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Little Book Chapter 5 – The Invitation

I’d like to thank the folks at Jim Beam for providing the following review sample with no strings attached.

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I’d like to thank the folks at Jim Beam for providing the following review sample with no strings attached.

IMAGE: Sample bottle of Little Book Chapter 5, the Invitation

By the time you are reading this, I will be on vacation. I’m guessing I will be somewhere in Northern Missouri if you are reading this the evening it came out. Hello from Wednesday! Did the world survive?

This is my first real vacation since before Covid. Even vaccinated, I’m a little nervous. But if I didn’t go, I’d lose all the money I paid for housing…so here I go. I’ll be as safe as I can and mostly just try to avoid being too close to people. Which is kinda how I usually do vacations anyway. And since I am in the middle of working my way through a list of “Things That I Should Have Done Last Week But Need To Be Done Before I Leave,” I’m going to jump right into the whiskey portion of this post.

I’ve been a fan of the Little Book releases since they were first released. I’m pretty sure that I’ve enjoyed every one I’ve tried. I really like the experimentation that Freddie Noe is doing with them. And this is no different. The whiskeys included in this blend range from two to fifteen years old. Paraphrasing the sell sheet provided with the sample (and quoting where appropriate) here are the blend components and what they say each brings to the final blend:

2-year-old Kentucky Straight Bourbon: It “comes off the still and goes into the barrel at a lower proof delivering a whiskey that’s complex and balanced.” This whiskey contributed a creamy mouthfeel and sweet grain flavors.
3-year-old Malted 100% Rye Whiskey: This whiskey brings in peppery notes and toasted grain/cereal notes with a hint of nuttiness.
5-year-old Kentucky Straight Bourbon: This whiskey brings in hints of vanilla, corn sweetness on the nose, and a smooth finish “that help to balance the flavors from the younger whiskies and the 15-year-old bourbon.”
15-year-old Kentucky Straight Bourbon: This brings heavier barrel flavors and adds complexity to the final blend.

That’s what Beam had to say, let’s see how it tastes.

Little Book Chapter 5: The Invitation

Purchase Info: This sample was provided by the producer for review purposes. The suggested retail price is $124.99 for a 750 mL bottle.

Price Per Drink (50 mL): $8.33

Details: 58.4% ABV. A blend of 2-year-old Kentucky Straight Bourbon, 3-year-old Malted 100% Rye, 5-year-old Kentucky Straight Bourbon, and 15-year-old Kentucky Straight Bourbon.

Nose: Bright ginger and cinnamon, toasted nuts, milk chocolate.

Mouth: Hot and spicy. Notes of vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, and a generic nuttiness.

Finish: Warm and long. Notes of baking spice, chocolate, leather.

Thoughts: This is really good. I don't know that I'll be paying $125 for this, but I might check out Total Wine to see if they carry it for a little cheaper. But if you don't see a problem dropping $125 on a special release then add this one to your list. I like it.

Did you enjoy this post? If so, maybe you’d like to buy me a cup of coffee in return. Go to ko-fi.com/bourbonguy to support. And thank you, BourbonGuy.com is solely supported via your generosity.

Four Roses 2021 Limited Edition Small Batch Bourbon

I’d like to thank the folks at Four Roses for providing this review sample to me with no strings attached.

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I’d like to thank the folks at Four Roses for providing this review sample to me with no strings attached.

IMAGE: Inside the Media Sample packaging for Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch 2021

Oh my goodness! I am so excited! I’m sitting here in my gold top and maroon shorts because BigTen Football starts tonight when the Minnesota Golden Gophers host the Ohio State Buckeyes.

Ok, fans of teams that played on Saturday will say that it really started when Illinois kicked off to Nebraska sometime after 12 noon on the 28th. But, “Week 0?” come on…even the powers that be knew that it didn’t start until this week. And if those Nebraska fans watched the same debacle…err…game I did, well I’m guessing they would also like to forget that stinker of a game.

So since my beloved Golden Gophers are hosting the number 4 team in the country tonight in Ohio State, I get the added bonus of having zero pressure while watching the game. Usually, I hope for a win and worry about a loss. Tonight I know we will get blown out so I can just enjoy watching my Gophers without the pressure of hoping we win. I plan to enjoy it. Maybe I’ll even enjoy a small pour of the bourbon we are looking at tonight after the game ends. Either as consolation or as a celebration.

Yeah, I know it’ll be the former but let’s not get negative.

So what is tonight’s bourbon? Well, that would be the 2021 release of Four Roses Limited Edition Small Batch. This year it is made up of four of their bourbon recipes: a 16-year-old OESV, a 12-year-old OESK, a 14-year-old OBSQ, and a 16-year-old OBSV. I love that floral/herbal/fruity note that the Q yeast brings. If I see a Q or an F yeast used in a Single Barrel Pick while out shopping, it always comes home with me. It just hits the right notes with my palate. So I’m pretty excited to see this one included in the blend.

The suggested retail price is $150 per bottle. It’ll roll out to retailers in September, but if you are feeling lucky, and will be able to make it to Kentucky to pick it up in the last half of September they will be having a lottery drawing to purchase a bottle at the distillery gift shop. Visit the Four Roses Small Batch Limited Edition website between August 31 and September 12 to enter.

Four Roses 2021 Limited Edition Small Batch Bourbon

Purchase Info: This sample was provided by the producer for review purposes. The suggested retail price is $150.

Price Per Drink (50 mL): $10.00

Details: 57.2% ABV. Features a 16-year-old OESV, a 12-year-old OESK, a 14-year-old OBSQ, and a 16-year-old OBSV.

Nose: Cinnamon, JuicyFruit gum, caramel, oak, leather, and vanilla.

Mouth: Red fruits, caramel, vanilla, cinnamon, clove, leather, and tobacco.

Finish: Long and warm with notes of cinnamon candies, JuicyFruit gum, leather, and oak.

Thoughts: Shows off much more oak than any of the standard releases from Four Roses. which is either a good or bad thing depending on how much oak you like. I’m digging the fruity/floral notes that the Q yeast is bringing. It’s one of my favorites to pick up when I find it as a single-barrel pick of Four Roses. My wife loves this one. I really like it, but it’s showing just a touch too much oak for me. Don't get me wrong, it is very good. And if I happen to be chosen in a lottery to buy one, I’ll probably jump at the chance.

Of course, if you want to support BourbonGuy.com and get a little something back in return, you can always head over to BourbonGuyGifts.com and purchase some merch. I’ve made tasting journals, stickers, pins, posters, and more.

Yellowstone Limited Edition 2021

I’d like to thank ByrnePR and Lux Row for providing this review sample with no strings attached.

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I’d like to thank ByrnePR and Lux Row for providing this review sample with no strings attached.

IMAGE: The new (as of 2021) bottle of Yellowstone Limited Edition

We are going to do something a little different tonight. Normally, my wife and I do tastings together and the published tasting notes are an amalgamation of each of our notes. Well, I couldn’t do that this week because my wife isn’t here. She is spending the week with her mother on a trip to Yellowstone National Park. Her mother had never been and wanted to go before she died. Not that my mother-in-law is in immediate danger of dying, but she is almost 80 years old. So there is only so much time left.

By a weird coincidence, last Friday, I got a sample of the latest edition of Yellowstone Limited Edition bourbon. I thought it only fitting to send a healthy sample with my wife so she could do her tasting notes of Yellowstone Bourbon while she visited Yellowstone National Park. As you can see in the photo above, I did mine at my desk.

My very dusty desk.

The 2021 edition of Yellowstone Limited features a mixture of seven-year-old and fifteen-year-old bourbons with some of the seven-year-old having been finished in Amarone wine casks. Amarone is a dry, rich, Italian red wine made from partially dried grapes and aged for at least in oak casks. The suggested retail price of the 2021 Yellowstone Limited Edition is $99.99.

So now, back to the something different. Since our tasting notes were conducted about 1000 miles apart and done with no interaction between the two of us. I thought it would be fun to publish both sets of notes without combining them.

Yellowstone Limited Edition Bourbon, 2021 edition

Purchase Info: This sample was sent by the producer for review purposes. The suggested retail price is $99.99.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $6.67

My Wife’s Notes

Nose: Vanilla, caramel, and cherry.

Mouth: Almond/cherry, caramel, cinnamon (spicy), and sweet baking spice.

Finish: Warm and medium length. Cinnamon and almond/cherry notes.

Thoughts: I love it!

My Notes

Nose: Vanilla ice cream, black cherry, and caramel.

Mouth: Dry and spicy. Notes of cinnamon, tobacco, brown sugar, and black pepper

Finish: Dry, spicy, and pretty long. Nutty with more cinnamon, cherry, and black pepper.

Thoughts: This is one of those bourbons that I enjoy much more in a "drinking glass" than I do in a tasting glass. Lucky for me, I hate drinking out of a Glencairn. My usual rocks glass accentuates the fruitier notes where the Glencairn seems to accentuate the drier aspects of the drink. This is pretty good. It isn't my favorite of the Yellowstone Limited releases, I like a sweeter whisky usually. But this is no slouch either.

Oh and this was the view out of my wife’s cabin at Old Faithful tonight.

IMAGE: A male bison eating grass between cabins at Old Faithful Lodge, Yellowstone National Park.

Old Fitzgerald Bottled-in-Bond, Fall 2021 edition

I’d like to thank Heaven Hill for providing this review sample with no strings attached.

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I’d like to thank Heaven Hill for providing this review sample with no strings attached.

RAIN!

We finally got rain last night. As you may know, much of the country is experiencing drought conditions and, well, my house is no exception. To give you just one example of how dry it has been here, I’d like to point to the fact that I haven’t mowed my lawn since the middle of June. It’s been too dry for it to grow. So I was pretty happy when I woke up to the sound of a sustained downpour this morning. I was even happier when I saw that the rain gauge showed over 2 inches had fallen overnight and into the morning. My lawn is already greening up. Which means mowing probably isn’t far behind. But heck, at least I won’t have to water the garden this week. That’ll help the ol’ water bill.

And while I wait for the grass to grow, I might as well go ahead and preview the newest bourbon that Heaven Hill has sent over. This is the Fall 2021 edition of Old Fitzgerald Bottled in Bond. It was distilled in the Spring of 2010 and bottled in the Spring of 2021, making this an eleven-year-old release. According to the press release, it spent those eleven years resting in rickhouse EE. As with all Bottled-in-Bond products, this was bottled at 100° proof and is the product of one distilling season.

Let’s see how it tastes.

Old Fitzgerald Bottled in Bond, Fall 2021

Purchase Info: This sample was sent to me by Heaven Hill for review purposes. The suggested retail price is $110 for a 750 mL bottle.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $7.33

Details: 11 years old. 50% ABV. Aged in Rickhouse EE.

Nose: Vanilla, caramel, oak, red fruit.

Mouth: Spicy with notes of baking spice, caramel, vanilla, and almond.

Finish: On the longer side of medium with notes of almond, caramel, and cooling mint.

Thoughts: Baking spice and almond are the notes that stand out to me for this one. I tried it next to the Spring 2021 edition and I think I like Spring better, even though it was only 8 years old compared to this edition’s 11 years. I much prefer Spring 2021’s caramel notes to Fall 2021’s almond, and Spring 2021 had more spice to it. But, don’t get me wrong, this is a very good bourbon. I'm just not sure I'd be willing to drop $110 on it, I am a freelancer after all. That said, I would happily accept a glass if you were pouring.

Basil Hayden Toast

I’d like to thank BeamSuntory and the Basil Hayden team for providing this review sample with no strings attached.

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I’d like to thank BeamSuntory and the Basil Hayden team for providing this review sample with no strings attached.

IMAGE: A bottle of Basil Hayden Toast flanked by two crystal glasses of the same. Image Courtesy Basil Hayden.

I’ve heard it said that after you hit the age of 40, you need to either take up World War Two history or smoking meat. Well, I’m a history buff, but I’d much rather read about history that happened 500 to 1500 years ago than history that happened 75 to 85 years ago. Which, if that adage was to believed, left me smoking meat as my only option going forward.

Which is why, while I write tonight, I’m eating a generous slice off of the fatty end of a smoked brisket. And once I finish it, I will be moving on to a pour of tonight’s whiskey. I don’t usually like whiskey with food but I do enjoy it after food. I prefer to let the fatty flavors settle a bit and then have an after dinner drink instead of pairing one with the other

The drink I will be pouring tonight is the newest permanent release from the Basil Hayden line of whiskeys: Basil Hayden Toast. This new bourbon uses brown rice as the flavoring grain instead of rye or wheat. Basil Hayden Toast is a “mingling” of both finished and unfinished bourbon. Some of the brown rice bourbon is finished in toasted barrels. That finished bourbon is then mixed back in with unfinished brown rice bourbon to create the final product.

So now that I’ve finished my supper, let’s see how it tastes. Note, the notes below are not from tonight, but I am having a pour of Basil Hayden Toast to confirm my thoughts from this past weekend.

Basil Hayden Toast

Purchase Info: This sample was provided by the producer for the purpose of this review. The suggested retail price is $49.99 for a 750 mL bottle.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $3.33

Details: 40% ABV. Made with brown rice as the flavoring grain.

Nose: Vanilla, caramel, nutmeg, and a hint of mint.

Mouth: Brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, hints of mint and dusty oak.

Finish: Very gentle. Lingering brown sugar sweetness, baking spices and oak.

Thoughts: This isn't bad. It's pretty gentle, like most Basil Hayden releases, but tastes pretty good. I like it. That said, I’ll be honest, it isn't going to be something I buy. I’m a freelancer on a freelancer’s budget so for $50 I want a bit more oomph in my bourbon. But this wasn’t created for me. This is for the novice bourbon drinker who may be intimidated by higher proof releases and I think it will work beautifully in that market. As I said, I like the flavors of this a lot, it’s just too gentle for me to want very often.

Stellum Bourbon

Last…

Last week I regaled you with the mundane tale of how I, almost accidentally, got my hands on a couple of bottles of Stellum Whiskey. I'm not going to bore you with that again, but I think I might jump straight into the "About This Bourbon" section of the post.

Stellum is a line of whiskeys produced by the same folks that make the Barrell line of sprits. Like the Rye, this bourbon is a blend of bourbons produced in Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee. I'll let them give you the flowery version. From the Stellum website:

Stellum Bourbon finds its flavor in the tension of three Indiana Bourbon mash bills, two of which are high-rye, with the third being almost exclusively corn. Older barrels from both Kentucky and Tennessee are folded in slowly, through a multi-step blending process. This brings added layers of depth and complexity, ultimately allowing us to round out a uniquely Stellum flavor profile.

They don’t come right out and say MGP, but in my opinion, there is a good likelihood of the “Indiana Bourbons” they describe come from MGP. A look at the MGP site shows two “high-rye” bourbons (mash bills: 75% Corn, 21% Rye, and 4% Barley Malt and 60% Corn, 36% Rye, and 4% Barley Malt) and a 99% corn bourbon (mash bill: 99% Corn and 1% Barley Malt). The interview Fred Minnick did with the bourbon’s creator describes it as such: “The Stellum Bourbon blend is focused on a 5–6-year-old IN/KY/TN profile using 3 different Indiana mash bills and includes barrels from 4-16 years old.” Stellum bourbon is officially non-age-stated, non-chill filtered, and cask strength at 114.98° proof.

Stellum Bourbon

Purchase Info: $52.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Lakeville Liquors, Lakeville, MN

Price per Drink (50 mL): $3.53

Details: Distilled in Indiana, Kentucky & Tennessee 57.49% ABV.

Nose: Cap'N Crunch, caramel, cherry, cinnamon.

Mouth: Spicy and hot. Caramel, cherry, cinnamon, nutmeg, and maple.

Finish: Long and warm. Notes of cinnamon, nutmeg, and cherry.

Thoughts: This is really good. It has a nice balance of sweet and spicy when neat. A little water doesn't hurt this one at all. Water brings the sweetness to the forefront and allows the spicy notes to play a supporting role.

Stellum Rye

Some…

Sometimes one thing just leads to another, you know? You can wake up in the morning thinking to yourself that you have nothing to do, nowhere to go, and that there is nothing on your calendar. And then you can end the day having spent $450 on a meat grinder and another $120 on whiskey. And that was me last Saturday.

I woke up Saturday morning. Early of course because hungry dogs had me up at 5:30 am. I groaned and tried to convince them to go back to sleep, to no avail. So the only thing to do was see if my wife would make us coffee while I took the pups out to go potty. It has been so dry in Minnesota that I think the only moisture my lawn gets is from the dogs urinating on it. Which probably means that the lawn is done for. But at least the weeds are still green. So there’s that.

As I was cleaning up after the dogs, my wife came out to add something to the ol’ honey-do list. She said, “remember to do some research on a meat grinder today.” Now, as you might expect from someone who does what I’m doing right now, I like to do research on the internet. I find reading reviews, combing through forums, and looking at specs to be fun and enjoyable. And I’ve been smoking a lot of meat lately. Which means I have a freezer full of trimmings. So looking at a meat grinder to turn those trimmings into tasty food was something I was looking forward to.

As I finished my research, I realized that my local Fleet-Farm had the model I was looking for. In-stock and on sale. You know I decided to brave the smoke outside and go get it. And of course, Fleet-Farm is right by a local Municipal Liquor store. It’s a small store, they don’t have everything, but they try to make their selection complement that of the Total Wine up the road by carrying items that Total Wine doesn’t. So I decided that since I was out braving the smoke anyway, it would be a waste of a trip if I didn’t stop in.

And that is where I found tonight’s whiskey. And one of next week’s as well. I picked up the Stellum Rye and the Stellum Bourbon, but I’m going to stretch the content out as much as I can. Stellum is a brand created by the makers of Barrell Bourbon. It is a cask-strength, non-chill filtered blend of Straight whiskeys from Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee. According to an interview conducted by Fred Minnick with Barrell founder Joe Beatrice, the constituent whiskeys are between four and ten years old. And according to the Stellum website, the rye we are exploring tonight is made mostly of the 95% rye Indiana mashbill with small amounts of more “barley forward rye and choice barrels from both Kentucky and Tennessee.” The suggested retail price is $54.99 and should be available on an ongoing basis in 45 markets across the US.

I am a big fan of MGP’s 95% rye whiskey, especially at cask strength, and while they didn’t confirm that the 95% Rye from Indiana that they used was actually from MGP, I’m just going to go on the assumption that it is. So I was very excited to taste this one. Let’s see how it tastes.

Stellum Rye

Purchase Info: $52.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Lakeville Liquors, Lakeville, MN

Price per Drink (50 mL): $3.53

Details: 58.12% ABV. Distilled in Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

Nose: Cooked cereals, mint, cinnamon, clove, and maple.

Mouth: Very hot in the mouth. Notes of honey, cherry, mint, cinnamon, and tobacco.

Finish: Spicy and warm. Medium length. Notes of cinnamon, mint, and brown sugar.

Thoughts: I'm really digging this one. As I said, I'm a big fan of the MGP 95/5 Rye recipe and am very glad that they made it the star of this blend. The other parts of the blend work to add sweetness and round off the sharp edges that 95/5 can sometimes come with. Big fan. I really like this one. I highly recommend it if you want a high-proof variation on MGP-style 95% rye.

Calumet Farm 15-year-old Single Rack Black Bourbon “Whirlaway”

Last…

IMAGE: the 15-year-old bourbon from Calumet Farm.

Last Friday I sold my truck. After living the last 18 months, we realized that we were ready to become a one-car family. Especially since the used truck market is super hot right now. Sure, we wouldn’t be able to haul a load of dirt from the garden center, but that might be a blessing for my back. I’m not getting any younger, if you know what I mean. Plus if we needed to haul something renting the occasional trailer would be much cheaper than the repairs a well-used decade-old pickup would bring. Plus no insurance payment on it.

While we planned to use most of the money we got from the truck as a down payment for the new vehicle we have on order, I did convince my wife that we could probably splurge a little in celebration. I mean we got exactly what we were looking for from the dealer. Even knowing that we could have gotten more selling it outright, it felt like a win. I really dislike dealing with strangers and the convenience was worth it. The result of that splurge was tonight’s whiskey.

Calumet Farm 15-year-old Single Rack Black Bourbon is a product of Western Spirits Beverage Company. Much like the 10-year-old Bourbon, I reviewed back in 2018, each 19-barrel batch is created from the barrels aging on one rack in the aging warehouse. It is non-chill filtered and 105° proof. The mash bill is 74% Corn, 18% Rye, and 8% Malted Barley. It is bottled by Three Springs Bottling Company in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Oh and since Calumet Farm is a farm that breeds racehorses, this bottling is named in honor of one of the farm’s Kentucky Derby winners. You can read more about Whirlaway the bourbon and Whirlaway the horse here.

Calumet Farm 15-year-old Single Rack Black Bourbon "Whirlaway"

Purchase Info: $129.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Blue Max, Burnsville, MN.

Price per Drink (50 mL): $8.67

Details: 52.5% ABV. Rack#: 275402.09. 19 Barrel Batch. Non-chill filtered.

Nose: Caramel, brown sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, apple, and oak.

Mouth: Spicy and thick. Caramel, brown sugar, oak, apple, cinnamon candies, and leather.

Finish: Spicy and long. Notes of dark chocolate, caramel, cinnamon candies, mint, and a touch of apple.

Thoughts: I don't say this often for products I paid more than $100 for, but this was probably worth every penny. It is absolutely delicious and I will be hiding this on the special shelf so that it lasts a long time. I’m really enjoying it. Just giving this a “like” rating due to the price, but it’s good enough that if it were cheaper it’d be getting a heart. But since I don’t love the price, it gets a high “like.”

George Dickel Bottled in Bond No. 3 (2021 release)

Kids…

IMAGE: 13 year old George Dickel Bottled in Bond, Number 3. 2021 release.

Kids. Pull up a chair and let Old Man Eric tell you a story.

It all started way back in the late twenty-aughts to early teens. I was first getting into whiskey and it was a lovely time to be doing so. You’d walk into a store and sure, most of the time there wouldn’t be a lot of American Whiskey on the shelf, at least by today’s standards. The stores I frequented here in Minnesota didn’t usually offer a full aisle dedicated to just Bourbon and its brother from Tennessee. But what you didn’t have in the number of brands, you’d make up for in quality of the whiskey. Well, some of the time. I mean Jim Beam White was outselling everything not named Jack back then too. But age statements were everywhere and they were used to entice you to buy a bottle not to price it out of the range of affordability.

It was by no means the Golden Age that our memories and nostalgia make it out to be but you could be pretty sure that the bottle you were buying probably contained good bourbon if you saw an age statement. And it wasn’t unusual to see double-digit age statements at a relatively low cost.

Tonight’s whiskey is a bit of a throwback to that time. 13 years old. 100° proof. Bottled in Bond. Rich and thick in the mouth. And, at least compared to others in its age range, a relatively low price. This is the third edition of George Dickel Bottled in Bond and, according to Whisky Advocate, it is the biggest batch yet. Now, the price did go up some. The suggested retail price was in the mid-$30s in 2019 and is in the mid-$40s now, but it is still a remarkably good value. Especially when compared to others in its age range.

So instead of me blathering on anymore, let’s see how it tastes.

George Dickel Bottled in Bond No. 3 (2021 release)

Purchase Info: $40.99 for a 750 mL bottle at Apple Valley Liquor, Apple Valley, MN

Price per Drink (50mL): $2.73

Details: 13 years old, Spring 2007 distilling season. 50% ABV. Distilled at DSP-TN-2. Bottled at DSP-IL-58.

Nose: Honey, mixed berries, nutmeg, and a slight mineral note.

Mouth: Spicy in the month. Nice mouthfeel. Honey, mixed berries, cinnamon, leather, and tobacco.

Finish: Medium in both length and warmth. Lingering notes of cinnamon, nutmeg, and tobacco smoke.

Thoughts: This is damn good whiskey. I am really enjoying it. Rich and thick in the mouth with delicious notes of pipe tobacco smoke on the finish. Note, this is not a "smokey" whiskey, it just carries the flavors of tobacco smoke. I'm a big fan. Really, really like this one. I think I will be stopping off on my next trip out of the house to see if I can find another bottle to have for after this one is empty.

Post-Script: So, after I finished writing this, I had to go grocery shopping. I thought that I might check my local corner liquor store to see if there was another bottle to be had, as mentioned above. There was, but there was no price on the shelf. I grabbed a bottle thinking that I knew what it should be and that these guys are usually really good about just charging a set margin on items. I was beyond shocked when it rang up at $69.99! While talking with the poor guy behind the counter I mentioned the price I got it for a couple of suburbs over and that the suggested retail price was $45. He told me that, apparently, there is a local distributor in my area who is doing a little price gouging on items like this and that, unfortunately, they must have gotten it from that one. He apologized for the inflated price and the trouble. So keep an eye on the price of this one. Sounds like there might be some foul play in the Twin Cities metro on it. I’ll be paying around MSRP on this one or I won’t bother buying it. I suggest you do the same.