Yellowstone Select Bourbon

Yellowstone Select Kentucky Straight Bourbon is a delicate fusion of flavors from seventh-generation distillers, featuring a handpicked blend of 4- and 7-year-old bourbons, for an exclusive old-fashioned whiskey that honors its deep family origins.

How The Whiskey Is Made
There’s a bit of art and science in every bottle of bourbon. And maybe a little magic, too. Here’s how we blend it all at Limestone Branch.

Going With the Grain
It all begins with the mash bill, the basic recipe for the bourbon. For Yellowstone, we use an open-pollinated white heirloom corn which makes for a slightly lighter whiskey flavor. Corn accounts for 75% of the grain bill, with 13% rye and 12% malted barley. A recipe, not so incidentally, that came from Stephen and Paul Beam’s grandfather’s notes.

Let’s Cook
There’s no pressure cooking at Limestone, just an old-fashioned open cook, starting at 200-degrees-plus to break down the starches of the corn. Many larger distilleries cook all the grain at one time, but we take a three-stage temperature cook. After the corn, the temperature is lowered and the rye is added, and ultimately the temperature is lowered again to add the malted barley.

Good Pitch
After the cook, it’s time to lower the temperature and pitch the yeast. And here’s where a little magic comes in: The yeast is a strain used by Stephen and Paul’s great grandfather and grandfather, reclaimed through DNA from a yeast jug that was on display in the Oscar Getz Whiskey Museum in Bardstown, Kentucky. The strain goes back to ancestors Guy Beam and Minor Case, and probably a lot further. Once the yeast is pitched and fermentation begins, it will continue for roughly 72 hours and produce what is called distillers beer, at about 8 to 10% alcohol.

First Run
The distillers beer then heads into the 600-gallon pot still for a stripping run, turning the beer into 250 gallons of what is now called low wine, at 25 to 30% alcohol.

Cut to the Chase
The low wine then goes into a traditional alembic still to boil off volatile compounds (in a variety of steps called cuts — the foreshot, the head, the tails, and the heart). The heart is ultimately what is collected to go into barrels — now as close to 100 proof as possible. By then, 600 gallons of water and 950 pounds of grain have turned into one 53-gallon barrel of whiskey. All that remains is to actually transfer it into newly charred oak barrels to begin the aging process.

TASTING NOTES:
— Nose: Rye Spice With Soft, Leathered Cherries
— Palate: Smoked Caramel
— Finish: Smoky Oak And Brown Sugar

AWARDS:
— Gold Medal: San Francisco World Spirits 2022
— Gold Medal: L.A. Spirits Awards 2020
— Gold Medal: Sip Awards 2018
— Gold Medal: San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2018