Tasting notes

nose

toasted grain and damp earth with honey, orange peel and baked cherry, plus a sharper edge of lemon, green apple and ginger

palate

round and fruity, mellow caramel giving way to tart green apple, then clove and cinnamon that build as honey-baked walnut emerges

finish

long; salted caramel and walnut under a coating of clove and cinnamon that hums for a minute, with a faintly sour apple note at the end

Mash bill

73% corn, 9% rye, 9% wheat, 9% malted barley. All four grains are grown in Arkansas, and rye and wheat go into the mash in equal measure. The mash is soured by starting each cook with part of the stillage from the previous batch.

Awards

• Gold — San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2021
• Gold — San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2020

Why it's craft

Rock Town makes this bourbon from grain to glass in downtown Little Rock, milling, mashing, fermenting, double distilling, aging and bottling it at the distillery from corn, rye, wheat and barley grown in Arkansas. It is the distillery's sour-mash recipe, carrying stillage from one batch into the next, and it ages in small 25-gallon barrels. Phil Brandon opened Rock Town in 2010 and is still its head distiller.