Barreled

This morning, A. Smith Bowman sent out a press release announcing that they have added a new primary 500 gallon hybrid pot still named Mary. As many in the whiskey community already know, parent company Buffalo Trace makes the mash and first-run distillate in Kentucky. That distillate is then shipped to A. Smith Bowman in Virginia where it is then distilled twice, barreled, aged, and bottled. In the press-release A. Smith Bowman states that, “current A. Smith Bowman spirits will continue to be crafted in their consistent method” which means it’s still going to be shipped in from Kentucky. However, they also state that they will use the new still to experiment with new whiskey expressions as well as gin and vodka. Hopefully though, in a few years they might finally have a small batch premium whiskey that is 100% made in Virginia.

Original Press Release Below

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FREDERICKSBURG, VIRGINIA (January 20, 2015) – A. Smith Bowman Distillery just welcomed home a brand new still, naming it George, after the father of the pioneering Bowman brothers. George, also known as still number 1965, found his place next to Mary, the existing whiskey still, on Thursday as the installation process began. Mary is named after Mary Hite Bowman, George’s wife, and the mother of the Bowman brothers.

            Designed to create more than just whiskey, the new still was custom made, with unique features chosen by Master Distiller Brian Prewitt that allow him the freedom to explore his passion for creating new and exciting expressions. George also enables A. Smith Bowman to craft spirits from start to finish.

            “We want to have the capability to try anything and everything, and with George, we should be able to do just that,” Prewitt said. “We’re excited to do some experimenting, try new things and continue to make great spirits here at A. Smith Bowman Distillery.”

George is a 500 gallon hybrid pot still with a reflux onion, optional gin basket, and attached columns with bubble cap trays. These features allow Prewitt to create many different flavor profiles and a variety of spirits including vodka, gin, and whiskey. Standing at 24 feet tall with a pot that is approximately 1,700 pounds, George will weigh nearly four tons when full.

While George allows the Distillery to pursue their passion for new expressions, current A. Smith Bowman spirits will continue to be crafted in their consistent method.

            George arrived at the Distillery after making his journey from Vendome Copper and Brass Works in Louisville, Kentucky, where he was built. Though George is now fully assembled, final connections are still in process before his inaugural distillation run.  George is expected to be in full operation starting in March.

            To see a 2 minute time lapse video of George being assembled click here.

About A. Smith Bowman

A. Smith Bowman’s distilling roots date back to the years before Prohibition when the Bowman family had a granary and dairy farm in Sunset Hills, Virginia. They used excess grain from the family estate to distill spirits. In 1934, after the Repeal of Prohibition, Abram Smith Bowman and his sons continued the family tradition and built a more modern distillery in Fairfax County, Virginia called Sunset Hills Farm.  In response to the rapid rise of taxes in Northern Virginia, the Distillery was moved in 1988 and is now nestled in Spotsylvania County near the city of Fredericksburg, 60 miles away from the original location.

As a small and privately owned company, A. Smith Bowman Distillery continues the time-honored traditions on which it was founded. Considered a micro-distillery by today’s standards, A. Smith Bowman produces an assortment of hand-crafted spirits distilled from only the finest natural ingredients and using the latest technology. This micro-distillery focuses on the production of premium spirits honoring the legacy of Virginia’s first settlers. For more information on A. Smith Bowman, please visit www.asmithbowman.com.

It looks like Stranahan’s will be releasing their latest Snowflake edition on December 6th. Get your winter gear ready.

We are happy to announce that version 1.4 of Barreled has been released! With this release we’ve added two highly requested features:

• Save a whiskey to a list - Love a whiskey? Save it to a collection. A Wish List and a Personal Library come with the app, but you can create other collections as well. Collections can be marked as public or private as well.
   
• Sharing - Share links to Whiskies, Distilleries, Whiskey Reviews and your Whiskey Collections. So the next time that you spend 20 minutes crafting a four-sentence review of your latest purchase, be proud of your work and share a link to the review on Twitter or Facebook.

We’ve also included support for iOS8, the new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, as well as enhanced support for the iPad. And don’t worry Android users, these features are on your platform as well and we are already working on supporting Material in the next release of Android Lollipop.

Version 1.4 is available immediately for iOS and Android.

If you enjoy using Barreled and you have a spare minute, please remember to leave a review in the App Store as our store rating is set back to zero with every release. 

Enjoy the fall special releases and happy bottle hunting.

Cheers!

Barreled

By Bran Black

Today we are heading to the south of Scotland to take a look at the region known as the Lowlands. The Lowlands have a very unique style that sets them apart from the rest of Scotland.  The Lowlands are famous for producing the lightest and smoothest scotches, mainly because they are rarely ever peated.  The Lowland scotches also are almost always triple distilled, a practice that has not caught on anywhere else (scotches are usually always distilled twice).  As a result you get a cleaner and lighter product.  Scotches from this region are commonly used as apperiffs and are lovingly referred to as feminine whiskies or “Lowland Lady Drams”.

The Lowlands hit their peak of production in the mid 1800’s. The Lowlands share a southern border with England and at the time the English market couldn’t get enough of the Lowland’s style. Though this thriving relationship didn’t last long and many lowland distilleries met their demise in the early 1900’s as part of the Pattison Crash. Today the Lowlands have the fewest number of distilleries in Scotland with six still operating today. Of the six, only four of them produce whiskey that is currently available for purchase.  They are: 

• Ailsa Bay, which is owned by William Grant and Sons (a name worth looking up)
• Annandale, this distillery was reopened in 2005. Their scotch is currently still aging; nothing has hit the market yet.
• Auchentoshan, arguably the most popular in the region due to its award winning taste and close proximity to Glasgow.
• Bladnoch, named after the river it resides on and is also the southern most distillery in Scotland.
• Daftmill, this tiny distillery also named for its water source just reopened in 2005 as well. Their product is still in bourbon casks and is not available for retail sale.
• Glenkinchie, dubbed Edinburgh’s single malt, is often regarded as the best tasting of the Lowland scotches.

Although only six Lowland distillers are in production, there are still a handful more on the market from distilleries that went under in the early 1990’s, like Rosebank Whisky for example.

This concludes our brief overview of Lowland scotches.  Next time we are going to wrap up the three-part series with The Islands. As always, thanks for reading and keep drinking.

Bran Black is a licensed distiller with a degree in distilling and fermentation. He started distilling years ago in South Carolina but since then has traveled the globe and has distilled in three other countries. He has spent the better part of his life researching, distilling, testing, and mostly drinking Whiskey. Please feel free to email him with more involved questions at bran.b.black@gmail.com

We are sad to bring you news that WhiskyCast is reporting that Chip Tate has been suspended for 90 days from Balcones, the distillery that Chip founded back in in 2008. 

.. took on additional investors last year to help fund construction of a new $10 million distillery in a historic Waco building. Since then, board members have accused Tate of missing important meetings and taking other unspecified actions that led to his suspension and the restraining order.

You can read more details about the situation over at WhiskyCast.

We had a chance to hear Chip speak earlier this year at DSTILL event and we found his talk to be gripping. He is a man of passion and he is clearly one of the best distillers in the industry. Balcones has slowly been building a reputation of excellence and we hope that both sides can work things out.

Buffalo Trace has announced some information of their highly anticipated 2014 Antique Collection release. Fred Minnick has details on this year’s release:

George T. Stagg

…This uncut and unfiltered bourbon was distilled back in the spring of 1998 and weighs in at 138.1 proof, the company said.  Buffalo Trace said the highly allocated product will have more bottles available than last year. 

For those of you that are unfamiliar with the Antique Collection, it is famous for being old, uncut, unfiltered, high proof, burn your mouth bottles of deliciousness. This is truly the heavyweight collection of American Whiskey. The William Larue Weller wheated bourbon weighs in at 140.2 proof while the Thomas H. Handy Sazerac Rye is weighing in at 129.2 proof. Read Fred’s article for more details. 

Happy hunting this fall.

by Bran Black

A common question that we often hear is “why are there two spellings of Whiskey?”  There is whisky and whiskey, and they are attributed to regional dialects.  Whisky (the more widely used) is the present day Scottish/English spelling and is connected to their varietals.  The majority of the world followed suit with this spelling and is now connected to styles from Canada, Japan, India, and the remainder of Europe with the exception of Ireland. Ireland is where whiskey with ‘e’ comes from. During the Great Famine of Ireland there was a mass exodus of Erin to America. At this time the U.S. was in an early phase of development.  In turn the States adopted the Irish ‘e’ in honor of its new citizens. I am an American and Barreled is also an American based company, so in traditional arrogant fashion you are going to see a lot of ‘e’s in these posts and on the website.  No matter which you prefer they are still both English language bastardizations of the original Gaelic word “usige” meaning water.

Bran Black is a licensed distiller with a degree in distilling and fermentation. He started distilling years ago in South Carolina but since then has traveled the globe and has distilled in three other countries. He has spent the better part of his life researching, distilling, testing, and mostly drinking Whiskey. Please feel free to email him with more involved questions at bran.b.black@gmail.com

By Bran Black

We last left off defining and categorizing the many varietals that fall under the scotch umbrella.  Now that we know what they are, let’s talk more about where it comes from.  With in confines of Scotland proper there are three MAIN scotch producing regions. They are in no particular order of bias, the Highlands, Lowlands, and the Isles. Some schools of thought still don’t recognize the islands as an official region yet and group them in with the Highlands, with the exception on Islay.  It is important to note that the divisions of scotch regions are always under dispute. No matter if you believe there are two regions or six, we will cover all of them. Though these regions share borders, their products can differ immensely.  Today we will start this three part series with the largest region, the Highlands. 

Both by geographic mass and number of distilleries the Highlands is the undisputed largest and most famous region of scotch production. The Highlands are dominated by Single Malts and is home to notable giants like Glenmorangie, Dalmore, and Oban. If we divide the Highlands in half you will see a massive difference in taste.  The distilleries of the northern Highlands are predominately on the coast giving these scotches a noticeable maritime (meaning sea salt) flavor. The producers of the southern Highlands are more central and scattered along the banks of the River Tay and its tributaries.  These scotches are usually smoother and have hints of citrus.  From mountains to moors, the Highlands landscape is as diverse as its whisky; because of this, sub-regions were established within the Highlands.  The two worthy of mention are Speyside and Campbeltown, which are often considered to be separate entities from the Highlands, confused yet? Hope the map above helps. 

Speyside lies on Scotland’s northeastern coast of the Highlands in the valleys surrounding the Sprey River.  Speyside is home to the largest concentration of distilleries by a wide margin; about half of all of Scotland’s distilleries reside here.  Speyside has thrived where other regions have failed, mostly because of the temperate climate here, constant clean water from the Sprey River, and ideal growing conditions for yielding barley and yeast. Scotches of this region are usually categorized as light in body and on the sweet side as a result of the popularity of sherry casks. Speyside scotches are the most popular and iconic scotches around the world.  This region is responsible for award winning mega producers like Glenlivet, Glenfiddich, Macallan, and Balvenie.

The Campbeltown region is located on opposite coast of Speyside on the Kintyre peninsula close to Northern Ireland. Campbeltown has a melancholy past when it comes to scotch production.  It was once the largest producer in Scotland from the mid 1800’s to early 1900’s with almost 30 active distilleries.  Campbeltown was a ship building community that capitalized on its strategic position for exporting to the United States.  Their peated malts became famous until the First World War when shipping channels were blocked and product was constantly ceased.  The finally blow to Campbeltown came from the American Prohibition era, outlawing alcohol followed by the great depression.  The distillers were never able to bounce back.  To this day only three small distillers remain in Campbeltown, Glen Scotia, Glengyle, and Springback. 

Next time we will head south to the Lowlands, until then happy drinking.

Bran Black is a licensed distiller with a degree in distilling and fermentation. He started distilling years ago in South Carolina but since then has traveled the globe and has distilled in three other countries. He has spent the better part of his life researching, distilling, testing, and mostly drinking Whiskey. Please feel free to email him with more involved questions at bran.b.black@gmail.com

By Bran Black

As we talked about last time, scotch whiskies of Scotland are one of the oldest living relatives of what we know whiskey to be today.  There are three main regions of production and five recognized variations of the spirit, but all of them must follow strict guidelines to be able to boast the name scotch whisky.  Regulations on what is deemed “scotch” is a constantly evolving process.  The laws were most recently updated in 2009 by the Scotch Whisky Regulations (SWR).  These regulations outline what must take place in the distilling process to earn the name as well as the labeling requirements for each bottle.

First and foremost, all Scotch must be produced and wholly matured in SCOTLAND.  Scotch was once only made from water and malted barley, but now allows wheat, rye, and other cereal grains to be added to the mash.  Scotch must be fermented at the distillery of origin using only yeast.  It then must be distilled to a proof less than 190 U.S.(94.8% ABV) and then bottled at a minimum strength of 80 proof U.S. (40% ABV).  The aging process must be at least a three-year period in an oak cast no larger than 700 liters (a barrel is 119.2 liters).  This is to ensure the batch retains as much color, aroma, and taste from the cask as possible. The Scotch Code is one of purity and under no circumstances allows anything to be added to alter the whiskey during fermentation or distilling. The exception is the use of regulated types of carmel coloring usually after aging. However, this practice is controversial and discredited my many distillers. 

The SWR also regulates the labeling and marketing of all scotch whiskies to ensure authenticity. First, all Scotch labels must provide an accurate age of the scotch, if it is a blend of multiple casks, the age on the bottle must reflect the youngest scotch of the mixture. Labels must always include which grains were used in fermentation, the type of oak cask that was used (port, sherry, cognac. etc), and what kind of filtration was used if any are also allowed and are usually present though not mandatory. The distiller name must also be present along with the words: MADE IN SCOTLAND and though the region is not required; it is usually indicated as well. Alcohol content is also a very important piece of information for the purchaser.  Most Scotches are cut with water to about 80 to 90 proof U.S. (40 to 45% ABV). Scotch can be sold straight out of the cask without being cut at a much higher ABV, this is know as cask strength. Last but not least all scotch whiskies must be spelled whisky, with no e.  

All scotch whiskies can be put into one of two camps. They are either a SINGLE or a BLEND, but within the two types there are five variations currently recognized by the SWR.  Single, when pertaining to scotch means comes from one single distillery. The two types of single scotches are: 

• Single Malt - made only from water and malted barley from one distiller
• Single Grain - made from water, malted barley, and a combination of other whole grains from one distillery. However,  Blended Scotch produced from Single Malt and Single Grain distilled at the same distillery does not also qualify as Single Grain Scotch Whisky.

Blends are just that, blends of scotch whiskies from multiple distilleries.  The three types are blends are:

• Blended Malt – made of two or more Single Malt whiskies from multiple distilleries
• Blended Grain – made of two or more Single Grain whiskies from multiple distilleries
• Blended Scotch – made from a blend of one or more Single Malt and one or more Single Grain whiskies from multiple distilleries

There is one last element of scotch that we need to touch on before we are experts. And that is the three scotch-producing regions of Scotland and all their glory. The Islands, Highlands, and the Lowlands of Scotland all produce scotch, but it is a much different animal from region to region.  Coming up next, we will outline each area and address how weather, location, and resources all come into play in each of their scotches.  Thank you for reading and stay tuned.

Bran Black is a licensed distiller with a degree in distilling and fermentation. He started distilling years ago in South Carolina but since then has traveled the globe and has distilled in three other countries. He has spent the better part of his life researching, distilling, testing, and mostly drinking Whiskey.

We’re proud to announce that with Barreled version 1.3, you can now comment and cheers user whiskey reviews. If you’re impressed with someone’s detailed review, let them know. We’ve been testing this feature for a few weeks and the excitement of talking whiskey with your distant friends and with users on the other side of the world is thrilling. We hope that you enjoy the new features and we’re already hard at work on the next release.

Download Barreled v1.3 today on iOS and Android