Waco texas whiskey11/15/2023 The spirits age in various types of barrels in the back of the facility. The grains are mashed and fermented in-house before being distilled in the large stills that dominate the front room. If I lived in Denison, I would spend way too much time here.Īn area this large is helpful because Ironroot Republic prides itself on doing everything from scratch–their “grain-to-glass philosophy.” All the grain comes from within 60 miles, and they use non-GMO and organic ingredients whenever possible. The space allows for multiple stills to produce the liquors, including a glass still dedicated to making the components of their gin. Located in a former boat dealership, Ironroot Republic has 15,000 square feet of space to house the distillery operation, a large bar for enjoying the products, and a generous seating area. The distillery is the city’s first, complimenting a growing number of wineries and breweries nearby. I’ll be long done, sitting in a rocking chair on a front porch somewhere, before we’re remotely finished with the things we want to try.Near the Texas-Oklahoma border in the small city of Denison, Texas, brothers Robert and Jonathan Likarish have added their Ironroot Republic Distillery to a list of experts in an area proud of its viticulture heritage. Rock on: “It never ends if you stay curious. We’re far from figuring out how these different corn varieties affect a bourbon’s profile.” We’ve got some Oaxacan green corn, and we just laid down some pink stuff. What’s in a grain? “We’ve played around with a lot of corn varieties in our bourbon mash bills. You have to try a lot of things and see how it behaves before you can get an idea of how to make the most of it.” Try, try again: “When I worked with clay in college, we talked a lot about getting familiar with the material. We’re making whiskey in a place that behaves very differently from most regions, and it’s starting to become helpful to a lot of other folks in the industry as it’s getting hotter farther north.” Their products are changing, and they don’t know what to do about it. The absence of a two-hundred-year-old history could feel terrifying, but for us, it’s freeing.”īeating the heat: “I get calls from distillers all over the world in places where it’s warmer than it used to be. We talked to many Scotch and Kentucky bourbon guys and kept running up against the fact that nobody knew the answers to many of the questions we had. Liberating history: “The biggest thing about making whiskey in Texas is the climate-the temperature swings, the dryness, the elevation. Like a Texas brisket, it’s a very specific flavor.” With Brimstone, our smoked whiskey, we use post oak and scrub oak. Sip of Texas: “A lot of our flavors center on the character of Texas and how to communicate that, not just by using locally grown ingredients. It has a voice and a perspective to add to the conversation. Head distiller Jared Himstedt has since expanded the distillery’s experiments to craft bourbons, ryes, rums, and single-malt whiskeys with a sense of place.ĭifferent by design: “Smaller distilleries will sometimes apologize that their bourbon doesn’t taste like it comes from Kentucky or Tennessee, but that’s why it’s useful. Known for: Released in 2009, Balcones Distilling’s Baby Blue whiskey, made with roasted blue corn, was the first Texas-made whiskey legally sold in the state since Prohibition.
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