The Mash Up

We often have quite a bit to say about Heaven Hill and Jim Beam. When we were planning for this episode, it was only supposed to be about Elijah Craig. But then, we found a bottle of Old Overholt 12 Year Rye and said, "Why not try them together?" Elijah Craig Rye is a relatively new venture for Heaven Hill and Old Overholt is a brand that Beam acquired in the 1980s. If you want brand his...

Kentucky Senator Bourbon is a brand that honors some of Kentucky's most well known and iconic politicians. The seventh release in vertical series hit retail shelves recently and the limited offering honors the late Jim Bunning (1931–2017). Bunning holds the unique distinction of being the only person elected to both the Baseball Hall of Fame and the U.S. Senate and he was the senator who intro...

Knob Creek is a classic brand from the Jim Beam distillery. Beam sent shockwaves through the industry this year when they said they would be suspending operations at their main distillery for one year. Despite this news, they continue to bring many new and classic offerings to the market. Today, we taste and review the first edition of Knob Creek Blender’s Edition. Dubbed as the sweet bourbon blen...

If you've followed our podcast, you know how much we love River Roots in Cleveland, Ohio. For this short, we taste and review a recent River Roots single barrel selection that was done by the Sprayberry Bottle Shop in Marietta, Georgia. The whiskey they selected is an American Single Malt that was distilled in California. With a unique mashbill of 88% malted barley and 12% malted rye, this whi...

Stagg (Jr.) bourbon debuted in 2013. Since then, there have been 31 different batches released, including the one that we taste and review in this weeks episode. While the "junior" was dropped from the name a couple years ago, some other things have changed as well. Once a steady semi-annual release, the past two years have included 4 batches (one per quarter). While the availability has...

Old Forester has released many different whiskeys under the 117 series label. Admittedly, we are playing catch up on these. For this short, we taste and review two bottles from the 117 series (both released in 2025): Bottled-In-Bond Rye and Still Proof. The BIB rye is an age stated and bonded version of the Old Forester Rye which we have reviewed favorably in the past. The other bottle we review i...

Maker's Mark Cask Strength Bourbon debuted all the back in 2014. More than ten years after the fact, this offering got an upgrade of sorts from the iconic brand. At the beginning of 2026, Maker's Cask started appearing on the shelves with an age statement. This is a permanent change for the brand and every batch of Maker's Cask Strength Bourbon will carry an age statement that will be...

You've heard us discuss our love of Jack Daniel's Barrel Proof Rye. Furthermore, you've heard us talk about how fortunate we are to have had the opportunity to visit the distillery and participate in multiple picks. On our most recent trip to the distillery, we picked two excellent ryes. These picks were recently bottled and delivered to the store (Bluegrass Liquor Box in Georgetown, K...

A Midwinter Night's Dram is a whiskey that has been historically sought after. Once a combination of well aged rye from from Barton and MGP, this whiskey is now a combination of High West's own distillate and MGP. How does it taste? You'll have to listen to find out. In this episode, we wax poetically about MWND in the past and we have high hopes for the future. During the tasting, we...

We've been fortunate to pick at Buffalo Trace multiple times. In this short, we taste and review an OWA pick that we helped select about six months ago. Big thanks to Nick and Ryan for letting us take part and including us on the pick. We still think OWA is one of the best whiskeys for the price. But, what about single barrel selections? Are they worth the premium that they command? Give us a...

We've talked about EverNorth Spirits in previous episodes of the podcast. EverNorth was founded by The Bourbon Junkies and they have been putting out some excellent whiskey over the past few years. In this episode, we dive into tasting and reviewing some of the newest releases from EverNorth. The 6th batch of Spirit Walker is known as "Kentucky Cobbler" and it is a dessert-ish whiske...

In this episode, we sip and chat with Jarrod Record who is the co-founder of Barrel King and Alec Balas who is the co-founder of Whiskeyland TV. You've heard us mention a bit about Jarrod in past episodes when we've reviewed Barrel King products. However, having him in the basement to answer questions gave us a whole new perspective and appreciation for his bourbon journey and brand. Alec...

Over the past few years, you've heard us say many positive and negative things about Elijah Craig's barrel program. For this episode, we taste and review two different Elijah Craig barrel picks and one Larceny Barrel Proof pick that were selected by one member and many friends of the podcast for Bros Liquor in Davis, California. Will we pass, try, or buy? You might think you know the outco...

For the second time in the history of the podcast, we welcome back our friends from River Roots Barrel Company. The last time we had them on the podcast, River Roots had been in existence for just over a year. Since that time, the brand has continued to flourish and they are getting ready to move into a brand new (and larger) building in downtown Cleveland. In this episode, you get hear about all...

Green River is the "Whiskey Without Regrets." In this episode, we welcome back our friend Jason to the podcast and he brought the brand new Green River Wheated Full Proof Bourbon as well as a Green River Wheated Single Barrel Store pick from Liquor Barn. In addition to tasting and reviewing these two bottles, we also incorporated some surprise blinds from the basement and from our commun...

Buffalo Trace Distillery’s Single Oak Project (SOP) is the ultimate in bourbon exploration. Consisting of different mashbills, wood, and a host of other unique variables, this grand experiment boasts 192 unique bourbons with 1,396 different flavor combinations. With this experimentation, Buffalo trace aims to have it's consumers isolate and compare every variable that shapes what ends up in th...

When Brown-Forman announced they would be releasing a new small batch version of King of Kentucky, we were excited and also had many questions. Instead of more single barrels, this remixed version of the "King" comes in the form of three batches with a brand new mashbill. For the first time, King of Kentucky has released a three-batch series, each bottled at  a distinct proof to showcase...

In 2025, Willett quietly released a blended bourbon called "Speakeasy." Coming off our best of blinds where Willett was well represented, we thought it would be good to taste and review a shelf product that's available in most markets. Our friend Jason joins us as a guest co-host and the conversation ranges from high class seafood to amusement park lines. As always, we give you our h...

Bruce Russell is the Associate Master Blender for Wild Turkey. Over the past few years, he has been responsible for making some of the most epic Turkey releases and is making a name for himself by pushing the boundaries of what Wild Turkey can be. We've had the chance to talk to Bruce before, but it's never been like this. In this episode, we have a long form conversation and taste through...

It's been a minute since we did back-to-back blind episodes, but our community keeps sending in a lot of goodness for us to taste. Our listener and long time supporter (Pu Bear) sent us a couple of blinds. Spoiler alert - we didn't do nearly as good as last episode, but we did have quite a bit of fun in the process. In this short, we talk about our upcoming episode with Bruce Russell and g...

For this Friday episode, we decided to dig into our backlog of blinds that have been sent by our community. Our listener and friend (Ryan from NC) sent us some blinds that drummed up some serious nostalgia. He also sent us some holiday gifts and those gifts cause quite a bit of clamor and laughter. We've been doing this podcast for nearly 5 years and this set of blinds was surprising and meani...

Coming off our "best of" episode, we decided to celebrate Fat Tuesday a little early. Twice previously on the podcast, we tasted Smooth Ambler Founders' Cask Strength Bourbon (at 6 years and 8 years old). We'd like to thank a great listener (Patrick) for sending us the 9yr version of this of this bourbon. For this weeks short, we taste this new bottle against the 8yr version and...

Finally - The Mash Up Podcast has crowned it's best whiskey of 2025! Annually, we have a "Best of Blinds" event which consists of an esteemed panel of friends tasting through some of the best whiskeys of the year. We had 67 total bottles in the field. After multiple preliminary rounds, we came up with our top 12. These "top" whiskeys were then blinded again in a championshi...

We have two upcoming barrel picks from Dark Arts Whiskey House in Lexington, Kentucky. We selected a 12 year Armagnac finished bourbon and an 11 year straight bourbon whiskey (both MGP). You've heard us discuss about Dark Arts before, but you'll have to listen to hear about how these barrels were selected and how they taste. We welcome Steven back the podcast. Also making a special appeara...

Old Dominick Distillery, located in downtown Memphis, Tennessee, is a historic, family-owned distillery producing whiskey and vodka, revitalized in 2017 by the descendants of Domenico Canale, who first created the brand in 1866. For this episode, we taste and review two single barrel offerings from Old Dominick (Tennessee Whiskey and Wheat Whiskey) that were provided to the podcast by listener/fri...