emr454 Posted December 29, 2016 Share Posted December 29, 2016 (edited) A friend recently gave me a few samples of spirits made by Old Home Distillers in Lebanon, NY, about 20 miles from home. As close as they are, I decided to take a trip to the distillery on Tuesday. I was the only customer there and got a tour of their facility and spoke with the owner for almost an hour. They make a variety of spirits, including an unaged corn whiskey, Field Days Bourbon (aged corn whiskey), Brothers' Cut Bourbon, Single Malt Whiskey, a maple flavored whiskey, spiced whiskey, Applejack, and gin. There is a rye whiskey in the works, and the plan is to age it 2 years to become a straight rye whiskey. The whiskeys are aged in a mix of 10, 15, and 30 gallon barrels. http://www.oldhomedistillers.com/home The following reviews are the three spirits I tasted that were my favorites of their lineup. Single Malt Whiskey -Batch 2, bottle 270 -43% abv/86 proof -100% malted barley -Aged 6 months in new, charred oak barrels. The nose opens with biscuits and clover honey, and an oily barley note. Slight tannic black tea as well. Definite aroma of vanilla and caramel, no doubt due to the char in the barrel. The flavor follows the nose, adds a little brown sugar and a faint grassy/hay flavor. Unbuttered popcorn too? This whiskey ends with a slight bit of cinnamon and a decent burn on the finish. Tasty. Brothers' Cut Bourbon -Batch 1, bottle 162 -46% abv/92 proof -60% corn, 20% barley, 20% rye -Aged 9 months in new, charred oak barrels Oak, caramel, brown sugar, and vanilla up front on the nose. More fresh biscuits and honey on the palate, with black tea, cinnamon, and maybe cloves. I pick up some confectioners sugar and maybe slight peanut brittle. Again, decent warming burn on the finish, and what I call musty wood (but in a good way if you can believe that). Old Home Distillers Gin OHD uses their corn whiskey mashbill as their base spirit. Surprisingly, this gin reminded me of a drinkable version of Heaven Hill's Trybox unaged rye whiskey. Definitely got a distinct rye bread/caraway seed note in the nose and taste. Not surprisingly there is a young whiskey note on the palate, but not too young and rather tasty. I generally cannot stand gin because most taste like straight pine sap to me, but I would drink this straight any day. I can definitely see returning to OHD and picking up more of these three products. Anxiously looking forward to their older-aged products in the future! Eric Edited December 30, 2016 by emr454 12-30: Added pictures Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K4MJK Posted December 31, 2016 Share Posted December 31, 2016 How is it bourbon and only aged 9 month?Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smokinjoe Posted December 31, 2016 Share Posted December 31, 2016 54 minutes ago, K4MJK said: How is it bourbon and only aged 9 month? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk As long as it meets all of the other stated requirements, 9 months is about 8 months, 30 days, 23 hours, 59 minutes, and 59 seconds longer than needed to meet the min requirement to be called "bourbon". "Straight" bourbon needs to be aged a min of 2 years. An age statement is required if aged under 4 years. Age requirements for the different classifications of bourbon are commonly misunderstood, as people like me make statements like I did above, that are often proven wrong... I think I'm right, though... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harry in WashDC Posted December 31, 2016 Share Posted December 31, 2016 (edited) 1 hour ago, K4MJK said: How is it bourbon and only aged 9 month? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Under Federal regs re: standards identifying various distilled spirits, section 5.22(b)(1)(c) of Title 27 of the CFR describes bourbon whisk(e)y as ". . . whisky produced at not exceeding 160° proof from a fermented mash of not less than 51 percent corn, . . ., and stored at not more than 125° proof in charred new oak containers; and also includes mixtures of such whiskies of the same type." There is no minimum amount of time the spirit must be "stored" in the new oak containers. To be called "straight", section 5.22(b)(1)(iii) says the spirit must sit in the barrel for at least two years. EDIT - Joe is correct. Further -- Of course, it'd be ridiculously expensive for a distiller to play the game of putting new make in new oak barrels for just minutes for the sole purpose of calling it "bourbon". Heck, they'd have to charge close to $80 per 750ml to cover their costs.[I just made that $80 comment up. The rest is gospel, though.] Edited December 31, 2016 by Harry in WashDC Just saw Joe's post - he IS correct. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flahute Posted December 31, 2016 Share Posted December 31, 2016 1 hour ago, K4MJK said: How is it bourbon and only aged 9 month? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk As long as you meet all the other requirements (proof off still, proof in barrel, etc.), all you need to do is pour the new make into a new charred oak bucket and walk it over to the bottling line, dump it, and you can call it bourbon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paddy Posted December 31, 2016 Share Posted December 31, 2016 15 minutes ago, flahute said: As long as you meet all the other requirements (proof off still, proof in barrel, etc.), all you need to do is pour the new make into a new charred oak bucket and walk it over to the bottling line, dump it, and you can call it bourbon. Man...we could call that bourbon 'lite', and exploit a whole new segment of the population! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flahute Posted December 31, 2016 Share Posted December 31, 2016 1 minute ago, Paddy said: Man...we could call that bourbon 'lite', and exploit a whole new segment of the population! Call it craft, give it a hipster name, with a hipster label, and a minimalist bottle, and we could charge $55 for it. 375ml even. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
emr454 Posted December 31, 2016 Author Share Posted December 31, 2016 As a point of reference, OHD's products reminded me of the McKenzie bourbon made by Finger Lakes Distilling. I'll be (impatiently) waiting to try some of their whiskey once they start laying it down for 2+ years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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