BOURBON. IN OHIO.

Kentucky will always supply the legacy, but it’s no longer the only state making great bourbon.

JUST AS BARBECUE and the blues arrived in the Midwest after the Civil War when newly emancipated workers came up the Mississippi, bourbon made its way up the Ohio River to the pre-prohibition distilleries of Columbus and Cincinnati. “Our 320-kilometre proximity to Louisville creates a geographical spillover,” says Ryan Lang, a former engineer and the cofounder of Middle West Spirits in Columbus, Ohio. “It’s a unique prairie southern region. We share many resources, including grain varieties, distinctive limestone-filtered water, and weather patterns that affect the ageing process.” But even with those similarities, Middle West Spirits’ bourbon is truly a product of Ohio. “With the exception of specialty malted barley, which no one in Ohio has the facilities to process,” Lang says, “our grains are sourced from a 65-kilometre radius of our plant.”

Founded in 2008, Middle West occupied a small portion of a 1920s-era warehouse in the Weinland Park neighborhood of Columbus. As the company grew, instead of finding a new, larger facility, Middle West Spirits developed vertically, adding to the single-storey building it already occupied by constructing a five-storey exoskeleton above its original 1 000 m2 footprint.

The exoskeleton was created to house larger-scale equipment including a new column still, created by Vendome Copper & Brass in Louisville, to allow Middle West to use continuousdistillation technology. Because the column couldn’t be brought into the warehouse through the front door, the still was dropped in by crane before the roof of the new addition was added. “What once took several weeks to produce batch by batch in a pot still now takes six hours,” Lang says. Not that it brings them even with the big liquor producers. With the new automated distilling process, Middle West is “still just a blip on the screen compared to legacy brands”, Lang says. “They can produce a barrel in seven to 30 seconds.”

What they can’t produce is Middle West’s OYO (pronounced oh-why-oh, from the Iroquois for “the great river”) Bourbon Whiskey, Michelone Reserve, a double gold winner at the 2016 Berlin International Spirits Competition, where ere Middle West was named the US Distillery of the Year. We e asked Lang to explain how Michelone chelone Reserve meets the United d States Code of Federal Regulations’ three main bourbon requirements while still reflecting Middle West’s est’s signature. ➜ BOURBON MUST BE MADE FROM AT LEAST 51 PERCENT CORN. We worked with regional farmers on a non-gmo white corn, similar to what was used as far back as the 1800s. From there, rather than a high concentration of rye, which delivers a real spiciness, we use Ohio’s soft red winter wheat as our secondary mash grain. Traditionally used in baking, it gives the bourbon a soft sweetness that enhances the other barrelinfused flavors.

THE DISTILLATE MUST BE AGED IN NEW CHARRED-OAK BARRELS. Many craft distillers use small barrels to accelerate the ageing process, but we use larger 120 to 200-litre barrels, and then combine the individual distillates to make the final product. The bigger barrels, at char No. 4, promote tobacco and liquorice with oak, toast, and heavy sweetness. The smaller char 3s impart cinnamon spice, caramel and vanilla. We age for a minimum of two years in our 120-litre barrels and much longer in our 53s.

THE LIQUID MUST BE NO MORE THAN 160 PROOF OUT OF THE STILL. After the barrels are poured through a screen filter, we cut to 90 proof and bottle. We do not do any sort of heavy filtration, as we believe it removes unique aroma characteristics. OYO BOURBON WHISKEY, MICHELONE RESERVE Soft and velvety, w with a delicate toffee fl flavour. Drink it neat.