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
I’m not going to lie: The flood of releases, both bourbons and ryes and all named after race horses, is daunting and confusing. There were at least 6 special editions in 2018, and 4 so ...
We’ve already checked out a single barrel and small batch bourbon expression from Old Carter, so now it’s time to check out their straight rye whiskey. There haven’t been any single barrel rye expressions yet ...
Buzzard’s Roost Sippin’ Whiskey is yet another addition to the seemingly unending line of non-distilling producers crowding the whiskey shelves today. The brand was started by Bourbons Bistro founder Jason Brauner, who personally took part ...
Last year, Old Elk — the Colorado-based operation run by former MGP master distiller Greg Metze — launched a pair of new whiskey expressions that were sold exclusively in Old Elk’s tasting room. This year, ...
We were pretty up on Nevada-based Frey Ranch Distillery’s inaugural bourbon earlier this year. Now we’re back with the inevitable follow up, a straight rye, made “grain to glass” on Frey Ranch’s estate. It’s a ...
Our friends at Louisville’s Four Gate Whiskey are becoming well known for their micro-batch bourbons, and for their 7th release, they’re making the obvious jump to something new for the first time: rye whiskey. Four ...
Hey, the world isn’t going to let a global pandemic keep some of the most coveted whiskies from hitting the market this year. And here they are, your 2020 Buffalo Trace Antique Collection quintet. There ...
The pandemic mucked with Michter’s release schedule of its annually released 10 year old single barrel whiskeys this year. Unusually, samples of each arrived simultaneously at Drinkhacker HQ, so we’re taking the rare opportunity to ...
Rare Breed has long been one of Wild Turkey’s premium bourbon bottlings, the big selling point being that it’s bottled uncut, at barrel proof. Now the Rare Breed brand is extending to that other American ...
Kooper Family Whiskey is a Dripping Springs, Texas-based distillery that we last visited in 2016 when we reviewed its (now discontinued) 100% Rye release. Today we take a fresh look at Kooper’s current lineup, which ...
