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The absolute WORST bourbon I ever tasted was......


starhopper
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I thought it would be interesting to hear the stories people have when it comes to having bad experiences with sub-par bourbons/whiskeys. 

My worst experience came after reading the latest issue of a popular Whiskey and Rye book that gave 3 out of 4 stars to "Blonde" whiskey. I went right out and spent $39 for a bottle, opened her up, took a sip, and nearly lost my lunch. With what I can best describe as a bland, watery taste of "wet, moldy hay", I tried it a SECOND time (just to be fair) - no change.  It was the first bottle I have ever dumped down the kitchen drain after tasting it.:o

Edited by starhopper
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Well, to be fair, as it says right on the bottle this is not bourbon but rather a "whiskey".

Safe guess that it is aged for months (at most 6 from what I see), not years and in barrels, used barrels if I had to guess, with some sort of odd custom "honeycomb" panels/staves in the interior. They are reportedly 53 gallon barrels but if they are only aging 6 months or so I can't imagine they use fresh new barrels each time for only 6 months. Instead I would guess they put new honey comb staves in each barrel and use the barrels over and over.

But I don't know for sure because as far as I can tell they aren't saying. So expectations would be appropriately low for me. Presuming I would bother to try it at all!

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This topic comes up from time to time and currently my answer is still the same: Johnny Drum black label. Tastes like wet cardboard and it's very young. I tried very hard to get through the bottle and eventually dumped the last half of it.

My strong second place in the category goes to Michter's Toasted Barrel. I know some like it, but I get a strong flavor of fake cinnamon potpourri that reminds me of micro barrel aged bourbon.

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New Holland Beer Barrel Bourbon.  Utterly undrinkable by itself.  I can't bring myself to pour out a 30 or 40 dollar bottle so I ended up mixing the NHBBB very weak into diet vernor's on occasion to get rid of it. 

For non-American whiskey: Alberta Rye Dark Batch.  The ARDB is still kicking around and being vatted in very weak ratios with other things and used as a first pour of the night when cleansing the palate of the toothpaste/mouthwash remnants.

Both of those are/were considerably worse than the 2 bottles of young, small barrel whiskey I bought from a local distillery.  These I can at least tolerate neat but still usually vat with something else if I am going to drink it.

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Some years ago, my father and I did a blind tasting of about a dozen bourbons---readily-available stuff, nothing too exotic.  We liked almost all of them to one degree or another, except one, which we both agreed was unpleasant.

Upon the big reveal, we learned that the uniformly disliked whiskey was in fact Evan Williams black label.

Fast forward some months . . . I'm visiting my father, and of course I take a look into his liquor cabinet where I see a brand new bottle of Evan Williams.  "What did you buy that for?"  I asked, incredulous.  "That's the one whiskey which you KNOW you like less than pretty much any of the other alternatives!"

"It was on sale."

After years of ridicule and cajoling, I think I've finally brought him around to realizing that it's worth paying an extra buck or two to get something that's actually good.

 

(Subjectively.  I know lots of you guys actually like Evan Williams.  More power to you.  For my part, I've actually enjoyed the occasional pour of the New Holland Beer Barrel Bourbon.)

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1 hour ago, fozzy71 said:

For non-American whiskey: Alberta Rye Dark Batch.  The ARDB is still kicking around and being vatted in very weak ratios with other things and used as a first pour of the night when cleansing the palate of the toothpaste/mouthwash remnants.

And so it just goes to show how every palate is different. I am happy to drink the Alberta Rye Dark Batch without giving it a second thought.

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Red Eagle bourbon from a micro in NE Ohio.  An SB friend received it as a gift from a friend who knew he liked bourbon.  He shared some at a tasting and it was everybody's least favorite pour by far.

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As usual, I will go against the grain and say Four Roses Yellow Label. I know I'm in the extreme minority, but I find it to be just bland and totally meh..............

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yellow rose outlaw bourbon.  my wife got a bottle for me for our wedding anniversary a couple years ago, it actually started out tasting fine, but once it got some air time, it was horrible.  I actually ended up pouring out half of the bottle since it got so bad.  the cork seemed to be fine too, so I don't think that was the problem.

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ha, i can recall seeing that on the shelf early into my bourbon adventure and thinking it was part of the four roses brand...

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For me it was my first bottle of knob creek small batch, I haven't tried another. I gave it away to a friend from work.

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Had the rep from Cleveland "Bourbon" try to get me to put some on the shelf.  Hands down worst crap I've ever tried.  Their "accelerated" aging with different woods is a joke.  Doesn't deserve to be able to use the word bourbon...

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4 hours ago, chasking said:

Fast forward some months . . . I'm visiting my father, and of course I take a look into his liquor cabinet where I see a brand new bottle of Evan Williams.  "What did you buy that for?"  I asked, incredulous.  "That's the one whiskey which you KNOW you like less than pretty much any of the other alternatives!"

"It was on sale."

 

Your Dad is a guy I could hunt with.

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I've never bought a bottle of the New Holland Beer Barrel, but tried a pour at a tasting and thought it was decent.  I also find the 4R yellow label to be very bland, but it's not offensive.  I think Hudson Baby Bourbon is my worst ever.  Won't even honor its badness by giving tasting notes.  Just garbage.

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For me the worst was a Ellington, Pendleton and Darby's rye, all have a nasty chemical flavor to me.  I would guess some of the swill I drank in high school should also be on the list, but I will let those pass on by.

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I'm glad to say that so far I've had no bad bourbon experience yet. I had this one whiskey by Forty Creek called Three Grain Harmony, and horror is the only word I can use to describe it. It tasted and smelled like hard boiled eggs and rotting veggies. Ugh... Anyway, I returned it and got Canadian Rockies 21yr instead.

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Woodford Reserve Classic Malt.  A friend from work was going home to Louisville and asked me for my top 10 list of bourbons that I'd like him to look for while he was in Kentucky, and I think my #10 at the time was WRMC Sonoma-Cutrer, because my wife likes it.  So he brought me back the Classic Malt.  I felt obligated to pay him for it, because he dropped $110 on the bottle, and I know he doesn't make a whole lot of money (since I do payroll for our company), and I thanked him for it, but it's terrible.  Tastes like really, really young Scotch.  I still have 2/3 of the bottle left in my liquor cabinet after almost 2 years.

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My WORST tasting bourbon would have to be " Journeyman Distillery - FeatherBone Bourbon Whiskey"

Smell's like Navaho colored latex paint-and taste's like it smells.  Batch-35, Bottle 531
 

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Went to a bar where the only bourbon choices were Four roses yellow label and WT81. I went for the WT81 neat. Big mistake. Tasted bland and flavorless. It was difficult to finish the glass.

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3 hours ago, bdrinker said:

Went to a bar where the only bourbon choices were Four roses yellow label and WT81. I went for the WT81 neat. Big mistake. Tasted bland and flavorless. It was difficult to finish the glass.

I don't care much for the WT81 myself.  WT101 is a big step up in quality though.

Edited by starhopper
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