American Tasting - Craft Distillers.

Just for the record this is what was tasted at the American Tasting evening.

The theme for both evenings was to show the different types of American whiskey - representing Corn, Rye, Single Malt and obviously Bourbon. Previous American tastings have also included a Straight Wheat - from Bernheim (Heaven Hill) but this time round the idea was to concentrate a little more on the craft and micro distillers in America - to highlight where the cutting edge and more radical approaches to whiskey making are occurring. I used Heaven Hill this time round as an example of a distillery making several different styles of drink (corn, bourbon and rye) as a comparison against a Scotch Whisky distillery that makes just one style of drink: single malt.

Due to limited availability of certain stock I had to run two nights a little differently.

Night 1 - Monday 25th June 2012
1. Balcones Baby Blue Corn Whiskey
2. Copper Fox Rye Spirit
3. Elijah Craig 18 YO Single Barrel Bourbon
4. Stranahan's Straight Malt Whiskey
5. Clear Creek McCarthy's Single Malt

Night 2 - Tuesday 26th June 2012
1. Mellow Corn 100 Proof
2. Rittenhouse Rye 80 Proof
3. Copper Fox Rye Spirit
4. Stranahans Straight Malt Whiskey
5. Elijah Craig 18 YO Single Barrel Bourbon
6. Clear Creek. McCarthy's Single Malt

I really wanted to highlight the radical and innovative approaches to Whiskey making that Chip Tate at Balcones and Rick Wasmund at Copper Fox take. Also included Stranahan's and Clear Creek to show small batch, artisan and craft distillation at work. Although not included in the tasting I also discussed Tuthilltown's Hudson range - especially about their idea of "sonic maturation" and also Charby with their inclusion of hops into the mash.

On the other hand I wanted to show the bigger players in Kentucky and used Heaven Hill as an example of a large-scale business that is still family owned (by the Shapiro Brothers) and can confidently emphasise tradition and heritage with the lineage of Joseph Beam being head distiller, right through the generations to Parker and Craig Beam as current father and son distillers.

Full tasting notes for each individual whiskey to follow.