Kanosuke Single Malt
Kanosuke started in 2018, named after the leader of the Kanosuke Komasa. The distillery is located in the southern Kagoshima Prefecture of Japan, along Fukiagehama Beach. Each of their three copper pot stills is of a different design, allowing them greater blending opportunities since the distillate off each would be somewhat different. One can maybe get a sense of their aim by acknowledging their distillery motto: “Japanese whisky, richer and more mellow.” They produce pot still and blended whiskies in addition to single malts and are in the midst of releasing batch offerings by year. The Kanosuke Single Malt is the current flagship whisky of the distillery, the third batch of which was released in 2023. It is made using a blend of single malts from all three pot stills, though curiuously the grain is never specifically named. We presume it is barley.
Stranahan’s Distiller’s Experimental Batch 005
Stranahan’s is one of the oldest distileries in the United States. While they have kept a solid core offering over the years, they have also featured annual releases, single casks and limited series. The Distiller’s Experiemental Batch is only available at the distillery itself or the connected Aspen Whiskey Lodge. This series is, as the name connotes, made up of experiments concocted by head blender Justin Aden. Regulations surrounding whiskey allow much more freedom to experiment than some other places, which allows this series to really stretch into all kinds of finishes, grains and other territories not even seen in major releases. The Stranahan’s Distiller’s Experimental Batch 005 was released in 2022. This single malt was aged for six years and two months, and finished for a gin cask that had formely held a single malt scotch. The distillery has not disclosed what specific scotch or American gin the cask previously held, or the exact length of the finish.
Balcones Rumble
Balcones was founded in 2008 in Waco, Texas. The beginning was bringing the different elements together until they could begin distilling in 2009. Two tenets of the distillery from the beginning has been to use ingredients that spoke to the heart of Texas and the other was to be boldly creative. Whether using Baby Blue corn or a remarkable single malt, they have looked to forge their own path of American whiskies. The Balcones Rumble is so creative as to be almost in another category of offerings altogether. It is, in fact, not a whiskey at all. So why are we reviewing it? Because when it was first poured out for us, we couldn’t tell it wasn’t a whiskey at first blush. So call it whiskey adjacent? Good enough for us to explore further. The Rumble is a Texas wildflower honey, turbinado sugar and fig spirit aged in small oak barrels for an undisclosed amount of time.