By Richard Thomas Rating: B American Fifth Spirits was reportedly ready to go in Lansing, Michigan in 2009, which would have placed them among the early group of craft distilleries that followed the trailblazers like Stranahan’s and Tuthilltown. However, the Great Recession dried up their access to financing, and the project languished until 2013, with the distillery opening in 2015. ...

Kilbeggan Irish Whiskey Limited Release Small Batch Rye By Randall H. Borkus Rating: B In October 2018, Beam Suntory’s Kilbeggan Distilling Company celebrated the release of Kilbeggan Irish Whiskey Small Batch Rye. Although Kilbeggan was restored in 2010, reviving a 260 year old legacy in whiskey-making (one of the stills there is the oldest working pot still in the world!), ...

Four Roses is poised to make its first permanent brand extension in more than a decade come springtime, when it introduces Four Roses Small Batch Select. The new Small Batch is meant to represent a higher standard than the existing Four Roses Small Batch, and will be bottled at 104 proof and without chill filtration. Barrels chosen for inclusion into ...

By Randall H. Borkus Rating: A According to Four Roses lore, in 1884 Paul Jones Jr., a successful whiskey distiller and ex-Confederate army officer, was enamored with a Southern belle beauty. Jones sent his beloved a handwritten proposal of marriage prior to escorting her to a grand ball. She playfully replied that if her answer were to be “yes,” a ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B The craft movement is now 10 to 12 years old, but even the earliest entrants haven’t introduced whiskeys several years or a decade old. This is because most of those early micro-distilleries were using barrels so small that aging even a year would leave the whiskey cloyingly over-oaked. Those that weren’t relying exclusively on small ...