Barker's Mill!

SPEAKER_00 0:09

Welcome to the Whiskey Chasers, where we talk about our passion for whiskey and its history, either amongst ourselves or while interviewing distilleries. All while enjoying a glass. I'm Steve. I'm Nick, and I'm Chris. Please enjoy responsibly while enjoying this week's episode of The Whiskey Chasers.

SPEAKER_01 0:28

Back with no Steve again, but two very good dudes, two very great dudes. Some of the best dudes. Oh wow. Blake and CJ. Blake and CJs. Tell my boss that. Wow. We're hoping you listen to it.

SPEAKER_02 0:42

Hey, I need a raise. I was told this.

SPEAKER_01 0:45

And uh we're sticking with the series of I keep saying underdogs. Underrated. Underrated, underappreciated, unknown distilleries. There it is. There it is. The three U's. The three U's, yes. Uh three U university is what we're at right now. We got Barker's Mill. Have you guys ever heard of Barker's Mill before I introduced this bottle? From like to you?

SPEAKER_04 1:06

From you prior, Lib prior.

SPEAKER_02 1:08

Not until you've introduced me to it. I had no clue it existed until you brought it to the forefront.

SPEAKER_01 1:15

So I've never heard of this bottle before till maybe a year or two ago. Maybe it was last year. We were in Kentucky. It was around my birthday. So Mary's like, let's go hunt for some bottles, right? So we went to Total Wine and Moore. And this is the more. We were walking through it, and Mary left my side, found this bottle, and came back and said, Hey, I got you Barker's Mill. And all excited, all proud. And I said, Hey, that's great. What is it? I was like, Did did like someone here tell you about it? Like, how did she goes, No, you've been wanting it. I don't know what this bottle is. I don't why why do you think I've been wanting it? And she's like, Oh no, you've talked about Barker's Mill. I said, Noah's Mill, maybe? Heaven Hill. Yeah, I was like, I don't know what Barker's Mill is. And she showed me the bottle. She's like, This is a bottle that you've been looking at. I was like, I don't know what this bottle is. Like, I really don't know. And she goes, Well, it was the last one on the shelf, so I think we should get it. Sure, why not? It's a bottled in bond out of Kentucky, no namer. Let's try it.

SPEAKER_03 2:14

We could go get a good one based on just the facts of the bottle, you know.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

So I tried it. And I have fallen in love with this bottle. This is my second. I've got one hidden below, uh, stocked away for when this one goes away, so I don't run out. And I can't. There isn't much left. I've been trying not to drink this as much as I did the first one because the first one went in a heartbeat. It is such a unique flavor. And I figured, okay, Barker's Mill, it sounds like a known namer. It's probably the only thing that they do. I reached out to Tipsy, I sent him a picture and said, Hey, if you can get this bottle in, I guarantee you'll have at least a case gone uh right away. So I'll I'll buy a case of this. And like a couple weeks later, he sent me a text back and said, Yeah, buddy, that's a Kentucky only. Uh I can't get that. I don't even know anyone in Kentucky that can really get it. I said, Oh, okay, okay. So that got me even more curious. I figured with that, they're truly this is the only bottle that they do. Like it's it's a small distillery, they probably don't do a whole lot. For something that's bottled and bond, that's crazy. Right. It comes out of MB Roland distillery, and this is not the only bottle that they do, but all their bottles are just as unique and good flavor as well. MB Roland, the Hayton? Yes, MB Rolland and Hayton. But uh is that with the Aeroma? You had a sample of their 100% corn whiskey, you and Herm. We did, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I liked it, I thought. Yeah, really liked it. Uh, they they are a in my opinion, some of the best unknown craft distillery out of Kentucky right now. All of their products actually have white corn, locally grown white corn. White corn, not yellow dent. So you could probably eat this corn. Is it like popcorn?

SPEAKER_02 3:55

Popcorn's its own corn. I found that out the other day. Popcorn is its own corn.

SPEAKER_01 3:59

Yeah, I figured it was just normal corn that we popped. Like that that's what made it popcorn. It's very specific.

SPEAKER_03 4:07

Yellow dent corn was the edible.

SPEAKER_02 4:09

Well, fun fact, my parents, they own uh, I think it's like eight acres of land up in northwestern Ohio that they rent out to farmers. And the farmer, he does popcorn. And so at the end of the year, he they got some popcorn. I haven't got to taste it, but they got some and they said it's really good.

SPEAKER_03 4:26

Where I'm we're popcorn aficionados at this point. Yeah, I guess gone through a fair share of popcorn. Pounds of it, yeah. So Barker's Mill, just interject. I know you got your whole list. Barker's Mill, they are sourcing from Roland. No, this is owned by okay, okay. It's one of their bottles. So they're making it in-house.

SPEAKER_01 4:45

That's yes, it's it's one of the only bottles that MB Roland makes that doesn't clearly come out and say MB Roland. Okay. All the other ones are MB Roland and then 100% corn whiskey or MB Roland.

SPEAKER_03 4:57

That's the only one that's named Barker's Mill. Yes. That makes sense. So Barker's Mill is not the brand, it's the name. I gotcha.

SPEAKER_01 5:04

Right. And there's a reason why. So the company got its start from Paul to Mary Beth. I don't know how to pronounce our last name. Paul and Mary Beth. They got their start in 2009. It's also completely, I would say, one of the few Kentucky distilleries to this day that's still truly grained to glass.

SPEAKER_03 5:26

You gotta love grain to glass.

SPEAKER_01 5:27

Jeff the Creed is grain to glass.

SPEAKER_03 5:29

I mean, love me and my local storage, all that stuff. They're doing everything they can to make it as as little hands-touching it as possible.

SPEAKER_01 5:37

I love that. There's something to be said about that with the flavor and and the care that they put into it. Like I said, Jeff the Creed is one of them that does it. You could definitely tell there's a care, a passion behind that. So you're talking 2009, they get their start, right? So Paul is uh the husband is a native to southeastern Louisiana. Nice.

SPEAKER_03 6:01

I was wondering, it looks a little by you, a little bit on the front.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

Yep. Um, but his wife is an uh came up as an Amish dairy farmer.

SPEAKER_03 6:10

How about that?

SPEAKER_01 6:11

Amish dairy farmer? Milking cows. Uh let me see, because it says Amish dairy farmer. So she's Amish. She's not Amish. They bought up an Amish dairy farmer. Okay, big difference.

SPEAKER_03 6:24

Big difference. I was picturing some lady with these huge forearms.

SPEAKER_01 6:27

Well, I know. I saw Mary, I I read Mary Beth is a native. My next notes are rolling into it. Came from an Amish dairy farmer, and I was like, so she's a native Amish dairy farmer.

SPEAKER_03 6:37

So she's just a native.

SPEAKER_01 6:38

She's a native.

SPEAKER_03 6:38

That's awesome. Wait, native of America or native of a local native to Kentucky. Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_05 6:44

That's not that special. You need to be clear on this story, Nick. Come on, Nick.

SPEAKER_02 6:49

We're all over the place. She's a Native American Amish lady. That's what I got. Milk and cows.

SPEAKER_04 6:56

Owns a dairy farm. Has two first names that happen to start distillering firewater.

SPEAKER_05 7:01

Paul, Paul came out of Louisiana.

SPEAKER_01 7:04

I do like that part. Mary Beth is local to Kentucky. There it is. She's a native Kentuckian.

SPEAKER_04 7:10

Not quite as special as Paul coming from Louisiana. Got it.

SPEAKER_01 7:14

Um, and then at one point, a an Amish dairy farm came up for sale. In in Kentucky, and they purchased it? And it was purchased by them, right? Okay. Did they call it Barker's Mill? Barker's Mill came about. So that's how they get the grain to glass that came started coming from this farm. So that's how they started producing their their crop for this, right?

SPEAKER_04 7:33

From the dairy farm.

SPEAKER_01 7:34

From the dairy. Yeah, the Amish bought dairy farm. So they went from dairy to corn and stuff and whatnot.

SPEAKER_03 7:42

Okay, cool. Okay. The ground's probably fertilized, right?

SPEAKER_01 7:45

I'm trying to follow you here. Dairy fertilized. So they they first starts they get to know each other, Paul and Mary Beth. He's not from around here. They get married. Yes. Then they have this Amish dairy farm come into play with theirs. They buy it. And then in 2009, they buy this distillery. Paul starts distilling full-time, and it's one of 18 employees. Nice. Total employees to the incredibly tiny.

SPEAKER_03 8:15

Doing it all. All of them are doing it all.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

Yep. Do it all. Very small. Uh, they do you know everything from distilling to production to bottling to aging, all everything.

SPEAKER_03 8:25

The only thing that'd be cooler about the story is if they employed the Amish. That would be kind of cool. That would be kind of cool. That would be neat. I want to see an Amish run distillery. That'd be awesome. That would be we should make one.

SPEAKER_05 8:37

Live in the right area. We live in the right area. You do. You have you have the connections. But would the Amish be alright with distilling alcohol? Uh that's what we're kind of uh curious about.

SPEAKER_03 8:46

But they're okay with making things. It depends on the church. As long as they're not like partaking per se. I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 8:54

Wouldn't they have to sample it? No. We would sample it. Silly.

SPEAKER_04 8:58

From what I understand with friends and people that have been Amish that are no longer Amish, that it comes down to just the church, the deacon, what they decide. Because there are some that that, you know, if they want to have a couple beers after a long day, it's perfectly normal. It's perfectly fine. There are others that no, we don't drink at all.

SPEAKER_03 9:18

We got our uh horse bread one time in an Amish place. Sorry. Horse, not horsebred. Yeah, no, we we brought we brought a we brought a female over there to get it on with one of their Clydesdales. Yeah. And I said, What do you do? And he's like, Well, you just put him in the barn and let them go out of it. Or that's more of Canadian, but you know what I mean. And uh, but then he was talking to me and he said, like, he was pointing off different areas because I was looking at his house. It was pretty cool. They had this Clydesdale on this wooden treadmill, and it was walking, and that was powering their machines on the inside of the barn. That's how they did they had power like power tools powered by a Clydesdale on a wooden treadmill. It's pretty sweet. Was this the same Clydesdale that was helping breed? No, that that one was inside, like getting it on. You could hear it. Like, and they were like, We don't do nothing, we just let them do their thing. Because a lot of breeders that will like hold them down and make sure things are going right. No, you just let net nature take its course, you know. But he was saying that the the Amish kids go to sneak down to this one part of the area and they smoke weed. And I'm like, You guys are smoking weed, and he's like, Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:17

And I'm like, Okay, like wow, so they're probably taking a nip here and there, you know. I'm gonna sorry, mom, but some of the one of the best parties that I was ever at as a younger kid doing dumb stuff was an Amish party in the middle of a cornfield, downtown Chipshuana, just outside of town in Indiana, which is a dry, which is a dry town.

SPEAKER_03 10:41

Yeah, a dry town, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 10:42

But it was a riot. They know how to party. They definitely do.

SPEAKER_02 10:47

Was that part of like the rumspringa or whatever they call it?

SPEAKER_04 10:50

A lot of it comes from that. I mean, a lot of it comes from that, which if you're not familiar with rumspringa, it's something that Amish get to a point in their childhood where they decide that they want to try the world and they want to see what being what the English do you want to do. They're encouraged, they're encouraged to do it by their family. A lot of them will have a vehicle, they'll dress in English clothes, maybe get a tattoo or thing. Most of them then end up coming back to Amish, getting married, joining the church, and just it's more of a see what it's like to make sure that you understand what we do and why we do it.

SPEAKER_03 11:26

Part of it too is kind of getting it out, right? Like sewing your own. Then you're like, okay, I've been there, done that. I'm I'm content to go back to Amish lifestyle. I think that's part of it, right? You gotta sometimes you gotta get things out, you know? Sometimes you just gotta get it out. Gotta get it out. Clean in, clean out. Clean in, clean out.

SPEAKER_01 11:40

So what I'm hearing is we need to start our own Amish church. We'll be the bishops, and we decide what they can encourage.

SPEAKER_03 11:46

Instead of a barn raising, we're gonna do a rickhouse raising. Ooh, that's what I'm really hearing.

SPEAKER_01 11:51

It would be a really well-built rick house, it would probably go up in a couple days.

SPEAKER_03 11:55

It would be up in a couple days, and it would be the best built rickhouse imaginable. We have our own cooperage that can make the barrels. We'd be running in literally a week, dude. People would buy the crap out of this. We'd probably have bourbon ready to sell within a week. Amish, Amish bourbon made from Amish barrels in an Amish Rickhouse and distillery. Forget about it.

SPEAKER_02 12:16

We just need a venture capitalist and boy Clydesdales.

SPEAKER_03 12:20

All of my Clydesdales who are breeding on the side. We're gonna be like, You got a marriage that needs bread, bring her on down, put them in the barn, let them go at it. It's our side business, you know.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

It's our side business.

SPEAKER_03 12:30

They gotta get it out too, man.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

It's literally up the side door. We're like, just go through there, take a horse through. It'll be fine.

SPEAKER_05 12:35

And then come back. You don't want to stay single file line, fellas. So Barker's Mill. Anyway. The only correlation to Amish was it was an Amish dairy.

SPEAKER_04 12:46

Amish dairy farm. Ford Amish dairy farm to grow their crops on very small. And I got off on a tangent. It's okay.

SPEAKER_02 12:55

We're good. It's okay. I enjoyed the tangent.

SPEAKER_01 12:56

The tangents are good. So Barker's Mill was a legit mill that was built on the creek. So West Fork Creek in Christian County, Kentucky. Now it served the community, the local community, for like over a hundred years or several years, right? Until it finally went into despair and was torn down in 1940. So it's this old local mill that did a lot for the community, was around for a long time, and finally just kind of done, lost itself. Yep. Okay. I guess in the 1800s, the mill included a distillery to make use of the grain on site. So Paul and Mary Beth learn about this. Okay, we have this mill that's been around for years that did a lot for the community before it kind of went into its death and despair. But way back in the day, there was a distillery on site to help preserve the grains. That way things didn't go to waste. So out of that, they went, huh? Well, we're in Christian County, Kentucky. Why don't we have a bottle that kind of pays some homage and kind of represents that one mill that had a lot to do with this community? It it helps support a lot of the community, provided a lot of jobs. Uh it just did a lot for us before it it kind of died off. So let's kind of pay some honor to that and create this bottle. Again, it's the only one in their entire lineup that doesn't have on the front MB Rolland and then at the bottom, whatever it is. This is clearly, it looks very different, drastically different. It makes you think that the company is Barker's Mill. Yes. Yep. It makes you think that this is Barker's Mill. It's not MB Roland. The name of the distillery is Barker's Mill. Now I'm curious, you did you have you been sniffing your glass or did you try some?

SPEAKER_02 14:42

I sniffed it and I tried it. It's it's real nice. It's real nice. I mean, I don't want to jump the gun and say right now.

SPEAKER_01 14:51

I want to jump the gun and I want to ask you something after you talk about it.

SPEAKER_02 14:54

I mean, it's oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01 14:56

Put the cat out of the bag there, Blake. Before I go into what the the bottle is, the bourbon itself. This was my favorite thing. I tried the other night.

SPEAKER_02 15:04

You can you can taste that it's from a smaller distillery, I think. I mean, kind of like Chris says, I mean, sometimes you get a dusty barn. It's not straight dusty barn, but there's a little bit to where it's like, I'm pretty sure this is on some sort of pot still. It's very unique, but there's a lot of flavor in there. A lot of flavor.

SPEAKER_01 15:26

I mean, you're not a dusty barn kind of guy.

SPEAKER_02 15:29

I'm not like a straight dusty barn where it's like that's all I'm getting is dusty barn and maybe a little bit of oak or a little bit of you know, vanilla or caramel. I'm like, that's that's not my cup of tea, but this is the other way around, really. This is there's a well, to me, it's like if all I'm getting is dusty barn and a little bit of caramel or a little bit of oak, it's like the minimum you're probably paying for that bottle because it's you know from a smaller distillery, is probably gonna be around 50 bucks. It's like there's so many other things that it could get for 50 bucks, or two other bottles I could get for 50 bucks. You know, you get, you know, I hate being like, you could get Buffalo Trace for, you know, but it's a it's a true fact, yeah. Yeah, it's like it's that's I mean, Buffalo Trace is good. I mean, it's not super complex, but it'd be a lot better than whatever that dusty barn taste is, and you got double it, right?

SPEAKER_03 16:23

Especially if it's a gamble and you don't you've never tried it before. Exactly.

SPEAKER_02 16:26

It yeah, then it's a letdown. But something like this where it's like you can tell there's a lot of like a lot of care went into making this. It's like I'm trying to, you know, pick up trying to say what the notes are.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

So there's a reason to ask you about that dusty car uh uh barn. Mary took me on a special little day trip to Pittsburgh the other week. And on our drive there, we were talking about somehow dusty barn, dusty corn kind of came up and made the comment. I told her, like, we should probably really define what that means because Chris really likes to bring this up. Well, I coined it. So I thought you did, uh, not that you didn't, but there were some irony moments. We went to visit Wiggle Whiskey. Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle, wiggle whiskey, and they specialize in rye, like Pennsylvania style rye. And we got to talking to the gal that was uh doing the samples and tasting for us. And so I asked her, I said, What what's your favorite? Like, what do you go after? You obviously like whiskey. What's what what's flavor profile? What do you seek? And she goes, I'm really weird when it comes to this. Immediately was like, Okay, we gotta we gotta have a hard conversation. What does this weird thing mean? Weird can be good, right? And she goes, Well, times and not it is she was like, I really like kind of like uh dusty kind of feel, and I was like, Dusty barn, dusty corn, and her face lit up. She goes, I've never heard anyone else say that, but yes, that's exactly what I mean. And I was like, I thought Chris and I were the only ones who are like, we really like this. Yeah, there's people out there, dude.

SPEAKER_03 18:10

There are a lot of people out there. It's that uh homemade type of thing, right?

SPEAKER_01 18:13

Well, we got to talking, she's like, Yeah, I grew up in like Podunk, Ohio on a farm and around. She's been in Dusty Barns, right?

SPEAKER_02 18:21

Then you know that's the only way to do it. By experiencing it. As soon as Chris coined that, I was like, Oh, yeah, I've been in a dusty barn, and this is to a T.

SPEAKER_03 18:30

It takes you back there, like in your memory. Like it's like a sight, sound, smell type of memory.

SPEAKER_01 18:35

It is, and that's one thing why she said she liked that. It was because it kind of takes her back to childhood of like the journey where I grew up, yeah, right. It was the journey of the idea. So I figured when you're like, I don't like that, that you didn't really grow up around that.

SPEAKER_02 18:50

We we had a a family, well, family, I'm gonna put farm, but it wasn't had the land, had had the barn, but really just rented it out to farmers. So um, my aunt had it, but it was only a quarter mile down the road. So we go over there a lot as kids and go up in the rafters and everything. And oh yeah, soon in in the summer, you know, light comes in, you see the dust everywhere.

SPEAKER_04 19:14

I'm talking the old barn beam barns, yeah, old barn beam barns.

SPEAKER_03 19:22

Like the way you just described that is very much what you think of when you taste that, probably. That's awesome, isn't it? I love that about bourbon. Anyway, anyway, that's my side trick story. So you you're getting a little bit of that on this bottle, but not overpowering, right?

SPEAKER_02 19:37

Exactly. Yeah, just very, very minimal, but it's almost like you can taste like the craft part of it, like, hey, this is a bit in a pot still, but like I know. Did we say what the age was? Like this not year, so uh no yet. It's it's it's bottom and bond. Okay, I was just about to say it's gotta be at least four years. It's a five-year-old. Okay, I could see that. I could see that you they they took their time with this, which I appreciate. I sometimes it's like you get these craft distilleries and they're like, this is our juice, and then you know, it's like one year old or like 18 months, and you're like, maybe you should have waited just a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 20:16

It's like they're doing it right with this bottle. I what I would say to piggyback off you like, and I'm gonna make a statement here, it's probably pretty bold statement, but I'd say this is if one of, if not the most friendliest, full flavored bottles I've ever had. Because normally when I say full flavored, it's gonna have some things that air quotes are uh, you know, aggressive, yeah, how we like to say it. You know what I mean? I don't mean that when I say full flavored in this because this is very friendly, but it's full flavored. There's a whole lot of flavor without making you feel like this is tiring out my tongue, my palate, you know. And I think that that's amazing. They're getting that in a five-year-old bourbon at a good price point from a small distillery. Like you're checking some boxes here, you know what I mean? And I love the old, the old school, they got the old bottled and bond. Sticker on the top. You don't see that as much these days, even with bottled and bond stuff, you don't see it. I love the way the bottle looks, the story is cool, flavor is just out of this world, I think. Uh, what what's the proof? We talked about the proof point yet.

SPEAKER_01 21:20

It's a hundred.

SPEAKER_03 21:21

Oh, yeah, because I was gonna say, I think they nailed it. I think I don't know what made them come up with the idea of a bottled and bond, but I think even if this hadn't been, the proof point is perfect. Yeah, 100. That's I wouldn't go any more or any less because I think you'd start to leave this you're cruising, you're in a cruising lane, you know what I mean? You don't want to make anything that's gonna kind of bring you up short or push you too far. I think it's perfect. Again, I don't say that too often about a bottle. I love this bottle, dude.

SPEAKER_01 21:51

Now you understand why I go through so many of them.

SPEAKER_03 21:56

Yeah, and from again, and you want to talk about known aimers. This is like, no people are gonna be like, what the heck is Barker's Mill? You know, or what is MV Roland? And it's one that I would seek out for sure. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:08

I think people would definitely get confused on the Barker's Mill, though, whether it's like, is Barker's Mill a distillery? When you first brought this out, I'm like, Barker's Mill, who is that? I thought it was the distillery it came from.

SPEAKER_03 22:21

Which I think is cool. I think that's a cool thing that they're really showcasing what it is, not who they are. They're understated. I love that. It just brings even more like, and then when you taste how complex it is, like the amount of flavors going on and such a short because it's not, I would say this the one thing this thing would lack is a long finish. Doesn't have it. But I think that keeps it from being tiring too. Agreed. Agreed. I think that that's perfect because you're getting so much flavor, boom, and then gone. That you want to drink it again, so you get boom and gone.

SPEAKER_04 22:57

Exactly. It makes you want to come back right away for another sip over.

SPEAKER_03 23:01

Those are the bottles that go so fast because you want to experience that again and experience it again.

SPEAKER_04 23:08

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 23:08

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 23:10

It doesn't get old. It won't get some you get that are just too sweet, like right? You hit them and they come in and they you start, and by about half the bottle, you're like, oh, that's sweet. I don't really want to get it.

SPEAKER_03 23:20

Or there's so much flavor, their palate overload. You know what I mean? And you're like, I can only have a few glasses and I'm good.

SPEAKER_04 23:25

This is what a second and a half.

SPEAKER_03 23:28

It's good. It's like it's like the kind of food that you can eat and eat and eat and eat until you eat too much of it. You don't realize that till way later. Thanksgiving? Yeah. It's not something you eat, and it's heavy.

SPEAKER_01 23:41

It's a given. I already know that. What would you guess the mash ball on this guy is?

SPEAKER_02 23:45

I'm gonna say, oh my gosh. Probably uh geez price. I don't know the specifics. Like I don't know what percentages, but what would you say is it's gotta have higher corn. I was gonna say, I'm gonna say uh 70 to 75 corn. And then probably uh the rest of the secondary grain, obviously, would probably be a rye, but there's definitely gotta be five to ten percent of wheat in there. Yeah, there's wheat, there's wheat in here. I'm gonna say 10, 10 of wheat. We'll just say 20 rye, 70 corn.

SPEAKER_03 24:18

Surprised if there was any any anything besides wheat, corn, and maybe rye in here. Maybe a maybe a hint of barley. That's it. That's what that's what I would say. No malt or anything like that.

SPEAKER_04 24:29

I already read the back of the bottle, so I'm keeping my mouth shut.

SPEAKER_01 24:31

It says it on the back, doesn't it? It does. That's all I'm curious.

SPEAKER_02 24:34

I hope I'm close.

SPEAKER_01 24:35

Going 70, 20, 10. I don't know the specifics, like percentages, but I know it's white corn, red winter wheat. Okay, yeah, and barley.

SPEAKER_03 24:45

Is it malted? Malted barley. I'm surprised it was malted. I thought it would just be yeah. Because I don't get that like malt. I don't get any of that malt, do you? I get a very little bit.

SPEAKER_01 24:55

Very little, it's very little bit in the back. But what this reminds me of is two.

SPEAKER_04 24:59

I hate malt so much that I'm like, I know, and that's why I think I tasted it and went, oh, I kind of like this. And then I read that and went, that's why.

SPEAKER_01 25:08

I think a little bit of malt adds a nice flavor to it, it adds a uniqueness to it. But there's two bottles or one distillery and one specific bottle that this reminds me of. The horse soldier store peg.

SPEAKER_03 25:18

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:20

The really dark, rich flavor, almost like bready. Like that was really good. Very bready. Yeah, very bready. Without being like rye. Right. Yeah. And it also reminds me of Journeymen. And I think because of the heavy red winter wheat, of like it's very, it doesn't come across like a typical weeded bourbon, but it adds just a bit of creamy undertones, but also just a nice little subtle. I think of like a fleece blanket. Like you kind of like warm up to it. You always want to like have that fleece side around. Like that's that's comforting.

SPEAKER_04 25:56

I think if anything, if anything lingers in this one, it's late, late, late, and it almost tastes, you can get that hint of breadiness at the end of it. And I I love that.

SPEAKER_03 26:08

This is a this is friendly in a way Journeyman is not right.

SPEAKER_01 26:11

So the breadiness, we talk about like rye breadiness. This is like, I don't know if you my mom used to make on Sunday mornings, she'd throw it in the bread maker, but it was a like a homemade potato bread. Interesting. And she used like instant potato flakes that were in it that kind of it wasn't like a white bread. It was a white bread, but a pound cake? No, it it was like it came out. I don't know what a potato bread is.

SPEAKER_02 26:36

I'm glad you said that because at first my initial like took a nose of it first taste. For some reason, it was screaming breakfast. Potatoes and eggs and eggs.

SPEAKER_03 26:49

I can get that, like a hash, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:50

Yeah, I could get that. That's almost what the bread tastes like. It kind of came out like that kind of potato hash kind of flavor. This would be good for breakfast. Right. Like it'd be great for breakfast. It's very timing right now, you guys? And pancakes, what do you think? It's like a Sunday morning coming down, man. I don't think that there's anything out there like this and flavor.

SPEAKER_03 27:12

And and flavor with the mixed with the flavor. I I keep going back to that because you don't typically get something this full flavored that's this easygoing.

SPEAKER_01 27:22

Oh, yeah, yeah. They opened their doors in 2009, right? You talk about I hear Chris and Blake, you guys talk about they take their time. You can definitely tell they take their time. 2009, they open up their doors. They didn't release this guy, which is a five-year-old. So you'd think, you know, five years down the road, we could start releasing this, right? They didn't release this until 2022. Oh, wow. That's the first time that they released this. That's crazy. I was gonna say probably late to the 2010s. Well, I don't I don't know if it was a it took a late or a long time to set up shop. I think I I'd like to think that the reason why they they named it Barker's Mill and what they wanted to try to honor and and do all of that, I think they wanted to take their time to make sure it's perfect. This this is what we can release. We have a comfort in our mind saying this fits. This this pays honor to Barker's Mill, to the community. This is something that someone can pick up and try and go, yep.

SPEAKER_03 28:22

They've got to be hard pressed to sell any other bottles. Like they're the only I I have a feeling that they're only selling bottles after this one to like people at the distillery, you know what I mean? Because like if you try this, it doesn't get much better than us.

SPEAKER_01 28:35

We've tried some of their other stuff that corn whiskey, yeah, yeah, and that was that had the undertones of this. That was really good. So I think they've got something going on. I need I need more, right?

SPEAKER_05 28:44

I need more too. I I I I didn't have enough of it to say for sure.

SPEAKER_01 28:48

So here's the fun part. I've only heard one other person talk about MB Rollin Distillery, and that was at a another distillery in in Pennsylvania or in Pittsburgh, right? Just I think it's like 20 minutes outside of Pittsburgh, that was Liberty Pole Distillery. And I got to talk to the owners and their son, one of their sons, and uh their son Rob had on an MB Rollin shirt, and I was like, that seems odd. Like I kept looking at it, I was like, I'm not in Kentucky, but that seems odd. Like it just kept in the back of my mind, I'm like, this isn't Kentucky, but that's odd. As if I'm in Kentucky, I'm like, that just seems weird, just seems weird. And we get to talking, and his dad points out a shirt and goes, Have you heard of MB Roland? And I was like, Yes, absolutely I have. And he goes, hands down, one of our favorite distilleries, dude. That makes me love why he goes, because we went to we got to talk to the owner, Paul, of the distillery, and to the point where he was like, Hey, if you want us to kind of show you how to distill and like give you some pointers, we would we'd be all for that. Like, we would we would want to help you guys out.

SPEAKER_03 29:54

Oh, that's cool. What a giving like person, right?

SPEAKER_01 29:58

And I I look at that, I'm like, I immediately go, have you heard of still 630? Because that sounds a lot like still 630. And they're like, ironically, we've also met the distiller there, and he apparently is uh he likes to talk and drink because there's a story they told me that their sons got to meet him at a convention of some kind, and at 2 30 in the morning, he was still trying to keep him out to drink and talk. Wow, and I was like, Yeah, that sounds about right. That sounds about right for him. And they were like, We love him, he's a great guy. But they had nothing but great things to say about MB Rowling.

SPEAKER_03 30:32

Well, and that kind of makes sense because we just had a bottle, not to get too much into it, but of Liberty Pull, and it went quick. Oh, really quick. And I there was some similarities between that and this a little bit.

SPEAKER_04 30:44

The Liberty Pull you gave me the other night. I was like, put that away because we're gonna finish it if you don't.

SPEAKER_03 30:49

Yeah, we did. Very good. Yeah, we finished ours.

SPEAKER_04 30:52

Very, very nice. It was wonderful.

SPEAKER_03 30:54

Wow, yeah. I'm I'm super impressed with this um bottle, and I want, I want it.

SPEAKER_01 31:03

So I keep saying it's hard to get. I have only seen it two times. Uh I guess the first time Mary saw it. So I've only really seen it once, and it was at Party Source, and they had two bottles, and that was it that was left. And I was like, done, I'm taking them. Now, this guy sells about 40 to 45 bucks a bottle. So it's a good deal. Holy cow! I like I pay more for that for sure. CJ, this is your first time ever having this. Yes. And thoughts?

SPEAKER_04 31:28

Oh, it's it's fantastic, it's wonderful. It hits everything, everything that I love. But you're a finished guy.

SPEAKER_01 31:33

You you uh you gravitate towards finished product.

SPEAKER_04 31:37

I very much do, for sure.

SPEAKER_01 31:40

Is this reminiscent of that? Is that why you like this?

SPEAKER_04 31:45

I think I think it's the malted barley in it because what I've discovered in the last year or so that hurrican single malts.

SPEAKER_03 31:54

You like that, huh?

SPEAKER_04 31:55

Brother Ooh, brother, ooh, ooh, brother. What's that? What's that, brother? My my biggest thing with with any sort of whiskey is I want a story, I want a flavor profile, I want a those those one or two note done and hit you and move on type of freight trains. That's like a hit. That's not my thing. Yeah, like I want the length, the complexity. We had we had one the other night that had sandalwood and eucalyptus. Oh, wiggle one.

SPEAKER_03 32:29

Yeah, that wiggle one. Sounds like my shaving soap.

SPEAKER_04 32:32

Oh my gosh. It was so good. And it you could get from the first sip to the finish. It was check, check, check, check, check, check, check. I mean, right down the line. And it's it's so wonderful. And I think that's that's where this it's simple, it's good, but there's enough of a story there and enough of a flavor profile. And I think that's what I get out of like a malted, malted barley that gives you that different twist, right? That different flavor, like a like a finishing does. It it changes and makes it just enough complex that it makes you go, oh that's that's different, and that's good. And I like that. And I think that's where this, but like we said earlier, it doesn't linger, it doesn't, it doesn't, it's leaves you wanting more. It's not a hit it and quit it, but it's definitely a fast story, it's a short story, right? It's a short story which makes you go, Oh, I want it, I want another sip. Oh, I want another sip. And I could uh definitely see this being something that you know, you open with a couple buddies, everybody tries it, and it's gone in a night.

SPEAKER_01 33:46

I I will say this is not a everyday drinker, no thinker. This this has some thought process involved. It's it's full, it's rounded. This is also an everyday drinker. Yeah, I was gonna say, but it could be.

SPEAKER_03 33:58

It could be. It's one of those that doesn't fit in either one. I think it's an everyday drinker, but it is a thinker. Yes, what I'm saying. Because I don't think I could ever pour this and just this is not wild turkey 101, right? That is everyday drinker, no thinker. Like, I'm gonna pour this and sip, I can take shots, I can mix it, I can drink it. No problem. For me, yes, but like this, I could drink every day all day, but I'm gonna think about it. Like, it's not something I can just boom, boom, boom. Like, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_04 34:26

For for us, I think we can think about it. But if you have somebody that's newer into whiskey that wants to try something like this, this is perfect. Yeah, it's got a great flavor, it's friendly, it makes them want to come back for more. We can think about it and pick it out, and they can sip it all night long and go, man, this is just good and have a great conversation and don't have to think about it.

SPEAKER_03 34:52

It's very uh again, it's and I think I said this before, but for the amount of flavor you're getting, it's just so friendly. You don't see that too often. Uh like even I but even like something like Blanton's, very friendly, it falls short in the flavor. Oh, compared to this. It's it's yeah, it's sweet. I mean, it's it's good, but the like the flavor is not rounded, it's not full, it's not a full flavored thing. It's good. This is full flavor, and to be that friendly at that full flavor is quite amazing. I don't know if I can say any other bottle is that full flavored and being that friendly. I can't think of anything else.

SPEAKER_01 35:29

I can't think in fact, I was thinking in my head, this is a weeded bourbon. Yeah, and I'm thinking Weller, this is this is a thousand times better than Weller.

SPEAKER_03 35:38

This is Weller with more flavor, right?

SPEAKER_04 35:39

Yeah, it's different than Weller, but I think you can attest that to that malted barley, though. I do think malted barley plays a big look.

SPEAKER_03 35:48

If if every American single malt tasted like this, I'd have no problem. But there's something about that American single malt that I get at the end, and it it's I've said it before, I'll say it again, I'll say it a million times. It's this stale, it's this stale thing that I just don't like, and it lingers on my palate, and I just hate it.

SPEAKER_04 36:08

Um little book six that American single malt, that was my favorite, hands down.

SPEAKER_03 36:14

I mean, it's if you ever smoked a cigar and let it go out, yes, and made the foolish, foolish, greedy mistake of just lighting it back up and smoking it, it's gross.

SPEAKER_04 36:25

That's not what I get out of American single balls.

SPEAKER_03 36:27

It's not the flavor, but it's the same feeling. It's this is stale, this is past its point of prime, this is gross, this is nasty.

SPEAKER_04 36:37

This is where I'm at with it. But this is this is not that even though it's a big thing. No, this is not that at all.

SPEAKER_03 36:41

This is this is if every American single malt tasted like this, uh sign me up. Yeah, because this is I'm surprised there's malted barley in here. But it doesn't have barley barley that I've liked. But this does not have an overwhelming, lingering. This is really good, really great, and then it's gone, and then you want another sip. And at the price, like, hell yeah, dude.

SPEAKER_01 37:02

With it being a weeded bourbon, most guys get their start with the weeded bourbons. Would this be something that you could find a newbie? Say, here's a great bottle to get your start on.

SPEAKER_03 37:13

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 37:13

I think so.

SPEAKER_01 37:14

Do you think it would scare them off at all?

SPEAKER_03 37:16

No, I don't think it's scare them. I think it would be a I think it would ruin them a little bit. Really? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 37:20

They'd be vastly disappointed with a lot of other things.

SPEAKER_03 37:23

Yeah. They would be like, okay, then other people would be like, Oh, have you tried this? No, it's not as good. I I I really feel like it's like going from from you know, like stick figures to like Picasso or something, and then being like, okay, these other artists kind of blow, you know.

SPEAKER_02 37:38

Yeah, I'm kind of on the fence. It's super friendly, but I would almost say this is like my second bottle I'd give somebody, be like, hey, here's Buffalo Tracer, here's like wood for reserve. Like super friendly, this is what bourbon is, and then let's try something else, you know, a little bit more flavor.

SPEAKER_03 37:55

It'd be hard not to give this to somebody, but I do think you'd be ruining them a little bit. But that's not my problem.

SPEAKER_01 38:02

Would it be a thing of like this is what bourbon is to this is what bourbon could be? That's probably kind of the spectrum of like there's a not like a big gap between the two. Right.

SPEAKER_04 38:11

There's so much in between, but like this is your this is your Evan Williams, you know, this is your Elijah Craig, this is your Buffalo Trace, this is your your very Williams, though, is not something that I would give somebody first off because that Evan Williams bottle and bond hunter proof, that's a little that can be a little that can be a little kicky and it takes a few years to enjoy something like that. That's one of those that I'm like, you know, a year or two in, I'm like, hey, you want a great price point bottle for what it is? Get this, have it in your cabinet, give it to your friends to mix if they want to, and if you want to sip on it, you can. So, like basil Hayden, regular basil Hayden, 80 proof. We all wish that they would just go higher, but they won't. That's great, mixed with coke. But right, but but if I were to black basil, it is, it is, and I would agree with it. I just want it to be a good idea. I'm going to start somebody in, I would say, and I have a lot of friends that are like, oh yeah, I'm an avid whiskey drinker, and you know, one of my favorite things is basil Hayden. Great, basil Hayden is good. Try this, right? Like, that's where I would kind of go for.

SPEAKER_03 39:23

People take my progression, which was not a bad progression, it's things like that, right? Woodford, and then you get into Basil Hayden, you get into four rows of single barrel, you know what I mean? You start working your way up. That's a great ladder to climb. I just think going from like Woodford to this, you're just skipping up a whole nother level. It's great, it's fantastic. They're gonna be blown away. They're not gonna appreciate the maybe years later they will, but they won't appreciate all the other stuff in between because they've gone from something good to something great. Oh, yeah. And it's tough. I would I would classify this as a great bottle. Oh, this is a great bottle. This is a this is a great bottle. I try we try a lot of stuff, and I'm telling you, this is one of the best things I've tried this year. And I've we we've had a lot of stuff so far this year. So saying something.

SPEAKER_01 40:06

I was recently talking to someone about Kentucky bourbon, you know, bourbon whiskey coming out of Kentucky versus other states. And there was a guy that made a comment that uh specifically about bourbon, because they he he loves a rye, and there's so much variety with rye, but he uh there's the concern that people don't realize that yet, don't recognize the variety that can be had with rye. And his comment was Kentucky bourbon is good, but Kentucky bourbon is bourbon. Any distillery coming out of Kentucky is the same flavor profile. Hell no.

SPEAKER_02 40:39

They are wrong. You're you're dead wrong.

SPEAKER_01 40:41

I say that because we we just had two Kentucky bourbons coming out of Kentucky, craft distilleries, unknown, no-namers, kind of underrated. I'm going to go out on a limb and say for all of you, one was a thousand times better than the other one.

SPEAKER_04 40:57

Well, this this one beats the socks off the last episode that we did. If if you went to Germany.

SPEAKER_02 41:04

Where are you going with this? I'm looking at the time right now.

SPEAKER_03 41:08

Really, yeah, really short. And if you had 10 omas, 10 grandmas that were gonna make you lunch every day, 10 different families of women who were grandmas, right? So they've been around the block, and you're gonna have a good if you ever had a meal made from by an omas, if you haven't, you're missing out. Okay, good German food. Or a meal made by a grandma. A grandma, well, it's kind of the same thing, I guess. But I'm thinking German food specifically. But you could say any, but then in America we have different levels. I'm just saying German food specifically. And you were to eat 10 10 days at 10 different Oma's houses, lunch. You telling me you're gonna say they're all the same. They're not all the same. Like they might all make sauerkraut, they might all make it the same dish. Yeah, it might be the same dish, but they are going to change from even potatoes are gonna change from place to place to place. But they're all in the same area, they're making with the same ingredients, they're different. Yeah, that's Kentucky bourbon for you. Like, you are not gonna get to say like they're all the same. Shut up, dude. Like, that's stupid. Like, that is the stupidest thing I've ever heard of. That's like saying, well, they all went to the same art school, so they all put out the same paintings. I mean, but would you say that?

SPEAKER_01 42:18

Would you say that they're they're all the same, or they become closer to being all the same when you start in the same category when you're not.

SPEAKER_03 42:32

I mean, it's like every golfer is playing the same game with the same clubs and the same ball, but they play it in a different way. Bingo.

SPEAKER_04 42:39

I also think it's I mean, you're all on the same division, right? But there are people in the division that far outweigh the other people in the division. Like you you've got some that are that are really heavy hitters. You've got other guys that are that are just smaller, not quite there yet, trying to figure it out or doing something in a different way that maybe people just haven't caught on to yet. This this is this is some this to me, this is a heavy hitter. This is something that you could put on the shelf, and I will go back and buy. I empty the bottle, it's I'm gonna buy another one. Yeah, especially for what you said, $45? Good good stats all around. I mean, you might see some go up to $50, but but I would pay $75 for that bottle all day long. But did you say the price point on this was again?

SPEAKER_01 43:26

Uh $40 to $45 is oh, that's a no-brainer. $150 all day.

SPEAKER_02 43:31

$150 all day.

SPEAKER_01 43:32

I've seen some go up $250, but normally they're around that that $40 to $45.

SPEAKER_02 43:37

I was like $250.

SPEAKER_01 43:40

Towards $50.

SPEAKER_02 43:41

Towards $50. You know what I mean? $50 and $100, yes. Single barrel.

SPEAKER_04 43:45

Would you pay $75 for this? Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 43:47

Easily. Oh, I'd pay $85. This bottle is worth way more than what it's asking.

SPEAKER_02 43:52

Not that I want it to be more.

SPEAKER_03 43:53

Sub $50, this is a no brainer all day. For me, under $80, this bottle shines. Anything under $80. 100%.

SPEAKER_01 44:00

I mean if we're talking no-namers, undername like uh underrated craft distilleries or bottles, right? We're talking to company MB Rollin that we all love. That this bottle is fantastic. I think we can say most of their stuff is probably going to be similar, if not fantastic, in and of itself. Got their start in 2009, took their time to get to this release of 2022. So it's only been out for well, they're two uh three years now. So they've only been releasing this bottle for three years. Whereas the last one, 2015, is when they got their start. So they're 10 years old and they're still putting out two-year-old product. That's good. It's good for two years. It's it's good. But is there something to be said about taking your time to not just put out good like the Glen's Creek was it was good, it was good.

SPEAKER_04 44:55

This is great. I'm a big proponent when I see something that's I think I mentioned it to you last night, four years, that's their cutoff, right? When I see something that's over four years, I know somebody waited on it. I know somebody said this is the minimum, or that I that is normal, right? Most people, you get a lot of four-year stuff. I see that five, six year, and I go, somebody was patient and waited and tasted and said, That's not quite where I want it yet.

SPEAKER_03 45:30

That's exactly it's intentional. Anything after four years is intentional. Everything anything below four years is kind of like could it could be amazing, but it could just be I need to get this out, right? Anything over four years, is intentional. I'm intentionally doing this and I'm trying it and I'm going along. When am I gonna pull it? When's the best time?

SPEAKER_04 45:49

I'm not gonna knock anybody for running a business, right? Somebody, you you get to a point where two years, it tastes great. Hey, we can sell this. The last episode we did, you can sell that. It's something that somebody's gonna niche and like and wrong with McDonald's. Absolutely not. Sometimes it fits the bill. If you're talking about Mancy's steakhouse, I've got three kids, I know what McDonald's is like sometimes. You gotta kind of wait on it, you know. There is something to be said also for for waiting, and I don't know, like I think they're at a point with this that they can, right? I mean, I've never tried, I haven't tried anything else that they have, but I will say they can.

SPEAKER_01 46:28

They take it a step further, though, because they technically only have to do four years old for the bottle of the bond. And they're like, they go five. We're gonna go five.

SPEAKER_03 46:35

I have a feeling they tried it at four and said nah, and they waited.

SPEAKER_01 46:38

Well, the fact that they still waited because they're like, we can release a bottle of the bond product, and people are probably gonna see bottle of the bond. They'll probably go, Oh, go buy it. You know, I it's reliable.

SPEAKER_03 46:46

Dude, this might have been at 75% at four years, right?

SPEAKER_01 46:48

And they tried it at four years and went, We could sell it, it'd be good.

SPEAKER_03 46:52

I wouldn't even want it anymore. I I don't I think this is perfect. I wouldn't want them to change one thing about it. I don't think you can improve upon it.

SPEAKER_04 47:00

I think they I think they intentionally tasted and tasted and tasted and got to a point and went, that's what I want. Like they had a flavor profile in mind, they had a thought process, it hit it, and that's where they went. They pulled it out. Intentional.

SPEAKER_03 47:15

Good bottle. This is gonna be fun.

SPEAKER_01 47:17

Drink it.

SPEAKER_03 47:17

Everybody get it.

SPEAKER_01 47:18

I know, everyone get it. If you can find it, get it.

SPEAKER_03 47:20

Get it because then they'll maybe they'll start putting it in more places.

SPEAKER_01 47:23

Fire sale, get it now. We stuck within Kentucky with these last two. We're we're gonna be making our way up to Michigan uh for our next one, and we're switching it into a rye. Yes, we're switching the next two into Rise, but they are gonna be interesting. So I'm excited.

SPEAKER_04 47:40

Yeah, excited to see what happens.

SPEAKER_01 47:42

Yeah, stay tuned.

SPEAKER_00 47:48

Thank you for listening to the podcast. If you want more great content and other perks, be sure to support the show by clicking the link in the show notes. We can be reached on our website, whiskey tasterspomba.com, with any ideas for the show. Thanks again.