![]() Taking a drink is like shaking hands with an old friend. When you bury your nose in the glass, you quickly discover caramel, vanilla and honey. Nose: Despite the low percentage of corn in the mashbill, this brings to mind traditional, straight-up bourbon. Vital Stats: Mashbill of 51% corn, 34% malted barley, 15% rye aged four years 88 proof/44% alcohol by volume about $50 for a 750 ml bottle. Old Elk’s whiskey line up (image via Old Elk) Tasting Notes: Old Elk Blended Straight Bourbon Whiskey In this review we will be taking a look at four of the Old Elk offerings – a bourbon, a wheated bourbon, a wheat whiskey and a rye whiskey. “As people try our products and see the quality, I think we’re going to be a big, big deal.” “We’re going to be more than a run-of-the-mill distillery fighting for space on the shelf,” he says. Metze’s signature now appears on every bottle from Old Elk, and he says he’s excited about the future as he was when he walked out of University of Cincinnati back in 1978. Three are based on the custom mashbills he developed for them, and the fourth – a straight rye – is one of the MGP mashbills he especially loved to make while there. These days, Old Elk is building a full-scale distillery in Fort Collins but in the meantime still leaning on whiskeys sourced from MGP that were made when Metze was still there. Richardson loved the results, and figured he should just hire away the MGP master distiller to keep it going. ![]() Metze ultimately created custom bourbon, wheated bourbon and straight wheat mashbills for Old Elk. “That,” says Metze, “was the first time in my career I had the opportunity to build mashbills from the ground up.” He didn’t have a production facility of his own yet, but didn’t want the standard MGP mashbills, either. The founder and longtime CEO of Otter Products, maker of OtterBox phone covers, Richardson in 2013 wanted to start a new distillery in his hometown of Fort Collins. Once the juice left his hands, he largely lost track with what brands all over the country were doing with it. Regardless, Metze was making the same five mashbills he knew well, going back decades. Others were happy to take MGP-aged whiskies and just slap their own labels on it. Working there turned out to be the best training in the world, as for becoming a master distiller.”Īt MGP, some brands would buy un-aged, raw whiskey and finish it or blend it themselves. “Seagram’s was progressive, and pioneered a lot of the techniques widely in use today. “I was producing many products for many brands, but those products were all based on five Seagram’s mashbills,” he says. But it was the Seagram’s approach – and mashbills – that Metze learned from the beginning that continued to define how he approached the work. By that point the master distiller at MGP, Metze found himself overseeing whiskey-making at the largest contract distiller in the United States. The Seagram’s liquor business eventually went to Pernod Ricard, which went to LDI, which went to Diageo, which eventually went to MGP. “That was pretty darn cool.”įorty-two years later, says the now master distiller at Old Elk Distillery in Fort Collins, Colo., “it’s still pretty darn cool.” It continues to be very chocolate & malty all the way through for me.“The only thing I really knew is that I was 23 years old, and I was going to work for a whiskey company,” Metze says. Later in the glass things haven't evolved drastically but it seems to have taken on some floral and cinnamon undertones. I mentioned the banana note in the Instagram review above. I'm surprised that I am not finding more of the banana note I tend to expect out of the high malt bourbons though. Wow, as I continue to take deep inhales off the surface of the glass I find incredibly rich malt notes starting to take over which is likely more of an artifact of that high malt bourbon. There's a savory barbecue note I'm digging. A lovely dusty, dried shelled corn aroma keeps finding deep prevalence here. ![]() I'm so surprised about the caramel popcorn smell it's slightly salty which comes off savory and delicious. There's troves of level oak sitting right at the perfect age where things round out. There's a lovely malty, funky rick house aroma that I love. Nose: Up front I find nice, crispy caramel corn right away.
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