Woodford 1838 Sweet Mash Bourbon.

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Woodford 1838 Sweet Mash Bourbon.

Unread postby cowdery » Fri Oct 17, 2008 6:02 pm

Yesterday, Woodford Reserve released the 2008 edition of the Master's Collection. It is a 1838-recipe sweet mash bourbon. More about the whiskey is here.

It should be in stores November 1.

As part of the event, we got to hand-make a sour mash and a sweet mash. I tell that story here.
- Chuck Cowdery

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Re: Woodford 1838 Sweet Mash Bourbon.

Unread postby KD5NVT » Sat Oct 18, 2008 5:36 pm

Very interesting articles, they sparked my curiosity, How old is Woodford's current sour mash. What did they do with the sweet & sour mash that was mixed by the press. You showed pictures and described the mixing in barrels the old fashioned way, does that mean in the old days that each barrel was mixed separately? Thanks
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Re: Woodford 1838 Sweet Mash Bourbon.

Unread postby cowdery » Tue Oct 21, 2008 12:29 am

The stuff we mixed up was dumped into the sewer. I saw them do it. I don't think they intended us to see that, but we hadn't quite left the property when they did. Too bad, but there wasn't much else they could have done with it.

Woodford Reserve Distiller's Select (standard sour-mash Woodford) doesn't have an age statement but they always say it's seven-plus years old.

As for the 1838 Sweet Mash product, they did a batch in 2002, but they didn't like how it turned out. This batch was done in 2003, so it's five years old. Don't hold me to that, I'm working from memory. You'd think I'd write things like that down, wouldn't you?

As for the old days, like in the picture. They mashed and fermented in those tubs, like the one pictured, that were actually a little bigger than a 53-gallon barrel, but then when they finished fermenting they went into the beer well to go into the still so, no, they didn't make one barrel at a time. For one thing, one barrel of fermented mash would make only a fraction of a barrel of whiskey, because what goes on in distillation is concentration, from about 10% alcohol after fermentation, to 70%-80% alcohol coming off the still.

I have posted a little bit more about this product, which is here.
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Re: Woodford 1838 Sweet Mash Bourbon.

Unread postby bourbonv » Tue Nov 11, 2008 10:21 am

I tried this the other day at the Bourbon's Bistro. It was after several drinks and a cigar, so I did not try for a formal tasting, but I will say I rather liked it. It was a bit yeasty on the nose and reminded me of bread dough, but it had some nice sweet grain flavors and a bit of vanilla and oak. i will purchase a bottle for a more formal tasting.
Mike Veach
"Our people live almost exclusively on whiskey" - E H Taylor, Jr. 25 April 1873
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