BOURBON CLUB OF ARKANSAS · BOURBON GAMES · SEASON 1, EPISODE 2
Two challenges. Two more wins for Gary and Justin.
Gary Penna and Justin Mills followed our opening bottle-sales victory with a cornhole sweep and a win in Jason Callori’s blind single-barrel challenge. Season 1, Episode 2 of Bourbon Games follows our Bourbon Club of Arkansas team against Southwest Florida Bourbon Society and puts Gary and Justin’s teamwork on display, first at Muddy Banks Brewing Co., then back among the barrels at Barrel King.
For BCA, the wins are worth celebrating. Just as revealing is what happens afterward: our developing blend gets an honest critique, and Gary and Justin still have work to do before the final judging.
This recap covers Episodes 1 and 2 only. Catch up with our Episode 1 recap and the opening 40–19 win.
21–17 / 21–1
Arkansas wins both cornhole games.
Single-barrel winner
Callori chooses Arkansas’s sample B.
Blend still developing
The closing tasting awards no points.
The competition carries a purpose beyond the scoreboard
Our opening win depended on members stepping up for Gary and Justin. Episode 2 turns to challenges they have to handle themselves, but the charity purpose remains the same.
The rules repeated at the start explain that money raised by both teams goes into one pool. Half is allocated through Sunday’s final-blend competition; the other half is divided among the weekend’s individual challenges, including cornhole, skeet, the single-barrel challenge and the blind tasting battle. Points accumulate toward the overall Bourbon Games result.
Gary identified Wounded Warrior Project as our chosen charity in the club’s original Day One coverage. That connection gives each challenge a purpose beyond beating the other team.
Episode 1 established that the final blend could earn up to 50 points. Episode 2 adds victories to our record, but does not provide a complete updated points table or the dollar amounts attached to these two wins.
Hangover cornhole turns into an Arkansas sweep
The lunch break comes with a surprise. At Muddy Banks Brewing Co., the teams learn they will play a best-of-three cornhole match. If it reaches a third game, each side can choose its two-person lineup.
Florida calls it “hangover cornhole.” Gary and Justin look comfortable with the assignment.
“Cornhole is like an Arkansas tradition.”
Justin Mills, Bourbon Games Episode 2
Justin explains that cookouts and visits from friends often turn into competitive cornhole games. Gary later jokes that windsurfing or jet skiing might have produced a very different result, but cornhole and shuffleboard have been part of his life since he was a teenager.
Game one: Justin closes out a 21–17 win
Florida opens with a five-point lead. Arkansas catches up, Florida edges ahead again by one, and Justin scores our final points to close the game. The scoreboard image records a 21–17 Arkansas win.
Game two: 14 unanswered points
Arkansas wins the opening frame of game two. Florida answers with one point, then Gary and Justin take control. The narration describes a run of 14 unanswered points; the score reaches 19–1 before Arkansas finishes it at 21–1.
The result is a 2–0 series sweep. Those are games won, not the point totals inside each game. No third game is needed.
The series win is announced around 2:32. It gives our team another result to build on before returning to the warehouse.
Thirty minutes to find Jason Callori’s favorite barrel
Back at Barrel King, host Kaynon introduces the next challenge: find one single barrel that Jason Callori of The Mash and Drum will prefer. Both samples will be judged blind, and the teams have just 30 minutes to make their selections.
The assignment
One barrel per team. Eight years old or younger. Thirty minutes to choose. A judge looking for depth, richness, dark flavors and a long finish.
Callori explicitly rules out the warehouse’s older 10-, 12- and 13-year barrels. The eight-year limit applies to this single-barrel challenge, not to the separate blends the teams are developing for Sunday.
Kaynon also explains that the selection is for judging and will not automatically be dumped. The search might reveal a useful blending component, but winning this round is its own task.
Gary trusts Justin’s experience
Justin has an advantage that matters here: he has competed in Callori’s Blendageddon events and has spent time learning the flavor profile the judge enjoys.
Gary says Justin has entered two of those competitions and earned a top-four finish. Rather than turn the decision into a debate, he puts the selection in Justin’s hands.
That is one of the clearest examples of our team’s working relationship in this episode. Gary recognizes the experience Justin brings to this particular challenge and gives him room to use it.
The pair narrows the choice to two barrels. Justin favors the one with the longer finish, matching a preference Callori emphasized before the clock started. Gary backs the decision.
Florida works through the same underlying problem from a different direction: the whiskey a competitor personally likes most may not be the one the judge prefers. Its team compares candidates side by side and discusses the difficulty of maintaining a sharp palate after tasting so many samples.
What Callori finds in the two glasses
Callori compares nose, palate and finish. He jokes that sample B might get extra credit for the larger pour, then begins tasting. The two selections offer noticeably different profiles.
Sample A · Florida
Nose: Grape and wine-like notes, some dryness, and a grainy or wheaty character.
Palate: Apple rind, pear, cinnamon and spice, with pie-crust or pastry notes and a pleasant mouthfeel. It tastes better than the nose initially led him to expect.
He wonders whether it might be finished whiskey and later says he thought it could be rye. Those are blind-tasting impressions, not confirmed barrel specifications.
Sample B · Arkansas
Nose: Dark cherry, chocolate, oak char, pastry cream, tangerine and clove. This is the nose Callori prefers.
Palate: A surprising savory and earthy turn, with salty, briny and soy-sauce-like notes, returning cherry, spice and strong texture.
The palate does not reproduce everything the nose promises. Callori’s preference is close, and he is candid about what he thinks our selection lacks.
Texture and finish give Arkansas the win
Callori praises both barrels but sees different strengths. Florida’s sample has fruit, spice and potential as a blending component. Our sample has the texture and finish that ultimately make the difference.
At approximately 11:33, he awards the win to letter B “by a hair.” Arkansas is revealed as the team behind that glass.
Callori says a little more dark-fruit character would have made our selection even better. It is useful feedback alongside the win: Gary and Justin found the qualities that carried his decision, even though he did not regard either barrel as perfect.
The episode does not identify either selection’s exact barrel number, proof, mash bill or source distillery. A judge’s guess about rye content or finishing should not be treated as a specification.
Keep the two blind tastings separate
Single-barrel challenge: Arkansas is B; Florida is A. Arkansas wins.
Blend feedback later in the episode: Arkansas is A; Florida is B. No points are awarded.
Back to our blend: MGP and the two-to-one calculation
After the challenge, Gary and Justin return to building the whiskey they will eventually submit for final judging. Gary introduces an MGP straight bourbon barrel as Justin prepares to dump it.
The age description shifts during the conversation: Gary refers to just over eight years, then almost nine, and later calls an added MGP component a nine-year. The footage’s dialogue does not settle a more precise age.
Gary then works through the scale-up calculation. He first says roughly 100 bottle-equivalents are in the vat before specifying 102. Their trial ratio is two to one, tested with a one-ounce pour and a half-ounce pour. Matching that ratio calls for 51 bottle-equivalents from the next barrel.
102 : 51 = 2 : 1
The quantities discussed total 153 bottle-equivalents. That is the arithmetic of this blending step, not a confirmed final bottling yield.
The distinction matters because Episode 1 established a final production requirement of at least 500 bottles and no more than 1,300. A promising small trial still has to become a much larger blend. Every addition must help meet the volume requirement while keeping the flavor on course.
Gary says the mixture will sit overnight. The episode gives no bottle size for these calculations, so the figures should remain bottle-equivalents rather than being converted to gallons.
The feedback panel finds a caramel-apple base
The closing tasting brings Kaynon, Jason Callori and Barrel King co-founder Jarrod Record together to assess both teams’ work. Kaynon is explicit: this is feedback, and no points are on the line.
Our blend is sample A in this session. Florida’s is B. Although the video chapter calls them “Final Blends,” the teams are still developing their bases and have another day’s work ahead.
Arkansas: preserve the apple, build the layers
Our sample brings cream-cheese frosting and confectionery-sugar aromas, tropical and slightly sour notes, and a candy-apple character. On the palate, the apple becomes the defining feature: caramel apple, cinnamon, toasted nuts and pastry, with pronounced heat.
Callori compares it to an apple pie set on fire. His advice is to keep that distinctive apple character while adding maturity, other layers and better balance. More age, oak or char could help, provided those additions do not bury what already makes it interesting.
Justin explains that the team used two O.Z. Tyler barrels and has just added MGP; Gary describes that addition as a nine-year. The timing of “just added” leaves it unclear whether the judges’ sample contains the newest addition, so the tasting notes should not be taken as a confirmed assessment of the entire latest vat composition.
For our team, the encouraging part is that the panel finds a clear direction in the whiskey. The base has something worth protecting. The next decisions need to improve it without losing the caramel-apple character.
Florida: a strong nose needs more follow-through
Florida describes its base as a bourbon-and-rye combination. The panel responds strongly to its aroma: toffee, oak and an impression of age. The palate and finish do not carry those qualities through as fully as Callori and Kaynon expect.
Callori describes it as flat and suggests younger whiskey could bring brightness, spice and liveliness. Record discusses Kentucky whiskey and the possibility that a small addition could bring the blend together. The complication is volume: if Florida still has a substantial amount to add, preserving the existing balance becomes more difficult.
Those comments are assessments of works in progress. The panel sees potential in both teams, and neither base is being declared the final winner.
Our base surprises the judges
Before the team identities are revealed, the panel expects the oakier sample B to belong to Arkansas. Callori says the way Gary and Justin had been blending earlier led the judges toward that assumption.
Record says sample A’s nose initially was not to his taste, but tasting it changed his view: he thought Arkansas was in an excellent position for this stage of development. Kaynon adds that if he had to buy either blend exactly as it stood that day, he would choose A.
That is encouraging for BCA, but it remains a personal preference during an unscored session. Our official victories in Episode 2 are cornhole and the single-barrel challenge.
The discussion also indicates that the planned 13-year whiskey has not yet been added. A separate remark about half of a blend being surprisingly young does not establish a complete recipe or a verified age breakdown for either team.
An overnight rest and a Tanyard Hill pour
Record closes by reminding both teams that the blend will change as it rests overnight. The next morning’s tasting will guide another round of additions and adjustments.
Barrel King blend manager Lauren Rogers brings out a Jack Daniel’s bottle at Record’s request. The accompanying close-up identifies it as Single Barrel Special Release Tanyard Hill Rye, labeled 141.1 proof and 70.55% ABV. Someone in the group calls it a “hazmat.”
After a day of competition and detailed tasting, the closing exchange returns to the shared experience of being there: two clubs, different approaches, and time around a bottle together.
Three challenge wins, with the final blend still ahead
Through the first two episodes, Gary and Justin have won the opening bottle-sales round, swept cornhole and selected Callori’s preferred single barrel. Each result reflects a different part of the experience: our members’ response, the pair’s competitive streak, and their ability to make a targeted whiskey decision under pressure.
The biggest remaining test is the blend itself. The panel has given our team a useful direction: preserve the apple and cinnamon, add depth, and manage the heat. Gary and Justin leave this episode with two more wins and a base that the judges want to taste again.
That is where our Episode 2 story ends. The final-blend judging is still ahead.
Watch along with the club
Watch Episode 2 on Mixx Tank’s YouTube channel. The episode also directs viewers to Barrel King’s Bourbon Games page for the Sip Along Pack featuring the teams’ finished blends; no price is stated in the episode.
Continue our series with Episode 1: BCA’s 40–19 opening win, or watch Episode 3 when you are ready for the next part of the competition.
The episode closes by inviting other bourbon clubs to submit a video explaining why they deserve a future spot. It gives [email protected] as the contact and “the next Bourbon Games winner” as the email subject.
Sources and credits: Mixx Tank’s Bourbon Games Season 1, Episode 2, its description and captions, and the episode images reproduced here; our Episode 1 coverage; and Barrel King’s team information. This club recap adapts ArkansasLiquor.com’s Episode 2 reporting from BCA’s perspective. Images are reused from that coverage; episode footage and graphics are credited to Mixx Tank. Episode 2’s YouTube metadata records an upload date of September 5, 2026.
