I made it back to my local distiller of choice this evening, and had the chance to put together some tasting notes on a few more things. My bottle of Devil’s Juice was also waiting.
Other whiskey provided for color comparison
It’s a little less oil-colored in front of a light, fading instead to a deep amber.
Tasting notes (and please bear in mind that I’m not very good at this):
- On the nose, it has a strong note of hickory smoke. I get some molasses out of it too.
- On the palate: starts with strong hickory smoke (again). A little later, I’m getting apple and cinnamon, and a honey warmth and a note of maybe clover (?) toward the end. Just before I swallow, it reminds me a little of the Laphroaig 25 I had once. After that, there’s a smoky aftertaste and the warmth you get out of cask strength whiskeys.
The distiller’s baseline bourbon is the 3799. Quality sipping bourbon, notes of honey. I had another taste of the Devil’s Juice after I tasted it, so I can’t quite call it to mind anymore, and I forgot to bring my notebook in besides. He also has a baby barrel version, aged in little miniature barrels (even by his standards; I think 5 and 10 are his most common barrel sizes), which I didn’t try.
Next up is his Grandma’s Rocking Chair whiskey, which, as the name suggests, is aged in a 5-gallon barrel sitting in an actual rocking chair with a little actuator rocking it. He says the rocking both speeds the aging and does a little aeration, yielding a very oaky flavor. He does a maple-flavored version where he cuts it with maple syrup he makes at his cabin rather than water. It’s a little unusual, and a little sweet for my tastes, but not overwhelmingly sweet in the slightest.
Lastly, there’s the toasted applewood whiskey in the picture, which I described briefly before, but will endeavor to do at greater length here. It’s similar to the rocking chair whiskey, with an oaky nose and taste. I hesitate to call it ‘light’, but I feel like it would be a good entry into the whiskey world for someone new to it. Apple is the main note, but since it’s from the toasted wood rather than the fruit, it isn’t sweet. (It’s a little hard to describe. It isn’t tart either, it’s just ‘apple’ without ‘sweet’.)
He also has a moonshine (once distilled) and a white whiskey (the moonshine distilled again), along with a vodka and a bunch of flavored moonshines, none of which are really up my alley. A friend of mine says the vodka is very good, flavorless in the way vodka ought to be.
Unfortunately, no. If you (or anyone here) are interested in a bottle, though, he says I can act as an intermediary. I’ll happily do so at cost—price of the bottle plus the most efficient shipping cost between UPS and FedEx. (I have a vested interest in this guy remaining in business.) If that sounds interesting to you, shoot me a message and we can work out the details.
