You’ve seen them. Half-gallon plastic jugs with screw tops sitting two shelves below the good stuff, with names like Old Crow, or Ten High, or Kentucky Tavern. The kind of liquor you wouldn’t touch with a ten foot pole, except you need something on hand for your brother-in-law’s whiskey and Cokes, and for your wife and her girlfriends to use for their pitcher of bourbon slush besides your fifth of Elijah Craig 18 year old… I digress…
What surprises lie on the bottom shelf? Among the usual rot-gut there must be a hidden gem or two. For purposes of this discussion, “bottom shelf” doesn’t literally mean the bottom shelf of your local store, but $25 or less for a 1.75L bottle. My nominee is W.L. Weller 7 year old. $22.99. Certainly lacking in the complex flavor of a high quality bourbon, but it tastes good to me and like high quality wheated bourbon goes down smooth when drunk straight.
Evan Williams black label. It’s my go-to cooking and mixing bourbon, but I’ve slipped many a flask of it into music festivals and happily drunk it straight.
Around here a handle is about $20, but I am in Kentucky so it might be a little more elsewhere.
In my locality (Brisbane) there seems to have been a real explosion over the last 2-3 years in the ranges of Bourbon available. Not that long ago, you’d have Jim Beam, Jack Daniels, and Wild Turkey, you could get Makers Mark as the top shelf bourbon, and a couple of bottom shelf brands like Cougar, or other names I can’t recall at present.
My ‘standard’ bourbon is Makers Mark. Which goes for ~$45-50 AUD. That’s about average for the ‘prestige’ bourbon’s.
Jim Beam white label, and Jack Daniels which are seen as ‘middle road’ goes for ~$30-$35 a bottle (700ml).
I got bought a bottle of Bookers Bourbon a while ago as a gift, and that goes for ~$100 a bottle. Awfully nice it was though.
Mom used to buy Evan Williams. She preferred Jim Beam but I think she bought EW because it was cheaper. Actually she preferred Jack Daniels, but we don’t want to get THAT discussion.
I think she also used to get Kentucky Tavern as well.
The alcoholic in my family drank Ten High. Nasty stuff. Some of us used to wonder whether a bottle of it would get ten people high, or one person high ten times?
I always thought of “bottom shelf” as the $7.50 blended stuff that comes in plastic bottles literally on the bottom shelf.
Inexpensive bourbons are a mile ahead of that.
I’d say that Weller & Evan Williams are the standouts in that category. I don’t think it’s quite in the category, but Jim Beam Black is probably the best bang for your buck out there.
(side note: Evan Williams and your Elijah Craig 18 yr old are the exact same thing coming off the still. The only difference is where in the rick house they’re stored, and for how long. Learned that at the 2009 Tales of the Cocktail from the head distiller at Heaven Hill)
(another side note: Noah’s Mill is seriously good stuff! Just got me a bottle on Saturday)
10 High is the bottom shelf rotgut I use to make Bourbon Cherries.
There are some “inexpensive” bourbons out there that are quite tasty. Old Weller Antique, for example. 107 proof and very flavorful. Kicks the shit out of Beam Black.
To add to bump’s comments on aging - Try some of the single barrel versions of the cheap stuff. Worlds of difference. Evan Williams is lousy. Evan Williams Single Barrel is what I was sipping last night, straight. Old Forester is paint thinner, but the Birthday Bourbon is fantastic. It’s all in the handling and aging.
In my youth, several of us stole a case of pints of the stuff and got falling down, puke all over the side of the car, lay in a ditch and wish you would die, snot slinging, commode hugging wasted. The smell of the stuff some 45 years later still makes my gorge start to rise. Insult to injury, we got busted for the theft. Luckily, I was still only 17 so no record.
Lest all of you get the wrong idea, all bourbon is made to a pretty high standard-it is aged (even the cheap ones), and it is made from distilled corn mash.
Agreed, the cheap stuff is much harsher, but in a mixed drink, the lower stuff is OK.
Also, 50 years ago, Old Crow was a prestige brand-ads of the time connected famous Civil War characters (Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis) as drinkers of the stuff.
I suppose OC ceased being a prestige brand when its adherents got old and yonger drinkers got used to newer brands.
