Alberta Premium:

100% Rye Whisky That’s Worth The Trouble To Make It

Made from 100% rye grain: That’s the promise of Alberta Premium Rye Whisky, the rich and flavourful whisky made from Canadian-grown rye brewed, distilled and bottled in Calgary.

But the grain that has repeatedly won Alberta Premium the coveted title Canadian Whisky of the Year in the authoritative Jim Murray’s Whisky Bible makes life difficult for Rob Tuer. He’s director of operations at Alberta Distillers, the maker of Alberta Premium and, after 67 years in business, the oldest distillery in Western Canada.

Tuer is in charge of making Alberta Premium and he says it’s far from an easy task. “Rye grain is really difficult to work with compared to corn and all the other grains used to make spirits. It’s a good thing that Alberta Premium is such an incredible whisky, because making it can be a headache.”

Incredible indeed: Over the last year, Alberta Premium 100% rye has been the fifth-largest-selling whisky brand in Canada, and the fourth-fastest-growing unflavoured whisky in volume. It is also one of the few unflavoured Canadian whiskies to grow in sales while the overall Canadian Whisky category is dropping because whisky fans and

“Unique and unmistakable; the first whisky of my day— and it needs to be.”

bartenders love Alberta Premium’s 100% rye composition.

There are many reasons why rye is hard to work with. Rye grain doesn’t contain much starch per kernel, so it takes a lot more rye to make a litre of spirits than is required when corn is used. Rye grains also become sticky and syrupy when transformed into the mash from which rye is fermented, then distilled.

“When you look at the work involved, I’m not surprised that a lot of so-called rye whiskies are actually made using corn-based neutral spirits, with rye flavouring mixed in once distilling is done,” Tuer says. “It certainly takes much less effort and hassle.”

“But then you don’t get the smoothness, spiciness, and genuine character of 100% rye whisky without using 100% rye in your spirits. I just have to taste Alberta Premium, and I know it’s worth the trouble.”

Tuer is not alone in this opinion. According to whisky expert Jim Murray, Alberta Premium’s insistence on using 100% rye delivers a “throbbing, pulsing rye on a variety of levels: full and juicy, dull and dusty, firm and flinty. Unique and unmistakable; the first whisky of my day — and it needs to be.”