Thirsty angels

[bourbonv]

We have had two days of 100+ degree weather here in Kentucky and look to have another today and maybe two or three more days of such heat next week. This is going to drive up the temperature in the warehouses making the angels drink more water than whiskey on pretty much every level instead of the middle to top levels. I do hope that makes for some richer tasting bourbon in the next few years.

[Mark]

You're not kidding about hot weather Mike. Thankfully it is a bit cooler here today than it has been but it is still torture. That is a good point you bring up though. Although it sucks to deal with it, a few extremely hotter than normal summers would be great for us in the bourbon world!

[bourbonv]

Mark,
We are getting a break today and tomorrow - it is only going to reach about 95 degrees! Next week though, they are predicting at least 3 days above 100 degrees and the rest in the upper 90's. This is going to heat those warehouse so that even the bottom floor will probably get into the mid 80's instead of the normal mid 70's. I am sure the angels will be drinking the water out of those barrels, raising the proof of the alcohol in the barrels. On the top floors this will speed the maturation even more than normal. The old timers would not count the years of aging, but instead the number of summers old the bourbon was aged.

Summers in Kentucky do vary year to year. For example two summer ago it was very cool and wet. Last summer was about average and this year has been above normal hot and dry. A four year old bourbon would be exposed to all of these conditions and on paper it would be considered exposed to "average" temperature, butr the fact is the extremes do impact the flavors in ways that are not found when the bourbon was aged in four "Average" temperature years. Wet cool summers are the hardest to deal with because of the added chance of must and mold in the wet cooler weather. Hot, dry weather has its own problems because the bourbon does seem to pick up some of that heat with the increased alcohol content of the barrels higher up in the warehouses.

It will be interesting to see what this weather brings out in the bourbons bottled in the next few years.