American bourbon is the backbone of this bar. Charred new oak gives it that bright, sweet perfume. Let us start with where it comes from.
"Kentucky Straight Bourbon" on a label means US law has been satisfied: at least 51% corn in the mash, distilled below 80% ABV, aged in new charred oak, entered into the barrel at no more than 62.5% and bottled at no less than 40%, with all the ageing done on American soil. Add "made in Kentucky and aged at least two years" and the bottle may call itself Kentucky Straight Bourbon.
Corn leads. The rest — rye, malted barley, wheat — is blended in proportions that become the character of the brand. More rye brings spice and weight, more corn a lighter step, and wheat turns it smooth and rich.
The grain is milled and cooked with limestone water to make sugar — the mashing. Miss the temperature here and bitterness follows, so control is everything. Yeast goes in for fermentation; the sour mash method, which returns spent liquid to the next batch, holds down acidity and rounds the flavour. Column stills take it to around 60% ABV, then a doubler settles the strength. Finally it is cut with water to bottling proof, dozens of barrels married together for consistency, and bottled.
Ageing happens in new white oak, charred inside — roughly 200-litre barrels filled at no more than 62.5% ABV. The fire is applied two ways: toasting, low and slow, and charring, fierce for a matter of seconds until the inner surface turns to carbon. Passing through that layer of char is where the colour and the perfume come from. About 3.5% of the barrel evaporates each year — the angels' share.
Bourbon does most of its ageing in summer heat, and because each year's weather differs, the same number of years can mean very different whiskies — which is why many brands carry no age statement. What matters is not how long it slept but whether it left the barrel at its peak. Past eight years or so it can tip into over-ageing, with the wood's bitterness and tannin taking over.
Two years or more in wood earns the word "straight." Bottled without cutting water, it is barrel proof; drawn from one cask alone, single barrel. And whiskey made in Tennessee, filtered through sugar maple charcoal before ageing, is by custom set apart as Tennessee whiskey.
Some 900 bottles, bourbon at the centre. Best tried in the glass.
Call +81-72-682-15562-1-5 Akutagawacho, Takatsuki, Osaka / 1 min from JR Takatsuki, West Exit
18:00-25:00 (L.O. 24:30) / Closed 1st Tuesday & every Sunday