Scotch drinkers, please help - old, open Scotches

Cafe Society
1

This thread on old alcohol got me thinking about a thread I’ve been meaning to write for the longest time.

I’ve got 3 bottles of opened Scotch lying around the house. I’m not a scotch drinker (prefer bourbons and tequilas…plus scotch and I have a history). I’m assuming that overall, they’d still be drinkable, but I know nothing about their relative ranks among scotches, nor do I know how to go about imbibing or using in cooking, so any advice is helpful.

The bottles I have are:
Johnny Walker Red
John Barr Capstone Edition
The Famous Grouse (unopened)

My guess is that they are all fairly cheap and of questionable drinkability (especially neat), so any advise on mixers or cooking uses would be fantastic.

Thanks, teeming millions.

2

Send them to me. I’ll ensure they get a proper burial.

You could always throw then in a hipflask and hit the local Scottish fair. Even the crappiest scotch tastes great in public, it broad daylight.

3

All three are blends, not single malts. Not sure what Capstone edition is for John Barr so I can’t comment on it.

The Johnny Walker Red is a nice scotch. It’s their most popular label and I have found it easy to drink.

The Famous Grouse is another well respected blend but I haven’t tasted it, or if I did I don’t remember it.

My guess is all three are quite drinkable and of fairly good quality.

4

If you’re not so snobby that you can drink blends, Famous Grouse is a pretty good one. Same for Johnnie Walker Red. Never heard of the John Barr before though.

5

Well, you have bottles that are blends, which means they are crap (get off my back! Singles or die!) UB has a good idea with the “outdoors from a flask” suggestion. The Famous Grouse is still good, since it hasn’t been opened. The others might had deteriorated a bit in the bottle, depending on the amount of oxygen inside. I’ve never heard of the John Barr, but I know I don’t like the JW Red. Give it to a bum and make his day.

6

I was always told that distilled spirits such as this do not change. They can eventually evaporate, but that’s all.

(This excludes anything like Baileys which has an ingredient in it that can spoil, of course)

7

The flavor can change due to oxidation. Pour a glass of your favorite spirit. Taste it. Then let it set open for an hour. Taste again. The flavor profile will change as the volatiles evaporate. Most scotch writers I’ve read advise killing off a bottle once it gets to the 1/4 full level or so. This may be a ploy to encourage sales, but I’m inclined to believe them, given the changes that can happen with wine and breathing.

8

Thanks, silenus. I’m not too much of a straight up spirits drinker so I never noticed what you describe. I’ll have to try that… for science, you understand.

Yes, that’s it. For science.

9

What I recall from distilling conferences is that spirits are stable to about a third of a bottle. That is, a half-full opened bottle of whisk(e)y should be about as good as it was. Once a bottle is to a third or less, then the air and spirit interact in undesirable ways.

So a snifter or three from a bottle and it’s good to go back on the shelf indefinitely. Once I hit the third left mark… Well, damn. Guess I have to finish the bottle tonight. :smiley:
ETA: beaten to the punch by silenus! I’ll still (hah!) advocate for the 1/3 mark over the 1/4 mark. Not that I need any excuses…

10

Thanks. So they should still be good. But how to drink? What mixes nicely with blended whisky? It seems these might be good enough to drink straight (my favorite way with decent bourbon is with ½ cube (or less) of ice). I’m not snobby. I haven’t had scotch in ~30 years, and should get over my fear of it. This way, I can move up to the aged single malts eventually.

11

The Famous Grouse would be good with just a splash of water or a single ice cube. My guess is that the same would go for the other two as well, although I’d recommend using the JW as drain cleaner instead. :smiley:

For a mixed drink, try a Rusty Nail: Scoth and Drambuie in a 3:1 ratio, with a twist of lemon .

12

I haven’t had blended whiskys in quite a while, so take this with a cellar of salt.

Take a nip of all three, and decide which is most palatable for you. Have the best with either a splash or 1/2 ice cube. Use the others for mixed drinks.

You’ll need to move into single-malts on their own merits. It shouldn’t be too difficult, since you enjoy bourbon. I’m actually in the middle of an opposite transition as you–I have a history with bourbon but love scotch. Took me a long time to even take a sip of bourbon. Now I have a couple of bottle of white dog on the shelf.

For mixed drinks, try a horsefeather. 2oz blended whiskey, 2 dashes bitters, 4 oz ginger ale. Around here we use rye whiskey and not blends, but I can’t imagine it wouldn’t be nummy anyway.

13

Well this is helpful. We have half a bottle of Glenlivet. I don’t drink and my boyfriend can’t drink any more so it just sits there. I had been wondering if there was any point in keeping it.

14

Grouse is…a whisky that you do not feel bad about mixing with Coke. It does not have a particular flavour ‘profile’ like the single malts do.

I learned to drink whisky on Grouse. Ice will be your friend here, or if you like it warmer, a little dribble of water.

15

I’m in almost total agreement with this advice. Avoid Coke, ginger ale makes a far more palatable mix with whiskey.

My only caveat is to beware the costs involved if you get bewitched by single malts. They range from ‘not cheap’ to ‘terribly expensive’ in my opinion.