Why most mass-produced whiskeys miss the mark

It is no secret these days of all the, umm, interesting experiments we are seeing craft whiskey producers doing. Corsair Distillery, for example, is known for all sorts of one-off bottlings. Never before though have we seen a distillery create “peated bourbon.” What exactly is this even, you might wonder? It is something Kings County, the distillery behind it, is careful to explain.

Kings County Peated Bourbon, now on its second batch, is, well, I’ll let the folks from the New York-based distillery explain it. They say…

it’s bourbon whiskey that conforms to the American requirements but is made with malted barley that has been exposed to peat smoke, a more common practice in some Scotch whiskies. So, it’s a scotch-like bourbon, flavorful and robust from having aged in a new barrel, with an added light smoky finish, reminiscent of a single malt. As far as we know, this is the world’s only peated bourbon and will appeal to the adventurous whiskey traveller who has tried everything—except this.

Now I will point out, at least from a quick Google search, that there may be one other craft distillery in Pennsylvania which is public with plans for a peated bourbon. Kings County looks to be way ahead of this though, as this new batch was aged two summers (14 to 24 months) in a 5-gallon charred, new oak barrel before being bottled at 90 proof. It is distilled from a mash bill that’s 70% corn, 15% peated malt and 15% Golden Promise malt.

As it stands Kings County has plans for a limited run of this to be available around New York this spring following the previous distillery only bottling. Should you miss out on the latest release, fear not, as more is in barrel as well and could be released for other states perhaps as soon as this fall.

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