Filmed on WhistlePig’s farm—where the distillery operates its R&D distillery, grows its own rye and other grains, makes maple syrup, and more—distillers Liz Rhoades and Mitch Mahar guide us through their process of growing, testing, distilling, aging, finishing, and blending.
Launched in 2010, WhistlePig Whiskey in Shoreham, Vermont, has been one of the most influential brands raising the profile of American rye whiskey. Despite sourcing much of the whiskey for its flagships, WhistlePig operates an R&D distillery on a 500-acre farm where it grows its own rye, wheat, and barley, processes sap into maple syrup bound for whiskey barrels, and trials a wide range of finishing casks and blends.
In this 67-minute course, whiskey development director Liz Rhoades and R&D distiller Mitch Mahan walk us through their growing, testing, distilling, aging, and finishing. Among other points, they explain how the climate can affect the grains as well as the barrel-aging, influencing their choice of casks, as well as how different finishing casks affect the character of their blends—and much more.
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Lessons
Head of whiskey development Liz Rhoades and R&D distiller Mitch Mahar welcome us to their course, in which they’ll walk us through WhistlePig’s whiskey-making process, from the farm through the distillery, and into the barrels and (eventually) the blends, bottles, and bar.
From their choice of rye varietal to the Vermont climate, WhistlePig’s ingredients and process combine to create distinctive flavors—and that starts on the farm.
The WhistlePig team tests the grain it grows, making informed choices about how to adjust mash regimes and other aspects of the process based on those data.
From the versatile still setup to cask placement in the rickhouse, Mitch Mahar describes some of the strengths and quirks at their small distillery—including how they work with the variability of the harvest.
Mitch Mahar describes the sampling process of the whiskey casks at WhistlePig before zooming in on their finishing process, and how different kinds of finishing casks can play into their blends.
Mitch explains more about WhistlePig’s R&D program, including a wide range of finishing casks and looking for compelling flavors from around the world.
Our instructors take us back into the distillery to sample from the current run, then out to the grounds to visit the hogs and the Sugar Shack.
To finish off the course, Liz and Mitch tie the elements of the process together by tasting through some of WhistlePig’s whiskeys, discussing the finer points of sensory evaluation, and more.