I like it. Yeah, I bet you do. I bet you do like
it. Oh, boy. Coming in hot today. Oh, man. So
it's Tuesday, right? It is. It's our normal Tuesday.
Election day. It's election day. It is election
day. Some of your fruitcakes that you... Everybody
go out and vote? Voted. I did. Last week. Voted.
Tried to get Sean out there, but he was... I
don't know what I was doing. Work got in the
way. I ended up going. Chuck and I went. He made
it. I know. Did you do early voting? Early voting.
I think it was the first day, yeah. Smart. Our
guest is smart? Eh. Eh. That's yet to be seen.
Let's follow the rules here and there. Little
things like that. Little moments. So, I mean,
we went over most of the stuff. Chuck printed
up that little cheat sheet, which kind of turned
out to be pretty significant. I took that thing
in there. I was able to use it. Did a little
research. Not much. A lot of people that didn't
have any competitors. A lot of judges, yeah.
Yeah, I saw that. That's the way it typically
is for the judges, especially for the primaries.
So now, will you guys vote on somebody that you
don't know any of them? Like, if there's four
people you don't know, would you vote? It's specifically,
it depends what their last name is. Wow. So Smith
instead of Johnson? Right. That's exactly what
he meant. Good call, Jeff. That's exactly what
he meant. That's kind of what I meant. All right,
well, look, it's Tuesday. It's March 3rd, 2026.
Already the third frickin' – we're 25 % into
the first year of this year. Isn't that crazy?
It goes fast. It's flying in. Actually – 25 %
no we're not we're two months yeah we're two
months well March I was counting it March March
3rd well hold on what's that percentage that's
16 % first half of the dudes like us podcast
check us out on Facebook Instagram dudes like
us podcast or Woodcraft you know for our woodcrafting
stuff that we got going we're on TikTok YouTube
and Instagram Instagram. Yeah, we're on all dudes
like us. I'm Sean. I'm Paul. And I'm Jeff. And
I'm Mark. And Mr. Producer behind the scenes.
Thank you, Mr. Chuck, for taking care of business.
I almost got all the 1845 stuff done. I got two
or three left. Oh, those things. Oh, okay. Those
are the guest boxes or the, yeah. Yeah, I've
also brought the barrel into the garage because
it's supposed to rain. Good call. Basically the
next week. It is? Yeah, it is. I didn't know
that. Yeah, I had to cancel some of my job stuff
for Friday. It's going to start raining spotty
on Thursday, full -on rain Friday. What do you
all have? A barrel? The 1845. Yeah, we're kind
of a big deal. I've heard. I've heard. From you
specifically. It sheds brain, probably. We were
able to get a barrel from 1845. It's what, our
third? A full barrel? Oh, it's full, yeah. Wouldn't
that be wonderful? Are you kidding me? Of course,
that'd be awesome. No, we got an empty barrel.
Oh, it's for decor. Well, that's what I meant.
I meant the full size. We dropped $58 ,000 to
pick up a barrel. Actually, at Jim Beam, I think
they said it was $12 ,000 for a barrel. A barrel
of Jim Beam. You just got to do the math, yeah.
Really? Now, I think when you said like 58 ,000,
I was like, dude, it's not anywhere near that.
Maybe that's where our character, I don't know.
Depends on the bottle, I guess. And I think when
you buy a barrel, they bottle it for you. They
don't just give you a barrel full of liquor.
They literally will give you however many bottles
are in a barrel. So you've got like 80 cases
sitting in your garage. But you get the barrel.
You're like, that's going to last. What if you
want it in the barrel? I would kind of want to
tap. Maybe you can. I don't know. You're going
to keep it in your pickup? Yeah. Every morning,
go into the kitchen, tailgate. It's on the counter.
Yeah, it's on the counter, and you just kind
of have a little tap. What could go wrong with
that? It'd have to be on the island, man. This
thing will never empty. It's like one of those
boxes of wine. You never know when that thing
is going to empty. It lasts forever. That would
age, continue to age. Yes. By the time you're
done with it in like 20 years. Yeah, but I could
just see. It'd be so good. I could just be. I
was like a week. I'm waking up, you know, in
the bedroom and then I hear Shelly in the kitchen.
What the hell is this? Yeah. Why is your barrel
in my hand? Surprise. Yeah. Honey. I mean, it's
going to be good forever. Happy Mother's Day.
It's a good mixer. It's Jim Beam. No, I would
never get a barrel of Jim Beam. Hey, you poor
little baby. Unless you want to age it. I mean,
come on. So I've got some coworkers in Huntsville,
Alabama that would go and buy a barrel of Jack
Daniels. And then they would, you know, say it's
going to be, I don't even know how much each
bottle came out to be. It's going to be $30 a
bottle. Do you save money that way? You know
what? That's a good question. I want to say it
wasn't very much of a cost savings to do it that
way. Well, it was more they got to pick their
own barrel. You got to pick your own barrel.
You got the barrel itself when you were done.
And they probably lasered something special on
it. Say it's this bourbon club. Yeah. Well, you
get 240 to 260. So 250 divided by 48 bucks a
bottle. See, look at me. I was right. It says
$10 ,000 to $12 ,000. So it'd be $48 for a bottle
of Jack. That's about what they charge at Total
Wine. No, for the handle. No, that's a very good
point. All right, so you're getting a little
bit of a break. No, you're not. No, but these
are people that have a ton of money and aren't
buying it to get a bottle. Now, that is a single
barrel. Right. Oh, okay, yeah. So those are,
you know, 50, 60 true. Yeah. Are they? Retail,
yeah. Right. And you're picking your own single
barrel? Are they? What's the proof, though? Is
that going to be the 80 proof stuff, or is that
going to be the 130 single barrel type stuff?
I imagine it's barrel strength, right? I don't
know. But if that's the case, then yeah, that's
a good deal. But this is not atypical. I mean,
when I was visiting Heaven's Hill, which is,
yeah, Heaven Hill, right? It's Heaven Hill, yeah.
Heaven Hill. They were talking about how, when
we were going through the rickhouse, bourbon
clubs all the time or like any club, any guy's
club. It's a YMCA club. I mean, we could do it
at 1845. I heard the latest email said that they
had the Houston, I think it was Houston SWAT
team. Right. Pick a barrel, pick a barrel. They're
going to bottle it. And it says Houston SWAT.
There's a few bottles to buy up. Yeah. And I
was chatting, I was chatting with some of the
guys from that group. And, uh, and they said,
you know, beforehand, you got to say how many
cases you're good for because, Oh yeah, of course.
Because when, When they make the decision and
they buy the barrel, no one, that's it. No one
else is getting in on this. Right. Oh, yeah,
true. And so people would come home with, like,
four boxes. And they were like, dude, I just
want one bottle. And they're like, sorry, bro.
I mean, these are all mine. I mean, they were
like, you know, feudal lords over there. Right,
right. Over their cases of, yeah, it was crazy.
But, like, you could buy one from me. Double
the price. You know? I think I would get sick
of it. You know? That's what I mean. That's a
lot of bourbon. I do enjoy diversity when it
comes to my whiskey selection. No other reason?
About the only time you'll ever hear me say diversity.
You don't like diversity? You like homogenous?
Yeah. You want all barrels to be included. It's
just, you know, I mean, can you imagine being
stuck with the same whiskey day in, day out?
Well, if it's really good, who cares? Like a
wife? Yeah. You're just not into monogamy when
it comes to bourbon. Yeah, but your wife gets
to age. Once the whiskey's in the bottle, it's
the same. Well, you could put it back in those
Red Rooster barrels. Oh, yeah. What was it called?
Red Robin? Red Rooster? Was it Red Rooster? No,
I thought you had it up for a second there. I
don't know. It was something. I thought it was
Red Robin. And then you could jam a bunch of
cherries in it. Oh, that went bad. Yeah, that
was horrible. For our listeners out there that
don't know what we're talking about, which is
probably all of you, we, during our first, before
we started really diving in as much as we do
this podcast now, we ended up buying like ancient
age, just some horrible gut raw benchmark, just
some well whiskey. Bourbon whiskey. And we put
it, we wanted to age it in these little liter
barrels. So we bought some liter barrels from
Red Robin or Red Bird or whatever the hell it's
called. I don't know why the Texas. Yeah, it
was out east. We went out there and we picked
them up and we're kind of like, oh, this is pretty
cool. I mean, they're little, you know, little
pony barrels. Oh, it just, it was, it kind of,
it reminds me of like brewing beer. You know,
it's just like there's cost involved in it. You
got to do stuff. And at the end of it, it's kind
of like. I could have just bought a six -pack.
It was just a novelty thing. It is a novelty
thing. Yeah, but we all pick something different.
That's the whole point. And I picked Henry McKenna.
What did you pick? At ancient age. Ancient age.
What did you have? I have no idea. You had benchmark
is what you got. It was benchmark. And it was
good for one shot, basically, for six weeks.
For six weeks. But mine actually turned out.
Well, hold on. You barreled it and nothing else?
Did you add anything to it or did you just put
it in the barrel? The first one, I don't think
we did. No, we did not. It was just regular.
And it did have a lot of sawdust, you know, the
uncut, unfiltered taste inside of a cleaned out
barrel. Oh, really? So they weren't charred on
the inside? Oh, yeah, it was charred. Was it?
Yeah, it was charred. Yeah, it was. Yeah, but
you still, when you pour the little spout, you
can see there was like sawdust kind of floating
at the top. Right. But, I mean, the second one.
Uncut, unfiltered, baby. We ended up, I think,
Jeff, did you put vanilla beans in yours? I got
some vanilla beans. Big, long vanilla beans.
And I split them open and I jammed them in there.
And... I don't think I put enough or something,
but there was maybe a very slight hint, but there
wasn't much of anything. Did you do that on the
first pass? No, that was the second pass. So
we tried to run it through again after. And Paul
put like maraschino cherries. I did. The first
one worked out really well. I mean, it was just
Henry McKenna, that age, and I could tell a difference.
It was smoother and darker, and it was cool.
I was like, well, now I'm going to make myself
a cherry bourbon. And I put like two in there
and I waited a week. And I was like, man, that's
nothing. And I had been drinking. And that was
a mistake. I say it's not so. And I was like,
you know what? I'll just put the rest of the
damn bottle in there. And I stuffed, I don't
know how many I did, but I stuffed a whole bunch
in there. And then the second pass, it was disgusting.
I think I did four things. I did two or three
bourbons and I did a tequila as well. Oh, nice.
Yeah, I remember that. And it was kind of cool
because the first run, you know, of course, The
flavors get into the barrel. And then you did
the tequila. And did you do vodka at the last
one? I did a vodka as well. All in the same barrel.
All in the same barrel. So there was some transference
of flavors in there. It was kind of interesting.
But again, at the end of it, I'm just going to
go to Total Wine and buy my stuff. I know. It
is a novelty thing, though. My buddy did that,
and he put in some port wine. Just a little bit
of port wine. Oh, nice. Tasted phenomenal. And
it was the same thing. It was like a benchmark
or a cheaper whiskey. And it was a small little
barrel. Small barrel and just a little bit of
port wine. And I'm telling you, it turned out
great. Interesting. Okay. Let's try it again.
Yeah, I know. Let's do it. Well, we're about
experimenting like that. I mean, you saw at the
house, we had the Ambarano, the wood stave we
put in there. Now, I had bought two staves, and
I think we added it to the Weller's. The Weller
you tasted, sampled at the house, it was kind
of light. Taste it, but... I've got the 114 out
there if you want to try it. Yeah, that one's
a little bit different, too. It's stronger. The
RD1 Spirits, I think, is one of the... It's got
a really good flavor. I'll tell you who made
their own that tasted fantastic, the best I've
tasted, was Scott Cash. He mixed his with the
10 -year Eagle Rare. And that was excellent.
By far the most excellent mix of Ambarano staves
and whiskey. But doesn't Penelope make... make
one themselves, an Ambarana? Or was that one
of the ones where they put the steak in there?
It was a real... It was good. Yeah. It was a
little too sweet for me. It was kind of a mix
of praline, Nestle cereal, and like... Kind of
like a TX whiskey. But it wasn't flavored. It
just had the Ambarana. No, they added some stuff
in there. It wasn't just the water. Was it an
Ambarana cask or did they put the staves in it?
Probably the staves. Yeah, it was just the staves.
They may have done French oak with that Rio as
well. It doesn't take much to get the flavor.
No, it doesn't. The one I had at Sean's house,
it tasted really good. They didn't put anything
in it. They just aged it in an Ambarana cask
and then a honey cask after that. So they didn't
add anything to it. There's no additives. Oh,
they did do it. Finished it. They did do it.
What is an American honey cask? Come on, everybody.
I'll show you. It's just American beans. That's
a honey pot, by the way. Oh, yeah. And don't.
Don't show us your honey pot. Never mind. I shouldn't
have said that. All right. All right, well, hold
on. Yeah, okay. I want to kind of go back a little
bit. Yeah, yeah, we jumped out there. Yeah, okay,
because we have a guest with us tonight, Mr.
Mark. Mark, do you want to announce your last
name? Is that all right? My last name is pronounced
Lavienka. It's a Czechoslovakian name. Most people
don't mention their last name because they don't
want our listeners to go after them because we've
got a lot of years. Oh, I don't care. I'm used
to it. So I've been saying it wrong for 30 years.
Yes, you have. Appreciate you just now telling
me how you actually are supposed to say it. How
do you say it? Lavienka. Yeah. And that's the
way that everybody says it. I always take pride
in saying it, and I've been wrong the whole time.
I've always. What's his last name? Oh, it's Hlavenka.
Hlavenka. Hlavenka. Yeah, that's not offensive
at all. You're on the wrong podcast. No, you
got thin skin, bro. Is it like, is it like wheat
thin? Yeah. What did you say? What? Hla, hla.
Cool whip. Ooh, let me have some of that cool
whip. What'd you say? You can't have a pie without
cool whip. Cool whip? Cool whip, yeah. You mean
cool whip. Yeah, cool whip. Cool whip. Cool whip.
Cool whip. Cool whip. You're saying it weird.
Why are you putting so much emphasis on the H?
What are you talking about? I'm just saying it.
Cool whip. You put cool whip on pie. Pie tastes
better with cool whip. Say whip. Whip. Now say
cool whip. Cool whip. Cool whip. Cool whip. Cool
whip. Cool whip. You're eating hair! What is
happening? That's the second half type of stuff.
All right. So, look, to give us a little background,
we've known Mark for a very long time. Both Paul
and I have. I don't know who met him. I think
Paul met him first. So, I mean, we knew each
other through Pagenet and just friends growing
up. And we ended up doing a couple vacations.
You had a house out in Pottsboro, Texas. Yes.
Oh, boy. Which has been the source of many conversations
on the podcast. So, I will tell you, the first
time I heard you guys, it was a mention about...
When we would go to Pottsboro, we would do a
paintball thing out there. Yes. And they were
so much fun. They were. I mean, we were a lot
younger. Yeah. We could definitely get around
a little bit better, but they were a lot of fun.
They were. We'd leave Frisco, Texas at 4 .15,
4 .30 in the morning. We'd get out to the Pottsboro
house at 6 -ish, crack a beer, and start the
bonfire. And you had a nice big backyard. Oh,
it was huge. With tons of trees. Lots of trees.
And it was always mowed nicely because you had
a wonderful mower. Yeah, and we went over to
Armstrong Relocation Moving Company, and Uncle
Mike worked there as the president, CEO, and
he would always say, just go pick out some boxes,
but use the used ones. And so I'd go, and we'd
show up with, what, 20 wardrobe boxes? And it's
crazy. And I think we've mentioned this before
on some of the podcasts, but if you take a paintball
gun and shoot it through a cardboard, it goes
through the first half. but it won't go through
the second half, which kind of leads into my
next story where you have this guy named Ryan
Benson who thought it was fun because we were
to start the game, and Ryan climbs into one of
these boxes, cuts the two holes in the side to
put his arms through, and he's running around
the backyard looking like SpongeBob, and we're
just... pelting him, and they're going through
the first later and hitting him. He can't get
out of the box. I think his own team was trying
to shoot him, too. It was a lot of fun. A lot
of memories there. A lot of questionable decision
-making. Third -degree burns. Oh, yes. A lot
of things could have gone horribly worse. Jet
fuel. I was telling Sean that I've got some pictures
that show up on my timeline every once in a while,
and one of them is Sean's third -degree burn.
Oh, I bet that's lovely looking. Yeah. Well,
that was crazy because that was where we had
the bonfire. Bonfire was part of it. I got to
tell you, man, the whole experience of the bonfire,
not just sitting around drinking, but gathering
the wood throughout the day and making sure it's
maintained and just everything about it. One
of our cousins came over and thought it was cool
to throw in a... A glow stick. And the glow stick
has that little glass, I don't know, ramekin
or vessel inside there. When you break it, it
glows. Well, if you don't break it, well, that
thing will heat up and explode. Well, we were
throwing in the small ones. And the small ones
were like, puff, poof. Oh, it was no big deal.
Fucking Sam walks over there with one that looked
like, you know, AD cell batteries and threw the
freaking thing on there like a mag line. It went
off like an M80. Shit went everywhere. And I
was just like, oh, that was a fucking big explosion.
And I didn't know until I kind of see smoke.
That's weird. There's smoke coming off my leg.
I reached down there, and I was wearing these
parachute pants. They were kind of parachute
pants. Yeah, it was. Because they melted to your
skin. They did. They were nylon. And, man, I
could not. It was rough. I remember somehow.
You got naked faster than any man. We were laughing
so hard. My ding dong came out because I was
trying to pull off the pants. Because I started
to panic. And those pants were super strong.
You can't rip them. For some reason, I think
I was going to rip them off like they were made
out of cotton or something. Like you came off
the bench in a basketball game. Like you're the
Hulk. I was thinking more like Magic Mike. But
yeah, let's go with the basketball. Okay, yeah.
That works too. So, you know. Pull those things
off, and I finally pull them down to my legs,
and my underwear comes with it, man. I don't
know who was sitting next to me. I think poor
PJ got it. Yeah. No one needed to see that. It
was funny right up until that point. He got a
dick across the face. Oh, dude. Dude, dude, really?
He's like, oh, man. Oh, dude. Do you ever see
that? Do you ever see that? There's a movie out
there where the lady is sitting there, and the
dolphin comes up, starts playing with her. Oh,
it's kind of hard on. He starts humping her,
and then he goes back, and also the dolphin comes
out. smacks her in the face with his dick. Don't
they have it in slow -mo? Yeah, so it's like...
And it's like... I don't know what movie that
is, but I've seen it several times. Nailed it.
It's funny. So that's what happened that night.
I got to tell you, it's great memories, I mean,
across the board, because it's not just the bonfire,
but you got the venue next to us, which was a
barbecue, which once was a gas station, turned
into a barbecue shack, and... It was basically
like absolutely a shed. It was a big shed. Yeah.
And they had a band playing one night. Yeah,
the old dudes are playing there. Oh, yeah. They
were good. Guy had a keytar. They were meth heads.
Oh, were they? That's how they stayed in business.
Oh. We were so drunk, they sounded wonderful.
Oh, they sounded great. It didn't matter. I agree.
It was fun. It was a good time, for sure. And
you sell the property. You know, one of the things
I regret, the weirdest things going out there
and not keeping. Out on the property, there were
these little stone white balls. Do you remember
those? They were about the size of a baseball,
maybe a little smaller. And it was kind of like,
I don't know where they came from, but they were
littered around the property here randomly. I
don't remember that. Yeah. Anyway, so you pick
them up and they're about as heavy as a, like.
granite you know and they were had the consistency
of it i was just like lobbing them in the forest
and i was thinking man i should have kept some
of those those geodes maybe uh no they they look
man -made like some little cement balls yeah
they weren't smet though it was like someone's
trying to cord drill into something and they
try to spin it i don't know like some homemade
stuff but whatever that's one of those things
i was hoping we'd kept i'll tell you margaret
i went out there one time to do some work and
you know that is kind of like and we talk about
this every now and then one of the greatest moments
ever when it comes to whiskey and it was kind
of like uh hey i'm gonna go inside and make us
a drink okay i go inside the uh the house and
you know we don't there's no full bar or anything
you know there's like a maker's mark and there
was just enough to make two drinks but We had
big 16 -ounce cups or something like that. So
I said, that's not enough. And I grabbed a bottle
of vodka, and I topped off the Maker's Mark with
some vodka and some RC Cola, and there was probably
something else in there. And I go outside. I
hand it to Mark, and it's got a little fire going,
snowflakes coming down out of the sky. We looked
at each other deep. Oh. That's right. It's a
magical moment. It's like, just drink it. Yeah.
Did you spoon? Man, I tell you, it was probably
one of the best drinks ever. It was. Because
it was the moment. Yes, I know. Yes. How long
ago was that? 25 years ago? 20 years ago, yeah.
Something like that. Holy shnikes, Tom Flies.
Then we had a night where we decided to joyride
on your lawnmower. I'm amazed we still have our
legs. Oh, yeah. That's when I was a gin drinker.
Paul and I got out there early. It was hot. We
were going to get everything ready for our wives
to come out. And I was pouring 32 -ounce gin
and tonics because, I mean, it tastes like a
Sprite almost. It's hot outside. On a hot day,
perfect. Oh, my God. That was horrible. That
night was not good. Not good at all. It was really
fun memories. Oh, yeah. It was good stuff. We
got to make more of those. I agree. It doesn't
have to be. Well, hey, speaking of, I brought
you guys a little something for letting me come
on your podcast. Oh, look at that. Goodie gloves.
I didn't have any bags. Nice. So my next door
neighbor, his name's Gooey. He's from Sweden.
He's got a daughter. It is a glove. That's funny.
She has a 3D printer. And I asked her to make
these up for you guys. So I don't know if you've
ever seen these, but these go on top of your
Glencairn glass. Oh, badass. Oh, look at that.
It's got a little dudes like us thing on there.
Very nice. So shout out to Alex. Alex, fantastic.
Thank you very much. And it's got a rim on the
inside of it. Oh, yeah. It's perfect. It fits
perfect on your Glencairn. I'm going to go get
it, Glencairn. Yeah, no kidding. Dude, this is
awesome. Thank you very much. That was very thoughtful.
And who has the, the GUI has the 3D printer?
No, his daughter. Daughter Alex has the 3D printer.
These are terrific. Aren't they cool? I haven't
heard that name in a long, long time. So he's
still your neighbor? Oh, yeah. He's a great guy.
As a matter of fact, I was over at his house
the other day, and I was telling him that I was
coming on the podcast, and we were going to do
this sampling. And so later on tonight, I want
you guys to try this whiskey. It's from Gooey,
and I'll tell you all about it when we try it.
But he said, hey, bring this to the guys and
have them try it out. It's an Icelandic whiskey.
I was going to say the name on it makes me think
Viking. Yep. Nice. Well, I mean. And it's a whiskey.
And this as well. It's a whiskey, yeah. Interesting.
This cool ass Viking helmet. I think Paul's going
to put this on the tip of his wiener. Go charging
it. Too bad for Shelly. Here, give me a minute.
She's going to get her red towel. Don't get me.
Wow. Come on, big boy. He runs by. She grabs
one of those arrows. An hour later, I'm just
frustrated, sitting on the ground. With a bunch
of arrows in you. This is not fun. All right.
Well, the other thing you did as well is you
set up this blind tasting test. Yeah. I say we
get into this. Yeah. It's going to take a while,
and we're excited about it. And we have yet to
have any bourbon tonight. So the whole idea behind
this, I brought five different whiskeys for you
guys to try. Okay. And you can't tell what they
are just by looking at them, obviously. So I
want you guys to try each one. And then after
you try it. on the sheet of paper, I want you
to write down between one and ten how you rate
it. One being you hate it, ten being it's awesome.
And then after you've rated them all, I'll bring
out the actual bottles themselves and I'll show
you the bottles and what you had and just kind
of see if it aligns with what you think it is.
Maybe we give the points and then we rank them
and say, okay, number one got the most points
of all of us. We'll show that would last kind
of a thing. Okay, we can do that. Do that kind
of a thing. And so I guess, Chuck, while we're
doing this, you have to queue up some. I was
thinking the same thing. I don't know. Well,
we can do some talking, too. Yeah, we'll talk
while we're doing this. We're going to try number
one. Can we describe what we're tasting? Oh,
yeah. Describe it all you want. I'll just give
you a bit of a background. These are all whiskeys,
and they range in proof from 40 % to 50%. So
80 % to 100 % proof. 80 % to 100 % proof, yeah.
Okay. I smell grass on this. This one's definitely
80 % proof. Very easy. Small, nut, little nutty
flavor. Yeah, that's light. I'm picking up some
tobacco on that. Are you able to say how much
it cost? I'm going to show you all the details
at the end. The cost is not part of this. Exactly.
It seemed like a fair question. It is a fair
question. I'll tell you another reason I wanted
to do this was because I was watching one of
your little vignettes. I think Sean brought a
whiskey that you guys were going to try. And,
you know, he's reading it. He said, oh, you know,
it says it's got hints of vanilla. And I think
you said, well, it's an MGP. Screw it. It's an
MGP. And so immediately when you see what's on
the bottle, you kind of, in my mind, you have
preconceived notions of how it's going to taste.
And even from a price standpoint. And from a
proof standpoint as well. Absolutely, yeah. Yeah,
but we've learned that that's simply just not
fair because it's just the distillate, you know?
Oh, the MGP thing? Yeah. I agree. MGP makes good
stuff. It's just, I don't know. We have more
respect for the distilleries that have their
own stuff. I agree. But it doesn't diminish how
good the MGP stuff is. All right, so hold on.
So this ranking, are we doing from 1 to 100 points?
1 to 10, typically. 1 to 10. Yeah. 1 to 10. Yeah.
And you can rate them all tens if you want to.
So I used to do blind tastings at the house and
I would have, you know, invite 20 guys or 20
people and they would bring a bottle. I'd say
bring your favorite bottle and bring it like
in a paper bag so no one knows what it is. And
sometimes I'd give requirements like it has to
be a single malt or it has to be a bourbon. But
typically it's just like if it's distilled from
grain, it's free game. Bring it over. Sure. Typically,
it would be a bunch of guys like you guys who
actually enjoy whiskey, but then you'd get the
ones that'll bring like a peach, you know, Crown
Royal or something like that. Right. But the
idea is we would do the exact same thing. Did
you say peach Crown Royal? Yes. They would never
come back. Did you bring peach Jim Beam to one
of our concerts? And we were all sticky. How
dare you bring that up? And it was disgusting.
He tried so hard to forget that moment. I just
remember being all sticky. It was honey, wasn't
it? No, it was peach. It was peach Jim Beam or
something like that. Horrible. We smuggled in.
We went diabetic that day. So number one, right
off the bat, I'm going to go ahead and vote this.
But first of all, before that, I'm going to say
it's light, spicy, it's nutty. It lingers. For
about a minute. We're not saying what our rating
is. Don't say what our rating is. No. We'll do
it all at the end. At the end. Because, honestly,
I may be adjusting things based on how I feel
about other ones. Agreed. And if you think somebody
else is rating it high, that'll put a little
butterfly in your head and rate it a little bit
higher. There you go. I'm moving on to number
two now. Number two. Oh, and I have the ability
to clear my palate. Nobody else does. That was
dumb. That's definitely a single malt. It smells
like a single malt. So, yeah, back to the, I
would do these tastings at the house, and, you
know, you'd have 20 people bring, there'd be
20 different bottles, or not necessarily different
bottles, there'd be 20 bottles. And so you would
sit down just like we're doing here, and you'd
have 20 little samples in front of you. And we
would randomly draw a number out of a hat. Okay,
everybody try number five. And so everybody would
find their number five cup and try it. And we
would do the same rating. And then at the end,
I would gather everybody's cards up and go put
it in a spreadsheet. And we would do exactly
what you were saying. We would go the lowest
number of points to the highest number of points.
And I would go and bring them out one at a time
from the lowest to the highest. And a lot of
times I'd say, hey, everybody bring five or 10
bucks. And I would go and buy. two or three bottles
for kind of like giveaways. So typically the
person who brought the whiskey that got the least
amount of points would get a good bottle of whiskey.
Yeah, just as a consolation prize. But it's a
fun time, for sure. Yeah, you have a trend of
doing things like that. Back 15 years ago, we
were doing, 18 years ago, we were doing... Beer
tasting at the house. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we bring
over your favorite case of beer, 12 -pack of
beer, and we sample it. Remember? A or B, A or
B, A or B. Right. Oh, my gosh. That might have
been, I couldn't remember. I went to one at your
house. That might have been the beer one. It
might have been the beer one, and yes, the A
or B, A or B. Yeah, that was. And then by the
seventh or eighth, it was like C or D, but there
is no C, Paul. Yeah. Oh, okay. Right. Okay. All
right. There we go. All right. Are we moving
on to three? I've not scored this yet. I'm thinking.
Let's pause. Yeah. I'm not going to score mine
until later. Oh. Okay. Interesting strategy.
At the end of it, you're going to remember. I
don't remember it, and now it's gone. I'm taking
notes. He's gargling with it. Are we going? Number
three is definitely. Are we on number three?
Okay. This is definitely the 100 proof one. It's
a little bit hotter than the other two. Oh, I
get something strange in that too. Yeah, there
is. It's almost like mustard to me. I've never
heard that one. Got a little grain, a little
tobacco. It was something. It was something different.
But it's got some... I don't know what that mustard,
that tang or... I don't know what that mustard.
Yeah, I don't know what it is yet. It's right
up front, then it goes away. All right. I was
going to say a niece, but your niece. Whose niece?
Tastes like your niece. That was a bad joke.
Sorry. I retract. What? I said whose niece? Just
a niece. It tastes like your niece. What are
you saying? A niece. Oh, a niece. A niece. Not
like your niece. Anus? Tastes like what? Tastes
like anus. What kind of podcast is this? It really
is. Yeah, it really is. You're going to be a
regular, by the way. We brought gloves for exploration
later. That's what he's trying. We're going to
give ourselves complimentary prostate checks
later. They're black, so they, you know, will
hide things. Like what? Smears. Alright, number
four. Can we not? I mean, in the middle of a
taste test? Are we serious right now? I taste
nuts. All right, so we're on sample number four.
Number four is a little lighter. Lighter than
number three for sure. More caramelly. I'll even
venture to say marshmallow -y. This is very similar
to number one, in my opinion. I think number
one had a lot more tobacco on the finish, at
least for me. My rating is almost identical to
a number one on that one. Funny you say that.
You know, another thing, going back to the blind
tastings I would do, every once in a while, two
people would bring the same whiskey. And it's
always interesting to see. Do they get the same
rating? Do they get the same vote? Somebody won
the whole thing and the other one got the conversation
first. Yes, right, exactly. And that has happened
before. Well, sometimes. these three bourbons
are going to impact what that tastes like. We
should have water up here. That's why I'm cheating
and drinking water. Are you guys scotch drinkers
at all? We're starting to get into some scotches.
Single malts. The American single malts, we've
had a number of them now. We enjoy single malts
across the board. I think some of them that were
not really... Getting into just yet is some of
the peated stuff. Yes. The peated stuff is an
acquired taste. 100%. And that's what I was going
to say was some folks would bring a very peated
scotch to this tasting. If you're not used to
that, you're like, yeah, that's crap. And I'll
tell you, and it is like, to me, it's like licking
an ashtray. Right. It is beyond just campfire
smoky. It is smoky, smoky. Yeah. So if you taste
something after that. No, it's the best thing
in the world because you've tasted a turd and
now you've got a filet mignon. I'll never forget
when I was at Specs and I was overhearing the
guy that worked there explain different scotches.
And he goes, this one's peated so it'll taste
like burning rubber. And he said it like it was
a good thing. And I was starting to laugh. I
was like, we're looking at one of the art bags,
I think. And he's like, yeah, that one's going
to be pretty burnt rubber. Burnt rubber. And
I was like, okay, we'll pass. We'll stay away
from that one. No, I know guys that love that.
They absolutely love that. I don't mind the smoky
one. Jeff's not a fan of smoky bourbon, but I
love smoky bourbon. Smoky bourbon. Or whiskeys.
We have some brimstone out there, which is not
a bourbon. It's a balconies. Balconies, yeah.
So we had balconies come out to that house one
time. This is before they were like really big.
And they did a tasting in our house. And they
brought the, what is it called? Brimstone? They
brought a brimstone. And it was interesting because
he said they smoke it after they've distilled
it. Whereas in the scotch, you smoke the grain.
You smoke the grain. But it's kind of like they
already have the liquid and they somehow infuse
it with smoke. Yeah, I'm not a big fan of that.
Okay. Are we on to number five yet? Yeah, I've
already started it. Very interesting. Something
unique with this one, too. Ooh, that is unique.
I don't know if that's another single malt or
not. I don't think it is. That is odd. All right,
I'm going to put a number down, but I'm going
to wait and go back to some of these other ones.
I wish I had not. I've got... There's some more
in the bottles. I've got the full bottle if you
really want it. So what are y 'all thinking?
How do we want to go about doing the numbers?
Well, our producer has got a schedule up on the
board. Do we want to write our names and have
him enter them? I could just tell them if you
want. Let's just tell them. With me, going across
the board, starting with one, it's 5 -2 -1 -3
-4. Oh, you just rank. You didn't put like a
five rank one to ten. No, no. It's. Oh, shit.
I'm sorry. I was ranking them in order. My bad.
Hold on. What do you mean? I was ranking them
in order from one to five. I didn't rank. I just.
I ranked them. Oh, I see. I see. I got it. Okay.
Yeah, we're doing scores. Does anybody have a
score? I've got scores. But what's going to be
tricky about this is, I mean, if I thought they
were all like, okay. Yeah. That's still okay.
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, and so. My whole thing
with the blind tasting is that I love bourbon,
but I would say 95 % of the bourbons that I've
ever had are all good. And I would put them in
a good category. Okay. There's a small percentage
that are horrible and a small percentage that
are terrific. I'm ready, Chuck. 5, 7, 7, 6, 6.
I mean, you seem like an asshole, but okay. I
did 3, 4, 5, 3 .5, and 5. What a dick. That kind
of implies that I hated them all, but I didn't.
Mine is six, four, seven, three, and six and
a half. I wish I had my glasses. I like how our
producer, Mr. Chuck, has already got the averages
rolling there. Yeah. I love that. Nice. Wow.
You love that one. That's a really high score.
55. I should have used more points. Like .1s
or .2s. Yeah. Because I have some similars. Well,
it would have been cool. All right, Chuck. I've
got 6, 8, 7, 9, 10. Ooh. Damn. Just went up.
A 10? A 10. Damn. That's a perfect bourbon. Perfect.
There's no such thing. See, now I'm... I don't
know what to think. All right. Anyway, go ahead.
I was rating them like we rate our bourbon. No,
that's fine. And that's fine. That's how I did.
That's how I did. Okay. Do you want me to pull
them out? Hold on. Number one got the lowest.
What's number one? That was the lowest for me
as well. Go ahead and pull it out. It's an easy
drinking one. Super easy. It's light. There's
nothing special. JTS Brown. No way. It's number
one? That's our lowest rated. That was my lowest
rating. Hold on. Let me give you the price. Oh,
that's like $8. It's less than $8. It's less
than $10. $8. By the way, it's a fantastic mixer,
though. Hey, I'm telling you, I had never had
that, but I was looking for the cheapest bourbon
I could find. And if you mix that with Coke...
And I tried that. Oh, yeah. It's great. You would
have no idea. I actually have a bottle of that,
and I mix it with Coke. Okay, so this was a bit
of a... I kind of threw this in there. Wait,
are you doing the second... Number four. This
is the single malt. Number four. Oh, you want
to do number four. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, we're
doing worst to best. Oh, okay. You got to throw
me. All right. So this is number four. This is
number four. Rare Stash. Oh, I've never even
heard of this one. Yeah, I haven't either. I
had a girlfriend with a nickname like that. Very
familiar bottle, though. That's an 1845 bottle.
It sure is. Okay, so this is the second lowest
rated one, right? It's got a taller neck. And
that is exactly what I have as well. 91 proof,
blend of straight bourbon, rare stash. Yeah,
that was my least favorite. Live rare, be rare.
Grain to glass, USA. So grain to glass, they
make their own stuff, huh? And the price is on
the bottom. Check out the price of that one.
Is that $105? $105. My notes were it was a little
better than number one. So, yeah. A $8 bottle
to a $105 bottle. Oh, my God. What a great point.
Yeah, yeah. Exactly. So, this one I wrote down,
marshmallows. It's extremely... I don't understand
where the $105 comes from. I mean... No, not
at all. So, what's the proof on that one? That's
a higher proof? Okay. So, it's... Yeah. Yeah,
I don't know. I don't know if it's... Is that
a small batch maybe or something where they didn't
make very many of them? Take a closer look. When
we see the whiskeys, the color of it's pretty
important. How many years is that? Why is it
$105? Who knows? Total wine. All this is total
wine. By the way, Kevin helped me out with some
of this stuff. I told him what I was doing and
I said, yeah, I'm going on a podcast. He goes,
what's the name of the podcast? Oh, no! I said,
it's Dudes Like Us. I've been on it. I got hammered
on the podcast. That he did. Yeah, he's a good
guy. Oh, Sean. He did at the end. Okay, so that
was, what's the next one then? So number two
is the next one? Five point, yes. And by the
way, this is a blend. This is not a single barrel.
This is not a small batch. It's a blend. This
is a blend of bourbon whiskeys. It trips me out
that it's $105. 100%. Yeah, I agree. And again,
I wouldn't kick it out of bed. It's not horrible.
No, but if I were going to buy a bottle, I would
not typically spend $105. No. Oh, well, that's
unfortunate. I'm off the podcast. So this is
bottle number two. This is a Balvenie. This is
a Scotch. Yeah. So Scotch is, to me, I love Scotch.
If I had to choose between a Scotch and a bourbon,
I would choose a Scotch. This type of scotch.
Specific scotches. Because there are some great
scotches. I mean, I have some Ben Rhines scotch.
Phenomenal. It doesn't taste like the cliche
scotches that we're used to. The single malt.
I mean, one of the newest spirits in the United
States is the American single malt. So we are
jumping on that bandwagon. They've got, who's
the Fox? Swift. Swift. Let you taste some. Bourbon?
It's a single malt. It's a single malt. I'll
go get something for you to taste if you like.
Single malt. So explain to me single malt. That
means it's the same distiller. It's only barley.
It's only barley? Oh, okay. See, that's one thing
that confuses me about whiskeys is all the different.
So a single malt is one grain? It's more than
that. I thought it was one distiller does everything.
No, it's one grain, but from what I understood,
it's one grain, but it's also from the same field.
The same harvest. It was the same harvest is
what it was. Yeah, you know the Balvenie. Is
that how you pronounce it? The Balvenie. The
Balvenie. It's got double wood. It's very light.
It's really, really good. Single malt Texas whiskey.
And it's barley. Because I tell you... I was
thinking it was an American single malt is what
it was. Oh, wow. That is really good. It did
not taste like scotch. So there is a crossbreed
of the whiskeys from the single malt to scotch.
And it's a good way to transfer over. I mean,
really, from a marketing perspective. Well, I
mean, you know you're drinking a bourbon. I mean,
it kicks you in the throat. This is super light,
super tasty, and it's got a very sweet tone afterwards,
and it's tinny. You talking about the Balvenie?
Yeah, the Balvenie. Yeah, yeah. I mean, they're
typically older. This is 12 years. That's a 12
-year -old. And it's a double wood. Double wood.
Double wood. That's why I like it. It's MGP.
I'll cop it. Wow. It's MGP. All right, number
three. All right, here we go. All right, this
is number three. I know that you guys have had
this one. The whistle pig. Oh, the whistle pig.
Yeah, we got that out there. Piggyback. Number
three. This was my highest ranked. Yeah. Oh,
before you say anything, what was the price of
the Balvenie? Does it say on the bottom? $70.
That's about right. That's a great price, man.
How much? $70? $70? And the Whistlepig, wow.
I got to tell you, the Whistlepig tasted hotter
than 100 proof. I knew it was 100 because you
gave us a range. Well, that is 100 proof. But
it tasted hotter than 100 proof. Agree. Age six
years. You know, we've done a lot of Whistlepigs,
and I'm really... Not that impressed with them.
This one was good, and I think I scored it number
one. I did. This was by number three? This is
by number one. So this is definitely number one,
because I like stronger stuff. And this one,
it's got some deep tastes in there. I didn't
write any notes on there. I wrote 100%, which
means I liked it. Which one was this? Number
three. The Whistle Pig. It's a piggyback bourbon
whiskey. This is the one who gave me the odd
mustard. Yes. Oh, okay. That's the one you and
I immediately thought there was something weird
in there. Okay. Next one. All right, so the winner.
So this is the winner. This is a Tres Hombres.
Have y 'all had that? No. I've never had that
either. As a matter of fact, Kevin, he very highly
rated that one. And I will tell you. I think
I rated... What number was that? That was number
four. That was number... This was our highest.
Number five. I rated that the highest. I think
that one tastes really good. This was my second
favorite. So this is a blend. And it's finished
in American single malt cast. It's Chuck's favorite.
But it is a bourbon. Yeah. Sean's... It's 94
proof. You're kind of the middle. Yeah. And Paul,
that's... That was Chuck's favorite. Kind of...
So, here's the thing. Well, just go from, I'm
in the exact same order as lowest to highest,
except my top two were tied. Yeah. Five and five.
So, let's talk about some of these, I'm going
to call them allocated, like Tres Hombres. Is
it ZZ Top? It is ZZ Top. So, they've got these
artists, football players. Celebrity bourbons.
Celebrity endorsed stuff. I mean, they had. Yeah,
McConaughey had the gin. Yeah, there's a ton.
I mean, there's just. You know, you're kind of
like, ah, come on. You know, you guys are just...
But you know what? This is actually pretty good.
I thought that one was really good. But that
kind of brings home my point, is that Whistlepig,
highly marketed, that thing's got some sort of
celebrity endorsement. And that's really what
you're paying for, in my mind. You're paying
for the bottles that are, like, really cool.
And all that marketing stuff that goes behind
it. That's why the whole MGP thing, I'm kind
of with you on if you tell me that it's MGP,
I'm okay with it. But if you don't tell me that
it's MGP and I'm thinking that, oh, you're growing
your grain and you're babying it. I think from
a marketing perspective, they need to stop saying
MGP and they need to start calling it multigrain
products. Well, they have their own distillery
called Ross and Squibb where they make their
own shit now. They sell their own? Yeah, Ross
and Squibb. is their distillery where they actually
release bottles. Can you inform me a little bit?
I'm going to put these. I'm pitting these against
each other again. Whistlepig versus Tres Hombres.
Do you need some of this? I've got Tres Hombres.
So what is the price of that one? A little bit
more of Whistlepig. The Tres Hombres was a $45.
So the Whistlepig and the Tres Hombres, about
the same price. You've got this $8 JT. What is
it? JT Brown? JTF Brown. JT such a bad. JTS,
yes. So you go from an $8 to $105, and then a
couple that are in the middle. Oh, yeah. What
was the price on this one? Sorry. $45. I think
it's Whistlepig. Whistlepig's about another $45,
I think it was. Okay. So they're comparable in
price. So when you go to the store, that, in
my mind, is a normal price for a decent bottle
of whiskey. Decent bottle of bourbon. It puts
things in perspective. Yeah. You know, I think...
Our palates are a little different, even though
we all agree what was good, because they were.
Hell, the JTS brown was good. But we all agree,
at least we do, we really gravitate towards some
of the hotter stuff. You know, the hotter stuff.
Oh, yeah. You like what you like. We're enjoying
the deep raisins and the deep figs and just the
white pepper, just the tones. Rare characters.
This is great. This was a great experience. And
so getting back to this $8 bottle of JTS Brown,
it can only be a bourbon unless it meets a certain
criteria of what a bourbon can be. And I was
looking into this. It's obviously a bourbon,
so it meets all the criteria, and it's not mixed
with anything. So what makes a good bourbon and
a really good bourbon? Is that bourbon, though?
Yes. Age. Age is a big part of it. Because it's
got to be an age. I kind of wonder sometimes,
because you've got these tequilas that really
are tequilas. They're basically, it's agave with
a lot of vodka. Yeah. In fact, a lot of these
tequila companies are getting sued from Mexico
because it's not a real tequila. I'm wondering
if JTS Brown, maybe it's not, but it sure does
taste like it. It's a bourbon. No, this is a
bourbon. Heaven Hill makes this. That's exactly
why they came up with this criteria, so that
you wouldn't have ambiguity as to how they put
it in here. But the reality is, it's two things.
It's the mash bill, and it's how long it's aged.
Sure. That's it. And then other things. And we're
in the rickhouse. We're in the rickhouse. Yeah.
If it's on the first floor, it's JTS Brown. Could
be. Could be. Or a basement. Thank you guys for...
Playing along with me. No, it's fun. We've been
actually talking that we want to do more of this
kind of stuff. Yeah. And we'd love to do some
special events. Yeah. Yeah. We can do some special
events. We've got the equipment to set it up.
It doesn't necessarily be here. It's more fun
when we're here. Yeah. But we can go over your
house. I want to ask you, the Balcona is contact
you have. You still have that contact? It wasn't
a contact that I had. So I had a buddy that worked
at Total Wine. His name was Barry Foster. and
he had a contact at Balcones. You might want
to ask Kevin and see if he has any kind of contact
like that. Well, Balcones has kind of pumped
the brakes on a lot of their expenditures. Yeah,
I'm sure. The whole market seems to be, I don't
want to say collapsing, but it's not going in
a positive direction. It's having a correction.
You mean the whiskey? Bourbon specifically. I've
got to tell you, Balcones, in my opinion, is
great. I enjoy a lot of their products. I enjoy
a lot of the single malts they have. They come
out with some rums that aren't available. Super
strong stuff. Paul and I went there on the way
to College Station or something. And we stopped
by there. That's in Waco? Where's it at? I can't
remember. It's in Waco. They've got the staff
there. I mean, gosh. They're all over the place.
You're walking in there like, dude, are you...
Are you wearing Wicked Witch of the West socks?
What the fuck is going on here? Yeah, one dude,
I thought he was in a clown outfit, and I wasn't
sure if that was like a kid's event that was
coming up. Is it Halloween, or is that just true?
No, man. So that kind of made us go. And I'm
going to say, I'm going to use the word woke,
but I mean, I don't want to like really, but
they're hardcore on their style, which is synonymous
of other. They produce a good whiskey. Yeah.
Hey, we'll forgive anything. Exactly. They don't
produce anything. They're just the staff that
work there. Yeah, right. We had a good time there.
I mean, we ordered a flight, and they had their
own beer there. I mean, I'd go back. They've
really narrowed their focus. Yeah, they should.
Is that really all they produce now? Yeah, right
now. Yeah, because they got rid of the, God bless
it. Rumble. The single malt is always good. Yep.
So the True Blue, they don't make anymore. So
what we finished last week, you can't find again.
We had the one the other day. That was really
good. We finished that fucking bottle? Yes, we
did. So I'll tell you, when they came up to the
bottle. Because you pour like that much in your
glass. I don't remember that. I have it on video,
bro. I have video proof. That did not happen.
All right, I'll send it to you. No, so yeah,
you're right. This is right when bourbon was
starting to really pick up. And Barry hooked
us up with a contact. And they were two. What
is that? I've had that. I'm not a fan of that
one. Is that whiskey? It's a single malt. I've
had that at Total Wine. Have you really? I've
never heard of that. Yeah. I would buy that.
Balcones was there. You were there. Caraleja?
Yeah. Wasn't that at Plano? I just like saying
it. Caraleja. No. Look at me. The Balcones guy
was one of the taster guys was up there. And
they had that one and there was another one.
And that one. Mirador. The Mirador. We're drunk.
They do have Baby Blue. They don't have the True
Blue. Oh, that's right. Go over to Baby Blue
for a second. That kind of triggers me a little
bit. Do you remember the night that I had to
shell out money for my son's engagement party?
How much were you paying for those baby blue
shots? Wow. I'm guessing maybe $180 a pop. What?
A bottle or? Dude, I told you I spent $2 ,700.
Yeah, hold on. Pump the brakes. You were doing
how much? This was the only whiskey available.
Baby blue or true blue? Baby blue. Baby blue.
And it was. How much? $2 ,700. Now, it's for
a wedding party. I mean, for an engagement party.
No, but back up. We want to know per drink. Did
you say per drink or per bottle? I don't know.
That was an extravagant price. Well, I'm just
throwing that out there. I was joking because...
Oh, okay, right. And that wasn't even the whole
night. That was when it had already run out.
You should have said, yeah, I'm not paying that.
I know. Do you want to get married or do you
want to have this? And it was just an engagement
party, not the wedding party. You should have
showed up with a satchel full of Jack Daniels
singles and been, hey, man. Exactly. You learned
your lesson. Everybody's drinking. Everybody's
having a good time. I'm going to stay in the
bathroom. Just come and meet me if you want a
shot. They already maxed it out. What do you
want to do? Yeah, I got it. I got it. Hey, kids,
you guys have fun. I got you. You should have
filled up all the really nice bottles. That's
exactly what happened. With JTS Brown. You swung
your stick around. And it had been like, okay,
yeah. I was helicoptering. Jeff, that's what
you need to do. I was helicoptering behind the
bar. This is on me. This is on me. I'll take
like the Jack Daniels, the Tanyard I have. Let's
fill it up with JTS Brown. Let's take it to California
with us. Hey, I'm going to have a clue. I'll
tell you something that I did. They won't. They
won't. So you guys have had, oh my gosh, the
Balcones. The one with the horse on top. Oh,
Blanton's. Blanton's. So I remember it was so
overrated. But I remember the first time I had
it, I was like, oh, I'm so excited. As a matter
of fact, it was my buddy Barry from Total Wine
that gave it out. It's almost like he – Are you
hanging out with Barry or something? It's like
he brought it out on this – majestic platter.
And he lifted the lid off the platter. And smoke
starts coming out of it. But no, I was like,
I'm so excited to try this out. And he's like,
be conservative with your pour. And I tried it,
and I'm like, eh, okay. I mean, it's whiskey.
It's no big deal. But I had gotten a bottle of
it at some point. And it's not even high proof.
It's low proof. After I finished it, I filled
it up with something not No. And I would bring
it out, and they'd be like, oh, my God, I've
never had that. Oh, this is so good. It's great.
It's amazing. J .T .S. Brown. I could have literally
put J .T .S. Brown. What did you put in it? Do
you remember? It was something cheap. It was
like a benchmark or something on the bottom.
100%. Yeah, yeah. That just goes to show it's
all bullshit. It's all bullshit. Except for our
tasting test. This is official. We're bourbon
stewards. 100 % official. Ah. Yeah. Well, you
know, we've sampled a lot. I would say that we've
all got our own thing, but we still, we could
nail it. So do you guys still, I remember y 'all
would get a bottle, what would it be, a bottle
of peace? Well, we were doing that for quite
a while, and then we stopped because our weekly.
cost was going up. It was that, but it was also...
We became snobs. It was the quality. So back
then, it was quantity, and then it started evolving
into quality. And we were like, well, we kind
of want the $100 bottles, and we're kind of tired
of spending... Because we were doing like $70,
$70, $70 a week. That's a lot of money. Every
week. So we were kind of like, all right, let's
cut that out. Because we're doing... We drink
half a bottle in a night. Let's just say it.
We will typically drink, between all four of
us, we'll probably do about a half a bottle a
night. Sure. We think of it like having two runs,
and the remainder of it should go into the bottle,
the Infinity bottle. Infinity, yeah. If we do
it right. Yeah. Sometimes it's one of those nights
where we just do an extra one and can't talk
at the end of the night. JTS Brown, there it
is. Jeff knows. It is made by Evan Hill. I've
witnessed it. Very good. So how much is a bottle
of? Y 'all have a Heaven Hill out there, right?
We do, yeah. Is there... Do they make, like,
different... Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, bookers and...
No, no, I mean, are there different Heaven Hills,
like a small batch and all that other kind of
stuff? I've not really seen it. They have a grain
of glass. They have grain of glass. They have
the bottle and bond. I've had that on the left,
yeah. That's Heaven's Door. That's Heaven's Door.
They have the Bottle of Bond. They have Elijah
Craig comes from Heaven Hill. Is it Knob Creek?
No, that's Jim Beam. Great. Who are you? Oh,
I think I am thinking of Heaven's Door. That's
what I thought. That's what I had. Then you have
the Larceny. So, yeah, we have. Oh, there's the
family. We basically have all of that out there.
The house is a bourbon. We can take that home
with you. We have several. I just got through
watching Game of Thrones. This reminds me of
Game of Thrones. I need to watch that again.
That was Targaryen. Have you watched the new
one? No. Is it the night it's been off? After
Game of Thrones? It's actually before, I think.
I thought it was before. I haven't seen it. It's
before. This is the second spinoff. They're about
half hour to 45 minute episodes. I've got one
left. Very well done. Quite a bit different than
your normal Game of Thrones. It's very, very
condensed. Not condensed, but very one story,
basically. Oh, I see. It's called Night of the
Seven Kingdoms? Is that correct? That's the name
of the spinoff. Yeah, and there's a dude with
a - They've got seven shows, right, in a season?
Eight. I think there's eight. Is it the same
families kind of thing? Yeah, Targaryen and stuff
like that. Was it from a century before or something?
I don't think it was that far out, but it was
before the - Game of Thrones series that we did.
It's so cool. It's well done. I read all the
books and it was just like... I'm just disappointed
how it ended. It wasn't supposed to end that
way. I literally just watched it less than a
year ago and everyone was saying the ending sucked.
I wasn't that disappointed. I was like, I can
kind of see how it should have turned out like
this. You build it up and... It's just like the
producing of it, and it was just poorly done.
I mean, they spent so much money on stuff. They
just did such a poor job. The fight scene, I
brought this up several times. The fight scene
was completely black. You can't even see what
the hell's going on. The final? Like the final
episode? Two or three episodes. There was a big
fight. I may have been in the final. It's a dragon
destroyer. They went after the White Walkers.
Yeah, when the White Walkers are going in there
and it's like everything's black and they're
fighting. But you can't see anything. I'm like,
come on. It's because they didn't want to spend
the money. So they're like, let's show a little
bit. But it's so dark, we're not really going
to show it because we're going to save costs.
So did somebody fart in that scene that you just
described? Well, they were squeezing his bowels,
I guess. Oh, okay. I wasn't sure. He was disemboweled.
Yeah, that was different. Yes. Good stuff, though.
Mark, man, I appreciate you bringing this out.
Absolutely, yeah. That was fun. The experience
was excellent. Yeah, we need to do more of this.
How much time we got, Chuck? 10 minutes. So do
you guys truly, truly feel then, based on the
scores, that Tres Hombres was the winner outright?
I liked that better than that, but that is a
close second. I did a final taste test of those
two, and I would give Little Pig the edge. I'm
like, the Balvenine for me was the winner. In
my opinion, this is the winner. I had that one
again, and I like that one more now. In fact,
I'm going to have another one. So that is a scotch,
right? Yeah. That's actually, the second one
had a lot of sweetness to it for me. Second pull
of it, you're saying. Well, yeah, a little. Yeah,
yeah, yeah. And honestly, that's the reason I
like scotch, is because I love bourbon, but again,
you know you're drinking alcohol when you drink
a bourbon. I mean, it kicks you in the throat,
especially with the higher proof. With a very
mellow scotch like that, it's just easy drinking.
You get the same flavors, but intensified and
maybe a little bit more. Mark, it all boils down
to who do you love? Are you an American? Oh,
boy. Wow. We're going there already? Oh, boy.
Let me drink a little bit more. Have you eaten
today? You really haven't? I had a little bowl
of chicken stew. I have to lose weight, man.
I'm fat. You can't do it on podcast night, though.
I'm fine. Right. Okay. Well, just remember him
like he is. Okay. You know what I'm saying? Because
later. He's going to be svelte. He won't. He'll
be what? Svelte. The part I'm talking about is
that if I had a preference between the single
malts, because we have now a new single malt,
American single malt. So we're going to jump
on that bandwagon. Yeah. So again, if we've got
time, a single malt is. A single grain? Barley.
It has to be barley. That's what a single malt
is. Malted barley. Okay. Yes. So you couldn't
have a single malt? Not a malt. Bourbon. You
could have a single grain. Like we have a single
grain fray out there. It's just wheat. It's a
wheat whiskey. It's single grain. It tastes like
vanilla ice cream. So literally single malt means
butter. It's like one of my favorites ever. Why
don't we see that more? Why don't we see single
grain? They're out there. Wheat whiskeys, corn
whiskey. They're deep cuts. They're deep cuts
in every distillery. Kind of like 1845 distillery.
It's like they're only available at the distillery.
Some of them, I guess. Like the Fray Ranch one,
they were selling to the local vendors out there
in Nevada. You're not going to be able to find
those out here. You're saying the one I couldn't
stand, the Fray one, the buttery, crazy buttery
one, is a single grain. It's all wheat. 100 %
wheat. Interesting. It is beautiful. I wonder
if they make a single grain bourbon. I mean,
do they make 100 % bourbon? Bourbon has rules,
right? 51 % corn. At least 51%, right? At least
51 % corn. But it has to be cut with another
grain? And then you have... That's a good point.
So... Yes. Like, mellow corn is not a bourbon.
It's not. But you have 51 % corn, then it's barley,
malt barley, and then it's wheat or... Are you
sure? I'm not so sure about that. Yeah, I think
it just has to be at least 51 % barley or corn.
Well, there's two. Then you need malted barley
and other. I mean, maybe you have to have it
for the flavoring, but I don't know if that's
part of the rule. All right, well, let's look
at that. Producer, pull it up. Bourbon can be
made from 100 % corn. While federal law mandates
a minimum of 51 % corn, in the mash bill, there's
no legal upper limit. Yeah, there's got to be
a taste reason. Well, it says for 100 % corn
spirit to be legally labeled a bourbon rather
than a corn whiskey, it must follow specific
aging rules. It must be aged in a new charred
oak container. If a spirit with 80 % or more
corn is aged and used or uncharred oak, it must
be labeled as corn whiskey. Plus, it has to go
in the barrel at a certain... Yeah. Percent.
Right. So that's the biggest difference. Whether
or not it's in a charred barrel or not. So technically,
yes, you could have a 100 % corn bourbon, but
there's a lot of other rules it needs to match
first. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Right. Is that the
one you were talking about, the Frey Ranch? Y
'all were just talking about... It's Frey Ranch.
It's not that one, but yeah, Frey Ranch, it's
a single grain. I'm a huge... I don't want to
say huge. I'm a fan of Frey Ranch, and I am a
huge fan. If I have a Frey Ranch on my shelf,
it's there for a reason. It's good stuff. It
costs 80 bucks a bottle. Is that the one in Utah?
No. Why do you think it's always Utah? What is
it? Nevada. That's where your Mormon connections
are kind of bringing? I'm going to see how close
you're going to be to Fray Ranch. Seriously,
it's literally a dozen times I've said that same
thing. Yes. To the point where now Jeff's irritated.
Yeah. He's angry. He's calling you out. He was
trying to kick you and kick me. I was like, we're
past irritation. It's now anger. I got you. I'm
just going to say, yes, it's Utah. Yes. I knew
it. I was right. Next time you're in Utah, let's
go to Frey Ranch. I'm surprised they were able
to make any whiskeys in Utah. Nevada. No, in
Utah. Do they make whiskeys in Utah? I would
imagine they do. I don't know either. Who the
hell is going to go to Utah? So you could drive
to Frey Ranch in five hours. Seriously? While
you're in California. Oh, well. Hold on. That
little caveat. No, no, no. Hold on. You got to
get to California first. This has merit. That's
a 10 -hour round trip. You're running in buying
something and immediately leaving. So you're
saying there's a chance. Well, you have to get
these guys on board for that. Fuck it. I'll get
my own car. I'll drive out there. If you beat
the land speed record, you can be there. I'll
be the blue thunder. Right. You'll need a Smokey.
Smokey and the Bandit. No, I don't think I'd
do that. You know, at all. There's about five
distilleries in Utah. There you go. Oh, High
West. High West. There you go. Yes. Come on.
Spirits of the Wasatch. That's a good one, too.
They've got the smoky stuff, too. I think they
have one called Five Wives. Five Wives. It's
10, by the way. Sister Wives bourbon. You low
-balled that one. Their bourbon's called polygamy.
Yes. Wow. Boom. Yeah. Good one. Anything else
going on? What kind of news we got going on?
Obviously, we got the butt smack going on in
Iran. What else we got going on? Anything kind
of fun? I don't know. Well, today was voting
day. Oh, yeah. Did you guys go and vote? Why
don't Paul talk about Punch the Monkey real quick?
Punch the Monkey. You want to finish on Punch
the Monkey? Sure. It's better than Spank the
Monkey. This is a story out of Japan, and it's
a little macau. Is that how you say it? No. Little
monkey. There it is. See, look at him. They're
bullying this poor little monkey. So this poor
little monkey in the zoo, the mom abandoned it.
Oh, my God. They're ripping him anew. Abandoned
it, and it got all upset, and it has a stuffed
animal that is an orangutan. Oh, my poor guy.
Right. And so it went super viral. And so here
it is hiding and scared and hugging its orangutan.
And it took that thing everywhere. It crawls
around the zoo. dragging it with him, and they
were harassing him and bullying him. See, I connect
with this. I kind of do, too. I connect with
it because, especially Sean, during podcasts,
I feel like punch. Anyway, we'll move on. You
just gave yourself a nickname. No, fuck you.
No. Anyway, so. Punch me. Thank you, Chuck. Okay,
so get this. So then another female adult saw
what was going on and went over there and basically
claimed him. And gave them a big hug, and now
they're inseparable. But the funny thing is,
this was super viral. And the orangutan, I guess,
was a plush toy that you can buy at Ikea in Japan.
There's a little bit more to that story. And
it sold out like crazy. The father of that orangutan,
or whatever kind of animal that is, was supposed
to be the alpha in the group. oh yeah so the
reason i bring that up uh -huh is because the
person that the the animal that oh it's cute
it's so cute she's just looking she's like well
i'm gonna take the the offspring i'm gonna take
See, that's how you solve problems. Back the
fuck up. I will knock your ass out. He's packing
a punch. Time to punch back is what he says.
There we go. I didn't even think about all the
memes. She's thinking that she wanted to raise
the child of the alpha. That is the only thing
I can think of. I mean, is that what they do
in this little tribal experience tucked away
in a zoo? Are you a monkeyologist? You know what?
I feel like I've got a little bit of experience.
See how mean they were being to him? Look at
that shit, man. Nature's brutal, man. It is.
Oh, so it's okay? I'm not saying it's okay. You
think they should fuck up punch like that? Mark,
would you like a sweet tart? If they're out in
the wild, that monkey would be dead. I can't
stand sweet tarts, but for some reason I love
them. No, it'd be like Planet of the Apes. He
breaks out of the zoo, and then six months later,
he's speaking English. Come get me, bitch. Yeah.
He's like, you left me. I mean, the Planet of
the Apes is kind of creepy. It's super creepy.
I mean, the eyes, when the apes look at it, and
it's got human eyes, you're like, oh, man. Well,
they were wearing a mask. They could totally
have. Oh, yeah, the originals. No, that's different.
The original was awesome. The little spiral thing
coming out of the ground. It comes out, boom.
Hey, man, where we at? I don't remember that.
You don't remember that? No. Oh, they got this
drill that was subterranean, and it'd come out
of the ground, and they were like, Soylent Green
is people! Again, wrong movie. I don't remember
that one either. Oh, really? Yes. Same guy, though,
right? Soylent Green is people. Soylent Green.
I think we're one and done with this podcast
tonight. All right, well, check it out. What
the hell? It's Tuesday. It's March 3rd. First
half of the Dudes Like Us podcast. Thank you,
Chuck, for staying on top of stuff. Mark, are
you going to join us for the second half? I'd
love to. Excellent. We're going to have to clean
up all this barrage of stuff going on. Jeff's
wife's going to come up here. What the fuck is
going on here? She's out of town, so we're good.
Nice. Dudes Like Us, I'm Sean. We're doing a
third podcast. I'm Paul. And I'm Jeff. And I'm
Mark. Good night, guys. Actually, we'll be back.