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Templeton Rye is just Bulleit Rye watered down to 40 proof.

This sounds like a good idea then. Have you had any luck freezing and reheating the meat? When I fire up my smoker I tend to do a lot of different things at once and freeze most of it. In the time it takes to make a pork shoulder on the bottom rack; I could probably do ribs, canadian bacon, and the smoke meat on the top.

Bulleit Rye is a actually a fairly good value if you like the LDI 95% rye. It's usually the cheapest and has one of the highest proofs of all the people who bottle that same whiskey.

Bulleit's Bourbon on the other hand is usually not a good deal. They're just bottling one of the mashes from Four Roses (the 35% rye whiskey). This is a good whiskey, but it suffers from not being blended between the different mashbills. You're much better off buying any of the Four Roses products.

Redemption Rye is just another of the many Rye Whiskeys that are produced by the LDI facility in Lawrenceburg Indiana. If you've had Templeton Rye, Bulleit Rye, or Willet Rye; you're basically drinking the same juice.

There are some slight differences on the proof they bottle at. And no one is really sure where and how they are aged. Most likely the bottlers are buying barrels that were pre-aged, but some may be doing the aging themselves now that they've been up and running for a while.

It just upsets me that a lot of small whiskey brands are billing themselves as small and artisanal when in fact they are just buying distillate from a huge factory. Most of the new rye producers are either buying their rye from LDI or as bulk distillate from Canada. Even a lot of the small "artisinal" bourbon producers are buying one of the bourbon recipes from LDI.

I don't know much about High West, except that none of their own distilled stuff is available yet (or is barely available). The 95% rye mashbill is a dead give away that it is LDI juice (Every rye coming out of LDI is 95% rye). My guess is they found a source of old 53% rye either from Canada or Heaven Hill (they don't say on their website) to blend it with. High West is better than most though, they actually cop to the fact that they get their 95% from LDI.

It may sound like I have some sort of issue with LDI. I don't. I've had good whiskey that was produced there. What I have a problem with is not being honest about the product. If you go to the Redemption Rye or Templeton Rye websites, you will find no mention of where the stuff is coming from. They actually even work to obfuscate the production. They have to do this because they are charging more for their product. Templeton is charging $10-$15 more per bottle than Bulleit. They are the same basic product except the Templeton is watered down to a lower proof. At least Redemption is not jacking the price and lowering the proof.

I'm very much aware of how hard it is to compete with the big distillers with aged spirits. Tuthilltown is one of the best, and I still prefer much cheaper whiskeys from the big distillers at much less cost. And don't get me started on what you can buy from Buffalo Trace if you're willing to spend the same amount as a bottle of Tuthilltown. The big distillers have a built in advantage that isn't going away. And they were quick to produce lots of small production and new and interesting brands to steal a lot of the little guys thunder. I do think people will pay more for a local and truly artisinal spirit, even if it isn't quite as good. However, deceiving your customers is not a way to make me want to buy your product.

I haven't found an small distiller aged spirit that compares very favorably to the big guys that cost half the price. The unaged spirits are often better, but aging is just too expensive for them to do as good a job.

brisket

Lexington BBQ

Piedmont BBQ.

North Carolina whole hog barbecue.

My Hiromoto Tenmi-Jyuraku Aogami Super Series 240mm Gyuto

on pizza.

My Hiromoto Tenmi-Jyuraku Aogami Super Series 240mm Gyuto

I think it's best on pizza. But the bones make good stock. And the ends ground up into XO sauce is divine.