Innholdsfortegnelse for Bourbon 2022 i Bourbon

As much as we may not wish to admit it, we are all defined by something. Some of those factors are easier to embrace than others, some feel challenging and outdated, but nonetheless they have got us to where we are. The same could be said for Bourbon – there is so much history that has defined its identity all over the world, and of course, there are set regulations that have given it strict parameters in which to exist. Although this can cause some additional complexities when it comes to the whiskey-making process, for many a combination of the legacy and the opportunity to be creative is a very exciting prospect to be faced with. The chance to delve into the worlds of the brands that are currently producing…

Nestled in Woodford County, Kentucky is the Castle & Key Distillery. It was formerly known as the Old Taylor Distillery, the last distillery Colonel Edmund Haynes Taylor, Jr. built in his lifetime. Shuttered in the 1970s when Bourbon had temporarily lost its luster, Will Arvin and Wes Murry purchased the property in 2014 with plans to restore it to its former glory while building a brand that would make the site’s progenitor proud. A painstaking restoration started right away and, by November of 2016, whiskey was once again being made onsite. The first rye whiskey was released in 2020, and now it’s finally time to taste the first Bourbon to be made onsite in more than four decades. “The way we view whiskey is a little bit disruptive in the…

There are some basic universal rules when it comes to smoking a cigar. Rule number one: do not inhale. Learning to smoke for the first time or relearning to smoke effectively is a personal journey. Lighting a cigar is easy enough, but knowing to use the heat from the flame and not the fire to keep the cherry lit takes practice. Knowing how much of the cap to remove (using either a straight, punch or V-cut) while keeping the barrel intact is another skill that takes some real practice. As much as one can learn by trial and error in a lounge surrounded by old and new smokers, one of the most effective ways to gain these skills is to sit down with a good smoke and a great read.…

It’s a vital part of human nature to be intrigued by relationships, in all their forms. Be it family, friend, romantic, colleague, or local barista, they all form a vital part of who we are and the journey our lives take. But could a whiskey also form part of an integral relationship? In short, yes, yes it can – but that would be a very short article, so let’s delve into this idea a little more. While playing two ever so slightly dead brothers on the set of the American supernatural television series Vampire Diaries, Paul Wesley and Ian Somerhalder, co-founders of Brother’s Bond Bourbon, bonded over America’s native spirit during their eight years of filming. Somerhalder jokes, “Paul is my longest relationship of 12 years… these vampire boys bonded…

No matter how prepared someone is to start a new business, there are always surprises along the way. This is doubly so when that new business is a distillery: on top of laws and regulations that, seemingly, no one has ever heard of, trying to get local governments on board in places where distilling isn’t commonplace, and figuring out marketing, while running the rest of the show, the actual mechanics of cooking, fermenting, and distilling can vary wildly in different geographic locations. When Al Laws, founder of Laws Whiskey House in Denver, Colorado, first brought his new distillery online, he had a suspicion that the elevation, one mile above sea level, would affect his processes. His so-called ‘Bourbon Yoda’ Bill Friel, Kentucky Bourbon Hall-of-Famer retired from Barton Distillery, knew the…

MYSTERY WITH A SPLASH OF BOURBON by Susan Bell and Elaine Munsch (editors) 2020, Mystery and Horror LLC, $18.95 The great question, given the popularity of both the mystery genre and Bourbon, is: why hasn’t a short story anthology like this one come along before? The editors, who have each contributed an entry themselves, have drawn on a consortium of writers. The first story gets the book off to a suspenseful start. In ‘The Proof is in the Killing’, a well-heeled dilettante who has restored a historic Kentucky distillery and started making whiskey receives a note during the brand’s launch party that many, though not all, of his barrels have been poisoned. He risks killing his customers if the tainted barrels are bottled and distributed. A ransom is demanded for the list…

Bourbon is a unique agricultural product that was perfected over the generations as new technologies and techniques became available. It began as a way to preserve crops through fermentation and later distillation, and then it went from being stored in earthenware jugs to charred barrels. Once regulations were put into place to protect consumers and ensure they knew what they were buying, the basic framework for Bourbon was established. Legally in order to be called Bourbon, a whiskey must be: • Made from a minimum of 51 per cent corn and any other combination of cereal or pseudocereal grains (think: quinoa), water, and yeast• Must be distilled to no higher than 160 proof• Must be barreled at no higher than 125 proof• Must be bottled no lower than 80 proof•…

Stave finishing is typically a process in which pieces of wood are submerged into a mature whiskey with the intention of imparting a specific flavor profile. The staves are generally first-use, but Broken Barrel has taken its own experience as vodka infusers and turned both new and second-use barrels into ingredients that can be used for infusing whiskeys. “When I started, I had no concept of finished whiskeys and I wasn’t really paying nearly as much attention to what was going on around me as I was to what I was already doing on the vodka side,” says Broken Barrel founder and chief executive officer Seth Benhaim. Benhaim’s vodka company, Infuse Spirits, had been creating vodkas infused with high-quality ingredients rather than artificial flavorings, a category that wasn’t immediately recognized…

There is something about Rabbit Hole Distillery and its story that makes me think everything is going to be alright. It’s a triumph of hope and passion over reason – and speaking of triumphs, the whiskey is utterly delicious. Rabbit Hole by name and rabbit hole by nature, this Louisville, Kentucky distillery truly offers you the opportunity to lose yourself in a full sensory experience – and that’s before you even sample the liquid. Kaveh Zamanian, founder, whiskey maker and CEO of Rabbit Hole Distillery, explains, “I think the idea was, how do you bring together the manufacturing of whiskey and hospitality under one roof and create what I consider to be a full sensory experience… all of the senses are essentially heightened; you’re able to see, smell, [hear] the…

To many, the story of the Brough Brothers could look like an overnight fairytale success, where the trio arrived on the Kentucky whiskey scene with their Bourbon and took it by storm. However, that is far from the case; this is a story of drive, determination, and passion. The brothers behind the brand are CEO Victor Yarborough, COO Bryson Yarborough, and CMO Chris Yarborough. As with all siblings, the trio each bring their own individual strengths to their distillery operation, but with a uniting vision: integrity and legacy. Although the distillery officially opened in December 2020, its beginnings went back a long way and, perhaps rather unexpectedly for those that do not know the brothers’ story, to London. “I lived in the UK for 10 years, I’m a UK citizen,”…

If there is one thing that unites the creators of American whiskey across the country, it is a pioneering spirit – in many cases, one that is passed down from generation to generation. One Kentucky-based distiller that truly embodies this is James B. Beam Distilling Co, creators of Jim Beam. For more than 226 years, the distillery has been producing award-winning American whiskey expressions, and now it’s time to strip things back… kind of. In honor of its seventh-generation master distiller Fred B. Noe, Beam has created a new home for its small-batch whiskeys, future innovations and whiskey insight: the Fred B. Noe Distillery. This new phase for the family distiller will be led by Noe’s son and eighth-generation Beam distiller, Freddie. We spoke to him to find out what’s…

When the news broke across the whiskey world that Jackie Zykan would be stepping away from her role as Old Forester’s master taster, fans of her work waited with baited breath to hear about what would be next. It was as exciting as you would expect, with the announcement of a team of four friends coming together to create Hidden Barn Distillery. There, Zykan is master blender, Royce Neeley is master distiller, and Nate Winegar and Matt Dankner of Colorado’s 5280 Whiskey Society are partners in the venture. Black barns have become the hallmark of the rolling hills of Kentucky. Back during the period of time in which distilling was a punishable offense, the black-stained barns – a factor that was caused by naturally occurring microflora that feeds on airborne…

The Mississippi River begins at Lake Itasca, Minnesota, 1,475 feet above sea level, and flows 2,552 miles away to get to the Gulf of Mexico. On the way, it runs through or along 10 states, receiving water from 32 US states as well as two Canadian provinces. The ‘Mighty Mississippi’, or ‘Muddy Mississippi’, holds a special place in the American psyche. It was the western border in the USA’s formative years, and remains the major dividing line, with areas commonly referred to as East of the Mississippi, or West of the Mississippi. Before the transcontinental railroad, the Mississippi was the main artery by which Bourbon made its way from the Ohio River Valley to markets on the Eastern Seaboard and abroad. Depending on how you define a distillery and how…

For more than a decade, the owner and operator of The Flatiron Room and Fine & Rare, Tommy Tardie, has provided a spirits-focused approach to his New York City restaurants with some of the country’s largest selections of whiskey and spirits. After he was inspired by the commonality between fine spirits and quality coffee, noticing the way in which fans enjoy savoring the experience of each note and layer of their drink, Tardie decided to create a coffee with a whiskey drinker in mind. The resulting product is The Morning Dram, a new line of barrel-aged coffee that launched in time for the 2021 holiday season and ensured that January’s cold mornings got off to a much brighter start. The launch products include Bourbon Barrel Aged Coffee, Rye Barrel Aged…

It was a cold and rainy night in December. Taxis were speeding along the busy streets, people were huddling under dripping umbrellas; there was an air of anticipation of what was to come floating around us. Okay, I’ll stop with the Agatha Christie novel intro now, but very soon you’ll understand why I couldn’t resist a little foray into the style while pondering the way to begin the review of an evening to remember. The evening certainly was rainy and cold, but as I walked through the revolving door and into the ground floor of Great Jones Distilling, all the woes of the outside world were forgotten. I was immediately transported back in time – which, judging by the décor, was the point – to a moment of glitz and…

There’s a soda that is little known outside the Commonwealth of Kentucky called Ale-8-One, or Ale-8 if you’re a local. It is a cross between a ginger ale and ginger beer, with some citrus notes and a punch of caffeine. As the story goes in local lore, it was made for students at the University of Kentucky to drink when they were up late studying, hence Ale-8-One, or ‘A Late One’ as it says on the label. “Our company [was] started in 1902 by G. L. Wainscott, whose great-great nephew is Fielding Rogers, now the fourth-generation family owner of the company, so we’ve been independent since 1902,” says Ale-8 marketing director Chris Doyle. During the company’s formative years, Wainscott produced a number of carbonated beverages, including Roxa-Kola; this product caught…