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James E. Pepper rye?


weller_tex
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I have not seen a posting about this rye. I know it is just another young LDI rye..but it is bottled at 50% and is only $25 here in Houston. I really like the stuff. A much better deal than Bulleit Rye given the proof and sweeter than the Willett Ryes for a change of pace. Has anyone else had it?

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I've seen it at Spec's but didn't pull the trigger as I'm not a big fan of ryes. IIRC, the label said it's "At least 2 years old" , bottled in Bardstown and distilled in Indiana or something like that. I'm betting that it tastes just like the other young LDI ryes being bottled out there.

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I've seen it at Spec's but didn't pull the trigger as I'm not a big fan of ryes. IIRC, the label said it's "At least 2 years old" , bottled in Bardstown and distilled in Indiana or something like that. I'm betting that it tastes just like the other young LDI ryes being bottled out there.
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  • 1 month later...

This showed up at my local whiskey monger yesterday. I picked a bottle up. I am sure it is ldi, but in a different style. I had a sample of this style of ldi rye sent to me from a broker wanting to sell some. I am convinced Ldi has 2 rye mashbills, or at least, one mashbill and 2 different ways to distill it. This Pepper brand of rye and the sample I got is less piney, minty as in the Bulleit rye. This is fruitier, more bourbon like, more perfumy. Harsh in a wierd way too. It could be different warehouse placement too. This says at least 2 years, which probably means 2 years and a day. But it has a hell of a dark color for 2 years. So it could be from barrels higher in the warehouse.

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I do not know, probably. I think it was brought in in 53 gallon barrels and then transferred to small barrels, there is a certain harshness that come from green wood that one of the small barrel cooperages uses.

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  • 1 month later...

I bought a bottle of this and my feelings are consistent with everyone else on here- This is absolutely LDI rye (My bottle even says it was distilled in Indiana) and it is quite young. They do state that it is a straight rye whiskey, so it must be 2 years old, which is what the taste seems to impart. It's good whiskey for the price!

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It is. He initially released a Pepper bourbon a year or so ago; it was nothing special. Currently out are the Pepper 1776 bourbon and rye- I have tasted the bourbon and it is a marked improvement over the original, although I don't know the price point or where he sources it.

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The rye has just popped up in a few stores in MA... I hope they manage to get to the point where they're distilling and aging, rather than sourcing.

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I don't know if that is part of his future plans or not, but I can probably find out. my guess would be not.

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There seem to be two paths, one where the people say they're going to make their own, and one where people don't bother. I'm coming to prefer the people who don't bother, since the others are all lying.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I picked up a bottle of this tonight at Binny's (Niles). It is fairly sweet, but I'm getting quite a minty note from it, as well as very mild wood in the aftertaste. It's the first LDI rye I've had at 100 proof and I'm curious as to how it would taste after, say, four or six years of aging. For $30 I figured it was worth a shot considering the label gave the source away and the source is known to be a good one. It shows promise.

The label talks about James E. Pepper's boasting that he used his grandfather's original Revolution-era recipes; does anyone know anything about that? I've seen some older "Born With The Republic" ads but none that mentioned historic continuity. Indeed, Oscar Pepper's distillery (now Woodford Reserve) is where James Crow thrived and produced his Old Crow and Old Pepper whiskeys. I would think that it was taken as understood that Dr. Crow's recipes and methods were considered superior to Elijah Pepper's, since that's what Elijah's son (and James' father) Oscar Pepper produced and sold to such great acclaim.

Edited by shoshani
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I am pretty sure James Pepper's recipes never figured into making this whiskey. Did you get an odd woodiness? I think it has been rebarreled is small barrels. There is a small barrel cooperage that I will not call the name of, but it makes awful barrels that have a distinct green wood flavor, that is very pronounced in rye. I got that flavor in my bottle.

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I am pretty sure James Pepper's recipes never figured into making this whiskey. Did you get an odd woodiness? I think it has been rebarreled is small barrels. There is a small barrel cooperage that I will not call the name of, but it makes awful barrels that have a distinct green wood flavor, that is very pronounced in rye. I got that flavor in my bottle.

The aftertaste had a bit of woodiness, but not the actual whiskey. But this could change in a day or two as it gets a little air. And yeah, being that the rye is LDI, it wouldn't be anything Pepper (or even Crow) used for their recipe; this is pure Seagram.

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Not sure of the timelines but wasn't Dr. Crow already working at the Pepper distillery when James E. was born. I'm tired of these made up histories. The producers of the Pepper brand trying to claim a heritage back to 1780 is as ridiculous as a new car company naming itself Stanley Steamer and promptly announcing it's going to celebrate it's 100th birthday.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Got a bottle of this last week and it isn't bad for a younger rye. Especially un chill filtered and 100 proof!

Thomas

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  • 2 months later...

Saw this on a store shelf today. Nice to see Ohio broaden its rye horizons!

Thomas

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I saw a James Pepper 15 Year Rye on the TTB site today. Instead of saying it's LDI it states the mashbill is 90%+ rye. The label speaks to it being a low barrel proof.

https://www.ttbonline.gov/colasonline/viewColaDetails.do?action=publicFormDisplay&ttbid=13029001000204

If I read that label right, it says it's bottled AT barrel proof, even though it's 45.3% alcohol. I'm....not sure exactly how they got barrels that are fractionally over 90 proof to start with. Unless after their 2 or 4 years of straight aging, they were rebarreled but diluted to a lower proof in the process. Can that be done, is there a legal MINIMUM barrel/rebarrel entry proof?

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If I read that label right, it says it's bottled AT barrel proof, even though it's 45.3% alcohol. I'm....not sure exactly how they got barrels that are fractionally over 90 proof to start with. Unless after their 2 or 4 years of straight aging, they were rebarreled but diluted to a lower proof in the process. Can that be done, is there a legal MINIMUM barrel/rebarrel entry proof?

I was curious of the same. We've seen in the past where they simply plug a number in when they might not know the proof yet but this one says "bottled at a surprisingly low barrel proof" on the back label. I'm not sure on this one.

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JEP15, oh boy, another LDI rye! Woohoo! I've never had a 95% mash bill before! Can't wait for the totally unique taste of this one!!!

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This showed up at my local whiskey monger yesterday. I picked a bottle up. I am sure it is ldi, but in a different style. I had a sample of this style of ldi rye sent to me from a broker wanting to sell some. I am convinced Ldi has 2 rye mashbills, or at least, one mashbill and 2 different ways to distill it. This Pepper brand of rye and the sample I got is less piney, minty as in the Bulleit rye. This is fruitier, more bourbon like, more perfumy. Harsh in a wierd way too. It could be different warehouse placement too. This says at least 2 years, which probably means 2 years and a day. But it has a hell of a dark color for 2 years. So it could be from barrels higher in the warehouse.

Nice work, Tom! It looks like they actually have 3 according to this thread.

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  • 3 weeks later...
Nice work, Tom! It looks like they actually have 3 according to this thread.

The 2 lower rye mashbills are very new (just started production of them this month according to Chuck) and they wouldn't have anything 2 months old much less 2 years old available from either mashbill yet. MGPI has owned the distillery for less than 16 months.

Whatever the reason is that the Pepper rye tastes different it has to be something other than the mashbill because it is almost certainly the 95% rye mashbill like everything else.

Maybe it was the cork taint...

:bigeyes:

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