Connecticut’s Pre-Prohibition Bourbon

Our whiskies are a tribute to the bold, unfiltered character of America’s early distillers.

Every batch is a hands-on labor of love, fermented slowly, distilled with precision in our custom-designed and built copper pot stills, and aged using the finest local cooperage available to us using a proprietary accelerated aging process while we build up our traditionally aging stocks
This is not mass-market whiskey. It’s a return to roots, a time when bourbon tasted different – Thick, oily texture, rich nuttiness and graham cracker flavor notes, long, lingering finishes. This only comes from a time where there was a more intense focus on the raw spirit than there is today, and an attention to process detail at every step.

From the first sip, you’ll taste the difference: warm, complex, and unapologetically authentic to who we are.

It all starts with the grain

At its roots, bourbon originated as a corn whisky-based spirit (>80% Corn). Pre-American Prohibition, in the mid-late 1800’s, Corn was the primary crop used in whiskey production, with malted barley added for its known enzymatic properties.

As commercial whiskey production grew, and distillers became unable to source enough corn throughout the year to sustain whiskey production, other grains like rye and wheat were introduced to the standard bourbon mashbill, creating what we know today as a traditional bourbon mashbill of Corn, Rye, and Malted Barley.

Our mashbill, however, embraces bourbon’s roots – We mash and distill our corn whiskey distillate using 90% Wapsie Valley corn – an heirloom variety prized for its rich flavor, and 10% Malted Barley. We are proud to source all of our grain locally from Windsor, Connecticut, less than 15 miles from our distillery at Thrall Family Farm.

Mashing & Fermentation

We make sour-mash whisky, a style extremely prevalent pre-prohibition, where we pitch backset mash from previous runs into our new mash, coupled with a long, cool fermentation in order to develop a corn-forward, yet soft flavor profile in our base spirit that you don’t get with a sweet mash, or typical 21st century, extremely short, fermentations.

Distillation

All of our whisky is distilled on-site, in our custom designed and hand-built copper pot stills. All of our stills utilize a thumper keg, something that typical craft whisky distilleries don’t use. This, coupled with our still head design, allows us to balance spirit neutrality and deep flavor at the perfect level.

Our primary, 45 gallon still utilizes induction heating technology, and a custom monitoring & control system built in-house.

Aging & Accelerated Aging Process

Our bourbon is primarily aged in hand-made, exceptionally high precision, Adirondack Barrel Cooperage barrels. Our standard barrel is a Medium – Heavy Toast under Char #4. We utilize a low barrel entry proof, another pre-prohibition commonality, due to the legal maximum barrel entry proof for bourbon being changed from 110 proof to 125 proof in 1962. Lower entry proof results in a much higher level of richness due to better solubility, and a much higher level of viscosity in a proofed-down bourbon due to requiring less water to achieve the desired ABV.

While we are still young and growing, our bourbons are mostly aged using a combination of accelerated aging, where we utilize primarily intense heat to accelerate time, and traditional aging, to produce delicious whisky in a matter of months, rather than years. This allows us to focus all of our energy on whisky, and continue to innovate while we age bourbon traditionally for future release