The Whiskey Reviewer A World of Whiskey, Poured Every Weekday
When Ranger Creek started making bourbon over 6 years ago, their vision was to create a one-of-a-kind barrel experiment. With the year-round release of their .36 Texas Straight Bourbon, their never-before-seen experiment has finally come to fruition.
.36 Texas Straight Bourbon is Ranger Creek’s everyday straight bourbon. It was aged for a minimum of two years with a suggested retail price of $55. It’s a small batch bourbon that is packaged in traditional, large 750 ml bottles. Like all of their products, it is handcrafted from grain to glass in San Antonio.
“We’ve been working on this bourbon for over 6 years, which means we’ve spent tons of money to make it and then just patiently waited for a really long time,” explains Mark McDavid, co-founder of Ranger Creek. “There’s no other Texas bourbon out there that has won the kind of awards as our .36 that’s available at this kind of price, so we’re very excited to see what it will do.”
This bourbon follows Ranger Creek’s .36 White and .36 Small Caliber Bourbon as the third release of their move up the barrel aging chain. Though each .36 bourbon uses the same recipe, the individualized barrel aging techniques have made each one distinct.
The .36 White is the “white dog” that goes into the barrel and allows consumers to experience the clear, white whiskey before any barrel aging. The .36 White is then put into either small barrels or large barrels for maturation. The small barrels produce fully mature bourbon in 9-18 months. The distillery labels this whiskey as their .36 Small Caliber Bourbon and packages it in small, 375 ml bottles.
The traditional, large barrels take 2-4 years to produce mature whiskey. The distillery labels this whiskey as their .36 Texas Straight Bourbon and packages it in traditional, large, 750 ml bottles. The different releases allow enthusiasts to try the .36 bourbons alongside each other to taste differences and similarities and, ultimately, to choose their favorite
