Ironroot Brandy, Cigar Blend, & Andromeda (Coffee Infused) Bourbons!

You can skip ahead, but you’ll miss a lot of great information along the way!
Shortcuts/Timecodes:
0:00 – Intro
4:30 – Brandy Nosing
5:10 – Brandy Tasting
6:05 – Cigar Blend Nosing
6:50 – Cigar Blend Tasting
8:27 – Apotheosis Nosing
9:37 – Apotheosis Tasting
12:09 – Andromeda Nosing
13:37 – Andromeda Tasting

Today I’m very excited to review some new releases from the Ironroot distillery. In full disclosure, I do work at the distillery, but I mostly work on the Saints Alley finishing/blending side of things – found at your local Total Wine. 😉 Ironroot Republic Distillery in in Denison, TX. is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year and was the creation of the Likarish brothers (Jonathan and Robert – alongside their parents Marcia and John). We’re a grain-to-glass Texas distillery with 95% of their heirloom and non-GMO corns are sourced from within 60 miles of the distillery! The name Ironroot pays tribute to viticulturist and Denison native T.V. Munson’s hardy “iron” roots that helped save the French wine industry from total destruction by phylloxera. Munson’s efforts resulted in Denison and Cognac ultimately becoming sister cities. The distillery opened in 2014, and the Likarish brothers found inspiration in adapting the French distilling techniques, especially the process of elévage, to tame the intense climate of Texas. The Likarishes mash, ferment, distill, barrel-age and bottle on site in Denison. This year we’ve been on a roll with Marcia being named “Distillery Manager of the Year” at the Icons of Whiskies, Hubris winning “World’s Best Corn Whiskey” for the 4th time, & Saints Alley Nobleman winning “Best American Rye” at the 2024 World Whiskies Awards!

Each of these 2024 releases I’m reviewing were blended by Jonathan Likarish. That said, he always welcomes input on his blends from his brother Robert, mother Marcia, father John Likarish, and the Ironroot family of employees. That’s one of the things I truly value at Ironroot/Saints Alley, we’re all considered family, and we know we can’t do it without everyone’s hard work. So, here’s a big THANK YOU to our production, logistics, sales team, and volunteers for helping us create all our amazing releases!

The Ironroot “Sleight of Hand” Brandy (Batch 3) was created by rebarreling our original Sister Cities Blend of Texas brandy and Cognac into 40-year-old Cognac casks for extra aging. After slowly bringing it to bottling strength over the course of six months, Jonathan refined the final blend with an additional touch of 20-year-old Armagnac. The stunning end result has exceptional depth, complexity, and balance. It’s bottled at 98.6 proof and sells for $56 at the Specs stores here in Texas.

The Ironroot Harbinger 115 Cigar Blend is amazing as it’s the FIRST “Cigar Blend” Bourbon that doesn’t contain any finished bourbons (no Armagnac, Cognac, Port, etc… casks). It’s here to celebrate our 10th Anniversary by combining a stogie lover’s two favorite things: whiskey and cigars. It’s the first of our special 10th Anniversary releases and is designed to pair with your fave puff piece. It contains a blend of 13 curated straight bourbon barrels with a touch of something very special to our hearts: a small amount of two barrels — Danica (#1) and Grainger (#104) — each named for one of Jonathan’s kids. Both the whiskey and little humans grew up under Jonathan’s watchful eye. To no one’s surprise, he did a fabulous job raising all four. It’ll be available in very limited quantities at retail stores here in Texas beginning in late April. Retail pricing is $80 and it was bottled at 115 proof.

Ironroot Apotheosis VI (2024) – This year’s Apotheosis is a “Triple Sherry” finished bourbon! It’s a combination of Ironroot’s grain-to-glass Texas straight bourbons that were finished in either Oloroso, PX or Amontillado sherry casks. Jonathan did a great job wrangling these flavors together without losing the balance. Like all our finished whiskies, we want you to know you’re drinking whiskey first and foremost. You’ll get the complimenting notes of the finishing cask/s, but it won’t be so heavily finished that you might as well drink (in this case) those sherries. It’s bottled at 112.2 proof and retails for $80.

Ironroot Andromeda – Bourbon infused with coffee was the result of five years of collectively tweaking, tasting, and blending our hearts out. Coming in at 109 proof, the whiskey and coffee intertwine nicely, with the coffee enriching the whiskey’s natural flavors. We worked with our friends at Lelo’s Coffee, who selected their very own Ethiopian dark-roast, a nod to the mythological Andromeda’s royal Ethiopian heritage.

Thank You Patrons! You can find all of these (except the Cigar Blend that’s sold out) on our website. If purchased there, you get 6 months to pick them up yourself, or if you know of anyone going by there, they can grab them for you and mule it back themselves. www.ironrootrepublic.com

hello again welcome back everyone liquor
Hound here with you and thank you for
joining me once again for another Spirit
review video today we’re going to be
taking a look at four new releases out
of the again iron root Republic
Distillery that I happen to work at uh
but again I work on the Saints alley
side of things mostly so I’m got my
hands full busy working with those
barrels but Jonathan and his team
production team have been working
tirelessly to release these over the uh
last few months and starting with the
slide of hand Brandy we’re going to take
a look at this one uh they’ve done a
couple of incarnations of this because
they started with a 8-year-old shin and
Blanc Brandy that iron rot distilled
eight years ago that’s what the base for
this and then they went into and added a
little bit of a petite Champagne Cognac
that they were able to source so that
was batch one and two of that batch one
was actually cast strength like 125 plus
proof and then the batch two was the I
think 98.6 proof version of that and
here we are at batch three now batch 3
takes all those components of those
brandies uh put them in 40-year-old coac
cast to kind of get merry in those cks
and then he added a little bit of a
20-year-old armanac to this one so very
very mature developed tasting Brandy at
98.6 proof retail pricing is about $55
can be found at specs throughout Texas
all right again if you see these online
you really like one of these you can
order them typically through the their
website and they’ll hold them for like 6
months for you to either you come get
them or you can have anybody that you
know that’s passing through pick them up
for you okay all right after we’re done
tasting that one we’re going to go
straight into the new special edition
Harbinger which is a cigar blend now
typically when you look at a cigar blend
bourbon they’re going to be finished
right they’re going to go into armanac
cast or coac cast or Port cast so
Jonathan’s trying to hear and he did a
unfinished cigar blend that’s right
these are just a combination of Straight
Bourbon whiskies it’s grain of glass
again Texas bourbon 95% of our grains
are grown within 60 miles of The
Distillery and he took 13 barrels two of
which were some of the oldest barrels
we’ve still been maturing up one is
Barrel number one named for his daughter
Danica and the other one is Barrel
number 104 which was named for his son
Granger and they are now Danica’s Barrel
is 10 years old this year so he took a
little bit of that Barrel that’s still
again we very careful with our
maturations and where we put cast in the
Rick house so we constantly making sure
they stay nice cool centered spots so
they there’s still some bourbon left in
these guys it’s pretty amazing but it is
dark and dense and it just is in this
blend all right it is bottled at 115
proof just like the standard harbage or
115 but again this is meant to go with a
cigar and but to tell you the truth you
don’t have to smoke cigars to enjoy this
this is Fant fantastic on its own price
point on this one I want to say it’s
like
$85 I’ll put it all in the description
all the details and all the pricing but
I think it’s 85 uh then we have the new
apotheosis this is apotheosis 6 and this
one is basically a triple Sherry uh did
again iron root bourbon that was aged in
ol Roo PX Pedro himz Sherry and a
montato and it’s bottled at 11 12.2
proof so a little lower but we’re going
into the fin fines so I did it after the
cigar blend and last but not least
Andromeda Andromeda is a 375 release
that was Distillery I’ll call it
Distillery
only uh but I think it’s sold out online
but you can still get these at The
Distillery so again if you have anybody
passing through they’re there $35 it is
infused bourbon with lilo’s coffee and
lilo’s coffee is in mckenny Texas and
basically he worked with Jonathan for I
want to say it was like a 4-year project
where they were constantly have the idea
and then they were like working trying
different methods of how to infuse it
right without it going too bitter or too
coffee forward they were like I said it
was a long project but I think they
finally nailed it so it released this
year and we’re going to be reviewing
that at the end all right now I will
preface it by saying I’m not a huge
coffee person I’m one of those that
maybe drinks it every now and then after
a nice dinner but it’s not my morning
routine so keep that in mind when I’m
reviewing that one all right starting
with slight of hand Brandy 98.6 oh my
goodness the second you put it to your
nose really nice Brandy and it I’m the
first thing that jumped at me was the
the cognac element to it so
it’s it’s just a lot of fruit it’s a lot
of
apricot
pear a little bit of like a brandy
cherry
but it’s very nice and and floral Fruity
Fruity and floral really nicely balanced
there let’s go ahead and taste
it $55 that beats a lot of $100 bottles
out there right now whether you’re
talking just cognac just
armc oh and then the Finish just takes
off
rolling and the crazy thing is we’re
doing a lot of cocktails with it right
now because again a lot of old cocktails
used to use cognac before felox kind of
wiped them out and then people started
switching to you know trying to do the
recipes with Bourbons or rice and stuff
but long time this was a lot of
cocktails so now we’re doing this mixed
with Promethean and and our old Fashions
so that’s a good thing to probably try
out and if you can get hold of this one
at
$55 it’s medium high viscosity it’s very
very beautiful all right on to the cigar
blend okay 115 proof on the
nose doesn’t smell 115 at all it smells
brown sugar heavy
clove Brandy cherries
leather little whisp of
tobacco lots of chocolate
little Whisper of the kettle corn
right who doesn’t love
that little roasted nuts and again the
the really
lightly mahogany polish in
here a great nose let’s taste
it oh it’s so juicy and
savory that is fantastic
it takes you on a complete ride at first
it enters really soft doesn’t feel 115
and then you get this big swell of that
brown sugar and all those fruit and then
you get into that clove and you start
getting into that dark an and
leather that big age tobacco leaf note
is huge on the
palette that’s phenomenal Coco and
leather on that back end but the amount
of tobacco on this is so enjoyable that
if you can get hold of this and by the
way I know they sold out because we
released them um at a Distillery release
but then we went online with it the
following Monday it sold out online but
100 cases have gone out mostly to Specs
but some Total Wines are going to get
them as well they’ll probably be out in
I’m going to guess late April early May
so you will still have a chance to get
hold of these on the websites or in the
stores oh that roasted kind
of what is
that hazelnut element in here as well I
again think it’s just that again that
little light nuttiness that I was
picking up but it’s just wonderful with
everything
else it’s Jammy it’s
everything yeah could drink a lot of
that all right iron rout apos now this
is the triple Sherry ol Roo PX am monato
on the nose 11 12.2
proof this one’s a little more of what I
expect when we’re nosing iron root
barrels this
is not straying too heavily on the
Finish to where you’re covering up the
bourbon and you feel like you should
just be drinking
Cherry Jonathan did a great job blending
this to make sure it’s still iron root
bourbon forward
so you’re going to get a little bit of
the KAC corn that little minerality of
that red dirt up there you get that
little kind of clayish
tone Whisper of barrel Char in here lots
of red
fruits oh yeah little
straw definitely has a little bit of the
apple cider vinegar so it’s matured up
really nicely
no off tones no sulfur or anything like
that that’s what I would always fear
with shered
whiskies super clean all right here we
go
oh that’s a heavy hitter too now this
one does again it focuses even more so
on the kettle corn note here than this
one does this one is
just big brooding delicious bourbon
Jammy with all the fruit popping
up but it has some 10-year-old bourbon
in it this one right here this one I
think is more on about the fouryear
Spectrum could be a little older than
that I’ll put try to put the details in
there in the
description
but rich in mouth coating of course all
these come off of pot still big Vendome
copper pot still they’re very
viscous oh it’s got the red
ton of red fruit Jammy fruit up
front little bit of a citrus orange oil
in
there lots of clove lots of anise and
lots of
leather little bit of like
um what is that strawberry raspberry
combination that’s really popping but
again these are cooked down with brown
sugar then you get that kettle corn
aspect that’s great yeah all right so
great job so far on
those dark chocolate Barrel Char lightly
Smoky on the back end almost like um
hazelnuts again this one is a lot more
on the hazelnut
Spectrum in with those fruits
though it finishes just
rolling if you’ve never had iron root
before you really should give them a
try even they’re like 35 $40 Promethean
that’s 100 Proof super dark Spectrum as
far as they’re really going for the the
Jammy cocoa kind of like uh they want
the Brandy Cherry type element on those
barrels when they’re selected and it is
delicious I know a friend that makes uh
smoked old Fashions with them all the
time and really loves them
I mean one sip of water does not get
this amount of flavor
out okay lilo’s coffee Mckenna Texas
collaboration working with Jonathan with
iron root to to create a coffee infused
bourbon called Andromeda 109 proof I
believe yeah
oh good grief it says it’s aged 36
months that’s the youngest in
there the thing that blew me away was it
is it’s like putting your nose in a
fresh bag of roasted coffee
beans but but then you’re also picking
up the fru of those beans so like once
you if you have a really well-made
coffee and you can actually taste the
fruits from The Coffee
Bean that’s in here and it almost to me
hearkens back to when I think of in the
Beer World Craft Beer Prairie bomb prair
bomb especially way back in the day were
really chocolatey and you would always
pick up a little bit of like
a oncho
pepper smoked pepper thing in with that
but that was from those coffee beans and
I pick up a little bit of that in
here it’s
beautiful it’s Unique though this is not
anything like I’ve
ever experienced from Iron
route it’s viscous super viscous medium
high viscosity it’s not sweetened you
know a lot of these people that do um
coffeed Bourbons they’re always going to
add some sweetener to them and they can
be nice especially when they’re Barrel
age William uh price did one that was
really
good but this one naturally sweeten this
I guess from the barrels that they’re
selecting it feels like it’s the perfect
amount of sweetness this is not overdone
it doesn’t come off as artificial like
they’re adding
anything this is something you can just
Sip and enjoy especially if you love
coffee you’re going to go crazy for this
thing
sour
cherries big roasted coffee
beans
espresso roasted
almonds roasted
pecans light mixed
berries lots of clove
leather and chocolate on the back
end that is really really solid again it
stays focused on the
coffee and at $35 for this experience
very very great could you add this to
Coffee yeah for sure but again if you
want to just enjoy something at the end
of the night and you’re a coffee drinker
bang hard to beat that but I hope you
enjoyed this video review if you can
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comments and I’ll get back to them as
soon as I can everyone have a great day
and cheers