Barton

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Originally Posted by tmckenzie

I am not sure it is the yeast. I have been told that they do not double at barton. Which would explain a lot.

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A group from SB took a tour of Barton about 5 years ago, more or less. We went thru the distillation control room and the operator said (I will paraphrase)...."While we have a doubler on the column, we usually don't use it". Really.....why not? "With our new control systems, we can make a good tasting clean product without it".

That's great info! I also love the barton flavor profile, usually, and their price point doesn't hurt any either. Especially nice when you have a little cold and your taste buds are screwed up, the flavor punches through.

I did have one bottle of VOB BIB that got too banana for my tastes though.

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Originally Posted by Young Blacksmith

I did have one bottle of VOB BIB that got too banana for my tastes though.

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The current Sazerac bottled and distributed BIB has little to none of that banana taste in my...oops :lol: . I assume they would still be bottling Constellation distilled product which had a lot of it but must be doing a better job of batching or filtering or something.

That's good news. I have one unopened with a DSP-KY-113 bottling statement. I would think that would be new product. I'm sure I will be tempted before Christmas to pop it open, but getting oral surgery tomorrow so will be a week or so.

Randy it's my understanding Barton whisky came off the beer still at 125 proof and into a copper doubler where it increased to 135 proof, to then be cut back to barreling proof of 125, but my information is at least 20 years old. Wonder when they stopped using the doubler.

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Originally Posted by doubleblank

A group from SB took a tour of Barton about 5 years ago, more or less. We went thru the distillation control room and the operator said (I will paraphrase)...."While we have a doubler on the column, we usually don't use it". Really.....why not? "With our new control systems, we can make a good tasting clean product without it".

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I was told by a person who knows, and I have an old diagram of the barton plant that has no doubler in it. Now, here is my thoughts, and I am inending on provong it myself in a few months. You do not need to double technically speaking. Those columns are designed in such away that nothing harmful or relly bad tasting gets into the product. Depends on your school of thought. Barton whiskey has a certin "bite" to it. Not bad in my opinion, in fact I like it. Smoothness is not important to me as long as there is enough body in the whiskey to offset it. Which barton has. There are 3 ways to double. If you condense and send it to a seperate pot and redistill. This takes out a ton of taste. You continuos doubler which takes out some taste but not as much as the fist way I mentioned, or you can thump, which tends to leave a lot of taste in. Or, you cannot double and leave a lot of taste in. Which is why I think barton makes such a flavorful product. I have tatsed whiskey straight off the column and after the doubler. I prefer the taste right off the column. My theory has always been if you leave more congeners in the white dog, you have more stuff for the barrel to make flavor from. Which is one thing holing a lot of micros back. Too clean a white dog.

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Originally Posted by squire

Randy it's my understanding Barton whisky came off the beer still at 125 proof and into a copper doubler where it increased to 135 proof, to then be cut back to barreling proof of 125, but my information is at least 20 years old. Wonder when they stopped using the doubler.

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On our tour we first saw the column and then the control room. They had left the older analog controllers mounted on the control board but were currently running the column off of a desk top computer. Anyway, the older fella giving us this part of the tour was clear that he normally didn't run the doubler as the newer contol system made great whiskey without it. But at that time there was a doubler/thumper installed. On further reflection, it was longer than 5 years ago when we took this tour....probably closer to 7 years and there were about 15 SB'ers there. They also took us to rickhouse "Z" (IIRC) and let me thief a liter bottle of barrel proof 1792 for the Gazebo table.

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Originally Posted by doubleblank

They also took us to rickhouse "Z" (IIRC) and let me thief a liter bottle of barrel proof 1792 for the Gazebo table.

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Now that would be some Barton I would love to try. I bet it was :yum:

Thanks for the information Randy.

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Originally Posted by tmckenzie

I was told by a person who knows, and I have an old diagram of the barton plant that has no doubler in it. Now, here is my thoughts, and I am inending on provong it myself in a few months. You do not need to double technically speaking. Those columns are designed in such away that nothing harmful or relly bad tasting gets into the product. Depends on your school of thought. Barton whiskey has a certin "bite" to it. Not bad in my opinion, in fact I like it. Smoothness is not important to me as long as there is enough body in the whiskey to offset it. Which barton has. There are 3 ways to double. If you condense and send it to a seperate pot and redistill. This takes out a ton of taste. You continuos doubler which takes out some taste but not as much as the fist way I mentioned, or you can thump, which tends to leave a lot of taste in. Or, you cannot double and leave a lot of taste in. Which is why I think barton makes such a flavorful product. I have tatsed whiskey straight off the column and after the doubler. I prefer the taste right off the column. My theory has always been if you leave more congeners in the white dog, you have more stuff for the barrel to make flavor from. Which is one thing holing a lot of micros back. Too clean a white dog.

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Might explain why VOB gives me a headache, too. For whatever reason I'm sensitive to more congeneric whiskeys (nothing an aspirin won't cure) and I was a little surprised by VOB in that regard.

Barton has a doubler and the official word regarding its use is that they use it when they need to. What determines if they will double or not is a detail we probably won't get out of them. Doubling and gone in and out of fashion in the business but now it's largely in, so I suspect that for their bourbons, especially their better ones, they double. For something destined to go into a blend, for example, it may not be necessary. Doubling isn't necessary for proof. Distillers say it 'polishes' the spirit, removing some of the more stubborn unpleasant cogeners.