Elijah Craig 15 vs 18 Year Single Barrels; Ep. 46

Daniel AI: Welcome to Bourbon Brass and Beyond. Tonight, Nick rejoins us to talk about the new, just released Elijah Craig 15-year single barrel. We compare it with the 2025 release 18-year single barrel. The captains have turned off the fasten seatbelt sign. Please pour yourself one of these and enjoy. Special thank you to Nick for bringing over his new Elijah Craig 15. Let him know you like his new hat. He will be joining me for our next podcast as well where we compare spring and fall bottlings of old Fitzgerald 10 and 11 year bourbon. Please check out our website www.bourbonbrassandbeyond.com and leave a review. Please like and share.

Dan, Nick, And Bob: Well, good evening. Good evening. How's it going? Good to see you. Good to see you again. Again, yes. Today. It was another drop morning. Saturday morning. Saturday morning. A light drop. Yeah. Unless you like blantons. Right. There was plenty of blantons for everybody this morning. well, some are like, some Eagle Rare, not too bad. One case of red though. Like we said, usually at least two or three, but at least four, Canfield. ⁓ But after this week, it's like, I'm surprised there was anything left. It's been a good week. It's been a good week. ⁓ One had three when I went. Right. Yeah. So people were, they still got them. Canfield just only got one. So. Right. But tonight is exciting ⁓ We are doing the Elijah Craig Single Barrels, the 15 year, which is just released and just became available in parts of Ohio. Yes. the 18 year, which is ⁓ an allocated bottle, but I saw some today. I don't remember when exactly did the 18 release. I want say. Cause I got mine at ANC. And that was three months ago. But I think they did a release prior to that. I think they were available last year in 25. But yeah, the 15s are new, like you said. New to us at least. Seems like they hit Cincinnati and Columbus first. No surprise. And then Akron, Cleveland, Toledo area. And this was bottled, this 18 was bottled on December 1st of 2025. Oh, okay. All right, now this, February 11th, 26. Ooh. So. They're almost Irish twins. Yeah, that's true. That is true. Thank you. Yes, sir. Yeah, so I did try the 15, but I have not had the 18 yet. So, excited to. Oh, I haven't had the 15, so. Oh, perfect. Excited to compare that. Starting with the 18 because it is 90 proof. It's the warm-up. Sweet. Yeah, it's good sweet nose. Like a sweet oak. Yeah, not like a sugary sweet. Yeah. Oaky sweetness. Yeah. All Good nose. All right. To me, this is one of the better Heaven Hills. I really like the age that comes out in it, that nice oaky bit of char. Yeah. It's not over-oaked for 18 years. ⁓ Right. is usually, maybe because it's, I don't 90 proof, maybe you don't get... You know, where if it was something in the and it was an 18 year, might hit you a little bit harder, but definitely over-oaked. I think it's well balanced. The flavors match with the sweetness to get that caramelized sugar. It's more of a natural caramel, like the old fashioned where you pour the sugar in the pan and then ⁓ heat it You know, that type of caramel. Was that a thing in your day? Yeah, if you're going to make flan, you didn't just come up with a bottle, you squirted it out, you could actually make the caramel. Yeah. Add a little milk to make it creamier. Yeah, definitely, it is that sweet oak on the nose. then. Nice, vanilla It's a little bit, just a little bit bacon spice. Yeah. It's a, cinnamon nutmeg. get more of cinnamon, more little bit of cinnamon spice yeah for me personally. It is very well balanced. think, again, 18 years, something that's a little bit lower in proof, not up in the teens or the 20s, ⁓ pretty not over-oked. And yeah, you do just kind of get that classic caramel, that sweet oak. I think the different distilleries have different distinct flavors. I get a lot of the Heaven Hills out of this. I get a lot of Buffalo Trace out of the Buffalo Trace. There's a common consistency. Now maybe like mentioned, foreshadowing some other things we might be doing here soon. As far as the higher age stated, Heaven Hill, I don't have that much ⁓ I did get to try ⁓ 22, which was very, very different than this, but. Do you if it's the same Mash Bill? I don't know. the top of my head, I'm not sure. I would have to look it up, but. I don't know that Hills really states which Bill is which. Yeah, I can't remember, ⁓ and it's hard to keep between. ⁓ the different labels Heaven Hill. But, no, that's good. That's good. ⁓ do like that. That's, yeah, that's a good one. The There's something I can't quite figure out on the finish, but. flavor doesn't stay. It turns to that nuttiness. was to say it's almost, yeah, maybe that caramel ⁓ sweetness kind of burnt, but of turns to that nutty, you know, like turns to that. That's kind of, think what I was picking up on on that back end. Yeah, very much so. But I like I mean, this to me is a great, great sipper. It's yeah. that's very enjoyable. And we were Almost like a dusty note on it. I can see that right there. Not when it was in there, But yeah, with a ⁓ empty glass, I could see that. All right. And ⁓ we were talking right before the camera started. think a lot of people say they don't it and don't like to say good things about it, because like we had mentioned in a previous podcast with the double double oak. Yeah. Nobody says it's not good. They just scoff at the price tag a little bit sometimes, but. That part aside, you know. And you know what? I don't have a problem having an increased price MSRP for a good product. Sure. And I think that when the prices are artificially controlled, makes it harder to get the good products. Sounds like a similar discussion we had earlier today. you know, like you said, a higher price at MSRP, but still available at that price versus like the 22s that just released are, I think the cheapest I've seen is 750 secondary for those. Right. So what happens is you get, okay, we can get a bottle for 60, 70 bucks and then turn around and these people flip it. Yeah. And it's like, well, I want to get it to enjoy it. Drink it. you know, and then it's okay. Does then demand diminish if it has a higher price? I don't. I think it eliminates portion of the market, not necessarily because they can't afford it, but they may just not want to spend, you know, a little bit higher than some of the other things that are out there. And unfortunately, if it's not worth more than MSRP, that. But good if it's something you want, then it's great as a buyer because it's available. So one question I had was if, you know, they pay taxes on the barrels a couple years ⁓ it's bottled, is based on the expected value of bottles that are gonna come out of it? Because that would the reason why they keep the price controlled, because then they don't have to pay as much in taxes. ⁓ But if they ⁓ this bottle's gonna be 200 bottles out of a barrel it's gonna be $200. know more important people than I do. that sounds like a text message for somebody who knows more than Yeah. I'm going to find out. ⁓ That would make sense why they ⁓ don't mind price. Yeah. know, cap it. I'm just not really sure. All right. ⁓ All right. have at it. second one there. Yeah, 15 new release to us. one's ⁓ proof. And like we said, February 11th of this year was the date. Just a babe in the woods. Yeah. ⁓ think it's almost a darker. I mean, can, I guess they look pretty similar from that angle, but having tried this already, but never having that now that I've had that, they're two very different experiences. And ⁓ think you'll, you'll see here. So last night, Bob and I did. the Eagle Rare 12 and Taylor's Single Barrel and the Benchmark Single Barrel just to see if there was a difference. ⁓ then for Shits and Giggles threw on Taylor Proof. And I think the Barrel Proof and the Single Barrel was two different flavor-wise. I like the Barrel Proof on that one. But I just think the ⁓ Taylor Barrel Proof. Yeah. And you, I was actually looking at yours. I have a 14. That's 127.4. That's coming to me next week. That's the last one I need from the 25 release. I have the point two, the point three. ⁓ think Bob's got one he's going to give me. So. ⁓ well, I can cancel the order then. Yeah. So very different notes too on this one. I'm the Darkfruits. It's a fruitier sweetness and almost a little floral. Yeah, I can see that too I like the nose better. I do like the nose better on the 15. On this one? So do I. Yeah. Yeah, I get that more fruity and you're right, there is some floral nose to it. Less of the sweet oak that was really on the, you know, pronounced on the 18, on the nose on the 18. Yeah. All right, cheers. Cool. That's interesting now, side by side. ⁓ I like that. Yeah, it's got the, the real deep fig. Mmm. That's good. I like it. Yeah. I didn't want to say a whole lot. And maybe when I tried it the other night and we were chatting a little bit, I gave it away a little bit that I was a big fan of it. this is ⁓ one could be dangerous. Yeah. Because you just ⁓ that is ⁓ little bit higher proof, but it ⁓ doesn't. We'll you might think it was a higher proof on the nose, but definitely not, you know, definitely not on the palate. I mean, I would say... I would say that this drinks a 90 to 95 proof. ⁓ I think it definitely drinks closer to the 18, you know, in that maybe mid 90s than 108, what it actually is. But I did when I tried this the first time, I really, really liked it. And so I was we able to pick one of those up. ⁓ yeah. Yeah. That's that's a score. Oh wow, well done. That reminds me of the barrel proof, the A120 I have. Okay. Okay, yes. So I have an A120. But do you remember how old that one is? Yeah, 2020. was January of 2020. No, but they have the... Was that when they were age stating them still? There's so many of those Elijah Craigs. I always keep getting mixed up. Does it have? Because you know, like the C923, right? Everybody went crazy on the C923. It was whatever, 13 years. Yeah. So this one was, this is 12 years old. Okay. Yeah. that's, yeah. Cause 2020, that makes sense. That's when they were doing a little bit older. Yeah. But the flavor profile. Okay. Reminds me of this. All right. But much, much smoother. Yeah. Just a little bit more rounded maybe. A little more refined. Yeah, I wasn't as big of a fan of the A125. I had that as a comparison. Yeah, I don't... I think I've tried it. I don't think I have that one. My nephew Noah brought that one up. Oh yeah, good. I have one that I haven't opened yet, No, I don't know that I got any of the 25s. The only one more recently in the last year or so. was I got the barrel proof rye. I think it was the A126, it was just earlier this year. Wow, that is a great pour. I enjoyed it. I'm glad to them side by side now since I have not had the 18. I think I do prefer the 15. They are remarkably similar at their core, right? You know, they talked about, you know, Heaven Hill has a Heaven Hill, you know, kind of core that you can pull out in most of their bottles. Beam, like we were talking earlier today. That Heaven Hill core is there. I just like a little bit more for my taste. That kind fruity, a little bit that fruitiness. on the 15, but I'm never upset about, you know, a little bit of sweet oak and caramel. would change from day to day, but I do enjoy that one a lot. So I'm glad we able to get our hands on that. Fantastic. Well, it's a score. Some legs on there too. Right. I mean, viscous. The mouth feel, it's very viscous. It just stays. The sweetness stays. Yeah. And you still keep get it down in the corners of your mouth. Yeah. Stays on the tip of the tongue and all way to the back. I think that back end does actually stick around longer on the 15 than the 18. Yeah. I wonder if that could be just because it is proofed higher. Yeah, I don't know. Possibly. We'll have to maybe do a little Google too and get that answer on the Mash Bill. See if we can figure that out. But I would kind of tend to think that they're the same, different age statements. I mean, they made the bottles identical. So, I don't know. Let's see if we can figure that out. Well, the question is going to be, they going to continue the 18? Yeah, because it's kind of weird they did the 18 and then pulled back to the 15. Obviously, you know, social media, there's been a lot of hype on the 15 since the influencers got their initial, you know, uh, whatever influencer sample bottles, whatever they get, you know, uh, but yeah, I don't know. It'll be, it is weird and I understand, you know, different lines, but it is hard to keep track sometimes because you had the 18 come out before the 15 and then the 22 has dropped at the distiller. And I know it's not, you know, maybe I guess different lineups and we had the 90th anniversary ones earlier this year that I had gotten. Those are nine years. So it's always different age statements coming out at different times. So I was talking with Steph about this earlier. I think we're in an unprecedented time for what most current bourbon drinkers know. I think we're like back in the 60s when they had that glut of whiskey. So they started doing the decanters. They started doing the extended range or the extended age bourbons and people started buying them. Well, they also stopped distilling at that point in time. And then all of a sudden, when there wasn't any whiskey left, all of those old bottles shot up in price. I think we're back in that cycle. Well, yeah, you wonder what's going to happen because you keep hearing a lot of the news of, you know. We were talking earlier today as well, too, with some of the contract distilling and certain, you know, Bardstown and Green River, maybe, know, there's some layoffs, they're slowing down. What's the number? Everybody keeps hearing 20 million barrels or something that all these distilleries are sitting on. And so I don't know what happens if ⁓ floodgates open, they finally release this. But are they still producing as much on the I don't know. I guess we'll probably find out in five to 10 years. So the is, do we buy a couple barrels? Yes. That are like... five to six years old right now and then sit on it for 10 years. That's... And you have to find the good barrels to do it. I think that there's no shortage of barrels out there. No, no shortage of barrels. But yeah, there's a lot of companies that have gone towards... I think we might have been talking about some, but... Oh my God, the orphan barrels and stuff. And going out there and just looking for the best barrels they can find and things like that. So. I like that rhetoric, that orphan barrel stuff. So, a good start. Well, yeah. Thanks for watching. I think Elijah Craig 15 is a, it's a score. It's a bottle worth getting. Yeah. You don't mind the... little bit higher of the tag because it's. Yeah, but even the 149, it's right at $10 per year. Yes. that's true. Yeah. It's right at where, you know, that sweet spot is. Yeah. I have a problem with the price. No, no, no, no, no, not at all. ⁓ I it's right where it should be. ⁓ even 18 was at 180. Follows the It follows the rule. But yeah, I think. I don't think you can go wrong with either bottle, but that 15 is really nice. I do prefer the 15 a little bit, but 18 is also a good one. Well, hey, please ⁓ like, share, subscribe, leave a review, comments, ⁓ ⁓ ask Nick questions, we'll And if can't, well, then I'll answer in his name. Fair enough. ⁓ I work more than you do, so you have more time. I'm always working. Alright. When I have to. please, have a good night. Once again, thanks for watching. Good night.