The term “white whiskey” might bring to mind white dog or moonshine—unaged distillate, right off the still, bottled at a very high proof, and likely to induce headaches. And thanks to moonshine’s close association with illegally produced spirits, even modern versions have struggled to outrun the association with a lower-quality product.
Now, however, some craft distillers are releasing white whiskeys that are carefully created and anything but rough on the palate. By moving deliberately away from the term “moonshine,” these producers are forging a growing category and championing white whiskey as a premium product that deserves respect.
“I think people have the connotations [that] it’s going to be rough or harsh,” says Aaron Schorsch, master distiller at Hush & Whisper Distilling in Bryan, Texas. Instead, with a controlled fermentation using high-quality ingredients, he argues that there aren’t many off-flavors that need smoothing out. “If you’re doing things right, it should be very balanced and very refreshing in certain ways.”
Made by a Distiller (Not a Barrel)
Hush & Whisper distills its White Whiskey from 70 percent corn, 16 percent wheat, and 14 percent malted barley; the corn is harvested just 15 miles away. White Whiskey only kisses the wood, spending less than a day there before bottling.
“Our distillate tastes good,” says Caleb Clanton, founder and distillery manager. “We make sure that everybody knows that this isn’t moonshine—it’s whiskey, just different to how they’ve experienced it before.”
He says that he’s been amazed by the response from visitors—an old fashioned made with White Whiskey is their most popular cocktail. He says customers have urged them to keep selling the white whiskey even as they build their barrel-aged inventory.
The distillery has featured unaged whiskey extensively in its tours, offering tastes of white spirits made from 100 percent rye, 100 percent malted barley, 100 percent corn, and 100 percent wheat. They don’t package these single-grain white spirits for retail sale, but they offer them as an education piece to show how different grains taste before aging.
“I think that’s an eye-opening experience for a lot of people,” Clanton says.
White whiskey is a way for consumers to experience grain character in a very pure, stripped-back form. For distillers such as Schorsch, there is a degree of direct control over evident flavor that isn’t always quite the same for aged products.
“We can outline barrel specs, but we cannot control the wood,” Schorsch says. “We cannot control individual barrel-flavor compounds and things like that.”
Refining the Process
At Middle West Spirits in Columbus, Ohio, founder and master distiller Ryan Lang says that bartenders often use their White Rye Whiskey, bottled at 110 proof, to experiment with cocktails—for example, by using it in place of tequila or mezcal.
Lang says that it was challenging at first to sell people on the value of the product, but they gradually came around. He cites Buffalo Trace and Maker’s Mark among the major distillers with white whiskey products that helped to push the category forward, building consumer interest.
Lang founded Middle West in 2008—there’s plenty of inventory these days for its award-winning bourbons and ryes—and he says he’s pleasantly surprised that the White Rye continues to be in high demand. “If you asked me 10 years ago if [white rye as a category] would still be around, I would have said no,” he says.
After trying dozens of ryes in production, the Middle West team settled on using dark pumpernickel, which became a calling card for the brand. Using it to distill a tasty white whiskey, rather than one meant for extended barrel aging, meant making some process tweaks to get the soft, drinkable spirit he wanted.
Specifically, pulling off fusel oils was a big focus. “You want that power,” Lang says, “but you don’t want it to taste like the back end of the distillate—which is the higher-temperature fusels, which are great for aging but can be off-putting” in white whiskey.
Redistilling the spirit in a pot still and taking a significant tails cut turned out to be the best process choices to arrive at the product the team wanted. Before the pot-still run, they bring the proof down to somewhere between mash proof and finished distillate for a carefully controlled second run.
White Whiskey Abroad
It’s not only American distillers who are experimenting with white whiskey releases.
At Cotswolds Distillery in Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire, England, production head Alice Pearson says it was a no-brainer to release their White Pheasant, bottled at 63.5 percent ABV.
“The new-make is perhaps the best testament to … the skill of our distilling team,” she says.
Like the Hush & Whisper team, she emphasizes the educational angle. “It also serves as a great tool to teach those who visit us about the process, including the flavor that can be achieved from a well-designed process and local barley, but also about the effects and importance of maturation in the final product.”
There’s value in a guided experience, Pearson says, particularly for those who aren’t accustomed to tasting new-make or high-strength spirit. “However, the overwhelming response is often surprise and delight at the flavors derived from only local barley, yeast, and water,” she says, describing them as “apricots, nectarines, a sweet malty finish.”
The stone-fruit flavor is one that she says stays recognizable in each drop of whisky, including their aged product. “It’s easy to assume that long-term maturation or heavy wood tannin would cover that up,” she says, “but that is not the case at all.”
She says white whiskey does an especially good job of showcasing grain profile. “Maturation represents a large number of variables and, therefore, tasting spirit before maturation gives a much better insight into the production process, including the grain.”
Courtesy Koval Distillery, Chicago
“Honest Expression”
In Chicago, Koval Distillery experimented with several different grains for their white whiskey before settling on an organic rye.
“It’s the purest expression of that grain, the heart of the spirit, before a barrel imparts its own powerful flavors,” says master distiller Robert Birnecker. He describes it as clean and crisp yet spicy, adding that bartenders use it as a bold replacement for vodka. “It's become a secret weapon for mixologists, who use it to create unique twists on classic cocktails.”
The biggest misconception with the category, he says, is that it’s an unfinished product. “That’s not it at all. Because there’s no barrel-aging to hide imperfections, the distillation has to be incredibly precise. We only use the heart cut of the distillate, which is the absolute cleanest and highest-quality portion.”
When it’s compared with a barrel-aged rye, Birnecker says the peppery and floral notes are more prominent in the white rye. Without the vanilla, toffee, and caramel influences from the oak, floral and cereal notes shine through, while a hint of anise or caraway leads some to compare the spirit to an aquavit.
“Think of the barrel as a very strong, very wonderful ingredient,” he says. “It adds char, smoke, wood tannins, and sugars. By removing that ingredient, you’re left with a spirit that is a 100 percent transparent expression of its source: the grain. You can taste the specific character of our 100 percent organic rye in a way that is simply not possible after it has spent years mingling with oak.
“It’s the most honest expression of the distiller’s craft and the farmer’s grain.”