SPIRIT STYLES
Indiana Rye The nal category in the pantheon of American rye whiskey worth discuss- ing is what I tenuously call Indiana Rye whiskey. The reason for this slight trepidation regarding stylistic trap- pings will come as no shock to anyone familiar with the current American whiskey-scape. The upsurge of small distilling companies in the US has been accom- panied with the bottling of sourced whiskey while young house-owners patiently await their newly distilled stocks to age. A major purchase made by quite a few of these distilleries is that of a particular rye produced by MGP Ingredients in Lawrenceburg Indiana. A former Seagram’s plant, it has a muddy history of owners and subsequent sellers before landing in the hands of its current owners, Midwest Grain Products of Indiana (MGP). The company has made most of its money as a contract distiller and supplier for other distilleries and bottlers with Diageo being one of its largest cus- tomers. (MGP recently started bottling some of its whiskies for its own new- ly-developed brands.) While there are several mash bills in use by the distillery, the most popular rye whiskey they sell is a curious recipe of 95% unmalted rye with 5% malted barley. It was originally developed to be a blending component and that was all. After a series of sales and acquisitions over several years as well as the decline in blended whiskey popularity, the distillery found itself sitting atop a large reservoir of well-aged rye whiskey. Along came a number of brands looking to take a piece of the rye renaissance and the scally smart stars perfectly aligned. This peculiar recipe has fomented a rye whiskey style all to itself with its market ubiquity. Brands big and small are composed often entirely of this par- ticular juice. Diageo’s Bulleit and Dickel rye brands come from this whiskey stock as well as smaller players such as Templeton Rye. The extremely high rye content creates a dry whiskey base with lots of spice character that couples well with the heavily charred oak. Most brands aim for the on-trade/backbar market and the cost-conscious consumer looking for something upscale without having to re-mortgage their home. With the exception of the occasional long-aged market entrant these are designed to be everyday sippers that can easily fall into cocktail serves.
Stylistic Outliers Given the breadth and diversity of the American distillery sphere it should come as no surprise that there are some ryes which defy easy cate- gorisation. Colton Weinstein, Head Distiller at the award-winning Corsair Distillery, argues that its rye is a little different for several reasons. “For one, it uses zero corn, which is rare for the majority of rye whiskeys out on the market. We also use malted rye instead of raw rye grain directly from the eld. This gives a more rounded mouthfeel and deeper avour pro le than the tradi- tional grassy notes associated with rye. “To us, our style of rye is more closely related to the malt whiskies of Scotland than the traditional rye whis- keys seen around America, even more so now that Arbikie is bringing its single malt rye to market.” Also, worth noting is that Corsair
uses roughly 4% chocolate rye (a high- ly-kilned rye malt) as part of its mash bill which contributes dark roasted and chocolate notes to the nal distillate. It’s a play on avour that doesn’t neatly square itself with any of the aforemen- tioned categories. Whiskies such as Corsair’s and many others are showing the world that there’s quite a bit of room to inno- vate within the American rye whiskey space. Ingredients and techniques are ripe for iterative tinkering to create new avours and possibly even new categories as a whole. Time and market presence will tell what consumers will buy into, but for the time being the American rye whis- key category as a whole is enjoying its long-deserved comeback.
(1) whiskyadvocate.com/ old-monongahela-rye
AND SOME OF THE REST
Ryemageddon from Corsaire Distillery, the rst in Nashville since prohibition, is its aged rye mashed from malted and chocolate ryes made from a 53% rye mash bill – and is produced and aged at its distillery in Versailles, Kentucky
Released in 2012 this ‘patiently aged’ rye is the rst from Knob Creek, and joins a line of ryes offered by its parent company Beam Global
High West Rendezvous Rye; A blend of Straight Rye whiskeys ranging in age from four to seven years. 95% rye, 5% barley malt from MGP, 80% rye, 20% malted rye from Constellation’s High West Distillery
Koval is a grain-to-bottle distiller, and Chicago’s rst distillery since Prohibition. This rye whiskey is produced from 100% organic rye sourced from a Midwest co-op
november 2019 I BREWER AND DISTILLER INTERNATIONAL ● 31
i bd.org.uk
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