An Evel Day at Old 55
One does not stumble upon Newtown, Indiana. This town of 250 or so residents lies an hour northwest of Indianapolis and, believe it or not, has become a destination location for the Bourbon fan.
The 411 on Old 55
In addition to being home to a quarter-thousand Hoosiers, it is also home to Old 55 Distillery. Old 55 (named for the state highway that leads you there) was founded in 2013 with distilling beginning the following year. Master Distiller Jason Fruits credits his father for starting Old 55 and refers to him as an “evil genius”. “By starting the distillery, dad managed to get the whole family back home to Newtown. We are all back here working for him in one capacity or another”, Jason adds. “The entire distillery is dependent on family”.
Jason didn’t grow up in distilling, but he was raised on the family farm; a farm that is the largest family-owned grain operation in the country. Jason left Newtown after high school and didn’t think he would ever move back. He graduated from Purdue and started his career in the finance and gaming world. Desiring a better quality of life for himself and his family, Jason saw Old 55 as an opportunity to provide that, which it has and then some. “If you had told me when I left Newtown that I would be back living here, I would have laughed. But, here we are and the entire family couldn’t be happier”.
While Jason’s life on the family farm had given him a very good understanding of the grains used in whiskey making, he still needed to learn distillation, which he studied under Robert Birnecker. Birnecker leads the Distilling Technologies group for German-based, Kothe. Kothe was the source for the custom-built pot still used by Old 55. That pot still, by the way, still needs a name. Perhaps a naming contest is in order!
All the grain used in Old 55’s whiskeys is harvested from the family farm. Old 55 uses four different enzymes and six yeast strains. Jason explains, “Our yeasts are sourced and proprietary employing multiple variations during the mashing process. Enzymes and yeast are always used together. The idea is no expense is spared to make that tiny heart cut as large as possible”.
There are two Bourbon mash bills utilized by Old 55. One is a wheated mash bill of 80% corn (#2 yellow dent) and 20% soft winter wheat. The other is a 100% sweet corn mash. The sweet corn Bourbon draws a lot of attention for Old 55 and for good reason. First, because it’s delicious and, second, because nobody (*checks notes*), yes, nobody else on the planet makes a 100% sweet corn bourbon. “There may be a reason nobody else does this”, Jason sighed. “Because it is a remarkable pain to make!”. The quality on this sweet corn bourbon is taken to such an extreme that after Jason makes his “hearts of the hearts” cuts, one ton of sweet corn yields about two-thirds of a barrel of distillate. The sweet corn bourbon is typically released at 80 proof.
The wheated bourbon is used for bottled-in-bond and single barrel releases. “95% of my process is the same on the wheated…the magic is in that last 5%”.
Jason uses 30 gallon barrels with a #3 char. The wheated Bourbon is always the 80/20 mash bill. The barrels are all stored underground, so the impact of the environment is consistent and there is little variance in the maturation process depending on a barrel’s specific location in the store room. That’s the 95%.
A major component of the “magic 5%” is barrel entry proof. Initially, everything went in the barrel at 112.50 proof, but Jason has been “playing with that” the last few years to change the profile and character of the Bourbon. I’ll have more on that later when I discuss the barrel selection.
Jason is also “playing with” use of other corn varietals – all grown on the family farm, of course. Organic blue corn, Jimmy Red and Bloody Butcher are all in the experimental phase at Old 55.
The Good of Evel
October 17 is no ordinary day. It is the birthday of the greatest daredevil the world has ever known, Evel Knievel. Defying gravity on his motorcycle, Evel would jump cars, rattlesnakes, canyons and, yes…sharks. There is actually a Bourbon tie-in to his first big jump. In an effort to earn enough fame to have his stunts shown on network television, he used his life savings to self-finance the filming of a jump of the fountains at Caesar’s Palace. Moments before his jump he played his last $100 on a hand of blackjack (and lost), took a shot of Wild Turkey and walked out to his bike. He completed the jump of the fountains, but crashed on landing and skidded across the parking lot breaking several bones. In his career he broke 433 bones and holds a place in the Guinness Book of World Records for the dubious accomplishment of most bones broken in a lifetime.
So what does all of this Evel Knievel minutia have to do with Old 55? Not much, really. But, when the ABV Crew Club barrel pick was scheduled for October 17, I asked Jason Fruits about the availability of the sweet corn Bourbon at barrel strength. Jason replied it would be available at the holidays. So, I found the first thing that I thought could pass as a holiday and tried to convince Jason the date of the barrel pick (October 17) was, in fact, a holiday: Evel Knievel’s birthday.
As our pick team – Steve Akley, Stephanie McNew Burton, Rick “The Legend” Brenner, Jen Brenner, Jack Bone and I – waited in Old 55 visitor’s center we talked about Evel Knievel. The guys in the group shared memories of being elementary school kids and all the excitement that would lead up to one of his jumps. I think we all even had Evel Knievel lunch boxes when we were kids.
The Barrel Selection
To me, Old 55 wheated bourbons (whether bottled in bond or single barrel) typically carry a signature tasting note. There is traditional vanilla and caramel there, but also a prominent and distinct nutmeg baking spice flavor that stands out. ABV Network expert taster Christi Atkinson tells me that note is more specifically mace (a spice akin to nutmeg). She is much sharper than me and the depth of my palate only gets me to nutmeg.
The first barrel we sampled was #16J2. It was barreled on October 4, 2016 at a barrel entry proof of 112 and a current proof of 110.
Barrel two was #16K3. This went in the barrel with an entry proof of 114.6 on November 22, 2016. The current proof measured in at 112.
Finally, the whiskey went in the third barrel (#16J3) on October 12, 2016 at 109.2 proof. The Crew tasters sampled it at 107.6 proof.
While the whiskey is certainly more complex than vanilla, caramel and nutmeg those are the three notes that stand out to me in Old 55 wheated bourbon. I preferred barrel two as it was a bit more “off profile”. The nutmeg note was a little more subdued and the vanilla and caramel really stole the show in a very tasty way. Barrels one and three were more baking spice/nutmeg forward. Three was more spice (and actually a bit of oak) than barrel one. While we can’t draw definite conclusions, in our three barrel sample of similarly-aged bourbon, the higher the barrel entry proof the less prominent the spice notes (at least to me).
Barrel one was a balance between the spice and the sweet. And when it came to a vote, barrel one was the selection made by the team. When deciding on a name we all agreed on “The Evel B-day Barrel”. Look for bottle sales announcements soon from Steve Akley.
By the way, our team did get to try a sample of the sweet corn bourbon straight from the barrel (highly recommended). As our team raised our glasses for a taste we toasted who else…Evel Knievel.
