Uh, no.

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The only Texas whiskey/bourbon worth a **** is Garrison Brothers.

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schmellba99 said:

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I would be willing to bet half the bourbon you buy comes from Indiana.

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I would take that bet but I could be wrong. I do know a lot of the rye whiskeys come from Indiana.

Why can't us alcoholics just get along and agree that any whiskey is better than no whiskey. Hell I'll drink some Sunny Brook before I touch a Bud Light.

Here's an article about the six best rye whiskies.

https://www.mensjournal.com/food-drink/the-6-best-american-rye-whiskeys-20140205/whistlepig-rye/

One bottles Canadian rye. Four others are literally the same rye whiskey from Indiana bottled with different marketing strategies. Pathetic.

Angels Envy, Bulleit, Templeton, and Redemption Rye are literally all the same Indiana rye whiskey.

BCStalk said:

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This is the order of my personal favorites. Please ignore the "whiskey experts", it's like telling Yeti guys that RITC is just as good, or Glock guys that there actually are other handguns out there.

TX Bourbon
Rio Brazos
Rebecca Creek
Balcones
TX Whiskey

Of course there are plenty of better options, but this is my Texas list and honestly I've become pretty fond of TX Bourbon.

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RTIC is a fake cooler. It's worse than fake news

GAC06 said:

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Here's an article about the six best rye whiskies.

https://www.mensjournal.com/food-drink/the-6-best-american-rye-whiskeys-20140205/whistlepig-rye/

One bottles Canadian rye. Four others are literally the same rye whiskey from Indiana bottled with different marketing strategies. Pathetic.

Angels Envy, Bulleit, Templeton, and Redemption Rye are literally all the same Indiana rye whiskey.

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MGP distills according to each maker's specific mashbill. Put them side by side - they dont taste the same.

GAC06 said:

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Here's an article about the six best rye whiskies.

https://www.mensjournal.com/food-drink/the-6-best-american-rye-whiskeys-20140205/whistlepig-rye/

One bottles Canadian rye. Four others are literally the same rye whiskey from Indiana bottled with different marketing strategies. Pathetic.

Angels Envy, Bulleit, Templeton, and Redemption Rye are literally all the same Indiana rye whiskey.

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One still and even one mashbill can make very different final products. Buffalo Trace has a whopping 3 mashbills: low rye, high rye and wheat. But they market countless products that come from barrels in various locations in various rickhouses stored for different lengths of time. And they all taste very different.

Texas whiskeys charge top shelf prices for bottom shelf products because (a) they can and (b) they have to. Whiskey is cheap to make but it takes time. KY distillers are salting barrels away for years before bringing them to market. Imagine a startup distiller doing nothing but filling barrels for 6-8 years at a minimum before selling the first drop and hoping they got it right. The investment is huge.

They have the chemistry down. Witness the well respected vodkas and gins. They don't have the time, weather or 200 years of institutional history in knowing where and for how long the barrel should age. That's a steep hill to climb.

AgEng98 said:

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GAC06 said:

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Here's an article about the six best rye whiskies.

https://www.mensjournal.com/food-drink/the-6-best-american-rye-whiskeys-20140205/whistlepig-rye/

One bottles Canadian rye. Four others are literally the same rye whiskey from Indiana bottled with different marketing strategies. Pathetic.

Angels Envy, Bulleit, Templeton, and Redemption Rye are literally all the same Indiana rye whiskey.

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MGP distills according to each maker's specific mashbill. Put them side by side - they dont taste the same.

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Yeah yeah. It's still ridiculous that so many of the top selling ryes are all mass produced by MGP.

Oh hell- i'm Just going to get him some BBQ sauce or something...

In all seriousness- thanks for the discussion, gents. Really was an informative read. Thanks for everyone who elaborated upon their opinions. I know tastes are subjective, but seeing the reasoning behind made all the difference. I learned quite a bit here. I tried some "local" whiskey (in CO) the other day- I think it was just local honey they blended with some whiskey. It was not good, in my opinion. The guy said it was "really smooth" because of the honey, it was definitely not for me. Didn't even attempt their cinnamon variety.

I think I might actually just get him a bottle of Yellow Rose- as his last name is Rose, and he has several other "Rose" branded things. That might be a good mix of unique/novel while also being a good product. Can't remember who suggested it, but thanks!

Ranger Creek has some pretty decent ones.

cupofjoe04 said:

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Oh hell- i'm Just going to get him some BBQ sauce or something...

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BBQ sauce!!!!

SoulSlaveAG2005 said:

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cupofjoe04 said:

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Oh hell- i'm Just going to get him some BBQ sauce or something...

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BBQ sauce!!!!

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Way to take this thread up a notch!!! Well played

wadd96 said:

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Well I sure didn't take long for the anti-Texas Whiskey guys to show up...

I'm a fan of Balcones Blue... And Ranger Creek .36...

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I second the ranger creek .36, but i got an early batch of the blue and it was awful. This was years ago though

AG 2000' said:

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I guess I should respond seeings I'm apparently one of those whiskey snobs who hates Texas origin stuff.

First, I'm far from snob. I laugh at the Pappy fan club, plus all the cheap fools who think is they tap some Weller 12 or antique that they are thisclose to Pappy. Holy **** there is so much better stuff than that.

But back to Tx whiskey. Let's see. They all use worse water than Tennesssee limestone filtered water. I guess if you find one that is pulling pure hill country aquifer water that is a start. Then let's talk climate. Kentucky > Texas for distilling whiskey. Oh and they have access to better wood for the barrels not to mention the best chemists and distillers in the world outside of Scotland.

Now let's talk pure stats. Kentucky stuff is all aged longer than the Texas proud nonsense. That smooths it all out more for starters. Then let's talk price. The best non-Pappy stuff from out east runs $30-40. The average TX whiskey runs $60 because it's local.

At the end of the day, TX origin stuff is twice the price at half the quality. If you want to go for it, do it. It's America. Spend your money however the hell you want. But if you care about quality and a product that doesn't give you the experience of chugging gasoline, look outside our state's borders to do so.

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Every single distiller out there runs their water through a purification system and most finish with some type of RO - nobody dips buckets in a spring from a hillside to use in distillation. 100 years ago things were different, and the limestone water in KY filtered out the iron (which ruins whiskey), but today you'd be hard pressed to find a whole lot of difference in the water used.

Same with the wood - coopers sell their barrels to a whole lot of different end users. Modern shipping means that we don't have to rely on just what is available locally.

The biggest differences are climate and history - both of which are big time players. Kentucky, Tenneessee and the entire midwest in general simply has a better climate than Texas does for aging. Can't argue that one bit. Texas distillers have to force climate changes at times to do what that area does naturally. And there is the history - Kentucky and Tenneessee and Virginia, etc. all have a few hundred years worth of distillation history over Texas. 100 years or more ago most bourbons produced weren't as good as what we buy even on the bottom shelf today. It's take a long time to begin to perfect the art of distillation and aging the way we see today, and Texas is just flat behind the curve. No Texas producer will have warehouses with barrels that were filled 10, 15 or 20 years ago. The product, generally speaking, is much younger and rougher around the edges. Small barrel aging gets product on the shelf faster, but it doesn't age quite the same. It is simply going to take time, and it is a slow process.

But some folks here do produce some good whiskey and bourbons. They are very much the exception to the rule in Texas, for sure, but they do exist. Some of it boils down simply to perception and pre-concieved notions, right or wrong. I'm curious to see what the market and products are 10 years from now.

I'm a big fan of Witherspoon Distillery. They're based in Lewisville, up near Dallas. I was partial to Green Spot for a long time, but once I tried the Witherspoon limited edition single malt, I don't think I'm ever going back. Their regular stuff is available at Total Wine (at least it is in Houston), and it's alright.

I'm surprised nobody has thrown out Whiskey Hollow near Gainesville, or even debated the merits of the bonded bourbon. Since I'm a poor sod buster, my money goes to Very Old Barton bc its cheap and still easy to drink neat or over an ice cube or two. Bookers or Blantons if it's someone else's money.

If you are in CO, look for some of the Breckenridge Bourbon. That is some legit stuff, picked up a bottle of their port finished bourbon a couple years ago while I was in Breck. GOOD STUFF!!

I am not going to sift through 3 pages but my take is this. Garrison Brothers is trash. Great tour but trash. My favorite Texas Bourbon is Whitmyers 218. Best Texas bourbon out there today....if you can find it.

reveille23 said:

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If you are in CO, look for some of the Breckenridge Bourbon. That is some legit stuff, picked up a bottle of their port finished bourbon a couple years ago while I was in Breck. GOOD STUFF!!

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Yes, they make some great stuff. I have found their bourbon in Austin at Twin's,

My wife and I used to live in the apartment complex across from Yellowrose. Their whiskey is pretty dang good. I am also a fan of Silverstar and Rebecca Creek.

RO519 said:

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My wife and I used to live in the apartment complex across from Yellowrose. Their whiskey is pretty dang good. I am also a fan of Silverstar and Rebecca Creek.

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You sure it was the whiskey you liked?



Surprised your wife was into that....

2nd the George Dickel Tennessee Wiskey. Beats the hell out of Texas Whiskey. Although Texas Whiskey better than most!

GoFightNguyen said:

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I'm a big fan of Witherspoon Distillery. They're based in Lewisville, up near Dallas. I was partial to Green Spot for a long time, but once I tried the Witherspoon limited edition single malt, I don't think I'm ever going back. Their regular stuff is available at Total Wine (at least it is in Houston), and it's alright.

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I like Witherspoon alright as well. It's a good pick if you want to go Texas for sentimental reasons.

Many of the bourbons produced in Kentucky are aged 7 years plus. You don't have to age any specified amount of time(there are a few exceptions), but most would agree that the longer it ages the more smooth it becomes. Think back to say 2010 and how many Texas whiskey distillers were up and running. There were a few, but there are significantly more now. How do you open a distillery and start barreling product that in most cases shouldn't be sold for 7 plus years. Do you not make any sales for 7 years or more? I believe Schmelba alluded to this. There is a massive distillery in Indiana that produces all manner of spirits and they have whiskey that is already going through the aging process. So you can purchase this product and bottle it or maybe even blend it with a little of your own and start selling product very soon. This is what a lot of the new distilleries have to do. So if you're buying whiskey from another state and bottling it in Texas is that really Texas whiskey? Its hard to say which ones are doing this for sure, but if you opened a distillery in say 2015 how are you already selling properly aged bourbon if most of the experienced bourbon distillers in Kentucky are aging 7 plus years?

I've often thought to really do this right you would need to produce vodka or some other spirit that doesn't require aging and start doing whiskey on the side so you are able to let it age for a decent amount of time. This way the vodka would support the business and you wouldn't be so tempted to sell before the whiskey is aged properly.


Article on the Indiana Distillery

DeWrecking Crew said:

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Not Texas related...I'd just like to add that the single best whiskey I've ever had is an 18 yo single malt from Japan called Yamazaki. I was blown away both times I've had it. I've had the good fortune of tasting a lot of different whiskies, bourbons, scotches and there is nothing out there that holds a candle to this stuff, especially if "smoothness" is a priority...unfortunately it is hard to find in the US, but it doesn't stop me from looking everywhere I go...a must try if you ever run across it

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Yamazaki was awesome, great taste at prices lower than similarly aged scotch. And then they lost a bunch of stock to the big tsunami in 2011, and kept what they had left for their domestic market and we didn't get much/any. You couldn't find any for a while, but they're slowly coming back to the US now. They have a few varieties they sell for reasonable prices without an age statement, but are charging almost double what they used to for the 12 and 18 yr.

To be fair, most of the rules regarding aging bourbon start at 2 years, and that is only if you want to label it in a specific manner. You can sell it right off the still if you want - just can't call it bourbon. Most places call it white dog or something along those lines. Basically moonshine.

Age statements are required if the whiskey is under 4 years old, or if you have an age statement on a blend it must be the lowest of the ages in the bottle. A lot of producers are going away from the age statements these days. Elijah Craig was one of them that slowly marketed it out in the last few years. Some other rules I"m sure I'm not mentioning, it's just complicated enough to be a PITA to remember the specifics, unless you are tx4guns.

Most of your production bourbons - Maker's, Jim Beam, etc. are in the 4-6 year old range. Simply so that they can qualify as Straight Bourbon (minimum 2 years aging required) and because that is a good compromise between age and flavor profile. Aging is an art. More years doesn't mean better - honestly with the exception of your high end stuff, over about 8-10 years and it can degrade the flavor due to over oaking.

I've been drinking Evan Williams Single Barrel lately - moderately priced at $23, smooth and flavorful bourbon. My currently open bottle was barreled on May 18, 2009 and bottled on October 4, 2017, so aged about 8-1/2 years.

The only one I knew about was 2 years for straight bourbon whiskey. Admittedly I don't really care that much.

Maybe I'm a little bit off on aging these days. I have several bottles knob creek, eagle rare, and one other that I can't think of at the moment that have age claims over 7 years so thats why i picked that number. I also have several that don't say anything. My overall point is that it's hard for me to believe that these upstart distilleries are producing a comparable quality product when they've been around for 3 or 4 years. Part of that is the amount of aging, but part of that is the experience of the distillery.

They aren't.

Most of your upstarts are going to buy distilled and aged liquor and either have it bottled under their label until their product can be distributed, or they may do something like bring it to their facilty and age it further and bottle it themselves or some variation therof. Or they have a separate line that runs vodka or gin or some other spirit that doesn't require aging that can hit the shelves fast to bring in income while the whiskey line gets up and running, which will take years if all done in house.

I know Whitmeyers did (maybe still does) that - their first bottlings were sourced bottles that they aged and bottled themselves. Texas law says that has to be disclosed on the label - so if a distillery says something like "bottled in Texas" or "aged and bottled in Texas" or something along those lines, it's not whiskey they produced. I'm sure there is some nuance in the law that dictates what language can be used, I don't know that much detail. But if it's distilled at IDP or wherever, the label should indicate it is a sourced product and not house made.

For a while i was strongly looking into opening a micro brew-stillery. My plan for the aging conundrum was to let beer vodka and gin carry the company until i could get the aged whiskeys up to standard.

Jefferson's Reserve. Not a TX bourbon, but better than any TX brand.

WhistlePig does this with their 10 year rye, which is pretty good whiskey if you can get it for $50 a bottle.

I don't necessarily believe this sourced aging method is necessarily a bad thing if you know what you are doing. Right now the craft distillery is really crowded and it is hard to find good products, but for me it is fun to try new whiskies and is easy since
I travel a lot.

The bottom line is drink what you like, try to be informed on your products, but in the end enjoy your whisky and be thankful for it.

I'm going to say it, Balcones Single Malt in its current form sucks. It was good, though still overpriced, before the founders investors forced him to start mass production and ended up forcing him out.