Old Forester 117 Series Bottled in Bond a Distillery Release That We Wish Was a Bigger Bottle

This episode of Aussie Bourbon Lovers is all about the Old Forester 117 Series Bottled in Bond — a surprise last-minute pickup at the distillery in Louisville that turned out to be a showstopper.

We unpack:

• 🥃 What makes this 100-proof Bottled in Bond bourbon special

• 🛍️ The story of how we accidentally ended up buying it

• 🍰 Tasting notes that include buttery caramel, vanilla, and pecan pie

• 🎁 How merch shopping turned into a bourbon score

Tiny bottle, big flavour, and one of the best noses we’ve had in a while.

🟠 Keywords: Old Forester, 117 Series, Bottled in Bond, bourbon, 100 proof, dessert bourbon, limited release, distillery pickup, bourbon podcast, Aussie bourbon

 

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Old Forester 117 Series 02:00 Our Story of this Bottle 02:55 Tasting Experience and Flavour Profile 04:00 Being transported to the Old Fo tent at KBF 05:00 The Finish 06:02 Old Forester Distillery Memories 08:55 Understanding Bourbon and Limited Releases 09:30 The 'Neck Pour' 

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Incredible flavours, even better stories.

(00:05):
One pour, 10 minutes.
Aussie bourbon lovers, sharingbourbon with Australia.
I got a good one.Really good one?
Yes.Do you know what that sound is?
It's no echo, which means thebottle is almost full in this case.
It's very close to being full.
You wouldn't never get a job in my bar theway you're tinging away

(00:28):
at the top of the glasses.
You're going to chipNow, what are you doing?
I spilt some.What are we drinking?
Stop spilling it.
Well, what a good question.
I mean, I suppose this is thequestion you ask every night.
This is an old Forester,and it's the 117 series.
It's a really cute little bottle.
It's a tiny, tiny bottle.
It has its head for scale.

(00:49):
Sorry, this is only ifyou're watching on YouTube.
About the size of yourface, if you're not.
This is the Bottled in Bondrelease in the 117 series.
It It was released on July 2023, andit's Bottled in Bond, so it's 100 proof.
What can you tell me about this bottle, H?Because there's a...
Wait, let's do a little cheers.Oh, no, it's all right.

(01:10):
Okay.Cheers.
Old Forrester.Well, no.
Old Forrester, sorry.Of course.
I've been excited aboutthis bottle for a while.
He's just nosed it, andit's knocked him out.
Oh, wow.It's very pleasing on the nose.
Oh, that's so good.
Wow.Why is that so good on the nose?
It's like...Yum, that's really- Dessert heaven.

(01:32):
I've just walked into a bakery.
That is one of the better Old Forresternoses I've ever-
Why is it such a small bottle?Why is it such a small bottle?
Okay, all right.
Sorry, go and tell the story because I-Although this one we didn't intend to buy.
This is why I'm like,I was nervous it was going to be really
good because it's such a small bottle.
Buttery caramel vanilla.

(01:55):
It's like a delicious dessert thatyou know you shouldn't be eating.
Well, Tate's having his littledessert moment over there.
I'm going to continue my story.
Pecan pie.
We were at the Old Forrester Distillery inKentucky, and we had obviously a alcohol
limit coming back into Australia, so we'dalready bought a few
different bottles elsewhere.
We had Old Forrester back at home anyway.

(02:16):
Because can you get it here?Yeah, Forrester.
So you can get some more Forrester here.
So we hadn't bought any bottles because weknew we could get some back in Australia.
But I had one of their delicious...
They sell these delicious chocolates,which you've probably heard me talk
about for marshmallow chocolates.
I won't go into detail.
But also I was purchasingone of my favourite T-shirts.
It's like, Old Forrester never gets old.

(02:38):
I liked it because everyone alwaysteases me about how old I am.
I was purchasing just aT-shirt and the chocolates.
No bourbon Because of our alcohol limit.
When I went up to the counter, the ladypulled this out from behind the desk and
she's like, We got a few of these left.
It's only one per customer.Would you like one?
Answers, yes.Would you like one?

(02:58):
These are our limitedThey didn't have a...
She said there was a limited release,and they were selling them, and we
happened to be there, andit was little, so I figured that.
I think that's whatgoes me out of the line.
I was like, We can squeeze it in our bag.
So we haven't spent much time in Ila orthe other big distillers
Distillery regions.
But in Kentucky,it's a thing that if you get to the

(03:18):
distillery on the right day-Yeah, you just have to be there.
That they're releasing a thing.
And because we like to be in Kentucky inSeptember when they like
to do the nice things.
Well, they had releases beforethen, but they still had some left.
And I was just like,Oh, Forests are limited.
I couldn't say no.
So I've gone ahead and tasted thatwhile you were telling that story.
Yes.What's the taste, Dave?

(03:41):
It's a lovely, rich, bourbony goodness.
It's got a lovely complexityto it that reminded me…
I don't know if I'm makingthis stuff up, obviously.
I love when bourbon takes you places.
I was taken to…

(04:01):
This is far too specific,so you're going to have to…
This is not going to be…
This is going to be terrible.Tell us, Dave.
It took me into the tent, the Old Forestertent at Kentucky Burbon
Festival last year.
Is it called the President's Select?
Is that what that bottle's called?
The one that we're tasting all day.
You know how they have these bottles?

(04:22):
I think they did a birthdaybourbon at one point.
I did the President's Select.
I think I've got the name wrong.
This is very of that.
That's so ridiculous.
No one should believe that that's truebecause I'm not that good at this.
Close your eyes and take it.It takes you there.
No, but it makes sense.
It's an old forestry, andit's- It's really lovely.

(04:42):
So good.I'm so sad the bottle is so little.
Because it's also one that it's not like,Oh, I could have quite a few of those.
Sorry, I could have quite a few of those,but it's not gentle and lovely and the
one you want to open your night with.
It's got a lovely long finish.

(05:03):
Yeah, it's deep and rich.
And you could sit there just sippinga glass for a while because the flavours
keep changing almostas they stay in your mouth.
I agree with that.
I know you talk about your favouriteT-shirt and those Madesca, which
is the name of that chocolate.
What else do you have fondmemories of at Old Forrester?

(05:25):
I don't know whether it was one of thefirst ones where we got to see them Like,
chow the barrels and stuff, because theydo that at all different distilleries.
But I really likedseeing them do it there.
I think it must have been it because itwas one of the first ones we did
early on, the Old Forrester one?Maybe.
I just No, I don't think so.

(05:45):
It's the one where I pushed thebutton and the barrel was charged.
Was that early?
I was early on because I was veryexcited about seeing a barrel chart.
I can that was probably maybeit was one of our first.
And then you go to heaps of distillersand watch them to do it heaps.
But I just remember the Old Forrester,that charring and still like when I get
those flavours, it'sthere that I think of.

(06:08):
So Old Forrester is partof the Brown foremen group.
In fact, if you look on the top of that,it has- A little brown foremen sticker.
What has George Garvin-Brown's name on it?It says the word founder.
I actually don't know if that's...
Maybe I wonder if the 117 hassomething specifically to do with him.
But he's the guy who was mates withForrester, who did have

(06:28):
two R's in his name.And now it's only one hour.
Yeah, they dropped an hour after he died.I know.
But Brown Foreman is a verybig group of distilleries.
It also has in it Jack Danielsand Woodford, Woodford Reserve.
So that's all in the same group.
And there's others, though.
They're the big ones thatimmediately spring to mind.

(06:50):
But of the distilleries inKentucky that we like visiting, Old
Forrester has this really interestingplace in my heart because of
the Well, I love the juice.
I think they have really good bourbons.
Yeah, I love the dessertinessof their bourbon.
I also like, I don't know, there's thisold fashionedness to it,

(07:11):
vibe that's really cool.
Sometimes you want...
Even the labels in the bottles andstuff, it's just this very old-school...
I don't know.I've always loved it.
But they're also reallygood at staying relevant.
And I reckon this particular...
The way that they do these 117 series, I'mnot sure if they're still doing them or
not, but it's a distilleryon their release.

(07:34):
That thing is really interesting to me aswell, because they also do the birthday
bourbon, where you can go into that.I love.
I know.
I go every year, I go on the lotteryhoping for a birthday bourbon.
Because you don't win the bourbon,you win permission to buy it.
It's so cool.
So this scarcity thing theydo, they do it so well.
Yeah, but they can do it in that sometimespeople create for

(07:58):
scarcity's sake, whereas they producethis amazing liquid that tastes delicious.
Obviously, I think it's one of the thingsI love about bourbon is so much of it.
Yes, you can mass-produce different ones,obviously, but so many of them produce
just limited releases of different ones.
Whenyou find ones like Old Forrester, I

(08:21):
haven't ever had an OldForrester I don't like.
There's other bourbons where some of themI like, some of them I love, some
of them aren't my cup of tea.
Old Forrester, I've liked every single onebecause- I don't think I have loved every
single one, but I'veloved 90% of them already.
They always have thisdessertiness to them for me.
It's like a good finish to the night.
Yeah, and this one isn't any different.Can you do me a favour?

(08:42):
Can you nose that again?
You know how they say when it opens up,you get these different things?
I'm almost getting…I don't almost wear this as a perfume.
You still get that original, likethat lovely pecan, caramely thing.
But I don't know, it's somethingextra fragrant about this.

(09:05):
There's a lot of vanilla there.
I agree that.
A lot of vanilla.
Really fluffy cupcake, buttery,fluffy vanilla cupcake on the nose.
That's good.
But I reckon this is the result as well ofa really good bourbon that is just
opening up as well, which is really great.
And it's all part of the funof a nice bourbon, right?

(09:28):
So do you know about theThe idea of a neck pour?
No.I've heard of it, but fell as in.
The idea of a neck pour is that when youfirst open a whiskey, the first thing that
comes out of the bottle is potentiallygoing to be different to
what the rest of it is.
Because it hasn't had asmuch chance to get air on it.
So you're saying that because we've openeda brand new bottle

(09:50):
and that we've had the first pour, thatit's not- Some people say
the neck pour is rubbish.It's almost like a joke.
You could almost tip it out, theneck pour, because it's so bad.
You're saying it's going to get better?
Are you promising me this, Dave?
I'm not saying any of these things.
I'm just reiterating whatsomeone else has said.
But when you first open a whiskey and thenyou pour it in a glass, it hasn't had much

(10:11):
chance to have air on it.
Anyway, I think that, yes, this mightpotentially even get even better
over the next few minutes.That excites me.
We didn't let it open up.No.
Once we brought it in, we really pulled itin and just went for it, which is good on
us because that's good enthusiasm from us.But that's fine, too.
If we let it sit there for 10 minutes,this episode would have been trash.
But you know.Very dull and boring.

(10:32):
Isn't that exciting, though?
The first bit,even though it might get better, that
we'll never have this exact flavour againbecause that's the neck pour.
Oh, well, that's interestingyou put it like that.
Yeah, sure.That is a bit- It will get better.
We might not get this exact.
Oh, it's so vanilla-y.It's so vanilla.
It's so vanilla.
All right, well, we'llsettle in and enjoy this.
You see if you can find yourself a niceexpression of Vult Forest, but you

(10:55):
probably want to find this one.Sorry.
Sorry.
Definitely can't getthis one in Australia.
Cheers.
Listening.
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