Tom's Foolery first bourbon release

[callmeox]

It is being bottled at 2 years old and 90 proof. More details in the article below.

I'm thrilled for Tom and Lianne. Their operation is craft in the truest sense of the word.

http://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2014/09/22/toms-foolery-set-to-debut-inaugural-batch-of-ohio-straight-bourbon

[squire]

This is something I can fully support, textbook on how it should be done. Scott will you be bringing a bottle of this to the Sampler next Spring?

[callmeox]

I hope I can get my hands on a couple of bottles. The Ohio distribution system is odd, but I will give it a try.

If I am successful I will bring some down.

[bourbonv]

I met Tom and crew when I was in Cleveland in June and had a chance to taste his products. They make very good Bourbon and i am impressed that their goal is to do a Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon. They had just purchased some new property and were planning to move the distillery with idea that it would be better access for tourist. I take it the move is done since they were going to start bottling after the move. If you see a bottle of their Bourbon, get it. It is young, but very good and will be even better as a bonded product in a few years.

Mike Veach

[P&MLiquorsEric]

Im all for a legit artisan/craft bourbon but the chosen name doesn't give me much confidence if I am a consumer. As a retailer, i am so jaded from "new" and "unique" products (that are not new or unique).

[squire]

It's not a name I would've chosen either Eric but any consumer who watches the virtual tour gets a clear idea of what's being made.

[dcbt]

Im all for a legit artisan/craft bourbon but the chosen name doesn't give me much confidence if I am a consumer. As a retailer, i am so jaded from "new" and "unique" products (that are not new or unique).

Only 2 years aged concerns me more than the name.

[The Black Tot]

These people are the real deal, and I'm very excited for them, and us.

I don't think that anything they have made sits on the shelves, and they seem to be very organized. If they have relocated, I hope they've got a bigger warehouse, because as has been stated above, it would be really cool to see these two release some extra aged product.

I'm going to see if I can make a tour work the next time I'm up through Ohio. We could use more feel good operations like these.

[Quantum]

“Time does interesting things to bourbon,” he says.

For some reason I really like this statement.

[shoshani]

I met Tom and crew when I was in Cleveland in June and had a chance to taste his products. They make very good Bourbon and i am impressed that their goal is to do a Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon. They had just purchased some new property and were planning to move the distillery with idea that it would be better access for tourist. I take it the move is done since they were going to start bottling after the move. If you see a bottle of their Bourbon, get it. It is young, but very good and will be even better as a bonded product in a few years.

Mike Veach

I would love to try their BIB if it ever reaches Illinois. I presume this is going to be aged in standard 53 gal barrels? If they keep their low barreling proof (current stuff comes out at 107), this sounds like it will be one hell of a whiskey. (Their website, btw, says they got their mashbill from Baker Beam. That makes two Beams involved with this.)

[shoshani]

By the way, I found the most interesting picture on one of the distillery's blog posts. http://www.applejackohio.com/blog/show/title/old-man-tom-on-a-barrel-head/

Take a gander at the very last photo in this post. It centers around a barrel head with a human figure drawn on it, but if you look at the surrounding barrel heads, it seems they're fine-tuning a bourbon mashbill of 55-60% corn, 20-25% rye, and 20% barley malt. There are also two barrel heads with a rye mash consisting of 74.5 and 75% rye, the rest of the mash being barley malt. No corn.

If they don't get Illinois distribution for these eventually, I may have to just engineer a road trip.

[callmeox]

They have a large variety of mashbills currently aging with lots of different grain types and sources as well.

I'm hoping that they will chime in here to give some more insight.

[cowdery]

Baker and David Beam are brothers. They were co-distillers at Beam's Clermont distillery. Baker had the day shift, David had the night shift. They both retired in the early 90s.

[5cents]

Just scored at local store. I seem to be finding some luck.

[rndenks]

I scored two bottles of batch 1 today. I am very happy to see this hit the shelves, because these are good people doing things the right way. I was luck enough to tour with some other SB members a year or two ago.

Here are some very early tasting notes. Nose: crisp honey sweetness and very grainy, Taste: crisp apple followed by the grains again and thick feel. Finish: you really taste the grains with mild heat and those grains linger for awhile.

Summary: the grains are very dominant throughout the pour, and it is different than anything else on my shelf. You can tell it is young but not in a bad way. I feel a lot of young have a lot of burn and very little flavor. This is the opposite, and I am really excited to try this with a couple more years in the barrel. There is very little oak in this pour, and I think that will be a nice addition in older batches.

I wish Tom, Lianne and the rest of their crew the best of luck. Also, their new website is awesome. Http://www.tomsfoolery.com. They give all released and racked barrels with a ton of info and pictures on each barrel. Great.

[The Black Tot]

It's nice to see Ohio get their day. Not often do we say "I wish I was bourbon shopping in Ohio today" around here!

[ohiobourbon]

I'm hoping that they will chime in here to give some more insight.

Hi everybody. This is Tom. Thanks for writing about the first release of our bourbon. Lianne and I are happy to answer specific questions about the product, process, equipment, distillery, etc.

Yes, we have been fortunate to have David and Baker Beam (and their extended clan) involved in helping set-up the distillery and in fine-tuning our process. Also, Dick Stoll (the last master distiller at Michter’s in Schafferstown) was here with us from the beginning and even present for our first bourbon distillation. Dick is one of the country’s most experienced distillers of pot-distilled bourbon. And, since Dick ran our equipment for over a decade while it was set-up in the Jug House at Michter’s, we could not have asked for a better mentor.

Our bourbon is as old-school as it can get, I think. By old-school, I mean: fairly traditional mash bill, sour mash, grain-in, starch conversion entirely by enzymes naturally present in the barley, fermented in small open-cypress vats, double pot distilled, and aged in classic 53-gallon whiskey barrels.

We decided to do it this way because: it’s the way David Beam taught us to do it, it’s the way Lou Forman at Michter’s wanted it done in 1976 when he commissioned these stills, it’s the way Dick Stoll did it at Michter’s, and as far as I can tell it’s basically the way it was done back in time when bourbon was invented (I’ll let the historians correct me on this last point).

This first release of our bourbon tastes notably different than the products made by the majors. In part, that’s because this bourbon is just barely two years old. Most notably, this 2-year-old has tons of grain character to it, and I expect that that particular characteristic to decrease as it gets older. Personally, I like the taste of a well made young bourbon (maybe I have been sampling too much new make over the past 3 years)! But it’s more than just the age that makes our bourbon taste different. In another thread, we can go through those points, but I have no doubt that mashing, fermentation and distillation techniques will affect the product taste, and on these three items we are doing it differently than the majors (mashing, fermentation, and distillation). So, I think we will produce a bourbon that, at a minimum, will taste different from what's on the market today. And, maybe closer to what would have been around in the 1700's and up until about 1850.

We have some older barrels (not much older, admittedly), which we have decided to hold back. In about a year, we plan to release our bonded bourbon.

Three years ago, when we started making classic sour mash bourbon, I was not aware of any other distillery doing it this way. That’s a big statement, and since this is a big country there’s a decent chance that somebody was already making a 1700’s style double pot distilled bourbon. It’s fine if Tom’s Foolery does not get to claim that we were “the first†at this or at anything because, really, we aren't making that claim, and we have not invented anything new (yet).

We are attempting to do something different with technology. At this point, I am not sure if it is worth the trouble, so I am hoping some folks can chime in regarding our website and our inventory database. If you click on it, you will know what it’s all about. We are still inputting data (and we need to enter about 100 more barrels). What do you think? Does anybody want this level of detail?

Released barrels:

http://www.tomsfoolery.com/whiskey-finder

Maturing barrels:

http://www.tomsfoolery.com/inventory

[flahute]

Thanks for taking the time to post Tom. Though I live in Seattle now, I come from Northern Ohio (my parents still live in Ashland) so I'm really pulling for you. I'm very intrigued by your process and look forward to the bonded bourbon you have planned. I'll be looking for it next year when I'm back home visiting my parents.

[squire]

Yes Tom, that's exactly the level of detail l want to read about and I'm sure other members here feel the same way. What differentiated those early pioneering distillers such as J.W. Dant was not equipment, mashbill, yeast or water, rather it was care, attention to detail and commitment to quality that caused their brand to thrive while others fell by the wayside. What you're doing is as unique as those craftsmen who recreate early American long rifles using period correct hand tools and just as demanding. How you choose to make cuts from the second distillation alone insure a personal stamp on your whisky that others using a formula can't duplicate.

It would be presumptuous of me to say the others are doing it wrong but I'm confident in saying I believe you're doing it exactly right.

[chrisg]

I'll be looking for this in central Ohio.

[mbroo5880i]

Yes Tom, that's exactly the level of detail l want to read about and I'm sure other members here feel the same way. What differentiated those early pioneering distillers such as J.W. Dant was not equipment, mashbill, yeast or water, rather it was care, attention to detail and commitment to quality that caused their brand to thrive while others fell by the wayside. What you're doing is as unique as those craftsmen who recreate early American long rifles using period correct hand tools and just as demanding. How you choose to make cuts from the second distillation alone insure a personal stamp on your whisky that others using a formula can't duplicate.

It would be presumptuous of me to say the others are doing it wrong but I'm confident in saying I believe you're doing it exactly right.

+1

This expresses my feelings exactly. I would love to try your product. Where is it available?

[oke&coke]

Oh great, now I have another bottle of bourbon I need to keep an eye out for. You guys act like I joined this site to learn new and exciting things about bourbon. SHEESH.

[Paddy]

Hi everybody. This is Tom. Thanks for writing about the first release of our bourbon. Lianne and I are happy to answer specific questions about the product, process, equipment, distillery, etc.

Yes, we have been fortunate to have David and Baker Beam (and their extended clan) involved in helping set-up the distillery and in fine-tuning our process. Also, Dick Stoll (the last master distiller at Michter’s in Schafferstown) was here with us from the beginning and even present for our first bourbon distillation. Dick is one of the country’s most experienced distillers of pot-distilled bourbon. And, since Dick ran our equipment for over a decade while it was set-up in the Jug House at Michter’s, we could not have asked for a better mentor.

Our bourbon is as old-school as it can get, I think. By old-school, I mean: fairly traditional mash bill, sour mash, grain-in, starch conversion entirely by enzymes naturally present in the barley, fermented in small open-cypress vats, double pot distilled, and aged in classic 53-gallon whiskey barrels.

We decided to do it this way because: it’s the way David Beam taught us to do it, it’s the way Lou Forman at Michter’s wanted it done in 1976 when he commissioned these stills, it’s the way Dick Stoll did it at Michter’s, and as far as I can tell it’s basically the way it was done back in time when bourbon was invented (I’ll let the historians correct me on this last point).

This first release of our bourbon tastes notably different than the products made by the majors. In part, that’s because this bourbon is just barely two years old. Most notably, this 2-year-old has tons of grain character to it, and I expect that that particular characteristic to decrease as it gets older. Personally, I like the taste of a well made young bourbon (maybe I have been sampling too much new make over the past 3 years)! But it’s more than just the age that makes our bourbon taste different. In another thread, we can go through those points, but I have no doubt that mashing, fermentation and distillation techniques will affect the product taste, and on these three items we are doing it differently than the majors (mashing, fermentation, and distillation). So, I think we will produce a bourbon that, at a minimum, will taste different from what's on the market today. And, maybe closer to what would have been around in the 1700's and up until about 1850.

We have some older barrels (not much older, admittedly), which we have decided to hold back. In about a year, we plan to release our bonded bourbon.

Three years ago, when we started making classic sour mash bourbon, I was not aware of any other distillery doing it this way. That’s a big statement, and since this is a big country there’s a decent chance that somebody was already making a 1700’s style double pot distilled bourbon. It’s fine if Tom’s Foolery does not get to claim that we were “the first†at this or at anything because, really, we aren't making that claim, and we have not invented anything new (yet).

We are attempting to do something different with technology. At this point, I am not sure if it is worth the trouble, so I am hoping some folks can chime in regarding our website and our inventory database. If you click on it, you will know what it’s all about. We are still inputting data (and we need to enter about 100 more barrels). What do you think? Does anybody want this level of detail?

Released barrels:

http://www.tomsfoolery.com/whiskey-finder

Maturing barrels:

http://www.tomsfoolery.com/inventory

This is awesome Tom and thank you for sharing! What's particularly impressive is that you are doing a wheater, a high rye bill/heavy char barrel aged bourbon as well as a straight rye.

Thank you for being so transparent and doing things the right way, instead of the easy way.

I can't wait to try your products and wish you all the best.

[5cents]

I ended up picking up two more bottles of this this weekend.

[shoshani]

I wish Tom, Lianne and the rest of their crew the best of luck. Also, their new website is awesome. Http://www.tomsfoolery.com. They give all released and racked barrels with a ton of info and pictures on each barrel. Great.

Oh, for goodness sake, they've changed the website since my visit. They publish all their mashbills and even talk about which ones are their favorites. How more transparent can a distillery be?

*holds on for either Illinois distribution or some local friend making an Ohio road trip*