Brims and Barrels

🥃 21 YEARS IN THE BARREL. $500 ON THE PRICE TAG. THREE LEGENDARY COMPARISONS. 🏆🔥 What happens when a rare Four Roses Anthology 21-Year Bourbon meets the 1992 Dream Team, the 2017 Houston Astros, and one of the greatest safeties to ever play football, Ed Reed? You get a GAME READY unlike any other! Welcome back to Brims & Barrels , where Xavier and Ray are joined by special guest Mike from @...

DOES THE WHISKEY MATCH THE SWAGGER? Some bottles demand attention before the first sip. But when you're spending nearly $180 on a rye whiskey, does what's inside live up to the presentation? Welcome back to another Brims & Barrels Game Ready! Xavier and Ray are pouring Old Swagger 12-Year Cask Strength Rye from Rising Tide Spirits, founded by renowned barrel picker Ed Bley. Before launching hi...

🎃 BONUS CONTENT | BRIMS & BARRELS TWO-MINUTE DRILL 🥃 The Halloween decorations are up, the cobwebs are hanging, and we've got Colorado whiskey on the dashboard! In this bonus Two-Minute Drill, Xavier and Ray spotlight Locke + Co. Distilling , a whiskey brand founded by two friends, Rick and Owen, who are doing something different with Colorado aspen wood. On the dashboard: 🥃 Aspen Aged Rye...

Chip Tate: The Mind Behind Modern Whiskey Innovation | Brims & Barrels 🥃 What separates someone who makes whiskey from someone who changes the way we think about it? In this special episode of Brims & Barrels, Xavier and Ray sit down with master distiller and whiskey innovator Chip Tate for an insightful conversation about craftsmanship, creativity, tradition, and the stories behind Amper...

Can a legacy bourbon brand still surprise people? 🥃🏀 In this Game Ready, we take a fresh-palate look at Kentucky Boy Straight Bourbon Whiskey, a Brown-Forman release honoring Chris Morris and his 50-year legacy. Ray shares why the bottle reminds him of LeBron James: legacy names can still make a move that gets everybody watching. We talk tasting notes, the Old Forester and Woodford Double Oaked...

We helped pick a monster. Now it’s time to let it out. 🥃⚡️ On this Brims & Barrels Game Ready, Xavier and Ray pour the Old Zach 12-Year “Frankenstein Barrel”—a 136-proof single barrel that grabbed our attention from the first sample. Full disclosure: we participated in this pick, and we’re proud of it. But what’s in the glass? Cherry cola, vanilla frosting, caramel, brown sugar spice, a touc...

Three bottles. Three starting spots. One explosive offense. 🥃🏈🏀 Xavier and Ray bring a triple threat to the Brims & Barrels table: Provenance 10 Year, Reveries 10 Year Rye, and Murder of Crow. Provenance already earned a spot among our top 10 whiskeys of the year—but can the other two make the starting lineup? From cinnamon and clove to green apple, brown sugar, and a finish that keeps goin...

The Pete (@liquor_zone_pearland) and Laz (@thatsubourbonguy) invited Brims & Barrels to join them at Liquor Zone for a Provenance barrel pick with Jay West (@t8ke.review) We tasted through four samples, shared our notes, and then revisited the favorites blind to see which barrel stood out. Jay also talked about his approach to selecting barrels and what makes the Reveries 10 Year Liquor Zone (...

🥃 GAME READY: Old Elk 10-Year Straight Bourbon Old Elk took its signature high-malt bourbon recipe and gave it a full decade in the barrel . So naturally, we had to find out if those extra years earned it a spot in the starting lineup. This new Old Elk clocks in at 105 proof (52.5% ABV) and uses an unusual high-malt mash bill of 51% corn, 34% malted barley and 15% rye . That 34% malted barley is...

Bourbon may bring us to the table, but the people are what keep us there. 🥃🔥 On this episode of Brims & Barrels , Xavier and Ray sit down with Kyle from Smoke Pour Repeat for a conversation that goes way beyond what's in the glass. Kyle shares how Smoke Pour Repeat brings together two things deeply connected to Texas culture — bourbon and BBQ — and how his journey through the Houston whiskey...

The 2026 Russell’s Reserve 13 Year is here and it celebrates Eddie Russell’s 45 years at Wild Turkey. Xavier and Ray are joined by Kyle from Smoke Pour Repeat to find out whether this highly anticipated release is Game Ready or headed for the bench. 🥃 RUSSELL’S RESERVE 13 YEAR 2026 • 13-year age statement • Includes bourbon aged up to 18 years • 121.2 proof • Non-chill filtered • Mash bill: 75% c...

🥃 BROWN-FORMAN’S FINEST BLIND! Four heavy hitters. Two palates. One shocking result. In this episode of Brims & Barrels, we put some of the finest bottles across the Brown Forman portfolio head to head: 🔥 Old Forester President’s Choice 🔥 Woodford Reserve Batch Proof 🔥 Jack Daniel’s 14 Year Batch 1 🔥 King of Kentucky We judged every pour blind on nose, palate, and finish and the bottle th...

Jack Daniel’s dropped something special—and you can only get it at the distillery. In this Game Ready, we pour the Jack Daniel’s Special Release Boiler Hill Batch 2 Small Batch Rye. Bottled at a massive 142.7 proof, this hazmat release delivers cherry, cinnamon, charred oak, black pepper, and plenty of rye spice—without drinking nearly as hot as the proof suggests. Ray shares how his parents secur...

Four bottles. Four heavy hitters. One blind tasting. In this episode, we put some of Heaven Hill’s most respected expressions head-to-head: 🥃 Heaven Hill Heritage Collection 22 Year — “The Prestige” 🥃 Elijah Craig Barrel Proof C923 — “The Assassin” 🥃 Parker’s Heritage Double Barreled Blend — “The Trickster” 🥃 Penelope 13 Year American Light Whiskey — “The Outcast” These bottles bring serious a...

Old Forester President’s Choice has been on Ray’s chase list for a long time—and thanks to a bottle trade within the bourbon community, he finally secured one. This 2026 single-barrel release was personally selected by Campbell P. Brown, a fifth-generation Brown family member. Aged 88 months, this pour delivered raspberry, brown sugar and raisin on the nose, followed by vanilla, cinnamon and rich...

Bourye Blind Bonanza | Bourbon × Rye Blend Blind Four bottles. No labels. Just the pour. In this episode of Brims & Barrels, Xavier and Ray put four bourbon-and-rye blends head-to-head in a true blind tasting: Wild Turkey Master’s Keep Unforgotten High West Bourye Knob Creek Bourbon x Rye 13th Colony Barrel Symphony Composition No. 1 We score each pour on nose, palate, and finish, talk through...

Dark Arts calls it Blunt Blend—we call it Dank Arts . 🌿🥃 For this Game Ready, we’re pouring Dark Arts Blunt Blend Batch 2 : an 8-year, 95/5 MGP rye finished in Madeira and Armagnac casks and bottled at 114 proof. From the bold maple-syrup nose to the herbal rye notes, mint, spice and lingering finish, this bottle delivers from nose to palate. It’s powerful without drinking overly hot, and those...

Brilliant Beam Blind 🥃 | Knob Creek 21 vs Booker’s Reserve vs Baker’s 13 vs Hardin’s Creek We’re putting four serious Beam bottles to the test — completely blind. This lineup features Knob Creek 21, Booker’s The Reserves, Baker’s 13, and Hardin’s Creek , but once the pours hit the table, the labels don’t matter. We score each bourbon on the nose, palate, and finish, make our guesses, and see whic...

A bourbon 22 years in the making … and this one might already be in the conversation for one of our best pours of the year. 🥃🔥 For this Brims & Barrels Game Ready , we’re cracking the 2026 Heaven Hill Heritage Collection 22-Year-Old Kentucky Straight Bourbon — a bottle Ray won with the FIRST PICK in a raffle at Liquor Zone. And at roughly $320 MSRP, there was no way we weren’t opening it. 22...

E.H. Taylor Cured Oak is back after 11 years. 🥃 Originally released in 2015, E.H. Taylor, Jr. Cured Oak returned in 2026 as a rare limited release from Buffalo Trace. On this Brims & Barrels Game Ready , Xavier is joined by his wife, Shamier , as they crack open the new release and see how it holds up. What makes this bottle different starts with the barrel. Cured Oak is a 10-year-old, 100-pr...

Texas bourbon doesn’t always get the same spotlight as Kentucky — and Ray may have summed it up perfectly: Texas bourbon is the fullback of the whiskey game. 🏈🥃 It may not get all the touchdowns or all the glory, but it does the dirty work and deserves more appreciation. On this episode of Brims & Barrels Game Ready , we’re pouring Broken Halo Barrel Strength Bourbon from War Trail Spirits i...

This episode hits a little different. For the first time, Brims & Barrels got the opportunity to be part of the barrel-picking process , and we're sitting down to revisit the two bottles we helped select: Reveries 10 Year Single Barrel and Seelbach's 9 Year 4 Month Double Oak . A huge shoutout to Pete at Liquor Zone for taking a chance on us and inviting Brims & Barrels into the experience...

🥃 Still Austin Calvados Cask Finished | Is It Game Ready? Can a bourbon finished in Calvados casks earn a starting spot in the Brims & Barrels lineup? In this episode of Game Ready , we crack open the Still Austin Distillery Exclusive Calvados Cask Finished Bourbon and break down everything from the nose to the finish. We talk coffee, caramel, toffee, sweet apples, pears, and subtle oak while...

🥃 The Wildest Wild Turkey Blind | Beacon vs Russell’s 15 vs Cheesy Gold Foil vs Rickhouse CNE Four legendary Wild Turkey pours. One blind tasting. No labels. No bias. Just the whiskey. In this episode of Brims & Barrels , Ray and Xavier put some of Wild Turkey's most sought-after premium releases head-to-head to answer one question: Which bottle truly stands above the rest when you don't know...

A legend returned... but does it deserve all the hype? In this episode of Game Ready, we're pouring one of the most talked-about bourbon releases of the year—the Wild Turkey Austin Nichols Archives Gold Foil Edition. Inspired by the legendary "Cheesy Gold Foil" Wild Turkey from the 1980s and '90s, Bruce Russell set out to honor one of the most iconic pours in bourbon history. Aged 16 years, bottle...