Friday, May 30, 2014
This Week in COLAs: What Would Harry Potter Drink?
Don't you wish there was more whiskey at theme parks? Terresentia, the South Carolina company that recently purchased the Medley distillery, has approved a label for Blishen's Fire, a cinnamon flavored whiskey apparently for use at Universal Studios' Harry Potter theme park...because they didn't do Fireball shots at the Leaky Cauldron.
Hudson Valley Distillers, a New York craft distillery, has a new take on white whiskey. Instead of using the term new make, white whiskey or moonshine, they are calling their new Chancellor's Bourbon (aged one day) raw bourbon whisky.
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14 comments:
They could just call it "bourbon", if they wanted, couldn't they?
If I'm reading the Wikipedia page correctly they could age it for a day, add caramel coloring, and wouldn't even have to put an age statement on the bottle, since they aren't making "straight bourbon". This sounds like it would be a really cheap way for someone to get "bourbon" onto the shelves.
On the other hand, your post suggests that the TTB doesn't allow coloring in any bourbon.
look man, i'm sorry i missed the memo, but what are COLAS?
google was not a help.
thank you.
Certificate Of Label Approval. Process by which The Nice Government Men regulates da booze.
Also, if anything is added to whiskey it's not bourbon.
As Funky Tape noted, COLAs are the certificates of label approval. More information about this here.
Rory, it's true that they could just call it bourbon. There is no minimum age for bourbon (but two years for straight bourbon). I assume they chose to call it "raw bourbon" because people would think it was weird to see a bourbon with no color....the same reason people use "white whiskey" when they could just call it whiskey.
Hmmm. How could they afford new barrels for each 55gal of white dog to age 1 day? By law they cannot reuse those barrels for bourbon anymore after one day of use. I wonder do they bend the rules or something.
Yeah I was wondering that too. Seems like an awful waste of virgin oak charred barrels.
This is a little craft distillery. My guess would be it's a very small run and maybe also uses very small barrels (or one gigantic barrel?)
I don't think you're allowed to put caramel color in anything called bourbon.
That is the TTB's current position. No coloring or additives in bourbon.
Don't see how size would matter, whether you waste one 55 gallon or 55 one gallons, it's a waste of barrels cost wise for the distillery. Think about how many barrels they would be throwing out every day. Assuming they ran every day. Wonder how that could be profitable?
Matt, they don't have to throw them out, they just can be used for bourbon again. There are plenty of other whiskeys and spirits that do not require new barrels. The distillery makes applejack and other whiskeys, so they could well be reusing them.
As far as I can tell, the demand for bourbon barrels is almost never ending; craft beer, tequila, scotch, soy sause, other whiskey, etc.
In my own experience with oak mini barrels, the barrel as the most influence right away on the whiskey vs as it sits. So it could be just a matter of a few weeks or months before they're dumping.
I thought it just had to be a new oak "container"? Maybe a giant oak-based plywood box?
COLA also stands for "Cost of Living Adjustment" - which is very much needed to be able to buy many of the new whiskies/bourbons/ryes coming out these days!
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