#Waco texas whiskey how to

In 2011, the solution began to slowly materialize when the distillery purchased the historic Texas Fireproof Storage Company building located in downtown Waco, just a few blocks from Balcones’ original home. To solve this problem, the distillery desperately needed more space, not to mention larger pot stills. More recognition and awards continued to follow, and in no time Balcones had a demand that outweighed their supply. The Balcones Baby Blue Corn Whisky had wowed the judges. The reason being was that the distillery, not yet a year and a half old, walked away with a double gold medal in the corn whiskey category at the 2010 San Francisco International Spirits Competition. The following year, this former welding shop turned homemade distillery began producing its own whiskies and by April 2010, it became clear that the tiny underpass (the building sets under the 17th St bridge) operation was something special. In 2008, Balcones Distilling quietly sprang to life in the unassuming Texas town of Waco. I’ll be long done, sitting in a rocking chair on a front porch somewhere, before we’re remotely finished with the things we want to try.Please enjoy our Balcones Distilling Tour Review! Balcones Distilling – The beginning Rock on: “It never ends if you stay curious. We’re far from figuring out how these different corn varieties affect a bourbon’s profile.” We’ve got some Oaxacan green corn, and we just laid down some pink stuff. What’s in a grain? “We’ve played around with a lot of corn varieties in our bourbon mash bills.

#Waco texas whiskey how to

You have to try a lot of things and see how it behaves before you can get an idea of how to make the most of it.” Try, try again: “When I worked with clay in college, we talked a lot about getting familiar with the material. We’re making whiskey in a place that behaves very differently from most regions, and it’s starting to become helpful to a lot of other folks in the industry as it’s getting hotter farther north.” Their products are changing, and they don’t know what to do about it. The absence of a two-hundred-year-old history could feel terrifying, but for us, it’s freeing.”īeating the heat: “I get calls from distillers all over the world in places where it’s warmer than it used to be. We talked to many Scotch and Kentucky bourbon guys and kept running up against the fact that nobody knew the answers to many of the questions we had. Liberating history: “The biggest thing about making whiskey in Texas is the climate-the temperature swings, the dryness, the elevation. Like a Texas brisket, it’s a very specific flavor.” With Brimstone, our smoked whiskey, we use post oak and scrub oak.

Sip of Texas: “A lot of our flavors center on the character of Texas and how to communicate that, not just by using locally grown ingredients. It has a voice and a perspective to add to the conversation. Head distiller Jared Himstedt has since expanded the distillery’s experiments to craft bourbons, ryes, rums, and single-malt whiskeys with a sense of place.ĭifferent by design: “Smaller distilleries will sometimes apologize that their bourbon doesn’t taste like it comes from Kentucky or Tennessee, but that’s why it’s useful. Known for: Released in 2009, Balcones Distilling’s Baby Blue whiskey, made with roasted blue corn, was the first Texas-made whiskey legally sold in the state since Prohibition.