Whisky Connosr
Menu
Buy Whisky Online

Balcones Brimstone

Leather Jacket on FIRE

0 692

@MaltActivistReview by @MaltActivist

7th Aug 2014

0

Balcones Brimstone
  • Nose
    24
  • Taste
    23
  • Finish
    23
  • Balance
    22
  • Overall
    92

Show rating data charts

Distribution of ratings for this: brand user

I had never heard of Balcones Distilling until they won the WWA 2014 award for best American Whiskey. While I'm not a big fan of awards this time around I'm grateful to them for bringing this Texan distillery on to my radar.

When you think of Texas you don't think of whisky. And, frankly, the only thing I know about Waco, Texas (where the distillery is located) is that a certain madman by the name of David Koresh burned down a ranch along with a lot of people.

Luckily now I will begin to associate Waco, Texas with pretty awesome whiskey. So thanks to Balcones for that.

Started only five years ago Balcones is the lovingly built brainchild of a certain Mr Chip Tate - can't get any more Texan than that! Hand-built pot stills and a unique smoking method are responsible for this unique tasting corn whiskey.

Legend has it that one fine day Chip managed to burn a heck of a lot of corn at the bottom of his stills. Rather than throw it away he decided to use it. But not before he subjected it to his rather unique method of smoking the spirit with Texas Scrub Oak and then aging it in heavily charred barrels.

The result is the award-winning Brimstone Resurrection (get it?) that can only be described as a raging Texas campfire.

Nose: Completely scorched! Burnt leather. Dry barbecue meat. Clove. Ginger. Nutmeg. All spice. Cigar box. Let it breathe and it gets sweeter. Molasses. Baby ginger. Figs. Spicy Fruitcake. Cherry cough drops. All treated to that heavy Texan oak smoke. Wicked.

Palate: Seriously intense. Very woody cocoa. Peppers. Fruitcake. Java coffee beans. Nutmeg. Dry fruits. Figs. Raisins. All charred. All smoked. All fantastic.

Finish: Long with herbs. Wood. Cocoa. And did I mention smoke?

Powerful dram that is only three years old with a limited run of around 155 bottles so count your self lucky if you have one of these bad boys.

I've not tried any of the other Balcones offering but you better be sure I'm going to.

Find where to buy Balcones Distilling whisky

Nose:

Palate:

Related Balcones Distilling reviews

Read more Balcones Brimstone reviews

6 comments

@Victor
Victor commented

Oh yeah, Balcones does a lot of great things, as does Corsair (Connosr member @darekbell being the master distiller). These two are well-established distilleries now. There are also scores of new US micro-distilleries which very few Connosr members have yet sampled.

10 years ago 0

@Pierre_W
Pierre_W commented

@MaltActivist and @Victor: It is always good to read about craft distilleries and their fascinating products all over the world. Sitting in the middle of Europe it is sometimes tempting to believe that single malt whiskies are the norm but then there is much exciting stuff around from other countries, too! Many thanks for bringing this to my attention, Tabarak.

10 years ago 0

@Pierre_W
Pierre_W commented

I meant single malt whiskies 'from Scotland'...

10 years ago 0

@Victor
Victor commented

@Pierre_W, the whisk(e)y world is huge and getting larger all of the time. The "norm" is what is known, familiar, and/or available in a given geographical area. That varies enormously from place to place. If you lived in Canada, for example, Canadian blended whisky would most likely be your 'norm'. Most Canadian whisky drinkers drink Canadian whisky, not Scotch. If you live in Europe, Canadian whisky probably seems pretty remote. Even in the US where there is a massive amount of Canadian whisky sold, we are mostly out of luck trying to buy the best Canadian whiskies, and have to travel to Canada if we wish to do so.

The world of whisky is changing a lot, globally, and mostly outside of Scotland. Personally, I see that those changes are coming so quickly, and there are so many new distilleries being opened, that it would take something approaching a full-time whisky career just to keep up with it. As an example, not so many years ago there were no barley-malt whisk(e)y distilleries in the US. Now there are dozens.

Would I like to taste them all? Yes, I would like to taste all the whiskies in the world, and especially a lot of Central and Northern European whiskies-- which are not sold here...but that is a tall order, and I will appproach that goal at a pace which remains enjoyable to me.

10 years ago 0

@Pierre_W
Pierre_W commented

@Victor, fully agree with your assessment, the whisk(e)y world is indeed getting bigger and larger all the time. While I am quite familiar with the Japanese whisky landscape, North America in particular harbours many malts that are wholly unknown to me and many of them will most likely remain so. I'll do my best to continue the voyage of discovery across all continents - which is why reviews like the one above are so valuable. Slainte!

10 years ago 0

@vanPelt
vanPelt commented

Thanks @MaltActivist, it's great to see your take on this one. Balcones fell on my map when I tried their awarded True Blue (100), which is my favorite thing to come out of the US so far. Luckily, I was able to get a sample of this Resurrection when MoM was first offering it-- But I don't know when I'll find the right moment to actually enjoy it.... For now I'll just re-read your review and imagine it. Cheers to you if you found one of those limited 155!

10 years ago 0