March 13, 2025 • 10 mins
In this episode of Aussie Bourbon Lovers, we crack into the elusive and delicious Elijah Craig Toasted Barrel – a re-barreled, flash-charred masterpiece that’s harder to find in Australia than a good cork pop.
We talk about:
-
🔥 The difference between toasting and charring a barrel
-
🍫 Flavour notes of marshmallow, chocolate, and campfire goodness
-
🪵 Why rebarreling into toasted barrels gives a layered flavour profile
-
🥃 How this stacks up against classic Elijah Craig and Michter’s Toasted
-
🌏 And why this bottle is so hard to get outside the U.S.
If regular Elijah Craig is your gateway, the Toasted Barrel is your dessert.
🟠 Keywords: Elijah Craig, Toasted Barrel, Heaven Hill, rebarreled bourbon, toasted vs charred, dessert bourbon, Aussie bourbon lovers, campfire bourbon
Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Elijah Craig Toasted Barrel 02:50 The Art of Toasting and Charring Barrels 03:30 The Launch of this expression at KBF 2023 04:30 The Flavours and finish of this pour 05:00 Elijah Craig: The Father of Bourbon? 06:00 The Control the Barrel has over the flavour 08:46 Personal Experiences and RecommendationsMark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Incredible flavours, even better stories.
(00:05):
One Pour, 10 Minuts.
Aussie bourbon lovers, sharingbourbon with Australia.
Oh, good pop there.Finally, I get a good pop.
What do we have in H?
We are having an ElijahCraig Toasted Barrel.
That's right.
Do you know why we're having anElijah Craig Toasted Barrel H?
(00:25):
Because that's one you choseto have off the shelf tonight.
Really picking behind the curtain here.This is a good one.
Many reasons, David.
It's one of our favourites.
Elijah Craig is one of our favourites,and we love Toasted Barrel finishes.
Cheers.
So when we hadDan and Andrew on from Mictis, they told
(00:46):
the story of when Michters first releasedtheir toasted finish, and it
was the first time I'd done it.It was pretty innovative.
So this has happened,obviously, after that.
In fact, I reckon We Toasttasted some of the first of it.
And this is part of the story of whyI had to get my hands on this bottle.
Because it's a toasted barrel harderto come by than just their regular.
(01:07):
Oh, yeah.
I don't even know if you gettoasted barrel in Australia.
Because the Elijah Craig just theirbourbon is very easy to
come by in Australia.Super easy.
In fact, it's one of the bottlesyou can really easily get.
I was thinking about it the other day thatmaybe it might be one of the ones
that I would say you should get.
If you're trying to get intobourbon, you like the big flavours.
It's super mature.
(01:28):
Lots of complex flavours,super mature for a, call it entry level.
It's their entry point.
It's really good.
But this is-It's a great easy to get one.
But this one is the toast bar, which meansthey've not only toasted it at the start
of the process, it's the end as well.Like rebarrel?
Yeah, rebarrel into a toasted barrel.
(01:50):
They say they toast it and dowhat they call a flash char.
It's like a quick char.
Yes, super quick.So just a little bit.
They flame it enough so thatthe barrel chars just a little bit.
Yeah, but that toasting, thatgets a lot of the caramely flavours
by putting it in toastrather than just charring it.
Because charring it, because charringit like it goes all chocolate and dark.
(02:12):
But when they toast it, it's like...Yeah.
When people ask me about this, I think thebest way to explain it is to think
about what you do when you make toast.
If you put the barrel in atoaster, you're going to get this.
You're going to slowly heatit up with this ambient heat.
Yeah, light brown.
That a thing.
But you're notUnless you did that for way too long, you
wouldn't get the blacknessthat you get from a char.
(02:35):
But then a char is exposed to fire,like putting it on like a log on fire.
I was going to say stick a marshmallowin the fire, that it lights up.
It gets a black outside.
Anyway, so-Oh, it's definitely smoking.
Speaking marshmallows, thatchocolatey-Yeah, I'm sitting by the camp.
Smaury goodness that you're supposedto get on a toast and finish.
(02:56):
Can you definitely get the toastsmell and the chocolate smell?
It does.It's like I'm about to drink a small.
How's the taste?Can I hear the smell?
It's so good.I remember this experience.
It's that lovely sweetness.
It's super desserty.
It's got that dessertiness.Oh, my goodness.
You get from…
It's not the same as Woodford Double O,but it's like a really yummy dessertiness.
(03:21):
Burberry is a sweet spirit anyway.
Yeah, but if you're going for somethingdelicious, sometimes they can be quite
smoky and Whereas this is like,yeah, really desserty and chocolatey.
So two Kentucky Burbon festivals ago, theylaunched this and they were pouring it.
That was our first one?Yeah.
And this is the last we've got, Dave.I know.
(03:42):
We'll get some more andwe're back in the US.
But we went to...
There was always that huge queuefor the Heaven Hill stuff.
And I went to go and taste it.I was like, Oh, my goodness.
What's this?I want a bottle of that.
And they're like, No, thatwas what the queues were.
You can't get it.
You tasted it after Sowhere did you get this for?
I mean, that cues for other stuff, too.
So I went back later.
(04:03):
I found a reason to have a business trip.
This is when you went back again?
I was like, We didn't bringit back from that festival.
We didn't.No.
But I went hunting for itto try to track it down.
In fact, I think I was looking for thiswhen I found the C923, which is a funny-
That's a great example of howwe just weren't in the know.
We were enjoying ourselves, torrying allthe different bourbons and watching people
(04:24):
queue up for clearly delicious stuff.
But I reckon the difference on this, thefinish gives it such a different
flavour to lots of other bourbons.
But I remember thinking, wow, that'sreally different in a
really wonderful way.
You are a fan of thedifferent bourbon, Dave.
Well, especially after a bigday of drinking bourbons.
It really did stand out.Well, the different ones stand out.
In a positive way, yeah.
(04:46):
But I like that.That's a good dessert.
Sit by the fire.
It would go really nicewith some dark chocolate.
Oh, yeah.
I mean, it's quitedesserty by itself anyway.
But yeah.
What can you tell meabout Elijah Craig, Edge?
Well, Well, he is known as the Father ofbourbon, though some people say that's a
(05:08):
claim to be the Father of Bourbon.
But I don't know.You know more about that than me.
Well, for Sure.
I mean, there's authors around.
It says on the bottle, Father of Bourbon.
It's a marketing thing, isn't it?
You put whatever you wanton a bottle, theoretically.
But it's the story thathe was one of the first.
Is he the first to have charred a barrel?
(05:30):
Is that what they supposedly say?
Yeah, that's what they imply.
Maybe they're a bit like us.
They don't double check all their facts.
Do you know one of the things that Ireally love about what happens here?
So they say in their marketing video, Whenthey talk about this, they say, This is a
real homage to Elijah Craig because we'retaking the barrel thing a bit further.
(05:50):
And he was the first to-Char the barrel.
Char the barrel, dothings with the barrel.
And now we're going to do it,even again, to do a second finish.
Of course, they're not the first to do it.
They're really late to the party interms of big distilleries doing this.
But this is a really wonderfulexample of just how much control
distilleries have over theflavours you can get from a barrel.
(06:14):
Oh, yeah.
Because, firstly, all thedifferent ways they char it.
But then by putting it back in anotherbarrel, how they've toasted it, how
they've charred that,what they do to that second process,
it just completely Itchanges all the flavours.
I don't know enough.
We should talk to someone who's like, itworks in Coopering, but the heat that you
(06:38):
take the barrel to in the toasting processand the length you have it at, well,
literally, there'salmost like a guidebook, I think, to if
you take it to a particular temperature,you're going to get vanilla or cinnamon.
It's an incredible science as to whatflavour you want to get out of the barrel,
as to what level you toast it to, or levelyou chare it to, and
(06:58):
especially when they're rebarrellingit and putting it in a
toasted barrel at the end.
You're going to completelychange your flavour again.
I think I want to learn a bit moreabout what a flash char means.
Is that chal one or isit like something else?
Is it something that'seven lighter than chal one?
It sounds like the quickest chal possible,but then it's got to be a level of heat.
Yeah, well-Maybe when we go back, Dave, we need to go
(07:20):
to a Cooper Ridge wherethey make the barrels.
I don't think we should.
Not just learn about thebourbon, learn about the barrels.
You can probably get a Kelvin, too.
We should definitely go and do that.All right.
Can we put it on the list for September?
To expand our knowledgeof not just bourbon.
We can-Let's get them on the podcast.
Let's have a chat with them and getthem on the podcast and they can...
Or is that going to get too nerdy?
(07:41):
Is there such a thing?It's too nerdy?
No.
I'm glad you agree with me on that.
It's bourbon and bourbon barrels, andit's our special interest, Dave.
It's our special interest.
It's our thing as a marriedcouple that we have together.
Special interest.
Can Imake a wonderful admission to you that a
(08:04):
larger Craig small batch, the normalbottle you get on the shelf in Australia,
the one that you can normally get, looksalmost identical to this bottle, but
it doesn't have the word toaster.Just have to say to toast it a barrel.
It's a nice little sticker at the bottom.
When you buy that in Melbourne,I had walked past that a whole lot.
In fact, I- The toaster one?
No, not toaster, the small batch.
Because it's a nice bottle.
(08:25):
I think I had it once anddidn't think that much of it.
Then when we started doing podcast,I started a bit more reading about
the bottles we were talking about.
When we did that first podcast, I did alittle bit of reading about what people
said about it and really came toappreciate just how good that bottle…
Because it's not very expensive.I think it's 75, 80 bucks or something.
(08:46):
In the scheme of bourbon.
Yeah.
I find the Elijah Craig is veryeasy drinking, is how I put it.
It's easy drinking, but it's verycomplex, and there's a really good amount
of stuff going on in thereflavor-wise compared to...
I don't even know what I would compare itto, but at that same price point,
(09:09):
it feels like an old bourbon.
I think they're, I'm going to getit wrong, seven or eight years old.
And then around that price point inAustralia, you won't get anything like
that, I don't think, untilyou get up to an equal rare.
Which, again, is ridiculouslycost-effective for a really reasonable
value for a 10-year-old bourbon.
Anyway, sorry, we digress into value.
So I'm I became a bigger fan ofElijah Craig because of the podcast.
(09:33):
So this is what we've been trying to doright with the podcast
is learn more ourselves.
Yeah, learn more, share with others.Share some stories.
See if they know any good ones.
Or we can try some ones that we recommend.
We're sorry that the toaster barrel ishard to get in Australia, but we would
definitely try and get yourself- Butdefinitely try and Lodger Craig,
because they're very easy to get.
Hands on a small batch for sure.
Tell us what you think.Yeah.
(09:55):
And then when you're in the Statesor if you can get your hands.
Actually, maybe the guys at Goodwaterwould have toaster Toaster Barrel.
They probably would.We should check it out.
They got good stuff there.They got great stuff there.
We should do some podcast there, too.
We should stop doing our podcastplanning in the middle of the podcast.
People might send in their ideas, Steph.
Oh, you're welcome to send in your ideas.
(10:16):
But here's to a delicious, yetanother desserty, yummy pour.
Yeah.
Get yourself some chocolate and have aToaster Barrel while it's your creative.
Oh, yeah.I'm thoroughly enjoying this.
Cheers.
Listening.
Make sure you're connected with us onTikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, and stay
connected with us by clicking subscribeon your favourite podcast app.
Incredible flavours, even better stories.
(00:05):
One Pour, 10 Minuts.
Aussie bourbon lovers, sharingbourbon with Australia.
Oh, good pop there.Finally, I get a good pop.
What do we have in H?
We are having an ElijahCraig Toasted Barrel.
That's right.
Do you know why we're having anElijah Craig Toasted Barrel H?
(00:25):
Because that's one you choseto have off the shelf tonight.
Really picking behind the curtain here.This is a good one.
Many reasons, David.
It's one of our favourites.
Elijah Craig is one of our favourites,and we love Toasted Barrel finishes.
Cheers.
So when we hadDan and Andrew on from Mictis, they told
(00:46):
the story of when Michters first releasedtheir toasted finish, and it
was the first time I'd done it.It was pretty innovative.
So this has happened,obviously, after that.
In fact, I reckon We Toasttasted some of the first of it.
And this is part of the story of whyI had to get my hands on this bottle.
Because it's a toasted barrel harderto come by than just their regular.
(01:07):
Oh, yeah.
I don't even know if you gettoasted barrel in Australia.
Because the Elijah Craig just theirbourbon is very easy to
come by in Australia.Super easy.
In fact, it's one of the bottlesyou can really easily get.
I was thinking about it the other day thatmaybe it might be one of the ones
that I would say you should get.
If you're trying to get intobourbon, you like the big flavours.
It's super mature.
(01:28):
Lots of complex flavours,super mature for a, call it entry level.
It's their entry point.
It's really good.
But this is-It's a great easy to get one.
But this one is the toast bar, which meansthey've not only toasted it at the start
of the process, it's the end as well.Like rebarrel?
Yeah, rebarrel into a toasted barrel.
(01:50):
They say they toast it and dowhat they call a flash char.
It's like a quick char.
Yes, super quick.So just a little bit.
They flame it enough so thatthe barrel chars just a little bit.
Yeah, but that toasting, thatgets a lot of the caramely flavours
by putting it in toastrather than just charring it.
Because charring it, because charringit like it goes all chocolate and dark.
(02:12):
But when they toast it, it's like...Yeah.
When people ask me about this, I think thebest way to explain it is to think
about what you do when you make toast.
If you put the barrel in atoaster, you're going to get this.
You're going to slowly heatit up with this ambient heat.
Yeah, light brown.
That a thing.
But you're notUnless you did that for way too long, you
wouldn't get the blacknessthat you get from a char.
(02:35):
But then a char is exposed to fire,like putting it on like a log on fire.
I was going to say stick a marshmallowin the fire, that it lights up.
It gets a black outside.
Anyway, so-Oh, it's definitely smoking.
Speaking marshmallows, thatchocolatey-Yeah, I'm sitting by the camp.
Smaury goodness that you're supposedto get on a toast and finish.
(02:56):
Can you definitely get the toastsmell and the chocolate smell?
It does.It's like I'm about to drink a small.
How's the taste?Can I hear the smell?
It's so good.I remember this experience.
It's that lovely sweetness.
It's super desserty.
It's got that dessertiness.Oh, my goodness.
You get from…
It's not the same as Woodford Double O,but it's like a really yummy dessertiness.
(03:21):
Burberry is a sweet spirit anyway.
Yeah, but if you're going for somethingdelicious, sometimes they can be quite
smoky and Whereas this is like,yeah, really desserty and chocolatey.
So two Kentucky Burbon festivals ago, theylaunched this and they were pouring it.
That was our first one?Yeah.
And this is the last we've got, Dave.I know.
(03:42):
We'll get some more andwe're back in the US.
But we went to...
There was always that huge queuefor the Heaven Hill stuff.
And I went to go and taste it.I was like, Oh, my goodness.
What's this?I want a bottle of that.
And they're like, No, thatwas what the queues were.
You can't get it.
You tasted it after Sowhere did you get this for?
I mean, that cues for other stuff, too.
So I went back later.
(04:03):
I found a reason to have a business trip.
This is when you went back again?
I was like, We didn't bringit back from that festival.
We didn't.No.
But I went hunting for itto try to track it down.
In fact, I think I was looking for thiswhen I found the C923, which is a funny-
That's a great example of howwe just weren't in the know.
We were enjoying ourselves, torrying allthe different bourbons and watching people
(04:24):
queue up for clearly delicious stuff.
But I reckon the difference on this, thefinish gives it such a different
flavour to lots of other bourbons.
But I remember thinking, wow, that'sreally different in a
really wonderful way.
You are a fan of thedifferent bourbon, Dave.
Well, especially after a bigday of drinking bourbons.
It really did stand out.Well, the different ones stand out.
In a positive way, yeah.
(04:46):
But I like that.That's a good dessert.
Sit by the fire.
It would go really nicewith some dark chocolate.
Oh, yeah.
I mean, it's quitedesserty by itself anyway.
But yeah.
What can you tell meabout Elijah Craig, Edge?
Well, Well, he is known as the Father ofbourbon, though some people say that's a
(05:08):
claim to be the Father of Bourbon.
But I don't know.You know more about that than me.
Well, for Sure.
I mean, there's authors around.
It says on the bottle, Father of Bourbon.
It's a marketing thing, isn't it?
You put whatever you wanton a bottle, theoretically.
But it's the story thathe was one of the first.
Is he the first to have charred a barrel?
(05:30):
Is that what they supposedly say?
Yeah, that's what they imply.
Maybe they're a bit like us.
They don't double check all their facts.
Do you know one of the things that Ireally love about what happens here?
So they say in their marketing video, Whenthey talk about this, they say, This is a
real homage to Elijah Craig because we'retaking the barrel thing a bit further.
(05:50):
And he was the first to-Char the barrel.
Char the barrel, dothings with the barrel.
And now we're going to do it,even again, to do a second finish.
Of course, they're not the first to do it.
They're really late to the party interms of big distilleries doing this.
But this is a really wonderfulexample of just how much control
distilleries have over theflavours you can get from a barrel.
(06:14):
Oh, yeah.
Because, firstly, all thedifferent ways they char it.
But then by putting it back in anotherbarrel, how they've toasted it, how
they've charred that,what they do to that second process,
it just completely Itchanges all the flavours.
I don't know enough.
We should talk to someone who's like, itworks in Coopering, but the heat that you
(06:38):
take the barrel to in the toasting processand the length you have it at, well,
literally, there'salmost like a guidebook, I think, to if
you take it to a particular temperature,you're going to get vanilla or cinnamon.
It's an incredible science as to whatflavour you want to get out of the barrel,
as to what level you toast it to, or levelyou chare it to, and
(06:58):
especially when they're rebarrellingit and putting it in a
toasted barrel at the end.
You're going to completelychange your flavour again.
I think I want to learn a bit moreabout what a flash char means.
Is that chal one or isit like something else?
Is it something that'seven lighter than chal one?
It sounds like the quickest chal possible,but then it's got to be a level of heat.
Yeah, well-Maybe when we go back, Dave, we need to go
(07:20):
to a Cooper Ridge wherethey make the barrels.
I don't think we should.
Not just learn about thebourbon, learn about the barrels.
You can probably get a Kelvin, too.
We should definitely go and do that.All right.
Can we put it on the list for September?
To expand our knowledgeof not just bourbon.
We can-Let's get them on the podcast.
Let's have a chat with them and getthem on the podcast and they can...
Or is that going to get too nerdy?
(07:41):
Is there such a thing?It's too nerdy?
No.
I'm glad you agree with me on that.
It's bourbon and bourbon barrels, andit's our special interest, Dave.
It's our special interest.
It's our thing as a marriedcouple that we have together.
Special interest.
Can Imake a wonderful admission to you that a
(08:04):
larger Craig small batch, the normalbottle you get on the shelf in Australia,
the one that you can normally get, looksalmost identical to this bottle, but
it doesn't have the word toaster.Just have to say to toast it a barrel.
It's a nice little sticker at the bottom.
When you buy that in Melbourne,I had walked past that a whole lot.
In fact, I- The toaster one?
No, not toaster, the small batch.
Because it's a nice bottle.
(08:25):
I think I had it once anddidn't think that much of it.
Then when we started doing podcast,I started a bit more reading about
the bottles we were talking about.
When we did that first podcast, I did alittle bit of reading about what people
said about it and really came toappreciate just how good that bottle…
Because it's not very expensive.I think it's 75, 80 bucks or something.
(08:46):
In the scheme of bourbon.
Yeah.
I find the Elijah Craig is veryeasy drinking, is how I put it.
It's easy drinking, but it's verycomplex, and there's a really good amount
of stuff going on in thereflavor-wise compared to...
I don't even know what I would compare itto, but at that same price point,
(09:09):
it feels like an old bourbon.
I think they're, I'm going to getit wrong, seven or eight years old.
And then around that price point inAustralia, you won't get anything like
that, I don't think, untilyou get up to an equal rare.
Which, again, is ridiculouslycost-effective for a really reasonable
value for a 10-year-old bourbon.
Anyway, sorry, we digress into value.
So I'm I became a bigger fan ofElijah Craig because of the podcast.
(09:33):
So this is what we've been trying to doright with the podcast
is learn more ourselves.
Yeah, learn more, share with others.Share some stories.
See if they know any good ones.
Or we can try some ones that we recommend.
We're sorry that the toaster barrel ishard to get in Australia, but we would
definitely try and get yourself- Butdefinitely try and Lodger Craig,
because they're very easy to get.
Hands on a small batch for sure.
Tell us what you think.Yeah.
(09:55):
And then when you're in the Statesor if you can get your hands.
Actually, maybe the guys at Goodwaterwould have toaster Toaster Barrel.
They probably would.We should check it out.
They got good stuff there.They got great stuff there.
We should do some podcast there, too.
We should stop doing our podcastplanning in the middle of the podcast.
People might send in their ideas, Steph.
Oh, you're welcome to send in your ideas.
(10:16):
But here's to a delicious, yetanother desserty, yummy pour.
Yeah.
Get yourself some chocolate and have aToaster Barrel while it's your creative.
Oh, yeah.I'm thoroughly enjoying this.
Cheers.
Listening.
Make sure you're connected with us onTikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, and stay
connected with us by clicking subscribeon your favourite podcast app.
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