The First Barrel

Look.

We’ve made whiskey before. It’s not like this was a totally new thing for us to do. And yet… there was some stuff working against us on this run.

If you’ve been to our distillery before for a tour (which, if you haven’t, you totally should) you’ll know that the first step after you’ve selected your grains is to mash. Basically, make a big porridge. This can involve some finessing, especially if the grind of the grain is finer than you’re used to. Which this was. So upon dumping the grain into the hot water to begin the cooking process, very large dough-balls formed, necessitating turning off the agitator and breaking up the dough-balls. But now we knew we had to turn up the agitator for the next time.

Then came pumping the mash into the fermentor, which was also more difficult because of the finer grind. At this point I should say that this whole post is basically just a rundown of how a slightly finer grind made everything more difficult for us at first. Because suddenly the hoses on the pump were clogging every five minutes. It was the difference between oatmeal (which we’re used to) and very, very wet sand. Theoretically, you’d think the sand might move more easily. You’d be wrong.

Cleaning out the fermentor was even more work, because the grains were so small.

But.

The end result of all of this work, which was more work than we had anticipated, was that we had created out first ever corn whiskey, which upon aging will become our first ever bourbon. Last night we pumped the high-proof distillate into a 30 gallon barrel, where it will sit for 6 months before we try it out.

However, it still might be a long, long time before we actually release our Inkwell Bourbon. To be considered a ‘straight’ bourbon, a whiskey has to age for two years. Most consumers expect a two year age for this reason. It’s not required, but it is expected. So we’ll try it at 6 months, see how we feel, but maybe let it sit a little longer if we don’t feel it’s matured enough.

Our next step will be doing the whole thing again (hopefully with less mess and mistakes) in order to make our moonshine-style Red Corn Whiskey. This will involve no aging, and thus will be released soon. Real soon. Like, month of May soon.

So look forward to it! And follow us on Instagram to see more of the process as it happens.