This is installment number one of the “Broken Bourbon” series by the Alchemist. Subscribe to The Barrelhead Chronicles to follow this series and other great contributions from the site.

The first bourbon I ever had the “pleasure” of drinking was Kentucky Gentleman. At the time, it was $6.99 a bottle (don’t judge) and it was, at least in my opinion, a step up from getting drunk on “Beast Light” or MD 20/20. I was wrong. Not only could I not scrub the taste out of my mouth with a wire brush, it was arguably the worst hangover I have ever had, and I’ve endured some epic hangovers. Still couldn’t bring myself to pour it out. It did cost 7 bucks, after all. That’s a lot of dime beers wasted.

Since, then I had made it my mission to figure out how to “fix” bad bourbons. As you well know, crappy bourbon isn’t only located on the bottom shelf of the corner liquor store. No, my friends, it hides everywhere, on every shelf. In fact, I feel like there is more shit Bourbon today than at any other point in history. I’ll dive into what makes a shitty Bourbon shitty at another time. Too much academia this early on and most of you will never come back. Instead, I wanted to focus on the latest bottle of Broken Bourbon and how I personally fixed it so it didn’t taint the sewer discharged from my home.

Hudson Baby Bourbon Whiskey

Undoubtedly, you have seen these bottles in nearly every liquor store in the country as have I. This probably should have been the first red flag. I’ve never seen a store out of stock of Hudson Baby Bourbon Whiskey. Until now, anything that intentionally advertises itself as a “baby” Bourbon seemed to be a natural pass over. As with cheese and wine, we all know age is important in all whiskeys. It isn’t everything, but it is pretty damn important.

I finally picked up a bottle the other day at my local “sweet spot” and dusted off the bottle for a gander at the label. The dust should have been my second red flag. This is a “New York Straight Bourbon whiskey” that is distilled from a whole grain mash, non-chilled filtered and bottled in Gardiner, NY, a small town roughly 80 miles of New York City. That should have been the killer, third red flag. I haven’t met a Bourbon from the state of NY yet that I have found good, let alone reasonable.

Before putting it back on the shelf and moving on, I flipped the bottle over real quick. The back of the bottle, however, caught me off-guard with a level of intrigue. The Baby Bourbon is comprised of a blend of whiskeys from three separate barrels. Not three mash bills, three different sized casks. The science of this appealed to me. You see, by pouring a distillate into smaller barrels, you can seemingly cheat time. The smaller the barrel, the greater the surface-to-volume ratio becomes. That is, more of the liquor comes in contact with more of the barrel’s charred oak stave surfaces, taking on more of the flavor and color that make Bourbon, Bourbon.

This isn’t a new concept to me. I’ve been cheating the aging process for years with my own barrels in my own home. I’ll find a interesting bottle or blend of white dog, pour it into a 1, 2 or 3 liter barrel and pull it out just a few years later with the body and flavor of a much older Bourbon, all without the long wait.

Now be careful, there is a lot of science that is about to follow. If you don’t give a shit about the science, just skip to the Fix. Otherwise, put on your thinking caps and let me explain.

Hudson notes their Baby Bourbon is a blend of whiskey from three sizes of cask, 15 gallon, 25 gallon and 53 gallon (traditional) barrels. Each whiskey spends approximately two to four years in the barrels before being blended together, ratio and true age unknown to achieve their “artfully blended” Baby Bourbon. If you do the math, that means each bottle contains a blend of 2-4 year old (actual age) whiskey, roughly 2.75-5 year old (expedited aging in the 25 gal barrel) whisky and roughly 3.5-6 year old (expedited age in the 15 gallon barrel). That puts the calculated average “age” of the blended Bourbon at somewhere between 2 and 6 years old. While this speeding up of the process seems great, there is still a reason the old addage states, “Good things come to those who wait.”

Long story short, the absorption of critical aromatic and phenolic compounds into the liquor doesn’t occur along the same curve as the surface area-to-volume ratio curve. In other words, a shorter period of time in a smaller barrel doesn’t equal the same flavor and aroma of whiskey aged for adjusted-equivalent periods of times in traditional 53 gallon barrel. Damn science.

This was quickly realized when I opened the bottle of 2019 Hudson Baby Bourbon, Batch 2. Immediately I was overcome with the odor of turpentine. Essentially too much lignin and guaiacol and not enough tannins absorbed to break them down. This was evident in its color. The refraction of the curved bottle made the Bourbon appear darker than it actually was. Take a look at the before and after pictures below to see my point.

The Fix

To fix this bourbon, we need to get more tannins from the woods to suppress the acetone flavor from the abundant lignin and guaiacol in this batch. The problem with accelerated aging, is that the oak still takes a finite amount of time to properly release its tanins. The increased surface area-to-volume ratio exposes more of the liquids to what is released by the wood, but it doesn’t cause the wood to release more of these precious compounds. The fix, therefore, should be easy. More tanins.

To do this, I took barrel stave planks I had purchased from Maker’s Mark. This particular planks were from Maker’s 46 barrels and the charred internal portion of the barrel had been separated from the raw oak outside. These staves are marketed for grilling and smoking, both of which I really enjoy doing with these planks. We can talk about that another time. Maker’s 46 is typically dumped six years and then returned to the barrel with the staves. The staves are “seared” or heavily toasted and not charred. Treatment of the staves is called Profile 46, thus the name Maker’s 46. They do some great things experimenting with the wood of their staves at Maker’s Mark. Check out their Wood Finishing series.

So I cut two 3/4″ wide pieces off of the end of the M46 stave and dropped them directly into the bottle of the Hudson Baby Bourbon. Because the M46 stave had already been soaked for so long, they were able to give up more of the tanins as the lignin and guaiacol content had decreased, and they contained some remnants (the Devil’s cut if you will) of Maker’s 46. Just enough of the aged, wheated bourbon to mellow out the harshness of the Baby Bourbon. I left the plank pieces in the bottle for a minimum of three months. Every other week or so, I would swirl the bottle to disperse the compounds being released by the plank pieces. In just that short period of time, the color of the Baby Bourbon (i.e. tanins) improved dramatically.

I started tasting it at the three month mark, and the difference in flavor was remarkable. The turpentine was replaced by cinnamon and spice. The dryness had all but cleared and warm vanilla started to poke its way through. The long burning finish mellowed out to a nice hot, but flavorful finish. After another month, this bourbon opened up like a seven-year old (an adult in the bourbon world). I’m now close to the one year mark and finally removed the plank pieces for fear of getting too much of a charcoal flavor. With every tasting between the three month and one year mark, this bourbon and its flavor have grown with so much maturity that I often can’t wait for the monthly tasting.

At the end of the day, it took roughly $0.75 of barrel plank and at least three months to fix this $50 Bourbon, which is a shame. For me, this was a fun experiment, but probably too pricey experiment, especially if you are looking to enjoy your new purchase the night you buy it. However, if you bought this bottle and it wasn’t exactly what you hoped for in a $50 Bourbon, don’t pour it down the drain! It is still fixable. You just need some patience and some aged wood. The biggest lesson learned here is you can’t cheat Father Time. No matter how big the barrel, good bourbon still takes years to mature properly. It it wasn’t such a big deal, we’d all just be drinking white dog all of the time.

The Traveler called us at the home office on the way back from one of his “wanders,” this time to the East Coast. He said he had found a couple of special bottles he wanted to share. This particular find he had made in a hole-in-the-wall liquor store in SW Virginia, not far from the West Virginia border. Admittedly, we were all a bit worried at first, except Bubba, of course. When he returned, however, and slapped this bottle down on the desk, the familiar look of this fifth gave us all a little glimmer of excitement and, thankfully, no banjo music in the background.

The Ezra Brooks Distiller’s Collection is essentially a single barrel select program from Lux Row (Luxco) Distillers in Bardstown, Ky. Most of you have probably heard of Lux Row by now, their Old Ezra #7 hit and left shelves earlier this year and has been a popular commodity in the secondary (Grrr…) market ever since. In the last month, their Lux Row 12 year double barrel hit and left shelves just as quick. As if that wasn’t enough, this distillery is the home of Blood Oath, with Pact No. 6 just released and surely scarce on shelves, if at all. All were incredible Bourbons that will be tough, but not impossible to get your hands on. Its no secret that Lux Row has sourced their distillate from Heaven Hill, and their master distiller John E. Rempe has distilled some great bourbons, both in the stills of Heaven Hill and the 43-foot custom copper still on site at their own distillery. Rempe is a badass who has a nose and a palate for complex whiskey, and Lux Row is selling better tasting products as prices way cheaper than Heaven Hill and many other Bourbon Trail favorites.

The Distiller’s Collection series appears to be no different than any other distillery’s single barrel select program. Hell, that appears to be the popular thing to do if you are a store or a group of bourbon lovers these days; you just call up the distillery and buy your own damn barrel. Helluva lot easier than standing in line for the “good shit.” Well Lux Row has jumped on board with their Ezra Brooks line, and if it is anything like the rest of their products, it is probably a good move on their part.

The bottle the Traveler came back with is a part of the Virginia Alcohol Beverage Control Authority’s (VA ABC) picks for 2020. Our understanding was that there were three barrels picked and distributed regionally throughout Virginia. This particular bottle was from barrel #7167113 and came in right around 5 years old. It is a Ryed Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey bottled at an optimal 107 proof, as determined by their Head Distiller Rempe, to achieve the best taste profile for Ezra Brooks. MSRP is roughly $35 and available in VA ABC stores only.

We quickly tore into the bottle and broke out the Glencairns. Here is what we thought:

“Damn good Bourbon right out of the bottle. I was a bit biased given my love of Old Ezra No. 7, and was hoping I wouldn’t be let down and I wasn’t. It held a very complex flavor, a nice blend of spicy and sweet that didn’t fight one another as some ryed Bourbons tend to do. Had a nice burn that carried through to the finish. Didn’t feel watered down or simple. Boy, you can taste the Heaven Hill in this, that honey-roasted peanut flavor. Had a much higher quality taste than its price, which is the kind of Bourbon I like. At $35 a bottle (Traveler, get your ass back on the road) this could be an everyday sipper for sure. Two glasses in and I was feeling warm and satisfied. Personally, and I know this is gonna stir up some shit from you local boys, I’d take this over OWA (same proof, $20 more MSRP) any day. Much more complex than the overrated OWA, which I remember when that stuff sold for $29.99 a bottle on the bottom shelf, right where it belongs. Score one for Lux Row and VA ABC for picking a damn fine barrel.”

🥃🥃🥃🥃 – The Realist

“Considering the fool drives a Jeep Rubicon and wears Keen sandals all the damn time, I should have known that he would return with a bottle that costs less than my silk socks do. The boss says I had to try this peasant swill, so I poured a glass, neat of course, and let it open up for a few minutes while my Neanderthal cohorts gulped theirs down like 21 year-old at a keg party. Here are my notes:

Nose: slightly spicy edge, clove actually, on the nose at first that fades into sweet caramel toffee with hints vanilla. You can tell its young, but doesn’t carry the acetone odor of similar aged bourbons, which was rather surprising. With a few minutes of air, it opened up like a fall day, cinnamon, nutmeg and french vanilla.

Palate: Surprising mouthfeel for a barely 5 year old barrel. The burn of the 107 proof was nice, but not over powering. More complex than I would expect, as the rye and the corn melded together to create a smooth blend of nutmeg, cinnamon, caramel, clove, honey and a lingering vanilla notes. Almost like Grandma’s apple pie and ice cream, without the apple. After a short bit, I was left with some leather, tobacco and the dry char of the oak. Had this spent maybe one more year in the barrel, tis might have been less harsh and this Bourbon more pleasant throughout.

Finish: Kept the burn of cinnamon candy, but dried into leather tobacco and charcoal, though only subtly so.

Because this bourbon is bottled at 107 proof, there is room to work with. A splash (not too much now) of chilled limestone water and it opened up like a flower! A honey-floral aroma wafted from the glass and the caramel and vanilla notes became strong and lingering. Almost makes me wonder if it was cut to 100 proof with limestone water if that wouldn’t make this offering better as well.

Bottom line: I’ve had worse at $35. Hell I’ve had worse at $60. Overall, was surprisingly complex at first- I just wish those flavors had lingered longer. Not exactly my type for a daily sipper, but I wouldn’t turn down a glass at a friend’s house over dinner. Splash a little water in it and you’ll be pleasantly surprised. I was, and that’s no easy feat.”

🥃🥃🥃 – The Aristocrat

“One of my favorite things is the nuances you get from barrel to barrel of the same product. This is why single barrel picks are so hot these days, you can buy a single barrel select from three different stores of the same brand and have three distinctly different bourbons. I all but stopped buying batched bourbons a couple of years ago because of this. You have to be careful though, you can be burned by a bad pick.

I have to admit that I shuttered a bit when I saw this pick was made by someone of a group of someones from the VA ABC authority. Beaurocrats picking liquor scares the shit out of me. After sampling this pick, however, I give credit to whomever picked this barrel for the VA ABC authority, they picked a very nice barrel. Truth be told, I doubt John Rempe would even let a mediocre barrel be sampled, so they didn’t have to try very hard. Never had to “fix a bottle” from Lux Row and this bottle keeps them batting 1.000. Hot spicy, sweet and complex. Add in cheap and this is exactly how I like my women and apparently my Bourbon. If you can find it, buy it. You won’t regret it. I’m betting most any pick from the Distiller’s Collection is going to leave you pleased.”

🥃🥃🥃🥃 –The Alchemist

“While this is way more than I would spend on a bottle, the Traveler paid for it so I’ll happily drink it. First off, anyone who really knows Bourbon already knows that Ezra Brooks is a really good sip. There are very few bottles you could buy under $20, let alone under $40 that are better than Ezra Brooks 90 proof. Blind test it against Jack, Jim, Heaven Hill and Evan Williams green labels and you might just be shocked what you will find.

That said, this bottle smokes all of the above and then some. A flavorful and complex single barrel at this price point is almost unfair. If I were to break my rule of, “Never spend more than $20 on a bottle of anything” I’d buy a bottle myself. Maybe they will offer it in 375’s. Until then, you can buy it for me and I will drink it without complaint.”

🥃🥃🥃🥃 –The Cheap Bastard

“Hey man… look I tried that sample you gave me and it was alright. I mean, I didn’t think it was anything special. It drank a little hot, but didn’t drive me crazy, you know. I tried it up against OWA, given they were the same proof and all, and I definitely like the OWA better. That’s all I got.”

🥃🥃 –Bubba

Final Scoring: A solid 3.5🥃

Now tell us what you think. If you’ve had this or any other Ezra Brooks Distiller’s Collection, leave us a comment below with the details of the pick, your opinion and your score. Thanks in advance.