Bourbon Distillery House Styles

Why do essentially the same style bourbons made from different distilleries taste so different? The laws on the books for producing bourbon are very restrictive. The law states that “Bourbon Whisky is whisky produced at not exceeding 160 proof from a fermented mash of not less than 51% corn, and stored at not more than 125 proof in charred new oak containers”. Our Master Distiller at Heaven Hill Conor O’ Driscoll puts it this way. “There’s only so many levers we can pull.” Yet bourbon tastes different from one distillery to the other. What is it that makes them taste different? I describe the difference in a large part is “House Style”. House Styles are talked about with Cognac and Tequila distilleries, and it’s something I’ve been talking a lot about lately with bourbon distilleries too. Especially now since there are around 1,800 craft distilleries, along with the 10 major distilleries. Those 10 by the way produce about 95% of the worlds bourbon. Here’s something I learned from Greg

by bernie · source ↗