Maker’s Mark 2025 “The Keeper’s Release” Review + Bourbon Aged by Climate?

Today on the Bourbon Bytes Podcast, I'm sharing the news about Maker's Mark's new 10-year age-stated bottle, Milam and Greene releases two climate-aged bourbons, and a veteran-owned bourbon brand goes national. Plus a new bite-sized review of Maker's Mark 2025 Keeper's release. Hello everyone and welcome to the Bourbon Bytes Podcast. I'm your host Clifton and this is the week of Thursday, June 26, 2025. Hope you guys have been having a good week. Um, it's kind of

feels crazy to be saying that just seeing all the things going on in the world right now. I know everyone has different feelings about it, but I just hope you and your loved ones are safe and are taking care of each other and offering support of each other, uh, during this, uh, weird time in history. But today I hope this episode's comforts you with lots of good talk about whiskey. I always think of whiskey as something that brings people together and it brings comfort to

those who choose to enjoy it. So that's what I'm going to be doing tonight. I'm going to be not ignoring the things going on in the world, but I just want to, um, get my mind off of it. I think probably a lot of you do too, but we do have lots of news to talk about as well as a new review, um, of a whiskey I've not yet had ever. I actually just picked it up today from Total Wine

and this is a new story that broke back in April. Um, but I think it's an interesting conversation point, um, just about Makers Mark and what they've been up to lately. I've been seeing a lot of news out of the distillery, seeing them go from, you know, what was once a singular product to a cask strength to a 46 to a 46 cask strength to the Wood Finishing Series to the Cellar Aged series. And now they're starting to put out

some age stated bourbons. So this was announced back in April, but they have a new release called "The Greats of the Gate." Um, it is the second year of their 10 year old collection commemorating racing's most spirited horses. And this particular bottle celebrates the city of Lexington. Now, funny enough, Lexington is the name of a 19th century horse. Um, so it's a bit of a double meaning, um, both the horse and the city itself. And the bottle itself is really, really pretty.

I mean, it's the standard Maker's Mark shape of a bottle, but it does have Lexington written on the side. It has a picture of the rider, um, on the horse. And it looks like the wax is almost a bit of an orange color with a white stripe down the middle. And I really didn't know that, uh, Maker's Mark had such an impact on the, um, horse racing industry. Um, back in 1958, Keeneland served

Maker's Mark from the first cases ever sold. This began a long time partnership that would go on to raise millions for Kentucky communities continuing today with the current greats of the great series and proceeds from this bottle are going to support local nonprofits, which is always great. I love seeing a brand giving back to their own community, especially when it's local,

like bourbon. I think, you know, especially with Kentucky, there are so many distilleries putting out some amazing products, some allocated products, but when you combine that with raising money for a good cause, I just feel like it's, it's, it's the perfect explanation of kind of what I was saying earlier. It's like community coming together, friends coming together to support their local, uh, community. And it looks like this year they are supporting Kentucky

classic arts. Um, it says they strive to enrich the lives of people in central Kentucky by providing family-friendly entertainment and arts involvement opportunity for all ages. And this particular partnership is to support musical theater performance opportunities for central Kentucky. And that's a cause that does mean a lot to me. Um, I come from a musical theater background all throughout middle school and high school, and even college. I was very

involved in theater. Yes. I was a theater kid surprise, but if you're not from a state like Kentucky or the South in general, there's so much funding cuts for the arts. Um, even my school, it's like so much money went into the sports program and, you know, these things that are big money makers for the school, but kids that were seeking artistic outlets really were missing out. I remember every school play we did, we had to raise money to kind of build props and buy

costumes. It was that small of a budget we had. Um, now in college, there was a little bit more of a budget. Um, I did go to a liberal arts school, so they did focus on the arts. We did not have a football team, um, at the College of Charleston. So that's a little bit of relief. I grew up in a city that is known as like the number one city in the South for recruiting football players for college and, you know, more power to those folks. But I think a lot of the

money was allocated towards those programs versus the arts. So it's just kind of cool to see Maker's Mark supporting something like that. Yeah. I just want to talk a little bit about this release only because we're going to be reviewing a new Maker's Mark product today. Um, I have on my hands, the keepers release of the wood finishing series for 2025. Um, so I thought I would start the talking a little bit about, uh, something new in the world of Maker's Mark other than this bottle,

but we'll talk about that later in the episode. I did want to kind of switch gears from Kentucky

to Texas. The brand Milam and Greene is releasing what they call a experiment and climate aging. Now I've heard of Milam and Greene, but I'm not super familiar with the way they work. They actually have a master distiller named Marlene Holmes. She has been in the industry for over three decades and was actually recognized this year in The Whiskey Magazine's Hall of Fame. She's the first American woman and the only female distiller in the U S to be inducted into

this hall of fame. So that's really exciting. And I'm excited to learn more about their story. Now it's interesting because they just still in both Blanco, Texas and Kentucky. Um, so in Texas, they have their copper pot stills and in Kentucky they have their classic column stills and they use their own proprietary yeast recipe and mash bill. And the core range includes a triple cask bourbon, a port cask finished rye and a single barrel bourbon. Um, but it's really, really excited to

see a new release called "The Answer" straight bourbon. Now this sold out online as soon as it became available. But I think the story behind this is one worth telling, even though it's kind of sold out in this particular experiment, they took a single distillate, split it in too, and aged it under identical conditions, except for one, the climate. So half of it was aged in Rickhouses

in Bardstown, Kentucky. And the other half was aged in Blanco, Texas for over five years. Now, those of you that know, Texas whiskey know that five years is a long time in the world of Texas whiskey. So I'm really curious to know what each of those tasted like, but I think it's a true Testament to American whiskey. Now, I mean, I remember asking on a live stream recently is

craft whiskey kind of dying, or is it still blowing up or is it kind of stagnating? I guess I feel like we have distilleries out in every state or almost every state and every one of them have quite a different taste. I mean, Texas whiskey has a very distinct flavor profile. Now there are some exceptions like Still Austin to me is one of my favorite Texas distilleries does not taste like Texas whiskey, but, um, it still is part of that whiskey culture in the

state. Of course you have Indiana bourbon. You have, I mean, shoot, Maryland rye, California whiskey. We have all types of different whiskeys from all over the country. At first, when I saw this, I thought maybe they were going to blend them together, but it sounds like they're releasing them individually. And I think that's so interesting to see what climate can do to

whiskey. I think being able to try them side by side is such a great experiment, especially for someone that, you know, knows American whiskey as just Kentucky, but you can see how that same distillate can move down South into a warmer climate, a more variable climate and come out completely different. They only have 800 cases of it made, but I think it introduces a great

conversation into what is American whiskey. You know, usually we think of Kentucky, but I mean, more and more, we're seeing distilleries pop up all across the country, whether it's a major distillery like MGP releasing whiskey to be sourced by several distilleries or a small craft distillery in Oklahoma. I don't know. I've never had Oklahoma whiskey, but I'm sure there's probably a distillery out there. If you know what, let me know. So this is just a really cool concept. I

would love a chance to try it. If you've tried it, please let me know what you think of the two different ones. I'm curious to see how different they really are. I know Mash bill plays a good part in what makes whiskeys different, but so does climate. And I'm really excited to see how these two compare to each other. Now, speaking of incredible, there is a brand that I just discovered

called Four Branches Bourbon. It's a veteran owned brand and it's expanding its reach and going national for the first time. Now, this brand was created in tribute to Greg Wright, Jr., who was a Virginia Military Institute graduate and Marine officer who ultimately sacrificed his life in Iraq to save the lives of others. His legacy inspired Rick Franco, who is a co-founder of the

company, to start the brand along with Mike Trott, Harold Underdown, and R.J. Casey. And their goal is to preserve and share stories of valor like Greg's, ensuring these acts of extraordinary courage live on in every bottle they produce. And I love this because we really don't hear of modern military heroes. I mean, unless you're close to the person or they're from your hometown, they really don't

get the recognition you would assume they would. You know, looking back throughout American history, we have all these names, but how many of them are modern heroes? That's what the Four Branches distillery is all about. Now, the symbolism behind the name the Four Branches is the U.S. Army, the U.S. Marine Corps, the U.S. Navy, and the U.S. Air Force, but also special operations that kind of plays a part into it as well. And it looks like their flagship bottle is called the Founder's

Blend. It's coming in at $84.99 at retail, and it's a 96-proof, four-grain mash bill whiskey, including 65% corn, 15% rye, 10% malted barley, and 10% wheat. Now, I haven't had a chance to try this, but I think it's appropriate that it's a four-grain whiskey celebrating four military branches. Actually, veterans from all four branches contributed to making this whiskey. And it's great to see that a portion of sales go back to various veteran and first responder organizations. And I'm

looking at a map here. It seems that it's available to ship across many, many states. Some of them happen to only be available in retail and bars, but at least out here in California, you can get it shipped directly. Now, this was actually announced on National Bourbon Day, which was June 14th. Great day to announce a new product. I wish more brands would maybe do that. I would love to make a holiday out of bourbon other than just being told,

it's National Bourbon Day. Why don't we announce big releases? Treat it like a CES or a Comic-Con or something like that. I would love to see a big whiskey convention where new products are announced. Just an idea coming from a marketing guy.

Now, lastly, we have a new release from Jim Beam. This is their Little Book Chapter 9 called None for Granted. It's an uncut, unfiltered blend of Kentucky straight rye and bourbon aged 7 to 11 years and bottled at 121.8 proof. But what's interesting is they feature a brown rice mash bill. I've had a brown rice expression from Jim Beam. It was one of their experimental casks. I had a chance to try it from my friend Patrick. And I feel like they've done

rice before in Little Book releases. Granted, I'm not super up to date with them. My friend Adam, who is a big supporter of the channel, once gave me a Little Book flight at his house when I was in Tennessee last year. And it was so great to see how different these releases were. Did I like most of them? Yes. Did I love all of them? No. But it's always exciting to see a new release from this line. Now, this is coming from Freddie Noe, who is the eighth generation

master distiller at Beam. And each of them are kind of created from scratch. They're all different recipes, different blends. And I love to see a brand not only be consistent with their primary products like Knob Creek or Jim Beam, but putting out new things and new experiments. Because guess what? Whiskies like Booker's Rye were an experiment. And we saw how great that was. So I got a little excited when I saw that there was some rye whiskey mixed in here. Now,

I don't expect this to be, you know, anything like Booker's Rye. But they are using an eight year Kentucky straight rye whiskey and 11 year Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey and eight year Kentucky straight bourbon whiskey and two separate seven year Kentucky straight bourbon whiskeys into the blend. I would definitely be interested in trying this. Now, the problem is Little Book has become harder to find and much more pricey. I remember getting

these back when they first became a thing. And I think we're talking like 70, 80, 90 dollars, maybe at the most. They were definitely more than Booker's at the time. But remember, Booker's used to be like 60, 70 dollars, at least in my area in Southern California. This new release is coming out this summer at a retail price of 160 dollars. Will I be picking it up? Most likely not. But I have a good feeling that our friend Adam will be picking it up.

And if he does, I would love a chance to invite him on the channel. And let's try it together.

All right. Well, I think we've entered into the point of the podcast where we will go into our Byte-sized review. I'm really excited for this review because this bottle just hit the shelves in my local area. This is the new Maker's Mark Wood Finishing Series release for 2025. This one's called the Keeper's Release and it is a stave profile of 10 virgin toasted American oak staves. Now, when it comes to toasted barrel whiskeys, I am pretty optimistic. There are some releases

that absolutely blow my mind. I just uploaded a YouTube short of Michter's Toasted Rye, which is hands down one of my favorite toasted barrel whiskey releases. Now, back in 2023, we saw the Cellar Aged releases. But if you remember, "The Heart" was 10 virgin toasted French oak staves. So now we're switching back to American oak, but still keeping the toasting. So I'm really excited to see what that does. You know, I'm a big fan of French oak in general,

so that's what kind of really sold "The Heart" release for me. It's like you're adding an extra element to those spices that you get from a French oak. Toasting American oak, I found a little less interesting, but interesting nonetheless. So let's go ahead and get the Keeper's Release open and give it a first impression review. So like I said, this one is coming in at 109.2 proof. Pretty typical Maker's Mark

cask strength profile. I've always really enjoyed their like 110 to 115 proof releases. I think higher proofs really stand out across the Maker's Mark lineup. In pricing, I paid about $65 for this. I've seen it for $75 at another store, but I managed to get it for $65. So I'm not sure the price point on this, but at least in Southern California, that's what I was able to get it for. Let's go ahead and give it a nose. All right. Well, right off the bat, it is definitely different

than a typical Maker's Mark flavor profile. I love Maker's Mark at high proof. I love Maker's 46, but what I don't typically get on Maker's Mark is a very strong oak note. And I think that's a thing with just wheated bourbons in general. To me, they are a little softer, a little less intense than some of the rye mash bill bourbons. So it's nice to see a bit of a oak spice on this, at least on the nose. Let's go ahead and give it a taste. I'm excited. Cheers. Okay. First taste,

it is a bit intense. It almost has a bit of harshness from the oak. Wasn't expecting that. That's not something I typically get from Maker's Mark. I think that it might just be so oak forward that it's kind of throwing off what I expected the palate to be. It is nice. It definitely doesn't drink high proof. I think the proof really, really works. I just feel like I was kind of overwhelmed

by the amount of oak that I was getting and not necessarily like a vanilla oak. Usually the flavors they look out for with the toasted barrel bourbon or rye are a sweeter vanilla caramelized oak kind of note. Didn't get that on first sip, but I'm going to give it another taste. Now that I've kind of acclimated to the palate, I do think that the oak is still the dominant flavor here. I'm really not getting anything that makes me think of Maker's Mark on the second sip.

Even it does mellow out a little bit at the end that kind of does go towards like a weeded bourbon, but there's really nothing that's screaming Maker's Mark about this. And I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing because previous releases in this wood finishing series, I've found distinctly Maker's Mark. They're like improvements on it or they're like different twists on it. But this one, I mean, at least on the second sip, it's not reminding me

of any Maker's Mark products I've ever had. Now, once I go in for the third sip, it's definitely mellowing out a bit. I'm seeing more of that Maker's backbone. I just think that the oak doesn't feel like it is complimenting the whiskey, at least on first impression. It almost feels like a separate element of it. It's like you get the beautiful Maker's Mark sweet, upfront, mild palate, but then you have a harsh, a little bit tannic note on the back end.

And when I say harsh, I don't mean that it's, you know, unenjoyable. It definitely is. But I think someone that's going to be turned off by really intense notes in a bourbon may not appreciate that. Fortunately, I am a wood lover. I love all the oak influences on a bourbon. So I can get past it. I can see that there's something interesting here. Definitely some interesting character. Do I think this is my favorite Maker's Mark wood finishing series?

Absolutely not. I've had quite a few other ones that have been significantly better, more balanced, more signature Maker's Mark. But again, this is a bit of an experimental line for Maker's Mark. So I don't necessarily fault them. I think the price point, like I said, $65 to $75 is a little high, but when you're going into this, you know, you're getting into something a bit experimental. And I think if you're willing to do that and just give it a try,

you're not going to be necessarily disappointed. I think "The Heart" release from 2024 was a superior product, but I'm glad that I picked this up. I'm excited to, you know, drink it down. Like I said, I just bought it today, so it's got some time, but we'll see. It might open up a bit throughout the year. I'm going to keep an eye on this bottle. I'll probably include it in an upcoming live stream on YouTube and we'll see really how it

compares to other wood finishing series releases. With that, I think that wraps up this week's

episode. I realized that I didn't give a shout out earlier to my Byte Club members, which is my membership program that supports this channel, this podcast, and makes all of this possible. You can find out more at bourbonbytes.com and as little as $2 a month, you can support the channel. And of course, higher tiers get access to some fun things like our movie night, tasting night, after party, all the fun stuff. If you have any questions,

shoot me a message. It's also available on patreon.com/bourbonbytes, but bourbonbytes.com actually supports the channel just a bit more because they take a little less of the commission for signups. So would really appreciate you guys joining there. But if you're not yet following the podcast on your favorite podcast platform, please do. It does help every week to see that

you guys are coming back and back and enjoying it as we go along. I've seen some great reviews on Apple podcasts, which I gave some shout outs to last week, but if you ever feel inclined to leave a comment or a suggestion, I welcome it so, so much. If you don't feel comfortable doing it publicly, you can email me [email protected] or shoot me a DM over on Instagram

@bourbonbytes. Reminder, I go live on YouTube on Thursday nights as well. So if you're listening to this on release day, tune into youtube.com/bourbonbytes and join me for the live stream over there. It's such great fun. And, uh, I hope to see you there, but I think that wraps it up for this week. Again, hope you guys are staying safe, being supportive of your community, sharing whiskey with your friends to just kind of bring a sense of comfort during these, uh, uncertain times. I would

say, um, I appreciate you guys being here for me and I'm here for you at all times. If you need anything, join our Discord server, shoot me a message. You know how to find me. Until then, this has been Bourbon Bytes, whiskey reviews with an 80's twist. Cheers, and I'll talk to you guys next episode.