Everything You Need To Know About Bourbon - A Beginners Guide

Hey all, my name is Kurt and I'm here with Trenton. Welcome to SLB Basement Bourbon Bar. And Trenton, here recently, we've been blessed to have a lot of new subscribers. A ton. Thank you so much for joining this community. We just have a lot of fun. We're not professionals, we're just enthusiasts. And we really love bourbon, whiskey, and cocktails, and everything like that. Yeah. At least I do. That's for sure. I'm a bit of a professional, but all things aside. I'm not, I'll promise you that. I'll give him the moniker of professional. That's no problem at all. So, I've had a lot of questions, Trenton, a bunch. And let me first say, there is absolutely no such thing as a dumb question. Some people lead in with that, no. You wouldn't believe, even some of the things I've said on camera, back in the early days. So there is absolutely no dumb questions. But I've had a lot of people really asking me, can you give us the basics of bourbon? We don't even really know what we're looking at when we go to the liquor store. We don't know what we're really shopping for. So what we want to try to do with this video is just help you understand bourbon, so that you can be an educated shopper. It's everything you wanted to know about bourbon to the best of our abilities. And what I want from you, if you can, please. Okay. Please. Because you know, I'll take all the help I can get. And that's a fact. So, as we're going through this information, I apologize up front, because I will be reading some, I have some notes down here, and there's just so much, I'll have to read some of it. So I apologize for that. But anything you want to add for clarification, or more knowledge, please do so. You bet. Because you absolutely know bourbon better than I do. Single malts, it's another story, pal. But bourbons, the kid knows everything about bourbons, that's for sure. We have a lot to get into, a whole bunch. So let's get started. Yeah, let's. What does it take to be a bourbon? What does it take to be a bourbon, Trenton? Well, let's talk about mash bill. Mash bill, when we say mash bill, that only means the recipe. It's what it takes for the recipe to make a bourbon. The key is, you have to have at least 51% corn in the recipe, or mash bill, to be legally qualified to be a bourbon. Right. Right. It could be 75%, it could be 60, it could be 90. But it has to be at least 51%. What's a normal mash bill? Just off the top of your head, what's a normal mash bill? 75% corn, 21% rye, 4% malted barley. And that's, you know, and it could be anything around that. But it's usually those three grains, right? It's corn, it's rye, and it's barley. Yep. Okay, so next, aging process. In order to be labeled a Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey, and you'll see that right on the bottle, it has to be aged for at least two years. But it doesn't have to be aged two years. If it's aged less than two years, it's just gonna say bourbon on your bottle. But if it's aged at least two years, it'll be Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey. Legally, if it's aged less than four years, it's supposed to specify that on the label. So if it's aged three years, it should say that on the label so you know how long a product's been aged. If it's more than four years, it does not have to be specified on the label. Well, one thing that I'd like to add is that if you see a label that says Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey, if it says Kentucky straight, that means it had to have been distilled and aged in Kentucky. It can't leave Kentucky at any point. So if you see, like, I saw Missouri straight bourbon whiskey the other day. Thank you. So that means that it's not sourced. Well, it might be sourced, but it's sourced in Kentucky, and it's made in Kentucky. Okay. So Indiana straight bourbon whiskey, distilled in Indiana, aged in Indiana. So then it obviously then has to be aged for at least two years to be called an Indiana straight bourbon whiskey. So the terminology stays the same, the state changes. Interesting. Thank you for the clarification on that. And let's just say this right off now. A bourbon can't be made outside the parameters of the United States. That is correct. It is home to the United States. A bourbon cannot be distilled and produced in England. Similar to how scotch is Scotland only. That's right. Bourbon is to the U.S. Correct. Yeah. Now, aging process. Yeah. After the bourbon and the mash bill, the distiller decides what the mash bill is, they distill the product, then it's aged. It has to be aged in a new charred oak barrel. What was interesting to me, Trenton, which I surely didn't know until I researched this, it does not have to be aged in an American oak barrel. It could be any oak barrel. It could be French oak. It just has to be a charred, a new charred oak barrel. And I didn't know that either. I didn't know it as well. All right, so the best thing I can tell you other than that is there's no additives. You cannot have additives in bourbon other than water for dilution to get it to the distiller's preferred proof point they want and it can be no less than 80 proof. Yep, that's right. All right. So let's move on from there. We've discovered our recipe, our mash bill is corn, rye, and barley. Now, there's other products out there as well that are called bourbons. This is a extremely popular maker's mark is a? Weeded. A weeded bourbon, and why is that, Trenton? Because when you look at a weeded bourbon, obviously it says bourbon in it, so it has to be at least 51% corn, but it's also then a majority wheat. So it could be like 51% corn, 49% wheat. There's no rye in there, there's no barley in there, and there are different grains that they might use for a bourbon, but a weeded bourbon is usually only corn and wheat. And that's why they're so sweet. This one in particular, and I don't remember the breakdown in percentages, but this one is corn, which is over 51%, wheat, and barley. Oh, there's barley in there too. I think it's 12 or 14% barley in that maker's mark when I looked it up. But that's a weeded, that's a weeded bourbon. Now, we also can have a four grain bourbon. I don't have my glasses, Trenton, but it says on this Spirits of French Lick, this is Lee W. Sinclair. This is a four grain bourbon, and it has? Which has, well, this one in particular has corn, rye, barley, and the fourth grain, probably call it a four grain, is oats. Yeah, so it can have multiples of grains in the mash bill or the recipe, but the key is, in order to be a bourbon, the corn has to still remain as king of the heap. It's gotta be over 51%. All right, let's move on from there real quickly. I've got an example here. Old Grandad, this one says bonded, but we're gonna discuss bottled and bond. Bottled and bond, the act of 1897 came into play because back in 1897, the whole supply and demand thing was goofy as it was. People really got into whiskey in 1897, so you had a bunch of knuckleheads out there running around saying that they were selling whiskey and it was a bunch of garbage. So the government stepped in and said, we're gonna put a stop to that. We want our whiskey to be good. Even the government wanted our whiskey to be good back in 1897. So they enacted the Bottled and Bond Act of 1897. So I'm gonna put my glasses on for this because I just wanna be specific and we wanna get through it pretty quick. But Trenton, in order for a particular bottle to be labeled as bottled and bond, it has to be produced in one season. Seasons are January to June or July to December. Don't ask me why, but that's what they came up with. It has to be produced in one season. It has to be produced by one distiller at one distillery. It must be aged for at least four years in a federally bonded warehouse under government supervision. It must be bottled at 100 proof. And the bottled product must identify the distillery where it was distilled and if different, and I didn't know this, Trenton, even if it's bottled at a different facility or location, that has to be on the label where it was bottled. So if you actually look at it, I did before the show, it actually said distilled and bottled at Old Grandad. I didn't know that. So very specific information has to be on this label. So they did that back in 1897 to make sure folks knew they were actually purchasing a good quality bourbon. Moving on from there, let's talk about small batch. This is weird to me, because there's really no legal parameters around small batch and I have two examples. I've got this Amador here and it says right on the label there, 10 barrels. So this is a small batch of 10 barrels of whiskey. In other words, 10 barrels of whiskey were put together, blended together, and they bottled this Amador finished, I think, in Chardonnay casks. Now, on the other hand, we have this Evan Williams 1783. In my research, Trenton, it says 1783 small batch. Yeah. This small batch was blended with 300 barrels. So- That's not that small. No, it really isn't. So, for me to you, I really don't take much, I really don't take much if I'm looking for a bourbon and it says small batch, because it could be, you know, they're really- It's relative to the size of the distillery. Like, Heaven Hill is massive. So 300 barrels to them is like, eh, that's not a big deal, but Amador, who might be a new distillery, who might be a sourcer or something like that, 10 barrels is, it's small. Absolutely. That, to me, is a true small batch. 300 barrels, you know, the key word here is vatted, and I don't even know how big vats are when it comes to distilleries, but the key word here, if it does say small batch, it has not been vatted. Yeah. And vats must be huge. Must be. That's all I can say about that. Oh, I think it's those 55,000 gallon. It could be. Guys. It could be. So that's small batch. If you're shopping for bourbon and you're running a small batch, then you understand that. Moving on real quickly. Single barrel. I've got this Evan Williams single barrel. Good stuff. Great stuff. Very simple. If you buy a single barrel bourbon, it comes out of a single barrel. Correct? Yeah, correct. However, the only thing you need to keep in mind, Trent and I see this all the time when we go out and taste our barrel picks that we do for the show for our patrons. If we, the taste differences are- A lot, like immense. Yeah, it's a lot. They're a lot different. And I've had four or five Evan Williams single barrel, and you get some variations in the flavor profile. So, but if you're buying a single barrel, please keep in mind there could be differences in the taste, and all the bottles come out of one single barrel. All right, let's move on, Trenton, from that. Let's talk about cast strength or barrel proof, right? My favorites. I'll bet it is. Elijah Craig. We just got an example. Elijah Craig barrel proof. One of the best ones out there. Very simply, whatever the barrel entry proof was is what you're gonna get in this bottle when they bottled it. So this one, Trenton, I don't have my glasses. What's it say? 120.8 proof. So this is 120.8 proof right out of the barrel. Right out of the barrel, 120.8 proof. Now, I have a question for you. Okay. This is something I truly don't even know. This Elijah Craig barrel proof, I have to assume, is not a single barrel product. So it has to be- Yeah. I would say it has to be blended with a bunch of different barrels, correct? Yep. So I'm just gonna assume that all those different barrels- Well, on the front- Please help me. On the front, this is batch A122. So there's a batch number on this. So it's a batched barrel proof product. Correct. They do make single, like they do have Elijah Craig single barrel picks. Those are few and far between, but this is not that. This is a batched barrel proof product. So basically, when all the barrels that were picked for this batch were combined together, they didn't dilute it with any water. They just determined after everything was blended together what the proof of that particular batch was. Am I correct? Yep. Yeah. So that gives you a little bit of idea. Go ahead. I wasn't gonna say anything. Okay. So basically, cast straight barrel proof, you're getting full flavor. That's what you're gonna get. Because it's not diluted in any way, shape, or form. But higher proof. Better bang for your buck. Less water, more juice. Right. Let's talk really quickly. Just got a couple more things to go over. I promise you, we'll be done. Blends. There's a lot of great companies out there doing blended bourbons, Trenton. Barrel is one of them. Just a couple things really quick when it comes to blends. In order for a blender to label, put on their label, it is bourbon. Then every whiskey that's blended in this bottle has to be at least 51% corn or more. Or else they could not put bourbon. So we already know when we pick up this barrel bourbon, it is a blend. We already know that it's blended with strictly bourbon that's 51% corn or more. Because it says bourbon right on here. The other thing you need to know, it's age, it says on the label, for six years. However, it could be aged with a six year, an eight year, a nine year, and a 10 year bourbon. But according to the law, it has to be labeled as the least year possible. Sound right? Yeah, that's what I researched. So that's why this says six. But in all reality, Barrel's really good too. On their website, I'm holding batch 31. If you go to your computer, you look up barrel bourbon, look up batch 31, it'll tell you exactly the bourbons and the years of aging that are blended into this. And all of them are over six years. So keep that in mind. If you look at this and say six years, look it up. To be an educated buyer or consumer, look it up. Because you could be buying a six year with an eight, nine, and 10 year in there too, which is pretty darn good. Now, Trenton, help me out with this one because I don't have my glasses, I don't want to put them on. This is a Bardstown. Generally, they do a really good job. What does it say on the front label? This is a blended whiskey, not a blended bourbon. All right, go ahead. Let them know why it's a blended whiskey. The reason for this is that some of the blends that are in this bottle do not contain whiskies that are 51% corn or higher. So for example, this blend contains 17% of an Indiana seven year whiskey, and it's only 45% corn. So that's not a bourbon. So they can't put bourbon on the label because not all of the blended whiskies in here are bourbons. Correct. So if you're a buyer and you look on here and you say, okay, blended whiskey, immediately you're gonna know it's not blended with all bourbons. Last but not least, Trenton, finished. Finished bourbon. Now, I'm pulling out this, this is a great bottle too, Middle West. It's been aged for five years. It's a weeded, we already discussed that. It's a weeded whiskey. It's been aged for five years, but it also says in there, Trenton, it's been aged for five years, but within those five years, it also was finished in Oloroso sherry casks. So it doesn't specifically say some do, some don't, but we all know that bourbon has to be aged, we've discussed this, in new charred oak barrels. So this particular bottle was aged for a certain amount of time in those oak barrels, but then it was also finished. It was taken out and put into. Correct, Oloroso sherry casks. And usually that's, it could be even just a few months, but a lot of times it's six months to a year. So if this says it's been aged for five years, it wouldn't surprise me at all if it was aged for four or four and a half years in the new charred oak barrel, and then transferred over and aged further six months to a year in the Oloroso sherry casks. And there's all sorts of finishing out there. There's rum casks, there's sherry casks. Even the finishing process, even in toasted. It's aged first in the charred, and then moved over and finished in the toasted barrel. There's so many different kinds of finishing. So many ways of finishing. So we've went through a lot, a lot of material here, and I tried to go as quick as possible because we can't have these last forever. So I'm hoping this information helps you, and especially those that are just first starting out on your bourbon journey, because you have a lot of information here, but I'm gonna stress, Trenton, because you know me, I'm gonna stress the key is here to have fun. Exactly. Find what you like. Drink what you like the way you like it. Find your path. Well, you and I are not always gonna agree. Him and I don't always agree on what we drink and what we think is good. Find what you like and grow from there. And the key is share with friends and family, and have a good time. That's the key. So if there's any questions in the comments, I do my very best to try to answer all of them. For those folks that are out there that are smarter than I, and there's plenty of you out there, please add whatever you feel is necessary in the comments to the material that we gave you today, and we hope this has been helpful. Please, please join us on our next video, because this is kind of like a two-part series. The next video is more about bourbon, but basically all the questions that we've been most asked in the comments, we're gonna do our best. There's some good ones. You know, there's some ones that's gonna have some arguments there. There's gonna be a little dialogue there, because you know. We're gonna fight. Opinions, I don't know about that, but opinions are opinions. So the very next video, we're gonna discuss or try to get through our most asked questions. Stay tuned. Yeah. All right, as always, we ask you to please drink responsibly. Please join us next time right down here with Trent and I in a good old basement bourbon bar. See you later.