Local Ryes and Gins

[jasonc]

Don, would you please get started on local ryes and gins?

[DonRocks]

Don, would you please get started on local ryes and gins?

Yes, but not tonight. Ask me another time, in another thread, and I'll get specific. I won't make friends with my answer.

[southdenverhoo]

I thought, but expect to be schooled by Don's eventual post, that the Copper Fox two year old rye I've been sipping on since I brought it back from my last trip home a month ago, is rather nice actually. That may be because of the low expectations I went in with, in part from posts here about the harsh and sort of artificial flavors in the single malt from a few years back. But those described, if I understood correctly, whiskey sold young to be barrel aged by the customer, and with some sort of process to inject smoky Scotch-like flavors into it on the quick & dirty...this rye, on the other hand, was aged in barrels from the Bowman distillery in Fredericksburg for at least 12 months (I know, I know, still pretty quick...) and while the malt is kilned over an applewood fire this is to me old school rather than artificial, and similar (but applewood instead of beech) to the way Bamberg maltsters make the rauchmalz that go into, say, the Aecht Schlenkerla Ur-Bock

Also because Rick Wasmund and his mother and his apprentice were so fucking nice when I showed up at 11 am on a weekday while they were cooking up one batch of mash and bottling a finished batch of whiskey and gently kilning one batch of malt over an applewood fire (in a fairly ingenious arrangement in the old barn that houses their distillery) and raking the floor maltings for another batch of malt, and steeping still another, still found time to show me around.

But it will be hard to convince me that this is not a smooth, caramelly, pleasant tipple, for a beer geek ( and occasionally snob) who is not too up on spirits and therefore perhaps not aware enough of faults that would be obvious to a trained palate...

I just realized that this is bad manners, unforgiveable thread drift and nothing to do with steak tartare! And yet having written it I don't want to erase it, and will hit "post" knowing it's bad manners. Deal with me (and the post) appropriately, Rocks, mea culpa...

Back on topic if only tangentially, if you're ever in Denver and in the mood for tartare, go directly to Old Major in Highland. I don't know how they dress it, obviously a vinaigrette but not a vinegary one if that makes any sense.. but there is an unctuous velvety texture that's spiked with just a tang of something acetic, and the meat itself, wow. One of the best in my recollection...

Edited October 4, 2013 by southdenverhoo

[DonRocks]

I thought, but expect to be schooled by Don's eventual post, that the Copper Fox two year old rye I've been sipping on since I brought it back from my last trip home a month ago, is rather nice actually. That may be because of the low expectations I went in with, in part from posts here about the harsh and sort of artificial flavors in the single malt from a few years back. But those described, if I understood correctly, whiskey sold young to be barrel aged by the customer, and with some sort of process to inject smoky Scotch-like flavors into it on the quick & dirty...this rye, on the other hand, was aged in barrels from the Bowman distillery in Fredericksburg for at least two years (I know, I know, still pretty quick...) and while the malt is kilned over an applewood fire this is to me old school rather than artificial, and similar (but applewood instead of beech) to the way Bamberg maltsters make the rauchmalz that go into, say, the Aecht Schlenkerla Ur-Bock

Also because John Wasmund and his mother and his apprentice were so fucking nice when I showed up at 11 am on a weekday while they were cooking up one batch of mash and bottling a finished batch of whiskey and gently kilning one batch of malt over an applewood fire (in a fairly ingenious arrangement in the old barn that houses their distillery) and raking the floor maltings for another batch of malt, and steeping still another, still found time to show me around.

But it will be hard to convince me that this is not a smooth, caramelly, pleasant tipple, for a beer geek ( and occasionally snob) who is not too up on spirits and therefore perhaps not aware enough of faults that would be obvious to a trained palate...

I just realized that this is bad manners, unforgiveable thread drift and nothing to do with steak tartare! And yet having written it I don't want to erase it, and will hit "post" knowing it's bad manners. Deal with me (and the post) appropriately, Rocks, mea culpa...

Back on topic if only tangentially, if you're ever in Denver and in the mood for tartare, go directly to Old Major in Highland. I don't know how they dress it, obviously a vinaigrette but not a vinegary one if that makes any sense.. but there is an unctuous velvety texture that's spiked with just a tang of something acetic, and the meat itself, wow. One of the best in my recollection...

Well, one thing's for sure: I'm incapable of "schooling" you on this post. It was really very nicely written.