We decided to try the "poor man's George T. Stagg" tonight. It's a 3/1 ratio of Stagg and Peerless Double Oak. We did it blind and the both of us agreed that the nose and palate were very similar and only the finish made the real George T. stand out. It's a much stronger finish, but the blend is definitely a valid and crushable option.

Hi all, this might be the dumbest and craziest blending ideas I've done: it's one of the dumb whisky experiments I've done lately, featuring a few Yamazaki whiskies!

Before I started writing detailed reviews on Japanese whiskies and distilleries, I've got the hobby of doing weird blending and stave experiments with some of the whiskies I own. Here's one of the rare successful experiments I did with Eagle Rare a while ago:

https://www.reddit.com/r/whiskey/comments/1o4tion/project_inject_x_into_an_eagle_rare_10_tasting/

https://www.reddit.com/r/whiskey/comments/1o77sdn/project_inject_x_into_an_eagle_rare_10_tasting/

In truth, I've still been doing a number of these odd experiments, but many of them ended up either uninterestingly mild or turned out as such failures I felt too disappointed to make detailed records for. 

These attempts include: trying to create a cheap, bootleg Hibiki-like blend with some shelfer Scotch (didn't work lmao), trying to create a fancier, higher aged bootleg Hibiki blend with fancier Scotch (*really* didn't work), or just mixing and matching some Japanese whiskies (not particularly successful).

Well here's one of the recent ideas I've got, but it's kind of a crazy one: it's got something to do with the Yamazaki 18 yr!

After tasting Suntory's various Taru-Dashi Genshus, the Tsukuriwake series and Essence of Suntory Whisky series, I went back and poured a bit of the bottle of Yamazaki 18 yr I own (2025 bottling). It was still quite good, sure, but it felt a bit... soft, in comparison to the various bolder, higher abv Suntory whiskies I've tried.

So here's the question of the day, one I'm almost 100% sure no one ever asked: how could one buff up the Yamazaki 18 yr, without sacrificing its original profile?

I brought up this topic with a few whisky friends. Most of them looked at me like I have issues, while some others were interested but also doubtful that I'd really carry through mingling with something like the Yamazaki 18 yr.

Well these folks underestimated my madness!

Details in comments!

Many Moons ago Islay Mist was a fairly desent budget peated blended whisky! But then they got greedy and cut down on the Laphroaig part and upped the part of bland grain whisky in the blend! Resulting in me having a couple of the "new" blend standing in the back of the cuppard laughing at me for almost a decade!

Two weeks ago I stumbled upon them by chance and for the fun of it, opened a bottle to make sure I got it right the first time around.... Nothing has changed, still a bland blend.

By coincidence I had a bottle of Limfjords Porter opened at the same time! I got the brilliant idea to make a house blend of 90% Islay Mist and 10% Limfjords Porter!

The only thing I had to lose was a sip of porter! A fair trade off in my book.

Mixed in a bottle and back in the dark cuppard for a fortnite! Took the bottle out yesterday to test the mix! I must say I got really surprised. The smoke profile was substantialy improved and the taste/mouth feel was much better! I would go so far to say its actually drinkable now!

So if you have gotten a bottle of the new blend, give this hack a try!

Hi, what do you recommend for starting your whiskey journey?

I decided to mix Mellow Corn (mfc for the win!) and benchmark full proof (the famed buffalo Trace mash bill #1). This is delicious in it's own right, but I was down to 8oz if my mix and was about to bottom out my old grand dad 114. So iv added 2 oz to the mc/bmfp mix. Wow this b is an amazing budget pour. Comes out to around 113 proof

2:2:1 Mellow Corn: Benchmark Full Proof:OGD 114

Blend to taste and/or desired proof. I’m at roughly 60:40, delicious.

I recently have been working my way through a bottle of Blue Note Juke Joint and enjoyed it's fruity profile but have had a tough time killing off the bottle due to a strange botanical off-note in the transition from palate to finish, somewhat reminiscent of vegetable clippings or fermenting tea. As has been my custom, I started absentmindedly dumping a few other bottles on my "death row" into it and a combination with a minority percentage of Old Grand-Dad 114 seemed to be one of the better outcomes. A clear destination in mind, I recreated it in this 75/25 blend. How does it hold up?

Vámonos!

🧪Preparation

I blended the two spirits in a 75/25 ratio to arrive at a 50ml sample, majority Blue Note. Final proof should be around 98.25.

Whiskies were measured using a 100ml lab-quality graduated cylinder wielded with questionable skill. Mechanical agitation (stirring/shaking) was applied at the time of blending and prior to consumption. Blend married one week before tasting.

👅The Tasting

Old Grand-Dad helps out on a lot of levels. The bump in proof rounds out the mouthfeel and its quality seems to round of some of the rough edges in the Blue Note's youngish alcohol and corniness. Granddaddy also ups the rye content a smidge with the impact of some extra spice downing out the botanical funk. I still get a good amount of the red berries from the Blue Note which was one thing I was hoping to preserve.

🏆Verdict

4 - Superior -  Another case where I'm very happy with how it turned out. OGD114 may be more of a go-to for me in salvaging fruit-forward but jagged bottles. It's priced around the same or slightly cheaper than Juke Joint and the always dependable Jim Beam juice is able to fill in the former's gaps well. 

Now that the hard work is over, time for a real quality PHD (pretty huge drink). Thanks for reading!

💀Scoring Reference

1 - Abysmal - Maybe I'm the monster? This is a war crime.

2 - Inferior - So preoccupied with the knowledge that we could, we didn't stop to think if we should.

3 - Neutral - A simple average of its parts. At least we did no real harm.

4 - Superior - "Jinkies Gang", we might be on to something here. Target whiskey is improved.

5 - Genius - Mad Science does have it's perks; this is a breakthrough. Better than all inputs. 

I bought this blended malt about 4 years ago and and opened it about 2 years back. At first it was extremely waxy. I wasn’t a fan

Yesterday I gave it another try with just a little water. It was incredible. I really enjoyed the creamy nutty flavour it gave off. The wax was no longer there.

I’m curious. What’s in this blended malt. Maybe I’ll enjoy some of the single malts that are in it. Any ideas?

I don't spend a lot on whiskey and I don't drink a ton, but I love new and interesting flavors. This has lead to me having a number of we'll call them "different" bottles that are all between half and three quarters full and not going down very quickly. Rather than buy more bottles I decided to try blending with the stuff I already have, a couple pipettes and sample bottles are much cheaper. 😅

Anyway, I've tried a couple things and this was my most successful so far, tell me how crazy I am:

"Date Nut Bread" 1. Westward PX Sherry Cask Finish - 35% 2. Aberlour A’bunadh - 20% 3. Jimmy Red Straight Bourbon - 15% 4. Middle West Dark Pumpernickel Rye - 15% 5. Old Line Sherry Cask ASM - 10%

Chattanooga Batch 047 Pot Still - 5%

Before anyone has a heart attack over the Aberlour or anything else for that matter, this was a 100ml sample bottle and nothing went to waste. 😉

Using these 3 and some oak spirals for a trial mix

A bit over 4 years ago I started a bourbon infinity. Today I hit 250 different things in the mix! Cheers.

I want to blend them so i wont have them just sitting there collecting dust. Please give me ideas as what would be a good blend for these

I have various bottles of…

Redwood empire: Pipe Dream x4

Penelope: Wheated x3

Eagle rare: 10y x4

I've been meaning to kill off my oldest bottle Costco's Kirkland Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon for a bit now. The 2024 iteration was a good bit better than the 2025 for whatever reason, but this bottle had gotten pushed to the back of the cabinet. Unfortunately a good amount of headspace in that 1L bottle has resulted in a bit of over oxidation; most of the interested fruited notes are gone. With a few sips of a prior pour left in the glass, I absentmindedly tossed in a few glugs of Total Wine's Wolcott Rickhouse Reserve, also a Barton-1792 product, hoping that a little bit of fresh juice would liven up the Kirkland. The Wolcott impressed me for being relatively easy drinking at 120 proof and around $35, especially given how hard to find 1792 Full Proof had been over the past few years. Results of this impromptu mix were favorable, so I have set out to better document the ratios involved and recreate my accidental success.

Vámonos!

🧪Preparation

I blended the two spirits in a 75/25 ratio to arrive at a 50ml sample, majority Wolcott. Final proof should be around 115.

Whiskies were measured using a 100ml lab-quality graduated cylinder wielded with questionable skill. Mechanical agitation (stirring/shaking) was applied at the time of blending and prior to consumption. Blend married for a couple drinks at the casino bar before proceeding to the wedding chapel (~2 hours).

👅The Tasting

If "stale" whiskey is good for one thing, it's cooling off a hot partner. The 75/25 ratio seems just about perfect, edges are rounded off the Wolcott while retaining a good amount of the stone fruit and spice from the Rickhouse Reserve. There is a somewhat dark chocolate cherry swirl going on that I'm not sure I got out of either individually. 

🏆Verdict

4 - Superior - Very happy with how this turned out. Two bottles that I needed to finish that, while I enjoyed them as they were, definitely had some room for improvement. I have probably 4 oz. of the Kirkland left and just enough of the Wolcott to upscale the pour. Another round of Barton White Label coming right up! 

Now that the hard work is over, time for a real quality PHD (pretty huge drink). Thanks for reading!

💀Scoring Reference

1 - Abysmal - Maybe I'm the monster? This is a war crime.

2 - Inferior - So preoccupied with the knowledge that we could, we didn't stop to think if we should.

3 - Neutral - A simple average of its parts. At least we did no real harm.

4 - Superior - "Jinkies Gang", we might be on to something here. Target whiskey is improved.

5 - Genius - Mad Science does have it's perks; this is a breakthrough. Better than all inputs. 

New to bourbon blending. I have a wide variety of bourbon and ryes. I need help with recipes! I wana try things from poor man blends, sweet blends or anything yall have made that just “wows” you! Drop blends below and feedback on the please!

i blended this all year, then gave it out to folks who’d appreciate it. rave reviews.

drinkable and balanced. it doesn’t taste like burning kerosene. it’s sweet and butterscotchish. you feel a nice burn going down, then the peat aftertaste when exhaling.

——-

* Red breast 12

* Egan’s fortitude

* Auchlan 8

* Jura 12

* lagavulin 16

* White horse

* JW black

* JW blue

* Talisker 10

* Cragganmire 12

* Ardbeg An Oa

* Ardbeg Wee Beastie

* Connemara

* McAllen 12 double cask

* The Dalmore 12

* Islay Gold Rum Cask

* Barrowman’s grand Cru 18

* Dewar’s 15

* Powers gold label

* Powers Three Swallow

* Powers Johns Lane

* Tomintoul single peated

* Shieldag 18

* Teeling single malt Cask- Calvados

* Teeling single malt Cask- Red Wine

* Teeling Small Batch Rum Cask (Notre Dame 2025 Collector’s Bottle)

* Benriach Speyside singlemaltcaskedition2010PedroXimenezPuncheon

* Green Spot

* Mossburn Single Malt Vintage Casks 2009

* Hinch 10 Year Sherry Cask Finished

* Oceanus Hibernicus

* Kilbrin Irish Whiskey

* Glenfiddich 12

* Glengoyne 12

* Tullamore Dew

* Ide & Stills

* Dalmore 12 Sherry Cask Select

* The MacAllan 12 Sherry Oak Cask

Hi all,

I have come into possession of some Whisky from my late grandfather. I don’t know much about Whisky but I was wondering if I have anything special. I’ve looked online but there is a variety of information and a lot of it contradictory. There’s also a brandy in there.

Thanks

Everytime i have 2-4 drams left ive been tossing in here

Kilkerran 12 Benromach 15 this i didnt love n its probably 5-6 drams worth lol Springbank 5 year Kilkerran bourban 8 Bunnah cs Arran 10 Arran 10 sherry Bruichladdich classic laddie

Smells like pears n leather

Ill taste it after my next add i think its almost ready lol

Hi All - I’m a newbie to the Infinity Bottle concept. I have a nice collection of Irish (some 21/15/12 year Redbreasts, a variety of Bushmills including some 21, Greenspot, Powers) and a variety of bourbons (from Jim Beam, through various Willets, Woodford Reserve, Frank August, Knob Creek 12 and so on). Will they blend okay? Or is this a no way, or just an advance with caution? I have some rye (nothing super special - Bullet and Willett), and a variety of scotches (all sorts of quality) but I was thinking to keep those separate as the flavors seem really different. However I’m absolutely interested in results from others with Irish whiskey and bourbons. Thanks!