This Month's Bourbon Zeppelin Feature Article
Steve Akley Works at Ozark Distillery
A Firsthand Account of the Experience by Steve Akley
On March 20 an 21 of this year, I experienced a bucket list type of adventure. I spent two days working at Ozark Distillery in Osage Beach, Missouri. Owners Dave and Tiffhany Huffman welcomed me to their incredible facility to see firsthand exactly what makes their bourbon so special.
For a confirmed "Bourbonhead" (what I'm officically calling in this publication as a person who loves everything bourbon), this was like a fantasy camp. Obviously, this isn't like baking a cake where you can be involved in the same cake from start to finish. Bourbon has to age... for years.
Dave had planned well for this. He had prepared a batch earlier in the month that had fermented to the point where it was ready to run through the still. He also had two 15 gallon barrels that had aged to perfection and were ready for bottling.
With Dave doing the behind the scenes prep, he was able to literally take me through the entire process. We started by milling corn, wheat and barley. We then cooked a mash. In the downtime, I was learning about Dave, Tiffhany, their company and the care they take to make their bourbon, and all of their products, the absolute best quality possible.
Dave and I then dumped out the two barrels of bourbon. I actually got to taste bourbon just out of the barrel. That experience alone would have been incredible, but there was so much more to this experience! We then proofed it to 92 and let it rest overnight before we could bottle it.
The next day, we took the batch fermented batch Dave had ready to go and did a stripping run through the still. It was incredible watching that whiskey come trickling out!
The second day ended with us bottling the bourbon we had dumped the day before. We filled the bottles, corked them, sealed them and finally labeled them. Tiffhany helped with the labeling and I have to tell you, she and Dave make everything look so easy. The "hands-on" part of handcrafted is tough. They have years of experience and really put out a beautiful as well as delicious product.
Delicious?
Oh yes. The best part about working at a distillery for two days is the fact you have to taste your product. You can't deliver something to your customer which has been taste tested!
Hey, I had to do it... for those two glorious days, it was my job!
|
|
|
The photo montage of my time at Ozark Distillery. Clockwise from upper left: The distillery has a true Ozark feel from the moment you drive up to it, Dave Huffman starts the process to make bourbon by milling corn, me filling bottles of bourbon, me in Barrel House #1 checking out the aging bourbon, Tiffhany Huffman hand-labeling bourbon bottles, dumping perfectly aged bourbon out of the barrel and the center is the final product... a bottle filled, corked, sealed, labeled and signed by me!
|
|
In this issue...
Welcome to the inaugural issue of Bourbon Zeppelin! Delivered as a newsletter, the focus of BZ is to provide quality and entertaining that reads much more like a magazine than a newsletter. In this issue alone, in addition to my firsthand behind the scenes tour of Ozark Distillery, we have product reviews, bourbon samplings, cocktail recipes and tons of bourbon news.
I hope you enjoy the issue and look forward to receiving BZ delivered right to your inbox on the first of every month!
Editor-in-Chief
Bourbon Zeppelin
|
|
|
|
|
Reviews of Unique Bourbon Offerings by Steve and Four Bourbon Zeppelin Team Members
This month we take a look at:
Woodford Reserve Masters Collection 1838 Style White Corn
A cornerstone of Bourbon Zeppelin is going to be the Steve + 4 Reviews. In this regular feature, Steve and four of the B.Z. team members will rate and score a bourbon. Knowing that there is something intrinsically wrong with any scoring system, BZ attempts to smooth out the human factor in three ways:
1). Right out of the gate, having five evaluators automatically adds legitimacy to this type of system which is typically completed by one person.
2). Steve + 4 helps remove personal bias by removing the top and bottom scores are tossed out leaving only the three scores in the middle as the ones that count.
3). The three scores that are left are then averaged giving us the final score for the monthly selection.
All final scores are tallied and kept at the bottom of BZ allowing us to have a growing comparative database.
Let's see how this month's selection fared:
Reviewer #1
Evan Haskill - 71.5
Notes:
Aroma - Floral/Rose
Taste - Floral/Rose mouth feel with a vanilla/sweet/buttery finish.
Final Evaluation - Light on the nose and entry with an excellent finish that lingers nicely with a flavorful/balanced easy burn.
Reviewer #2
The Shy Associate Editor - 72.0
Notes:
Aroma - Right out of the gate I’ll say that nosing this Bourbon was delightful. At a high level it showed up with a nutty and warm sweetness. And that theme continued; it was sugary, yet not too cloying, and with a baking spice component. A slight oak element was definitely present.
Taste - My first sip was really interesting and showed up nicely as I experienced this “white corn” Bourbon, and was intrigued as to what it would really taste like. It had a great smoothness, wasn’t hot, and finished mid palate for me. Picking up on vanilla it was very balanced overall as I savored a few sips. Throughout my tasting experiment, I also picked up on other flavors: a butter flavor akin to a cooked or almost ‘browned’ butter, the flavor of baking spices, but still with a fruity brightness.
Final Evaluation - After finishing my sample, I experienced that familiar and warm “Kentucky Hug” with a finish that stuck around long enough to enjoy the near-creamy texture it left behind.
Reviewer #3
Melissa Anderson - 73.0
Notes:
Aroma - Ethyl alcohol, new oak, rye spice (black pepper), corn
Taste - Baking spices, sweet corn, rye spice (black pepper), toasted oak
Final Evaluation - Woodford Reserve Master’s Collection 1838 Style White Corn is a lovely bourbon. It has a nice balance of flavors with an interesting spice and oak character that balances well with the sweetness from the white corn. Unfortunately, however, it doesn’t live up to its $95 price range on the palate; I believe it is in line with a number of $35-$45 bottles. I would expect a fuller mouth feel, more complex palate, and more interesting nose for the price. It is a great glass of bourbon, but I won’t be running out to get a bottle.
--------------------
Tossed Reviews
High
Steve Akley - 87.0
Notes:
Aroma - Orange, vanilla, caramel. A sweet scent.
Taste - Tastes like candy corn with a little heat and peppery notes.
Final Evaluation - The white corn gives this one and incredibly sweet taste.
Low
The Bearded Sipper - 52
Notes:
Aroma - Corn and caramel with a hint of tobacco and light oak.
Taste - The corn tastes more like the husk than the kernel and the caramel flavor is quickly overtaken by a peppery burn?
Final Evaluation - At first sip I wondered if I was being tricked because the flavor, for me, was far from impressive.
Combined Score
The final score for Woodford Reserve Masters Collection 1838 Style White Corn is...
72.2
|
|
|
|
The Bouron Lifestyle
A look at products for bourbon fans
Recently, Steve Akley got his bourbon collection organized with the help of Adam Burkholder, who runs a company called BackFortyBarrels, selling his uniquely crafted products from bourbon barrels on Etsy. "My bourbon collection got a bit out of hand. It had spilled over from a cabinet in the kitchen and a bar in the basement onto the kitchen counter. The shelves from Adam helped me get everything off of the counter."
The BackFortyBarrels' shelves in Steve's kitchen
The best part of these shelves is not only are they deep, the bourbon sits down in them with a rail made out of a barrel stave across the front. This ensures the bourbon doesn't shift forward and drop off of the shelves which can be pretty important with the cost of a bottle of high end bourbon at risk.
A really nice touch is you can order them with our without the bung hole and custom order the length of the shelf. To see Adam's Etsy page, click here, or click on the photo to take a look at the shelf Steve ordered three of for his collection. Adam has a deal for BZ readers. If you use the code "Zeppelin" at checkout you will receive 10% off of your order!
. . . . . . . . . .
 Low Country Olive Oil offers the only bourbon-infused balsamic vinegar we've been able to find. Miguel, a blogger on the site Holy City Handcraft has come up with two recipes using this unique product: A Bourbon Balsamic Pot Roast and a Balsamic Mule. Click on the Low Country Olive Oil logo to go to pick up a bottle or the name of the recipes to check those out.
. . . . . . . . . .
The latest item from Grumpy Dog Candles is sure to capture the attention of our cigar lovers. It's a cigar ashtray made from a repurposed Jefferson's bottle. Click on the photo to see all of the items they have for sale.
. . . . . . . . . .
Bulls Bay Salt Works makes a Bourbon Barrel Smoked Flake Sea Salt. They don't just buy salt and smoke it, they collect the sea water from a pristine wilderness area, evaporate the water and then hand harvest the salt. They then smoke the flake salt in electric smokers using Bourbon Barrels that comes originally from Willett in Kentucky. The barrels are purchased and transported by another Charleston-based organization, a cocktail mixing company called Bittermilk, to age their Bourbon Barrel Aged Old Fashioned mixer. Bulls Bay then acquires the barrels in a trade from Bittermilk (they use Bulls Bay salt in their Charred Grapefruit Tonic mixer). The barrel are then cut up and the salt is smoked with the pieces. The result is a bourbon smoked salt that is quite complex with notes from the fresh spices used to create the Old Fashioned. Pick up a jar of Bulls Bay Bourbon Barrel Flake Sea Salt by clicking here.
|
|
|
2 dashes Angostura Bitters
Gently stir with ice and pour back over ice in an old fashioned glass
Garnish with orange peel
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Honey and Bourbon
Submitted by Waxing Kara
3 tablespoons butterbean honey
3 tablespoons warm water
4 ounces bourbon
2 large lemons juiced
Fill half of a cocktail shaker with ice
Mix honey and warm water to create syrup
Add bourbon and lemon juice to shaker
Shake
Pour into a saucer
The Honey and Bourbon
Photo by waxingkara.com
|
|
|
|
News About Bourbon the B.Z. Team has Heard
Whiskey that has met all the legal requirements to be called bourbon that has been aged at least two years can be called "straight bourbon." In April, Buffalo Trace Kentucky Straight Bourbon won best "straight bourbon" with a Double Gold at the 16th annual San Francisco World Spirits competition. Thirty-nine judges tried the 1,899 entries to determine the medal winners. Note to the show organizers, please contact Steve Akley about a judging job for this competition!...Great Britain may not be a hot market for bourbon, the distilled spirit, but Bourbon biscuits (a cream filled cookie similar to an Oreo in the U.S.) are a favorite treat there. There may be shortage of this uniquely British treat as torrential downpours caused flooding which shutdown production the factory for a while. If you read this one thinking you wouldn't mind get a "hit of the bird" with your cookies and milk, alas, bourbon the beverage and bourbon the biscuit are linked together in name only; there is no bourbon in the Bourbon biscuit...Cadée Distillery out of Clinton, Washington (makers of Deceptivus Bourbon) were recently recognized with an award for their Cascadia Rye Whiskey by the American Distilling Institute...Word on the street is the 2016 Woodford Reserve Master's Collection is going to be a bourbon finished in tequila barrels. That should be interesting...Word has it Buffalo Trace has over 5,000 experimental whiskies in its inventory. Don't think you can "help them out" by taking the failed experiments off their hands. They keep those for future research!
Review of Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey: An America Heritage
by Michael R. Veach
Reviewed by Steve Akley
Unless you are 100% loyal to one brand of bourbon, you probably realize the history of bourbon is pretty murky. What does brand loyalty have to do with the history of bourbon? Well, since the written record of the history of bourbon is almost non-existent, many distilleries have taken stories passed down through oral history and kind of "filled in the gaps" to complete the picture.
In reality, all of the stories told in the industry have some basis of truth to them. Author Michael Veach helps sort out what's true, what is likely true based on what is factually accurate and what isn't true at all in his book Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey: An American History.
The book was brought to my attention by a bourbon historian who was assisting me with a book I was working on. In this project, I was looking to clarify some of the information. I found Michael Veach's approach to the topic to be very straightforward and presented in a manner which kept my interest throughout the book. It's a quick read and I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to know actual history over some of the marketing stories we've been told.
Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey: An American Heritage is published by the University of Kentucky Press and can be found in bookstores or can be purchased on Amazon if you click here.
The Bourbon Virgin Tries...
Evan Williams Black Label (86 proof)
Before I opened the bottle of Evan Williams to take a taste, I prayed that if anything happened to me that the sweet baby Jesus would let me come back and haunt Steve for at least a year. Well, it’s a plus that I made it through my first taste test, but it would have been so much fun to scare the crap out of Steve every day!
So I took a little whiff of the bourbon prior to the drink. My nose flared and my stomach turned. My mind was racing, like what is going on?! This is NOT Bud light! I decided on the count of three I would drink it... 1...2...3, down it goes! And holy smokes! How do people drink this stuff?! My mouth, throat, nose, I mean man, my entire body was on fire! However, it was a different kind of warmth to my body than Bud Light and cherry bombs give me.
After eating multiple different kinds of food to try to get rid of the burning taste in my mouth, I said another prayer to the Jesus. This time I asked that he helps me acquire a taste for this stuff, so I can actually drink like an adult someday. Maybe soon, you’ll see the Bourbon Virgin out at a bar one night and hear her say “Hey Bartender, your best bourbon on the rocks please!”
|
|
|
|
|
|
