Welcome back today chat with Emma Crandall, blender at Balcones Whiskey. This was a fantastic talk, and i'm so excited for yall to hear this.

Badmotivatorbarrels.com/shop/?aff=3

Z.Smithwhiskeyandmixology

IN 2008, BALCONES WAS DRIVEN TO CREATE SOMETHING

ORIGINAL AND AUTHENTIC

In 2008, Balcones was nothing more than an idea driven by a passion to create something original and authentic, right here in the Heart of Texas. It all started in an old welding shop under a bridge in Waco. For the next year, we replaced the roofing, knocked out walls, laid brick, cut pipes, installed copper pot stills from Portugal, and shoehorned a whisky distillery inside that quaint building. Proud of what we had accomplished on our own, we began distilling in 2009.

Our reflection on the sacred trance driven out of a solar eclipse inspires our newest release: Balcones Mirador Eclipse Texas Single Malt. An eclipse is the loss of our sun, yet it signifies new beginnings. We can anticipate an eclipse, but we cannot change it. They are out of our control - exquisite and specific to each moment and each place. This is exactly what we worked to reflect in our newest American Single Malt.

TASTING NOTES

ON THE NOSE, sun-kissed notes of poised pressed flowers & clover hay are engulfed by mango meringue & pineapple gum drops, while dense notes of almond biscotti and honeydew rind round out the bunch.

ON THE PALATE, blush lemon custard & white chocolate raspberry tart neighbor more reserved notes of guava pound cake and prairie sage, before a long and confident finish of dried thyme and honeyed jasmine tea.

Whisky Blending

What is blending? What is its purpose?

A number of distilleries bottle and sell some of the whisky they distil for consumption as single or unblended whiskies. By far the greater part of their production, however, is used for the well-known blended Scotch whiskies that are sold all over the world.

Blending whisky is a considerable art acquired only after years of experience.

A blend will consist of anything from 15 to 50 different single whiskies, combined in the proportions of a formula that is the secret of the blending company concerned.

Whiskies from different distilleries have a character of their own and, just as people of different temperaments are often incompatible, so some whiskies will not blend happily with certain others. The Malts and Grains in a blend must therefore, be chosen to complement and enhance their respective flavours. Blending is in no sense a dilution. The blender’s task is to combine different single whiskies, to produce a blend which brings out the best qualities of each of its constituent parts.

The aim of the blender is first to produce a whisky of a definite and recognisable character.

It is of the greatest importance that their blend should never vary from this standard, which customers all over the world will have come to expect. Their second aim is, therefore, to achieve consistency.

The blender must also decide when the different single whiskies are ready to be used in their blend. They are brought from the warehouse where they have been maturing to the blending establishment, where they are mixed together in a blending vat. They are usually returned to cask and left to ‘marry’ for a period of months, before bottling. Some companies prefer to vat their Malts and Grains separately and only bring the two together before bottling.

The combining of Malt with Malt or Grain with Grain is known as vatting.

When was blending introduced?

Blending was pioneered by Andrew Usher in Edinburgh in the early 1860s. It was only after this practice became common that a taste for Scotch Whisky spread first to England and then throughout the world.