iLaddie: Whisky Nerd: Hunting for Corsair Triple Smoke, Small Batch

I have been checking out some of the artisan distilleries that are active in the USA. One of these is the Corsair Distillery in Tennesee. I was asking E-Man Booze for advice on a USA made, Single Malt, matured in American Fresh Oak casks, because I want to find out what a Single Malt would taste like if matured in the most active fresh American Oak.

Why do I want to find out? I drank "DenHool" whisky and this has so much bourbon like tastes in it that are probably from the American Oak used to mature it in. Since this is an assumption I wanted to find a reference Single Malt that is matured in Fresh American Oak.

Since not many Scottish Distileries use these fresh American Oak casks it would be hard to find such a dram in Scotland. So I asked E-Man Booze which USA based dram's are made from 100% Barley. His answer was a single malt made by Westland and one by Corsair. After I explained what I wanted to try he adviced me the Corsair. This Corsair Triple Smoke fits the bill.

Hence my hunting for this dram here in the Netherlands. The result of my hunting on websites can be found below.

Photo as linked to on the Corsair website.

More about these guys in updates of this blog.

For now just a small overview of Dutch sites that actually sell this dram in the 75 cl version. In Germany it is more readily available, also via Amazon.de

Drankgigant.nl : €59,95 for 75 cl.

luxuriousdrinks.com : €60,71 for 75 cl.

Neeldrinks.com : €57,65 for 75 cl.

Drankdozijn.nl : - not available

Mastersofmalt.com : - not available

Bestofwhisky.com : - not available

Drinkology.de : €57,60 for 70 cl.

I have ordered a bottle via luxuriousdrinks just to try out their service.

The distillery owners choose the Corsair name in 2008 as a reference to being somewhat of a gentleman Pirate distillery in the business. The gentleman pirate part meaning they pay taxes and are therefore legal. For the rest they like to play the pirate role of innovators and basically try anything they damn well please. The Corsair name was chosen over "Privateer" according to distillery ambassador Will Atkinson.

The label was conceived by Darek Bell while stepping out of the pub when he followed the Bruichladdich distilling academy on the island of Islay in Scotland. This means thumbs up in my book since I love Bruichladdich. Apparently he saw some guys strutting around in the way depicted on the label and thought that should be the way his whiskey should be enjoyed.

The label also intentionality makes reference to several (cult)movies. We are left to guess which ones. This allows your own personality to identify with the label. One of the movies is "reservoir dogs"

They use a 50 gallon copper pot still in the Bowling Green Kentucky location (with carter head / vapor basket) for distillation but also a 250 gallon still in the Nashville Tennessee location. The 50 gallon still was commissioned to be like "the bat-mobile" in the way that it can perform all kinds of tasks, like distilling gin. According to Andrew Webber the 250 gallon still is a pre-prohibition 1920/1921 gin still which also does strait Whiskies well. It is referred to as being the "Mack truck" to the "bat-mobile" by Clay Smith. The wash still is called dimples. Many of the brewing and distilling hardware was bought from the Yazoo Brewing Company.

The Tripple Smoke whiskey is made in barrels according to USA whiskey laws, which means new charred American Oak casks are used.

The mash bill is 100% Malted Barley. Normally this is made from one batch malted in one way. This is where Corsair did something different. Three parts of the Barley were made. One part was smoked using cherry wood, one peat, one beech wood. Hence the name "Tripple Smoke".

A video review by the Scotch Test Dummies: