It’s opening day, folks, a good day for getting a good glass of bourbon or a fine mixed bourbon drink, and watching your favorite baseball team start a fresh new season! The Detroit Tigers are lucky enough to start their season in Miami this year, staving off the unseasonable 20 degree cold we are enjoying here, at least for a few more days.
For me, my loves were always the New York Mets, and most of all, my hometown Detroit Tigers, and while hope springs eternal, let’s welcome in a new year and season with the legendary hall of fame broadcaster for the tigers, Ernie Harwell, who would bless each new season with this short poem:
Rough week here in the “D,” losing Max Scherzer to the Washington Nationals. It’s bad enough they fleeced us on the Doug Fister deal a year ago, now they are just getting greedy. I’m especially sad to see him go, because aside from being a Cy Young Award pitcher, he was a fellow Mizzou guy. Oh well, sounds like the perfect excuse to go and drink the troubles away.
And there are increasingly more and more places to partake of the finer things (namely whiskey) as the “bourbon boom” continues. Here in Detroit, we have become home to several start-up distilleries. In the next couple weeks, I’ll discuss them – and their corresponding tasting rooms – at greater length. This week, I ventured to one of the hipper new distilleries – the Detroit City Distillery.
The Detroit City Distillery opened last year in Detroit’s historic Eastern Market. Only the second licensed distillery to open in Detroit in 80 years (the first was Two James, which we will discuss soon), it was the brain child of a group of close friends with a passion for booze and urban revitalization.
They began by distilling their own vodka and whiskey, as well as preparing for gin, which will be out ‘soon.’ But what about bourbon?
Bourbon is one of the trickier offerings for any start-up distillery. There are laws and rules regulation how bourbon has to be prepared, aged and bottled. I won’t break them all down here (a good explanation can be found here), but the hardest one is the aging. For a bourbon to be called “straight bourbon,” it has to have spent at least two years in the barrel. If it’s younger than four years, it must have an age statement on the bottle. So to make bourbon, a new distillery has to sink the money into storage, and barrels, grains and equipment and…wait.
There are, of course, ways around this. The most popular way is to “source” bourbon, buying from another (often mass quantity produced) distiller and bottle/label it with the new brand name. Many of the newer distilleries in Michigan are doing this, and Detroit City Distillery is too – sort of.
For their Two-Faced Bourbon, DCD is taking a five year old sourced bourbon and blending it with their own very young (6 month old) house made bourbon, in a 51%-49% mix – hence the name “Two Faced.” Since their bourbon is locally sourced (including corn from St. Clair County here in Michigan), it is truly reflective of their own recipe (which is high in rye), but has some of the age of an older bourbon.
DCD is very open about this process, unlike other distilleries that are sourcing and a little less forthcoming about it. And stopping into their speakeasy style tasting room in Eastern Market, one needs only look at their artisan cocktail list to see they are trying to do something both retro and inventive, with a great deal of respect paid to the craftsmanship.
The entrance to the Detroit City Distillery
With my good friend Eric Oliver joining me, we sat down at the bar to try the bourbon, as well as a few other drinks. The long bar is impressive – it is made of reclaimed wood from another Detroit building – and the soft lighting and exposed beams set a nice ambiance. Glasses were poured, toasts were made, bourbon was consumed.
Dan’s Bourbon of the Week: Detroit City Distillery Two-Faced Bourbon
Dan’s take:
Right from the nose, this dog has some bite. While only 94 proof, the first scent was hot, almost like a high-proof rye would be. Given a minute, the heat started to part and opened to an unsurprising corn and spice. There were hints of almond and a touch of toffee, but the prevailing smell was corn.
The taste was softer than I expected. Fiery on the front, the bourbon has those high-rye pepper notes, with a touch of cinnamon and allspice, but the younger corn seemed to temper it well. Nutmeg and a slight bitter – almost coffee – were present. It had a thin mouth feel, almost watery, but that works to it’s advantage – thicker would cause the spice to linger too long. There was a soft sweetness as well, part corn and part caramel.
The finish was hot but not lingering. There was a pepper to the finish, and it was the first time I detected a touch of oak. Most of all, there was that ever-present corn, soft and subtle.
The recipe for Detroit City Distillery Two-Faced Bourbon seems good – it was not overly simple, and blended nicely with the older sourced bourbon. As a sipping whiskey, it could use more aging to add complexity and depth. As a main ingredient in some of the totally unique cocktails they are preparing at their tasting room, it works very very nicely.
Detroit City Distillery Two-Faced Bourbon is not yet available at distributors, but will be soon. The price point – like most micro-distillers – is still on the higher side ($50 for 750mL), but there is something to be said for buying local now, isn’t there.
Ballpark of the Week: Kaufmann Stadium (Home of the Kansas City Royals)
Look, let’s get the obvious out of the way: you are probably saying “hey Dan, funny we haven’t seen you post in two weeks, since you declared your Detroit Tigers favorites to win the American League!” Yes, that’s true. You might say, “That timing seems a bit suspicious, like you decided to lay low and avoid the mockery and derision that would come your way!” Yes, point taken. You might say, “Hey Dan…” but at this point, I would punch you.
It’s true, we lost. To a Baltimore Orioles team that beat our bullpen like rented mules and made our hitters look like children swinging wiffle bats. It was upsetting, but I’m over it. Watching that same Orioles team get out-ran, out-fielded and out-hit by this never say die Kansas City Royals team was truly something to see. So this week, I look to 2013, when I was lucky enough to visit the lovely stadium and fountains of Kaufmann Stadium.
It was the best kind of event one could hope for – we were headed into Kansas City for the wedding of my wife’s friend Mike, and the Royals were on a home stand. I had gone to the University of Missouri and have friends in the St. Louis area, so an agenda took hold – we would fly from Detroit to St. Louis, visit some friends, then rent a car to drive from St. Louis to Kansas City (stopping in Columbia for old times sake) before enjoying a weekend of wedding fun, BBQ food and a Royals game.
The plan worked flawlessly. My friends were wonderful, the weather was perfect and the drive – roughly four hours straight – was great too. We stopped in Columbia and I showed my wife my old dorm, the famous Mizzou columns, even stopped for a bite at Shakespeare’s Pizza. We arrived in Kansas City, checked into our lovely hotel downtown, and got ready for the game.
The first thing an out of towner might notice when driving to visit Kaufmann Stadium – or it’s next door neighbor Arrowhead Stadium – is that they are seemingly in the middle of nowhere. Right off of I-70, both stadiums are set in the middle of a massive expanse of parking spaces, with little else to see. As we pulled in, it was a bit disorienting – nothing but concrete as far as the eye could see.
Now while this may kill the distinct Kansas City flavor from the environs, it allowed for something else: tailgating, and lots of it! I’m not used to seeing people tailgate before a baseball game, much less a June game between two teams headed for the basement, but there were people with grills and food going everywhere. Furthermore, it was “Girls Night Out,” a promotion geared towards female baseball fans, and they were out en masse. Pink Royals jerseys, pink hats and high pitched cheers abounded.
I bought my tickets through StubHub (I like to see if I can get better seats from a season ticket holder looking to unload them than from the team site and, whoopee, it worked!), so I picked them up from Will Call, where the Royals employees were wonderfully nice. Tailgating, Ladies Night, Friday or not, there was no way this game was selling out.
Our seats were fantastic. The third base line, a few rows back. We had a perfect view of the entire ballpark. The famous Royal crest in the outfield with it’s massive scoreboard. The fountains around the outfield, erupting at intervals. This stadium, despite it’s early 70s birthday, really is a relaxing, comfortable place to watch baseball.
Perfect seats
As the night went on, we watched a low scoring affair. We wandered the park, and were impressed with the sight-lines one can get from almost anywhere within. Particualrly cool was standing in the outfield by the fountains, watching them go off from close and looking over the lush outfild grass.
The Kaufmann Stadium fountains really are beautiful
We tried a few different BBQ concessions, but none had quite the taste of real Kansas City BBQ. The real surprise of the night came in the 7th inning, when the concessionaires announced it was “dollar” time, and all hot dogs, soda cans (Pepsi products) and peanuts/popcorn was now, yes, $1. I have to humbly report that I may have scarfed down four hot dogs and three sodas at this point, because I’m a midwesterner who can’t refuse a value. I’m willing to bet that, with their team in the Series now, $1 hot dogs are harder to find at Kaufmann than a Royals fan who didn’t jump on the bandwagon in August. I’m just kidding. Well, sorta.
Because that was the only downside to my visit. The park is absolutely beautiful. I love the huge Royal crown, the 13 story scoreboard. The concessions were a value. The fountains are amazing. The post game fireworks on Friday were impressive. The game was even very good, with two small ball teams going at it. But the fans weren’t, at least not in large part. There was the enthusiasm that came with the ‘Girls Night Out’ promotion, but not a lot of cheering or booing going on. As an observer of the AL Central, I noted how, even this year, in the midst of a pennant chase the Royals weren’t selling out. There are great and knowledgeable fans in Kansas City, no doubt. But compared to their cross state brethren in Cardinal fandom, they have a long way to go.
That said, Kaufmann was a beautiful park and I would go back in a heartbeat. Especially if it was to see the Tigers top them again.
Dan’s scale (1-10): 8.7
Below are my stats. I’ll post them for every park I’ve visited. I include the big details, as well as who I visited with. Lastly, I am a huge fan of throwback jerseys, and for every stadium I visit, I buy one of a player from that organization I admired as a kid, from watching them or reading about them. So for every one, I will also list the throwbacks I’ve purchased for each.
Ballpark of the Week: Oriole Park at Camden Yards (Home of the Baltimore Orioles)
Tonight, the American League Central Division Champion Detroit Tigers start their fourth consecutive American League Divisional Series with a match-up against the AL East champion Baltimore Orioles. Since the Tigers are my hometown team, it’s not hard to figure out where my rooting interests lie. And while this season was grueling, with the Tigs not clinching the division until the season’s last day, we in Detroit are feeling pretty good about our chances.
I will admit, however, that I regularly root for the Orioles in their division. Like the rest of the world not living in the five boroughs, I despise the Yankees. Once I had a sympathy for the Red Sox and their unbeatable curse, and cheered joyously as they won that memorable title in 2003. That dissipated quickly as Sox fans became unbearable in the years since, and I now only root for them when they play the Yankees. If Tampa Devil Ray fans don’t exist, why would I acknowledge their team? And the Blue Jays…well, I don’t really dislike them, but they have to make the playoffs for me to root for them. That makes the Orioles the lesser of five evils, I guess.
Those days are over. Tigers in three! four!
That said, I was able to visit Oriole Park at Camden Yards in 2012, My wife had a work conference in Washington DC in June, including a couple of evening events, so I used the opportunity to rent a car and drive north to catch a game. Particularly fortuitous for me, my wife’s uncle and cousins – Maryland natives – were happy to meet me at the game and make it a night at the ballpark!
The drive in was less than ideal – while DC and Baltimore may be separated by few miles (40 or so), the drive time between the two is a bit on the slow side. I’m sure natives to the area are well aware of this – unfortunately, I was not. When I did arrive in Baltimore, however, I was pleased to find how easy it was to get to the park! There is ample parking, thanks to a nicely developed area of hotels and convention centers nearby, and was parked and ready to go in no time.
Driving in from DC, I noticed the large crowd of people in Orioles gear between a statue of Brooks Robinson and a few bars names Pickles and Sliders across the street from the stadium. I wandered over for a bite and to catch some local flavor – and I did. In particular, I’ve developed a taste for ‘Baltimore Wings,’ which are the local take on traditional Buffalo Wings. Baked in butter and rubbed with Old Bay seasoning, they may be my favorite wings in the world now. People hung out and talked baseball, but I snapped a pic in front of the Brooks Robinson statue, and headed over to the large main gates to get a feel for the place.
In front of the Brooks Robinson statue
Upon entering the park from Camden and Eutaw, the first thing you notice is how the stadium feels like an older park than it really is. This is, of course, by design. After years of demolishing our baseball cathedrals in favor of bland, round, all purpose stadiums (like Three Rivers or Veterans stadiums), Oriole Park at Camden Yards was a much heralded return to the classics. Set in an actual part of the city (as opposed to far-flung suburbs), built with brick and iron and as a part of it’s surroundings (the warehouse overlooking the park from center to right field). It revolutionized ballparks, and while it has borne many imitators (including Comerica Park here in Detroit), it is still very unique.
Strolling along the bricks above the outfield, I had to stop into the famous Boog’s BBQ. Boog Powell, slugging hero of those late 60s and early 70s Oriole teams, has a BBQ stand/tent here, and it came highly recommended. An additional treat – Boog was there that day, and I got to shake his hand, get an autograph, and chat for a few minutes with a Baltimore legend! And the BBQ was delicious too.
Boog Powell’s delicious barbecue
Our seats gave us a great view of the park – it really is a beautiful sight. I was there during an interleague matchup, and many fans from Pittsburgh were there as well, so there was a good spirited taunting going on in the stands. A high scoring game, we were able to see everything clearly, and despite it’s throwback style, Oriole Park has plenty of modern game-watching amenities: great scoreboards, clear public address, ball, strike and pitch speed sensors throughout.
Steve Pearce and Mark Reynolds both hit shots our way, and we even thought we might have a chance at catching Reynolds. The O’s scored early and often, and the game was fun for the hometown fans. At one point, I headed up to the picnic tables in centerfield to grab some crab dip and waffle fries – a local favorite – and found out OPaCY is one of the few ballparks in which you can bring your own food and drink (provided the drinks are sealed)! A walk down Eutaw was particularly enjoyable, as you watch the game on the one side, and check out the bars and souvenir stands inside the warehouse on the other.
Now, it did take me almost two and a half hours to get back to DC after the game, but that didn’t dampen my fun. Oriole Park at Camden Yards is a beautiful park, and another must see for baseball fans!
Dan’s scale (1-10): 8.7
Below are my stats. I’ll post them for every park I’ve visited. I include the big details, as well as who I visited with. Lastly, I am a huge fan of throwback jerseys, and for every stadium I visit, I buy one of a player from that organization I admired as a kid, from watching them or reading about them. So for every one, I will also list the throwbacks I’ve purchased for each.
I’m kidding of course. This baseball season has been the ‘Season of Jeets,’ to a degree I certainly think has been ridiculous. There was the initial wave of adulation and reflection…
followed by a understandable backlash…
…followed by last night. In his last game wearing Yankees Pinstripes, Jeets hits a walk off single to win the game for the Yankees. Surely Joltin’ Joe and The Kid smiled down from the heavens.
I hate the Yankees, like most rational thinking baseball fans in this day and age not living in the greater New York Metropolitan area (or unabashedly front-runners, who are probably moving over to Mike Trout Angels jerseys as we speak). That doesn’t diminish, however, The Captain’s legacy.
Derek Jeter was a constant, a great player, a sure-fire hall of famer, who exuded class even in an era when the Yankees payroll became as bloated as C.C. Sabathia at the Old Country Buffet. He’s one of the few stars of the Steroid Era to not be under suspicion – and that includes many of his pinstriped teammates (we see ya’ A-Rod, Giambi, Rocket and Petite). He was a great player.
Now with that said, I would invite those heaping attention to take a second and look at the career statistics of one Alan Trammell, who also played a 20 year career in one place. Detroit may not be the Big Apple, but Trammell was part of a record setting double play combo, and the glue that held the Tigers together for 20 years. He wasn’t quite as good offensively as Jeter, but was better defensively, and with a comparable WAR and advanced sabermetrics, maybe some light could be shed on his career before it’s too late for him to be enshrined in Cooperstown. Down the hall from Jeets – two great shortstops who were leaders on the field.
A good start to the week – my beloved Detroit Tigerswon the first of three against the division rival (and division leading) Kansas City Royals yesterday afternoon, closing the pennant gap to one. The Detroit Lions beat up on the New York Giants last night on Monday Night Football to kick a new season off the right way. And the temperature here in Detroit leads one to think autumn is right around the corner. My favorite time of year.
For this week’s Bourbon of the Week, however, I return to those dog days of summer. I was fortunate enough this year to accompany my lovely wife on a work trip to Los Angeles back in July. It was a fantastic trip, full of sun, beaches, wonderful entertainment and great food. We got to see Chris Isaak (a favorite of mine) at the Hollywood Bowl, and take in a show at the Comedy Store, including Marc Maron and Ralphie May. But, while LA has all the glitz and glamour, there is one thing it is definitely missing: bourbon.
Now, that’s not to say I didn’t find some good times and good bourbon. A visit to the Dresden made me feel like I was in Swingers, and three fingers of Maker’s Mark certainly helped with that. But from establishment to establishment, it was more of the same: Jim Beam, Wild Turkey and Makers. No Buffalo Trace, no Woodford, not even Knob Creek. Finally, I went online to find somewhere in this sprawling expanse to procure a glass of something…special. And sure enough, I found it, in Hollywood, of all places.
The bar is called the Township Saloon, and I will review the bar itself in the near future. It’s a cool, hipster-meets-divey bar on Sunset, away from the Hollywood hullabaloo, and on that Friday night, kind of quiet. Perfect for sampling one of the rarest of treats, because they had George T. Stagg.
For some reason, I have been unable to locate a bottle of GTS in Michigan, even third party, and Kentucky has fared me no better. So I was excited to take a drink of this much respected and crowed about product for myself.
Dan’s Bourbon of the Week: George T Stagg (photo from Wikipedia, as my camera stopped working that night!)
Some say George T. Stagg is the best bourbon made – another fine member of the Buffalo Trace Antique Collection. It’s age varies (I have been told the 2013 was 16 years old), and it is a proud product of Buffalo Trace mashbill #1.
It has a very high proof – 129 on this bottling – so a keeping a little ice handy isn’t a bad idea, although I first tried it neat. After all the raving I’ve read, I was looking forward to trying it.
The nose took me a minute. Like most high proofed bourbons, the alcohol sears a bit on first blush, and should be given a minute to breathe. Then, the world opens on this glass. There was a dark sweetness to it, toffee and caramel, but not overwhelmingly so. Plum, raisin peeked through, maple sugar, and a soft oakiness that was dry and had a hint of tobacco.
The taste was dark as well. The toffee remained, along with an almost dark chocolate character. There was a hint of bitter, like coffee, before giving way to a wood that seemed fresh. It is a strong drink, so I added a few ice chips, and found the sweetness seemed to dissipate a bit, while the oak and slight bitter remained.
The finish was surprisingly short for such an aged and high-proof pour, although I did get hints of cinnamon on the back end.
Did I enjoy it? Thoroughly. Is it in my top five? Well, not this years, but that just gives me a reason to try again next year.
1) As this summer has gotten busier and busier, I have not been good about posting regularly. I’m still sampling new bourbons, still reading about developments in the whiskey world and what not, but I’m not writing about it enough.
2) Despite the name “Baseball and Bourbon,” I hardly ever write about baseball! I named the blog Baseball and Bourbon because I planned on reviewing two of the things I enjoy the most: baseball parks and bourbons. However, I discovered two key facts early on – it’s difficult to visit new parks regularly, and it’s way more fun (and easy) to try new bourbons. This year alone, I have been able to visit one new park (Nationals Park), but will have gone on three separate trips to Kentucky for bourbon related events.
Both of these things will change now.
Not going to more baseball parks – time and money can prohibit that pretty severely. But introducing more baseball content. Reviews of baseball books, baseball movies, write-ups of parks I’ve visited in the past and just more baseball chatter will be a priority. My hometown Detroit Tigers are (again) serious contenders for the title, and I keep pretty well plugged in to baseball. Time to put it to type.
Secondly, I will include more bourbon reviews, but also, talk more at length about whiskey bars I visit, industry trends, and other whiskeys, especially ryes,
So let the fun begin!
Last night, after what has proven to be a particularly trying week in many regards, my wife and I sat down and opened a bottle that she had picked up a few weeks back out of curiosity.
Dan’s Bourbon of the Week: Ezra B 12 Year Old Bourbon
OK, call this a spoiler alert, but I LOVED this bourbon. Ezra B (Brooks) 12 Year is a Heaven Hill distillery product, and while Heaven Hill makes some bourbons I have liked (Evan Williams, Elijah Craig) and some I haven’t, none have ever tasted quite like this.
While the Ezra B 12 Year is the classier bottle of the Ezra Brooks line, with its wax cap and ribboned label, it’s not obscenely priced. A little harder to find here in Detroit, it was still available at a store, and not only through third party sellers. We opened the bottle and poured a healthy amount into our glasses…
…wow, what a fantastic nose. Ezra B is 99 proof, but the nose didn’t burn of alcohol at all. Amazingly, it was a sweet, rich nose, with notes of vanilla, caramel, raisin, rum, pecans and wood. Not charred wood, mind you, but soft wood, like a new baseball bat. It was warm and inviting.
The taste was outstanding. First of all, Ezra B 12 Year is a thick mouth feel – like a melting butter. But unlike most thicker tasting bourbons, Ezra B isn’t full of those mouth-puckering tannins some people (not I) love. Instead, it’s incredibly smooth with a layered taste. It opens with a rich sweetness – raisin and ripe banana, toffee and caramel, before giving way to a warming but not overpowering spice.
The finish is soft and medium, and almost seems to come in waves, but not of spice or rye, but rather, that wonderful citrus taste.
It’s opening day, folks, a good day for getting a good glass of bourbon or a fine mixed bourbon drink, and watching your favorite baseball team start a fresh new season! I’ve been fortunate enough to visit many stadiums, and as I post some write-ups about them in the coming days and weeks along with my new bourbon reviews, please tell me about your favorites – I love to hear them.
For me, my loves were always the New York Mets, and most of all, my hometown Detroit Tigers, and while hope springs eternal, let’s welcome in a new year and season with the legendary hall of fame broadcaster for the tigers, Ernie Harwell, who would bless each new season with this short poem:
This was a pretty cruddy day. Last night, the Detroit Tigers lost the ALCS to the Boston Red Sox, those grungy, prospector-looking bums from Beantown. It was a heartbreaker too – another late grand slam, base-running bloopers by Prince Fielder, more bullpen implosions. Then, just for good measure, the Lions choked away a game against the Cincinnati Bengals, Brutal. It’s only fitting that I sampled a brutal bourbon as well.
Dan’s Bourbon of the Week: Early Times 354 Bourbon
This week, I tried another selection recommended for me by my favorite bourbon store here in Michigan, but the results left something to be desired.
The Early Times 354 is a re-entry into the United States market. Early Times was apparently the most popular bourbon in the US in the 1950s, and was (and is) wildly popular in Japan. In sampling it, I couldn’t help but feel it was a throwback to the rougher and tougher standards people had before the more recent small batch, single barrel preference was made.
All of that is a nice way of saying that, as a sipper, Early Times burned. It’s nose was harsh and primarily alcohol – I had to hold it for some time and at a further than normal distance to get a feeling for the notes of corn, cereals and a hint of spices. The taste I had a much more difficult time discerning. The alcohol was so strong, despite it’s being under hundred proof, that there wasn’t a lot of room for flavor. The finish was something out of an old western, where the hero takes a slug of the whiskey in the tavern and grunts. A slow, long burn.
The rest of this bottle will be mixed with Coke for parties, where it will harm no one.
Baseball and Bourbon 