Rye whiskey — it’s definitely a bartender favourite (and one of ours, too). We spoke to a few experts about how they go about making their rye whiskey.
Expert’s name: Dave Pickerell
Distillery: WhistlePig Estate Distillery
Expert’s role: Master Distiller
Could you briefly describe how you make your rye?
Whistlepig is made by mashing, fermenting, and distilling 100% rye mashes, and then double barrel aging the distillate for ten years or more, first in a new #3 charred white oak barrel, and then in a once used bourbon barrel.
Could you briefly tell us about the rye you use to make your whiskey?
We grow the Danko variety of winter rye. It’s berries are plumper, and it grows shorter, with thicker stems, so it is less prone to lodging before harvest. As a result, there is a far larger harvest yield than the Aroostook variety that has been prevalent in Northeast United States, and better whiskey yield per acre.
What are the characteristics it imparts in the final spirit?
The rye provides an incredible array of spice notes to the final spirit … Clove, Cinnamon, Allspice, Mint, Anise, Burnt orange, Nutmeg, and Ginger can all be found in WhistlePig’s taste profile.
When it comes to mixing drinks, which ingredients play well with your rye whiskey and why?
While WhistlePig is most often consumed neat or with ice, it was designed to perform well in all of the classic cocktails. The clean notes of rye spices combined with the sweetness of a caramel, butterscotch and vanilla finish and the 100 proof bottling strength allow WhistlePig to make a wide range of delicious cocktails.
What are the characteristics itWhat’s your favourite cocktail to use your rye in?
I am having fun trying to revive old classic cocktails. Right now, I am really enjoying a well-made Monte Carlo.
Expert’s name: Brendan O’Rourke
Distillery: Tuthilltown Spirits
Expert’s role:Operations Manager
Could you briefly describe how you make your rye?
We use an all rye mash for our rye whiskey. The mash is fermented for four to six days and then double distilled in combination pot column stills.
Could you briefly tell us about the rye you use to make your whiskey? What are the characteristics it imparts in the final spirit?
We use a locally grown, non-GMO New York rye. This particular grain adds a spice note to the final product that is not in most other spirits. Its interaction with the oak adds citrus and apricot flavors that are very unique to our spirit.
When it comes to mixing drinks, which ingredients play well with your rye whiskey and why?
Our rye whiskey is pretty versatile. There are many ingredient options that work well. I particularly like to see bartenders embrace the spice characteristic of the spirit and build off of that. Citrus, ginger, chili peppers, stone fruits, and smoke are all great building blocks for our rye whiskey.
What’s your favourite cocktail to use your rye in?
For me, it’s a classic Manhattan made with Basement Bitters Bitter Frost. Bitter Frost was designed to complement to our rye spirit so it really brings out the spice notes. Another great option is to substitute freshly pressed New York apple cider for sweet Vermouth to make the perfect fall cocktail.
Expert’s name: Patrick van Zuidam
Distillery: Zuidam Distillers
Expert’s role: Master Distiller
Could you briefly describe how you make your rye?
Distilling Rye whisky is a very simple if tricky process.
We start with producing a 100% Rye Grain mash. We start with heating water in a 10 000 liter tank before mashing in (mixing in) 1 ton of unmalted Rye grain at 85 Celsius. This produces thick glue like mash which we cool down to 65 Celsius before mashing in 1 ton of malted rye grain. With other grain mashes the consistency (read how thick it is) improves greatly after mashing in the Malted grain. Unfortunately the 100% Rye mash is very thick and glue like, even after sachrinification (the converting of the starches in sugar). This is cause by the naturally high levels of beta-glucan and arabinoxylan in the rye grain.
After the saccharinification we cool the mash down to 19 to 20 Celsius before adding the two yeast strains that we use in the fermentation.
We add a Belgian brewers yeast to produce those wonderful fruity flavors and combine it with an M-strain distillers yeast to improve yield a bit.
During fermentation we rigorously control the fermentation temperature for several reasons. First so we get a beautiful fruity (distillers) beer and second because of the thick glue like consistency of the mash we want to keep the rate of fermentation slow in order to prevent it foaming so much it ends up on the floor instead of in the fermentation tank. Fermentation takes 7 to 8 days.
After fermentation we have a gorgeously fruity rye beer that we slowly distil twice in our 5000 litre pot stils. First distillation takes about 7 hours.
This is redistilled the next day with addition of the fore and after runs of the previous distillation. This distillation takes about 8 hours.
We choose to distill our mash slowly in order to get a better separation of flavours. During the second distillation we separate the wanted flavours (in the middle cut) from the unwanted flavours in the fore run (too many low boiling esters) and the after runs (too many higher alcohols).
Due to rigorous cuts we end up with a new make rye of about 74 % Alcohol. This we age in 200 litre virgin (new) American oak barrels for up to 10 years.
Could you briefly tell us about the rye you use to make your whiskey? What are the characteristics it imparts in the final spirit?
We use locally grown rye for our rye whisky as much as possible. In fact next year we plan to grow from the grain to glass distillery that we are now to a farm to glass distillery where we grow our own grain.
Rye of course always imparts this spicy character to the whisky that combines so well with the American oak barrels.
When it comes to mixing drinks, which ingredients play well with your rye whiskey and why?
Our Rye Whisky can be used in any drink where you would use an American rye.
But our Millstone 100 Rye Whisky will bring an extra depth to the drinks because of our 100% rye mashbill when compared to the 51-55% rye content in American ryes.
It doesn’t need many ingredients to shine and it excels in a “simple” cocktail as a Old Fashioned.
It combines very well with fresh citrus flavors like orange or lemon.
What’s your favourite cocktail to use your rye in?
Manhattan, there it very much shows off its qualities.
Expert’s name: Dan Woolley
Distillery: Beam Suntory/Edrington
Expert’s role: National Whisk(e)y Ambassador
Could you describe how you make Knob Creek Rye?
We run our stills at Clermont Kentucky around 3 times a year only to make all our rye and we only have the one rye recipe. This is mixed with corn and barley into a mash bill with a back set and yeast added. We then distill and age to perfection in new heavily charred American oak barrels.
Tell us about the rye you use?
Rye heavily increases the spice the more you put into the whiskey. Rye whiskey having a minimum of 51% rye in the mash bill means that it has approx 4 or 5 times the amount of rye that a bourbon has so in turn it will have 4 to 5 times the amount of spice. Your cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and vanilla will be bursting through on the front of the palate and with Knob Creek rye your always going to find a sweet spear mint on the finish.
Which ingredients play well with your rye whiskey and why?
Classic whiskey cocktail ingredients pair perfectly with Knob Creek Rye. Sweet vermouth brings out the spices, aromatic bitters enhance the sweetness and fresh citrus balances the bold flavour.
Whether your making an old fashioned, whiskey sour or Manhattan, the flavour of Knob Creek rye remains the hero of your drink.
What’s your favourite cocktail to use your rye in?
Mint julep! The sweet spear mint notes work perfectly with sugar and fresh mint to create a cocktail packed with incredible full flavour.