The 2022-23 schedule for all 30 NBA teams has finally been released, and it allows fans the opportunity to start marking their calendars and planning around the can’t miss games on the schedule. While not every team shares the same goals for the 2022-23 season, they all have games where fans will be circling dates and trying to make sure they’re in the building for or at least able to watch on TV, and here we are going to highlight five such games for each team.
In this post, we will glance at the schedule for the reigning champion Golden State Warriors. The Warriors are the only franchise that entered the 2022 offseason with complete bliss, knocking off the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals, but Golden State did not rest on its laurels. The Warriors did lose Otto Porter Jr., Gary Payton II, Juan Toscano-Anderson, Damion Lee, and Nemanja Bjelica in free agency, but Golden State retained Kevon Looney, added JaMychal Green and Donte DiVincenzo through free agency, and tabbed Ryan Rollins and Gui Santos in the draft. Most importantly, the Warriors bring back the core of a multi-title winner, and Golden State has young players in Jonathan Kuminga, Moses Moody, and James Wiseman that could make a considerable leap. The Warriors will take the best shot of any opponent this season, and there is no shortage of high-profile matchups to monitor.
For the purposes of this exercise, we’re looking for games where Golden State figures to show up with its A-game, with five big-time matchups that could serve as benchmarks for their season defending as champs.
October 25, 2022: at Phoenix Suns (TNT, 10:00 p.m. ET)
Ring night is a big deal, but I’m more interested in the game a week later in Phoenix, likewise on TNT, where the Warriors will face their first big road test of the year against the Suns. We still don’t know exactly how the Suns will rebound from last year’s collapse, but they should be a team that is fighting Golden State for a top seed in the West. It’s one thing to get up for ring night, but how they arrive a week later for their first major road clash will tell me a bit more about the Warriors and how they’re approaching the early portion of the season.
December 10, 2022: vs. Boston Celtics (ABC, 8:30 p.m. ET)
This will be the first time the Warriors get to face off with the team they dispatched in the NBA Finals, and given that both teams sit atop the oddsmakers favorites list, it could be a preview of a Finals rematch to come in 2023. This will be among the games you’d expect the Warriors to get up for and try to be at their best — which the NBA aided by giving them two days off before this one — for a primetime showdown.
December 25, 2022: vs. Memphis Grizzlies (ABC, 8:00 p.m. ET)
Getting a Christmas Day game at home is one of the perks of being the champs, and in this instance the Warriors will get their first look of the season at a budding rival in Memphis, after going six games in the conference semis against the Grizzlies. This again figures to be a game the Warriors bring their A-game, and while it’s probably a bigger deal for the Grizz, Golden State will want to remind the young Memphis team of the pecking order in the West.
March 11, 2023: vs. Milwaukee Bucks (ABC, 8:30 p.m. ET)
The other favorite in the East are the champs of two years ago, and the Warriors will face them for the second and final time of the season at home on a Saturday night primetime game that could serve as another potential Finals preview. How these two teams matchup is fascinating and watching Giannis and Steph dominate on the same floor in two polar opposite ways is always fun.
March 15, 2023: at Los Angeles Clippers (ESPN, 10:00 p.m. ET)
The Clippers are the team that many believe should be the Warriors top competition in the West if they stay healthy (always a big if), and the two teams will face off three times over the course of a month days from a Valentines showdown before All-Star up to this one in L.A. in mid-March. Now, the first two of those have each team on some leg of a back-to-back, meaning it’s not a lock we get them at full strength even if health isn’t an issue. This one, though, has each team coming off of at least one off day (Warriors one day before, L.A. with three). To me, that signals this could be a bit of a playoff dress rehearsal for each team a month prior to the end of the regular season, which could make it very fun.
Harry Styles’ Love On Tour 2022 got underway this week. In support of his wildly popular latest album, Harry’s House, the Love On Tour began in Toronto and will be making stops in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Austin. The Love On Tour 2022 plays itself out like a row of residencies, with Styles playing multiple shows in each of those cities and turning them into his “Harry’s House.” In New York City and Los Angels, Styles added five additional dates to bring the grand total to 15 shows in both cities. And while the Love on Tour 2022 presents itself as the ultimate experience of Harry Styles and Harry’s House, it’s also a showcase for some excellent opening acts. So who are they?
Who Are Harry Styles’ ‘Love On Tour 2022’ Openers?
The two Toronto concerts on Harry Styles’ Love On Tour 2022 at Scotiabank Arena featured Los Angeles indie singer-songwriter Madi Diaz. The fifteen-night residency at New York City’s Madison Square Garden has London-born, Brooklyn-based Blood Orange, which is fronted by the incomparable avant-pop musician Dev Hynes. The five nights of gigs at Austin’s Moody Center have Gabriels as support, a neo-R&B/soul trio based in Los Angeles who we named as an Artist To Watch earlier this year. Five nights at Chicago’s United Center will feature British R&B/pop chanteuse Jessie Ware as the opening act, while the final fifteen-night residency at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles has the legendary folk-rocker, Ben Harper, as the opening act.
All in all, these five opening acts make Harry Styles’ highly-anticipated Love On Tour 2022 even more alluring.
Jonah Hill has been making movies for nearly two decades, serving not only as an actor, but also as a writer, producer, and director. He has been transparent about his struggles in the spotlight and is now opening up about his anxiety and how it has affected his wide-ranging career.
Hill will release a documentary about himself and his therapist called Stutz later this fall, and the announcement came with some more personal news. In a letter posted to Deadline, Hill announced that he would take a step back from promoting his work due to his own mental health, though he made it clear that he would not be quitting acting completely. Despite the break from promoting his work, Hill still has numerous projects lined up, like the upcoming Netflix comedy You People, which he co-wrote and starred in.
Check out the letter here:
I have finished directing my second film, a documentary about me and my therapist which explores mental health in general called “Stutz.” The whole purpose of making this film is to give therapy and the tools I’ve learned in therapy to a wide audience for private use through an entertaining film.
Through this journey of self-discovery within the film, I have come to the understanding that I have spent nearly 20 years experiencing anxiety attacks, which are exacerbated by media appearances and public facing events.
I am so grateful that the film will make its world premiere at a prestigious film festival this fall, and I can’t wait to share it with audiences around the world in the hope that it will help those struggling. However, you won’t see me out there promoting this film, or any of my upcoming films, while I take this important step to protect myself. If I made myself sicker by going out there and promoting it, I wouldn’t be acting true to myself or to the film.
I usually cringe at letters or statements like this but I understand that I am of the privileged few who can afford to take time off. I won’t lose my job while working on my anxiety. With this letter and with “Stutz,” I’m hoping to make it more normal for people to talk and act on this stuff. So they can take steps towards feeling better and so that the people in their lives might understand their issues more clearly.
I hope the work will speak for itself and I’m grateful to my collaborators, my business partners and to all reading this for your understanding and support.”
-Jonah Hill
Hopefully, this will inspire more actors to help reduce the stigma around anxiety while working in Hollywood, and also help others feel a bit less alone.
It seems prices are skyrocketing for everything these days, whether it’s gas for your car or freeze-dried guacamole for your wife’s crudité platter. Probably those are bad examples, but my point is: in a world where rising prices seem to be a constant topic of conversation, Trader Joe’s is still selling six packs of beer for $5.99. What are they, crazy or something?!
If that $5.99 beer was terrible, it wouldn’t be much of a bargain. We used to get Keystone Light and Von’s store brand beer for 50 or even 25 cents a can back in college, but even for poor, drunk college students that stuff was considered “emergency only” — the kind of beer pong stock that was rightly treated as a punishment. In-house branded products seem to have come a long way since then. Kirkland Signature makes decent versions of everything from golf balls to bourbon now. I think you can actually baptize a child at Costco (Kirkland holy water, probably right next to the pancake mix and watch batteries).
Speaking for myself, I like to cook, so Trader Joe’s — which still sells largely frozen, ready-to-eat, and pre-prepared foods — isn’t my go-to grocery store. Which means it requires a special trip. Is saving a couple bucks on beer, especially with the plethora of options available almost everywhere now, really worth the extra effort?
Well, that depends. Mostly on whether that Trader Joe’s-brand beer doesn’t suck. And what I found in my latest tasting is that, for the most part, Trader Joe’s-branded beers don’t. By and large they were surprisingly solid. Of course, not all of them are created equal (or brewed by the same people), so I bought every Trader Joe’s brew I could find right now to determine which ones might be worth an extra side trip and which ones you can skip.
Trader Joe’s seems to stock different brews at different times, and good luck getting them to tell you when which ones will be available where and when (I checked, they do not). At my local locations in Central California, as of about a week ago, I was able to find these six.
The Beers
Vince Mancini
Trader José Light
Trader José Premium
Trader José Dark
Josephsbrau PLZNR Czech Style Lager
Josephsbrau Summer Brew Top Fermented Lager
Josephsbrau Bavarian-Style Hefeweizen
I tasted all of these “blind,” which is to say in unmarked glasses, not knowing which beers were which. Of course, I also bought them, so I had a general idea of which beers would be included in the blind.
Vince Mancini
6. Trader José Light
Vince Mancini
ABV: 4%
Original Notes:
Yellow, straw color, the lightest of the bunch. Velvety head with small bubbles rising. On the nose… not a ton of things I can detect, though it vaguely reminds me of a Budweiser. On the palate, it has a crisp, light, and watery flavor. Fine enough for a sipper, but not super memorable. There’s nothing particularly offputting about it and nothing particularly memorable either.
Rating: 6/10.
Bottom Line:
I mean it’s a light beer. The competition is Bud Light, Corona Light… These are beers you drink next to the pool and don’t think about much. This one, reportedly brewed by Cervezeria Mexicana, who make Tecate, is in line with those. I wouldn’t make a special trip to buy this one but it’s perfectly fine for what it is.
5. Trader Jose Premium Lager
Vince Mancini
ABV: 5%
Original Notes:
Fairly indistinguishable from samples 2 and 3 — though I guess it has a little more head on top than 2. Amber yellow. This one has a touch more hops on the nose, a crispness to the nose. This has the refreshing qualities of samples 1 and 3, but with a slightly more bitter, less sweet finish. Offputting at first, but it sort of grows on me after a few sips. Definitely not as watery as 1. More bitter than 2. Doesn’t have the lemon note of 3.
Rating: 6.5
Bottom Line:
This is the non-light version of Trader José Light, reportedly also brewed by Cervezeria Mexicana. Trader José Heavy, I like to call it. It’s a little better than the light version, as you might expect. I don’t think it’s as good as my favorite versions of this (probably Modelo Especial) but it’s dece. Not worth a special trip but a great way to save a few bucks if you’re already at TJ’s.
4. Josephsbrau Summer Brew Top Fermented Lager
Vince Mancini
ABV: 4.8%
Original Notes:
Gold to amber in color, with just a little velvet head on top. Nose is… mostly undetectable to me other than a sense of “brightness.” I think there’s a lemon note in there? Tastes kiiiind of like a Mexican lager, like a Modelo. It doesn’t quite have that watered down “light” flavor, but it doesn’t taste like much either.
Kind of an inoffensive summer quencher.
Rating: 7/10
Bottom Line:
The Josephsbrau line is, or was, reportedly brewed by Gordon Biersch in San Jose, who make some damned fine German-style beers (co-founder Dan Gordon learned his craft in Munich). This one is their Kolsch, described on the label as a “unique brew made in the Kolsch style, which means using Ale yeast, but fermenting at Lager temperatures.”
Again, it’s probably not my favorite Kölsch I’ve ever had (Fort Point makes a pretty good one), though I’m also not a huge Kölsch fiend (they’re fine). It’s a decent version of a decent style, very drinkable though I wouldn’t necessarily go out of my way for it.
3. Josephsbrau PLZNR Czech Style Lager
Vince Mancini
ABV: 5%
Original Notes:
Yellow, but more of an amber yellow than the watery straw yellow. Very small bubbles, not as much velvety head on top. Looks slightly flatter than the others. The nose is more malty-sweet, with maybe a hint of lemon? Tastes like some malt, not very bitter, with a sweeter finish. This tastes like a (pretty good) Czech pilsner, like a non-skunky Pilsner Urquell or a Trumer Pils.
Pretty solid for what it is.
Rating: 7.5/10
Bottom Line:
This is a very solid pilsner and the sweet-malty kind of pilsner that I tend to prefer to the hoppier ones. I’d be curious to taste them head to head, but it seems like this is as good as some of my favorites, like Trumer Pils or Scrimshaw.
2. Trader José Dark Lager
Vince Mancini
ABV: 5.3%
Original Notes:
The first one with a notably different color, with about the same amount of head as the lighter ones, rising bubbles with a little lace on top. This one is a sort of reddish, root beer brown, not totally opaque like a stout or a porter. There’s obviously some of that darker malt on the nose, with notes of caramel, toffee, and chocolate. On the palate, this tastes like a nice, caramelly darker lager, which to me is one of my favorite beer styles. It’s sweet and more syrupy than the lighter lagers, but not too hoppy. It has very little bitterness, but still with a little refreshing bite/crispness — it’s clearly not a brown ale (which I also enjoy, but this is crisper and lighter bodied). Reminds me of Negra Modelo or Dos Equis Ambar.
Rating: 9/10
Bottom Line:
Some of my favorite styles of beers are Vienna lagers, märzens, and medium-brown Octoberfest styles, so it’s no surprise that the Mexican-style dark lager was one of my favorites in this test. I guess the big question is, is this better than a Negra Modelo or a Dos Equis Ambar or a Bohemia Oscura? Without tasting them head to head I can’t be certain, but I would say that this is at least comparable, and at a price point the others couldn’t match.
The most orange of the non-brown beers in this taste test. Also seems to have the most bubbles on top. It looks a little more full-bodied than the other lighter ones, though still largely clear.
I may have doubted my sense of smell a bit with the other four lighter beers in this test, but putting this one up to my nose, I’m 95% sure this is the hefe. It has that yeasty, wheat smell, which basically smells like proofing bread. For the record, I’m a huge fan of German hefes, and I wish more craft brewers made more wheat beers that were actually about the wheat itself, and not all flavored up with coriander and oranges and everything. Give me a hefe that doesn’t come served with a lemon slice.
On the palate, it continues and deepens that wheat aroma. It’s sweet and full bodied, though nicely balanced, thanks to the abundant carbonation. I like this a lot. It reminds me a lot of my two favorite German hefes, Franziskaner and Weihenstephaner.
Rating: 9.5/10
Bottom Line:
It’s honestly tough for me to choose between this and the dark lager because I like them both a lot, and they’re so clearly the top two by a margin. I think I’m going to have to give this one the edge, simply because I think a good version of this style of beer is harder to find than a decent dark Mexican-style lager. I can be 85% certain I’m going to find Negra Modelo at the supermarket, whereas it’s close to a certain that I won’t find this kind of hefe there.
If I wanted this style of hefe this good, I’d have to go to Total Wine or BevMo to pick up some Franziskaner or Weihenstephan and I’d probably be paying almost twice what Trader Joe’s is selling this one for.
Final Thoughts
Like I said up top, I don’t do much shopping at Trader Joe’s, so going there requires an extra trip, which means the bar for their beer is a little higher. I would pick up any of these, with the exception of maybe the Trader José light, if they were available at my local supermarket. The other ones are all solid beers at a price point no one else can touch, but with the exceptions of the top two, usually, you can spend an extra buck or two for a comparable beer and make it up in time and gas money. The top two are worth traveling for, but never knowing what Trader Joe’s is going to stock at any given time complicates that a bit. I suppose you could always check the website. Of these, only the Josephsbrau Hefeweizen appears to be guaranteed available.
It’s also probably their best product, so… uh… there you go.
Beloved comedian and TV dad Bob Saget passed away tragically after hitting his head in a hotel room seven months ago and his absence has left a hole in a lot of people’s lives. His death was felt particularly hard by actress Jodie Sweetin, who played his daughter Stephanie on “Full House” in its original ABC run from 1987 to 1995 and reprised the role on “Fuller House” from 2016 to 2020.
She was cast in the role at the age of 5, and after Saget died, she memorialized him on Instagram using her famous catchphrase:
I would always say “you’re the best TV dad ever.” And he was.
I’ll miss you, Bob.
I’ll make sure and tell an inappropriate joke at your funeral. In your honor. I know you would’ve wanted that.
Before her marriage to Mescal Wasilewski on July 30 in Malibu, California, Sweetin told People that Saget would be dearly missed at her wedding.
“I can think of all of these big life moments when he made a speech,” the actress told People. “I think weddings and moments like this, you always think about the people that you really wish could be there, and Bob has been there through so many moments of my life.
“So yeah, he will definitely be missed, and I know he never liked to miss an opportunity to get up with a microphone,” she added. Funny enough, Saget was at her wedding, all because of her TV uncle, John Stamos, and his wife Caitlin McHugh.
Sweetin told E! News’ “Daily Pop” that when Stamos was leaving the house for her wedding, McHugh handed him a black shirt. After putting it on he realized it was a little big on him and then had a powerful realization.
“He realized it was one of the shirts that Kelly [Rizzo] had given him out of Bob’s closet,” Sweetin said. “And it was this black button-up that like Bob would always wear. Bob always had a black button-up on.”
Kelly Rizzo was Saget’s wife. They were married in 2018.
When Sweetin learned it was Saget’s shirt she was comforted to know that he was “there in his weird little way.”
“I hugged John and then, I like kissed the shirt and I was like, ‘Bob’s here too,'” she said. Then, Stamos told her, “I have to tell you like Bob had to be here. He just had to be here for this.”
Sweetin’s genuine affection for Saget and her “Full House” co-stars after all of these years is beautiful given the history that child stars have of being mistreated in Hollywood. They may have played a family on TV but it’s clear that they had a close relationship in real life as well. That’s probably why the show worked so well.
“I remember Bob always being funny and warm and kind to us kids, to everyone,” Sweetin told Today. “He really was like the glue that held us all together, in a lot of ways. He was kind of the head figure of that little family.”
Earlier this week, Grimes took to Twitter to ask her followers for reputable references for some potential body modifications she’s been planning. “These next few years will be spent doing al my dream body mods,” she tweeted. Among the modifications she said she’s interested in, are elf ear implants and vampire teeth caps. But even though she didn’t reach out to her ex Elon Musk about these, he had some advice for her anyways.
“…Has anyone done elf ear mods with a good outcome?” Grimes asked on Twitter. “Im scared about ear cartilage having a hard time healing. Especially as a musician this surgery seems risky but I’ve wanted it my whole life. Curious about peoples experiences!” Musk — on the same day he said he wants to buy Manchester United — cheekily chimed in with a reply that serves as some sage advice, if you will: “The downside of elf ear surgery probably outweighs the upside.”
The downside of elf ear surgery probably outweighs the upside
Quite the level-headed take from the Tesla honcho. Grimes then hit her ex-beau back saying that, “Tbh this sounds like a job for crispr. Sad to be born just a few generations too early.”
Tbh this sounds like a job for crispr. Sad to be born just a few generations too early
Crispr is a company that is exploring gene editing therapy via synthetic RNA and DNA and Musk has shown an interest in them in the past. Grimes understands that Crispr’s offerings might not come until the later part of this century, so unless she wants to heed Musk’s advice, she’ll have to hope that she got some solid recs from the twitter hive. Good luck with that.
After dipping his toes into the comic book waters over the years, Sylvester Stallone finally has a superhero movie of his own. Arriving on Amazon Prime Video next week, Samaritan stars the iconic Rocky actor as a down and out hero who gave up on trying to save his city because he can’t even save himself. Described by Stallone as an “action movie with heart,” which is the kind of “mythology” he’s drawn to, Samaritan will pull Sly’s aged hero back into the fight after years of trying to keep a low-profile as a garbage man.
Before flying solo in Samaritan, Stallone has made appearances in two team-based superhero films for both Marvel and DC Comics. He had a small part in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 as Stakar (a.k.a. Starhawk) before collaborating with director James Gunn again for The Suicide Squad where the Rambo star voiced the fan-favorite character King Shark.
Here’s the official synopsis for Samaritan:
Thirteen-year-old Sam Cleary suspects that his mysterious and reclusive neighbor, Mr. Smith, is actually a legend hiding in plain sight. Twenty-five years ago, Granite City’s superpowered vigilante, Samaritan, was reported dead after a fiery warehouse battle with his rival, Nemesis. Most believe he perished in the fire, but some, like Sam, have hope that he’s still alive. With crime now on the rise, Sam makes it his mission to coax Samaritan out of hiding to save the city from ruin.
It’s been a brutal last half-year for Netflix. Once the king of all streamers, the service has fallen on hard times, as a mass exodus of subscribers and a long history of spending ridiculous amounts of money on super-pricey movies that almost never play theaters has put them in more dire straits. One solution to their money woes: attract more subscribers with a cheaper, ad-supported version. But it looks like it may lack one of the service’s most popular features.
In a report by Bloomberg, an interdependent developer stumbled upon code in Netflix’s iPhone app, which included the words, “Downloads available on all plans except Netflix with ads.” However, Netflix hasn’t confirmed that this is set in stone, with a rep calling it “speculation” and saying, “We are still in the early days of deciding how to launch a lower priced, ad-supported option and no decisions have been made.”
Netflix first started allowing downloads for offline viewing in 2016. It solved a problem that plagued commuters in particular: Someone sitting on a subway train, trying to stream Orange is the New Black on their phone, suddenly loses their internet connection in between stops. Now they can download episodes onto their gizmos for happy, uninterrupted viewing. But if they wind up with the ad-version, with commercials they can’t skip anyway, they’ll probably have to wait for the next stop.
South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone are pouring their heart, soul, and money into rebooting Casa Bonita in the Denver, Colorado area. In doing so, their cool dream has turned into a bit of a “nightmare.” Revamping the site and bringing construction up to safety codes have churned up astronomical costs, so it looks like those legendary sopapillas aren’t coming anytime soon. Still, the project’s attracted so much public interest that someone made a public records request. This could have (and most likely) sourced from a news organization, who knows? But Parker and Stone’s company, The Beautiful Opco, LLC, went on the record stating that they don’t feel great about schematics and planning data ending up in the wrong hands.
As such, the new Casa Bonita gods sued to make sure that no one knows about their secret tunnels to the actual South Park. What a terrible joke! In all seriousness, The Beautiful Opco expressed concern for what could happen (a mass shooting) if their construction plans and permit details went public. “This information, in the wrong hands, could be used by a person intent on doing mass harm in a public space,” Casa Bonita’s lawyers argued, and the court agreed, at least temporarily..
Via The Denver Post, Parker and Stone received a 21-day breather to go through their documents and make a more permanent request:
On Monday, Casa Bonita’s ownership company, The Beautiful Opco, LLC, sued the city to prohibit “sensitive” documents from being publicly released under the Colorado Open Records Act (CORA). A judge ruled Wednesday the company has 21 days to go through the documents and decide what needs to be redacted or what it believes should not be released under CORA, according to a minute order of the hearing.
Certainly, it’s wise of Parker and Stone to be wary of how such an infamous venue (now owned by an infamous duo) could possibly be of too much public interest. Security will likely be at the forefront of their minds, but at least there’s something that doesn’t need to be hidden: as Twitter user Erich Brock revealed, this fresh coat of pink paint looks splendid.
And made a trip to see Casa Bonita, still under reconstruction. You can see the differences between the new paint and the remnants of the old paint #SouthParkpic.twitter.com/fsm1d1QZy7
We’re deep in August, which means it’s still backyard BBQ season. And with Labor Day coming, there’s a good chance you’ll be eating some ribs before the leaves start to turn. Hell, even if the leaves are falling, that shouldn’t stop you from eating great ribs. Moreover, if you are tucking into a slab, you need to know which bottle of bourbon whiskey to sip along with it.
For this tasting/pairing, I pulled eight classic and “finable” bourbon whiskeys from my shelf. The point of these bottles is that you can find them nationwide (in general) and that they’re affordable. Every bottle is under $50 with the average sitting around 20 bucks. Basically, I want you to actually be able to get the bottle that pairs best with the ribs.
Speaking of the ribs, I went to my local BBQ joint here in Kentucky. I got a full slab of fall-off-the-bone pork ribs which were rubbed, slow smoked, and then slathered in sweet and spicy bourbon sauce. You can see from the image below — it is indeed legit.
Zach Johnston
One last thing before I dive in: My method was pretty straightforward. I nosed and tasted the bourbon (spitting and not drinking) to prime my palate for the rib. I then had a bite of rib, enjoyed it, and then another taste of the whiskey. I did that with all eight bourbons. Here’s how it shook out.
Also Read: The Top 5 UPROXX Bourbon Posts Of The Last Six Months
This is the entry point for Evan Williams. The juice is a mix of four to seven-year-old barrels of the standard Heaven Hill bourbon. The difference in this bottle is that it’s proofed at a slightly higher 43 proof.
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes with The Rib:
There was a big citrus note on the nose I’ve never experienced before with Evan Williams. It was kind of like a Mountain Dew vibe. The palate really leaned into standard and soft notes of vanilla, spice, oak, and cherry with a hint of apple juice.
The meat took on a sweeter edge but wasn’t that different than the control bite. There was a twinge more spiciness but that was about it.
Bottom Line:
This pairing changed the bourbon quite a bit but I’m not sure for the better. As for the rib, it didn’t have that much of an effect either way to make a big impact. And that’s why Evan Williams falls to last in this pairing and ranking.
Luxco’s Ezra Brooks is a throwback to the Mad Men days of bourbon. The juice is a standard rye-infused bourbon without an age statement. It’s made as a workhorse whiskey that’s easy to find and cheap when you do find it.
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes with The Rib:
This really pops with vanilla on the nose. The palate bursts with sweet cherry notes with an echo of sour in there. A good level of spice adds warmth to the taste as a hint of caramel sweetness sneaks in late with more of that vanilla and heat.
The huge vanilla note didn’t really vibe with the sweet, smoky, and spicy rib. It didn’t detract that much but it was kind of like a square peg in a round hole situation.
Bottom Line:
Maybe save the Ezra for the banana pudding or peach cobbler dessert course? This was just too vanilla-forward for this pairing.
High West Bourbon 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 and low-rye mashes alongside undisclosed whiskeys, some of which are sourced from MGP.
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes with The Rib:
There’s a leathery and slightly funky nose with a hint of oatmeal and maybe some grilled corn. The palate has a nice char to it that matched well with the meat that leans into the sweetness of the bourbon. The end is all warming spices and brown sugar.
That charred note is a good pairing between this whiskey and the pork. It feels right. The sweetness of the whiskey also matches the sweetness of the sauce but is a little sweet on sweet and washes out the spiciness a bit.
Bottom Line:
This worked until it didn’t. The sweetness overpowered the spice and char relationship and left you with a sweet mouthful of pork and whiskey.
This is Jim Beam’s small batch entry point into the wider world of Knob Creek. The juice is the low-rye mash that’s aged for nine years in new oak in Beam’s vast warehouses. The right barrels are then mingled and cut down to 100 proof before being bottled in new, wavy bottles.
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes with The Rib:
This is a cherry bomb on the nose with a woody sense of cinnamon sticks and a hint of sour mash (think sour biscuit dough). The palate holds onto that sour note as orange zest and cherry mix toward a Red Hot spicy mid-point and finish. The sweetness of the cherry does mute the hot spice a little at the end though.
The pork really matches on almost every level. The sour mash vibe pings with the vinegar sour edge in the sauce. The charred meat feels right with the woody spice. And the brown sugar in the sauce feels like it fits with the cherry sweetness.
Bottom Line:
Full disclosure, this and the next four were all great pairings. This is a little lower because it felt like the fat from the pork muted everything and washed it out a bit. In short, this paired nicely but faded fast. That said, at least it got to the point where I was thinking about it at that depth.
A lot of Wild Turkey’s character comes from the hard and deep char they use on their oak barrels. 101 is a high-rye and high-ABV bourbon that leans into the wood and aging, having spent six years in the cask. A little water is added to cool it down a bit before bottling and that’s it.
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes with The Rib:
This is nice and spicy on the nose with a mix of pepper, clove, and cinnamon with a hint of sour mash (kind of like a sour note in a BBQ sauce). The palate mixes sweet cherry syrup with cinnamon and pepper to create a nice balance of sweet and spicy depth. The end is mildly woody with a hint of wicker and molasses before hitting that spice again for a warm finish.
With the pork, this really shines. This was the first taste/pairing and it was a good setup as it hit spicy, sweet, and woody notes that really get dailed in in the next three tastes. All of that aside, this is the most straightforward pairing. The spice matches the spice. The sour matches the sour. The sweet feels the same.
Bottom Line:
While this matches very well, it doesn’t elevate. This is just really good, not “wow!” good.
Michter’s really means the phrase “small batch” with their bourbon whiskey. The tank they use to marry their hand-selected eight-year-old bourbons can only hold 20 barrels, so that’s how many go into each small-batch bottling. The blended juice is then filtered and proofed before bottling.
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes with The Rib:
The nose on this one is oaky and full of old leather, soft cherry, and a hint of peach pie. The palate leans into a sweet cherry at first before diving into a woody spice mix with a hint of molasses caramel, more stewed peach, and a whisper of vanilla. The end lets the wood get a little worn as a hint of leather and cherry spice tobacco kick in.
This was the first complex bourbon that worked on every level while taking the pork somewhere new. The spiced cherry notes felt like they added to the bourbon sauce on the ribs, not just matching it. The molasses caramel also added a nice layer to counter the mild spicy heat in both the whiskey and the rib sauce. The meat felt lightly sweeter with the char working with that old oak.
Bottom Line:
This just works while actually adding some new dimensions to the overall experience of both the whiskey and the ribs. Still, this felt like a classic pour and ended before anything changed too dramatically.
The whisky in the bottle is the same Dickel Tennessee whiskey but 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.
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes with The Rib:
This opens with spiced peaches and cherries next to a sweet brown sugar syrup with a deep sense of brown butter in sour apple. The palate is spicy but moves towards a dry green chili pepper vibe before a twinge of vanilla smooths everything out. The end is supple and full of soft chili spices, sour apple compote, and spiced peach.
That chili pepper vibe really helps the rib’s sauce and spice pop. The brown butter and sour apple also added a great dimension to the meat and fat. The only thing missing was something to amplify the char and wood aspects.
Bottom Line:
The lack of woodiness aside, this was a delicious pairing that felt like it took both the whiskey and the pork to a new level. The whiskey became this classic and silky bourbon that I never would have guessed was from Tennessee (there was zero chalkiness). The pork and sauce felt like it got the last dash of ingredients it needed to take it up that last notch.
This is Maker’s signature expression. It’s made from red winter wheat with corn and malted barley and then aged in seasoned Ozark oak for six to seven years. This expression’s juice is then built from only 150 barrels (making this a small batch, if you want to call it that). Those barrels are blended, proofed, bottled, and dipped in red wax.
Zach Johnston
Tasting Notes with The Rib:
This opens with a soft nose that’s brimming with dry sweetgrass, sour cherries, woody cinnamon, and old cedar park. The palate leans into porch wicker with a hint of leather, woody vanilla, nutmeg and clove, and almost smoky applewood. The end blends the orchard wood, buttery biscuit, and spices with the sour cherry for a well-rounded and soft finish.
The wood helps the meat really pop with a sense of the char and the smoke amplified really well. The sour cherry and spice work wonders with the sauce as the applewood ties everything together on the palate as the buttery edge vibes with the pork fat.
Bottom Line:
This is the full package. This is also the woodiest Maker’s has ever tasted to me. That’s both the meat and the whiskey elevated to new places. That makes this pairing a winner to me.
Part 2: Final Thoughts
Zach Johnston
This was an interesting exercise. While the meat changed only minorly through the tasting, these whiskeys tended to shift pretty dramatically.
There’s always a vanilla note in most bourbons. But the way this pairing turned the Ezra Brook’s vanilla note up to eleven was kind of wild. It was also incredible the new notes I found in the Maker’s on the woody/grassy end of the spectrum thanks to the fatty smoked meat. Moreover, the Dickel Bourbon was almost a different pour.
Overall, I still stand by the top five as all being solid choices for pairing with spicy, sweet, and smoky BBQ ribs. The top three are all great choices with Maker’s being the one. It’s cheap, you can buy it anywhere, and it really does elevate both as a whisky and the pork ribs you’re pairing with it. It’s a win all around.
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