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Jack Daniel's Coy Hill was one of the most sought after special release whiskeys of 2021. Tonight, I'm joined by a few friends as we try 3 different single barrels all at over 140 proof (Hazmat). Does higher proof mean better whiskey? Or are one of the "low" proof hazmat bottles beat the bunch? Find out in this very special Tennessee Whiskey flight!
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Today on the Bourbon Bites podcast, I'm joined by a few friends for a flight of three hazmat Jack Daniels Coyhill single barrels
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Will the highest proof come out on top? Stick around and find out. Alright guys, I am back for another flight with my friends here in our local group
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I am here with none other than Brandon. I'm a smart idiot on Instagram
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What's up guys? How are we doing? Good to see you again, Brandon. I am also here with Juan, Whiskey Padawan
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Hey, everyone. And I am here with Aaron Artino, Whiskey Pear over on Instagram. Good to see you again
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Hey, everybody. So we are doing another whiskey flag tonight. This one is not blind, but it is three different whiskeys that I know I have been dying to try
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I'm so thankful for these guys for bringing these for this tasting. We are trying three different Jack Daniels Coy Hill releases
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So these are all three different proofs. They are very close in proof
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They're also very close in age. These are almost like to the date, like about the same age
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What do we say they were? Roughly nine years. Roughly nine years. They are all like a week or two apart from each other
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They are going up in proof from 140.4 all the way to 141.2
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So very little variance there, but I'm really excited to try all three of these
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Again, I know like I've never been able to get my hands on these. So hopefully those of you listening, maybe you've had a chance to try one of them, but I understand if you haven't
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We did just try an amazing single barrel pick of Jack Daniels Single Barrel Barrel Proof from David Jennings over at Rare Bird 101
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If you missed that podcast, make sure to listen to the replay of that one from a couple weeks ago
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But this week we are doing this fly. I'm so excited. Are you guys excited? Oh, yeah, absolutely
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Experience-wise with Jack Daniels, just in general, Jack Daniels. Are you guys like Jack Daniels fans
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Are you kind of like sometimes? Or what about you, Brandon? I mean, I'm the outlier. back when I was younger I was Jack and Coke
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that was me that was me too and obviously I've grown to appreciate it more for a distillery than others
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what about you Juan? you know I didn't have all that much experience with Jack
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except for the regular release number 7 but when they started to release the special editions
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I was very intrigued so I definitely jumped into the heritage borough
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and then the new rye release and I definitely had to try this Koi Hill release as well so
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that's where I got started. Awesome. Well you Aaron? I'm with Juan. I wasn't really necessarily
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a fan of the Jack Daniels products until they released the Heritage Barrel and I missed out
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on that one. I was able to get some of the rye bottles and I absolutely love the Jack Daniels
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barrel proof rye. I think they're killing it. They're putting out amazing products and I'm
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looking forward to what comes out after this as well. So it sounds like we are all kind of on the
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same boat, right? Like we kind of started with Jack Daniels. We kind of shied away from it a bit
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when we got into like bourbon and I know some of you guys are more into scotch and stuff, but
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we've all kind of come back around into Jack Daniels, especially at barrel proof, whether it's
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the rye or the bourbon or this new Koi Hill release. So for those of us like myself that
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have not had a chance to try it. What makes this Koi Hill release different from the single barrel
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barrel proofs that we've had before? These releases come from the rickhouses that are at the top at the
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peak of Koi Hill. There's two. It's Rickhouse 8 and 13. In addition to being from those rickhouses
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these bottles, or at least the barrels that these bottles come from, came from the top of the
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rickhouse, which they call the Brothers Roost. So you're talking about that last level of one or
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two barrels off the top of the Rick House. What you get with that is enormous amounts of temperature
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fluctuation and really, really high temperatures. That's part of the reason that these are so high
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proof. And in my opinion, I think it imparts quite a bit more flavor. And it's really an interesting
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thing. Yeah, I mean, we know that the top of the Rick House typically is the highest proof of any
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release. I mean, we saw with the old Forester, the single barrels, those were typically younger
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but also like really high proof so the rumor was that those were like at the top of the rickhouse
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this range for these koi hill releases i know brandon you were doing a little bit of research beforehand what what is the range for these koi hills so the range for the coils is anywhere
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between 137.4 all the way up to 148.3 proof on these bottles wow so we are like crazy we're
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technically on the lower end but we're kind of in the middle so i'm really curious to see how these
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three compare like i said i realize that most people can't get their hands on this so we're
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We're approaching this with a very open mind as if this was, I mean, to be fair, tonight
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is the first time I've had a chance to try any of these. So I'm very grateful for these guys
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But we going to let you guys know are they worth it I mean these guys paid we say pricing what do they typically go for Retail is right around Retail is but secondary is like crazy right now right
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$450 plus. $450 plus, holy moly. Okay, well, we will be judging these from a retail perspective
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I know, you know, they could go for secondary. But $70, you know what
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That's in line with what I would expect them to be. The Jack Daniels single barrel barrel proofs are around 60
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So these are higher proof, you know, supposedly the more special barrels
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So let's see how they do. So let's start with the lowest proof, which is 140.4 proof
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So let's go and give that a nose guys. Wow. That's all I have to say is wow on the nose
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Super rich. Oh, yeah. Like the nose is rich. Like I get a lot of banana, vanilla, almost like a banana's foster
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Doesn't smell nearly as hot as you might expect. No. Right. I mean, I also should mention
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these are all hazmat jack daniels releases which i have never had the opportunity to try
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so i'm so so excited but you're right it doesn't know it's as hot as it should be
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or nothing it should be but you expect it's kind of sweet and fruity and um friendly like it's
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yeah i'm getting that vanilla the vanilla the strong like desserty kind of quality to it
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yeah you're absolutely right um with the proof of this level you would probably expect
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a huge burst of ethanol and that's not what i'm getting i'm getting more flavors behind
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And, you know, just a small amount of ethanol. You guys ready to try it
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Yeah. Cheers, boys. Cheers, guys. Cheers. Taste that proof, though. That's hot
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It's hot. Oh, yeah. But it's also not overpowering. No. Oak character up front
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You get a lot more of the age on the palate on the nose. You're really not getting that oak. I definitely get the age on it, too, for sure
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Especially going from some of the ones we were trying earlier, which were a bit younger. um now now age wise for the koiho releases you said they're around what is the age of these
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typically i would say around nine nine years yeah so so they're really not that much older i think
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it's just because that that high almost they're almost yeah they're almost hyper asian away
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especially when you consider like the fact that they are at the the highest hill of jack daniels
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and also at the highest part of that rickhouse so which is kind of interesting point because again
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is there any distillery that actually uses those top barrels at any
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of their rickhouses for a single barrel? I mean the only thing I can compare
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it to is the old Forester, the single barrel barrel purrs. I've heard rumors, no it's not confirmed
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but there are rumors that those are from the top and also the
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benchmark, the benchmark releases they had a top floor release. Yeah, see that's the one
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I know off the top of my head that actually says it's from the top floor whereas these ones do say that but all
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the other ones you don't know if it's a barrel, if it's batched if it's you know whatever. And people go crazy
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with like four roses too. They're like oh wait which rack was here five yeah they go crazy for him so it's interesting because those
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are like one level where i think it's just like one smaller difference than like a five tier that
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you get from you know bigger rickhouse um most definitely but you guys do you guys get any kind
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of like primary notes i i just get a lot of like typical brown form of notes i get brown sugar i
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get banana i get the ethanol i get the vanilla and i would say that i get um right up front i get a
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a lot of honey. On the nose or the palette or both? A palette. Okay
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So the good thing about me is like, I'm very like hit or miss with brown form. And I will say there's a certain type of banana note
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that I'm a fan of. I love when the banana tastes like bananas foster or like banana nut bread, the baked dessert-y banana
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I'm a fan of like, is there a way to say warm banana? I don't know. I'm a fan of that
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I'm not a fan of like fake banana, like banana runs or anything like that, which I do get on some products
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This though, this is all dessert-y. Like, this is, like, rich, dessert-y banana, which I think you guys are picking up on as well
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Yeah. Through vanilla. Through and caramel. The banana. Yeah. It's very good
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Yeah, I agree. Man, for the first one. I will say we have been drinking, so, like, this isn't our first pour of the night
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But it is one of the best I've had so far, so. Yeah. Interestingly enough, I enjoy this more than the single barrel pick that we had earlier, too
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Oh, interesting. Even though it's higher proof, it's more enjoyable. because the flavors almost turned up comparatively to the pick
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So if you all missed that, that was 128-ish proof. So we're jumping up a full 12 proof points to get to these
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It's very good, especially, again, we're going to be comparing it at $70 MSRP, of course
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Yeah. And also, take that with the grain of salt. I know you guys probably can't get it for that cheap
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I can't get it that cheap. But it would be unfair to judge this at the $450 level
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I mean, to be fair, we'll judge it at retail. All right, so let's go ahead and move on to the next one, which is only slightly higher proof
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So we are going from 140 to 140 So we going up 0 proof points again around the same age But let see Let see if it makes it different Now these are different They all single barrel products So we had to
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mention that. Right. These are essentially sister barrels from the same warehouse. They're close in age. They're close in proof. But I'm curious to see just how close are they
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So on the nose, are you guys eating it similar or different? To me, it's totally different. To me
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it's not bananas. It's almost like a banana. Like I used to have a nut bread. I get more of that
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coming through rather than the sweet vanilla that you get from the caramelization of the
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bananas foster so it's got an added kind of earthiness and yeah like a walnut or like almost
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like a i mean to be fair it is i did this one more than the first one that is so far like there's
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more going on it's not just vanilla and banana kind of thing and that's about it it's kind of
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like it it's it's the same as but an added layer yeah it's almost one step up from what it was it's
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just one step better very similar but just got a little bit more yeah and where the other one uh
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you know the honey note stood out for me this one i seem to get a little bit more on the you know
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i'm not the best at nosing but um i do seem to get a lot more cinnamon on this one yeah i'm very
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excited to try this one so cheers guys let's let's try cheers boys cheers wow now spice goes through
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i was gonna say i'm about you guys but it drinks way hotter than a or the first one we tried way
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hotter to me like spicier wow so so here's here's how i interpret that you say hotter to me i think
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this has a better body to it and I feel like it lingers the flavors longer so I
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could see why would it be interpreted as hotter for me it's like it's the same it doesn't necessarily taste hotter to me however it's thicker and I think it
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lingers longer so I could see why someone was able to be hotter but that's just my opinion what about you want for me it seems to give me a lot more notes
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and a lot more impact than the first one admittedly the first one at 140.4 was it
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That was my bottle and not my favorite. This one is definitely beating it, I gotta say
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How about you, Aaron? I'd have to agree. It's probably the best port I've had all night
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Oh, it's good. It's really, yeah, it's like I was saying earlier
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it's a lot like the 140.4, but there's just a little bit more going on. And it's got more of that viscosity and body
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I really enjoy it. I love a really good viscous whiskey because as you guys know, I like smoking cigars
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and I think that you need something like that to pair with a cigar or something
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And I feel like this would definitely, any, like the first two we've had, would definitely pair very well with a cigar
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Well, you're a cigar person, do you have a cigar that just comes to mind that you would want to pair with this
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Oh, that's a great question. I think a good, a good lighter Connecticut
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would pair well with this, just because you wouldn't necessarily want something
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super rich, like a Maduro or a Padron or something that's like really super full body
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but then again, I might change my mind if I was with this cigar. I think a Connecticut would go really good
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That's my final answer. Gotcha. Yeah, it's weird how the body of the whiskey changes so much
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even though the proof is about the same. What determines that? I'm sure it's like the oils are just something about the way it works in the barrel
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I don't think that's something that's been really investigated very much. Again, it's the nature of the beast, so to speak
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That's the nature of whiskey in general. Like I said, these are sister barrels, and yet they're totally different
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It's entirely barrel influence. I've done the entire like 10 recipes, four roses flight
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And you would think that like, oh, based on the description of both the mash bill and the yeast that they're using
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I'd be able to identify it. And I have some friends that can come pretty close
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But for the most part, the barrel influence makes way, way more, has much more effect than either the mash bill or the yeast strain
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changes intensely it makes a much bigger difference sorry i agree with you 100 and
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there are other people out there that care more about the grains or the mash bill more than the
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barrel which i'm with you i'm more on the barrel influence than the grains before it's all important
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right they're all components that go into it but it you i mean at some point you're talking about
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like the blank canvas and the paint that's used and so on like the grains are important and the
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selection of the yeast is very important obviously everything matters in my opinion at least yeah
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And we have a lot of newer distilleries that are showing that and playing around with like the
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different mash bills and grains and sources and stuff. Fray Ranch, I think is a perfect example
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For anyone who doesn't know, Fray Ranch is located out in Nevada. It's in Reno, Nevada
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It's a micro distillery out here in the West Coast that actually is starting to create waves
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It's actually really exciting. Yeah, we'll try to get them on the stream or a podcast sometime
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soon because I know that a lot of people out here are excited about it, but I feel like a lot of of people around the US don't really know much about them
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So yeah, and I don't know what their distribution is either. I don know if it only in the surrounding states or it actually is nationwide I don know So let move on to our final one which is the highest proof of the night this is 141 so this one only 0 proof points higher than the others so but i really curious to see again they all very similar age
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um location wise they're all dumped on the same day uh so let's let's go ahead and move on to the
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other one let's go to give it a nose yeah yeah so this one i i dig the nose the best to me it's
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one was to make sure one and two on the nose. It smells like a Rickhouse
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Yeah, it smells, but it's much more oaky. And we've also got that sweetness that I really enjoy
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personally on my whiskeys. It's got that banana. It's got the caramel. It's got the vanilla. It's got everything I personally want in whiskey
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Well, that's interesting because Brandon, you typically like more of like the like you said earlier, you like the runs
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banana kind of flavor. You like the like the banana. Artificial. Yeah. Yeah
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I tend to not like that. So I will say on the nose for me, this one isn't quite there
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with the way that the second one was for me. I think the second one was more of that banana nut bread
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which we were all kind of saying. This one is more like, if you like the banana note
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on a whiskey, like, I'm not talking like cooked banana, I'm not talking like Bananas Foster, Banana Runtz
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I'm talking like banana, like, either it's artificial or just like a really fresh banana
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You might like this a bit more. To me, I like the nose of the second one better
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but what about you guys? I have to agree with you. The second one really made an impact on me
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This third one, I'm kind of trying to dig into it. It might take me an extra minute
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What about you, Aaron? I do think this one's showing its proof
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It doesn't have the nuttiness of the 140.2. I was really surprised by the nuttiness of the second one
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I mean, yeah, 140.2. It was a little bit like banana bread, like delicious
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Which I love. I love that so much. So I think that the 140.2 is a little bit more oak forward
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And it's also from a completely different Rickhouse. It's from Warehouse 13 instead of 8
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From what I've seen online at least, the majority of the bottles of Koi Hill that were above 141
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were from Warehouse 13. Okay. There was kind of that separation where like..
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I mean, this was the highest proof, so let's see how it tastes. Cheers, guys
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Cheers, boys. Oof. That's a lot packed into it. You definitely taste the proof on that one, for sure
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I taste it. Oh, yeah. It's got a lot of flavor too though. That's just fruit. That's what I'm saying to me
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I enjoy this more than the second one. It has more fruity sweetness than I would have expected on the palate
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It's more rounded. Of course, it's hot, but we're at one point
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Juan's dying over here. Juan, why don't you get on it? The proof definitely made me cough a bit
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So I had to catch my breath. Again, like I say again, it's almost a mixture of both of the one and two
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Here's my opinion. This has the most flavor going on in it. I will say at the body and the mouth field, the second one that we had the one 40.7 was the most enjoyable
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This has more, more going on. It's like my flavor, like my, my tongue is like tingling with all the flavor going on
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I wish I had the body of the second one. So like the perfect combination for me would be these two together, but, but that's a good point
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You said, you said this is a combination of one and two, one had a lot of flavor to have the body. Yeah. Yeah
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So I think for me personally, the second one, the one 40.7 just on its own is my favorite, but the one 41.2
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has a lot of flavor. What about you guys? Are you guys leaning? I know you guys were leaning towards
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two or three. What was your favorite? Definitely for me, the second one, which was the 140.7
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It just, it has a lot more standing out for me. Definitely. Yeah, I agree. To me, the third one
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is a little hot on the palate, but the second one is the most well-rounded experience with the nose
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and how everything's going on. How about you, Aaron? I agree. The 140.7 is just fantastic as is
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I don't feel like it needs any water to reveal anything. I agree
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I think what I'm going to do is I'm going to have a little bit of bonus episode for Patreon
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where we're going to add a little bit of water to all three of these and see if they open up a bit more
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I know we're running a little long for the podcast. So for those of you that are just listening on your favorite podcast platform
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thank you so much for listening so far this has been so much fun i gotta say jack anniel's coy
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hill all you can't go wrong all three of these were good and you guys you guys agree with that
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definitely so we're about to dive a little bit deeper into these um like i said this will be
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for patreon everyone um on patreon you know two dollars a month or more to support the channel
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you get access to the bonus episode where we're gonna dive a little bit deeper into all three of
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these and see if the one that's the highest proof opens up a bit with water so thank you all so much
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for listening. Thank you all so much for doing this flying flight with me. And I will
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see you guys next episode. Cheers. Cheers
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