Experimental bourbons you would like to see

[TNbourbon]

I have none of the historical whiskey knowledge that Gary has, but I'll take a shot at mixing my own mash based on things I know I like. I find great bourbons -- with distinctive respective assets -- in both wheated and rye categories, so I think I'd have to try a 4-grain. Since I don't want the rye to overwhelm the wheat, the wheat will be a somewhat higher percentage, so let's say: 65% corn, 15% wheat, 10% rye and 10% malted barley, aged 10-12 years with a #3 char.

[cowdery]

The biggest obstacle to small-scale custom distilling is the fact that most American whiskey distilleries aren't set up to do anything on a small scale. That is in the nature of the column still. You have a bunch of fermenters set, timed to finish as needed, then you crank up the still and go, running it continuously. That produces a lot of whiskey.

Only Woodford Reserve has a true batch process. What they call a "batch" is a bottling batch, but a batch on the production side is about 1,300 gallons of 155 proof spirit. Diluted to the maximum legal entry proof (for bourbon) of 125, that's going to fill 30 barrels. Figure 250 bottles per barrel and your batch is already not very small.

I don't know what the minimum would be for a custom run in a column still operation, but it would be a lot more.

There is also an obstacle to four grain, which is that every distillery has three mills feeding its mash cooker, not four. Conceivably they could mill the wheat and rye together, but again you're clearly monkeying with the operation.

But thinking along the same lines as you, I would love to commission Vendome to make a small scale bourbon distillery, using a smaller-than-normal column still, doubler, the whole bit, that would allow the production of whiskey in small, unique batches. There are small distilling operations about and some make whiskey, but they use pot stills, which are all well and good, but that's not the American way.

(I get some disagreement in this forum when I opine on "the American way" in other contexts, but I think I'm on safe ground here.)

[Gillman]

Small column stills are commercially manufactured. They are used to distill amongst other things the so-called, "white alcohols" ("alcools blanc" in France, made from various fruits). Because fruits deliver small quantities of distillate (e.g. how much cherry wine can you produce from a quantity of wild cherries?) these small columns are suited to that production. No doubt they could be used to make a good cereal distillate to be aged as bourbon, too. I agree with Chuck it is not useful or revealing to linger on the idea that traditional whiskey was made in pot stills. Bourbon to me is quintessentially an industrial and commercial product, one made in the industrial "par excellence" column still since the mid-1800's. This is not to say a pot still product may not be interesting but this does not mean it is necessarily better or more authentic than column still-derived whiskey. Woodford Reserve is pretty good but you know the other day it struck me as kind of heavy and gritty. I sampled the column still-produced Ancient Age Bottled in Bond just after. That night at any rate it seemed better, more elegant, tasty and refined, yet with plenty of bourbon character. Baby that's U.S. bourbon, it defines it.

Gary

[cowdery]

One doesn't have to even prefer one over the other to accept the fact that bourbon/American whiskey is a column-distilled product.

I learned yesterday that there is big difference between the way column stills for American whiskey are made and the way stills for GNS and even for scottish grain whiskey are made, possibly Canadian whiskey as well. One difference is size. It was described to me that the plates in a scottish grain column still are large enough for a man to lay on, spread eagle, without touching the sides. To do that in an American whiskey column still, the man would have to be extremely small, as I think the largest are about 4 feet in diameter.

[wrbriggs]

Interesting, Chuck. Does anyone understand how or if the difference in construction affects the output of the still?

[Gillman]

The size, number and position of the plates affect how complete a fractionating can be done with a given amount of mash or wash moving through the column. The larger and more sophisticated the column, the easier it will be to get a rectified product, i.e., a GNS of about 96% alcohol by volume. But the important thing to remember is a column still (any type) can be adjusted to produce a lower proof spirit. So the column stills in Kentucky either by design or the way they are operated, produce spirit at less than 160 proof (often much less) to be aged into bourbon. Therefore they are not that different from pot stills which produce alcohol at similar (final) tallies although in a different way and possibly requiring more distillations to do it. Some differences remain, e.g. live steam hits the mash in the column stills to do the separation and heat is applied to a pot to boil the contents, so the processes are not identical (apart that is from issues of throughput, energy efficiency and personnel requirements). It seems too at whatever proof the column delivers the resultant spirit it is "cleaner" than that issuing from a pot still. This may not be only a question of proof differences. I am sure, say, Craig and Parker Beam would know the answer to that one. Certainly one should not assume one still will necessarily make a better whiskey than the other. In considering the other day Woodford Reserve vs. Ancient Age Bonded, I felt the latter was better, for example. WR is only partly a pot still product and it has its particular profile and style. Possibly other pot still bourbons, if and when they emerge, will be sensational in taste and a clear advance on anything the Bluegrass columns have produced to date, but I doubt that will happen. More likely some pot still bourbon will be good, some very good (which WR generally is) and some great. That is true now of column still whiskey.

Gary

[cowdery]

Interesting, Chuck. Does anyone understand how or if the difference in construction affects the output of the still?

Well, yeah, that's the point. Although no one understands everything that happens in the whiskey-making process, the design and operation of a still determines which congeners are removed and which remain, and in what concentration. American whiskey stills are designed to produce a flavorful whiskey, not a neutral or nearly-neutral spirit. That's the basic difference.

[jbutler]

Will,

There's an article here that might be of some interest to you.