Month: September 2021

Autumn is fast approaching. That means cooler weather, falling leaves, apple picking, and pumpkin spice everything. It also means the time is right to stock up on harvest ales.

While the harvest ale isn’t a specific style, it’s a term plenty of American craft brewers use to showcase their autumnal beers. In short, a “harvest” ale is a beer created with fall in mind. These run the gamut from beers like the classic Oktoberfest lagers to wet-hopped IPAs. Expect some piney-ness and the first seasonal spices creeping in, but there are no hard and fast parameters.

To prepare for the fall, we’ve made a list of eight of our favorite harvest ales to drink right now. Check them all out below and get ready to pull those hoodies out of the closet.

Deschutes Brewery Chasin’ Freshies

ABV: 7.4%

Average Price: $11 for a six-pack

The Beer:

Germany is synonymous with fall beers, so it should come as no surprise that the folks at Deschutes collaborated with Germany’s Bitburger to create this fresh-hopped IPA brewed with German Callista and Siegelhopfen hops and wet-hopped with American Triumph and Cashmere hops.

Tasting Notes:

The nose is all ripe, juicy citrus with prevalent notes of tangerine, lime zest, and lemon. There is also a nice, floral hit of hops to round it all out. The palate swirls with more citrus with orange and grapefruit taking center stage along with ripe berries, sweet caramel, and just a hint of bitter hop presence at the end.

Bottom Line:

This is a fresh, unique take on the harvest ale. It’s a great end-of-summer beer that bridges the gap between Germany and the US nicely.

Southern Tier Harvest Autumn IPA

ABV: 6.7%

Average Price: $13 for a six-pack

The Beer:

With a name like Harvest Autumn IPA, you definitely know what you’re getting into with this beer. Available only from August through October, it’s brewed with cracked barley and a smattering of American hops. The result is a complex IPA with more body than its summery cousins.

Tasting Notes:

This beer’s aroma is a little different from the IPAs you’ve been drinking all summer. Since it’s meant to be enjoyed during the fall, there’s a pronounced caramel malt scent as well as resinous pine, and fresh hay. The flavor is all IPA though, with notes of ripe grapefruit, citrus zest, dank pine needles, and a fresh, slightly bitter hop flavor.

Bottom Line:

While this beer has a nice malty backbone, it has enough hop freshness and flavor to make you believe that summer isn’t over just yet.

Troegs Hop Knife

ABV: 6.2%

Average Price: $13 for a six-pack

The Beer:

It’s called Hop Knife to pay tribute to the centuries-old technique of using a knife to hand-harvest hops. This fall seasonal beer is brewed with Crystal, Pilsner, and Vienna malts as well as Cascade, Chinook, and El Dorado hops. It’s dry-hopped with Centennial, Citra, and Columbus hops to give it a complex flavor well-suited for early fall drinking.

Tasting Notes:

On the nose, you’ll find aromas of tropical fruits, pine resin, light citrus, and slightly floral hops. The palate is loaded with ripe berries, tangy grapefruit, lime peels, warming caramel malts, and a nice dry bitterness to finish everything off strong.

Bottom Line:

This is a complicated beer. It’s crisp and refreshing like an IPA but has a nice malty backbone like a Vienna lager or Oktoberfest beer.

Peak Autumn IPA

ABV: 4.8%

Average Price: $13 for a six-pack

The Beer:

This 4.8% IPA was designed to be sessionable and light on a late summer or early fall day. But even though it’s low in ABVs, it isn’t low in flavor. This mashup of a session IPA and New England-style IPA is hazy, juicy, and loaded with ripe fruit notes — if you like fruit, you’ll dig it.

Tasting Notes:

Complex aromas of mango, ripe orange, peach, pine needles, and a heavy floral backbone are notable on the nose. The palate is filled with tropical fruits, ripe berries, crisp floral hints, and a slight, pleasing hop bitterness as you take your last sip.

Bottom Line:

If you’re looking for a highly sessionable fall IPA, this is it. It’s light enough in the alcohol department to be crushable, yet filled with myriad fresh flavors great for fall drinking.

Indeed Fresh Hop

ABV: 4.9%

Average Price: $12 for a four-pack

The Beer:

This limited-release pale ale gets its flavor from Mosaic hops that are shipped from Yakima, Washington at the height of freshness and paired with Pale malt, Maris Otter barley, Torrified Wheat, and Dextrin malt to create a totally multi-dimensional pale ale flavor experience.

Tasting Notes:

A lot is going on with this beer’s nose. There are memorable notes of ripe raspberries, tropical fruits, freshly baked bread, and dank pine. The taste is highlighted by hints of blueberry, bright citrus, sweet malts, and pine needles. It all ends with a nice, slightly dry, bitter finish.

Bottom Line:

This is a beer for mosaic hop fans. It’s fresh, well-rounded, and perfect for fall weather. Try to find, buy, and drink it fresh — that definitely makes a difference.

Founders Harvest Ale

ABV: 7.6%

Average Price: $14 for a four-pack

The Beer:

One of the most well-known harvest ales on the market, Founders’ version is a 7.6% wet-hopped ale. To make this beer, the folks at Founders literally brew with hops that were picked at Michigan hop farms that morning. This result is one of the freshest, most flavorful beers you can drink this fall.

Tasting Notes:

The nose is filled with aromas of pilsner malts, fresh, floral hops, wet grass, and slight citrus. Sipping it brings forth flavors of caramel-like malts, fresh hay, resin, and slightly floral and citrusy hops. The finish is crisp with more citrus and slight hop bitterness.

Bottom Line:

Even with the moniker of “Harvest Ale”, this beer isn’t heavy. It’s filled with citrus and pine and has just enough of a malt backbone to justify its fall seasonal release.

Surly Wet

ABV: 6.1%

Average Price: $16 for a 4-pack of 16-ounce cans

The Beer:

The name is a reference to the fact that the hops used in this beer are at the peak of freshness and never dried. It’s brewed with a massive amount of Washington State-grown Mosaic hops. This results in a fresh, crisp, very floral IPA well-suited for the remaining summer days.

Tasting Notes:

On the nose, you’ll find aromas of dank, resinous pine, wet grass, light citrus rind, and gentle, floral hops. The palate is much more citrus-centric with flavors like grapefruit and tangerine as well as more pine needles, light malts, and a finish that’s both dry and lightly bitter.

Bottom Line:

This is a supremely fresh tasting beer. Mosaic hops give it a nice floral, citrus, fresh flavor you’ll go back to again and again.

Fremont Cowiche Canyon

ABV: 6.2%

Average Price: $14 for a six-pack

The Beer:

Cowiche Canyon Fresh Hop Ale is released annually in September. It’s brewed with Simcoe, Mosaic, Citra, and Ekuanot hops, all grown in the Cowiche Canyon of the Yakima Valley in Washington State (hence the name). The result is a floral, citrus, refreshing beer for the last summer days and the first weeks of fall.

Tasting Notes:

On the nose, this one opens up scents of ripe mango, juicy peach, tangerine, grapefruit, fresh berries, and a nice piney, resinous backbone you’d expect from such a hop-filled beer. The palate is centered around light caramel malts and more citrus, tropical fruits, and a nice, slightly bitter finish that draws everything together perfectly.

Bottom Line:

This is a beer for fans of fruity IPAs. Citrus, tropical fruits, berries, and even melon — this pick has them all.

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As a Drizly affiliate, Uproxx may receive a commission pursuant to certain items on this list.

Elon Musk’s an indisputable success in many arenas, as long as we’re not talking about SNL hosting gigs. He is vocal but not overtly political, and he famously relocated to Texas (where he built a Gigafactory near Austin, a Starlink facility in Austin, and plopped Starship near Brownsville) for reasons of his own, which may or may not include tax breaks and other business-friendly policies. Socially, he’s a mixed bag and doesn’t shy away from conspiracy theories, but overall, he doesn’t take hard-lined political stances very often on Twitter (well, Grimes did call him out once on a related subject). Yet Elon’s desire to remain apolitical in the public eye is news to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

While appearing on CNBC’s Squawk Box (and as tweeted by CNBC Space Reporter Michael Sheetz), Abbott spoke out against the idea that businesses might shy away from a state with ultra-conservative laws. He declared that the state’s increasing redness this isn’t hurting Texas as a commerce center, but “[i]n fact it is accelerating the process of businesses coming to Texas,” Abbott said. He then bragged that he has “frequent” conversations with Elon, who Abbott claims “consistently tells me that he likes the social policies in the state of Texas.”

It was, you know, a little strange, as far as Abbott’s namedropping goes, particularly when it’s happening amid backlash over Texas’ near-total abortion ban that’s being upheld by the Trump-tweaked Supreme Court. And Elon made it pretty clear that he doesn’t wish to be roped into cable news conversations, at least at this time.

“In general, I believe government should rarely impose its will upon the people, and, when doing so, should aspire to maximize their cumulative happiness,” the SpaceX CEO declared in a tweet. “That said, I would prefer to stay out of politics.”

He could have simply said, “I would prefer to stay out of politics” and gotten his point across, but yeah, fair enough for this round.

Both Ben Simmons and the Philadelphia 76ers are ready to move on from each other, but to this point of the offseason, the Sixers have yet to find a team that has a strong enough interest in the three-time All-Star to be willing to part with the kind of package Philly is seeking.

Simmons turned up the pressure a bit this week when his camp let it be known that he wants out and also doesn’t plan on reporting to training camp in October. If the Sixers were planning on trying to wait until into the season to deal him in hopes that his value would increase, those plans were made much more difficult by Simmons’ official demand. To this point, though, the only reports about trade discussions involving Simmons are about teams who refuse to meet the Sixers’ asking price.

The Spurs and Raptors balked at Philly’s request for a massive haul of picks and players, while the Kings have reportedly been unwilling to part with either of their young, talented guards. The Timberwolves have interest, but have dreams of a Towns-Russell-Edwards-Simmons core, which leaves them with few enticing players to include.

All told, things look bleak as of now with regards to their goal of finding a deal, but one popular trade idea continues to float about in the ether. A Simmons for CJ McCollum trade has been a favorite of trade machine users for some time, but the Sixers have been holding out hope for a bigger prize in Blazers talks, hoping to land Damian Lillard. That won’t be happening this offseason barring something unforeseen happening, and if the Sixers were to be willing to make a Simmons-McCollum swap, it sounds as though the Blazers also have some trepidation about such a move.

Moving McCollum seems to be a last gasp option for Portland in trying to keep Lillard in town, and as such, they have to believe a Simmons deal would vault them into contender status. According to Aaron Fentress of the Oregonian, who spoke with Gina Mizell of the Philadelphia Inquirer about Simmons trade ideas, some within the Blazers organization aren’t so sold on the Simmons-Lillard fit.

I love the fit for both teams. However, I’ve been told by some within the Blazers organization that they are not sure how well Simmons and Lillard would fit together. Simmons wants to play the Magic Johnson role, which requires having the ball in his hands. Well, that’s Lillard’s job. I could see Lillard playing off the ball more often but in the end, it’s his team and he will want the ball the majority of the time. That would force Simmons to play a role he isn’t used to.

It would certainly require an adjustment from both players, but it doesn’t seem all that difficult to envision how those two could fit snugly together. There would have to be buy-in on both sides, with each sacrificing a touch of usage, but Simmons’ ability as a slasher off the ball, Lillard’s abilities as a spot-up shooter, and the obvious boost Simmons would provide defensively would seem to outweigh the potential for the two to butt heads a touch over who should have the ball (the answer in Portland would almost always be “Dame,” to be clear).

It’s the job of a front office to consider all possible outcomes of a deal, positive and negative, so the Blazers surely see how the fit could work as well. This seems more to be a team not ready to shuffle the deck in a big way (despite the hopes of Lillard). As such it’s easier to look for how any deal could go wrong, and, for now, everyone’s favorite fake Simmons trade will remain on ice.

What We Do in the Shadows (FX, 10:00 & 10:30pm) — Well, well, well. Guillermo turned out to be a vampire killer, which sure as heck came as a surprise to Nandor, Nadja, and Laszlo, and Colin. The four Staten Island roommates must figure out how to handle this conundrum, along with tackling the other challenges of this season. Those include dealing with wellness cults and gym culture, along with gargoyles, werewolves who play kickball, casinos, and more. In addition, the vamps also receive a higher level of powers while Nandor experiences an eternal-life crisis, which forces him to examine whether he should be a bachelor for eternity or embrace love.

Q-Force: Season 1 (Netflix series) — A misfit gathering of LGBTQ+ intelligence-agency geniuses come together at the behest of Steve Maryweather, AKA Agent Mary. He came out as gay within the American Intelligence Agency (AIA), only to be relegated to West Hollywood, where he showed everyone what happens when a fired-up agent goes rogue. Eventually, the whole Q-Force transforms into Active Secret Agents status, but first, they’re tasked with dealing with Agent Buck, a straight-dude within their ranks.

Afterlife of the Party (Netflix film) — Victoria Justice portrays a social butterfly who dies during her birthday week, and she unexpectedly receives a second chance to make things right in order to secure her position (according to the Netflix synopsis) “into the big VIP room in the sky.”

Adventure Time: Distant Lands – Wizard City (HBO Max series) — The original series that ran on Cartoon Network receives another (fourth and final) one-hour special that gets dark while following Finn the Human and Jake the Dog throughout their land-of-Ooo life and times.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine (NBC, 8:00 & 8:30pm) — Season 8 begins for the law-enforcement comedy that must confront several new realities while still attempting to stay, you know, funny. The ongoing pandemic and the recent round of protests against police brutality will stay fresh in everyone’s mind as the Andy Samberg-starring show takes a final lap. This week, a double dose of episodes takes Terry, Jake, and Charles to the Boyle Family Farm while Capt. Holt receives assistance, and then the whole squad tackles a high-stakes case.

Star Trek: Lower Decks: Season 2 (Paramount+ series) — This animated series from Rick and Morty writer (and Solar Opposites creator) Mike McMahan takes things to the year 2380 (after the original Star Trek beginning in 2265), where the U.S.S. Cerritos aren’t the heroes that you’re expecting. These are junior officers who are not pleased at their lack of power while confronting bizarre alien anomalies like enormous bugs and other such comedic-slanted creatures. This violent show’s got a PG-13-like feel.

The Other Two: Season 1 (HBO Max series) — Lorne Michaels of SNL fame executive produces this series that’s created, written, and also executive produced by Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider (formerly co-head writers of SNL). The cast includes Drew Tarver, Heléne Yorke, Case Walker, Ken Marino, and Molly Shannon, and the plot follows a showbiz family, in which a 14-year-old pop star decides that it’s time to officially retire. Meanwhile, the family’s 53-year-old matriarch (Shannon) is enjoying ubiquity of her own, so “The Other Two” will do everything they can to shine as well.

The Late Late Show With James Corden — Awkwafina, The Killers

Texas’s repressive anti-abortion law known as the Heartbeat Bill went into effect overnight Wednesday after the Supreme Court refused to act on it by a 5-4 margin.

The law bans abortions of fetuses over six weeks old. This would criminalize approximately 85% of Texas women who access abortion care because a vast majority have no idea they are pregnant after just six weeks.

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote a scathing dissent to the decision, accusing five of her fellow judges of burying “their heads in the sand.”

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“The Act is a breathtaking act of defiance — of the Constitution, of this Court’s precedents, and of the rights of women seeking abortions throughout Texas,” she continued. “The Court should not be so content to ignore its constitutional obligations to protect not only the rights of women, but also the sanctity of its precedents and of the rule of law.”

One of the most disturbing aspects of the bill is that it puts bounties on the heads of abortion providers, those who have the procedure, anyone who helps in the process. Texans who report people they believe have violated the law are eligible for a $10,000 payment if they’re convicted.

Earlier this summer, anti-abortion activist group Texas Right to Life, launched a website called ProLifeWhistleBlower.com that allows anyone to report those they believe have violated the new law.

“Texas Right to Life will ensure that these lawbreakers are held accountable for their actions,” the site says.

Thousands of people on social media are fighting back against Texas Right to Life by spamming the site with so many fake tips that it would be impossible to act on any legitimate claims.

Feeling helpless and mad? Let’s flood this site with so much stuff that they have to shut it down.
https://t.co/LuCCXiF5uV

— Kathleen Hanna (@kathleenhanna)
1630536614.0

TikTokker @victoriahammett was one of the first to rally people to the cause.

OMG! This is genius!
#TexasAbortionBan
https://t.co/a01VECx83L https://t.co/xgpvESdc5b

— Jamie Carter (@JCTheResistance)
1630527591.0

Sean Black took things a step further by creating a bot that sends requests to their site every 10 to 15 seconds.

Black’s IP was banned by the website so he responded by creating an iOS shortcut that allows anyone with an iPhone to replicate what he did.

To make life even worse for the people who work at the tip line, TikTiokker @williamshaughn_ spamming the site with NSFW Shrek memes.

There has been a robust discussion on Twitter about the best way to disrupt the whistleblower site. Some are bombarding the tip line with angry messages while others are making requests that appear real to misdirect those who are tasked with investigating potential violators.

@NoLieWithBTC If you are doing this, don’t send memes or use names of politicians etc.

Use names that sound real,… https://t.co/YC5HM1HaiT

— Sonu (@TaxTheRich408)
1630562424.0

It’s unclear what’s going to happen with women’s reproductive rights going forward and there’s good reason to be alarmed. However, it’s great to see there countless passionate people still giving their all to fight back against those who want to pit neighbor against neighbor in service of a regressive agenda.

Florida, for lack of a better word, is a total clusterf*%#. Despite currently ranking number 3 in U.S. states with the most COVID cases, governor Ron DeSantis and many of his fellow lawmakers seem to actively be doing everything they can to avoid following the health guidelines being set forth by the CDC and other medical experts for how to best slow down the spread of this deadly virus, which has already killed more than 4.5 million people worldwide. And now they’re putting the Sunshine State’s school-age children in further danger and threatening the livelihoods of those in charge of educating Florida’s kids.

Earlier this week, as ABC News reports, the Florida Department of Education announced that it was withholding the salaries of school board officials in two counties that had instituted mask mandates in their school districts. While the CDC has recommended “universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students, and visitors to K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status,” Florida has once again decided that it knows better and decided to ban mask mandates altogether.

“We’re going to fight to protect parents’ rights to make health care decisions for their children,” Florida Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran said in a statement. “They know what is best for their children.” (Do they though?) “What’s unacceptable is the politicians who have raised their right hands and pledged, under oath, to uphold the Constitution but are not doing so,” Corcoran continued. “Simply said, elected officials cannot pick and choose what laws they want to follow.”

According to ABC News:

The department’s announcement came after a circuit court judge in Florida ruled on Friday that Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ recent executive order banning school mask mandates overstepped his authority. The Florida Department of Education did not mention the ruling in its announcement.

DeSantis had similarly threatened to withhold the salaries of school superintendents who erred on the side of not endangering their students and faculty by requiring them to mask up indoors. When pressed on whether he actually had the authority to do that, DeSantis admitted he did not. (Yes, it’s ok to laugh.)

(Via ABC News)

Alright, enough is enough. Things were bad enough when Peppa Pig sparked a beef with Cardi B over encouraging Kulture to splash in puddles and it was pretty amusing to see Iggy Azalea square off with the British porker over their shared album release date a couple of years ago, but Peppa is turning into an outright menace lately. The porcine TV star has apparently chosen the next target for her ongoing antagonism of the hip-hop world, marking Kanye West for a vicious burn over the reception of their respective albums on Pitchfork.

In his review of Kanye’s new album Donda, Pitchfork’s Dylan Green called the album a “data dump of songs searching for a higher calling,” awarding it an “above average” 6.0 rating (out of 10). Meanwhile, earlier this summer the publication also tapped Peyton Thomas to review Peppa’s Adventures: The Album, resulting in a 6.5 score, which many on Twitter noted after the Donda review’s publication — including the people or person behind Peppa Pig’s official Twitter account. Taking a second to gloat over the .5-point win, Peppa tweeted, “Peppa didn’t need to host listening parties in Mercedes-Benz Stadium to get that .5,” juxtaposing screenshots of the two scores side-by-side.

And while the tweet has since been deleted, it’s almost been immortalized by screenshots like the one above. It’s kind of amusing to think that a team of children’s television writers were able to put together a better release than a self-proclaimed genius who heralded his work with elaborate listening events and even rented out living space in the venues where he held them while “finishing” the album. For what it’s worth, Kanye claims that the version of the album that came out was released by his label without his permission, but on the other hand, we can’t see how much it could be improved (click for our review) — and it is pretty similar to what he played at the aforementioned listening events.

Fans have been pretty amused by the joust, especially as it draws some attention away from his long-overdrawn feud with Drake ahead of the Certified Lover Boy release this week. Now, if Drake gets a higher score too (or takes shots as Peppa has), it could be bad news for anyone exhausted with their juvenile sniping, as Kanye’s manager vowed to end the duel of wits only if Drake remains mum on the subject of Kanye — which seems pretty much impossible at this point. Check out some fans’ responses below.

Thank you, Emilia Clarke, for confirming that Jason Momoa’s life is exactly how I picture it. The Game of Thrones stars reunited at co-creator David Benioff’s birthday last month, where they got “as drunk as humanly possible,” according to the Mother of Dragons.

“When Jay’s in town, you know it’s going down,” Clarke told People. “He walks into the room and you’re just like, ‘My man.’ It’s almost like a test, every time he sees [me] he’s like, ‘Can I still throw you around the room? Yeah I can.’” She said that she’s “never tried so many different whiskeys in my entire life” as she did during the shindig. “There were a couple that were really nice, and there were a couple that were paint stripper, and I literally was like, ‘Yeah I’m gonna down you, get hair on your chest.’ It was funny.”

Getting very drunk? Check. The words “my man”? Check. Offering to throw people around a room? Check. The only thing that stopping this story from being peak Momoa is that he was wearing a shirt at the time. Disappointing.

“When your sun and stars rolls into town you check that he can still bench press a Khaleesi,” Clarke wrote on Instagram about their reunion, while Momoa added, “MOON OF MY LIFE. you are wonderful love u forever @emilia_clarke #smilelyeyes.”

There’s a near-constant flow of new bourbon whiskeys hitting the market these days. Between craft distillers and blenders popping up all over the country and the big names expanding their expression portfolios, whiskey drinkers are never left with a lack of choice. The issue is winnowing the endless options down and sorting out what’s worth keeping on your bar cart.

To help you keep up with it all, we’re constantly tasting new and exciting (and some not so exciting) bourbons and letting you know what we think. It’s a tough job, but trust us — we take it very seriously.

Today, we’re tasting eight bourbons that dropped in 2021. Some of these are brand-spanking-new expressions like Stellum and George Dickel’s new bourbon and some are just new batch releases from High West and Evan Williams. It’s a solid mix and we tried to keep the price point at or below $70.

Our lineup today is:

• Evan Williams Small Batch (2021 re-release)
• Boulder Spirits Straight Bourbon Whiskey
• George Dickel Aged 8 Years Bourbon
• Stellum Bourbon
• Pursuit United
• High West American Prairie Bourbon
• Five Brothers
• Still Austin The Musician

The beauty of this sort of blind tasting is that I’m going in without any preconceived notions. The ranking below is based purely on taste. Will my beloved Evan Williams Small Batch win the day? How will Nicole Austin’s foray into bourbon hold up? Where will the noobie craft juices fall in this line-up? Let’s find out!

Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Bourbon Posts Of 2021

• The Best Bottles Of Bourbon Whiskey For Under $20, Ranked
• Our Favorite Bourbon Whiskey From Every Price Point Between $10-$200
• All 19 Brands From The Buffalo Trace Distillery, Ranked
• Here’s Who Won Our Big Barrel Proof Bourbon Whiskey Blind Taste Test
• The Best Bourbon Whiskeys To Drink Neat, From $50 On Up

Part 1: The Taste

Taste 1

Tasting Notes:

This is soft on the nose with a hint of vanilla next to new leather, cornmeal, and a touch of orchard fruit. The taste is all caramel apples, buttered cornbread, mild cherry, and a hint of eggnog spice. The end is sweet to the point of a honey candy with a touch more of that apple but fades really quickly.

Taste 2

Tasting Notes:

This is fruity. It’s sweet at first with touches of apple and then mellows towards figs. The palate leans into pecan pie, soft leather, light spice, and a touch of malts. The end hits a honey-raisin note with a grainy, almost oatmeal cookie edge boosted by a touch of nutmeg.

Taste 3

Tasting Notes:

This feels classic with notes of rich vanilla, old cedar boxes full of dry tobacco, and an apple cobbler vibe with plenty of butter and spice. The taste starts off with a leathery note leading towards creamy eggnog spiciness next to choco-oranges and a dry wicker mid-palate. The finish goes from dry apple tobacco to rich and creamy vanilla.

Taste 4

Tasting Notes:

This is a dark holiday cake full of nuts and candied fruits supporting a tart berry brightness and a light touch of new leather. The palate meanders from dry raisins towards sugary apple candy to a fresh honeycomb. That fruit and honey dominate through the finish, leaving you with a dry chili-flake spicy warmth at the very end.

Taste 5

Tasting Notes:

This has a really lush eggnog creaminess and spice mix next to a dry tannic red wine vibe with a hint of dry cedar on the nose. The taste is all dark chocolate-covered salted caramels with a spritz of orange oils and a mid-palate of dry cornmeal. The finish has a dry chocolate-tobacco feel with more orange and cedar, leaving you with a bold yet super soft end.

Taste 6

Tasting Notes:

I don’t know what this is but paired with the last dram, we’re into the good stuff now. This opens with caramel apples next to new leather, vanilla pudding, and sweet buttered corn with a touch of salt. The palate has a nougat svelteness next to creamed corn and Southern biscuits dripping with butter and honey. The mid-palate to finish starts to dry out with vanilla husks and cedar bark but then veers into apple candy.

Taste 7

Tasting Notes:

Again, damn this is a good run of drams! This draws you in with maple syrup, apple tobacco, resinous pine, and a touch of unpopped popcorn kernels. The palate is pecan-loaded waffles smothered in butter and syrup with vanilla ice cream, light brown spiciness, and maple-infused sweet tobacco on the end.

Taste 8

Tasting Notes:

Hum. This is fake fruit kind of like a pineapple candy soda with notes of rummy spice and too raw leather. The palate has a nice vanilla creaminess with a hint more of that spice leading back towards that pineapple note with a touch of milk chocolate. There’s a hint of overly sweet marzipan on the backend with a choco-tobacco dry finish that disappears way too fast.

Part 2: The Ranking

Some fun surprises here — both with drams that went even higher than expected and a few that landed lower, though I love the brands they come from. As I said, it was a great lineup with no true losers by any stretch.

8. Still Austin The Musician — Taste 8

ABV: 49.2%

Average Price: $46

The Whiskey:

The folks at Still Austin have spent the last six years perfecting their grain-to-glass whiskey experience. The juice is rendered with grains from Texas and water from the ground beneath their feet, all imbued with a crafty Texas vibe in every sip. The actual whiskey is a two-year-old bourbon that’s batched to highlight the bright fruits of the new and crafty whiskey.

Bottom Line:

This has some serious fruitiness that gives it away as a young, new bourbon. There’s a lot of promise in that juice but it’s just not there yet for me.

7. Evan Williams Small Batch — Taste 1

ABV: 45%

Average Price: $20

The Whiskey:

So this is a “small batch” in theory and name more than practice. The expression is a marrying of 200 barrels of bourbon from Heaven Hill’s warehouses. The new bottling also comes with a new proof of 90, bumping this up from the previous version.

Bottom Line:

This was just light today. The flavors were there but nothing jumped out.

6. Stellum Bourbon — Taste 4

ABV: 57.49%

Average Price: $55

The Whiskey:

Stellum Bourbon is the new kid on the block. The bottle grabs your attention immediately by having a super low-key design in a classic wine bottle. The juice in that bottle is a cask-strength blend of whiskeys from Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee. This whiskey is all about the blending process that Stellum employs to make this special and award-winning juice.

Bottom Line:

This was nice. I feel bad ranking it sixth. I really dig this… maybe that’s more of a testament to some of the whiskeys on this list rather than taking anything away from this one.

5. Boulder Straight Bourbon Whiskey — Taste 2

ABV: 42%

Average Price: $45

The Whiskey:

This is a fascinating and unique bourbon. It starts with the mash bill which has just enough corn to be considered a bourbon with 51 percent corn, 44 percent malted barley, and five percent rye. There are few bourbons out there with such a big dose of malted barley in the mash, edging this close to single malt territory. Beyond that, the juice is aged for four years high up in Colorado before it’s cut with Rocky Mountain water.

Bottom Line:

Ah-ha! That’s why this tasted more like a single malt than a bourbon! All that grain really shone through and confused me on where to put this one. It’s interesting and tasty. I definitely need to revisit it when I can really sit with the dram.

4. George Dickel Bourbon — Taste 3

ABV: 45%

Average Price: $30

The Whiskey:

This whisky was a special release from Nicole Austin and a new direction for the brand. The whisky is the same Dickel, simply pulled from barrels that leaned more into classic bourbon flavor notes instead of Dickel’s iconic Tennessee whisky notes. The barrels are a minimum of eight years old before they’re vatted. The juice is then cut down to a manageable 90 proof and bottled.

Bottom Line:

This was just a classic bourbon through and through. It was definitely more refined than Evan Williams but didn’t have that “wow factor” today. Given those classic notes, I really need to start using this in cocktails to see what’s buried in there.

3. High West American Prairie — Taste 6

ABV: 46%

Average Price: $50

The Whiskey:

American Prairie is quickly becoming one of the most sought-after sourced whiskeys. The whiskey in the bottle is a blend of two to 13-year-old barrels rendered from high-rye, low-rye, and undisclosed source mash bills. The release supports the American Prairie Reserve by highlighting the project and supporting it financially.

Bottom Line:

Finding out that this was High West made a certain sort of sense. The craft whiskey remains one of the most popular sourced whiskeys out there. It’s well-flavored and unique while staying very drinkable.

2. Five Brothers Bourbon — Taste 7

ABV: 45%

Average Price: $60

The Whiskey:

This brand new bourbon from Heaven Hill celebrates the five brothers who started the distillery back in 1935. The bottle was released to celebrate the brand-new visitor’s center at Heaven Hill and is largely only available there. The juice in this bottle is a blend of five bourbons of varying ages between five and nine years old made with Heaven Hill’s classic mash bill of 78 percent corn, 12 percent malted barley, and ten percent rye.

Bottom Line:

I went back and forth on this as numbers one and two. This felt a hair less refined and a hair sweeter. Still, I really dig this whiskey a lot. It’s going to be hard to keep this bottle on the shelf. (Or store shelves, if it ever hits them.)

1. Pursuit United — Taste 5

ABV: 54%

Average Price: $65

The Whiskey:

As mentioned above, this is a vatted from 40 total barrels from three different states. While the team at Pursuit United doesn’t release the Tennessee distillery name, we know the juices from Kentucky and New York are from Bardstown Bourbon Company and Finger Lakes Distilling, respectively. This final release of 2021 from Pursuit United put 9,342 bottles on the market in six states (Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Tennessee, Texas, and Kentucky) and is available online via Seelbachs.com.

Bottom Line:

This just hit perfectly on my palate today. This was also the dram I wanted to return right away. This juice is just good all around and a wonderful example of why both sourcing and blending should be destigmatized.

Part 3: Final Thoughts

This was a pretty surprising list for me. I guess I need to buy a case of Pursuit United before it sells out.

In the end, I could have ranked these with Still Austin last, Evan Williams in third, and then the sixth, fifth, and fourth place tied for second place and third, second, and first place tied for the number one spot. But where’s the fun in that? My point is, these were some stellar bourbons and I was really splitting hairs with most of them. Still, that Pursuit United really rocks every time I try it — the fact that it came from some upstart bourbon podcasters is a wonderful story but it’s the juice in the bottle that truly shines.

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After a nearly 40-year-long hiatus, one of the most successful music groups of all time is making a triumphant return. ABBA announced that they’ve regrouped and have been hard at work in the studio gearing up for their new album, Voyage.

According to ABBA, the group didn’t come together with the intention of writing a whole new album. Instead, the band — consisting of Benny Anderson, Agnetha Fältskog, Anni-Frid Lyngstad, and Björn Kristian Ulvaeus — reunited to prepare a hologram concert in London that’s set for May 27, 2022. ABBA then decided to make Voyage to perform digitally at the concert, which they’ve called “the strangest and most spectacular concert you could ever dream of.”

In a statement about ABBA’s return, Anderson explained the reason behind Voyage:

“We simply call it Voyage and we’re truly sailing in uncharted waters. With the help of our younger selves, we travel into the future. It’s not easy to explain but then it hasn’t been done before. It’s hard to say what’s been the most joyful thing for me with this project. If it’s the involvement in creating the concert together with everyone or being back in the studio together again after 40 years. I think hearing Frida and Agnetha singing again is hard to beat. When you come to the arena you will have the four of us together with an absolutely glorious 10-piece band. And even if not in the flesh, we will be right there, thanks to the work of the creative team and ILM.”

Echoing Anderson’s statement, Fältskog said she had no idea what to expect when they got together in the studio. “When we got back together in the studio I had no idea what to expect… But Benny’s recording studio is such a friendly and safe environment, and before I knew it I was really enjoying myself,” she said. “I can hardly believe that finally, the moment has come to share this with the world!”

Check out ABBA’s Voyage album cover below.

Voyage is out 11/5 via Capitol.