A Thinking Reed

"Man is but a reed, the most feeble thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed" – Blaise Pascal

“A wholly American and appropriate indulgence”

“An Ode to Bourbon”

‘Nuff said.

7 responses to ““A wholly American and appropriate indulgence””

  1. Jeremy

    What do you recommend for a newcomer to bourbon? It looks like Maker’s Mark is a favorite (at least of the non-super-premium brands) for those who commented on that article. Is that the place to start?

    Reply
  2. Lee

    Yeah – MM is a quality bourbon right about in the middle of the pack. Slightly on the less-premium side but still respectable is Jim Beam of course; on the slightly more-premium side I’m a fan of Woodford Reserve.

    My brother-in-law, who is a true bourbon aficionado (I’m a mere dabbler), sometimes comments here; maybe I can entice him to stop by and offer some thoughts.

    Reply
  3. Rick Ritchie

    I like bourbon. When my Lutheran friends made a switch to it, I felt happy not to have to pretend to like scotch so much, which I used to drink with Calvinist friends. But I find that I like some scotches and bourbons a lot, and some very little.
    (Glenlivet is a scotch I like.)

    Jim Beam is good. I like black label. Basil Hayden is really nice, though expensive. Good for a special occasion.

    I took a test and found I am a supertaster. I have more taste buds per square centimeter on my tongue than most people. (see http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2880471.stm) I counted around 70 papillae in the area suggested. The area on my tongue looks like something out of Alien. I don’t know that that means I have better taste. But I am very sensitive to tastes in the sour-bitter area. I don’t like sour-bitter (though I like sour-sweet and bitter-sweet). Many bourbons bother me for being sour-bitter when you swallow them. Most do taste pretty good on the front of the tongue, though. If you are sensitive to sour-bitter, you might like my recommendations.

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  4. Lee

    Hmm – I wonder if there’s a deeper theological meaning in the Calvinists drinking scotch and the Lutherans bourbon? Were they Scotch Calvinists?

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  5. Rick Ritchie

    Well, most of the Calvinists and most of the Lutherans in question were adult converts to their respective faiths. The Calvinists were NOT Scotch, for the most part. If I can generalize, the Lutherans tended to be Irish, or if lifers, Scandinavian. But I think the Calvinists learned to drink scotch on the recommendation of Calvinist pastors, the Lutherans bourbon on the recommendation of political bloggers. (I must add that the Calvinists may have converted to bourbon by now. I haven’t checked back.)

    Reply
  6. Joshie

    Thanks for alerting me to this post and the article Lee! Fun stuff!

    Being an aspiring academic, I apologize if/when my answer gets long-winded. Before some reccomendations first a few comments on Bourbon and its kin. There are 3-4 basic types of (North) American Whiskey, distinguished by the “mashbill” or the recipie for the ditiller’s beer.

    Bourbon- Must be 51% corn (usually 70-80%), the rest is malted barley and the rest is rye or wheat (more on that later).

    Rye- Must be at least 51% rye (usually “barely legal), the rest is corn and malt. Some claim to make it from 100% rye, but this is very difficult to do, due to rye balls. No I don’t know what those are.

    Corn Whiskey- Must be at least 80% corn and not aged in barrells. Not too popular, basically “moonshine”.

    Blended (including Canadian Whisky)- Mostly Grain Neutral Spirits (GNS aka Ethanol) but blended with other whiskeys (Rye in the case of Canadians) to give it flavor. This is done to give it a light flavor but a relatively high proof.

    Tennesee- A bourbon which undergoes a filtering through several feet of maple charcoal and is made in TN. There are only two brands, Jack Daniels and George Dickel.

    A couple other terms for American whiskeys:
    Straight Whiskey- legal term meaning it was aged in new, charred oak for at least 2 yrs, and free of additives (including GNS). If under 4 years it must have an age statement.

    Bonded (or Bottled-in-Bond or BiB for short) Whiskey- It most be bottled at 100 proof (50% ABV) and be the product of one distilling “season”. There’s some tax stuff too.

    For these two see http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr;sid=33fc0c0194b58b6fe95208945b5c637a;rgn=div5;view=text;node=27%3A1.0.1.1.3;idno=27;cc=ecfr#27:1.0.1.1.3.5

    Single Barrel- The whiskey in the bottle is from one barrel.

    Small Batch- from a small group of barrels, small being defined however the producer wants to define it.

    Anyhow, within the Bourbon category itself, there are three basic styles:

    Standard- The most common. Uses rye as the “flavor grain” and has around 75% corn in the mash. Jim Beam and Evan Williams are the big sellers here, but most other bourbons fall into this category.

    High Rye- Has less corn and more rye than above. Gives it a spicey, even rough flavor. Wild Turkey is the big gun here, but Old Granddad (and its more expensive brother Basil Hayden) and Bulleit also qualify.

    Wheat- Doesn’t use any rye in the mash at all, only uses wheat. Gives it a smooth, sweet flavor. Maker’s Mark is the best selling of this type which also includes Weller, Van Winkle and Old Fitzgerald.

    ANYWAY…
    Some of my faves that aren’t too expensive, easy to find and would make good gateway bourbons imho are the following, grouped by distiller:

    Knob Creek
    Old Granddad BiB
    Jim Beam Black or Distiller’s Series
    Wild Turkey Rare Breed or Russell’s Reserve
    Old Forester Signature 100 or regular 86 proof
    Woodford Reserve
    Elijah Craig 12 y/o
    Evan Williams Single Barrel
    Old Fitzgerald BiB
    Rowan’s Creek
    Old Charter 10 y/o
    Elmer T. Lee
    Buffalo Trace (not always one of my faves but very popular)

    A couple more hard-to-find ones that I really like are:
    4 Roses (standard “yellow label” or Single Barrel)
    Very Old Barton (try the 90 proof or the BiB).

    Anything under 100 proof I’ll usually drink neat but if it’s above that, I’ll water it down to a drinkable proof. Higher proofs can seem scary, but try to think of them as whiskey concentrate. Almost all of them are watered down at the distillery to get to the bottle proof, so why not cut out the middle man?

    Anyway, as for the Lutheran question, I have a theory as to why more Lutherans seem to drink bourbon over scotch. Jacob Beam, the 18th c. patriarch of the Beam family which has had a hand in almost every distillery in Kentucky (including two members that took a still down to Mexico during prohibition and made tequila) came to KY from PA, and before that from Germany where he was born Jakob Boehm. Some Beam descendents still run a chain of funeral homes in OH using the original spelling. So one could say that a German Lutheran family was guiding the bourbon industry since the beginning!

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  7. Lee

    Now that’s a value-added comment!

    Reply

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