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Podcast news

• Barrel picks are in the works
• Samples
• Fanmail
  • Laura Finson says we should check out men in kilts episode one, so I did!
    • Cool look at scottish food, mainly seafood
    • Awesome look at a malting floor and digging peat.
• Craft distillery news
  • Election day rye from Journeyman
  • Buzzards roost has their first BIB bottle!
    • 51% corn, 45% wheat and 4% malted barley
    • $71.99 SRP 
    • https://craftspiritsmag.com/2024/07/23/buzzards-roost-launches-first-bottled-in-bond-bourbon/ 
  • Ironton Distillery has their first BIB ASM
    • ASM is breaking into BIB!  Westward is also doing this this year
    • Available at the distillery and throughout colorado
    • https://www.irontondistillery.com/bib-singlemalt 
  • Bourbon and Beyond fest
    • Louisville Sept 19-22
    • Heck of a music lineup!
      • Zach Bryan, tyler childers, cody jinks, Sierra Ferrel, Amigo the Devil, Vincent Neil Emerson, and so many more
    • Also a great lineup of Bourbon speakers
      • Fred Minnick, Freddie Noe, Booker Noe, and many more
    • https://bourbonandbeyond.com/ 
  • Grove City Bourbon and Spirits Fest
    • This Saturday Aug 10th
    • $30 for 8 tickets and $10 for 3 more, most tastings are one ticket but they may have some high end stuff they will make a bit more
    • Cigar tastings will also be there along with food trucks
    • https://www.heartofgrovecity.org/bourbontasting/ 

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• History of distillery
  • Legal distilling started in 1816 by John Johnston
  • He kept it and also ran another distillery out of the same building (Ardmore)
  • In 1862 Logan Mackie and Co. Buys Lagavulin
    • Became a partner with the current owners then, JC Graham
    • Graham managed the distillery, Mackie handled marketing to glasgow, london, and the colonies
  • 1889 Peter Mackie takes over after Logan dies
    • Peter Created white horse blend in 1890
    • Co-founded Craigellachie
  • Malt Mill
    • Peter starts malt mill in 1908
    • Started because peter was upset over the agency at laphroig
    • Was meant to be similar to laphroig but fell short
    • Ended in 1962
  • 1924 Peter passes and the owning company name is changed to white horse distillery
    • White horse blend was named after an Inn in Edinburgh’s Canongate, also owned by the Mackies
      • Owned by them from 1650-1917, with the death of the last male decendent
    • It was the starting point for a direct coach to london
    • 
      
  • 1926, the “white horse screwcap” was added, this boomed popularity 
  • 1927 became part of DCL (Distillers Company Limited
  • 1986 by united distillers 
  • 1997  by Diageo
    • Diageo IS DCL, it morphed and changed a few times
• The bottle
  • 2023 special release “The INk of Legends”
  • Meant to impart the idea of mesoamerican Tattooing
  • Finished in Don Julio Anejo Tequila Casks

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• Peat
  • Peat is not just moss
  • Its compressed vegetable remains from peat boggs
  • All peat for whisky comes from 5 boggs
  • There is a difference in flavor from each bogg but that hasnt been played with much yet
  • Roughly 1MM of new peat is added each year, but scotch takes les than that, so peat is being added yearly even with how much we use
  • When cutting peat, you toss the top where the grass is, then you have 3 cuts down.  The top cut is used for whiskey (dampest and least compressed, so makes lots of smoke.  The bottom layer is used for heat, almost coal like after drying for a year
• History of distillery
  • owner/s
  • When it was founded
  • Where it was founded
    • Fun facts of the location
  • Why they chose to start
• Tasting
• The bottle
  • The look of the bottle
  • What is written on it
  • Notes on why it looks the way it does
• The juice
  • When was this expression created
  • Why did it come about
  • Mash bill
  • Who made it
• The type
  • Does it follow the rules of a certain type of whiskey?

This Scotch is the epitome of Islay, a blend exclusively crafted for VOM FASS by Stewart Laing. Young Laphroaig gives the typical peat punch of the island, whereas mature malts from Caol Ila, Bowmore, and Ardbeg distillery provide smoothness and body. The cherry on top is a little dash of the extremely rare Port Ellen distillery adding a great deal of complexity. Islay Whisky at its best!

This is a blended malt from vom Fass. It's based on about 80% young Laphroaig according to the guy at the store (I have come to take what guys at stores say about whisky with a pinch of salt) and the rest is mature Caol Ila, Ardbeg, Bowmore and a hint of Port Ellen (likely a teaspoon per cask just to make it fancy).

VomFass is german for “From the cask”.  They specialize is quality olive oils and spirits

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Intro: 

1. What are we drinking 
   1. Flavor/tasting notes
   2. Likes dislikes 
   3. Recommend to buy or leave on the shelf? 
2. Why are we drinking it?

What is scotch and isn’t it just whiskey? 

• Scotland is said to be where Whiskey got started
  • Apparently they are better than us and spell it the property without an ‘e’.
  • The first written history dates back to1405 
• Must be distilled in Scotland and aged in oak barrels for at least 3 years 
  • They do not need to be new barrels 
    • Most are ex-bourbon barrels since they have to be oak 
• Typically it is distilled twice and to make things more complex there are different types of scotch 

Types of Scotch: 

• Single 
  • Came from one distillery. Could be a blend of barrels from that one distillery, but there cannot be anything in that blend from another distillery 
• Blended 
  • A blend of barrels from other distilleries 
    • Some are “left overs”
• Even within these two types there are other categories 
  • Single Malt Scotch
  • Single Grain Scotch
  • Blended
  • Blended Malt
  • Blended Grain

Ingredients that form the mash bill:

Malted Barley – Is the main ingredient in Scotch and is made by soaking the barley in water.

Wheat or Corn – the other two grains used to make scotch that are not near as prominent, and only used in single grain or blends. 

Single Malt and Single Grain – This is confusing as it doesn’t mean one single ingredient but instead a scotch from one distillery (that could be from different barrels from within that distillery) as opposed to blends that are a combination of scotches from different distilleries. 

Blended Malt or Blended Grain – A blend of single grains from two or more distilleries. 

Blended Scotch – Makes up 90% of all scotch sales, can be a blend of malts and grains from several different distilleries. 

Peat - Used as fuel to dry out the grains in some of the distilleries. Scotland is the main place that uses this in their process, but not the only one. This process is also not used in every distillery. It is more prominent in single malt scotches than in blended ones. A smokier scotch will have used peat in their process. 

Ending; 

Don’t forget to submit your questions you’d like to ask us or topics you’d love to see us cover to [email protected]

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Chasing Whiskey

Whiskey chasers updates

• A new year starts with the club after finishing our Sourcing bottles
  • Top 3 bottles
  • Micah-4 gate
• Starting our finishing series

Podcast updates

• Updates from last episode
• Texting us

Craft distillery news

• Watershed releases 6 single barrels with OHLQ
  • Each bottle labeled with a royal flush
  • https://www.watersheddistillery.com/ohlq-exclusive-2024 
• Balcones Mirador Eclipse Texas Single Malt Whisky
  • ASM made with Wine yeast strains, Red wine and Rose wine
  • https://www.balconesdistilling.com/spirits/mirador-eclipse 
• Wyoming Distillery
  • Independence Rock Wyoming exclusive Bourbon
  • Meant to honor the pioneers of the west
  • They were kind enough to send us a sample so stay tuned for that!
  • https://craftspiritsmag.com/2024/06/25/wyoming-whiskey-introduces-independence-rock/ 

Welcome to Chasing Whiskey, the Whiskey Chasers update and News episode! And I am your only host today, Steve!  We record our episodes in batches and sometimes months before the episode comes out, because of this we don't have a chance to speak to you and get feedback and updates in real time, so I figured we should do these short little episodes and just talk about the things that the club is doing, the podcast, as well as a little news from the craft distillery world that we all know and love!

Thanks for listening and we will talk to you next time, cheers!

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• History of distillery
• Established in 1986, the Very Olde St. Nick (VOSN) brand was started by Marci Palatella to capitalize on the growing demand in Japan for ultra-aged bourbon.
• Marci worked for Jullian Van Winkle III as his agent in the japanese market
• The brand was designed around bringing the best aged and best tasting whiskey to the Japanese market. 
  • Originally sourcing its barrels from the Old Commonwealth distillery (Van Winkle’s distillery) 
  • Was then sourced from Willet 
  • Now produce their own
• Since the brand was started around fantastic whiskey that had some age to it, they hit a rough spot in 2015 when whiskey started to take off in the US
• Marci bought up an old tobacco farm, in Nelson County (Bardstown KY) to build a craft distillery on. 
  • Preservation distillery 
• They currently distill in very small batches 
  • 1-3 barrels 
• The idea behind such small batches is that they are not looking to rush the process. They want to distill the same aged, delicious whiskey that they have been sourcing. owner/s

• This bottle story
  • This brand has a habit of embellishing and just making things up, so take it with a grain of salt
  • They found some barrels in an old warehouse from a shuttered distillery.  After tasting them, they purchased the lot of rare perfection and they continued to age there in canada
  • The aging happened in a single story warehouse in canada.  Because of the cold there is less interaction with the wood
• Theory
  • It doesn't say, but this 4 grain doesn't seem to have been made the canada way with aging separately 
• The juice
  • Aged and bottled in canada
  • 4 grain bourbon mash bill
    • Not disclosed but most believe it to be high wheat

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• History of distillery
  • Alberta Distillers Limited
  • Started in 1946 by Frank Mchahon and Max bell
    • Ranch hands deserve great whisky at a great price
    • Frank Mchahon
      • Oilman.  First to go into western canada to look for oil and discover it.
      • He was also a race horse owner and owned Majestic prince, winner of the Kentucky derby and Preakness in 1969
      • He seems to have been the money man
    • Max Bell
      • Married Franks Brothers wifes sister
      • Was a newspaper magnate and oilman
      • Inherited his dads paper that was riddled with debt, was able to get it out of debt, buy more papers, and then get into the oil game 
      • Also owned race horses
        • Won the irish derby with Meadow court
        • ⅓ owner with Frank Mchahon and… bing crosby (Frank went to college with Bing at Gonzaga
    • George Conrad Reifel
      • Brought on shortly after
      • Brewer and distiller who worked in Japan to start the anglo japanese brewing company
    • The Why is not stated, but there is a distillation process that goes into oil as well, so that may have been part of the connection
    • Built outside of calgary on 23 acres
    • By 1957 had 3 heat controlled warehouses and 100,000 aging barrels on 28 acres
  • After alberta Distillers Limited
    • 1967 purchased by National distillers and chemical corp
      • Expanded to 600,000 barrels on 42 acres 
      • One of few warehouses in canada that can age both rack and pallet style 
      • Has 2 rail spurs and can ship out and receive in tankers 
      • They decided to sell when standard and poors gave a negative outlook for whiskey
    • 1986 purchased by american brands
      • Renamed to fortune brands in 1997
      • Split in 2011 to fortune brands home and security and Beam Inc
    • Beam purchased by Suntory
• The juice
  • 100% prairie rye whiskey (unmalted)
  • Ground into a flour at the distillery using a hammer mill
  • Distilled using continuous distillation then a pot still
  • 3 years old
  • Ex-bourbon barrels

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• History of distillery
  • Alberta Distillers Limited
  • Started in 1946 by Frank Mchahon and Max bell
    • Ranch hands deserve great whisky at a great price
    • Frank Mchahon
      • Oilman.  First to go into western canada to look for oil and discover it.
      • He was also a race horse owner and owned Majestic prince, winner of the Kentucky derby and Preakness in 1969
      • He seems to have been the money man
    • Max Bell
      • Married Franks Brothers wifes sister
      • Was a newspaper magnate and oilman
      • Inherited his dads paper that was riddled with debt, was able to get it out of debt, buy more papers, and then get into the oil game 
      • Also owned race horses
        • Won the irish derby with Meadow court
        • ⅓ owner with Frank Mchahon and… bing crosby (Frank went to college with Bing at Gonzaga
    • George Conrad Reifel
      • Brought on shortly after
      • Brewer and distiller who worked in Japan to start the anglo japanese brewing company
    • The Why is not stated, but there is a distillation process that goes into oil as well, so that may have been part of the connection
    • Built outside of calgary on 23 acres
    • By 1957 had 3 heat controlled warehouses and 100,000 aging barrels on 28 acres
  • After alberta Distillers Limited
    • 1967 purchased by National distillers and chemical corp
      • Expanded to 600,000 barrels on 42 acres 
      • One of few warehouses in canada that can age both rack and pallet style 
      • Has 2 rail spurs and can ship out and receive in tankers 
      • They decided to sell when standard and poors gave a negative outlook for whiskey
    • 1986 purchased by american brands
      • Renamed to fortune brands in 1997
      • Split in 2011 to fortune brands home and security and Beam Inc
    • Beam purchased by Suntory
• The juice
  • 100% prairie rye whiskey (unmalted)
  • Ground into a flour at the distillery using a hammer mill
  • Distilled using continuous distillation then a pot still
  • We don't know age but at least 5 years
  • Aged in 3 different barrels
    • Ex-bourbon, Once used Bourbon, and new white oak charred
      • This three and then blended for final product
  • This bottle
    • Originally only produced for canada in 1958
    • Cask strength was introduced in 2020 and that was its introduction to the american market.

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• History of Seagrams
  • Started by Joseph E Seagram in 1857 with 3 other guys
  • In 1883 he was sole owner
• Samual Bronfman and Distillers corporation limited
  • Distillers Corp was started by Samuel and his brothers in 1924
  • He came to the US to Tour shut down distilleries due to Prohibition and in 1923 he bought Greenbrier distillery for pennies on the dollar. He then dismantled it and moved it to LaSalle, Quebec
  • He would ship his whisky to Saint pierre off the coast of newfoundland
  • They would then bootleg the booze to the US through rum Rows to new york, New Jersey and other places
• Rum Rows were ships just outside of maritime jurisdiction (Three miles before 1924, 12 miles after)
• Took off around the caribbean first, but after canada start bringing in whiskey it got bigger.  The largest rum runner area was outside new jersey
• In 1928, Bronfman acquired seagrams from heir and president edward F Seagram (Joseph had died in 1919)
• Bronfman was never convicted of any crimes during prohabition, but it is well understood that he had many mob connections
• In the 1930’s when they came into the American Market, they were fined $1.5 million to settle delinquent excise taxes.  US Govit asked for $60 million 
• In 1963 seagrams purchased Texas Pacific coal and Oil for $61 million cash, plus a production loan to granville minerals of $216 million
• Theyu sold this to Sun Oil Co in 1980 for 2.3 billion, nice work
• 1981, cash rich, they want to diversify, so they tried a takeover on conaco, but Dupont was brought in to stop it.  Seagrams still gets a 32%share though, and after dupont wins the bid, they become a 24% shareholder
  • In 1995 seagrams is the largest shareholder and has 4 seats ont he board of dupont
  • 1986 they hire bruce willis to be the spokes person for their golden wine cooler.  This takes them from 5th to 1st in distillery size in just 2 years
  • In 1995 Edgar Bonfman Jr, wants to get into the media business and needs cash.
• He sells their stakes in dupont (remember, largest shareholder) for $9 million
• He used the money to get controlling interest in MCA, who owned universal pictures and theme parks
• Seagrams sold its juice business they had acquired in 1988 in 1998 to pepsi for $3.1 billion
• In 2000, seagrams sold their entertainment division to Vivendi, and beverages to Pernod Richie and Diagio, coca-cola acquired the seagrams mixers
• In 2006, Pernod Richie closes seagrams distillery in Lawrenceburg indiana, In 2011 MGP purchased the distillery
• In a 2013 interview with The Globe and Mail, Charles Bonfman (uncle of Edgar Jr.) stated about the decisions leading to the demise of Seagram: "It was a disaster, it is a disaster, it will be a disaster. It was a family tragedy."
• The original seagrams distillery became the segrams museum in waterloo, ontario, closed due to lack of funds in 1997.
• Bought out and is now the headquarters of shopify
• The VO Brand was bought by Daigio

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Canadian 101 (The right one!). sorry about the messed up file, this one is good!

ITS A LIE!

• Canadian whisky/Canadian rye whisky/Rye Whisky are all the same thing
• There are no rules around rye percentage

John Molson is credited with first bringing distillation to canada in 1799, first distillery was 1832.

Why age separate? Why distill separate?

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