing with like a Texas climate here where it's
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like you know like super over oaked or anything like that it's it's very mild with the oak impact
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but I think it kind of mellows out and balances out those grain notes and it kind of makes for a
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better whiskey in my opinion but I'm going to hold off a judgment until I add a little bit of
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water here like I said they also have a 90 proof offering that is also age stated but I think you
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know since I don't have a sample of that I'd love to try it proof down a little bit maybe that'll
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kind of bring out some of those sweeter elements it is sweet but it's more of like a malty a little
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bit of honey sweetness but I really curious to see what water does to it all right so I added quite a few drops of water like I said we dealing with 120 proof whiskey so to get it closer to the 90 proof you gotta add a bit I no expert here I just guessing to see what it would you know maybe be 90 proof
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But let's give it a nose now that there's been some water added. Oh yeah, immediately that brightens it up
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You're getting more of those, you're still getting the maltiness on the nose, but it's going towards more of like a honeysuckle, a little bit floral sweetness
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The honey's kind of developing to be more of a floral honey, and I do really like that
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And what's also interesting is like, you know, I said earlier, like it was like a bit of cinnamon sugar sprinkled on some oatmeal
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Now that I've added some water, the cinnamon is more forward and more dominant. And I really like that note
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I love a good cinnamon note on a whiskey, especially as we're getting into colder weather
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I mean, I'm still in Southern California, so it's still very hot here. But in a season which you would typically expect to be a bit cooler, I do like some of those cinnamon brown sugar notes
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Let's go ahead and try it with some water. Oh, yeah. I can kind of tell when I had it at Cast Strength that this would benefit from some water
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I think with it being, you know, under two years old and that high proof, it kind of hit a bit harsh up front
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It had some really great flavors that developed later on, but I think, you know, with that harshness, I think you may lose some people
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So when you actually add the water and bring it down to, you know, closer to 90, 100-ish proof
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it kind of lets those flavors still be very up front and center, but without a bit of that harshness that I got up front
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I think this makes for a better drinking experience at a lower proof with some water. but now comes time to rate this whiskey my rating system here is out of eight because i love all
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things eight bit now we are missing a key piece of information about this whiskey i do not know
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the price that it is available for but i'm just going to judge this based on what i would expect
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it to kind of be with it being a craft distillery with that in mind considering the age the proof
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the interesting mash bill and the fact that you know it is a small craft family distillery i got
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to give this whiskey from dog and shrub distillery a six out of eight i think considering the fact
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that this is a less than two year old whiskey my experience with those have typically not been
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great on the palate however this one has really really impressed me it's got that really nice
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malty character that i think comes from that unique mash bill that makes me want to keep
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drinking it and then with water added it's even better like i said earlier i recommend this you
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know either on the rocks or with a little bit of water i think it really brings out what is best
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about this whiskey. Now, maybe at some older ages, you know, cast strength will shine even more
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but this one, you know, proof down just a little bit is how I prefer to drink it
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So thank you so much, Ed, for sending me this sample. If y'all don't follow Ed
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check out the Rock Gut Review on YouTube. I know he's taking a little bit of a hiatus right now
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but definitely check out our Dungeons and Drams campaign that we are doing
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Even if you're new to D&D like I was, you'll still get a kick out of it. It's featuring me
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Ed from the Rock Gut Review, Jason from the Mash and Drum, Bill from the Whiskey Dick, and our friend Molly from Hugging the Cactus
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So if you're at least remotely interested, check out those streams. We do them. We switch it over to Monday nights
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So every Monday night at 6.30 Pacific, 9.30 Eastern. It's a ton of fun
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So we do have some news this week, mostly new whiskeys that were announced very recently
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One of these was actually announced literally the day I'm recording this, and that is a new distillery series release from Woodford Reserve. They announced today that there
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will be a new honey barrel finished bourbon available at the gift shop starting today
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Previous releases include the Double Double Oaked, a bottled and bond release, three grain
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five wood, four grain. They've done a lot of really cool experiments, but now they are finishing
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with honey barrels, which y'all know is like the trend now. We see a lot of distilleries doing it
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from Nulu to Bell Mead to Garrison Brothers But this one actually has me pretty interested because I think Woodford Reserve flavor profile would work really well with a honey finish It so well just on its own It kind of doesn get spiky in any direction It not over It not over you know sweet But I just imagining this really
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well-rounded bourbon wrapped in a honey-sweet layer. It just sounds like a really great bourbon
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Now, some more info about this release. So this was done in partnership with a honeybee farmer
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in Woodford County, Kentucky. So they lent him their bourbon barrels for him to finish his honey
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in. And then in return, he returned those used honey barrels to put more whiskey into for
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finishing. So I love seeing local, you know, farmers or local businesses work together like
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that. I think it's always leads to innovation and really cool collaborations. And this definitely
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seems like it's one of those. Now, this release is 90.4 proof. It comes in a 375 milliliter bottle
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and it's available for $59.99 at the gift shop only. So if you are close to Woodford Reserve
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definitely try to pick one of those up while you can. I know how quickly these honey barrel releases
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go from other distilleries, so I don't imagine this one sticking around too long. So if you're
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interested, definitely go try to pick it up. In other news, the brand new Wild Turkey Master's Keep
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has been released, I believe. I know we had some info on it in the past, but I'm seeing photos of
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it out in the wild. As a recap, this one is a blend of Kentucky straight bourbon and rye whiskeys
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finished in rye casks. I think I covered this on a previous episode, but this one's going to come
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in at 105 proof. It is non-chill filtered. And I don't recall seeing age statements, but now that
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I'm looking at a photo of the actual box, it says that this is a magnificent marriage of 13-year-old
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bourbon and 8-9-year-old rye. Now, both of these have been married and finished for a second
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maturation in rye barrels so this is some really well-aged wild turkey i imagine this is going to
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be up there in price just like the most recent releases but this is basically like a premium
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version of forgiven of course that one didn't have the age statement but this one really sounds
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amazing i've had forgiven i think it's a really fantastic blend and i'm excited to see them kind
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of revisiting that idea i'm surprised this doesn't have a catchy name though you know that this the
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wild turkey masters keep one or cornerstone rye or you know all these fun names they've had in the
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past. But yeah, this one is just Master's Keep, a blend of Kentucky straight bourbon and rye
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whiskeys finished in rye cask. I just feel like it should have a cool name like, you know
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Unforgiven or something like that. And lastly, in the world of new bourbon, there is a label
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release on the TTB website for a new Heaven Hill product. And this one, it has the juice. So this
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is a 20-year-old corn whiskey from Heaven Hill. It is a small batch 115 proof release
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Yeah, this is basically 20-year-old high-proof mellow corn. So all you corn lovers, keep an eye out for this one
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I can't imagine the price. It's probably really high like some of the other Heaven Hill releases
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But I would be so interested in trying a 20-year-old corn whiskey
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I don't think I've ever even had an age-dated corn whiskey. So I can't imagine what this one tastes like
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But I'm sure it's delicious. So I'm excited for this. I hope my fellow corn lovers too
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I just can't imagine a more beautiful thing. And just one tidbit of gaming news to get you excited
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The sequel for The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild's name has been revealed in a teaser trailer
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The new game will be called The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom
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No spoilers, but this one looks to be even better than the original. So as more info comes out about that, I will keep you in the loop
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But until next time, this has been the Bourbon Bites Podcast. Cheers, and I'll talk to you next episode
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