# Is my bourbon screwing me?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-bourbon-screwing-me/82989>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 21, 2001, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-bourbon-screwing-me/82989 "2001-09-21T11:24:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Trenchmouth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ce73a5/32.png) [@Trenchmouth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trenchmouth)\
**Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-bourbon-screwing-me/82989/1 "2001-09-21T11:24:21Z")

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Why is it that regular Old Heaven Hill professes to be 8 years old, yet BOTTLED-IN-BOND Old Heaven Hill, which is 2 bucks more, has no age proclamation anywhere on the bottle? From what I understand, bottled-in-bond bourbon only has to be three years old to be guaranteed legit. So is the “8-year-old” thing for the regular stuff a pile of crap, or am I paying two bucks more a bottle to get crappier whiskey?

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**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\
**Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-bourbon-screwing-me/82989/2 "2001-09-21T13:40:20Z")

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> [@](#):
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> \*Originally posted by Trenchmouth \*  
> \*\* So is the “8-year-old” thing for the regular stuff a pile of crap, or am I paying two bucks more a bottle to get crappier whiskey? \*\*

Generally, you pay more for older whiskey or scotch. The main question isn’t how old is the whiskey, it is, do you like the stuff enough to pay an extra $2? Since you haven’t mentioned anything about smoothness or flavour or finish, I would guess that you are probably going to be just fine with the less expensive stuff.

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**Author:** ![jonfromdenver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/82dd89/32.png) [@jonfromdenver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jonfromdenver)\
**Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-bourbon-screwing-me/82989/3 "2001-09-21T14:08:31Z")

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> [@](#):
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> Is my bourbon screwing me?

well, that all depends on what exactly you’re doing with the bottle.

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**Author:** ![Abe\_Babe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3ab097/32.png) [@Abe\_Babe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Abe_Babe)\
**Post date:** [September 21, 2001, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-my-bourbon-screwing-me/82989/4 "2001-09-21T15:30:48Z")

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> [@](#):
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> Is my bourbon screwing me?

No, but the entire bar is, after you finish your bottle.