Dry Fly Straight Triticale Whiskey

July 7, 2015 Eric Burke

So. Craft whiskey.

I haven’t written about a craft whiskey in a while.

There’s a reason for that. I’ve been burned too often to want to pull the trigger on buying them when I see them in the store. I used to try every whiskey I could get my hands on. Big producers, small producers, bottlers, blenders, it didn’t matter. And I loved the idea of supporting small distilleries with my love and money. But there was a problem.

Out of all the ones I tried, I remember a handful that I really liked. There are very few would I want to spend my money on a second time. I know how the process works. I know that economies of scale play a big part in the “craft price,” but there weren’t many that I felt were…well…good. Much less good enough to justify an inflated price.

So I haven’t picked one up in a while. But I have tried a few at whiskey events, just to know where things are at. And in doing that I found a couple of producers that I felt warrented another look. One of those was Dry Fly Distilling out of Spokane, Washington. I’d heard their name, seen their product on the shelves, even read some reviews. But as I said, I’ve been burned before. I just didn’t want to drop the coin until I could be assured I’d at least be interested by the product. After trying it, I felt it was worth the risk. Especially for one where it was made out of an interesting grain.

Triticale is a hybrid grain. It was bred from wheat and rye in the late 1800s, but, according to wikipedia has only recently been commercially viable as a crop. If you want to know more you can read it yourself (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triticale). But what interested me about it was what it would bring to a whiskey. Would it be anything like other rye or wheat whiskies I’d had? Would it be soft or spicy? Would it be any good?

Dry Fly Straight Triticale Whiskey

Purchase Info: $29.99, 375 mL. Casanova Liquors, Hudson, WI. (It sells for between $39 and $49 for a 750 mL around the Twin Cities.)

Details: 44% ABV. Straight with no age statement so if all the rules were followed we should assume this is at least four years old in new barrels.

Nose: Bubble gum. Banana fruitiness. A light touch of caramel and baking spices.

Mouth: Spicier than I’d expect at 88 proof. A touch solventy at first. Sweet banana bread at the front of the mouth transitions to a nice minty rye spiciness as it moves toward a swallow.

Finish: A tad solventy again on the finish. Sweet and spicy. It fades to a nice bitterness that makes you want another sip.

Thoughts: I’m very pleasantly surprised by this. The more I taste of it, the more I like it. The only knock I have is that solvent note, but it seems to fade fairly fast. I’m guessing that as I finish the bottle it may even disappear. It tastes young, but I really like it. I can’t wait to try more by these guys.

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Revisiting the Old Grand-Dads

June 30, 2015 Eric Burke

Three bottles of Old Grand-Dad at various proofs

Sometimes circumstances beyond your control put you in a position where you realize: “Hey, I’ve got bottles of three different styles of Old Grand-Dad open.”

Now I know what you’re thinking. “Eric, you’ve limited yourself to enough room for 22 open bottles of American whiskey, why would you have three different styles of Old Grand-Dad open?”

Or at least you would be asking that if this were a local radio commercial. I feel sorry for those guys. I worked with some folks who needed to write or record that stuff at my last job. It’s hard to get something good approved sometimes.

Anyway, it’s still a good question. How on Earth did I end up with this? I do have limited space, it seems odd to devote a little more than one eighth of it to a single brand.

Well, the 80 proof is still left over from the Bottom Shelf Brackets I did in March. It’s almost gone, but still seems to be hanging around. The 114 is one of my favorite sub-$25 dollar bourbons and I pick it up anytime I see it on sale.

And the 100 proof Bonded? Well, I picked it up for the blog, around the time of the label change thinking that a label change might have signified something greater. Reading the folks who also had that thought, made me think that we were all mistaken and that there was little if anything different inside the bottle. So there it sat. Until I realized that for the first time, I actually had all three Old-Grand-Dad’s in the house. Having fallen in love with the 114, I haven’t had Old Grand-Dad Bonded in the house since late 2011/early 2012 and I was curious to revisit it after a span of a few years.

Plus I thought it might be an interesting chance to explore the effects of dilution. Three bottles of supposedly the same bourbon diluted to three different strengths, bottled and given time to mingle. I know there might be barrel choices that influence things, but eh, it’s for fun, not science this time, right?

Three Old Grand-Dads

Purchase info:

80 proof: Ace Spirits, Hopkins, MN. $13.99 750 mL

100 proof Bonded: Ace Spirits, Hopkins, MN. $22.99 1 L

114 Proof: Ace Spirits, Hopkins, MN. $24.99 750 mL

Nose:

80 proof: Fruity graininess, sweet cinnamon, a hint of mint and some oak

100 proof Bonded: Less pronounced grain, some mint, vanilla and honey sweetness along with oak dryness.

114 proof: Initially very sweet. Some alcohol burn. Mint, toffee, yeasty bread dough.

Thoughts: Very interesting to see what the amount of dilution does to the nose of a whiskey. In this case, the higher the water content, the more pronounced the fruity and grainy notes. As an experiment, I watered down some of the 114 proof to 80. The nose was almost indistinguishable from the bottled 80 proof.

Mouth:

80 proof: Cinnamon gum, mint and oak dryness

100 proof Bonded: Sweet vanilla, oak, baking spices, anise.

114 proof: Hot and sweet, oak, hints of cherries and cocoa.

Finish:

80 proof: Decent length. Sweet and spicy. Lingering oak dries the mouth.

100 proof Bonded: Heat that settles in the chest and stays there a while. Lingering anise. Mouth numbing.

114 proof: Very warm and long lasting. Lingering dry oak.

Thoughts: I’m guessing barrel selection plays as big a part as proof does on the palate with these. For instance the 114 proof watered down to 80 proof just tastes like watered down 114 proof. Overall I like the 100 and 114 proof much more than the 80 proof. The 80 proof is merely meh. There is a smaller difference between the 100 and 114 though, the 114 still reigns as my favorite sub $25 bourbon.

Bourbon Empire: The Past and Future of America's Whiskey by Reid Mitenbuler

June 23, 2015 Eric Burke

Shortest review ever: buy this book.

Can I say more? Of course. I can always say more. Do I need to? Not really. I’ve read a lot of books about bourbon. I’ve got a shelf full of them. Some are fantastic. A couple are really, really bad. Some just spit out the same marketing myths you’ve heard over and over. Some have amazing amounts of original research. Some of them are interesting, but dry. Others are entertaining, but empty of real information.

Bourbon Empire is one of the rare ones that is both entertainingly written and full of interesting information. This was a book that I couldn’t keep to myself. On more than one occasion, I had to stop and read passages aloud to my wife.

The parts that I especially enjoyed were the comparisons between times when a lot of people needed to make money on bourbon in a short period of time. Namely the years right after Prohibition and today. It seems a lot of the same techniques for “quick aging” were tried by post-prohibition distilleries trying to compete with imported stocks of fully matured whiskey as are being touted today by craft distilleries needing to compete with large stocks of fully matured bourbon. I won’t spoil the chapters for you, I really want you to read them yourself.

Most books on bourbon can’t help at least bringing up the mythical origin stories that most bourbon brands insist on surrounding themselves with. Some celebrate them as the honest truth. Others take pride in pointing out that they are damn lies. The difference here is that the myths are celebrated while they are being debunked. They are mentioned. They are poked, prodded and examined from various angles and then they are celebrated for being good, though not true, stories.

So, go out right now to your local bookstore—or if you are like most of America who no longer has one go to Amazon—and buy this book. Reid Mitenbuler has crafted a book that is a pleasure to read and will teach you something to boot. Maybe enjoy it with a nice bourbon.

Crown Royal Hand Selected Barrel

June 9, 2015 Eric Burke

Are you one of those folks who have decided that Canadian Whisky would be interesting if only it had a bit more oomph? If it were served at a proof above the bare minimum to be called whisky? Some sort of single barrel pick that hadn’t had all the rough edges blended out of it?

Well, this is your lucky day. Crown Royal has recently expanded it’s Hand Selected Barrel program from Texas to the rest of the US. This whisky is released at 51.5% ABV. It’s a Single Barrel release of the Coffey Rye whisky. The Coffey Rye is one of the 50 whiskies that make up the standard Crown Royal blend. It is a Canadian rye (not the same definition as US straight rye) produced on a Coffey still.

Saturday was my lucky day. When I wandered into Ace Spirits, I noticed that they had participated in the Hand-Selected Barrel program. I don’t normally review them this quickly, but I bumped this to the head of the pack, just in case you are local and decide to go get one for yourself. So should you got get one?

Crown Royal Hand Selected Barrel

Purchase info: $64.99, 750 mL. Ace Spirits, Hopkins, MN.

Details: 51.5% ABV

Nose: Earthy and sweet. Bubblegum, baking spices and tobacco.

Mouth: Soft and velvety. The proof brings a lot of tingle to this. Baseball card bubble gum, cinnamon, clove, anise, buckwheat honey.

Finish: On the short side of medium. More bubble gum fading to a nice bitterness.

Thoughts: This is a bottle that benefits from air. I tried doing my tasting right away and it was really just heat and bubble gum. I was extremely disappointed in it, especially for what I paid. I did notice that the sample in the store didn’t seem to be quite so one-note. And guessing that the bottle in the store wasn’t freshly opened, I poured myself another sample and then let it sit for an hour or so. After sitting, the nose and the mouth opened up considerably, becoming much more complex. This whisky is a touch hot, though I wouldn’t recommend adding any water. Even a little destroys the mouth feel and really lessens the flavors. Anecdotally, this seems to trend sweet. My wife overheard sales people at the Party Source telling folks that theirs tasted like marshmallows. Mine tastes like old baseball card bubble gum so there is a certain candy theme.

Bottom line: I like it and while it’s interesting to taste a bottle that goes into a major blend, it is really expensive for what it is. I’d be really happy with this at $40, but at $65 I probably won’t be buying it again.

Russell’s Reserve Rye

May 21, 2015 Eric Burke

The first time I had this whiskey was on my first visit to the Wild Turkey Distillery during my first visit to Kentucky. That’s a lot of firsts to pack into one whiskey. I think back on that visit fondly. It was back when I could visit a major distillery and have samples that I hadn’t tasted before (because I hadn’t tasted that many yet). I’ve been on the Wild Turkey tour a couple more times since and I always make sure I grab a sample of the Russell’s Rye just for old time’s sake.

Fast forward to a couple months ago. I was looking at my editorial calendar trying to plan out what the next month or so of reviews would be when I made a startling discovery. I’d not reviewed any of the Russell’s Reserve line. And even more shocking, I’d never even bought the Rye. For something that has become somewhat of a tradition for me, the thought brought me up a little short. My search for the next new thing had allowed me to pass over this one I enjoyed. For years. That changed. Fast.

Russell’s Reserve Rye

Purchase Info: $32.99, 750 mL. Marketplace Liquors, Savage, MN.

Details: 6 year old. 45% ABV.

Nose: Cheerios cereal, mint, cherry and a hint of cedar.

Mouth: Nice tingle. Flavorful. Mint, clove and oak.

Finish: Cereal, mint and a nice long heat fading to a pleasant bitterness.

Thoughts: Though I was surprised by the Cheerios on the nose, it was quickly followed by the more expected mint and wood. I like this rye, it’s got enough heat to keep things interesting and a good minty oak flavor. It’s got a nice finish. The tingle sticks around for a decent amount of time before fading to a bitterness that makes me want to take another sip. The price is good too. Especially since I just saw a bottling of a 7 year old MGP rye going for $90.

Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye

May 14, 2015 Eric Burke

So. If you were told that in two days you would no longer have a job, what would be the first thing you’d do? For me it was go buy beer. Even though I had been looking to leave for some time, it was still a shock to actually have it happen. It seemed like a beer sort of night because if it had been a bourbon sort of night, I might have needed to call in the next day…

Come to think of it that might have been funny, in hindsight.

But as I always do, I wandered over to the whiskey aisle. And in this case, my wandering was rewarded. You see, sitting about half-way up Total Wine’s Rye section was Crown Royal’s new rye whiskey. I looked at it, looked at my wife, looked back at the shelf, saw there was no price tag, hesitated and then…watched her grab it.

I love my wife.

Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye

Purchase Info: $24.99. 750 mL. Total Wine, Burnsville, MN

Details: 45% ABV, 90% Rye Whiskey, “Fine Blended Canadian Whiskey”

Nose: Initially it was alcohol, mint, and cedar. After spending a bit of time with it, I was able to also tease out lime zest as well.

Mouth: Tingly. Much more tingle than I would expect to come from Canada. It’s sweet, but not overly so, with mint, cloves and some grassiness in the mouth.

Finish: Nice and warm. That tingle lasts awhile along with the mint, cedar and cloves.

Thoughts: I like this one. It’s got an interesting tingle and enough sweetness underneath to make me want to come back again. Toss in those rye notes and you’ve got something well worth the $24-$30 it sells for here in the Twin Cities. Even if you don’t normally like Crown Royal, give this a try.

A nice treat to share: Angel's Envy Rye

April 30, 2015 Eric Burke

Every morning my dog, Whiskey, begs for her morning treats. She will sit nicely, take the treat from you, run into the living room, set it down and come back for the next one. She does this twice as she gets two treats every morning.

If it is the weekend, she will eat them right away while we eat our breakfast. On work days she does something a little odd. She leaves them on the floor until we get home. Once we get the running around outside taken care of, she will grab the treats and bring them to where we are sitting and proceed to eat them. It is almost as if she understands that good things are even better with friends.

Even if she doesn’t understand it, I do. Think about it. A romantic movie is better when watched with someone you love. A good meal is better with good company. And a good whiskey is better when shared with friends. In fact, the better the whiskey, the more apt I am to share it.

When I finally bought a bottle of Angel’s Envy Rye, the first thing I thought about was who I wanted to pour samples for. It is only fair, I first tasted it after receiving a sample from a friend. Angel’s Envy Rye is a fairly new arrival to Minnesota. I started seeing it on the shelf when Total Wine appeared on the scene. It’s expensive for what it is. You don’t expect something that starts with MGP Rye to go for near $90.

Angel’s Envy Rye is finished in rum casks. And it shows. There is little to none of the typical MGP profile here. It has been completely changed by the rum. It is sweeter and has picked up more complexity. It really is a treat worth sharing with friends.

Angel’s Envy Rye

Purchase Info: $84.99, 750 mL. Total Wine, Burnsville, MN

Details: Batch#: 3F, Bottle#: 1696, 50% ABV, rye whiskey finished in rum casks

Nose: This smells like a good candy store. Fresh chocolate, nuts and a bit of fruitiness. Also pumpkin pie.

Mouth: Warm with ginger spiciness. Very sweet with nutty cocoa, cloves and molasses.

Finish: Surprisingly little burn for 100 proof but a lingering spicy sweetness.

Thoughts: This is a ginger molasses cookie in a glass. It’s very sweet and so not something I’d want all the time but tasty enough to have with (or for) dessert occasionally.

High West Master Class Plus a Review of High West Double Rye

April 16, 2015 Eric Burke

High West Distillery is a company that gets a lot of love from whiskey geeks, myself included. They are located in Park City, Utah. Though they do distill some of their own stuff, they’ve really made their reputation on the ability to obtain interesting spirits and then blending them together to make something even more interesting.

So it was with real interest that I attended the master class Whiskey: An Organoleptic Journey at Sunday’s Whiskey on Ice Festival. The class was lead by Brendan Coyle, Lead Distiller at High West. During the class he discussed the whiskey making process in great detail. Everything from sourcing the grain down to bottling the finished product.

The coolest part of the class was that it wasn’t just “first you mill, then you mash, then you ferment.” Instead he went into great detail about how and why you might want to do things a certain way and how it would affect the finished product. For example: He didn’t just say you mill the grain, but showed a diagram of a hammer mill and described the relative courseness of the resulting flour. And why you’d want to mill at the speed you do so you don’t risk scorching.

Plus I really liked the dive into the science behind the processes. Things like why you might want a little bit of bacterial fermentation to go along with your yeast fermentation (complexity). The differences between the grain-in method of fermentation that American whiskey typically uses and the grain-out method used in making malt whiskey and why those methods are used (ease of filtration). Or why you would want to make your cuts at certain times and a bit of how you’d know when those are (taste/aroma + proof measurements).

And of course he went over distillation and aging. Each of these were illustrated with a small taste of whiskey. We tasted six whiskeys* during the course of the class. First were two silver whiskeys Western Oat and OMG Pure Rye. After that were four aged blends: Double Rye, Rendezvous Rye, Campfire and the newly-reintroduced Bourye. I enjoyed all of them on some level except the Campfire. It tasted a bit too much like it’s namesake for me.

All in all, if you get a chance to see one of Brendan Coyle’s talks, do it. My only regret is that it only lasted an hour. I could easily have sat through one twice as long.

High West Double Rye

Purchase Info: $32.99. 750 mL. Casanova Liquors, Hudson, WI (on a Sunday, out of state, for those who are watching Minnesota politics)

Details: 46% ABV. Batch# 14E20. Bottle# 3488. Blend of two straight rye whiskeys: a 2 year old 95% MGP rye and a 16 year old 53% Barton rye.

Nose: Mint, cedar, bubblegum, clove and licorice.

Mouth: Spicy. Toffee, mint, clove and licorice.

Finish: Mint, cedar and a nice lingering warmth

Thoughts: When I tried this side-by-side with the Rendezvous Rye during the class, I noticed that this one had much more of the typical “MGP” character. Which is perfect for me, because I really like that. It has more complexity than your typical MGP bottling though due to the addition of the much older Barton rye. This is a nice sipper with plenty of heat and at $30-$40 the price is right too. I like this. It’s an easy one to recommend.

*If you want info an any of these whiskeys visit www.highwest.com. The other cool thing about High West is how transparent they are about the details of their whiskeys. They will tell you what makes up each blend and we even got to see what proof the tails were cut at for the stuff they distilled during the presentation.

Blog

Dry Fly Straight Triticale Whiskey

Three Old Grand-Dads

Purchase info:

Nose:

Mouth:

Finish:

Crown Royal Hand Selected Barrel

Russell’s Reserve Rye

Crown Royal Northern Harvest Rye

Angel’s Envy Rye

High West Double Rye