How to FIX that whiskey you regret buying 

I get the premise for a blending episode, but I imagine the venn diagram of people who own Brimstone and people who think of cutting it with Jameson is essentially only Daniel.

I love the thought of Brianna just doing inventory work in the warehouse when a camera rolls in and Rex sit's down and goes on this montage and she's just thinking "is this for a show or is he just doing Rex things?" because her reaction was priceless.

I love how "scientific" this is, with Daniel forgetting which glass is which. Creates a true blind test 😂

I don't know about the chemistry, but I think mixing whiskies is kind of like mixing colors. When you mix just 2 or 3, you can still pick out the dominant flavors of each, but when you mix too many, there are too many flavors for your taste buds to distinguish.

Magic Spoon is what dogs would feed humans if we were their pets.

This from the chef side verses chemistry, but only five flavors are tasted on the tongue salt, sweet, sour, bitterness, and umami. Capsaicin is a plant chemical defense mechanism that trips/induces the taste receptors into a feedback loop not a flavor. Everything else is broken down by saliva & carried as a warm vapor/mist into the nose by chewing & normal breathing. Where it is exposed to the olfactory epithelium the sensor that we experience aromatic portion of flavor though. This sensor is exposed constantly to aromas which we experience mostly as a overall single aroma verses it's individual components as a baseline. While eating & drinking the flavors are concentrated and the brain is activated. The more novel or preferred the flavors is the deeper the flavor is registered. Cravings for instance can be induced by the brain to fill nutritional requirements. This needs to be understood to answer why does ever more complicated whiskey flavor profile flatline. This happens by a combination to factors. First the aromas individually fall under the detection threshold of the individual. This varies but four compounds at the same volume as twenty compounds will be felt to be much more powerful on the palate. Second the ability to experience multiple flavors simultaneously goes from 4-10 for the majority of individuals to over 30 for talented individuals with training. This is why chef's are trained to actively delete ingredients from a recipe, & why a small plate tasting menu is preferred method to experience numerous flavors in a single meal. Hopefully this is helpful & cheers.

This video actually rules on multiple levels! It is complex, yet comedic and finishes with a bowling pin. Way to go guys!

An add loaded as Daniel first tried her whiskey and the frozen reaction face almost made me die laughing.

Yeah, I'm only going to blend whiskies that I actually like, I'm not really interested in fixing a bad whiskey. I give away at least a dozen open bottles once or twice a year. It's a working class rural area, and I have a handy-man type guy who grew up around here and knows everyone, and I just give him a box full of bottles and he hands them out to people. I've had a couple of people I didn't even know come up and thank me for bottles they got,... I dig it.

When I decided I needed to reduce my open bottles from 80, blending became a primary way to accomplish this with bottles I did not like so much. My method was a bit different than Daniel's. Mine centered on what other opened so-so whiskies would complement it (I agree with Vortex1988's post on that). I also start with one blend, usually a 2:1, and adjust from there, either in ratio, or bringing in a new whisky based on what the blend could use. I have made some great blends with just 2 or 3 whiskies and a few ended up with 5-7 that were improved, by adding new ones, as you go through a bottle (could not replicate them though). Daniel likes to mix bourbons and scotch, and I usually avoid mixing those, but have had a few good ones. A couple tips - Monkey Shoulder makes a great scotch base (all malt), and Redwood Empire Lost Monarch (bourye) is a great addition to brighten up a bourbon blend. Here are few of my most successful blends 2 parts Monkey Shoulder 1 part Glengoyne Cask Strength (picked up 2 bottles at half price) One I keep using - my cost is $35/bottle and better than 90% of scotch under $70 (48.3% abv) 2 parts Weller Special Reserve 1 part Old Forester Rye Two whiskies I do not care for alone, but really good together (and cheap!) (46.7% abv) Weirdest Blend That Works 40% Benromach 10 Cask Strength 40% RUA Amer Sgl Malt (Charlotte NC) 20% Xicaru Mezcal Very surprised how this turned out and like a lot from 3 spirits I do not (49.3% abv)

I WOULD LOVE A WHOLE EPISODE WHERE YOU EACH PICK 3 WHISKY. DONT TELL EACH OTHER DO A COUPLE MIXES OF EACH AND THEN SHARE WITH EACH OTHER!!! THAT WOULD BE AMAZING!!!

Love the blending, more blending episodes would be great

Home blending is something I want to encourage more. One of the series ideas we have is doing a blending competition between people on our channel to see who can make a better blend.

I do this with a set of graduated cylinders I got off of Amazon. Mix 10ml of different whiskies I don't like, find the percentages I like, then blend them and age them in a 1L barrel for a week or two and share them with friends. Very fun, great video guys 🇺🇸🥃

Maybe one way to look at "collapsing" blends is that our palate is *differential* vs *absolute*. Like if you mix together all colors of paint, you get grey. There are still lots of the esters and flavor compounds and , but because there are no contrasts your tongue says "sweet water"?

Being from Scotland the easiest way to fix any Whisky is put IRN BRU in it, also known as our “other national drink” 🤣

Finally, we get advanced whiskey training. Some really amazing combinations, after decades of neat blending is exciting.

The one tip I would add to this, is that if you find that something has gone flat, you can try and coax flavor back out by adding ABV. So if your blended ABV is low 40s ... add something in the high 50s to start bringing it back up to snuff. The one whisky I've had the most success using for this is a high abv Glenlivet Nadurra.

Standard Redbreast and Woodford Reserve Double Oak (even proportions) If I had some, I'd add some booker's. it's basically, creme brulee bourbon notes mixed with a very nice malt forward, oaked, malt forward whisky.

I have done this sort of blending before and have managed to "save" a collapsed blend... by ditching all the flavors that I was hoping to bring out and dragging it in the direction of the most aggressive flavors possible on my shelf. To use your flavor triangle, it wasn't the base, spice, or rounder, just filler. I had to use embarrassing amounts of whiskey's I'd rather have drunk on their own, some cask strength rye whiskey, some ardbeg, and two solid pours of octamore. And I almost forgot that I put in like a extra third of the bottle of the base I was using (bunnahabhain 12, I think) just to dilute the fighting flavors enough to make it salvageable. Before anyone gets onto my case about blasphemy, it hurt at the time, it hurts now and I regret it. I am sharing a cautionary tale of the price you have to pay to transmute lead into copper. I took four very nice things and my own mess and only produced something that was palatable. And, had I abandoned my mess, I probably could have achieved a much better result with any three of them. If you've royally screwed up your blend, please for the love of god, let it go.

One thing I did a few months back was two parts Jack Daniels Bonded, one part Angel's Envy, and my friends and I enjoyed that quite a bit. Did another blend with Ardbeg Blaaaack and a citrus Chattanooga that was great.

For me I fixed 1792 full proof, it was a barrel pick and way too oak forward, was by adding small batch 1792. Awesome!

That is the best intro I think I have ever seen. Amazing!

This was great. You guys should do more blend episodes like these

Fun and educational content, would love to see more blending videos like this.

I love that Magic Spoon has given you guys so much leeway with their ad-read. Tons of fun!

The Ardbeg 5 Wee Beastie is a giant smoke-bomb. I love it, it's a wilder Ardbeg 5 and it's available over here at a decent price. I need to go get another bottle. We're planning a whiskey tasting evening for next month, and I think if we find a 'least favorite' in this one, we might try different blends to 'fix' it from what's at hand.

when building an infinity bottle how do you avoid "flatlining the blend " ?

I think this was the best and most informative video you've all done! This is a rabbit hole I'm sure to go down.

This is great, and what I have been doing. HOWEVER!!! Once mixed in, and left in glass the flavors continue to change- often the complexity is lost. Furthermore, once I have a good blend that I want to barrel age- different blends react very differently with the oak and char. I have no clue why some blends break down, and some don’t. I would love a video explaining what/why this happens, so I can better predict what is going to happen.

Recently blended Mellow Corn with a Honey whiskey and really like the result. Tastes like a cocktail with nothing more than adding ice.

This is awesome. Love the idea of blending.

As far as why blends collapse - not a chemist, but my theory is that you hit a certain point where you've got so many disparate flavor and aroma compounds competing with one another that nothing really sticks out any more. Kinda like having a bunch of lights with color filters on them: make 'em all super bright and shine them all on one spot and you get white. Also, the timing of this episode could not be any better for me - long comment ahead: been doing a good amount of blending lately. One set of experiments has resulted in a template not too dissimilar from what's talked about here that focuses around: .10 part Leopold Bros Straight BiB bourbon (justa lil' splish-splash) 1 - 1.5 parts Knob Creek 1 part of something either fruit-forward (sherry/port/wine cask finish is a good starting point) or something with a good whack of some combo of baking spices (Noah's Mill, FEW straight rye). either way, it needs to lean into being richer - density optional 1 part high proof whatever, so long as the profile is relatively simple and overall sweet (Old Fo 1920, Boondocks Cask Strength American)) What I'm ultimately trying to construct is something that hits the entire palate, that has a good ethanol punch, but isn't overly "bright". The Knob Creek's oak and sweetness gives a solid foundation while the splash of Leopold lends a beautiful honeysuckle topend. That leaves the mid palate to either be filled out via the aforementioned Noah's Mill cinnamon/nutmeg or something like FEW straight rye's slight dill and anise tinge. The high proof whatever needs to be relatively simple in comparison, which helps bring the overall experience up a notch. Also had some success swapping that either/or of baking spice and fruit forward character and do half part of both - Lip Service rye and a Knob Creek cask strength rye, for instance. It's a careful balancing act but it can be really good. I've found that you definitely need to let this blend mingle for a few, though. Otherwise it tends to be fairly sharp and can border on overly bitter and tannic. Letting everything marry for 5-10 minutes before tasting helps the whole lot settle and allows for the mid palate to really develop and shine. I'd apologize for the wall of text but figure somebody might appreciate this starting point with my rationale.

Me in my glencairn: I started with a splash of Talisker 10, swished it around and drank all but a few drops. Then 1 oz Red Breast 12, a bit less than an oz (the end of my bottle) of Balvenie doublewood 12, and finished with a teaspoon(ish) of Syndicate (58/6 blended scotch) 12 yr. Magical, but I love everything that went in, everything on my shelf at the moment. *The bottle of Jeremiah Weed in my freezer is not even worthy of mention...

Thank you to all of you for making me laugh so much, while also educating me… you all seem like cool people. 😊👍💜

Brimstone is definitely a different whiskey, that roasted corn is powerful.

I can relate. Recently I bought a bottle of Arran Sauternes Cask and I’m really struggling with it. I’ve tried using it to blend a little, but haven’t found the sweet spot just yet.

These 3 doing videos is something I always look forward to. Great job.

Some times if a whiskey is bad enough, I'll add enough ever clear to raise the proof to 55%, throw it and 3" of medium toasted oak spiral in a mason jar and set it in the garage for a summer shake once a week taste and remove the oak when you like it.

would love more blends - an episode of MB submitted whisky blends would be great!

Love the lighting in the bottle room. Looks very festive. 👍 The episode was interesting too.

I can swear I remember Daniel singing Brimstone's praises a couple years back, how it was like BBQ brisket or something to that effect.

Simply down it and move on to the one you love 😂 I’ve a bottle of redbreast 27 waiting for me when I get home after today 😅

Haven't really done much blending other than my Infinity Bottle. The first (complete) one contains equal parts Wild Turkey 101, Maker's Mark, J.P. Wiser's 15, Jameson Black Barrel, Green Spot, Elijah Craig Small Batch, Glenfiddich 15 Solera, Bearface, Redbreast 12, Jameson Caskmates Stout Edition, Monkey Shoulder, Four Roses, & Teeling Small Batch. Turned out pretty good I think.

I like to add a couple of dashes of bitters to wake up boring whiskeys or take the edge of ones that are too spikey for my taste. I was also not a fan of Brimstone. And I was very excited to get it up here in Washington. One day after playing with it for about a year, it suddenly took on a butterscotch flavor.

This is quite interesting. Very entertaining to see a newbie blend vs a connoisseur blend.

Funniest intro yet! I am so happy for Steve.

I’ve been doing my homemade blends with bourbons. I enjoy the flavor more on a lot of younger bourbons but to cut that sharpness they usually have I’ll take and add an older bourbon to round it out more. I noticed most bourbons that are 12 yrs or older I really don’t care too much for. That’s why I still have over half of bottle of B520.

A little after the 6 minute mark I yelled out "Yes! Yes! Magic Spoon!!!" It's been too long my friends. Thankyou for the return of Magic Spoon!

After watching the video of the various fruits and whatnot soaked for 4 days, i decided to give that a try. I did the apples and cinnamon and used Woodford reserve. Idk about blending whiskeys, is rather not ruin my good whiskey mixing it with bad. But not did soaking apples in it really smooth out the flavor and make it an actual pallettable drink on the rocks.

Props on the intro. That was beautiful man

Man, it really depends on what I'm working with. Still have been messing with two bottles of pretty cheap Trader Joes whiskies (Highland double cask and Finlaggan) and nothing has been super magical (but certainly better). I usually blend Islay's into things like that. You've inspired me to try harder with more complex blends.

Very informative episode. I enjoyed it! 👍👍

I love adding the Dewar’s “Smooth” series to anything I’m not fond of cuz they’re not expensive

Omw the story continues😂 best promotions yet. Also very interesting episode. I have a whiskey I can try this with

Okay, 3rd comment. I've mixed Brimstone with 4 other things to "fix" it: Bulleit, Ghost Hill, Blade and Bow, and Knob Creek Rye. I let them marinate in a 4th-fill 1-liter barrel, and it turned out really well.

It's probably like mixing colors. After awhile you end up with brown.

Late to the party but, I have a half bottle of Tomatin 12yr that I have had for a long time. Can not stand it by itself or in a cocktail. Added one ounce of Ardbeg An Oa to the bottle with the intention of letting it marry for a week. Saw this episode tonight (about six months later), and immediately poured a glass. This is my new favorite bottle in my cabinet!!!!!

Sometimes I think that Brianna comes up with the tasting notes that you'd experience moments before a massive stroke!

We went to Strathisla Distillery (where I learned that Chivas Regal isn't up its own butt with the name) and ended up doing their whiskey blending tasting option. It was amazing. We kept our notes of what all we blended together on the off chance we ever end up back there.

Brimstone is one of my go to ❤️ the smokiness of the Texas scrub oak is the boom… I mix Jameson with tonic… I sip my brimstone

I had a blend of St Augustine Distillery' port finished bourbon. I think I did 2 parts to 1 part Makers Mark

I've made some lovely home blends & infinity bottles. Once you get it just right it can be magical I do feel the issue lies with using good whisky to "fix" the low quality one. You might be lowering the flavours in 3 to improve 1

Just goes to show that it is all subjective. I first had Jameson at 18/19 yeas of age. Hated It immediately. I'm now 40 next April. I love it. Wierd and funny how tastes changes. God save the Queen. Long live the King

A thing of beauty...had something in mind like this for months...the difference I was thinking of creating high end blends (Blue Label, etc.) on a budget.

FWIW I've definitely collapsed a blend, and you most certainly cannot resurrect it from that state. Great episode. Ralfy would approve. 👍🏼

Brimstone in a Bloody Mary with some Absolute Peppar, blue cheese stuffed olives, and some crispy bacon will make you appreciate it…. But straight it’s rough. Also incorporated in some nice BBQ sauce it’s great.

Seriously, your ads are freaking amazing. LOL

I was at a tasting once an one of the whiskies was a blend of a Campbeltown, Highland, Islay, Lowland and Speyside. And the taste was very flat. Every time I've tried it myself I always get chocolate even if none of them had a chocolate note.

Outstanding production of the sponsored content segment! Brava!

Garrison Bros Balmorhea and Penelope Light Whiskey. On complete opposite ends on the flavor spectrum, but pair so well together! The yin and yang of whiskey ☯️

on the chemistry side, I imagine compounds bond with one another and form much less interesting things. Others will overpower (destroy) other bonds and you lose notes that was as well. both happening causing the issues of flatness.

Very interesting episode. Glad you used Brimstone. Recently got it and while I don't hate it, it is very rough sipping neat lol might blend with Jameson to accent and round off the harshness 👍

The opening was fantastic. Now back to our regularly scheduled program.

🐝👕🐝what is the shirt that Rex is wearing?! it's really awesome!! Thank you for everything you guys do and your crowd sourcing whiskey distillery is a genius idea, so happy to see you guys going for your dreams!!

I usually give bottles like that to my grandson. He'll drink pretty much anything -- he mixes it with coke or something.

Easiest way to fix Brimstone? Add one icecube to a glass and pour it neat, freaking love Brimstone! Love the concept of the video!

Well I have this Sutherlands 18 year Benrinnes that tastes like a very hoppy. I did 50/50 Laphroaig CS to the Benrinnes and I could still get that horrendous aftertaste even with all that peat. I may go 1:2 now based on this. I spent $80 on that bottle and now I know why it was so drastically discounted.

I have recently been on a Bourbon kick. The my first drink of Scotch was Johnny Blue then Aerdbeg.

I live in manila where the whiskey is cheap and plentiful. I tried 100 pipers which is a dull and nondescript whiskey, bit I added a small Johnnie Walker Black (200ml) which improved it out of all recognition!

What an amazing room. Imagine a whiskey that was all the whiskeys together "the everything whiskey"

I felt that way about Blanton's Original, and Eagle rare 10 year... so many people love them but I wasn't a fan of either sadly... Especially when I had such high expectations.

My personal favorite blend is OK Distilling's Rectifiers Select and WT101 50/50.

Ive found, a few times I've bought a whiskey highly recommended and I've hated it. What I found was if you keep going back to it after eating and drinking different things, after a while the notes I didn't like I climate to and I can find more enjoyable elements. More often than not I end up getting another bottle.

Wondering if the time in mix has any effect on the blend. I expect that if you came up with a favorite blend, it might change if left in a new bottle for a week or even a day. Many of those flavor components have oily characteristics, and the act of blending them might not give them time to "marry" properly.

Ralfy´s advice is to mix by the Law of Thirds. Meaning start with quantity X of whisk(e)y you want to change / enrich / fix. Then add a third or a ninth of that amount X, coming from another whisk(e)y bottle, to it. If you want to add another third or ninth (a third of a third) of X to that, it has to be from yet another bottle. And so on.

glenfarclas 105, which in itself i don't favour, is a blending monster. and it's actually cheap as such, plus it can really boost low alcohol, which in my opinion is what drags quite a few drams down. i use it all the time. actually, i've really gotten into blending because of the great results. it can liven up the boring, tame the impetuous and broaden the one trick ponies.

I just searched out some Brimstone because I wanted a smoke forward taste that would transport me to sitting next to a campfire in the woods. This video makes me want to buy another bottle and find a mossy/earthy whisk(e)y to blend it with!

I love blending bottles I don't really like that much. I also like using my small barrel to age some of my bottles. Teacher's scotch actually becomes very nice with some extra age.

My favorite blend isn't to fix anything, but discovered while sitting around bored one night. First, prep the container with a rinse of Lagavulin 16 (I had initially used a freshly emptied Caol Ila 12 200ml bottle, and afterward recreated it with the Laga rinse). Then add the following: 2 parts Elijah Craig 18yr 2 parts Wild Turkey Rare Breed Bourbon 1 part Woodford Reserve Double Oaked 1 part Basil Hayden's Caribbean Reserve C'est magnifique!

You had me at, any bottle in this room!

Good to know. Great video.

I recently just bought my first bottle of whiskey unfortunately I can only pull one note off the bottle and that’s a sour dough bread. I’m still trying to find more notes but can’t pull them out yet (it’s knob creek 9 year)

I really got something out of this one. I had a bottle of Balcones (I can't remember which one) and did not like it. I tried it a few times and couldn't do it. So I gave it to my wife's boss. He was appreciative.

Going to do this with that Proper 12 everyone said was actually pretty good....

Great opening.

Damnnn I absolutely loved brimstone. I wish I could get it here in Kansas. At least I can get their Texas Pot Still Bourbon on the reg

Half balconies Texas bourbon and half rabbit hole sherry finished, incredible!!!

If this works for you, great. I'll just experiment with using ones I dislike (because hate is just to strong a word) into cocktails. That allows me to take the edge of of some whiskies that I don't truly like up. And I keep a notebook so I can repeat those that work and not buy fancy swill again. The older I get (and more I drink) that notebook comes in handy🤣

I'd wager at least part of the problem is that different whiskeys contain different esters and whatnot, and when you mix you get less of each type, so the flavor is literally watered down. I.e. Whiskey a contains 1 part of chemical a, whiskey b 1 part chemical b, and so on. In a 1:1:1 whiskey you only det 1/3 of a b and c. So with 5 or 6 whiskeys consentrations get to low to be noticeable.