That Boutique-y Whisky Company King’s County B1 2 Year Old (61.9% abv)

Kings County is New York City’s oldest distillery, and the first since Prohibition. Founded in 2010 it makes handmade bourbon, rye, and other whiskeys out of the 123-year-old Paymaster Building in the Brooklyn Navy Yard.

This is a two year old Peated Straight Bourbon, made using 80% New York organic corn, and 20% Highland peated malted barley. Once again we’ve bottled this at natural cask strength and have filled just 303 bottles.

What is Peated Bourbon? It’s whiskey that conforms to the American requirements for bourbon but is made with malted barley that has been exposed to peat smoke. They use 15 ppm peated malt

So it’s a hybrid of the two traditions: the high-corn mashbill and new-barrel aging produce a spirit that is unmistakably bourbon, while complimentary notes of barbecue and campfire smoke come from the malted barley.

Open air fermentation allows wild yeasts to act on the wash, and they distill with two copper pot stills, one form Forsythes, one from Kentucky. They use a lower barrel entry proof too.

NOSE
Pretzels, burnt butterscotch, charred sweetcorn, fairground toffee apples, hints new rubber tyres, and a touch of menthol too.

TASTE
Meaty and rich. This comes across as quite salty,with notes of new leather, pretzels again, rubber, and salted caramel. Peppery spices in the drying finish.