CRAFTED WITH CHARACTERS
A collection of our thoughts on whiskey, spirits
&
the world
Fiddler Bourbon
With more than double the wheat content of other “wheated” bourbons, Fiddler’s distinctive grain bill makes it one of the most unique bourbons on the market. A perfect combination of corn, wheat and barley unite to create a smooth, soft bourbon that can be enjoyed by both the whiskey novice and enthusiast. Fiddler started its journey in new 53 gallon barrels and is then finished in-house using an assortment of methods, more specifically described on the label of each release. Releases include Fiddler Original (Release 1; finished in 15-gallon quarter casks), Fiddler Georgia Heartwood (Releases 2-5 and Release 7; finished with staves of white oak heartwood that we harvested in Jackson County, Georgia, seasoned for over a year, and hand-charred), Fiddler Wheated Straight Bourbon Whiskey (Release 6; Atlanta’s first straight bourbon since Prohibition), and Fiddler Unison (Release 8-present; blended with our own in-house bourbon stocks that we distilled on our traditional, Scottish-style copper pot stills with corn from Ranger, Georgia’s Riverview Farms).
In addition to the double-copper-pot-distilled bourbon, rye & malt whiskies, plus seasonal fruit brandies using local Georgia produce that ASW Distillery produces in-house, the ASW team created Fiddler as a line to showcase interesting and difficult to obtain whiskey from across the country and eventually around the world.
FIDDLER BOURBON
Our line of unique, award-winning Bourbon Whiskies, named as a nod to our Master Distiller, Justin Manglitz, an accomplished fiddler, and including:
A smooth, easy-drinking high-wheat bourbon (Fiddler Unison Bourbon)
A robust high-malt, pot-distilled bourbon (Fiddler Soloist Straight Bourbon)
A cask strength bourbon that we finish on staves of oak (Fiddler Georgia Heartwood Bourbon).
Together, they’re the perfect Backyard Bourbon.
More about those 3 expressions of Fiddler Bourbon:
Fiddler Unison Bourbon: A true ode to American Bourbon, perfect for campfires, concerts, and a killer Old Fashioned, Fiddler Unison Bourbon is a marriage of a foraged, wheated bourbon & our house-distilled high-malt bourbon. 90 proof, available year-round.
Fiddler Georgia Heartwood Bourbon: The same foraged high-wheat bourbon as our flagship Fiddler Unison, finished on staves of Georgia oak that our distilling team harvested and hand-charred. The 45% wheat content is unique for bourbons, leading to a sweet, smooth profile, despite its high proof.. Cask Strength, only available at a handful of accounts who have selected a barrel
Fiddler Soloist Straight Bourbon: The First Straight Bourbon Ever Distilled in The City of Atlanta*, Fiddler Soloist is a unique take on America's native spirit, reducing the corn in favor of flavorful malts and distilled on our copper pot stills with the grains in. *Straight Bourbon did not become a defined term under American law until 1907, two years after the State of Georgia instituted statewide prohibition that didn’t lift until 1935 – for a much longer statewide prohibition period than federal Prohibition.
Tasting notes:
Fiddler Unison Bourbon: Caramel, citrus, green apple, nutmeg
Fiddler Georgia Heartwood Bourbon: Baking spice, maple syrup, oak, toffee
Fiddler Soloist Straight Bourbon: Cherry cola, chocolate, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, peanut brittle
Awards:
Fiddler Unison Bourbon: Silver Medal, San Francisco World Spirits Competition, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018
Fiddler Georgia Heartwood Bourbon: Gold Medal, San Francisco World Spirits Competition, 2021, 2018
Fiddler Soloist Straight Bourbon: Gold Medal, San Francisco World Spirits Competition, 2020
Locate Fiddler Bourbon near you at our map below.
Interested in learning more?
Visit any of our 3 Atlanta tasting rooms and spirits manufacturing facilities:
ASW Distillery (Buckhead) where we distill our whiskies
ASW Whiskey Exchange (West End) where we age our whiskies
ASW at The Battery Atlanta (near the Atlanta Braves stadium) where we distill our vodka and gin
The Most Awarded Craft Whiskey Distillery since 2018
The awards above, combined with our other whiskies’ medals, have made us the Most Awarded Craft Whiskey Distillery since 2018 at the prestigious San Francisco World Spirits Competition. Medals during that time span include 6 Double Gold Medals, 6 Gold Medals, numerous Silver Medals, and 2020’s Craft Whiskey of the Year, Maris Otter Single Malt (Cask Strength edition).
Winterville Gin
With more than double the wheat content of other “wheated” bourbons, Fiddler’s distinctive grain bill makes it one of the most unique bourbons on the market. A perfect combination of corn, wheat and barley unite to create a smooth, soft bourbon that can be enjoyed by both the whiskey novice and enthusiast. Fiddler started its journey in new 53 gallon barrels and is then finished in-house using an assortment of methods, more specifically described on the label of each release. Releases include Fiddler Original (Release 1; finished in 15-gallon quarter casks), Fiddler Georgia Heartwood (Releases 2-5 and Release 7; finished with staves of white oak heartwood that we harvested in Jackson County, Georgia, seasoned for over a year, and hand-charred), Fiddler Wheated Straight Bourbon Whiskey (Release 6; Atlanta’s first straight bourbon since Prohibition), and Fiddler Unison (Release 8-present; blended with our own in-house bourbon stocks that we distilled on our traditional, Scottish-style copper pot stills with corn from Ranger, Georgia’s Riverview Farms).
In addition to the double-copper-pot-distilled bourbon, rye & malt whiskies, plus seasonal fruit brandies using local Georgia produce that ASW Distillery produces in-house, the ASW team created Fiddler as a line to showcase interesting and difficult to obtain whiskey from across the country and eventually around the world.
WINTERVILLE GIN
Distilled from thirteen botanicals, Winterville Gin tones down the juniper in traditional dry gins in favor of citrus and floral notes, including marigold, a flower celebrated at Winterville, Georgia's annual Marigold Festival. Winterville is known for its slow pace and friendly disposition.
R&D began with over 40 botanical extractions from, then experimenting with various combinations to build 10 different recipes that our team tasted. Recipe No. 6 proved to be the unanimous choice. The final step was deciding on the proof: Of all 4 proofs we tried, 95 proof was the unanimous favorite, making Winterville a great choice for classic gin cocktails like the Gin & Tonic, Aviation and Negroni.
Tasting notes: Citrus, coriander, floral, juniper, marigold
Locate Winterville Gin near you at our map below.
Interested in learning more?
Visit any of our 3 Atlanta tasting rooms and spirits manufacturing facilities:
ASW Distillery (Buckhead) where we distill our whiskies
ASW Whiskey Exchange (West End) where we age our whiskies
ASW at The Battery Atlanta (near the Atlanta Braves stadium) where we distill our vodka and gin
Bustletown Vodka
With more than double the wheat content of other “wheated” bourbons, Fiddler’s distinctive grain bill makes it one of the most unique bourbons on the market. A perfect combination of corn, wheat and barley unite to create a smooth, soft bourbon that can be enjoyed by both the whiskey novice and enthusiast. Fiddler started its journey in new 53 gallon barrels and is then finished in-house using an assortment of methods, more specifically described on the label of each release. Releases include Fiddler Original (Release 1; finished in 15-gallon quarter casks), Fiddler Georgia Heartwood (Releases 2-5 and Release 7; finished with staves of white oak heartwood that we harvested in Jackson County, Georgia, seasoned for over a year, and hand-charred), Fiddler Wheated Straight Bourbon Whiskey (Release 6; Atlanta’s first straight bourbon since Prohibition), and Fiddler Unison (Release 8-present; blended with our own in-house bourbon stocks that we distilled on our traditional, Scottish-style copper pot stills with corn from Ranger, Georgia’s Riverview Farms).
In addition to the double-copper-pot-distilled bourbon, rye & malt whiskies, plus seasonal fruit brandies using local Georgia produce that ASW Distillery produces in-house, the ASW team created Fiddler as a line to showcase interesting and difficult to obtain whiskey from across the country and eventually around the world.
BUSTLETOWN VODKA
Named after the hustle and bustle of the Busiest City in the South, Bustletown is seven-times distilled and drinks smooth as a cloud.
After years of establishing a reputation for quality making whiskey, we introduced Bustletown Vodka by popular demand. The first spirit distilled at our ASW at The Battery Atlanta location, right next to the Atlanta Braves stadium, Bustletown is seven-times distilled from 100% grain in small batches using only choice cuts, then ultra-filtered through activated charcoal for as smooth, refined, and pure a vodka as you’ll find. The sleek label takes its cue from Atlanta being the site of the busiest airport in the world
Tasting notes: Creamy, slightly sweet, subtle black pepper
Awards: 91 Points, International Wine & Spirits Competition, 2021
Locate Bustletown Vodka near you at our map below.
Interested in learning more?
Visit any of our 3 Atlanta tasting rooms and spirits manufacturing facilities:
ASW Distillery (Buckhead) where we distill our whiskies
ASW Whiskey Exchange (West End) where we age our whiskies
ASW at The Battery Atlanta (near the Atlanta Braves stadium) where we distill our vodka and gin
Resurgens Rye
In distilling Atlanta's first rye since Prohibition on its traditional, Scottish-style twin copper pot stills, we took our cue from Atlanta's vibrant craft brewing community to explore new, unique whiskey styles largely ignored by large distilleries. Rye is one of Georgia's traditional grains, and we feature it front and center in Resurgens, crafting Resurgens Rye from 100% malted rye, to create a flavorful whiskey that showcases rye’s potential. We at ASW Distillery aged Resurgens Rye in new, charred American white oak casks, balancing the dryness of the rye with sweetness from the barrel to create an exceptional whiskey, unique to Atlanta. We also release a Port-Cask-Finished expression of Resurgens once per year.
Rye was long-forgotten after the end of Prohibition, but has recently seen a renaissance. Resurgens is ASW Distillery's own take on this expanding category. It's only fitting that renowned Athens artist David Hale - a direct blood descendant of Basil Hayden, the first person to introduce rye into bourbon recipes - crafted the Resurgens Rye label art.
Resurgens Rye
A revival of the Appalachian-style Ryes of yore, we distill Resurgens from 100% malted rye (rather than the unmalted rye of most ryes). Sweeter & more chocolate-forward than a traditional rye, it maintains the stone fruit and spice you’d expect.
Use the map at the bottom of this page to find it.
In distilling Atlanta's first rye since Prohibition on its traditional, Scottish-style twin copper pot stills, we took our cue from Atlanta's vibrant craft brewing community to explore new, unique whiskey styles largely ignored by large distilleries. Rye is one of Georgia's traditional grains, and we feature it front and center in Resurgens, crafting Resurgens Rye from 100% malted rye, to create a flavorful whiskey that showcases rye’s potential. We at ASW Distillery aged Resurgens Rye in new, charred American white oak casks, balancing the dryness of the rye with sweetness from the barrel to create an exceptional whiskey, unique to Atlanta. We also release a Port-Cask-Finished expression of Resurgens once per year.
Rye was long-forgotten after the end of Prohibition, but has recently seen a renaissance. Resurgens is ASW Distillery's own take on this expanding category. It's only fitting that renowned Athens artist David Hale - a direct blood descendant of Basil Hayden, the first person to introduce rye into bourbon recipes - crafted the Resurgens Rye label art.
Tasting notes: Chocolate, graham cracker, apricot
Awards: Double Gold Medal, San Francisco World Spirits Competition, 2020
Locate Resurgens Rye near you at our map here:
Interested in learning more?
Visit any of our 3 Atlanta tasting rooms and spirits manufacturing facilities:
ASW Distillery (Buckhead) where we distill our whiskies
ASW Whiskey Exchange (West End) where we age our whiskies
ASW at The Battery Atlanta (near the Atlanta Braves stadium) where we distill our vodka and gin
The Most Awarded Craft Whiskey Distillery since 2018
The awards above, combined with our other whiskies’ medals, have made us the Most Awarded Craft Whiskey Distillery since 2018 at the prestigious San Francisco World Spirits Competition. Medals during that time span include 6 Double Gold Medals, 6 Gold Medals, numerous Silver Medals, and 2020’s Craft Whiskey of the Year, Maris Otter Single Malt (Cask Strength edition).
Duality Double Malt
Duality Double Malt is the World's 1st Whiskey of Its Kind, a delicious whiskey that sips like the crossroads of a smoky single malt and a robust rye.
Duality Double Malt was a happy accident, an experiment gone right when the grain supplier for our Head Distiller, Justin Manglitz, didn't have enough malted rye for Justin to make a full batch of Resurgens Rye. Justin exercised his ingenuity and added malted barley into the batch. As he normally did with Resurgens, Justin retained the grain-solids of both grains throughout the whole production process (from mashing, to fermentation, to distillation).
We expanded on the dual themes by finishing Duality in a combination of new & used barrels and bottling it at 88 proof. The result in Duality Double Malt is something truly unique, a testament to the innovative flavor combinations that craft distilleries across the U.S. are pioneering.
The label features a number of dualistic Easter eggs, including a Scottish-Gaelic translation of the first verses in Act V, Scene I of MacBeth: "Double double, toil and trouble, fire burn, and cauldron bubble."
DUALITY DOUBLE MALT WHISKEY
A delicious symphony of rye and cherry-smoked malted barley, for the World's 1st Double Malt and Georgia's 1st Ever Double Gold Whiskey. It was a "happy accident" or "experiment gone right", depending on who you ask.
Use the map at the bottom of this page to find it.
Duality Double Malt is the World's 1st Whiskey of Its Kind, a delicious whiskey that sips like the crossroads of a smoky single malt and a robust rye.
Duality Double Malt was a happy accident, an experiment gone right when the grain supplier for our Head Distiller, Justin Manglitz, didn't have enough malted rye for Justin to make a full batch of Resurgens Rye. Justin exercised his ingenuity and added malted barley into the batch. As he normally did with Resurgens, Justin retained the grain-solids of both grains throughout the whole production process (from mashing, to fermentation, to distillation).
We expanded on the dual themes by finishing Duality in a combination of new & used barrels and bottling it at 88 proof. The result in Duality Double Malt is something truly unique, a testament to the innovative flavor combinations that craft distilleries across the U.S. are pioneering.
The label features a number of dualistic Easter eggs, including a Scottish-Gaelic translation of the first verses in Act V, Scene I of MacBeth: "Double double, toil and trouble, fire burn, and cauldron bubble."
Tasting Notes: Cedar, coffee, cranberry, smoke, toffee
Awards: Double Gold Medal, 2018, San Francisco World Spirits Competition
Locate Duality Double Malt near you at our account map:
Interested in learning more?
Visit any of our 3 Atlanta tasting rooms and spirits manufacturing facilities:
ASW Distillery (Buckhead) where we distill our whiskies
ASW Whiskey Exchange (West End) where we age our whiskies
ASW at The Battery Atlanta (near the Atlanta Braves stadium) where we distill our vodka and gin
The Most Awarded Craft Whiskey Distillery since 2018
The awards above, combined with our other whiskies’ medals, have made us the Most Awarded Craft Whiskey Distillery since 2018 at the prestigious San Francisco World Spirits Competition. Medals during that time span include 6 Double Gold Medals, 6 Gold Medals, numerous Silver Medals, and 2020’s Craft Whiskey of the Year, Maris Otter Single Malt (Cask Strength edition).
Druid Hill Irish-Style Whiskey
We've crafted Druid Hill in the old Irish tradition with 30% unmalted barley (an innovation originally developed to avoid taxes on malt) and 70% malted barley grown by Loughran's Malt, a 6th Generation family farm in County Louth, Ireland, at the foot of the Cooley Mountains near Dublin.
Just a stone's throw from our distillery, amid the Piedmont's oak-studded slopes, lies Druid Hills, an idyllic area from whence this whiskey takes its name, a nod to the decades that the Druids of Celtic Ireland and our Head Distiller both spent mastering the ancient art of whiskey-making.
Druid Hill Irish-Style Whiskey
A delicious, Irish-style whiskey, triple-distilled from a combination of malted and unmalted barley grown by a 6th Generation family farm in County Louth, Ireland.
Use the map at the bottom of this page to find it.
We've crafted Druid Hill in the old Irish tradition with 30% unmalted barley (an innovation originally developed to avoid taxes on malt) and 70% malted barley grown by Loughran's Malt, a 6th Generation family farm in County Louth, Ireland, at the foot of the Cooley Mountains near Dublin.
Just a stone's throw from our distillery, amid the Piedmont's oak-studded slopes, lies Druid Hills, an idyllic area from whence this whiskey takes its name, a nod to the decades that the Druids of Celtic Ireland and our Head Distiller both spent mastering the ancient art of whiskey-making.
Tasting Notes: Chocolate chip cookie dough, fig preserves, honey.
Awards: Double Gold Medal, San Francisco World Spirits Competition, 2021.
Locate Druid Hill Irish-Style Whiskey near you at our map here:
Interested in learning more?
Visit any of our 3 Atlanta tasting rooms and spirits manufacturing facilities:
ASW Distillery (Buckhead) where we distill our whiskies
ASW Whiskey Exchange (West End) where we age our whiskies
ASW at The Battery Atlanta (near the Atlanta Braves stadium) where we distill our vodka and gin
The Most Awarded Craft Whiskey Distillery since 2018
The awards above, combined with our other whiskies’ medals, have made us the Most Awarded Craft Whiskey Distillery since 2018 at the prestigious San Francisco World Spirits Competition. Medals during that time span include 6 Double Gold Medals, 6 Gold Medals, numerous Silver Medals, and 2020’s Craft Whiskey of the Year, Maris Otter Single Malt (Cask Strength edition).
Tire Fire Heavily Peated Single Malt
With a nose that’s a bouquet of barbecue, a palate that whisks you to salt-sprayed islands in the far north, and a finish that — like the Northwest Passage — lasts a brief eternity, Tire Fire is for those who share their breakfast with bears.
Our Head Distiller Justin Manglitz got his start perfecting his booze-making techniques over 18 years ago. Though he'd always loved Irish Pure Pot Still Whiskies and Lightly Peated Single Malt Scotches (like the bottle of Macallan he received for graduation), he'd always found heavily peated single malts to taste like burning rubber. So when the rest of the team here — who love our Islay-style single malt whiskies — put Justin up to the task of distilling a peat bomb he'd actually drink, he gladly accepted the challenge.
If you like your whiskey with all the peat that can be seared into a single dram, we think this will suit you just fine. Largely because it’s peaty, and delicious.
Tire Fire Heavily Peated Single Malt Whiskey
A delicious, Islay-style single malt whiskey, distilled on our Scottish-style twin copper pot stills from 100% peated barley from Inverness, Scotland.
Use the map at the bottom of this page to find it.
With a nose that’s a bouquet of barbecue, a palate that whisks you to salt-sprayed islands in the far north, and a finish that — like the Northwest Passage — lasts a brief eternity, Tire Fire is for those who share their breakfast with bears.
Our Head Distiller Justin Manglitz got his start perfecting his booze-making techniques over 18 years ago. Though he'd always loved Irish Pure Pot Still Whiskies and Lightly Peated Single Malt Scotches (like the bottle of Macallan he received for graduation), he'd always found heavily peated single malts to taste like burning rubber. So when the rest of the team here — who love our Islay-style single malt whiskies — put Justin up to the task of distilling a peat bomb he'd actually drink, he gladly accepted the challenge.
If you like your whiskey with all the peat that can be seared into a single dram, we think this will suit you just fine. Largely because it’s peaty, and delicious.
Tasting Notes: Brown sugar, peat, cherry, vanilla ice cream.
Awards: Gold Medal, San Francisco World Spirits Competition, 2021 (Cask Strength); Gold Medal, San Francisco World Spirits Competition, 2020 (91 Proof).
Locate Tire Fire Heavily Peated Single Malt near you at our map here:
Interested in learning more?
Visit any of our 3 Atlanta tasting rooms and spirits manufacturing facilities:
ASW Distillery (Buckhead) where we distill our whiskies
ASW Whiskey Exchange (West End) where we age our whiskies
ASW at The Battery Atlanta (near the Atlanta Braves stadium) where we distill our vodka and gin
The Most Awarded Craft Whiskey Distillery since 2018
The awards above, combined with our other whiskies’ medals, have made us the Most Awarded Craft Whiskey Distillery since 2018 at the prestigious San Francisco World Spirits Competition. Medals during that time span include 6 Double Gold Medals, 6 Gold Medals, numerous Silver Medals, and 2020’s Craft Whiskey of the Year, Maris Otter Single Malt (Cask Strength edition).
Tips for Visiting Atlanta
Here at ASW Distillery, we love all that Atlanta has to offer, the diverse neighborhoods, world-class restaurants, vibrant nightlife, and thriving cultural scene. If you’re heading to The City Too Busy to Hate any time soon, we hope you’ll consider stopping by either of our locations: the Distillery or the Barrel Exchange. To that end, we’ve put together these 5 tips to help you plan for your visit.
#1 Best Time to Visit
Atlanta is known for its hot and humid summers, with temperatures at their highest in July and August. We recommend visiting Atlanta between March to May when temperatures are milder and you can enjoy outdoor activities, festivals, and concerts. In the spring, Atlanta is truly beautiful with the azaleas and dogwoods in full bloom.
#2 Airport Travel Tips
Hartsfield-Jackson Airport (ATL) is the world’s busiest passenger airport. Seven large concourses are connected via a subway and miles of moving walkways. This means that it can take a significant time to get to your gate, so plan to arrive at least two hours in advance (even more for international flights). Save time at the airport by booking your ATL parking in advance so that you have a parking spot waiting for you when you arrive.
#3 Getting Around
The road congestion in Atlanta can make it difficult to get around. The good thing is that you don’t need a car to get around Atlanta. The extensive public transportation system is called MARTA and it connects the major parts of the city and nearby suburbs. The fare is reasonable and you can purchase a day or weekly pass if you know you will be hopping on and off throughout your visit.
#4 Where to Stay
There are a number of trendy neighborhoods around Atlanta and each has its own distinctive character. Little Five Points is known for its great dive bars, vegan restaurants, and music scene. East Atlanta Village boasts tons of local restaurants, independent bookshops, artisan bakeries, and a vibrant arts and music scene. The historic West End neighborhood is known for its terrific soul food restaurants, the Westside BeltLine, and the ASW Whiskey Exchange. You can also stay Downtown or in Midtown if you want to be near the main tourist attractions.
#5 What to Do
Downtown Atlanta is home to four major attractions: The Georgia Aquarium, World of Coca-Cola, The CNN Center, and the National Center for Civil and Human Rights. If you want a real taste of Atlanta, then spend time on Auburn Avenue, where you will find the birth home of Dr. Martin Luther King, the Ebenezer Baptist Church, and The King Center. Catch a Braves baseball game, Falcons football game, or Hawks basketball game. Take a tour and experience our tasting room at the ASW Whiskey Exchange. We hope to see you soon!
5 Whiskey Recipes That Will Blow Your Mind
The world of whiskey is an endless ocean of variation, taste and competition. Every year, craft distillers across the country make use of their creative talents and skill to create the best whiskey available on the market. They achieve this by using a variety of ingredients, mash recipes, distillation equipment, distilling methods, and barrel aging techniques. Each new batch is an art form as well as a science to create something truly splendid.
This guest post comes to us from Kyle Doran, of Mile Hi Distilling equipment.
The world of whiskey is an endless ocean of variation, taste and competition. Every year, craft distillers across the country make use of their creative talents and skill to create the best whiskey available on the market. They achieve this by using a variety of ingredients, mash recipes, distillation equipment, distilling methods, and barrel aging techniques. Each new batch is an art form as well as a science to create something truly splendid.
Celebrated cocktails take note of these exquisite whiskeys and aim to augment their flavor profiles within their recipes. Below, we've outlined a few delicious cocktail ideas, along with some of the most praiseworthy whiskeys available today. Let's dive in.
Resurgens Rye
Created by ASW Distillery (that's us!), Resurgens Rye has a very unique take on Rye whiskey. For the mash recipe, ASW uses 100% malted rye, including nearly 5% chocolate malted rye. They use malted rye (rather than the unmalted rye of most ryes on the market) in the mash. This allows for a more concentrated flavor profile of the rye itself to come through in the whiskey.
Resurgens Rye is distilled by a grain-in distillation technique, using Scottish-style double copper pot stills. The batches are then aged using an array of American white oak casks.
With hints of chocolate and sweet honey, Resurgens Rye is a perfect whiskey for making an Old Fashioned. Mix 1/2 teaspoon of sugar with a few dashes of water into a rocks glass. Add 3 dashes of Angostura Bitters. Muddle until dissolved. Add large ice cube to the glass. Pour 2 oz. of Resurgens Rye Whiskey. Stir and garnish with an orange slice.
Leopold Bros. Maryland-Style Rye Whiskey
Created by Leopold Bros. Distillery, Maryland-Style Rye Whiskey has a fruity and floral taste profile that is much less aggressive than other traditional American rye whiskeys. This is because they use a different type of rye and mash bill. In the 1800’s, two types of rye were primarily used to create mash for whiskeys. Pennsylvania Rye, and Maryland Rye.
The difference between these two ryes? Pennsylvania Rye has a nearly pure rye mash bill, which will produce a very dry and spicy whiskey. Maryland Rye, on the other hand, is made up with a 65% rye mash bill. It produces a much softer tasting whiskey with subtler spices and smoother flavors.
Leopold Bros. Maryland-Style Rye Whiskey's mash bill is around 65% rye, 15% corn, and 20% malted barley. The mash undergoes a bacterial fermentation in the distillery's cypress open fermenters. The acetic acid bacteria gives the mash its fruity flavors and aromas before the distillation phase. After distilling, it's then aged for 4 years in charred American oak barrels at 98 proof to produce an 86 proof end result.
For an alternative but delightful take on rye whiskey, give Leopold Bros. Maryland-Style Rye Whiskey a try. It's also great for making a Whiskey Smash. The light fruity hints of caramel and vanilla, mix well with mint leaves and lemon to create a refreshing cocktail. Place 5-7 mint leaves, a wedge of lemon and 1 tablespoon of sugar into a shaker. Muddle until the sugar has dissolved and the mint leaves and lemon are sufficiently ground. Pour 2 oz. of Leopold Bros. Maryland-Style Rye Whiskey. Shake, double-strain and pour into a rocks glass over 1 large ice cube.
Distillery 291's Single Barrel Colorado Rye Whiskey
Distillery 291's Single Barrel Colorado Rye Whiskey is a very notable whiskey this year. It was awarded the world's best Rye of 2018 by World Whiskies Awards. Its mash bill is composed of 61% malted rye and 39% corn resulting in a sweetness on the nose, spiciness on the palate and ending with a sweet finish. Finally, Single Barrel Colorado Rye Whiskey is aged for one year in American white oak barrels and then finished with charred aspen barrels. Michael Myers is the owner and head distiller at Distillery 291, which is located in Colorado Springs. His aim is to create whiskeys that reproduce the taste, smell and folklore of the Wild West.
With a flavor profile that includes cinnamon, oak and maple, the Vieux Carre is a great cocktail to create with Distillery 291's Colorado Rye Single Barrel Bourbon. Pour 3/4 oz. of bourbon, 3/4 oz. of Cognac, and 3/4 oz. of Vermouth into a mixing glass. Add 1 teaspoon of Bénédictine liqueur. Add 1 dash of each Peychaud’s Bitters and Angostura bitters. Fill mixing glass half full with ice. Stir until chilled and pour into chilled rocks glass.
Duality Double Malt
Another amazing spirit distilled by ASW Distillery, Duality Double Malt is the world's first whiskey of its kind because of its unique mash bill, distillation process and aging methods. The mash bill is made up of 50% cherry-smoked barley malt and 50% rye malt. Both of these malted grains are fermented together in the same vessel before the distilling process. The grains are left in during the first distillation which is done using the same Scottish tradition of double copper pot distilling that is used for Resurgens Rye. After distilling, the batch is aged in charred oak casks of varying sizes. As a result, this whiskey has a rich and complex flavor profile with hints of coffee, toffee, fruit and honey. Duality took home the Double Gold in the San Francisco World Spirits Competition in 2018. Whoever the connoisseur, this whiskey is definitely worth your time.
The Rusty Nail (Rusty Bob) is a simple, yet delicious cocktail that is perfect if you're in the mood for a sweet and light experience. With the rich tastes of honey, caramel, chocolate, coffee, and other mouthwatering flavors, the Duality Double Malt blends very well with the sweet herbal honey notes of Drambuie. Pour 1 1/2 oz. of Duality Double Malt and 1/2 oz. of Drambuie into a rocks glass over ice. That's it. Enjoy this easily made cocktail to your heart's delight.
Ridgemont Reserve 1792 Single Barrel
Ridgemont Reserve 1792 Single Barrel Bourbon is distilled by Barton 1792, a distillery established in 1879 and located in Bardstown, Kentucky. 1792 Bourbon Distillery gets its name from commemorating the year that Kentucky became a state. The mash bill is 75% corn, 15% rye, and 10% barley. Because of the mash bill ingredients and being aged 8 years in new charred oak barrels, this bourbon has subtle hints of butterscotch, maple and light oak. With the heat of the high rye composition, mixed with hints of caramel throughout, this is a whiskey worth appreciating. The Ridgemont Reserve 1792 Single Barrel has also won the Double Gold award in the San Francisco World Spirits Competition this year.
The sweet vanilla undertones of Ridgemont Reserve 1792, mixed with muddled mint leaves makes for a perfect Mint Julep. Place 6-8 mint leaves with 1 teaspoon of sugar in a rock glass. Lightly muddle until the mint leaves have broken down. Pour 2 oz. of Ridgemont Reserve 1792 over the mix. Add crushed ice until glass is topped. Garnish the glass with 1 mint leaf. Enjoy!
Generation after generation, distillers pass down the time honored tradition and artform of creating whiskey. As a result, craft whiskey distilleries are always looking to the horizon to expand on what their forefathers built before them. Amazing whiskeys are created every year by experimenting with different ingredients and techniques. Whether you're a newcomer or a seasoned connoisseur of whiskey, you will be able to appreciate each of these batches for a variety of reasons. Try out these whiskeys and cocktails and decide what you appreciate about the spectrum of different flavor profiles you find. We hope you've enjoyed this breakdown of some of the best whiskeys and cocktail recipes to try out this year.
Kyle Doran is a Colorado local and writer for Mile Hi Distilling, a manufacturer of high quality whiskey and moonshine stills as well as other distilling products. Kyle is fascinated by the history of craft distilling, the distilling process and loves to discuss different varieties of spirits and liquors. His favorite spirits are bourbon, whiskey and moonshine.
Interested in a tour & tasting at our Atlanta distillery? That's great news! Book your tasting & tour below:
Three Variations on the 2nd Best Old Fashioned
Few cocktails have have captured the minds of the thirsty public or generated as much interest in the past two centuries as that old Bourbon standby, the Old Fashioned.
Few cocktails have have captured the minds of the thirsty public or generated as much interest in the past two centuries as that old Bourbon standby, the Old Fashioned.
The History of the Old Fashioned: Sazeracs to Martinis
Sure, the Martini had its heyday in those dark days when whiskey was merely an afterthought of the spirits-sipping population. Then there’s the Manhattan -- one of our unanimous favorite cocktails here at ASW Distillery -- named after perhaps the most famous city on earth.
And, of course, the alleged fountainhead of all cocktails, the Sazerac, hails from mid-1800s New Orleans, when a certain Sewell Taylor sold his bar to become an importer of the Sazerac-de-Forge et Fils brand of cognac that entrepreneur Aaron Bird (who bought Taylor’s bar) mixed into his “Sazerac Cocktail”. The cocktail just happened to include local bitters from Antoine Amedie Peychaud, the inventor of Peychaud’s. After an epidemic devastated French vineyards and drove up cognac prices, the Sazerac began to dress up the corn-and-rye-based swill floating down the Mississippi River instead. Like the Manhattan, the Sazerac is a favorite of ours at the distillery. In fact, we make a mean one as part of our cocktail program, which you can enjoy any Thursday, Friday, or Saturday during our tasting hours.
But since the Bourbon Old Fashioned’s formalization in Louisville, Kentucky, and subsequent popularization at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, the Old Fashioned has been a go-to staple of everyone from creator of fictional lands, George Lucas, to fictional creator of ads, Don Draper in Mad Men, who consumed enough of them to send chills down Winston Churchill’s spine.
The word “cocktail” arose in the early 1800s, when an editor of New York’s The Balance and Columbian Repository defined the drink as a mixture of spirits, bitters, water, and sugar. But as the 1800s progressed from gas lamps to electric street lights, barkeeps had begun concocting cocktails with a wider array of modifiers -- everything from orange curaçao to absinthe (as in the case of the Sazerac). In the 1860s, tipplers began to long for the “good old days” of the cocktail, perhaps as a response to the psychological impact of the Civil War.
I'll Have It the 'Old Fashioned' Way
Soon, the “old fashioned” way of making cocktails came back into fashion, featuring just spirits, bitters, water, and sugar. A barkeep from Chicago mentioned that the most popular base spirit in the Old Fashioned of the 1870s was whiskey (albeit rye at the time, rather than bourbon). But the name “Old Fashioned” as a proper noun hadn’t yet entered the common vernacular. For that, we can credit Louisville, Kentucky’s gentleman’s club, the Pendennis Club, founded in 1881. A bartender in the city devised the delicious concoction to consist of lots of bourbon, a little water and sugar, and a hint of bitters and orange. James E. Pepper, a well-known whiskey distiller of the day, transported this newly named “Old Fashioned” cocktail to New York City’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, and the rest is history.
In 2015, Louisville even named the Old Fashioned as its City Cocktail, creating a two-week celebration of the drink in its annual “Old Fashioned Fortnight”. How many other boozy drinks can claim to be the cocktail representing an entire city?
But an Old Fashioned is more than just the spirited sum of sugar, water, bourbon, bitters, and a stale bar garnish like a desiccated orange peel or canned cherry. There is an art to the Old Fashioned that requires balance and imagination. To that end, we here at ASW Distillery have experimented with numerous variations on the Old Fashioned theme over the years, three of which we finally got to unveil to guests in 2017.
New GA Laws: Vetting Our Old Fashioned Recipes
How’s that? Well, when Georgia updated its distillery laws that took effect on September 1, 2017, the law finally permitted us as a distiller of spirits to serve cocktails directly to the public. We were suddenly transformed from distillery with a nice tasting room into a sort of cocktail bar (albeit with tighter hours) serving up delicious & inexpensive cocktails right across the street from SweetWater Brewery.
For our first cocktail menu, we included classics like a Southern Mule (made with bourbon and local bitters heroes, 1821 Bitters Ginger Beer), a Sazerac, and, of course, one of our Old Fashioned recipes.
The night of Sept. 1, when we unveiled the new cocktails, one patron paid us the weighty compliment: “That’s the 2nd best Old Fashioned I’ve ever had.” Thing was, he couldn't remember the first. So we assumed either it was a fine specimen of boozy goodness, or the patron was concerned with grade inflation.
In either event, the compliment tickled us better than Elmo, and ever since that fateful, ego-stroking evening, we’ve come to calling our Old Fashioneds the “2nd Best Old Fashioneds”.
So without further ado, we present to you, the Three 2nd Best Old Fashioned Recipes we’ve concocted over the years of making & savoring whiskey.
The Three 2nd Best Old Fashioned Recipes
The 2nd Best Old Fashioned Recipe No. 1
For this one, the splash of fresh orange juice is key, brightening up the cocktail for a perfect spring, summer, and (in the hot South) fall sipper. It pairs well with your lips, when you’re looking for something delicious.
- 2 oz Fiddler Unison Bourbon
- ⅓ oz Simple syrup
- 5 drops 1821 Prohibition Aromatic Bitters
- 5 drops 1821 Tart Cherry Saffron Bitters
- Splash Fresh orange juice
- Orange peel (for garnish)
Combine ingredients over ice, stir & strain into rocks/lowball glass over 2-3 ice cubes. Express* orange peel, rub around the rim, and drop into the glass.
*To “express” just means to squeeze it above the cocktail with the peel facing down, towards the cocktail.
The 2nd Best Old Fashioned Recipe No. 2
As pioneers in Southern pot-still spirits, this is the most traditional of the recipes we’ll put our stamp of approval on. It pairs well with cigars & fond memories of yesteryear.
- 2 oz Fiddler Unison Bourbon
- 2 tsp warm water
- 1 tsp raw sugar
- 3 dashes Angostura bitters
- Orange wedge (for garnish)
Stir sugar, bitters & water in a glass until the sugar is dissolved. Add 5-7 ice cubes and pour Fiddler over. Stir 20-30 seconds to chill cocktail & dilute whiskey, then strain into rocks/lowball glass. Garnish with orange wedge.
The 2nd Best Old Fashioned Recipe No. 3
This is the funkiest of the bunch, the proverbial wild child that pays homage to Georgia’s excellent, but often underappreciated, climate for some varieties of figs (specifically, “Brown Turkey” figs). It comes from our friends in Decatur, Georgia’s No. 246, just a hop, skip & a jump from our distillery.
- 2 oz Fiddler Unison Bourbon
- 2 tsp Fig cordial*
- 1 tsp Balsamic vinegar
- Regan’s Orange Bitters
- Lemon peel (for garnish)
So there you have it. Three variations of the 2nd Best Old Fashioned cocktail, as told by our distillery, which now just so happens to be a lively cocktail outpost as well. We hope you find these enjoyable, and likewise hope you'll join us for one at our tasting room some time in the not-too-distant future.
Cheers,
-Chad & The ASW team
Spirited Women Who’ve Run the World of Spirits
With International Women’s Day, we wanted to take a few moments to recognize some of the women who have helped shape the spirits landscape over the last century, ranging from Prohibition to modern-day.
Ninety-nine years ago, a bespectacled Ohio attorney who’d once been pitchforked by a drunk farmhand and a glacial Minnesotan with a mountain for a mustache guided the U.S. into one of its darkest ages. President Herbert Hoover called this era “a great social...experiment”. That was, of course, before the era abruptly ended thirteen years later. As you might have guessed, this Great Social Experiment was Prohibition. Or “Prohibition”, as anyone with a thirst for the bottle might have called it with a wink and a nod during the era. For speakeasies and locker clubs abounded in cities all across the country, catering to parched politicians and performance artists alike.
An International Women's Day Celebration
For International Women’s Day, we wanted to take a few moments to recognize some of the women who have helped shape the spirits landscape over the last century, ranging from Prohibition to modern-day.
Ninety-nine years ago, a bespectacled Ohio attorney who’d once been pitchforked by a drunk farmhand and a glacial Minnesotan with a mountain for a mustache guided the U.S. into one of its darkest ages. President Herbert Hoover called this era “a great social...experiment”. That was, of course, before the era abruptly ended thirteen years later. As you might have guessed, this Great Social Experiment was Prohibition. Or “Prohibition”, as anyone with a thirst for the bottle might have called it with a wink and a nod during the era. For speakeasies and locker clubs abounded in cities all across the country, catering to parched politicians and performance artists alike.
Meanwhile, “rum-running” entered the American lexicon as a euphemism for the tactics that spirited entrepreneurs used to evade authorities and get hooch into the hands of the people. Two of the most successful rum-runners during the era? A convoy-boat operator with the unassuming name of Marie Waite, and a pistol-wielding bosslady nicknamed “Cleo”, who hailed from the same state as the bespectacled attorney who ushered in the rum-running age: Ohio. Turns out, “women were far better bootleggers than men because many states had laws that made it illegal for male police officers to search women.” (Georgia Hopley, the first female Revenue agent, had this to say on the matter: “Their [women’s] detection and arrest is far more difficult than that of male lawbreakers.”)
The Bahama Queen of Whiskey
Gertrude Lythgoe was the tenth child of an English father and Scottish mother, a fitting lineage for a woman who would become one of the most successful Scotch whiskey runners during Prohibition. Spending some of her childhood as an orphan, she left her birth-state of Ohio, first for New York, then California, to work as a stenographer. Not long thereafter, she came within the orbit of a liquor exporter based in London.
After the passage of Prohibition in 1919, the exporter sent Lythgoe on special assignment to Nassau, Bahamas, to set up a wholesale liquor business. She wasted no time in opening their operations on Market Street. Sporting a pistol on her hip and poetry on her tongue, she earned the respect and admiration of her mostly male bootlegging peers, including the famed “Bill” McCoy. Earlier in life, her supposed similarity to Cleopatra earned her the nickname “Cleo”, and rum-running colleagues soon took the nickname to its logical conclusion by dubbing her “The Bahama Queen”.
Over the course of the next six years, she imported thousands of bottles of spirits into the United States. Though she was arrested on numerous occasions, the authorities could never get anything to stick, and she walked each time without ever receiving a conviction. Finally, in 1925, believing a “jinx” to be waiting in the wings for her, she retired from running whiskey across the Caribbean. “I just beat my jinx before it got me,” “Cleo” Lythgoe remarked the following year to the Milwaukee Journal. Taking an almost obituesque tone, the Journal wrote of her retirement:
A jinx has tracked her down, from her whisk(e)y throne in Nassau, through the most luxurious hotels of European capitals...to the loneliness of a New York hotel suite, where she came to hide from the world and recover her lost nerve and her health, attended only by her deaf mute sister.
Yet give up the ghost she had not, even if she’d given up the whiskey chase. She moved to Los Angeles and passed away in 1964 at the age of 86. Perhaps a multi-millionaire; or perhaps not. Nassau flags were raised to half-mast for days after her passing. It’s even rumored that “the British flag itself dipped in salute when, for the last time, she sailed from the Bahamas” during the height of Prohibition, to escape that jinx.
Whiskey in a Teacup, Rum in a Speedboat
Tom Waits may have considered his “Black Market Baby” to be whiskey in a teacup, but Marie Waite was anything but. Far from staying cool, she is rumored to have been both handy and unabashed in her use of firearms. After her husband Charles washed ashore near Miami in 1926, Marie assumed the mantle of leading the rum-running business he’d established, just months after Cleo Lythgoe had hung up her hooch boots. (Whether Charles died at the hands of a rum-running competitor, or in a shootout with the Coast Guard, is still a matter of debate.)
Based in Havana, “Spanish Marie” initially found success by transporting her cargo in a flotilla of four convoy boats -- three loaded with rum, one loaded with guns to fend off the Coast Guard. From these convoy boats, her employees offloaded the rum into 15 smaller contact boats, “the fastest in the business”, to run her rum anywhere from Palm Springs to Key West. At her peak, reports put her net worth at nearly $1 million. Her speed advantage, however, proved short-lived, as the Coast Guard upgraded their fleet and enabled them with radios.
But soon, Marie outfitted her boats with radios as well, and established an unlicensed radio-transmission station on Key West. Uttering seemingly random words in Spanish, her outfit evaded detection throughout the next hurricane season. Yet on March 12, 1928, authorities stumbled upon her and six accomplices in Coconut Grove, Florida, unloading whiskey, rum, champagne, and beer from her boat Kid Boots into a truck. They arrested her for the transportation of 5,526 bottles of alcohol. After posting a $500 bond, Marie skipped town. She was never heard from again.
The Women Making this Whole Thing Go
Back at the ranch (ASW) nearly a century later, we’ve been most fortunate to have two spirited women making this whole journey of ours go: Kelly Chasteen and Hallie Stieber. Both Georgia natives, their paths to whiskey were wide-ranging.
A Snellville native, Kelly -- whose teetotaler grandmother coincidentally shared the name Gertrude with the whiskey-running Bahama Queen mentioned earlier -- found a friend in Scotch-and-soda while at UGA and has been known to don a mean costume. If you’ve ever marveled at our tasting room’s design, reveled at a private event here, or traveled to ASW just for the fine assortment of locally crafted wares on our shelves, you can thank our Partner, Kelly Chasteen. Like a bootlegger of old, she has kept our whole enterprise going for months untold, sticking with it from the very beginning. Oh, and if you’re ever in a footrace with her, we highly recommend you stop immediately. She’s lightning quick and may or may not be regionally famous for outrunning the occasional gazelle.
A Marietta native, Hallie spent some of her childhood in that great bastion of cabbage patch-grown children, Cleveland, Georgia. Like Kelly, she stayed here in Georgia, the Empire State South, for her college days, before joining Empire State South in Midtown. Her palate led her to Kimball House, then on to Boccaluppo, where she managed the beverage program. Inspired by Negronis, Boulevardiers, and some of her other favorite classic cocktails, she crafts some mighty fine drinks and the events you get to enjoy them at.
Whiskey brings them together day in and day out. Not only because they work at a whiskey distillery. But also because they find it delicious -- Kelly predominantly bourbon, Hallie leaning more towards ryes and malts. We celebrate them (along with those spirited pioneers, Gertrude “The Bahama Queen” Lythgoe and “Spanish” Marie Waite) by raising a dram of whiskey. Thank y’all for all that you have done and continue to do.
Our 4 Year Journey to Duality Double Malt: The World's 1st Whiskey of Its Kind
Enter Duality, a testament to Justin’s 16 years of single-minded dedication to learning how to make some of the best craft booze in the world. Jim and Charlie met Justin over four years ago and immediately mapped out the idea for Resurgens. Hot on the heels of the idea for Resurgens, though, came Justin’s idea for a whiskey distilled from a mash of 50% malted barley and 50% malted rye. When he mentioned it to Jim one whiskey-sipping afternoon, Jim immediately coined the name “Duality”, a name that describes the dram better than any other could. Little did we know then that Duality is the first whiskey of its kind, anywhere in the world.
In following our progress through the years, you may have noticed a recurring theme: we rarely stick to a script, eschewing what’s conventional in favor of a trailblazing quest to remain true to our whiskey roots.
Our Start 7 Years Ago
When we prepared to first release American Spirit Whiskey seven years ago, we knew the uphill climb that awaited us with the little known category of spirit whiskey. But we liked the taste of the recipe we’d come up with, so instead of starting with vodka, we took a gamble with a clear whiskey. And though selling our clear whiskey for six years without a brown spirit as a portfolio mate could, with great accuracy, be described as “challenging”, or “tough sledding”, or “borderline madness”, we’re proud to look back and say that we remained true to our whiskey roots.
The Beginnings of Distillation at 199 Armour Drive
And when we began distilling on our ridiculously photogenic Scottish-style copper pot stills last year, we again parted with convention. The very first spirit we distilled was a whiskey of rye - but not cereal rye, which forms the basis of nearly all the ryes you find on the shelf today. Rather, malted rye, which uses the most pronounced form (malt) of the most flavorful grain (rye). As our fresh-distilled rye malt whiskey spent time in new oak barrels, it culminated in Resurgens, Atlanta’s first rye since Prohibition, and a unique one at that.
Photo credit: Chris Avedissian
Never ones to rest on our laurels, we next set out to create not just an Atlanta first like Resurgens, but a global first - one that we hope can help put Atlanta on the map internationally as a destination for world-class spirits.
The Blueprint for Duality
Enter Duality, a testament to Justin’s 16 years of single-minded dedication to learning how to make some of the best craft booze in the world. Jim and Charlie met Justin over four years ago and immediately mapped out the idea for Resurgens. Hot on the heels of the idea for Resurgens, though, came Justin’s idea for a whiskey distilled from a mash of 50% malted barley and 50% malted rye. When he mentioned it to Jim one whiskey-sipping afternoon, Jim immediately coined the name “Duality”, a name that describes the dram better than any other could. Little did we know then that Duality is the first whiskey of its kind, anywhere in the world.
An early prototype of the Duality type.
Hundreds of distilleries use 100% malted barley to create single malts the world over. Midleton in Ireland. Springbank in Scotland. Nikka in Japan. Us here in Georgia. And the list goes on.
Not to mention, a small but skilled handful of distilleries across the U.S. distill a mash of 100% malted rye to produce wonderfully unique whiskeys. In addition to us, San Francisco’s Anchor Distilling comes to mind.
But no distillery we've found has combined these two grains into a singularly flavorful whiskey distilled by pairing the traditional, Scottish-style double copper pot method with the Appalachian innovation of grain-in distillation. We’ve taken to calling Duality a “double malt”, in the most unique sense of the word(s).
We don't take the term “trailblazing” lightly. We wouldn't use it for what we're doing here if it weren't true. But, through all our years of challenging ourselves, pushing against our own personal limitations, we had - often unbeknownst to us - been setting the stage to push against the broader status quo’s limitations. In this case, the status quo of using malt only in the context of a conventional single malt crafted of malted barley.
A Defining Moment
Duality, then, represents for us a defining moment of sorts, arising from our team’s single-minded concentration on creating not only the best whiskey we can, but one that we hope serves as the touchstone whiskey for aspiring distillers in the years to come, much as Ireland’s Green Spot was for Justin nearly two decades ago.
Duality Double Malt, a whiskey that astounds writers and reviewers the world over with its flavor and finesse. A whiskey with a gorgeous label crafted with every bit of dual symbolism - including a quote from Shakespeare’s MacBeth - that we could pack into a single 5x4” piece of linen paper. And most importantly, a rich, complex whiskey with a dusting of smoke that helps you, our supporters, to forget - if even for just an hour - the trials and tribulations that life brings with it.
A fine label, indeed.
We would be honored for you to join us for this monumental release on Saturday, August 5, and share this finest of hours with us.
You may reserve your ticket to the release by following this link or clicking the button below.
Big News: We're Opening a 2nd Location
Seven years ago, we kicked our journey off in the humble confines of an Atlanta kitchen. We didn't know it then, but our first product, American Spirit Whiskey, was Atlanta's original Post-Prohibition whiskey brand and would soon gain a following around Atlanta as a perfect whiskey for those just getting into the category and others looking for an alternative to the common vodka. As the winds of change started to move Georgia's distillery laws in a favorable direction, we decided to start looking for a place to call our own - a place to locate our own distillery in the heart of our hometown making the spirit we'd loved since our days at the University of Georgia.
The Way Back
Seven years ago, we kicked our journey off in the humble confines of an Atlanta kitchen. We didn't know it then, but our first product, American Spirit Whiskey, was Atlanta's original Post-Prohibition whiskey brand and would soon gain a following around Atlanta as a perfect whiskey for those just getting into the category and others looking for an alternative to the common vodka. As the winds of change started to move Georgia's distillery laws in a favorable direction, we decided to start looking for a place to call our own - a place to locate our own distillery in the heart of our hometown making the spirit we'd loved since our days at the University of Georgia.
The Search
Our search took us all over the city: from West Midtown to Buckhead to, eventually, Third & Urban's Armour Yards, where we settled on a space in the same neighborhood that had originally attracted SweetWater Brewery, the Atlanta Track Club, and Fox Bros. BBQ. For the last year and with Athens, Georgia's craft booze legend Justin Manglitz at the helm, we've been distilling at our 199 Armour Drive distillery, combining traditional, Scottish-style copper pot stills with the Appalachian innovation of grain-in distillation - one of the few distilleries in the country taking such an approach.
The Westward Expansion
The last seven years since those humble days in an Atlanta kitchen, and the last year in our Armour Yards digs have brought with them untold sweat, stress, and the sacrifice known as sipping whiskey. Now, with our distilling maestro Justin Manglitz at the helm and the incredible support you've provided us since our Grand Opening last year, we've decided to set off headlong into the next leg of our whiskey expedition: a westward expansion.
As of this week, we have come to terms with Stream Realty to open our 2nd Atlanta location, The ASW Rickhouse, joining our craft brewing friends Monday Night Brewing and Wild Heaven in Atlanta's vibrant West End neighborhood. Not to mention, we'll also be able to stave off the type of hunger known to occasionally accompany whiskey consumption with Atlanta icons Honeysuckle Gelato and Doux South Pickles as neighbors.
Wes Jones, Honeysuckle Gelato's co-founder, had this to say about us joining the fun:
I’m thrilled that ASW Distillery will join the fun at Lee + White. Jim and Charlie have put together an incredible team, a group that will enhance the collaborative environment being created at Lee + White. We at Honeysuckle Gelato are looking forward to welcoming ASW to the West End's burgeoning food family.
When our current barrel house gradually then suddenly became saturated with barrels of delicious whiskey, we sought a space that would allow us to continue to play a role in Atlanta's spectacular resurgence, while expanding our storage capacity to help us in our endeavor to put Atlanta on the map for craft distilling. With Monday Night Brewing and Wild Heaven - the founders of whom we've been friends with for over a decade - joining the Lee+White development, the choice was easy, and obvious. Like deciding between whiskey and V8.
Monday Night’s Jonathan Baker expressed enthusiasm for ASW Distillery’s decision:
We’re excited to continue our friendship with ASW, in no small part because we’ll have a perfect spot to walk to after work for a whiskey or three. We started out as neighbors, living next door to each other and brewing in the garage, and now we get to be literal neighbors again.
Meanwhile, ASW Distillery’s Head Distiller, Justin Manglitz, has known Wild Heaven’s Brewmaster Eric Johnson for years, since Manglitz’s days owning downtown Athens, Georgia’s home brew supply store, where Eric was one of his biggest customers. Of ASW Distillery’s westward expansion, Wild Heaven’s Johnson noted:
We are thrilled that ASW has decided to officially become our neighbor in the exciting Lee+White development on the new West End Beltline. They are a perfect fit with the growing community of creatives who have decided to make L+W their home. They are long-time friends who make amazing spirits and we look forward to continuing our many collaborations with them in the years to come.
As such, The ASW Rickhouse will increase our total barrel storage capacity to nearly 1,500 barrels and will provide a convenient spot for our CEO Jim to take a nap, away from the watchful eyes of Justin.
The Other Great News
The timing could not be more right, either. Earlier this week, Governor Nathan Deal signed SB 85 into law that, among other things, allows distillery guests starting this September to sample any of our whiskies in either flight or cocktail form. So no more difficult choices as you peruse our six (and growing) spirits offerings.
The law represents a true game-changer for us and our craft brewery cousins, allowing us to thrive and continue to provide Georgians with a plethora of local craft options.
With all of these incredible encouraging developments fueling us forward, we could not be more excited to share this next, pioneering chapter in our history with you.
To that end, we would be most honored if you would kindly share this exciting news with your friends, on any of the below mediums:
Thank you so much for your ongoing support. We absolutely cannot do it without you and hope to continue to be able to share our journey with you over the weeks, months, and years to come.
The first of many great whiskies to come
Do y’all remember Atlanta’s original craft breweries? We’re talking Marthasville, formed in 1994; Atlanta Brewing Co., formed in 1994 and later renamed Red Brick Brewing Co.; Dogwood, formed in 1996; and of course, Atlanta’s biggest craft brewery to date, SweetWater, formed in 1997.
These were Atlanta’s craft beverage pioneers, paving the way for the incredibly rich and diverse craft beer scene we enjoy in Georgia today. Without their hard work and determination, Georgia’s libations landscape would be significantly less interesting. And we here at ASW Distillery would likely not have had a remote chance of trying to help put Atlanta on the map for craft whiskey.
Do y’all remember Atlanta’s original craft breweries? We’re talking Marthasville, formed in 1994; Atlanta Brewing Co., formed in 1994 and later renamed Red Brick Brewing Co.; Dogwood, formed in 1996; and of course, Atlanta’s biggest craft brewery to date, SweetWater, formed in 1997.
These were Atlanta’s craft beverage pioneers, paving the way for the incredibly rich and diverse craft beer scene we enjoy in Georgia today. Without their hard work and determination, Georgia’s libations landscape would be significantly less interesting. And we here at ASW Distillery would likely not have had a remote chance of trying to help put Atlanta on the map for craft whiskey.
We’ve joined just three other Atlanta-area craft distilleries in trying to provide you with spirits that you can call your own hometown spirits: from Lazy Guy’s bourbon & rye, to Old Fourth’s vodka & gin, to Independent’s rum & bourbon. Our own contribution ranges from two forthcoming bourbons, to brandies if fruit prices ever go back down, to single malts to write home about, made from 100% malted barley and 100% malted rye.
This last spirit, our single malt made from 100% malted rye, is one of just a handful in the country. But we didn’t make it just to be different. (Although we do like to blaze some trails and push some envelopes when we can - it's far better than pushing paper, which 2 of the team members did for many years.) We made it in homage to the single malts we’ve loved for years, fashioned on the same Scottish-style double copper pot stills that some of our favorite Scotch and Irish Whisk(e)y distillers have used for centuries. (Macallan, anyone?) We made it as a testament to one of Georgia’s native grains, rye, which has grown here for centuries. Far better than the European import known as barley.
Yet we also made our Single Malt Rye as a way to show the innovative flavor profiles you can achieve by experimenting with grains. Just like the craft beer pioneers before us — who showed how delicious heavily hopped beer can taste, and how damn good a sour ale brewed using wild, unpredictable yeast can be — we wanted to give Atlanta something unique to call its own, a style of delicious whiskey you find almost nowhere else in the U.S., let alone Georgia.
We’ve put most of it in new, American oak casks to mature for a later date. Not to mention, we enlisted the talents of one of Georgia’s best artists to design the label. More on that to come.
But in the meantime, we’ve bottled some of this groundbreaking Single Malt Rye before it spends time in oak. You’ll notice it’s incredibly smooth for the 93 proof we bottled it at, and has interesting notes of chocolate, hazelnut, and pepper. As it spends time in a barrel, it will take on some of the toffee, caramel, and vanilla notes you expect of a Highlands single malt, and may even present hints of Georgia’s terroir in its tasting notes, like cooked peaches and dried figs.
We look forward to sharing our spirits with you, helping put Atlanta on the map when it comes to craft distilling, and providing you with your very own hometown whiskey for years to come. Thank y’all for sharing in our journey.
Foiled sieges and fake cats: the history of the modern bar
In 1920, a young Atlanta alderman by the name of William Hartsfield began reading speculative literature on the future of what many believed would become a way to transport mail faster. A few visionaries spotted the much more wide-reaching implications of this newfangled technology, the airplane. Hartsfield was one of them, and soon learned of the United States Postal Service’s plan to locate a refueling hub between its New York City and Miami airports for mail planes.
In 1920, a young Atlanta alderman by the name of William Hartsfield began reading speculative literature on the future of what many believed would become a way to transport mail faster. A few visionaries spotted the much more wide-reaching implications of this newfangled technology, the airplane. Hartsfield was one of them, and soon learned of the United States Postal Service’s plan to locate a refueling hub between its New York City and Miami airports for mail planes.
Hartsfield jumped at the opportunity, working together with then-Mayor Walter Sims to secure a five-year, rent-free lease on an abandoned racetrack known as the Atlanta Speedway. Hartsfield partnered with Atlanta’s chief of construction, W. A. Hansell, to transform the speedway into a proper airfield, sodding the field with truckloads of manure that caused an outcry from residents of the downfield town of Hapeville.
As the date the federal government planned to open bidding approached, Hartsfield turned his attention to gaining longer-term access to the land by naming the airstrip Candler Field, a sycophantic ploy to win the loyalty of Asa Candler Jr., who held title to the land. Unswayed by flattery, the eccentric Candler — of Coca-Cola lineage who kept a menagerie of wild animals at his mansion — ensured Hartsfield he would demand payment in full for the property when the five-year lease ended.
When bidding for the postal service refueling station finally opened in 1926, Atlanta submitted its bid with bated breath. To Hartsfield’s chagrin, Atlanta’s westerly neighbor Birmingham submitted a bid for the refueling hub as well. At the time, the cities were nearly identical in regional influence and size, at around 200,000 residents apiece. And Birmingham was perhaps even more strategically located when one examined a map.
Hartsfield went to work, organizing a trip for an assistant postmaster general to visit Atlanta and inspect Candler Field. When the assistant arrived, Hartsfield ferried him across the city with a motorcade flanked by an eight-motorcycle escort. That evening, the scion of Atlanta’s banking community, John K. Ottley(1), Mayor Sims, Georgia Governor Clifford Walker, and Hartsfield, among many others, wined and dined the official before sending him off to a luxury hotel suite for the evening. As Hartsfield later gloated, “No east Indian potentate ever got the attention he did.”
A week later, the Commerce Department designated Atlanta as a stop on the federal airmail route. Hartsfield had, almost singlehandedly, paved the way for Atlanta to become the South’s — and, later, the nation’s — busiest flight hub, connecting millions of national and international visitors every year.(2)
Three centuries before airports became symbols of a city’s connectedness and Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport put Atlanta on the map internationally, Vienna and London were in the midst of their own connectivity renaissances. Unlike the twentieth century’s hubs, in which visitors speaking languages of all stripes sipped lattes and lagers while reading the New York Times between flights, Vienna’s cafes and London’s gin joints were far more provincial in nature. Yet they, like the airport, brought far-flung citizens together like never before.
A siege before the caffeine surge
The Ottoman Empire once stretched from the Persian Gulf in the east to the piedmont just west of Venice’s canals, a distance the equivalent of Atlanta to San Francisco. At the height of its imperial efforts, the Ottoman Empire made multiple attempts to sack the Habsburg Dynasty’s cultural hub of Vienna — first in 1529, another in 1683. Each time, the Viennese rebuffed the onslaught by the Ottoman troops. The story goes that in the aftermath of the Second Siege of Vienna, the Viennese found sacks of strange beans they originally believed to be camel feed. Rather than disposing of the beans, Polish king Jan III Sobieski, who had helped defend Vienna, gave them to one of his officers, Jerzy Franciszek Kulczycki — the uncanny resemblance to the story of Jack and the Beanstalk, be damned.
It was the first time on record coffee had made its way to Europe — it was welcomed with as much aplomb as tobacco had been received on Columbus’ return from the “West Indies” 200 years prior. Kulczycki soon opened Vienna’s first coffeehouse.
Cafe Griensteidl: the First Starbucks?
The next 200 years saw Vienna’s coffeehouse culture grow and thrive. So much so that “by 1900 they had evolved into informal clubs, well furnished and spacious, where the purchase of a small cup of coffee carried with it the right to remain there for the rest of the day…Newspapers, magazines, billiard tables, and chess sets were provided free of charge, as were pen, ink, and (headed) writing paper.”(3)
These caffeinated social clubs helped distinguish Vienna from other cultural centers like Berlin, Paris, and London — the last of which was, concurrent to the Viennese cafes, pronouncedly more besotted, as we’ll explore below.
The most famous of Vienna’s coffeehouses, Cafe Griensteidl, saw many influential authors and philosophers of the early 1900s enjoy a cuppa, including, Hugo von Hoffmansthal, Theodor Herzl, and likely Sigmund Freud himself, although he found Vienna provincial and preferred Swiss cities.
Today, we still enjoy the legacy of these Viennese coffeehouses when we order a latte at a Starbucks coffee bar, pour half the contents out, and fill the space with whiskey from a hip flash that we carry around in our left boot. Our cafes today carry a mantle borne down through the ages by West Coast entrepreneurs, who perfected the Viennese model by adding a dash of indie music and bespoke-seeming branding before scaling the concept to the rest of the world.
The rise of the London dram shop
Five years after Kulcynski opened Vienna’s first coffeehouse, achipelagic Europeans — Londoners, more specifically — got their first taste of gin when William of Orange acceded to the throne. For years, French brandy had been the British spirit of choice, but political and religious conflict between the cross-Channel neighbors led the British Government to pass various acts restricting brandy imports. In 1690, the Government ended the monopoly held for years by the London Guild of Distillers. A range of distillers dove headfirst into the deep ends of the gin pool, encouraged by various politicians, including Queen Anne herself.
As more efficient industrial agriculture practices drove food prices down, Brits — especially cosmopolitan Londoners — had more disposable income. Lacking bowling alleys and Bieber concerts, Londoners took to drink as a form of communal gathering. Centuries prior, visionary entrepreneurs had foreseen that many Brits preferred to down their drinks away from the confines of their homes and had thus introduced thousands of taverns, inns, and alehouses across the country. There, patrons would gather around rough-hewn tables to drink tankards of ale and presumably plot coups that never made it past midnight.
Gin joints & miserable livers
Gin revolutionized these parochial gathering places. Instead of serving patrons at picnic tables, the proprietors of “dram shops”, as they came to be called, centralized distribution of beverages at a main bar. These “gin joints” blossomed throughout the early 1700s, and Brits’ spirits consumption tripled. As early as 1721, Middlesex magistrates decried the pervasive drunkenness they witnessed in the streets. Moving swiftly, they helped pass the Gin Act of 1736, which taxed retail sales of gin at 20 shillings a gallon and required gin joint proprietors to pay a £50 annual license — roughly £7,000 at today’s rates — all but pricing out everyone in the market.
Wily barkeeps introduced an ingenious mechanism to circumvent the de facto prohibition imposed by the 1736 Gin Act. Thirsty Londoners would deposit a shilling in a cat’s paw outside of an unassuming residence. The shilling traveled down a tube, and when the barkeep inside received the money, the barkeep would pour a shot’s worth of gin down the tube to the patron’s mouth. Thus was born the precursor to two 20th century innovations: the Prohibition-style speakeasy, and the modern-day ice luge.
Old Tom Gin & Prohibition-era preferences
The gin-paw invention was known as “Old Tom” — an homage to the tom cat that served as gin courier. In time, gin earned the nickname “Old Tom” as well, specifically a type of sweeter gin. The name still stands today with brands like Ransom Old Tom Gin and Anchor Old Tom Gin leading the craft spirits category.
A century after the first gin joints opened, they resurfaced serving not just gin, but wine and beer as well. They were the precursor to the modern bar as we know it.
Of course, the party didn’t truly start until proprietors added whiskey to the fray. By the time the U.S. enacted that Great Failed Experiment, Prohibition, in 1920, rye whiskey had replaced cognac as the spirit of choice, planting itself firmly in the minds of thirsty bar-goers. Prohibition was to the whiskey industry nothing short of an earthquake — a rifting of plates, a shifting of palates.
Post-Prohibition plate tectonics
In the winner’s circle: Blended Canadian whiskey, with its mild manners and smooth finish, vaulted like an Olympic gymnast into the minds of consumers. Not to mention:
In the post-Prohibition era, bourbon proved as resilient as the corn it derived from.
Not making the podium: Rye whiskey fell off the bar stool, and nearly off the map. Irish whiskey, in the wake of Prohibition and the 1919 closure of British markets, almost went extinct entirely.
A modern-day renaissance
But today, we’re seeing many delicious pre-Prohibition styles of spirit make a comeback. Old Tom Gin and its more mature cousin, barrel-aged gin, are seeing glimmers of shelf space. Irish whiskey is in the throes of a real heater. And perhaps most warming to us: rye whiskey is in the midst of a renaissance.
Why so warming to us? Because the first spirit off our Scottish-style twin copper pot stills is no less than a whiskey made from 100% malted rye, one of America’s native grains.
While we’ve barreled 95% of this American Single Malt Rye, we’ve chosen a select number of bottles to release to you, our early supporters. This one-time-only release offers a taste of delicious chocolate, hazelnut & pepper notes before the single malt spends time maturing in new American oak casks to become what may very well be the quintessential Southern single malt whiskey.
Join us for BBQ, Bluegrass, and Our First Bottle Release on Saturday, September 10 to help us celebrate this milestone for what we hope may very well become the quintessential Southern single malt whiskey and help put Atlanta on the map when it comes to craft whiskey.
Not to mention, each pass comes with a tour of the production area, including our gorgeous, hand-hammered copper pot stills and our rickhouse full of new American oak barrels.
We hope you’re as excited about this monumental event as we are.
— — — — —
(1) Our neighbor street in Armour Yards is Ottley Drive.
(2) Allen, Frederick, Atlanta Rising, Taylor Trade Publishing (1996)
(3)Watson, Peter, The Modern Mind: An Intellectual History of the 20th Century, Harper Collins (2011).
Bourbon vs. Whiskey: What's the difference?
When you were in kindergarten, you likely weren’t a regular bourbon drinker. In fact, you probably didn’t yet know much about bourbon. This makes sense, as teachers are busy teaching you the basics of counting and cooperation, leaving little time to instruct you in the finer spirits of life. As you matured through the years like a fine bourbon in new charred American oak barrels, you likely developed a taste for Scotch, or bourbon, or rye whiskey. (We base this assumption on the fact that you’re here, and all we write about is whiskey.)
When you were in kindergarten, you likely weren’t a regular bourbon drinker. In fact, you probably didn’t yet know much about bourbon. This makes sense, as teachers are busy teaching you the basics of counting and cooperation, leaving little time to instruct you in the finer spirits of life. As you matured through the years like a fine bourbon in new charred American oak barrels, you likely developed a taste for Scotch, or bourbon, or rye whiskey. (We base this assumption on the fact that you’re here, and all we write about is whiskey.)
Yet sometimes our palates precede our knowledge. Many folks who’ve joined us for tours since we opened have oft-repeated the question: “So what’s the difference between bourbon and whiskey?”
Below is our attempt to answer this question as artfully as we can.
All bourbon is whiskey
Think back to your kindergarten days. Chocolate milk was a viable lunchtime beverage.
You got to nap every day. Scabs seemed to heal in twenty minutes. And you were taught that “all squares are rectangles, but not all rectangles are squares.” If you were like us, you probably pulled at your shirt and stretched your brain trying to understand this phrase. With these mental contortions in mind, we would like to reintroduce the metaphor to describe the difference between bourbon and whiskey:
All bourbon is whiskey, but not all whiskey is bourbon.
What exactly is whiskey?
In explaining this mind-blowing proposition, let’s first describe what whiskey is.
The U.S. TTB, the governing body of spirits in the U.S., basically says whiskey is:
- a distilled spirit,
- made from grain,
- bottled at 80 proof or higher, and
- distilled to less than 190 proof.*
(*Distilling grain, or any other base ingredient, to higher than 190 proof produces The Spirit Who Shall Not Be Named amongst whiskey enthusiasts — coincidentally, this 190+ proof spirit almost rhymes with Kafka and begins with the same letter as that other spirit not to be named by wizards, Voldemort.)
The TTB’s definition of whiskey seems straightforward enough, right? No specific grain requirement, no minimum aging requirement.
Yet, as with astrophysics and espionage, the devil lies in the details. For within such a straightforward-sounding definition, you can arrive at significantly different variations. From buttery whiskey brimming with toffee and chocolate, to chewy whiskey of citrus and clove, the flavor profiles you achieve can drastically change just by altering seemingly simple inputs — like the type of yeast you use, or the type of cask you age the spirit in.
And this is where the specifics surrounding bourbon come into play. Similar to the way changing the yeast or the type of cask lead to the same promised land known as delicious whiskey, changing the primary grain used to make whiskey to primarily corn leads us to the rolling pastures known as bourbon.
Bourbon is a subcategory of whiskey
Think of whiskey as a hub, and bourbon as a spoke. Whiskey is the parent category that gives rise to all other subcategories, including the bourbon that many have grown to love over the years.
To make bourbon, then, a U.S. distillery must follow all the requirements of making whiskey and, in addition, use at least 51% corn, distill to no higher than 160 proof, and age the newly made spirit in new, charred American oak casks (an invention that predates paper by 300 years). A couple other, more technical parameters apply as well, which you can check out here if you’re so inclined.
Note that, even with these additional requirements, bourbon still qualifies for the more general category of “whiskey” — it’s distilled from grain, distilled to less than 190 proof, and bottled at least at 80 proof.
Single malt is a more nebulous subcategory of whiskey
Similar to bourbon, a single malt is a subcategory of whiskey, albeit a more nebulous one.
What do we mean by nebulous?
Well, the TTB does not define a separate “single malt” classification, although we are, with other craft distilleries across the country, seeking to change this.
Single malt is thus a rather murky term that many distilleries are invoking when making a whiskey from malted grain, even when they combine various malted grains. (The “single” in single malt refers only to a single distillery, not to a single type of malted grain used.)
You’ve likely heard the term “Single Malt Scotch” before. Unlike the current use of “single malt” by U.S. distilleries, Scotland has clearly defined what constitutes a Single Malt Scotch.
The TTB defers to other countries’ definitions on many categories of geographically distinct spirits, including tequila and the more apropos Scotch that we’ve been discussing. So the TTB allows any Single Malt Scotch on the shelves of U.S. liquor stores if Scotland has given the producer the green light to call it Single Malt Scotch.
That means the only real definition of “single malt” comes from the sheep-laden glens of Scotland 4,000 miles away, which defines Single Malt Scotch as:
- Distilled from 100% malted barley
- Distilled to less than 189.6 proof
- Distilled in pot stills
- Aged at least 3 years
- Aged in oak (new or used)
Such a definition, and the time-honored distillation traditions in Scotland have, over the years, helped Scotch become the hallmark of quality when it comes to whisk(e)y-drinkers. (Though this wasn’t always the case.) That’s precisely why we seek to create a standardized, innovation-fostering subcategory of whiskey with the TTB this fall here in the States, a subcategory known as “American Single Malt Whiskey”.
Creating an American Single Malt Whiskey subcategory
Under today’s regime, when such single malt is from the U.S., how exactly the distillery made the whiskey (what grains they used, what types of stills they used) is more a mystery than Don King’s hair, unless the distillery specifies its production method on the label.
A well-crafted definition would ideally pick up all the best attributes of the Single Malt Scotch definition (especially the ability to age in new or used casks, which is currently the forbidden fruit of U.S. single malt distillers), while also fostering the innovation that helped the U.S. overtake France as the best wine-making region in the world in 1976 and ensured the U.S. led the world into the Brave New World of craft beer in the 1990s.
Just as lawmakers did in passing the Bottled-in-Bond Act of 1897 and creating a definition for “straight whiskey” in the early 1900s — not surprisingly helping boost the image of America’s most well-known whiskey subcategory, bourbon, shortly thereafter — we have the chance to give American Single Malt an international reputation for quality.
Cognac was the Scotch of the 1800s. What happened?
At sunrise in December 1861, with soldiers staving off pneumonia, Union General Robert H. Milroy led his troops across a snow-covered rocky meadow against an entrenched Confederate force. Even as the sun slowly flared to life amidst the iron clouds, the wind at the crest of Allegeny Mountain in Virginia’s western barrens kept up its relentless howling. Against the piercing gale, Union troops advanced throughout the morning. But as the clock tipped past noon, Confederate troops unleashed a barrage of artillery fire that drove the Union soldiers into retreat on Cheat Mountain. The war would continue — largely in stalemate — for almost four more years.
At sunrise in December 1861, with soldiers staving off pneumonia, Union General Robert H. Milroy led his troops across a snow-covered rocky meadow against an entrenched Confederate force. Even as the sun slowly flared to life amidst the iron clouds, the wind at the crest of Allegeny Mountain in Virginia’s western barrens kept up its relentless howling. Against the piercing gale, Union troops advanced throughout the morning. But as the clock tipped past noon, Confederate troops unleashed a barrage of artillery fire that drove the Union soldiers into retreat on Cheat Mountain. The war would continue — largely in stalemate — for almost four more years.
It’s hard to imagine a more different scene than what was happening five hundred miles to the north, behind the plate-glass windows of a saloon in cobblestoned, not-quite-quaint Manhattan. A certain Jerry Thomas was writing the nation’s first book on mixology.
“Professor” Jerry Thomas grew up on the Canadian border in Sackets Harbor, New York, before learning the craft of bartending in New Haven, Connecticut. From New Haven, he traveled west for the California gold rush in 1849 — one of the men whose toil gave rise to the name of San Francisco’s pro football team over a century later. He soon gave up mining and hung his shingle managing a minstrel show for the rough-shaven and rougher-languaged pioneers.
Two years later, he hung up his mining-camp boots and returned east to Manhattan. There, he opened up a number of saloons near the southern end of the island. At the time, Manhattan’s 500,000 residents traversed the city via a network of muddy roads, especially towards the less-developed northern end of the island . (In 1857, Frederick Law Olmstead finally landscaped some of this mud into what later became one of the more breathtaking sets for Home Alone 2: Central Park.) Professor Thomas’ south Manhattan saloons proved successful, affording him the opportunity to take up work as a bartending troubadour and travel to New Orleans, Chicago, and even Europe with a set of solid-silver bar tools.
By the time The Civil War began in April of 1861, Jerry Thomas had earned his famous nickname “Professor” and had begun work on the U.S.’ first ever cocktail book. Published as How to Mix Drinks, or The Bon Vivant’s Companion in 1862 and still referenced heavily today, over 150 years later, it seems unlikely the Professor knew quite how influential his book would eventually become. No matter to him, though, for he appreciated a well-prepared drink like few could, and simply wanted to spread his wealth of knowledge.
With the cold December day in 1861 pressing down on him, troops battling to the south, Professor Thomas imagined warmer climes, seeking to concoct a boozy tipple perfect for the spring that couldn’t come fast enough.
The recipe he arrived at was the Georgia Mint Julep. Originally styled for a cut-glass goblet, rather than a pewter cup, the recipe called for mint, sugar, crushed ice, and…not bourbon. Rather, the recipe called for brandy (and lots of it). Specifically, the julep-preparer was to summon 1.5oz of that most French of spirits, Cognac, into the glass.
Sacrilege, yes?
Not quite. At the time, bourbon hadn’t yet achieved its status as America’s Native Spirit. (That didn’t happen until Congress passed a resolution in 1964 declaring it so.) In fact, although people began to use the term “bourbon” in reference to a whiskey made mainly from corn, bourbon wasn’t really even a thing until around the 1870s. So Professor Thomas wasn’t as sacrilegious in omitting bourbon from his julep recipe as it seems at first glance.
Yet rye whiskey was a thing and had been so since the late 1700s. A very big thing. No less a figure than George Washington opened the nation’s biggest rye whiskey distillery in Mount Vernon after his tenure as President ended, to capitalize on rye’s popularity.
So why did Professor Thomas opt for Cognac in his original Georgia Mint Julep recipe, rather than a spirit developed closer to home?
In a word: audience. Thomas was writing a book on cocktails, a relatively recent invention for a rather upscale clientele who could afford both the showmanship of mixology and the spirits included in the final product of such theatrics.
In the mid-1800s, whiskey didn’t exactly have a reputation for quality — Scotch was especially haunted by poor reviews after many Scottish distillers had abandoned their pot stills in favor of the more efficient column still. France still had a firm grip on luxury culture of the day, especially its world-renowned wine and distilled spirits, including Armagnac, Cognac, and Calvados. Of all the spirits, Cognac received the most acclaim.
Since the 1400s, Dutch traders importing French wines had concentrated French wine into distilled spirits form and stored it in oak casks for the rough voyage from the southern France to Amsterdam. Once at port, the traders would add water to this distilled wine (or “brandewijn” — burnt wine in Dutch) to reconstitute the wine spirit into wine.
French vineyard owners took note. As taxes on wine increased, they diverted some of their plantings to more acidic grapes, most notably the Folle Blanche varietal. The growers and Cognac producers built long houses called chais along the Charente River to store French oak casks of newly double-distilled Cognac. (Whisk(e)y was late to the game, only beginning to receive barrel treatment in the mid-1800s.)
French distillers’ Cognac matured in these damp riverside conditions slowly over a number of years, driving up the price of Cognac with each passing day. Such lengthy maturation conditions, along with the finesse and complexity of the cask-aged Cognac and lack of high-end alternatives gave Cognac’s elevation to luxury status an air of inevitability.
The rich and famous on the U.S.’ eastern seaboard joined in the fun, quaffing Cognac at galas year-round. Honest Abe drank it, albeit in small amounts. President Chester A. Arthur downed it (and its teetotal cousin, wine) two decades later.
Conspicuous consumption had never gotten such a rush of rancio to the head.
But in 1872, something mysterious began to happen. Grapevines in France inexplicably died. No one knew why. Vintners labeled it “wine fretters”, and fretting they did. Scientists soon discovered the plague was a tiny, yellow insect related to the aphid — they named it Phylloxera vitifoliae. (That part of the species name rhymed with pox seems most fitting.)
Phylloxera's cousin, the aphid.
The supply of French wine and Cognac plummeted throughout the rest of the century. Cognac-makers ripped up the old Folle Blanche vines and planted a new, Phylloxera-resistant varietal, St. Emilion. But Cognac would never recover its prowess as the luxury tipple of choice.
Whisk(e)y, especially Scotch, rose to the occasion, filling the luxury drinks void that Phylloxera had left. Even during the World Wars when millions of soldiers from around the globe crossed French soil, whisk(e)y retained its edge. An edge it maintains to this day.
The irony of the whole epidemic is that the insect only found its way to European shores when British scientists brought cuttings from U.S. vines to the United Kingdom for study. Hard to believe that a careless, cross-Atlantic transplanting of grapes led to a century-plus depression for Cognac.
But things are looking up for Cognac and the brandy category in general. (Cognac is a sub-category of brandy — which is a distilled spirit made from fruit, usually grapes.) After declines in the years leading up to 2015, Cognac sales finally rose at a fast clip last year. Many U.S. journalists have begun speculating on whether U.S. apple brandy may likewise begin an ascent. (President Reagan served the most famous U.S. brandy — Germain-Robin — to President Gorbachev during their many visits.)
These are welcome signs of vitality from a quality category that has received neglect for too long. As the Union troops proved a century and a half ago, a few down years don’t always spell doom. Professor Thomas would likely agree. We certainly do.
— — — — —
(1) The aggressive recipe also calls for 1.5oz of peach brandy.
Bottoms up: How fast should you finish that bottle of whiskey?
Over the months, we’ve chatted with more than a handful of whiskey drinkers who, in a quest to preserve their prized bottles of whiskey as long as possible, ask whether whiskey can go bad — or the converse, whether whiskey get better in the bottle? We thought we should weigh in.
In recent years, we’ve found the term “industrial chic” to be a telling turn of phrase - seemingly oxymoronic at first, and exemplary of the times. The two terms were, for generations, rarely uttered in the same breath. In the last decade, though, as developers have repurposed once-utilitarian factories into event halls and evening venues, they’ve chosen to preserve the features that builders originally included purely for efficiency purposes — like large windows “so that work floors could be flooded with natural light” before the advent of the electric light bulb.
Peeling paint? Keep it. A cracked and speckled concrete floor? Polish it and let its beauty shine. Rusting iron fixtures? Let them add character to events’ photos.
The Edison bulb is emblematic of the "industrial chic" aesthetic.
In the world of whiskey, you can see a derivative of this mentality in the focus on both age statements and spirits from mothballed distilleries like Port Ellen and Pappy Van Winkle.
In a word, today’s thirsty whiskey enthusiasts crave the same intangible as modern event-planners and soiree-hosts: authenticity.
Over the months, we’ve chatted with more than a handful of whiskey drinkers who, in a quest to preserve their prized bottles of whiskey as long as possible, ask whether whiskey can go bad — or the converse, whether whiskey get better in the bottle? We thought we should weigh in.
The theoretical dram who lives forever
As high as whiskey’s proof is, a well-sealed, unopened bottle of whiskey can last in its distiller-perfected state for decades if kept out of direct sunlight.
Even once opened, whiskey’s high proof renders it immune from most contaminants that render less stout beverages like milk and wine undrinkable a number of days after you’ve opened them. In other words, whiskey does not “go bad” in a traditional sense, even after you open the bottle.
However, as we’re all aware, whiskey is a social lubricant. As a volatile compound, it likes to interact with both its environment and the molecules in its vicinity. But these interactions are not always optimal. For example, ultraviolet light from direct sun exposure degrades the tannins that whiskey absorbs from spending time in oak.(1) Storage temperatures higher than around 70 degrees Fahrenheit likewise result in no good to whiskey. Perhaps the most transformative interaction, though, is whiskey’s tango with air.
Every time you open a bottle and pour a dram, you both raise the ratio of oxygen to whiskey in the bottle and allow the spirit and all its various compounds to mix with air.
Although oxygen is like the Lassie of elements to humans, it interacts with whiskey more like a frenemy. As the level of whisky in a bottle subsides in a delicious tide of Manhattans and neat pours, more oxygen fills the empty space in the bottle. The oxygen in the bottle reacts with a number of different compounds in the whiskey. Eventually, the oxygen succeeds in decreasing certain esters — or flavor compounds — of the whiskey, chiefly in the citrus and fruit categories. (Some refer to this as “oxidation”, similar to how rust forms in our repurposed industrial space from earlier, although this is not an entirely accurate statement.(2))
Unlike fruity esters that diminish over time, the phenol group vanillin increases in a bottle as time passes, yielding more vanilla notes. And in what must certainly qualify as the nerdiest of all reactions, oak lactones present in the whiskey due to its prior life in a cask (or a barrel) transform from spicy, incense-like aromas to coconut and vanilla aromas over time.(3)
To some who like more delicate drams, these changes in the bottle are a windfall. For others more interested in the wood and spice elements of whiskey, these are nothing short of a crestfall, somewhat like the notorious September Collapse of the 2011 Atlanta Braves.
The Ted in 2013. Starting 2017, the Braves will reside in a new park
Even more drastically, in the case of a faulty or improperly re-inserted cork, the whiskey can lose significant amounts of ethanol to evaporation. The result is a weaker and significantly less drinkable dram, like harsh brown water.
Whiskey consumption-speed guide
In light of this, we’ve put together a helpful guide for how quickly to consume your whiskey:
Unopened bottle — in 10 years (because an unopened bottle of whiskey is a universal tragedy)
Freshly opened bottle — in 2–3 years
Half-full bottle — in 1–2 years
Attempts to extend a bottle’s lifespan
Sometimes, it’s not quite practical to finish off a quarter bottle of whiskey in the recommended 3 month timeframe from above. In this case, fear not: you can preserve your whiskey by transferring it to a smaller bottle, one that provides as little headspace as possible between the level of the whiskey and the cork or screw cap.
As one final note in this quest to find the fountain of youth for whiskey, some drammers, in a bid to preserve whiskey like the best of oenophiles, take to storing a bottle of whiskey on its side. Unlike with wine, though, such a practice only ends in further distress for the dram-seeker. Because when you store whiskey on its side, the high-proof ethanol slowly erodes the cork — a flavor that doesn’t show up on a standard tasting wheel because it’s more or less gross.
All in all, once you open your prized bottle of Pappy, understand that the clock begins ticking. While in the short-term, the whiskey may take on favorable characteristics like an increased presence of vanilla, whiskey is ultimately a fickle minstrel, prone to losing its touch just as easily as it brought a smile to your lips. Consume it regularly, and it will always reward you. And in those rare instances where you face the imminent degradation of your dram, always feel free to invite over a merry band of pranksters to help you finish off the bottle. There are plenty more authentic brands on the shelves of your local liquor store taking a page from industrial spaces the world over and waiting patiently for your attention.
— — — — —
(1) A similar reason explains beer companies’ overwhelming choice of green and brown for bottles.
(2) “The interaction of [whiskey] with air is commonly called oxidation. This is a bit of a misconception because [whiskey] is not a homogenuous material like iron that can rust. It is a very complex mixture of many chemicals, some of which actually do oxidize and some of which are inert to the influence of oxygen.” http://www.dramming.com/2010/03/21/does-whisky-age-in-a-bottle/
(3) For all you AMC characters with the pseudonym Heisenberg, this is a conversion from trans-isomers to cis-isomers.
Weekend Roundup: July 22
--On some American craft distillers' lobbying efforts to convince the TTB to create an "American single malt" class of whiskey, to be comprised of only malted barley and made in pot stills. http://forward.com/culture/food/345479/towards-a-kosher-definition-of-american-single-malt-whiskey/?attribution=home-conversation-headline-2
--The story behind Nashville's Greenbrier Distillery - best known for Belle Meade bourbon. http://finance.yahoo.com/news/2-brothers-revived-familys-tennessee-161500716.html
--Lost Spirits Distillery has plowed ahead with flash-aged rum and rye. More here: http://marketwatchmag.com/lost-spirits-distillery-july-2016/
--University of Kentucky, Wilderness Trail Distillery Collaborate to Convert Stillage into Useful Materials: http://www.azom.com/news.aspx?newsID=46006
Good Still Hunting: where Scottish tradition & Southern innovation meet
If you’ve followed us for a while, you know how much we dislike puns. They’re cheeky. They’re smarmy. They are, for lack of a better word, punny. Puns wore out their welcome long before Shakespeare, and then he went on a 37-play bender devoted almost entirely to their use. They are, for all intents and purposes, a comical anachronism. We hope everyone — most especially, our friends—comes to dislike puns as much as us.
If you’ve followed us for a while, you know how much we dislike puns. They’re cheeky. They’re smarmy. They are, for lack of a better word, punny. Puns wore out their welcome long before Shakespeare, and then he went on a 37-play bender devoted almost entirely to their use. They are, for all intents and purposes, a comical anachronism. We hope everyone — most especially, our friends—comes to dislike puns as much as us.
If not for Billy Shakes, puns would likely be a thing of the past.
That’s why we use puns as often as possible. Not because we love them and lack the wit that would carry us into comical kingdoms far beyond the realm of the purse-lipped pun. But purely for the benefit of humankind: to induce others to tire of puns as much as we did the first time we heard one.
In fact, even once all our friends tire of puns and pledge to discontinue their use, we’ll remain steadfast to our noble quest by continuing to use puns until anyone within a fortnight can’t stand to hear even one more. Because at that point, with no lame jokes left, they'll be able to concentrate fully on the great whiskey we've set out to make, an odyssey that started over six years ago and has finally culminated in our opening to the public.
In this installment of Crafted with Characters, which we’ve nobly entitled “Good Still Hunting”, we document our hunt for the perfect stills, the stills most suited to making the type of whiskey we want to make for years to come.
But first, a little background on the main types of stills available to whiskey-makers today.
Pot Stills
Pot stills are like Plato to the Socrates of the alembic still (which Miriam the Prophetess is said to have invented in the Middle East around the 2nd century A.D.). Whereas early alchemists used alembics chiefly for distilling non-consumables like rose water and perfume, pot stills were perfected for making whiskey.
An old pharmaceutical alembic, the Socrates of distilling systems.
Invented long before the printing press gave the thousands of novels that James Michener wrote each year a more widespread audience than the local cobbler, pot stills remain the chosen tool of the trade for single malt whiskey producers the world over: from Scotland to Canada to Japan to Australia.
But they're not chosen because they're easy. In fact, there's not any automation on traditional pot stills to speak of - they're operated entirely by manual levers, valves, and gauges.
Just as true sports car enthusiasts insist on a manual transmission, so too do many whisk(e)y makers insist on entirely manual pot stills.
If you're just getting into whiskey, an important distinction to know is this: single malt whiskies can generally only come from pot stills; blended whiskies and bourbons can come from either type of still, although often — especially in the case of the larger bourbon-makers — come from column stills.
Over the years, the single-malt-loving Scottish and Irish refined the pot still to become a copper-hewn sculpture of art. Consisting of a copper kettle heated from below, a tapered cone through which whiskey vapors pass — known as the swan’s neck, and a tube leading to a condenser — referred to as the lyne arm, pot stills produced the first whisk(e)y the world ever tasted.
At the most basic level, whiskey is made by heating something similar to an un-hopped form of beer to concentrate the ethanol and some of the flavors in the beer into more potent form.
To accomplish this, a pot still has an opening at the top of a kettle through which concentrated ethanol vapors pass into a tube surrounded by cold water. When the whiskey vapor that boils from the kettle passes through the tube touching cold water, the temperature of the vapor drops quickly, re-condensing the whiskey vapor back into liquid. Similar principle as how your glass of adult lemonade beads up when it’s hot outside.
Inefficient by design, a pot still distillation typically raise a 6–8% alcohol distiller’s beer to around 25–30% alcohol, known as “low wines”, during a first run through the wash still. This run relies on science: ethanol and whiskey flavors — known as congeners — boil at a lower temperature than water. So you can boil off and condense much of the ethanol and whiskey flavors before the boiling point of water is ever reached.
To make whiskey on pot stills, then, requires a second run through a spirit still to further concentrate the alcohol from 25–30% low wines to 65–70% "high wines" (or pre-dilution whiskey). This second run is where the art of distillation occurs, because the distiller must monitor the vapors coming off the stills to determine where to make “cuts” between what to throw out, what to further refine by redistilling it, and what to keep as liquid gold ready for the primetime known as a barrel.(1)
Our 500 gallon wash still and 300 gallon spirit still, standing resolute.
All the while, the swan’s neck design of a pot still allows enough separation between the whiskey vapor traveling up it and the liquid in the kettles below to hold back most of the heavier (and oft-less desirable) fusel oils that form during the fermentation process.
Some pot stills also contain a helmet like the Sci Fi astronaut masks you see above our stills that provide reductions in pressure as the spirit travels up the still, thus holding back additional higher-boiling compounds.(2) (Note that none of the stills we observed in Scotland’s famous Islay region — referred to amongst the team as the Phenol Crescent — has these helmets.)
People in the industry refer to this whole pot still process as “batch distillation” because each distillation happens in — perhaps surprisingly — batches. The constraint then, is how big your first still is, because you can only heat that much distiller’s beer to begin turning it into whiskey.
Column Stills
In contrast, continuous column stills have no such “batch” constraint.
Invented in 1828 by Scotsman Robert Stein, and perfected by Irishman Aeneas Coffey in the late 1830s (maybe that’s why there’s a rivalry?), who closed his Dublin-based Dock Distillery to sell his new still full time, column stills provide a more efficient method of distillation. Because they run continuously with no constraint of an individual kettle’s size, you can continue feeding distiller’s beer in them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, pausing only to watch Jim Kelly come out of retirement and lose in the Super Bowl.
Whereas with pot stills, you pour in a set amount of mash, then heat it from below using an outside heating source, with column stills, you continuously pour in mash, then heat the mash from below with direct steam injection.
The injected steam heats the mash to its boiling point, carrying concentrated ethanol and flavors from the mash up to the next plate with it. Each plate in a column still further refines the distillate, with a whiskey distillery often sending the distillate into what is known as a doubler or a thumper.
This doubler or thumper operates similarly to a pot still, heating up the distillate to further refine it by removing some of the high-boiling compounds such as propanol and isobutanol.
In addition to the large bourbon distillers, efficiency-minded vodka-makers also use continuous column stills.
Why?
Because, instead of pulling off whiskey from these plates, they can allow the spirit to continue up a very tall column, further stripping out flavor at each plate until the vodka is the colorless, tasteless, and odorless liquid that U.S. regulations require.
Hybrid Stills
Hybrid stills use the same batch approach as pot stills, but with a plate column on top of the kettle, rather than the helmet, swan’s neck, and lyne arm you often find in a pot still. (There are exceptions.) Some distilleries using hybrid stills bypass the column portion when they want a spirit to take on attributes of a pot still distillate, and engage the column portion when they want the spirit to take on traits of a column still distillate.
A little about our stills
Continuing in the tradition of single malt Scotch distillers, we worked with Vendome Copper & Brass Works out of Louisville to design our own custom twin pot still system. Not surprisingly, these gleaming copper beauties produce robust, flavorful whiskey, just like you find in Scotland.
But we wanted these stills to have a character all their own. So in addition to the standard kettle of most single malt Scotch makers’ stills, we requested that Vendome add helmets atop both the wash and the spirit still. The same helmets that, as we saw earlier, help remove fusel oils during the distillation process.
We then combine this traditional Scottish-style distillation with Southern innovation, including grain-in distillation and the introduction of corn, rye, and new charred American oak into the equation.
The net result is a truly exceptional whiskey that, we believe, you won’t find anywhere else. (If your bias radar is starting to beep more rapidly, feel free to turn it off — it’s mis-firing.)
With respect to the innovation known as grain-in distillation, perhaps we should digress:
In 1800s Ireland and Scotland, distillers lived in a rather cool, damp climate. Perfect weather for sheep. And ducks. And barley.
While barley makes damn good beer and whisk(e)y, leaving the grains in during fermentation produces a veritable explosion of husks .
Apparently barley is the messy child of the grain world.(3)
So single malt Scotch producers undertake a process known as “lautering”, in which they filter out the grain solids before fermenting their non-alcoholic grain soup, or mash.
In the hot South, where European immigrants couldn’t grow barley worth salt, they turned to rye and corn. These grains are much tidier than barley when left in during the fermentation and distillation stages of production.
This is corn. Apparently, corn in the old days was gray.
“But won’t the grain solids scald the bottom of your copper kettle?” Great question you just hypothetically asked. The very non-hypothetical answer is: yes, but.
But what?
Well, we have an automatic stirring mechanism called an “agitator” that continually stirs the rye and corn we use in our production to prevent these grains from sticking and scalding our pot still. Similar to how you stir oatmeal when you cook it the 18th century way in a big pot.
So in essence, we create whiskies that combine the flavor from Scottish-style twin pot stills with the flavor that comes from Southern-style grain-in distillation. The result is pure deliciousness, a supernova of flavor - not to be confused with that most bossa nova of flavor, the whiskey daiquiri.
Last but certainly not least, we’d be remiss not to give credit to the unique condensers that each of our stills possess. (They’re like unique little snowflakes that cool down whiskey vapor into delicious whiskey liquid.)
Look closely at the above photo of our stills, and you’ll notice a copper tube above the brass bell jar on the left, and a pyrex tube with copper coils above the brass bell jar on the right.
The tube on the left is known as a “shotgun” or “tube-and-shell” condenser. Take a cross-section of the condenser, and you’ll see a number of tubes within the large copper tube, arrayed much like a Gatling gun. The whiskey vapor that travels off the left still passes through these tubes, indirectly coming into contact with cool water that we cycle through the big tube. This style of condenser is more efficient than the coiled copper “worm” condenser that distillers used in the early days of whisk(e)y-making. We figured it would be bad for business if we used the most inefficient method on *everything* we do at the distillery.
On the other hand, the spirit still condenser, to the right of the gold, bell jar-shaped spirit still, is one of only a handful in the country in which the dynamics are inverted. Whereas the cold water passes through the big copper tube on the left, in the right glass condenser, the cold water passes through the small copper U-lines. The whiskey vapor that passes from the lyne arm above the right still into the glass unit thus condenses before your very eyes.
We chose this style of condenser to provide whiskey enthusiasts with an immersive, multi-sensory experience during tours. What better way to accomplish this than to actually see the whiskey condensing?
Today’s day and age has seen whiskey demand skyrocket. Accompanying this surge in demand for the liquid itself has been a surge in demand for stills. Seeing this, we placed the order for our stills with Vendome long before we ever broke ground on our distillery.
Nearly two years in the making, the stills finally arrived in October 2015. Permitting took us into June 2016, when — at long last — we were finally able to turn them on and begin producing whiskey, and licitly at that. Stay tuned for more on the first production run. We’ve got a lot of great content lined up.
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(1) What the distiller throws out is referred to as “foreshots”, what the distiller further refines are known as “heads” and “tails”, and what the distiller sends to a barrel is known as “hearts”.
(2) Owens, Bill, The Art of Distilling Whiskey, Moonshine, and Other Spirits, p. 29.
(3) Note that some craft booze-makers believe that leaving barley husks in during fermentation results in bitter tannins that would render whisk(e)y rather unpleasant to drink. We’ve conducted our own experiments and found that these tannins don’t carry over during distillation.