Sleep Deprived & Bourbonized – Bourbon & Banter Podcast #27

The 27^th episode of the Bourbon & Banter podcast – Sleep Deprived & Bourbonized - is now available for your listening and drinking pleasure. We’ll dedicate this podcast to those of you who are awake at 3 am, thinking about all the limited-release bottles coming out this fall that you’ll never see. We feel your pain.

The Bourbon & Banter Members Community has shifted to a new platform and with the change, there are some great new content opportunities for members, like Bourbon Bullshit Live and unique tasting opportunities. It’s also home to constant, quality conversation between whiskey lovers, be they old or new. The Community is free of crotch shots and other tiresome trends found in other bourbon social media groups.

The Bourbon & Banter Single Barrel Club continues to roll along, having selected barrels from Traverse City Distillery in Michigan and Breckenridge Distillery in Colorado last month. We’re headed to Kentucky this week for Maker’s Mark and Knob Creek barrel picks, and our long-awaited Wyoming Whiskey pick will be happening in a few weeks. All this year’s single barrels will be more accessible to members too, as we’re able to ship nationwide. (And all are priced at or below retail with no markup.)

The WHISKEY NEWS leads off with a recap of the Kentucky Bourbon Benefit auction of rare and signed bottles, private barrel selections, and more that raised more than $1.4 million to help ease suffering and restore hope for Eastern Kentucky residents whose communities were ravaged by historic flooding last month. All proceeds from the Kentucky Bourbon Benefit auction are going directly to the state’s official Team Eastern Kentucky Flood Relief Fund.

The Great Resignation continues to strike Kentucky distillers, as Maker’s Mark Master announced that distiller Denny Potter, and Master of Maturation, Jane Bowie, have departed their longtime employer.

Upgraded Points, a travel company that routinely provides similar studies of interest to both its customers and general travelers, recently unveiled the results of a new study on the favorite liquors enjoyed by Americans across the country, broken down and displayed in a series of fully illustrated color maps – state by state, with liquor type and brand. Some places leave us scratching our heads.

A couple of winners decided to embezzle Virginia ABC’s inventory list, but were caught (imagine that). Everyone’s favorite distillery of fair practices and consumer-focused operations, Buffalo Trace announced that they will be doubling their production via a project that started TEN YEARS AGO! Finally, Blue Run Spirits has announced they’ll build a fifty-one million dollar distillery project in Georgetown, KY.

We highlight a couple of new whiskies, including Four Roses’ annual Limited Edition Small Batch, Freddie Noe’s Little Book Chapter 6, and Old Forrester’s 2022 Birthday Bourbon, to which everyone received an email making sure they knew they wouldn’t get any. Additional releases from Michter’s, Barrel Craft Spirits, Ross & Squib Distillery, which we refuse to not call MGP, and a release from Wild Turkey that makes us question what the hell they were thinking.

Finally, we bring you the investigative reporting that you’ve come to know and expect from Bourbon Banter. Our FUCKS team (Forensic Under Cover Knowledge Seekers) breaks the news on Four Roses Bourbon’s parent company Kirin looking to launch a new product that celebrates the Japanese drinking culture.

We close the episode with the most honest segment in all of bourbon podcasting…BOURBON BULLSHIT. We were recently reminded that it’s been a year since the ridiculous bullshit that was the whole Slapdick whiskey situation last year with our friend A Lil’ Dab of Bourbon. For those unfamiliar with that whole story, you can check out Erin Petrey’s interview discussing harassment, bullying, and sexism in whiskey from September of 2021. No surprise to most of us, this crap is still going on. Noted whiskey and drinks journalist Becky Paskin, who called out Jim Murray’s bullshit a few years ago, shared a ridiculous story that’s at the heart of another ignorant brand’s release. We’ll have more on this next month, but c’mon, BE A BETTER BRAND YOU ASSHATS!

Fall tends to roll out a lot of bourbon “scented” and “flavored’ crap that we find as housewarming and holiday gifts, and we’re TIRED OF IT! The people making these items have never had a glass of bourbon, which is why this stuff smells like fake sugar and over-spritzed perfume. We go through what we’d like to see from distilleries who have become too comfortable charging all of us absorbent amounts of money for whiskey.

Finally, we put the call out for the 2022 Bourbon Bullshit Awards. Let us know who is deserving of a BBS award by emailing us at podcast@bourbonbanter.com.

As the most honest podcast in bourbon, we don't pull any punches and we tell it like we see it. If you've been searching for a bourbon podcast that provides honest commentary, to-the-point information, and doesn't take itself too seriously – welcome home!

Here’s the breakdown for Episode #27 – Sleep Deprived and Bourbonized.

• 25:36               Whiskey News
• 44:00              New Whiskey Releases
• 1:14:03            Bourbon Bullshit

Are you ready? Pour yourself a drink, get comfortable, and listen to Episode 27 using the player above or via your favorite podcast player.

Warning: If you're not comfortable with unapologetic, independent thinking, plus a healthy dose of swearing, you might want to skip this one folks. It's recorded at barrel strength with full-throttle banter.

We sure hope you enjoyed episode #27 of the official Bourbon & Banter podcast and that you'll consider sharing it with your friends. We'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below or by emailing us.

Have a great weekend and remember to stay safe while you're spreading the bourbon gospel and learning to #drinkcurious.

Hey, wait a minute. You have listened to all our previous episodes, right? If not, head on over to our Bourbon & Banter Podcast page to get caught up.