Rye
While bourbon is considered America’s native spirit, rye was actually the favored whiskey among her earliest colonists and continued to be popular well into the 1800s, especially in northeastern states like Maryland and Pennsylvania. George Washington even famously distilled rye at his Mount Vernon estate in Virginia. By U.S. law, rye whiskey must be made from a mash of at least 51% rye (with corn and malted barley typically rounding out the remainder of the mashbill). Rye must adhere to the same production standards as bourbon: aged in new, charred oak containers, distilled to no more than 160 proof, entered into barrel at no more than 125 proof, and bottled at a minimum of 80 proof. A straight rye whiskey must be aged for at least two years. Rye whiskey production largely ceased in the U.S. after Prohibition, despite its popularity with America’s nascent cocktail culture at the time — although rye has always been popular in Canada, and rye remains a major component in many Canadian whiskeys today. The resurgence of American whiskey in the late 1990s and an explosion in the popularity of craft cocktails around the same time has launched a revival in rye whiskey production — and consumption — in America.
Top Rye Whiskey Posts:
Knob Creek Rye
WhistlePig Straight Rye Whiskey 10 Years Old
Woodford Reserve Rye
Gardiner, New York’s Tuthilltown Spirits is one of the old guard of craft distilling, having been on the scene since 2005 with its Hudson Whiskey brand. The brand’s squat bottles and quirky production techniques — which pioneered miniature barrels and the use of loud music to vibrate barrels in the warehouse — are legendary. Like…
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The limited releases just kept on coming this year from Michter’s. Hot on the heels of the 10 Year Old Single Barrel Bourbon and the Barrel Strength Rye, shelves were stocked, however briefly, with the newest 10 Year Old Single Barrel Rye and the eagerly anticipated return of US-1 Toasted Barrel Finish Bourbon. Michter’s fans…
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As fall kicked off this year, KO Distillery in Manassas, Virginia announced the release of two new expressions, both of which are meant to satisfy whiskey-drinkers’ growing love of rye (or so says the press release). First up is Distiller’s Reserve Bottled-in-Bond Rye, the follow on to last year’s Distiller’s Reserve Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon made from 100%…
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Ready for Christmas? Ready for Christmas 2023, maybe? Our long day’s journey into night may have continued unabated this year, but we’re hopeful you’ve at least found some ability to get out of the house, maybe take a trip, and reconnect with friends and family this season. Naturally, you’re still not going to be able…
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When Frey Ranch distillery, based in Fallon, Nevada, released their first four-grain straight bourbon in December 2019, we at Drinkhacker were instant fans. (We also reviewed their follow up rye and single barrel bourbon #22). The whiskeys stand on their own merit; and a recent visit to the idyllic working ranch and their first annual Whiskey…
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Earlier this month, we reviewed the reborn Old Scout Single Barrel Bourbon, which died an untimely death, along with the standard Old Scout Bourbon, when the distillery ran out of sourced MGP stock in 2016. That wasn’t the only casualty of Smooth Ambler’s shortage. There was also an Old Scout Rye (MGP’s beloved 95/5 mashbill)…
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Earlier this year, David introduced you to Nashville Barrel Co., a new, non-distilling producer based out of Nashville’s Railyard District that offers an impressive portfolio of single barrel whiskeys and rum, as well as a small batch rye, the second batch of which thoroughly impressed us over at Drinkhacker HQ. In addition to their own…
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It’s been over a year since Drew reviewed our first expression from Buzzard’s Roost, a single barrel bottling from this increasingly prolific producer. (It now sports six different expressions of “sippin’ whiskey,” all rye originally sourced from MGP. Age information is available, but the bottles carry no formal age statements and no data on how…
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The hits keep coming from the maniacs at Kentucky’s New Riff, which for its next trick has dropped the oldest age-statemented whiskey in its lineup to date, a 6 year old bottling made from 100% malted rye. Malted rye is uncommon but not unheard of in whiskey these days. Making it essentially follows the same…
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By now you’ve surely heard the news. This year there will be no George Stagg release, with Buffalo Trace declaring that the barrels it pulled (from 2006 distillate) “did not meet the Stagg profile today.” The good news is that it still leaves four horsemen remaining in the Antique Collection, and these whiskeys are always…
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