By Andrew Graham Grade: B+ Let’s start off by getting technical. Scotch-makers must use 100% malted barley in their mash bill. U.S. regulations, by contrast, permit a spirit that’s just 51% malted barley to be labeled as malt whiskey. So this American malt might taste more like a bourbon, that American malt might taste more like a rye, and it ...

Whisky And Beer Are More Intertwined Than Ever By Richard Thomas Whisky (including Irish Whiskey and American Malt Whiskey) have a lot in common because they share similar roots. In the early stages of production, both a distillery and a brewery produce a malted barley wort. I can’t say a beer wort and a whisky wort are indistinguishable, but I ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ From Asheville’s Highland Brewing, this annual release takes their double chocolate imperial milk stout and ages it in ex-bourbon barrels. This year’s edition came out at 11% ABV (or at least that is what my bottle says). The usual pitfall with any beer aged in a bourbon barrel is that it comes out the other ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B Knowing as I do about the problems with sourcing barrels of whiskey that are supposed to be full, I’m never surprised when I hear tales of useless dry and sometimes leaky used barrels from brewers. When an independent bottler buys aged whiskey, it’s not uncommon for a small fraction of the lot to be empty; ...

By Richard Thomas Rating: B+ One of the problems confronting anyone in the business of using a previously used barrel to age or further age their booze is that of barrel quality. Vertically integrated companies, brewstilleries and other such outfits don’t have this problem, but to focus just on whiskey-makers, most distillers and independent bottlers don’t have access to a ...