Empty bottle support group thoughts.....

So, I have been reading the travesties that are occurring over at the Empty Bottle Support Group thread.

Prior to my little escapade of touring many distilleries this spring, I drank Jack Daniels, Makers Mark and Jim Beam products. Since then, I found this website and found a wonderful world to expose my taste buds to.

I have to say, I get disappointed when I finish a bottle. Recent losses are:

Elmer T Lee
ERSB
WT Rye
WT 101
Sazerac
FR yellow
FR Small Batch

I liked all of them but... I am new to the bourbon enthusiast movement... and still experimenting, so when one leaves, I can replace it with something new, if I dare venture out of my known likes.

But ultimately, being an engineer, I always am finding myself being overly practical.

My philosophies so far have been to only try things I know are readily available. I do not try to seek out the hard to find bottles in fear of really liking it and then not being able to find it again. That then makes the pain of killing a bottle less tragic if I know I can find another. That also takes the hesitation out of opening certain bottles... if I can get another, I am not afraid of opening one.

My only regret then is not experiencing the entire array of bourbons. So I guess I will try to try some hard to find or special bottlings once in a while. I just do not want to end up with bottles that I am apprehensive to open due to its rarity.

Anyone else feel the same, or have any comments???

I'm relatively new to the game as well, but I've learned that buying two bottles of the rarer stuff serves two purposes:

If you don't like the whiskey, you can try to trade here for something else.

If you do like the whiskey, you enjoy the bottle more since you have a backup and you're not consuming your whole supply at once.

I figure that I can't lose with this method.

The Empty Bottle Support Group has a semi-serious purpose. It can be hard to finish a bottle for many reasons. If if it's not rare, it might be expensive. It might be something you won't be able to replace right away because of, let's say, unreasonable restrictions imposed by someone else in your household. Maybe you just like that particular bottle for no apparent reason.

This is not a rational enthusiasm.

So I'm just going to assume you meant to type "tragedies" instead of "travesties."

I don't have much of a problem finishing a bottle. I tend to finish ones that I have a ready supply of, or ones that are not one of my favorites. The problem I have is throwing my bottles away. When I was a kid, I had a friend whose older sister worked at a bar. She would bring home empties and other "bar stuff" for my buddy and me. We started collecting. We had some pretty neat stuff. My favorite was a huge (gallon?) bottle of CC on a tilt/swing cradle. My buddy even had a giant Budweiser poster/banner, that covered the whole wall of his bedroom. Anyway, getting back to the point, I loved my bottle collection. When I graduated high school and was getting ready to leave for the army, I had to get rid of a lot of my stuff to make my parents happy. My collection went "bye bye". I gave my buddy the good stuff, and the rest was thrown out. Sure wish I had some of them now. It would be interesting to see which ones are still around. I don't keep score with my empties. There are just so many unique and interesting bottles, I don't like to part with them. Ahhh, nostalgia. Joe

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Originally Posted by cowdery

...It might be something you won't be able to replace right away because of, let's say, unreasonable restrictions imposed by someone else in your household....

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I run into those "unreasonable" restrictions often:cry:

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Originally Posted by cowdery

...So I'm just going to assume you meant to type "tragedies" instead of "travesties."

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Yeah, careless spell checking got me there. I surely meant tragedies.

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Originally Posted by cowdery

This is not a rational enthusiasm.

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Not much of that to be found around here... :lol:

Being in Chicago, you shouldn't have a problen getting regular or special bottles with a chain like Binnys in your area. They get most everything if it distributed in Illinois!

Thomas

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Originally Posted by cowdery

....It might be something you won't be able to replace right away because of, let's say, unreasonable restrictions imposed by someone else in your household.."

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Having a wife with no interest in bourbon, or spirits of any kind, has its advantages. I doubt Janean could identify which bottles in my collection are pricey and which ones are mid-shelf bargains.

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Originally Posted by ILLfarmboy

Having a wife with no interest in bourbon, or spirits of any kind, has its advantages. I doubt Janean could identify which bottles in my collection are pricey and which ones are mid-shelf bargains.

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And I assume you will do nothing actively to change that...