Rye grain | Caramel popcorn | Mellow oak | Brown sugar cube | Malted barley | Slight ethanol

Rye spice | Chocolate malt | Honey | Chewy malted barley | Charred oak | Pie dough | Black peppercorn | Faint caramel

Dough | Rye spice | Dash of dark honey | Oak | Chewy leather | Lingering heat

Chattanooga Whiskey Experimental Batch 043: Pre Prohibition Style “celebrates a decade of Experimentation at the company’s Experimental Distillery, which in 2015 became Chattanooga’s first legal production distillery since Prohibition,” according to the company. The whiskey was created as a nod to what whiskey from Chattanooga, Tennessee, crafted during the early 20th century, may have tasted like. To help accomplish the goal of this eight barrel batch, the company employed three distinct features: grain type, fermentation styles, and various cooperage styles.

The bourbon utilizes a harder variety of yellow corn along with a slew of various malted barleys and malted ryes. To ferment the grain, the company utilized “a unique overnight sour mash coupled with a multi-strain fermentation of bourbon and malt whiskey yeasts, which together replicate the less-controlled, multi-strain yeast cultures used within distilleries of the era.” Chattanooga then went on to utilize a total of six different cooperage combinations that vary in both char and toast profile to age the whiskey.

Thinking back to what a Chattanooga, Tennessee bourbon might have tasted like over 100 years ago brings about thoughts of a unique bourbon that highlighted a spicy overall flavor profile and leaned heavily into its malted grains. Chattanooga Whiskey Experimental Batch 043: Pre Prohibition Style delivers exactly that, with bold rye spice being propped up by various malt grain influences. Rye grain and mellow oak mingle with sweet caramelized popcorn, brown sugar, and malted barley on the nose, while bold rye spice punches its way into the midpoint and combines with sweet and drier flavors along with chocolate and more standard malted barley. That rye spice carries through to the finish and combines with a chewy leather note to deliver a lingering heat that grips your mouth. The end result is one that delivers a spice-forward sip that forgoes exotic flavors in favor of a unique whiskey that appeals to those who like an untraditional bourbon.