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Today on the Bourbon Bytes Podcast, the 15-month tariff on Scotch is officially dead,
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the launch of a new whiskey focused AI, and Beyonce takes full ownership of Sir Davis Whiskey.
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Then I have a Byte-Sized review of a bourbon that's supporting local firefighters and first responders.
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Hello everyone and welcome to the Bourbon Bytes Podcast. I'm your host Clifton and this is the
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of July 30th, 2026. We are wrapping out a very busy month here in the world of whiskey news,
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but we're about to get into the fall, so that means there's going to be more coming in than
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ever. But we do have a few news stories here today that are exciting and ones that are good
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conversation starters. So I'm excited to talk about them and hopefully you're just as excited
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to hear them. So let's get into it. The first piece of news is very exciting for scotch enthusiasts
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because the 10% U.S. tariff on scotch is gone as of this week. This tariff lasted for about 15 months
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and each of those had about 20 million pounds a month of losses, which is crazy because the U.S.
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is the largest market for scotch by value overall. So this 10% duty did a lot of damage and we saw
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prices increase across the board and weirdly enough bottles also became harder to find because
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they just weren't selling. But the controversy is there's a chance that these prices may not
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come down even though the tariffs are gone and that's just because of the overall cost of
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production of whiskey. I mean inflation is crazy across the board, so while it is a short-term win,
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there's no guarantee that the bottle prices are going to start coming down to where they were.
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The Whiskey Wash has a really great article on this. You can check it out on their website. It
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breaks down all the numbers and the percentages of how much was slipping. They did a poll of people
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to see how the tariff affected people's whiskey purchases. Really insightful info there, but
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I'm hopeful that this means that the market starts picking up again. I think people were turned off
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by these tariffs and they were starting to look into other sources of whiskey. Don't get me wrong,
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I love buying American whiskey or whiskey from other regions, but I think scotch is such an
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important part of whiskey culture and I think their sales being down like 20 million pounds a
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is crazy. A good point they make overall is this could be beneficial for scotch beyond just the
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bottles on the shelves. A lot of different distilleries are pulling out of festivals and
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activations in the U.S. because of this tariff, but now that it seems like things have kind of
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reset a bit, there's a chance that the marketing inside the U.S. may change. They may start coming
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back out to America, promoting their brands, and kind of getting things the way they used to be.
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I think I would love to see more of that for sure. So while I do think it's an overall win
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for the scotch whiskey market, I do think it's going to take a while for us to actually see some
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of those benefits. And do I think that they're going to pass those savings on to us? We'll see.
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I just doubt it in today's market with everything else going on. Speaking of other things going on,
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here's an interesting one. So there's a website called CASKD. It's C-A-S-K-D and it is a platform
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for the U.K. for selling and trading bottles. Now of course this is not legal in the U.S.,
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but in the U.K. they actually are allowed to do trades as long as it's not on like a retail level
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scale. This was news to me. I actually had no idea that this was legal in the U.K.
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But what CASKD has done is launched CASKD AI, which is the first AI that I'm aware of that is
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developed for scotch enthusiasts. They say that this one has been purposefully built to understand
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the unique characteristics of scotch whiskey, including distilleries, maturation, independent
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bottlers, auction markets, and investment trends. They said they've programmed it with market
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valuation, marketplace research, collection analysis, whiskey expertise, and of course,
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CASKD support for their platform, including things like pricing, fees, everything like that.
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And while I haven't decided how much I want to dive into this and see how good it actually is,
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I think it is an interesting application to see this vast world of whiskey knowledge being fed
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to build an AI, you know, large language model. I'm sure people are already using AI to research
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different bottles, you know, based on what they like. And I'm sure it's pulling in data from
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whiskey reviewers like myself, whether we like it too or not. But it's exciting to see when
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purposely built for the collectors. Now, I'm not sure if they're also pulling from other sources
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as well. It would be cool if it was totally proprietary and it was just pulling in, you know,
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the databases from the, you know, the liquor stores and everything like that. I think that
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would be really cool. But knowing how AI works, I have a feeling there's probably a lot of
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hallucinations in there in terms of like what it suggests based on what people like.
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And also just based on what I've used AI for in terms of researching whiskey,
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a lot of the info, it gets really confused on outdated info. So it'll start showing you prices
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from like 10 years ago, which are no longer accurate. So you really have to be careful
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when researching whiskey with AI. I think it's a great starting point. And I think maybe this
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platform might be even more carefully nuanced since they are considering market valuation,
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but I just wanted to touch on it because I know people have different feelings on AI.
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Would you or have you used AI to research whiskey or check market valuations or, you know,
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track your collection? I'd love to hear what your use cases are for it. Now, the next story I'm
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'crazy in love' with because Beyonce has taken full ownership of the Sir Davis American Whiskey brand.
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Back in 2024, she released this brand along with Moët Hennessy, which is of course the large
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wine and spirits brand. And for this whiskey, she collaborated with the head blender for the
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brand, Cameron George, who's a great guy. I've had him on the channel before talking about a
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different brand. So this was all a collaboration between the brand and Beyonce herself. But now
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it's been announced that she has full ownership of the brand, which is interesting because Sir
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Davis was the first spirit brand made from scratch in the U.S. by Moët Hennessy. So it's
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interesting to see that they are giving that up and Beyonce is taking ownership of it.
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What that means for the brand, I'm not sure. I hope Cameron can still be involved in it because
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like I said, he comes from a really great background in whiskey making, especially in Scotch.
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So I'm excited to see what else is coming from the brand. I've heard that they are doing other
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releases, not just this initial release. The first one I was just a little mad about, you know, it
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was a mash bill, 51% rye, 49% malted barley, um, was a unique finish. Wasn't quite my favorite,
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but I've heard that there's going to be future releases of this. And I love that Beyonce is
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so invested in it that she's going to take full ownership. Now with that, you know, we'll see
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how much she does with the brand. Hopefully she keeps the team in place. That's, you know,
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crafted this whiskey. I love the bottle. I always praise the bottle. It's really,
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really cool, but, um, I don't know. I'm excited about this. I think, you know,
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it's always great to see celebrities, not just be a face or a name on a whiskey, but
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actually have, you know, faith in the brand and, you know, have some financial stakes in it
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because I swear a lot of celebrity whiskeys, they have nothing to do with it. They're just there to
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market the product, but I don't know. I trust Beyonce's palate. I think she's probably pretty
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good at knowing, uh, what her fans want. So I'm excited for the future and, uh, congrats to her.
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If you ever want to be interviewed on the podcast, you know, hit me up.
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All right. We've got a couple of new whiskey releases to talk about today before we get into
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our byte-sized review. The first of which is a new eight-year bottled in bond bourbon from Bib
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& Tucker. Um, this is a 100 proof expression. It's going to come out in September of this year.
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Bib & Tucker is a brand that I really haven't reported on a lot. And I think it's just because
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it flies under the radar, but seeing an eight-year bottle and bond expression come from them is
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pretty exciting. Now this is going to be distilled at Tennessee Distilling Group in Tennessee. Um,
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so it's not George Dickel. I think in the past they had used George Dickel for some of
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their releases. Um, so that's a little good to see. I'm not a big fan of the George Dickel
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flavor profile. Um, but this sounds really good. They distilled this back in spring of 2018.
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They say they use a high rye mash bill with this one and it's non-chill filtered. And the best
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part is it's coming in for just $65 a bottle. So this is one that I'm going to keep an eye out
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for, for sure. I think I'd love to revisit the brand, give it another try because like I said,
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some of the ones I've had in the past were either really young or sourced from George Dickel,
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which is not my favorite Tennessee whiskey. Um, but yeah, I'm excited to see this added to their
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lineup. I think it's always good to see one new age statements and two bottled in bond releases
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because that means they're taking their stuff seriously and I commend them for it. So check
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that out. Let me know how it is. If you get a chance to try it before me. All right. We have
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two new whiskeys coming to us from Dancing Goat Distillery. They are based out of Cambridge,
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Wisconsin. Um, and they have a new 10 year Stillman's Sonder straight bourbon whiskey
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and a 10 year Stillman's Sonder American single malt whiskey. Now both of these were sourced
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from MGP in Indiana, but that happened over 10 years ago from 2010 to 2016. There was a bunch
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of exploratory casks done at MGP, um, that never really got used. So Dancing Goat went and picked
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these up, did some blending of their own and came out with this product. So the bourbon is going to
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be bottled at 94 proof. Um, and it seems to be doing really well in the competitions. It got a
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double gold and a 98 point rating at the San Francisco world spirits competition. Their American
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single malt is going to be bottled at 96.4 proof. Um, and it's been finished across a range of casks,
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including virgin Oak, ex bourbon, Wisconsin brandy, cognac, and Calvados. Uh, so not sure
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why they went through all three rounds of blending and rebarreling, but, uh, they seem
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pretty confident in it. Now, these are both going to be released online and across select us
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retailers at a retail price of $70 per bottle. They're also going to be doing limited single
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barrel selections of each. So that's something to keep an eye out for, for sure. So this is
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definitely one I'd love a chance to try. Um, just getting to try something that old from MGP is
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exciting in itself, but for 70 bucks, I'd give it a try. All right. Lastly, I'm going to quickly
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mention the new Bulleit '87. I think I touched on this when the TTB label came out, we didn't know
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much about it, but Bulleit is blending their bourbon and rye together. Like a lot of brands have been
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doing lately. I still don't get why that's a thing, but it's become a thing. Um, and they're
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calling it Bulleit '87 and it's going to come out in September for a low, low price of $29.99.
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But they do say the bourbon is distilled and aged in Shelbyville, Kentucky,
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while the rise distilled and aged in Indiana before moving to Shelbyville and both whiskeys
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are aged for a minimum of four years. So we do have an age statement, you know, it is 90 proof.
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And the last twist that makes this even more interesting is both the bourbon and the ride
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elements of this blend are finished separately in their own barrels with toasted American Oak and
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French Oak staves. And they say they finished them from about four to six weeks before being blended.
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So it does add an additional layer to it. It's not like they're just taking their bourbon and
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rye mashing it together. They're doing some unique finishing on it. So again, another one that I'd
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love to try. I do love Bulleit Rye. You know, I think it's a great expression of affordable
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95/5 rye from MGP. Um, and I'd like to see how some Kentucky bourbon tastes blended into that.
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So I'm not going to knock it till I try it. I think it's a great price point and, uh, you know
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what? I might finally catch on to this Bourye trend. We'll see. All right, well that does it
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for this week's news. Now let's get into our Byte-Sized review. All right, well, this is a
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fun bottle that was sent to me by the brand and I love a bourbon with a good story and even more so
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a bourbon that gives back. So when the folks from Lock + Co Distilling reached out to me,
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I was very excited to review their Big Blaze bourbon. So this comes to us from a distillery
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out of Denver, Colorado, and this is their second release of this Big Blaze bourbon,
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which is one of their limited edition series. And this one's labeled the East Troublesome
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Fire Edition. Um, and it's a tribute to the fire that broke out in October of 2020
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in the central Rocky Mountains of Grand County. They say that it rapidly grew into a 10,000 acre
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inferno that spread to Grand Lake and Rocky Mountain National Park. It destroyed more than
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400 homes and scorched over 193,000 acres. This was the second largest wildfire in Colorado's
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history. And this tribute bottle actually goes back to support the cause. So 10% of all the
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sales benefit firefighters and first responders of Grand County, Colorado. And that's actually
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a huge chunk. You know, I see these tribute bottles that give one or 2%, but giving a full
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10% to a cause very, very local is so exciting. And I'm honored to be able to feature this bottle
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on the channel. Now let's talk about the whiskey itself. This is a 95 proof bourbon, um, at five
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year age statement that's been finished in charred Aspen discs sourced directly from the wildfire
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area. So they say the spirit is created literally from the ashes of the blaze. Now it is worth
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mentioning that this is a Kentucky bourbon. Um, they don't say where it's actually distilled other
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than just in Kentucky for a minimum of five years. Um, but they did do the aging in Lakewood,
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Colorado with that secondary finish. And like I said, this one comes in at 95 proof and has a
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$58.99. There's a really cool artwork on the front. It's a, it's a sketch of firefighters
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walking into a blaze. Really, really interesting story and really cool. They featured the different
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logos of the fire stations on the back, just a really cool bottle in general. They say this is
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available to purchase online in 48 States across the nation, as well as being available in Colorado
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bars, restaurants, and liquor stores. So I'm really curious to see how that Aspen would finish
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affects this whiskey. I think that makes it one of the most unique finishes just because it has
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the story to go along with it. You know, we see the Tornado Surviving bottles from Buffalo Trace,
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which have been affected by that climate change of the tornado. So there is something there,
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but this is even more directly impacted, I think. So let's go ahead and give this a nose.
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Oh yeah. Yeah. It's got a nice extra layer of toastiness that, um, I wouldn't expect as much
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on a five-year bourbon. It's like a really warming kind of a toasted Oak note, a little
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bit nutty, but very, very sweet. I mean, five-year bourbon is tends to be a little bit more in the
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vanilla category, but that toasted element is adding another layer to it. And I like it on
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the nose. There's a little bit of a muscadine grape note there as well. Um, I'm not sure if
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that's coming from the finish of the bourbon itself. Um, but it's interesting to get that
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much fruitiness combined with that toastiness. That's that's rare in a bourbon. Nice. Well,
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overall good nose. Let's go in for a taste. Cheers. Oh yeah. That toastiness carries through,
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but it almost goes a little chocolatey on the palate. You know, it's still that very sweet,
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you know, young ish bourbon. Um, there's some spice there a little bit, but that toastiness
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kind of brings out this darker element that kind of reads like a bitter chocolate on it,
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but it's a nice balance because like I said, it's sweet. So that bitter chocolate really
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elevates it and makes it a little bit more complex than I would get, um, from other bourbons around
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this age finish wise, I would say about medium. I think it does linger with that toasted element
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and then finishes with like that sweet, uh, sugary vanilla. Yeah, that's a solid sipper. I do think
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that that finish on it does bring a new layer to it that one adds to their story and two really
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brings a little more depth to what would be seen as a little bit of a lackluster whiskey. It really
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does enhance it, uh, and brings it to the next level. Not just that, but it's for a good cause.
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It's one big in the Ascot Awards from Fred Minnick. Um, and it just seems to be doing really
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well in local whiskey competitions, um, including the Denver international spirits competition. So
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for this being my first time trying Locke + Co, I'm pretty impressed. I think this is a solid
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foundation. I love a bourbon with a good story. And it seems like a lot of their other releases
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are collaborations, uh, to support different causes or different brands. I love to see that.
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I think it's a really unique take on what the bourbon industry does. And as long as they're
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continuing to support good causes, I'm a hundred percent here for it. So here on the Bourbon Bytes
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podcast, I like to give just one score for these bottles that I review out of 10. I think this one
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combines a solid base bourbon with a good story and an interesting finish. So I'm going to give
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this one a 6.5 out of 10. It's a little bit pricey, but knowing 10% of that bottle purchase
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supports local firefighters and first responders, uh, makes it worth it in my mind. Would I like
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it to be a little bit older, maybe a little bit higher proof? Yes. But I think overall,
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this is a fun bottle. It is a great story behind it. And it's a great reminder of
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all of the great work that first responders and firefighters do. I'm not just in Colorado. I mean,
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I live in Southern California where wildfires are so devastating. We've had so many in the past few
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years that have just wiped out whole communities. So I have nothing but love for fire departments
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and first responders. And, um, what a cool way to support the local community and tribute those
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that were affected by that fire. So well done Locke + Co. Alright, that does it for this week's
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episode. Thank you all so much for listening. I'll be back next month. We're heading into
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the fall. So stay tuned. I'm your host Clifton. This has been the Bourbon Bytes Podcast,
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a whiskey podcast with a gaming twist. Cheers. And I'll talk to you next episode.
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Today on the Bourbon Bytes Podcast, the 15-month tariff on Scotch is officially dead,
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the launch of a new whiskey focused AI, and Beyonce takes full ownership of Sir Davis Whiskey.
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Then I have a Byte-Sized review of a bourbon that's supporting local firefighters and first responders.
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Hello everyone and welcome to the Bourbon Bytes Podcast. I'm your host Clifton and this is the
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of July 30th, 2026. We are wrapping out a very busy month here in the world of whiskey news,
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but we're about to get into the fall, so that means there's going to be more coming in than
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ever. But we do have a few news stories here today that are exciting and ones that are good
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conversation starters. So I'm excited to talk about them and hopefully you're just as excited
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to hear them. So let's get into it. The first piece of news is very exciting for scotch enthusiasts
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because the 10% U.S. tariff on scotch is gone as of this week. This tariff lasted for about 15 months
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and each of those had about 20 million pounds a month of losses, which is crazy because the U.S.
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is the largest market for scotch by value overall. So this 10% duty did a lot of damage and we saw
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prices increase across the board and weirdly enough bottles also became harder to find because
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they just weren't selling. But the controversy is there's a chance that these prices may not
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come down even though the tariffs are gone and that's just because of the overall cost of
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production of whiskey. I mean inflation is crazy across the board, so while it is a short-term win,
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there's no guarantee that the bottle prices are going to start coming down to where they were.
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The Whiskey Wash has a really great article on this. You can check it out on their website. It
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breaks down all the numbers and the percentages of how much was slipping. They did a poll of people
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to see how the tariff affected people's whiskey purchases. Really insightful info there, but
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I'm hopeful that this means that the market starts picking up again. I think people were turned off
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by these tariffs and they were starting to look into other sources of whiskey. Don't get me wrong,
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I love buying American whiskey or whiskey from other regions, but I think scotch is such an
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important part of whiskey culture and I think their sales being down like 20 million pounds a
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is crazy. A good point they make overall is this could be beneficial for scotch beyond just the
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bottles on the shelves. A lot of different distilleries are pulling out of festivals and
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activations in the U.S. because of this tariff, but now that it seems like things have kind of
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reset a bit, there's a chance that the marketing inside the U.S. may change. They may start coming
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back out to America, promoting their brands, and kind of getting things the way they used to be.
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I think I would love to see more of that for sure. So while I do think it's an overall win
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for the scotch whiskey market, I do think it's going to take a while for us to actually see some
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of those benefits. And do I think that they're going to pass those savings on to us? We'll see.
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I just doubt it in today's market with everything else going on. Speaking of other things going on,
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here's an interesting one. So there's a website called CASKD. It's C-A-S-K-D and it is a platform
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for the U.K. for selling and trading bottles. Now of course this is not legal in the U.S.,
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but in the U.K. they actually are allowed to do trades as long as it's not on like a retail level
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scale. This was news to me. I actually had no idea that this was legal in the U.K.
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But what CASKD has done is launched CASKD AI, which is the first AI that I'm aware of that is
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developed for scotch enthusiasts. They say that this one has been purposefully built to understand
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the unique characteristics of scotch whiskey, including distilleries, maturation, independent
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bottlers, auction markets, and investment trends. They said they've programmed it with market
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valuation, marketplace research, collection analysis, whiskey expertise, and of course,
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CASKD support for their platform, including things like pricing, fees, everything like that.
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And while I haven't decided how much I want to dive into this and see how good it actually is,
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I think it is an interesting application to see this vast world of whiskey knowledge being fed
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to build an AI, you know, large language model. I'm sure people are already using AI to research
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different bottles, you know, based on what they like. And I'm sure it's pulling in data from
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whiskey reviewers like myself, whether we like it too or not. But it's exciting to see when
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purposely built for the collectors. Now, I'm not sure if they're also pulling from other sources
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as well. It would be cool if it was totally proprietary and it was just pulling in, you know,
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the databases from the, you know, the liquor stores and everything like that. I think that
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would be really cool. But knowing how AI works, I have a feeling there's probably a lot of
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hallucinations in there in terms of like what it suggests based on what people like.
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And also just based on what I've used AI for in terms of researching whiskey,
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a lot of the info, it gets really confused on outdated info. So it'll start showing you prices
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from like 10 years ago, which are no longer accurate. So you really have to be careful
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when researching whiskey with AI. I think it's a great starting point. And I think maybe this
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platform might be even more carefully nuanced since they are considering market valuation,
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but I just wanted to touch on it because I know people have different feelings on AI.
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Would you or have you used AI to research whiskey or check market valuations or, you know,
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track your collection? I'd love to hear what your use cases are for it. Now, the next story I'm
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'crazy in love' with because Beyonce has taken full ownership of the Sir Davis American Whiskey brand.
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Back in 2024, she released this brand along with Moët Hennessy, which is of course the large
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wine and spirits brand. And for this whiskey, she collaborated with the head blender for the
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brand, Cameron George, who's a great guy. I've had him on the channel before talking about a
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different brand. So this was all a collaboration between the brand and Beyonce herself. But now
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it's been announced that she has full ownership of the brand, which is interesting because Sir
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Davis was the first spirit brand made from scratch in the U.S. by Moët Hennessy. So it's
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interesting to see that they are giving that up and Beyonce is taking ownership of it.
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What that means for the brand, I'm not sure. I hope Cameron can still be involved in it because
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like I said, he comes from a really great background in whiskey making, especially in Scotch.
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So I'm excited to see what else is coming from the brand. I've heard that they are doing other
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releases, not just this initial release. The first one I was just a little mad about, you know, it
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was a mash bill, 51% rye, 49% malted barley, um, was a unique finish. Wasn't quite my favorite,
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but I've heard that there's going to be future releases of this. And I love that Beyonce is
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so invested in it that she's going to take full ownership. Now with that, you know, we'll see
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how much she does with the brand. Hopefully she keeps the team in place. That's, you know,
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crafted this whiskey. I love the bottle. I always praise the bottle. It's really,
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really cool, but, um, I don't know. I'm excited about this. I think, you know,
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it's always great to see celebrities, not just be a face or a name on a whiskey, but
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actually have, you know, faith in the brand and, you know, have some financial stakes in it
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because I swear a lot of celebrity whiskeys, they have nothing to do with it. They're just there to
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market the product, but I don't know. I trust Beyonce's palate. I think she's probably pretty
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good at knowing, uh, what her fans want. So I'm excited for the future and, uh, congrats to her.
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If you ever want to be interviewed on the podcast, you know, hit me up.
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All right. We've got a couple of new whiskey releases to talk about today before we get into
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our byte-sized review. The first of which is a new eight-year bottled in bond bourbon from Bib
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& Tucker. Um, this is a 100 proof expression. It's going to come out in September of this year.
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Bib & Tucker is a brand that I really haven't reported on a lot. And I think it's just because
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it flies under the radar, but seeing an eight-year bottle and bond expression come from them is
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pretty exciting. Now this is going to be distilled at Tennessee Distilling Group in Tennessee. Um,
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so it's not George Dickel. I think in the past they had used George Dickel for some of
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their releases. Um, so that's a little good to see. I'm not a big fan of the George Dickel
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flavor profile. Um, but this sounds really good. They distilled this back in spring of 2018.
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They say they use a high rye mash bill with this one and it's non-chill filtered. And the best
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part is it's coming in for just $65 a bottle. So this is one that I'm going to keep an eye out
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for, for sure. I think I'd love to revisit the brand, give it another try because like I said,
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some of the ones I've had in the past were either really young or sourced from George Dickel,
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which is not my favorite Tennessee whiskey. Um, but yeah, I'm excited to see this added to their
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lineup. I think it's always good to see one new age statements and two bottled in bond releases
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because that means they're taking their stuff seriously and I commend them for it. So check
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that out. Let me know how it is. If you get a chance to try it before me. All right. We have
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two new whiskeys coming to us from Dancing Goat Distillery. They are based out of Cambridge,
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Wisconsin. Um, and they have a new 10 year Stillman's Sonder straight bourbon whiskey
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and a 10 year Stillman's Sonder American single malt whiskey. Now both of these were sourced
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from MGP in Indiana, but that happened over 10 years ago from 2010 to 2016. There was a bunch
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of exploratory casks done at MGP, um, that never really got used. So Dancing Goat went and picked
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these up, did some blending of their own and came out with this product. So the bourbon is going to
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be bottled at 94 proof. Um, and it seems to be doing really well in the competitions. It got a
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double gold and a 98 point rating at the San Francisco world spirits competition. Their American
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single malt is going to be bottled at 96.4 proof. Um, and it's been finished across a range of casks,
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including virgin Oak, ex bourbon, Wisconsin brandy, cognac, and Calvados. Uh, so not sure
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why they went through all three rounds of blending and rebarreling, but, uh, they seem
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pretty confident in it. Now, these are both going to be released online and across select us
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retailers at a retail price of $70 per bottle. They're also going to be doing limited single
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barrel selections of each. So that's something to keep an eye out for, for sure. So this is
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definitely one I'd love a chance to try. Um, just getting to try something that old from MGP is
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exciting in itself, but for 70 bucks, I'd give it a try. All right. Lastly, I'm going to quickly
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mention the new Bulleit '87. I think I touched on this when the TTB label came out, we didn't know
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much about it, but Bulleit is blending their bourbon and rye together. Like a lot of brands have been
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doing lately. I still don't get why that's a thing, but it's become a thing. Um, and they're
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calling it Bulleit '87 and it's going to come out in September for a low, low price of $29.99.
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But they do say the bourbon is distilled and aged in Shelbyville, Kentucky,
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while the rise distilled and aged in Indiana before moving to Shelbyville and both whiskeys
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are aged for a minimum of four years. So we do have an age statement, you know, it is 90 proof.
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And the last twist that makes this even more interesting is both the bourbon and the ride
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elements of this blend are finished separately in their own barrels with toasted American Oak and
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French Oak staves. And they say they finished them from about four to six weeks before being blended.
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So it does add an additional layer to it. It's not like they're just taking their bourbon and
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rye mashing it together. They're doing some unique finishing on it. So again, another one that I'd
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love to try. I do love Bulleit Rye. You know, I think it's a great expression of affordable
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95/5 rye from MGP. Um, and I'd like to see how some Kentucky bourbon tastes blended into that.
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So I'm not going to knock it till I try it. I think it's a great price point and, uh, you know
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what? I might finally catch on to this Bourye trend. We'll see. All right, well that does it
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for this week's news. Now let's get into our Byte-Sized review. All right, well, this is a
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fun bottle that was sent to me by the brand and I love a bourbon with a good story and even more so
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a bourbon that gives back. So when the folks from Lock + Co Distilling reached out to me,
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I was very excited to review their Big Blaze bourbon. So this comes to us from a distillery
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out of Denver, Colorado, and this is their second release of this Big Blaze bourbon,
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which is one of their limited edition series. And this one's labeled the East Troublesome
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Fire Edition. Um, and it's a tribute to the fire that broke out in October of 2020
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in the central Rocky Mountains of Grand County. They say that it rapidly grew into a 10,000 acre
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inferno that spread to Grand Lake and Rocky Mountain National Park. It destroyed more than
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400 homes and scorched over 193,000 acres. This was the second largest wildfire in Colorado's
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history. And this tribute bottle actually goes back to support the cause. So 10% of all the
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sales benefit firefighters and first responders of Grand County, Colorado. And that's actually
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a huge chunk. You know, I see these tribute bottles that give one or 2%, but giving a full
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10% to a cause very, very local is so exciting. And I'm honored to be able to feature this bottle
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on the channel. Now let's talk about the whiskey itself. This is a 95 proof bourbon, um, at five
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year age statement that's been finished in charred Aspen discs sourced directly from the wildfire
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area. So they say the spirit is created literally from the ashes of the blaze. Now it is worth
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mentioning that this is a Kentucky bourbon. Um, they don't say where it's actually distilled other
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than just in Kentucky for a minimum of five years. Um, but they did do the aging in Lakewood,
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Colorado with that secondary finish. And like I said, this one comes in at 95 proof and has a
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$58.99. There's a really cool artwork on the front. It's a, it's a sketch of firefighters
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walking into a blaze. Really, really interesting story and really cool. They featured the different
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logos of the fire stations on the back, just a really cool bottle in general. They say this is
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available to purchase online in 48 States across the nation, as well as being available in Colorado
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bars, restaurants, and liquor stores. So I'm really curious to see how that Aspen would finish
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affects this whiskey. I think that makes it one of the most unique finishes just because it has
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the story to go along with it. You know, we see the Tornado Surviving bottles from Buffalo Trace,
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which have been affected by that climate change of the tornado. So there is something there,
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but this is even more directly impacted, I think. So let's go ahead and give this a nose.
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Oh yeah. Yeah. It's got a nice extra layer of toastiness that, um, I wouldn't expect as much
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on a five-year bourbon. It's like a really warming kind of a toasted Oak note, a little
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bit nutty, but very, very sweet. I mean, five-year bourbon is tends to be a little bit more in the
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vanilla category, but that toasted element is adding another layer to it. And I like it on
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the nose. There's a little bit of a muscadine grape note there as well. Um, I'm not sure if
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that's coming from the finish of the bourbon itself. Um, but it's interesting to get that
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much fruitiness combined with that toastiness. That's that's rare in a bourbon. Nice. Well,
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overall good nose. Let's go in for a taste. Cheers. Oh yeah. That toastiness carries through,
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but it almost goes a little chocolatey on the palate. You know, it's still that very sweet,
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you know, young ish bourbon. Um, there's some spice there a little bit, but that toastiness
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kind of brings out this darker element that kind of reads like a bitter chocolate on it,
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but it's a nice balance because like I said, it's sweet. So that bitter chocolate really
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elevates it and makes it a little bit more complex than I would get, um, from other bourbons around
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this age finish wise, I would say about medium. I think it does linger with that toasted element
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and then finishes with like that sweet, uh, sugary vanilla. Yeah, that's a solid sipper. I do think
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that that finish on it does bring a new layer to it that one adds to their story and two really
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brings a little more depth to what would be seen as a little bit of a lackluster whiskey. It really
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does enhance it, uh, and brings it to the next level. Not just that, but it's for a good cause.
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It's one big in the Ascot Awards from Fred Minnick. Um, and it just seems to be doing really
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well in local whiskey competitions, um, including the Denver international spirits competition. So
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for this being my first time trying Locke + Co, I'm pretty impressed. I think this is a solid
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foundation. I love a bourbon with a good story. And it seems like a lot of their other releases
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are collaborations, uh, to support different causes or different brands. I love to see that.
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I think it's a really unique take on what the bourbon industry does. And as long as they're
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continuing to support good causes, I'm a hundred percent here for it. So here on the Bourbon Bytes
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podcast, I like to give just one score for these bottles that I review out of 10. I think this one
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combines a solid base bourbon with a good story and an interesting finish. So I'm going to give
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this one a 6.5 out of 10. It's a little bit pricey, but knowing 10% of that bottle purchase
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supports local firefighters and first responders, uh, makes it worth it in my mind. Would I like
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it to be a little bit older, maybe a little bit higher proof? Yes. But I think overall,
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this is a fun bottle. It is a great story behind it. And it's a great reminder of
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all of the great work that first responders and firefighters do. I'm not just in Colorado. I mean,
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I live in Southern California where wildfires are so devastating. We've had so many in the past few
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years that have just wiped out whole communities. So I have nothing but love for fire departments
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and first responders. And, um, what a cool way to support the local community and tribute those
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that were affected by that fire. So well done Locke + Co. Alright, that does it for this week's
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episode. Thank you all so much for listening. I'll be back next month. We're heading into
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the fall. So stay tuned. I'm your host Clifton. This has been the Bourbon Bytes Podcast,
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a whiskey podcast with a gaming twist. Cheers. And I'll talk to you next episode.
