DRIPPING SPRINGS, Texas -- For distillers across the country, Kentucky bourbon has historically been the gold standard for whiskey, but today the bourbon industry continues to grow in the Lone Star State.
- Bourbon industry growing in Texas
- Treaty Oak Distilling uses Texas products in its spirits
Making bourbon, which is considered a type of whiskey, comes down to a science, a process that has its roots in the Bluegrass State.
“We kind of look for opportunities within that process to create our own unique either process or formula that will translate into a good product that is a Texas-style bourbon,” said Nate Powell of Treaty Oak Distilling.
Texas-style bourbon, like the one crafted at Treaty Oak, means using Texas products from start to finish.
“We buy all of our grain from Texas farmers. These are heirloom seed, non-GMO of course, organically farmed corn and wheat,” said Powell.
Once the grain is mashed and fermented, it’s stored in wooden barrels. On the Treaty Oak grounds, their rickhouse, or a storage warehouse for the barrels has roughly 200 55-gallon barrels. To be considered American bourbon, the spirit has to be aged in new charred oak. Once it's inside the barrels, the aging process begins and that's what sets Texas bourbon apart.
“The combination of the grains that we use, the type of the yeast that we use, and the aging process all contribute to the flavor profile that we have for our bourbon,” said Powell.
The temperate climate in Kentucky makes the aging process consistent, but distillers in Texas say the oven-like summer temperatures coupled with sudden cold snaps give Texas bourbon its fingerprint.
“As that temperature swings, that barrel really breathes. So the whiskey goes into all the nooks and crannies of that burned barrel inside, it goes inside and then it shrinks and the whiskey squirts back out again. That allows us to come up with a darker bourbon faster,” said Powell.
If gin is your poison, Treaty Oak has a selection of that too, and all of it is produced in Texas.
“We take our botanicals and infuse them, vapor infuse them, in the column of the still. Our citrus, our grapefruit, our lemons, pecans from San Saba,” said Powell.
Kentucky may be the gold standard for bourbon, but as the saying goes everything is bigger, and sometimes better, in Texas.