Wheat Whiskey
While some whiskeys can be “wheated,” where wheat is used as a flavoring grain (i.e. Maker’s Mark bourbon), wheat whiskey is actually a separate category, defined by whiskey made primarily from wheat. In the U.S., wheat whiskey follows the same requirements for production as bourbon, with the exception of the majority grain in the mashbill. Wheat whiskey must be at least 51% wheat, distilled to no more than 160 proof, enter the barrel at no more than 125 proof, aged in new, charred oak barrels, and bottled at no less than 80 proof. To be designated a straight wheat whiskey in the U.S., it must be aged at least two years. Wheat whiskey is only rarely produced by larger U.S. distillers, but smaller craft producers are experimenting more and more with the style. In Scotland, wheat whiskey is sometimes used in blended Scotch. It is also a common whiskey style in Germany.
Top Wheat Whiskey Posts:
Bernheim Original Wheat Whiskey
Masterson’s Straight Barley 10 Years Old and Straight Wheat Whiskey 12 Years Old
Parker’s Heritage Collection Original Batch Wheat Whiskey 13 Years Old (2014)
When deciding how to formulate their mashbills, Reservoir Distillery took one of the more unique approaches among craft whiskey-makers. They decided to not use a mashbill. Well, at least not a complicated one. Defying tradition, they concentrated on 100% grain expressions in their line up, all bottled at 100 proof. Their bourbon, for example, is 100%…
This year’s Whiskies of the World was shaping up beautifully, but a tragic tumble down the stairs (PSA: Don’t text and navigate staircases!) cut my evening very short. I had time to taste only a handful of spirits before leaving for treatment — shout-out to the crack ER team at Kaiser San Rafael! — but…
Long Road Distillers, based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, has an exhaustive spirits catalog (now spanning 10 products), almost all of which is made from locally-sourced red winter wheat. Want to see how versatile a single grain can be? Here’s a look at five different spirits that Long Road makes from it (plus a cherry brandy made…
Prohibition Spirits in Sonoma, California is the producer of Hooker’s House whiskey, a line which began with a bourbon and has exploded since then. Today we look at three new bottlings, plus take a fresh look at the company’s rye. As always, Hooker’s House sources its product from MGP, but all expressions are finished in California,…
As the first distillery in the state since Prohibition, Iowa’s Cedar Ridge makes everything from gin to rum to apple brandy. Today we look at five of the company’s whiskeys (it makes at least eight), which are all distilled on site (not sourced) but which are bottled without age statements. Cedar Ridge makes heavy use of Iowa-grown corn…
The mad microdistillers at Craft Distillers keep rolling with the Low Gap line. These whiskeys began as white dog releases in 2011, and the company has been putting out progressively older and more interesting expressions in the years since. Today we got to sample a trio of two year old whiskeys, including a rye, a…
Last year Heaven Hill released the Parker’s Heritage Collection Promise of Hope, a 10 year old bourbon from which $20 of each bottle were donated to ALS research, a sober nod to Heaven Hill Master Distiller Emeritus Parker Beam, who was diagnosed with the disease two years ago. Promise of Hope ended up raising over $300,000…
The folks at Masterson’s — made by California-based parent company 35 Maple Street — make what has already become a cult rye whiskey, Masterson’s 10 Year Old Straight Rye. Now the company is back with an even stranger pair of siblings: two well-aged whiskeys, one 100% wheat, one 100% barley. Both are straight whiskeys made…
Blue Flame is a craft distillery based in Prosser, Washington. The company focuses on hyper-local distilling: Both of these products are made from ingredients sourced from within 45 miles of the distillery, including grain from the distillery’s own farm and the barrels (made from local wood and custom designed by distillery owner Brian Morton) in which…
This very, very limited release is a continuation of the Low Gap wheat whiskey, a single barrel bottling of its 100% Bavarian wheat whiskey, which we reviewed a few months ago as a two year old expression. This barrel was bottled in January 2013 after spendnig “two-plus” years in a 200 liter new Kentucky oak…