Buffalo Trace earthiness - what introduced it?

[Gillman]

Whatever the cause, I find the taste is departing from the BT products. In the last couple of years, products bought locally (Frankfort, Bardstown, Louisville) show no sign of it. I don't mind the taste if it's only a light accent - falls into the category of house flavor - but I don't like it when too strong.

Gary

[Jono]

Another possible suspect

http://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/jbb/100/2/100_178/_article

Identification of 2,4,6-Trichloroanisole (TCA) Causing a Musty/Muddy Off-Flavor in Sake and Its Production in Rice Koji and Moromi Mash

Atsushi Miki1), Atsuko Isogai1), Hitoshi Utsunomiya1) and Hiroshi Iwata1)

1) National Research Institute of Brewing

IF whiskey can also be exposed to this chemical it "may" be related to the taste....cork contamination.

http://www.columbusunderground.com/forums/topic/corked-liquor

Discussion re "corked" Evan Williams SB.

Poster Andrew Hall notes:

"The chemical (2,4,6 trichloroanisole - TCA) can get in the process of production or bottling with no literal cork involved. When certain fungi encounter chlorophenols, you can get TCA. These fungi are naturally present and chlorine bleach products can interact with them to produce TCA. I've had "corked" carrots and other produce. I have regularly encountered TCA in restaurant water or tea. Also non-food products. It is detectable in the part-per-trillion range so it just takes a minute amount."

[Rotgut]

Interesting topic.

Just yesterday I bought a bottle of ER. Nose was fine, taste was fine, finish was musty. I couldn't finish a small drink. I don't get grass at all. What I got reminded me of a swamp, or the smell my water gets in the summer if it sits for a few days.

I took the bottle back and exchanged it. I thought I got an off bottle, but maybe this is the issue. My initial impression was of a product made with stale swamp water.

The new bottle was fine - I chose one with a different manufacturing code printed along the bottom.

To get back on topic, I'd also love to know what is changed and why.

Mike

[Rotgut]

No earthiness in Rain vodka.

[Rotgut]

If you like the musty/earthy flavor in Buffalo Trace products, you will get some more of it in bottles, probably in next year. The Kentucky River flooded the distillery a couple of weeks ago and that will give them plenty of that mustiness in the whiskey from the warehouses most effected by the flood.

MIke Veach

[pepcycle]

They don't sample every barrel in a batch.

They may pull a few from a production run, storage location, age and kind of assume that the rest of the barrels are the same.

It works.

[cowdery]

They don't sample every barrel in a batch.

They may pull a few from a production run, storage location, age and kind of assume that the rest of the barrels are the same.

It works.

A batch is about 50 barrels, all distilled on the same day and stored together. They'll sample one representative barrel in the batch. Every barrel is nosed right before it is dumped, just to make sure it hasn't been contaminated. Then the bottling batch, mixed together in the tank (except with single barrel products) is sampled and adjusted as necessary.