Kyle’s Notes:

During a blending class with Nancy Fraley, I learned about the concept of slow water reduction (aka slow cut) where an aged spirit is slowly brought down to bottling proof by addition of water over weeks or months, rather than all at once. The theory is this helps prevent saponification, which ultimately results in a more round mouthfeel.

It was further discussed that it is possible to do this in the barrel itself, which further changes the taste of the bourbon. At higher barrel entry proofs, the ethanol soluble flavor compounds (i.e. aromatic aldehydes like vanillin) are extracted from the oak resulting in your typical bourbon taste profile. Lower barrel entry proof bourbons result in a sweeter, full bodied taste profile by extracting wood sugars that were created when the barrel was charred.

The experiment was fairly straightforward -on August 16, 2019 I added 18 liters of water to a barrel that had aged in the rickhouse for at least two years at our standard 118 barrel entry proof. From there, we let it rest right next to a control barrel for 4 more years. This slow cut barrel was dumped and directly bottled at barrel proof, while we cut the control proof down to the exact same proof for comparison.

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