Roll out the barrel? Yes, but at these Wisconsin craft distilleries, it's full of whiskey

The craft beer movement has become so popular it's almost — dare we say it — mainstream.

Now, the craft distillery movement is gaining momentum.

In Wisconsin alone, more than 20 craft distilleries have opened in the past 13 years, three of which call Milwaukee home: Great Lakes Distillery, Central Standard Distillery and Twisted Path Distillery.

The trend isn't just about singular — and locally produced — tastes, it's about making distilled spirits approachable and fun. One example: On Thursday night, Great Lakes Distillery is pairing up with Purple Door Ice Cream for what they call an adult ice cream social, featuring sundaes made with KK Whiskey ice cream and "yummy boozy toppings."

Great Lakes was the first distillery to appear in Wisconsin since Prohibition ended in 1933. Its founder, Guy Rehorst chose to open his business because no one was making local spirits. “I thought there was probably a market for it,” he said.

He was right. A study in 2016 by the American Craft Spirits Association found that craft spirits earned $2.4 billion in retail sales in 2015 with a compound annual growth rate of 27.4% in volume between 2010 and 2015.

Initially, Great Lakes Distillery sold vodka and gin, which can go from grain to bottle in a week. Rehorst admits that the real goal from day one was to make whiskey, which takes years.

“Those white spirits, vodka and gin, enabled us to operate a business and have an income while we were waiting for the whiskey to age,” he said.

Rehorst has experimented with a number of whiskey recipes over the years, but the staple at Great Lakes is the award-winning Kinnickinnic.  Later this year, two new whiskeys will be added to its regular menu.

'You have to wait'

Evan Hughes  and Pat McQuillan  also said that their passion for whiskey motivated them to open Central Standard Distillery three years ago. They currently sell bourbon, rye and oatmeal whiskeys, though Hughes admitted that producing the spirit can be frustrating.

“You’re basically creating an asset that sits in a warehouse and you have to wait,” he said. “It’s ready when it’s ready. It’s ready when it tastes good.”

Regardless, making whiskey can be good business. Data collected by the Distilled Spirits Council showed that U.S. bourbon and Tennessee whiskey sales claimed $3.1 billion in 2016, a 50% increase from 2011. High-end and super premium varieties benefited from the largest growth, which bodes well for craft whiskeys.  

“We haven’t seen any slowdown,” McQuillan said. “Just a demand for more.”

As the number of distilleries and whiskeys continues to grow, seasoned enthusiasts and curious novices alike will have more options to choose from. Exploring how whiskey develops its flavor is one way to decide which bottles to try.

The choice of grains, or mash bill, is the first factor to influence flavor. Rye provides a spicier base. Barley and wheat supply sweetness. Corn is comparatively neutral.

Although whiskeys are identified by the dominant grain used, the mash bill is commonly a mixture. For example, a rye whiskey ranges between 51% to 100% rye. Bourbon must be at least 51% corn. Scotch contains mostly malted barley and must be made in Scotland. The remainder of the mash bill can include any other grain.

Once chosen, the grain is ground, mixed with water, heated and stirred. This process breaks down the starch in the grain into its component sugars.

Fermentation of the sugary solution begins with the addition of yeast. Yeast eats the sugar and converts it to alcohol — mostly ethanol, the specific alcohol desired for beverages, but other compounds as well.

After a few days of fermentation, the solution is essentially beer. Next, distillation with a copper still is used to isolate the ethanol from the rest of the brew.

Copper is important. All plants contain some amount of sulfur, which results in a bitter spirit that smells vaguely of rotten eggs if not removed. Copper chemically reacts with sulfur and traps it in the still.

Distillation is an ancient technique that is used today in applications ranging from oil refining to the purification of water. It separates components of a mixture based on their boiling points. The most volatile compounds, the “heads,” evaporate first and are discarded. The heads include ethyl acetate and acetone — ingredients in nail polish remover — as well as methanol, which can result in blindness if consumed in significant quantities.

Next comes the “hearts,” the ethanol, followed by the “tails,” a mixture of water with other higher boiling point compounds.

Knowing when to cut the tails from the hearts is part art and part science. Metrics like vapor temperature can provide hints, but craft distillers base their final decision on experience; they evaluate how the collected liquid tastes, smells and feels when rubbed between fingertips (the tails feel oily).

Tails left with the hearts add more flavor and contribute to each whiskey’s distinct taste.

Flavor source

After the still, the spirit goes into barrels, where it gains the majority of its flavor. 

Whiskey barrels are made of white oak and charred inside. Bourbon specifically requires a fresh barrel of this type.

Charring caramelizes the sap in the wood. Whiskey takes on caramel, vanilla, fruit and spice notes as the spirit leaches into the wood and pulls out those flavor compounds. If whiskey is aged in beer or wine barrels, the liquor will absorb those residual flavors.

Additionally, the spirit can chemically react with the wood to produce new flavors and aromas as time passes.

Aging also removes undesirable flavor compounds. The charred wood works like activated carbon and pulls them out. In addition, volatile heads that were not removed by distillation evaporate through the wood, which is why aged spirits lack the bite of unaged  spirits.

How whiskey evolves over time depends on many variables such as temperature, humidity, barrel size and the unique history of the tree used for the barrel. “There can be very dramatic differences from one month to the next and from barrel to barrel,” McQuillan said.

Distillers can combine barrels to produce a larger batch of a consistent product. 

For those interested in delving into the world of whiskey, going to a formal "tasting" is the best way to learn. As McQuillan said, “It’s one thing to tell people what the flavors are. It’s another for them to try it.”

And for those hesitant to jump straight into whiskey on the rocks, Rehorst adds, "There are some wonderful cocktails you can make with whiskey. It's an easy way to get into it." He recommends the unofficial state cocktail: the Old Fashioned.