Bourbon š„
- Thread starter Chris Harmon
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Is she the one thatās the featured dancer over there at Lipstick Cabaret on 31st and Yale?
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I had a pour of the Penelope toasted cask strength. It was okay.
I had to be in Tulsa for business last night. Tulsa Hills was pouring samples. I agree, it was Ok. The spirit was made by MGP and aged to P's specs. They were pouring 4 grain straight and barrel strength. The 4 grain reminded me of Hochatown for some reason ( not just the $32 pricepoint).. the barrel strength at 117 proof ($63) was hot and really lacked depth (my opinion)... the Woodford that I had when I got home was a much smoother spirit..
I never visit the General board these days, so I will give an update. My mixology classes have been put on hiatus for a while. Turns out the distillery owner was chatting with an ABLE representative about the classes, and I guess the way we were doing them was a teensy bit illegal. So we are trying to come up with a creative way to get back in compliance.
Liquor laws are so self-serving and stoopid in this state. All the power is with the liquor wholesalers.
Liquor laws are so self-serving and stoopid in this state. All the power is with the liquor wholesalers.
Can you tell us what was illegal with how you were doing it?
Yeah they are. We went to California about 20 years ago and did the Napa and Sonoma thing. There was a vineyard we visited and we liked what they had so we asked if we could buy it and pay to ship it to Oklahoma. The answer was no. However, if we bought a bottle and brought it back on the plane with us (this is before the shoe bomber ruined us bringing liquids in large quantities as carry on items), then we would be an established customer and they could ship it to us. Made ZERO ****ing sense. I'm not sure any of those stupid laws have been walked back. It's still ridiculous that retailers like Wal Mart and Target can sell wine but not the hard stuff. Go to StL and in any grocery store there is a full section of beer, wine, and hard liquors. I understand this might drive out some small liquor stores (or as we from MA call them, packies) but the thing is, I am not looking for anything good from the grocery store. If I want that specialty Belgian ale, I'm going to Parkhill. If I want a specialty, little know, small batch distilled bourbon, I'm going to Parkhill. If I want a rare find wine, I'm going to Parkhill or another bottle shop. The only wine I buy from a big retailer is something that's getting thrown in a sauce or stew or in a braiser.
The winery didnt show you the work around?...
We used to go every year and fill the cellar (still have bottles from '01 in the racks).. the wineries introduced us to two ways of bringing it back, (other than in our checked luggage).. 1.. contact the hotel concierge and they provided 3rd party shipping paperwork and picked it up on checkout.. 2.. take it to the 3rd party shipper and have it shipped to you.... we developed a relationship with the shipping agent and they became our agent at the wineries and picked up our orders for us and then shipped them to our homes...
No. This was before the limit on liquids. My wife and I each had a 4 bottle holder that we could carry right onto the plane so it wasn't a big deal. But we wanted to ship some stuff directly so we didn't have to carry it on.
My brother in law built a custom suitcase specifically for wine bottles and padding etc. specifically for a checked bag.
Before they taught us the secret we used to bring a case back as checked baggage in a softside cooler stuffed with dirty laundry....
Speaking of liquids on planes... we went to the bahamas a while back... did you know you go through US customs before entering the terminal?.. the duty free shops were on the other side of customs and we brough back 4 bottles of Havana club from the Graycliffe store with no problem.... blew my mind..
I think as long as you buy the stuff in the terminal after passing through security it's not a problem. It's the stuff you bring into the airport from outside.
According to the distillery owner, they canāt publicly advertise for an event in which the drinks are part of. Now mind you, if they brewed beer it wouldnāt be a problem. Different rules.
I am thinking a workaround would be to form some sort of cocktail club or school. You sign up through that instead. Then we just pay a rental to the distillery.
Here is another stoopid liquor law. They changed the laws a couple years ago where distillers can sell their product onsite. BUT, they first have to sell their product to one of the three allowed wholesalers in the state, then buy it back, then they can sell it.
I wonder if handout documents count. Meaning if you talk about mixing the drink, never mentioning the liquor that is illustrated or listed in the handout with each liquor item. Example, you say to the audience bruise a lime peel, mix in such & such bitters and then add liquid #1, with a splash of liquid #2.(The Liquid #1 & #2 would be listed in illustration or text on the handout, in order, with the amount illustrated or listed. For instance you could have bottle of Tequila pictured with one circle to the right of the image or 1.5 circles to the right of the image. Making it very obvious in your first demonstration that one circle = 1oz. You could list splashes as images of several droplets of water. The liquors could be misspelled or phonetically expressed.
Just a little bit of creative license taken with not referencing your liquors in your demonstration, and saying this handout was for something else.(while visually making it evident that it was meant to be referenced in the demo.) Each bottle could be decanted into a generic bottle, labeled #1,#2, etc.
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Yeah.. but this was Cuban Rum.. i was surprised there was no Customs enforcement when we arrived domestically.. most of the trips ive made internationally, the nazi interrogation begins when you set foot on american soil.. not the security area of the departure airport.... it was just wierd.. if they had had Cuban cigars, i could have brought them in with ease.. ive landed on flights from the ME and cried as the ICEman cut my Cohibas up in front of me..
So at the Blue and Gold Championās Night we had a pleasant surprise. The distillery I work with is Red Fork Distillery. So some TU folks went on a tour of the distillery a while back, were impressed, and now Red Fork is releasing the official rum of TU: Red Flag Rum. This rum comes complete with a beautiful label with a depiction of hurricane flags, painted by Josh Stout who does all the Red Fork labels.
This all came together very recently. The label has to get federal approval, which takes a while. Itās also possible TU may release their own bourbon and other spirits in the future.
Iām really excited about this. Iāve already spoken with Rick Dickson and Jason Malay to get classes going to bring TU folks to the distillery to teach drinks made with this very smooth rum.
This all came together very recently. The label has to get federal approval, which takes a while. Itās also possible TU may release their own bourbon and other spirits in the future.
Iām really excited about this. Iāve already spoken with Rick Dickson and Jason Malay to get classes going to bring TU folks to the distillery to teach drinks made with this very smooth rum.
Do you know the age and proof? Also, is this their own distillate, or is it sourced?
Iām not sure about Red Flag, but their Caribe rum is I believe 90 proof, aged about a year in oak. It is a beautiful amber color, and undergoes a proprietary filtration process at the finish of distillation that removes the funkiness a lot of rums have. It is so smooth it is very easy to mix drinks with. The donāt source anything, itās all made in Tulsa by the owners.
I am really hoping to get classes going for TU folks, boosters, etc. using the rum and other spirits. I will keep you updated.
Isn't it Redfork distillery that put this out? If it is, I had some of their vodka they put out under their own name. That stuff was swill. The lady I had been taking care of bought it. We poured the rest of the bottle down the drain it was so bad. Half a shot was all we ever wanted of that. In fact her husband who was a alcoholic wouldn't even drink it. Sorry @Henry Kendall. I mixed the rest of the shot with some soda, to see if I could salvage the bottle. A no go, the flavor of the vodka pervaded the taste of the mix to even make that undrinkable.
Haven't had any of their other stuff. I would think they did a better job with the other stuff they are putting out, otherwise I wouldn't think they could survive if they were relying on stuff of equal quality. Hopefully they did better with the ReignCane vodka.
It seems like the Red Fork Vodka was made out of Hemp, but I can't remember for sure. I've had one other somebody else made from Hemp and it was pretty bad too. So it might be the hemp that was so unpalatable to our taste buds rather than what Redfork did with the brew.
You are extremely wrong on all counts. Red Forkās vodka is called Southern Journey. Hard to find. It is, I think, a wheat vodka. They have never made it under any other names. As far as vodka goes it is average to above average. The rum, cask proof bourbon, and rye are excellent.
Frankly that is pretty insulting if you think that I put myself out there to make and teach craft cocktails with some weird hemp vodka. Geez
One, you wouldn't have been responsible for them using hemp. Two, I was only 50/50 on whether they made it from hemp.(She bought that bottle around the same time as she bought a hemp vodka, and I couldn't remember if Red Fork and the hemp Vodka were one in the same.) Three, I was apologizing to you for us not liking one of their products, nothing more. It was a generalized apology, not something I would expect you to be offended by.
I wasn't wrong on all counts. The three of us did not like the bottle and wouldn't drink the stuff. Also, I was referring to the vodka by brand not name. I couldn't remember the name even though I knew it had one. The hemp vodka and that vodka were the only two bottles of vodka I've ever known them to pour out in the 15+ years I knew them.
Sorry if you took this personally. I wasn't even sure that vodka came out before or after you started teaching the class.
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I've had the cask strength bourbon, and it was solid. I was just wondering how the rum would stack up for someone that is used to Flor de Cana 12-year or an older Foursquare.
I don't drink rum neat. But if I had to pick, my fave in the pricy category is Diplomatico Reserve.
For mixing, the local product can't be beat. It is a very solid product for TU to put their name on. Anyone can buy a bottle of their favorite stuff....to me the challenge is to make an excellent drink out of a spirit. Tweaking and adjusting ingredients to hit the sweet spot based on the characteristics in the bottle.
I was over in Louisville on business and saw a bottle of Wellerās 12 and a bottle of Blantonās for $135.00 together. The venture capital money flying out of bourbon has brought the prices down considerably. I wonder if it holds.Any Bourbon and/or Tennessee Whiskey enthusiasts in our community? If so, I thought I'd start a discussion on favorites, what you're currently sipping, suggestions, etc.
Nobody was drinking Bourbon when I first got into it back in the late 90s. Well, let me rephrase that, there were certainly a lot of college kids drinking cheap stuff to get drunk...but I'm talking about enjoying a glass or two of good stuff in the evenings.
I used to buy Blanton's and Rock Hill Farms twenty years ago. They were about $40 to $45 a bottle back then and readily available. Now, I can't find them anywhere, and when I do, they are anywhere from $150 to $400, which is ridiculous. Once Gen Y started drinking Bourbon and started buying it up, prices went way up on a lot of stuff. Weller Special Reserve even became hard to find, and a $20 bottle was going for $45. Weller is probably worth $40, but I can now find it again for about $22...but I still can't find Weller 12, Weller Antique 107 or Weller Full Proof. Now there's 1,000 YouTube channels reviewing Bourbon.
I really enjoy the flavor profiles from Brown-Forman, Heaven Hill and Buffalo Trace distilleries, so I usually buy from those product lines. Big fan of wheated Bourbons. Last night, I had a glass of Larceny for the first time...really good...lots of vanilla, maple syrup and chocolate cherry notes.
As for Tennessee Whiskey, I'm trying to find a bottle of George Dickel Bottled in Bond.
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