Laws Whiskey House recently announced the second release of its Bonded Henry Road Straight Malt Whiskey.
The latest expression from the Denver-based distillery meets the standards of the Bottled in Bond Act of 1897, including using only the grain of a single harvest season, being made by one distiller at a single distillery, and being aged at least four years in a federal government-bonded warehouse.
The Bonded Henry Road Straight Malt is crafted using barley varieties that history nearly left behind. While commercial farmers found the heirloom varietal of two-row barley too low in yield, The Cody Family Farm and Colorado Malting Company found its unstripped flavor too valuable to let go. The intuition paid off, and Wayne Cody and his sons continue to grow this barley for Laws Whiskey House in a field alongside Henry Road, the whiskey’s namesake.
The whiskey’s 100% heirloom malted barley mash bill features a combination of malted two-row barley and a Munich malt from the Cody Family Farm. In a departure from typical malt whiskey distilling techniques, the whiskey is cooked, fermented, and distilled on-grain. The atypical process imparts a signature nuttiness to the distillate, which is then accentuated with layered complexity from new 53-gallon, #3 char American white oak barrels filled in the summer of 2016. After five years of maturation, these eight barrels yielded just under 2,400 750ml bottles.
Each batch of Laws’ Henry Road Straight Malt is milled, cooked, fermented, distilled, and aged on-site, utilizing heirloom grains from Colorado farms. The practice of open air, on-grain fermentation captures the essence of Colorado’s terroir while the copper pot-column still produces a robust, grain-forward style of whiskey that is aged in 53-gallon charred oak barrels.
“At Laws, we pride ourselves in seeking out the distinct flavors of each American mother grain in our whiskies,” says Laws Founder Al Laws. “We believe that the soul of whiskey is comprised of the people who grow it, the people who make it, and the people who drink it. We’re excited to be on this journey of Laws’ commitment to creating exceptional Bottled-in-Bond Whiskey and we hope you enjoy this special whiskey as much as we do.”
Laws Whiskey House’s Henry Road Straight Malt Whiskey will be a limited seasonal release that will be available this month for $74.99.
