my body really isn't recovering as well as it used to after scotch, so I've started dipping my toe into Bourbon waters. It's very early days, but so far I've not only enjoyed my dalliances but I've woken up a lot less dusty.

So I'm after recommendations. My standard $$ range for scotch is $70-110 Aus (which in Oz terms is Glenlivet 12 up to Aberlour/Balvenie 12), so think along similar price lines.

To date, my favourite of the ones I've tried is clearly Woodford Reserve. A clear second is Buffalo Trace and a distant third was the Wild Turkey Longbranch.

where should I go next?

Bulleit Rye, over a rock. ~$40US for 1.5l at CostCo.

I'm not a bourbon fan but the Yellow Rose sales rep gave us a couple bottles so I tried them. I think their Outlaw Bourbon is pretty decent, 100% corn IIRC.

Didn't really care for their Harris County whiskey but one of our barkeepers created a drink with that one, Licor 43, fresh lemon juice and runny honey. G got very good feedback from customers.

I’m sure you’ll get plenty of rec, but I’m curious - how does switching to bourbon aid in recovery vs scotch?

I'm always amused when people call out a specific alcohol as causing worse hangovers.

Depends on how much you drink and what you mix it with. Also, drink more water!

The amount of congeners matters, there are studies about that:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3674844/

That said, whiskey is actually among the spirits with the highest level of congeners with vodka on the other end of the spectrum.

Link.


I would suspect that people complaining about hangovers are less likely to be drinking the wrong thing and more likely to be drinking too much of it.

ldo.

File this one under "tequila makes me act crazy!" actually being "when I feel particularly self-sabotagey, I drink tequila."

Yeah I thought it would be worse tbh - but each to their own.

More than a few different flavor profiles, so tastes vary widely, I'd imagine.

I lean toward sweet/caramel, more rye spice rather than less, and prefer "hotter" since you can always dilute if need be. I try to always keep a Smoke Wagon Uncut Unfiltered in the cabinet and generally try different products otherwise, usually in the 40-75 range (I'm always happy to try something cheaper lol).

I like Old Forrester 1920 which can be had for 50 USD, Oregon Spirit Straight Bourbon was also pretty good for like 45.

There's tons of tasting content on youtube, but it's tough to sort through which people's tastes align with yours imo

I always think that Four Roses Small Batch is the best value for my bourbon-spending money. It is on the sweeter side; I tend to liken it to being a superior rendition of the same overall flavor profile as Maker's Mark.

Good first choices, imo. Buffalo Trace may be the best price to quality ration out there. Try Uncle Nearest if you like Buffalo Trace and Woodford, imo.

It's especially nice when you find a bar that charges the bottom-shelf price for Buffalo Trace as if it's Jim Beam 2.0. Jim Beam is completely undrinkable and Buffalo Trace is very solid.

always glad to entertain, but different alcohol definitely has different impacts on me/my sleep and recovery.

I rarely get hangovers unless I've gone really hard but bad sleeps have been the main negative impact

eg red wine (and particularly bigger reds..Shiraz, heavy Cabernets etc) impact my anxiety levels in a way that beer never ever does. I'm almost guaranteed to wake up at 4am and start irrationally worrying about something if I have too much wine. Whereas with beer, I'll wake up for a pee of course, but straight back to sleep. But bloating gets bad while drinking so my beer consumption is capped at 3-4 before I need to move onto something else

I've started to find scotch drinking is also hitting night time nervous system in a similar way to red. Prior to this, the only impact of scotch to date has been the vague, headachy slightly annoyed countenance the next day if I've drunk too much. I'll no doubt still get that with too much bourbon but it is yet to impact my sleep in the same way as scotch has started to. Plus I'm enjoying the slightly sweeter tastes

I've never seen Uncle Nearest - will seek out in the big bottle shop

whoa, the two available Uncle Nearest bottles are 80% and 100% more expensive than Woodford here

1884 small batch is $130 ish and then 1856 Premium is $150-160

prolly a little rich for me

$150 is like US$100?

I see Uncle Nearest 1884 for 49€ and Uncle Nearest 1856 for 62€, so roughly US$54 and US$69 respectively.

Woodford Reserve Bourbon (that's the cheapest in their lineup) for 23,50€ = US$26.
Woodford Reserve Double Oaked is 43€ = US$48.

In exchange rate terms right now, yes.

Woodford Reserve is $70 here. Buffalo Trace $65

We have high tariffs on spirits compared to most countries, particularly those in continental Europe. Didn’t realise you were in Europe?
I can’t really compare with US as I only ever really go to Vegas which is eye wateringly expensive

Yeah, those are some crazy mark-ups. Like literally twice as expensive as they are here. Ouch.

How is Maker's Mark priced over there? I like it, but find it overpriced for what it is, so I drink it when it is around, but don't buy bottles.

It is around $50 - maybe $55 now

That surprises me. I always think Maker's Mark is a nice value, especially since it's a non-garbage product that gets regularly sold in handles.

I live in the US but work in Europe.

FWIW, I see the regular Maker's Mark Bourbon 700cl for 18,52€ + tax so roughly US$20. 1000cl for 23,77€.

Maker`s Mark 46 Bourbon 700cl for 33,48€.

Yeah, apparently my local just overprices Maker's Mark, as when I search on it online, it is quite reasonably priced. Color me pleasantly surprised.