The first question people were asking me when we announced that we would be distilling was if we would just be making moonshine or if we would be making more spirits. Early on, I told everyone that I don't have much interest in making moonshine, but that I would like to focus on high quality whiskies in addition to our vodka, gin, limoncello, and creme liqueur. We actually have had some unused 5 gallon charred oak barrels sitting at the distillery since Christmas time, just waiting to be filled, but with all the new beers that we've released in the last 6 months, I haven't had a whole lot of time to focus on new spirits. I've been looking forward to the day that we would start our first whiskey batches for a long time now and I'm really excited that I finally got to do our first mash for whiskey yesterday. So at long last, I wanted to share some of my plans for whiskey since I have been holding back on talking about it for a while now. I'll try to start with some of the common questions I've been asked and then talk a bit about the specific whiskies I'm working on.
"Will you be making moonshine?"
-The simple answer to that question is that it is not in our plans to produce moonshine, or clear whiskey at this point. Moonshine is kind of a niche market, and honestly, there are enough moonshiners in this area that make great products. We want to focus on barrel aged whiskies for now, and maybe if we have any leftovers that can't fit into a barrel, we could potentially serve small amounts of it, or use it for whiskey education in the taproom.
"Are you going to make that really strong stuff?"
-I think this question is asked a lot because a lot of people know moonshiners around here that don't dilute their product. I normally like whiskey in the 84-98 proof range and we will most likely be keeping to that range for our whiskey. I have always felt like whiskies diluted all the way to 80 proof tend to feel watery, where the whiskies that are about 104 or so typically have a bit too much of a burning sensation to really enjoy the flavor.
"Are you going to have to age it for years before it is ready?"
-The amount of time that whiskey gets aged in a barrel is directly related to the size of the barrel itself. The typical rule of thumb is that you age approximately one month for every gallon that the barrel holds. For us, we will be using 5 gallon barrels, and the whiskey will age for 5-6 months. We can get away with the shorter aging time due to the amount of surface area that is in contact with the liquor being higher in a smaller barrel.
"Why don't big distilleries just use small barrels then?"
-Small barrels do not produce the exact same flavor as larger barrels. Some reactions take years to take place. In the small barrels, we will be extracting the oak flavor and getting some vanilla character from the wood. Due to the char, the whiskey will also mellow, or smooth out, to a comparable level of the traditional large barrels, but there will be some different flavors. I think there will come a time when people label their whiskey as either large or small barrel whiskey. I don't think that either one is inherently superior to the other. Corsair for example makes some of the best whiskey I've drank using small barrels. On the other hand, my favorite Bourbon comes from Buffalo Trace where they only use traditional large barrels.
So yesterday I did our first mash and it is going to be a bit unique for what many people are used to because the only ingredient in the mash is corn. Most American Whiskies (including Bourbons) that are commercially available use no more than about 80% corn (By law, Bourbon has to be at least 51% corn). The reason that higher amounts of corn aren't frequently used is because the enzymes that break down starches into simpler sugars are not found in corn. Distillers have to add other grains with large amounts of enzymes which will take the starch from the corn and break it down. However, I found some enzymes that are available in liquid form which will allow me to break the starches into sugars without using other grains. As a result, our first whiskey is going to be a 100% corn mash using local corn. A lot of the sweetness of Bourbon comes from the corn that is used, so our Bourbon should have a decent amount of sweetness. Being that we are doing small batches, each batch will be Single Barrel Young Bourbon and each barrel will taste slightly different from the others.
We are working on a few other whiskies as well, but we have been trouble getting some of the ingredients that I want to use. Specifically, I want to make a whiskey that takes some of the characteristics of Scotch and Rye and blends them into one. For that whiskey, we will be using Peated Malt (the signature malt of Scotch), Rye, and Beechwood Smoked Malt. The time I did a test batch of this, I aged it on oak spirals for two weeks and really enjoyed it. It was a little sweet, but the spiciness of the rye and the peat flavors really complimented each other well. The idea with it was that my favorite types of whiskey are Rye and Scotch (Specifically, I like Laphroaig 10 and 13th Colony Rye) and I wanted to see what happened if we blended the main ingredients of the two into one whiskey. We should be making the "Double Smoked Rye" as soon as we can get our malt supplier to send some Peated Malt.
I know a lot of people will be excited about trying these whiskies, so if you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments and I'll try to answer any that I can!
