Greetings, Crusaders! Like Old Rip Van Winkle himself, we have awoken from our slumber and are back with a new Around the Barrel podcast! This time around we go through some of the things that have happened while we were away: Darren talks about the Great American Whiskey Fair and becoming a Maker’s Mark Ambassador, we…
Crusaders, sincere apologies for the delay on getting this one out, but we had a great deal of technical difficulty in post production. If you notice anything abnormal in the cast itself, that’s probably why. And by abnormal, I don’t just mean our usual abnormal selves! In this Around the Barrel, we talk through our…
A friend and fellow bourbon media colleague, Bill of Modern Thirst, started a group project of sorts with us and several other bourbon media folk. The premise is easy to envision: What would you buy if you had a Benjamin, a $100 bill, to spend on bourbon at the store? Rules: Disregard sales tax, only bourbon,…
Recently the guys at Modern Thirst proposed a nearly impossible question to a slew of bourbon writers, “If you had $100 to spend on American whiskey, what would you buy right now at your local store?” This sounds like an easy question, but the more I thought about it, the harder it became. Am I…
The internet has been all a-twitter lately about various forms of expedited aging in whiskey and bourbon. A majority of the discussion has been about whether or not these accelerated products can still meet the legal definitions of Kentucky Bourbon, Straight Bourbon, or even just plain Bourbon (for more on that aspect, check out Fred…
If there is one family that could be called the royal family of bourbon, it’s the Beams. For seven generations, starting with Jacob Beam after moving to central Kentucky in 1788, the Beam family, in one way or another, has had a hand in just about every major brand of bourbon out there. Yes, including…
Fellow Crusaders, the NCAA Basketball Championship is upon us tonight. I have no idea who the two teams playing in it are though. So since the championship game is a letdown, I figured it would be a good night to announce the champion of our Bonded Mash Madness! Darren and I both did the entire…
Hello, fellow Crusaders! Yesterday I was fortunate enough to be at the formal coming out party for the upcoming new I.W. Harper releases. “But wait, I know that brand,” some of you might be saying–particularly if you or your drinking buddies spent anytime overseas or in the military. The I.W. Harper brand has been dormant in…
Fellow Crusaders, it is approaching that particular time of year where we all go a little crazy over college basketball. In that spirit, we’ve created a little challenge to pit bottled-in-bond bourbons against one another in a tournament of champions. So as to not ruin the surprise, and allow you to try it for yourself…
Fellow Bourbon Crusaders, we were lucky enough to get to sit down and talk with Albert Schmid, author of The Old Fashioned: An Essential Guide to the Original Whiskey Cocktail and the Gourmand Award winning The Kentucky Bourbon Cookbook. We first met Albert at a book signing in Lexington, KY about two years ago, and we…
