2023 MEMBERS MEETING
GRAND TASTING
Thanks to everyone who provided samples for this Grand Tasting. Because we’ve had so many distilleries participate, we couldn’t share every whiskey with every attendee. So each member who RSVP’d for the event received a sample kit containing a random assortment of whiskeys. Below is a reference for each whiskey so you can find those you received and learn more about them.
117° WEST SPIRITS
Bottling: Batch 006 Single Malt Whiskey
Mash Bill: 100% Sustainably Grown CA Barley
Cooperage: Charred American Oak
ABV: 45%
A Few Words: This native California spirit is born and raised in our home state. The barley is grown using sustainable practices in Northern California and floor-malted in Alameda, CA by Admiral Maltings. Once distilled, it is aged for 6 months in small charred American oak barrels.
ANDALUSIA WHISKEY CO
Bottling: Stryker Texas Smoked Single Malt
Mash Bill: American 2-row Malt, TX Munich Malt, TX Chocolate Malt, House-smoked 2-row Malt
Cooperage: #3 Char New American Oak
ABV: 50%
A Few Words: The malt is smoked with oak, mesquite and applewood.
BALCONES DISTILLING
Bottling: Mirador Rum Cask Finish Single Malt
Mash Bill: 100% Scottish Golden Promise Malted Barley
Cooperage: Refill European, ex-Bourbon, and refill French oak casks that previously held Balcones Texas Rum
ABV: 54%
A Few Words: Mirador Rum Cask Finish is 100% Golden Promise malted barley gently matured in refill oak; we then finish in our own Texas Rum cask which adds layers of sweetness, richness, and complexity. Well rounded aromas of honeysuckle, lemon curd, palo santo, and toasted coconut create an inviting first impression. The palate is intricate and honest with notes of seared pineapple, macadamia blondie, dried mango, and grated nutmeg. The long, faintly funky finish carries notes of ground coriander, gingerbread, and fresh guava juice. Cheers.
BOULDER SPIRITS
Bottling: The 10 Essentials
Mash Bill: 100% Malted Barley
Cooperage: Armagnac, Tawny Port, PX Sherry and American Oak
ABV: 50%
A Few Words: 5yrs - 6.5yrs age in four different types of oak. Married for 8 weeks and proofed with Eldorado Springs water.
BOSTON HARBOR DISTILLERY
Bottling: Putnam American Single Malt
Mash Bill: 100% 2-row Malted Barley
Cooperage: New White American oak
ABV: 50%
A Few Words: This is the first whiskey Boston Harbor Distillery produced upon opening the distillery in 2015 and celebrated its first release December 2017. It’s made grain-to-glass on location mashing in 100% two-row malted barley and pure water from the Quabbin Reservoir , distilled in our Vendome copper pot still with a registered serial number 1776, aged in new, white American Oak 53-gallon barrels that were toasted and heavily charred, and bottled at 100 proof. Putnam New England Whiskey has a uniquely Boston accent!
CAISEAL BEER & SPIRITS CO
Bottling: Peated American Single Malt Whiskey
Mash Bill: Peat-Smoke Malt
Cooperage: Ex-Bourbon
ABV: 50%
A Few Words: Our "Scotch-style" whiskey is made with 100% peat-smoked malt creating a moderately smokey spirit. Notes of pipe tobacco, toffee, and raisins round out this smooth whiskey.
CEDAR RIDGE DISTILLERY
Bottling: Special Reserve: Pete & Sherri
Mash Bill: Base Malt, Peated Malt
Cooperage: Ex-Bourbon, First-fill Amontillado Sherry Butt
ABV: 59%
A Few Words: 6 year old base malt finished in Amontillado married with 6 year old peated malt finished in ex-Bourbon.
COPPERWORKS DISTILLERY
Bottling: Release 048
Mash Bill: Baronesse Malt (Colfax, WA) and Five Malt
Cooperage: Char #2 New American Oak
ABV: 50%
A Few Words: We distill this small batch whiskey using thoughtfully sourced, high quality barley of varying maltbills. Our open fermentation, along with the use of local Sierra Nevada water, captures the character of our mountain surroundings while our climate and elevation nurtures unique aging attributes. The result is an American Single Malt Whiskey with a provenance and sense of place that you can nose and taste.
CROWDED BARREL WHISKEY
Bottling: Jackalope Blended Whisky
Mash Bill: 75% Malt Whiskey at least 3 years distilled by Balcones , 22.2% Light Whiskey aged 15yrs distilled by MGP, 2.8% Malt Whiskey 2 years distilled by Real Spirits
Cooperage: Used Oak
ABV: 50%
A Few Words: This is a blend I created to replicate Blended Scotch but using only American Products. So the the “Light whisky” in our blend is effectively the “grain whisky” base in a blended scotch style product. Then the Balcones and Real Spirits malts are providing the depth and density of flavor. The Light Whisky was 13yrs old when we got it, and it sat in Texas for two more years.
DEERHAMMER DISTILLING CO
Bottling: Progeny Series No. 4 Vino Verso
Mash Bill: 85% Pale Malt, 5% Chocolate Malt, 5% c40, 5% c120
Cooperage: 65% Albarino, 10% Cider, 25% Brandy
ABV: 51.5%
A Few Words: Our Progeny Series began as a celebration of Colorado and its innovative spirit. The 4th edition takes form as a collaboration with the highly acclaimed Carboy Winery.
DISTILLERY 291
Bottling: Batch 13: Single Malt Colorado Whiskey
Mash Bill: 100% Colorado grown malted barley
Cooperage: Charred virgin America white oak
ABV: 65.1%
A Few Words: Triple pot distilled and aged for 4 years and 9 months in ten gallon charred virgin American white oak barrels. Finished with toasted aspen wood staves. Only 291 bottles made.
FINGER LAKES DISTILLING
Bottling: McKenzie 10 Year Old Straight Malt Whiskey
Mash Bill: 80% NYS Malted Barley, 20% Heavy-peated Scottish Malt
Cooperage: New oak, ex-McKenzie Bourbon casks
ABV: 43%
GOLDEN MOON DISTILLERY
Bottling: Triple
Mash Bill: 100% Malted Barley
Cooperage: New American Oak
ABV: 46%
HINTERHAUS DISTILLING
Bottling: Discovery Batch #1
Mash Bill: 38.3% Gallagher's Best, 25.7% Kilnsmith, 17.6% Pacific Victor, 11.8% California Spirit, 4.5% Admiral's Hearth, 2.1% Midway (all Admiral Malting)
Cooperage: 69% 1st fill ex-American Single Malt American Oak, 31% Heavy Toast #3 Char American Oak
ABV: 46%
A Few Words: We distill this small batch whiskey using thoughtfully sourced, high quality barley of varying maltbills. Our open fermentation, along with the use of local Sierra Nevada water, captures the character of our mountain surroundings while our climate and elevation nurtures unique aging attributes. The result is an American Single Malt Whiskey with a provenance and sense of place that you can nose and taste.
HOME BASE SPIRITS
Bottling: Single Malt Batch 7
Mash Bill: Mecca Grade Estate Malt
Cooperage: ex-Home Base Bourbon
ABV: 46%
A Few Words: Distilled, Barreled 01/17 in CA at Sutherland Distilling, Livermore, CA and aged for 6 years in Oakland and Berkeley, CA at Home Base Spirits.
IRONTON DISTILLERY
Bottling: Cask Strength Single Malt
Mash Bill: Pale, Caramel and Biscuit Roasted Malts
Cooperage: New American Oak, #2 Char
ABV: 60%
A Few Words: Special release for 5-year anniversary, aged 4 years in new American oak. Pleasant fruit-forward character.
JUDSON & MOORE
Bottling: Single Malt Whiskey
Mash Bill: 65% Applewood Smoked Malted Barley, 35% Malted Barley
Cooperage: Heavy toast, Char #3 New Oak
ABV: 47%
A Few Words: This subtle but noticeably smoky single malt uses midwestern applewood smoked malt for an elegant yet accessible glass.
LOST LANTERN WHISKEY
Bottling: Gentle Giant Balcones Distilling Texas Single Malt
Mash Bill: 100% Golden Promise malted barley
Cooperage: Ex-bourbon cask, new European oak, and full-term maturation in ex-apple brandy casks
ABV: 57.6%
A Few Words: Lost Lantern is an independent bottler of American whiskey. Gentle Giant is a collaboration with Balcones that we created to showcase the elegant, lighter side of Texas whiskey; it was named Best American Single Malt at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition this year.
MANATAWNY STILL WORKS
Bottling: Peated Single Malt
Mash Bill: 100% peated malted barley
Cooperage: 2nd-use heavily charred American oak, 500-liter ex-Sherry
ABV: 47%
A Few Words: This whiskey was crafted with Simpsons Peated Malt, aged for 3 years in used American oak, and finished in a sherry puncheon for 1 year.
ROCK VALLEY SPIRITS
Bottling: American Single Malt Whiskey
Mash Bill: 100% NY State grown floor-malted barley (Hudson Valley Malt)
Cooperage: American White Oak air dried 4 years by Adirondack Barrel Cooperage
ABV: 45%
A Few Words: RVS American Single Malt is 100% NYS floor-malted barley, mashed in a Lauter-Tun (never distilled on the grain or yeast) small-batch distilled in a copper pot still, fermentation takes place in traditional wooden washbacks made of Douglas Fir.
ROOOT SHOOT DISTILLERY
Bottling: American Single Malt, 4yr Bottled-in-Bond
Mash Bill: Root Shoot Pilsner, Root Shoot Munich 4, Root Shoot Munich 10
Cooperage: Fresh Medium Char American Oak
ABV: 50%
A Few Words: Sown, Grown and Malted by Root Shoot on our 5th generation family farm in Loveland CO. We're the farm, we're the malt house. This year's release is a 10-barrel production run, about 2,500 bottles.
ROUTT DISTILLERY
Bottling: Emerald Mountain Single Malt Whiskey
Mash Bill: 100% Base Malt
Cooperage: Used Bourbon
ABV: 44%
A Few Words: Aged 1 year. D-53 yeast.
SANTA FE SPIRITS
Bottling: Colkegan Mesquite Smoked Single Malt Whiskey
Mash Bill: Mesquite-kilned Malted Barley
Cooperage: Once-used American White Oak Bourbon Barrels
ABV: 46%
A Few Words: While peat-smoked malt has always been a key ingredient in many well known Scotch whiskies, Santa Fe Spirits’ Colkegan Single Malt Whiskey’s wonderfully complex flavor profile benefits from a very different type of smoked malt: mesquite.
STRANAHAN’S
Bottling: Mountain Angel 10-Year Batch #3
Mash Bill: 100% Malted Barley
Cooperage: #3 Char New American Oak
ABV: 45.1%
A Few Words: We're excited to introduce the third batch of Mountain Angle 10-Year, one of Stranahan's rarest releases. As a result of Denver's high altitude and dry climate, we lose more water out of our casks than it would at sea level, creating a higher-proof product with a potent and complex flavor profile.
SUGAR HOUSE DISTILLERY
Bottling: American Single Malt Whiskey
Mash Bill: 90% Two Row Pale Ale, 5% Vienna Malt, 5% Honey Malt
Cooperage: #3 Char New American Oak
ABV: 46%
A Few Words: This is 100% grain to glass, all done at Sugar House Distillery in the dry climate of Utah. We like to say this is a Malt Whiskey made through the eyes of a Bourbon distiller.
THE BETTER MAN DISTILLING CO
Bottling: Test Batch Single Malt 2022
Mash Bill: 100% Eraclea Malt
Cooperage: 30 Gallon Char #3
ABV: 59%
A Few Words: It's a riff on the Italian pilsner beer style. I used Italian eraclea pilsner and an Italian red wine yeast to make "an Italian-American single malt". It's only a year old so we are looking for general impressions of the whiskey knowing that it is cask strength and still very young.
TRIPLE EIGHT DISTILLERY
Bottling: The Notch 8 Year Old
Mash Bill: Maris Otter Malt
Cooperage: Ex-Borbon, Re-toasted Red Wine
ABV: 48%
A Few Words: This is our original vision for an island single malt whisky. Brewers first, we took our flagship pale ale recipe—with its heavy reliance on Maris Otter barley malt—and crafted a wash using a combination of ale and distiller's yeasts. We aged this in a majority of ex-Bourbon casks. Finally, we finished our re-toasted red wine barrels for a surprising twist that extols the joys of all our libations.
WESTLAND DISTILLERY
Bottling: Solum Edition 1
Mash Bill: Skagit Valley Peated Malt
Cooperage: Cooper's Reserve New American Oak, Cooper's Select New American Oak, First Fill ex-Bourbon
ABV: 50%
A Few Words: Solum directly connects us to the primordial essence of the Pacific Northwest through a rediscovery of the oldest style of whiskey. Unearthing eons of flavor imparted by layers of flora unique to this place, we seek to experience the very essence of time through terroir.
WHISKEY DEL BAC
Bottling: Whiskey Del Bac Summer 2023 Distiller's Cut
Mash Bill: Unsmoked Malt, Mesquited Malt
Cooperage: New Oak, Rhum Agricole, Tequila
ABV: 52%
A Few Words: Blended by distiller Abbey Fife, this release has an unsmoked base of our Classic aged in new American white oak, finished in Rhum agricole barrels, then blended with mesquite smoked petites eaux from a Tequila barrel.