New from Copper & Kings: Blue Sky Mining Muscat Brandy

Kentucky brandy producer Copper & Kings' latest release is a seven year old, pot distilled muscat brandy which was aged in wine barrels and spent its final 30 months in a single Kentucky hogshead with used Bourbon staves and new American oak heads. It is non-chill filtered and additive free.

Copper & Kings Blue Sky Mining Brandy, 50% abv, ($40 for 375 ml)

This has a beautiful nose that starts with crisp, white wine notes and quickly moves to spicy notes, but spicy like a Gewurztraminer. The palate has pine notes and cloves along with some Scotch-like malt notes. Overall, it's quite dry, but there is a very slight sweetness after the spice and a light bitterness as well. The finish is fresh and piney with peppery notes.

This is a really unique and delicious brandy; it's fragrant and spicy with notes of Scotch and dry white wine. It's quirky, and not for those who like a sweeter brandy, but I'll certainly try to pick up a bottle or two.

Thanks to Copper & Kings for the sample.

Apple Brandy Week: Copper & Kings Apple Brandy

I've been a big fan of Kentucky brandy producer Copper & Kings, but so far, I've only reviewed their grape brandies and beer cask finished brandies. They also make apple brandy.

Like all Copper & Kings aged brandies, their apple brandy is sourced. The brandy is a blend of apple brandies distilled in a number of states and is aged in a combination of bourbon and sherry casks. It contains no additives.

Today, I'll review three Copper & Kings apple brandies. Their original aged apple brandy, released last year, the new Floodwall Apple Brandy and their Tequila cask finished 3 Marlenas Apple Brandy.

Copper & Kings Apple Brandy, 50% abv ($40)

The nose starts with dry apple notes, like a good cider. It goes on to develop some herbal/botanical notes. The palate is distinctively spicy with baking spices. The finish is spicy/woody. This doesn't have a huge apple character, but I really liked the spice notes.

Floodwall Apple Brandy, 4 years old, 50% abv ($40)

This is similar to the original release, reviewed above, except that they used smaller sherry casks and it has a four year old age statement. The nose is apple and spice, like a mulled cider. The palate is dry and spicy with a distinct sherry note. The finish has sherry with a very slight apple note. This tastes like what it is: a more sherried version of the first apple brandy.

3 Marlenas Apple Brandy, 5 years old, 50% abv ($40 for 375 ml)

This five year old apple brandy spent its last two years in Tequila barrels. Sure enough, the nose on this has Tequila and apples like some kind of apple Margarita. On the palate it's got apple, oak and then a light Tequila note that lasts into the finish. I really like this one. It has pronounced Tequila notes but they work with rather than overshadowing the apple. It's a fun brandy.

Ever the innovators, Copper & Kings is the only producer I know of using whiskey style finishes with apple brandy. My favorite of these three was probably the standard apple brandy from last year which had a nice spicy character. I also enjoyed the Tequila/apple balance on the 3 Marlenas. The Floodwall was good, but it tasted much more of sherry than brandy, almost like a brandy de Jerez.


Thanks to Copper & Kings for samples of Floodwall and 3 Marlenas.

Brandy, Beer and Ampersands: Copper & Kings Cr&ftwerk Brandy

Copper & Kings the Kentucky brandy producers has a new series of brandies aged in craft beer barrels. Each brandy in the Kr&ftwerk series is made from the same sourced brandies used as the base of Copper & Kings other brandies and is finished for a year in a different craft beer cask. They are all 55.5% abv and go for $50.

Copper  & Kings Cr&ftwerk finished in 3 Floyds Dark Lord Imperial Stout casks

True to form, the nose has both beer and brandy notes. There's a hoppy/grainy note along with a subtle sweetness. The palate is pretty weird. It's very sweet with beer notes, much more beer than brandy. It ends with a brief bitterness, then a beer-like finish. A few drops of water brings out out almost Scotch-like malty notes. I'm not a huge fan of this one, the beer and brandy notes seem to clash rather than working together. 

Copper  & Kings Cr&ftwerk finished in Sierra Nevada Smoked Imperial Porter casks

The nose on this one is malty, like a Scotch, so much so that nosing blind, I would almost definitely guess that it was a Scotch. The palate starts with big, sweet brandy notes, then oak, then a general sweetness. The finish is sweet and matly. I wouldn't recommend water in this one as it mutes the flavors too much. This one has much less direct beer influence than the 3 Floyds, but I think it comes together better overall.

Copper  & Kings Cr&ftwerk finished in Oskar Blues Imperial IPA casks

This bottle is composed of brandies finished in Oskar Blues G'Knight and Deviant Dale's IPAs. The nose on this one is lovely, crisp and hoppy. The palate is very beer forward with a Charbay-like hoppiness (reminiscent of Charbay's Racer 5 IPA), then it picks up some sweet brandy notes that nicely complement the beer flavors. The finish is beer and honey with some nice hops on the nose. This one is a winner with lots of complex notes that come together well. 

Copper  & Kings Cr&ftwerk finished in Against the Grain Smoked Scottish Ale casks

The Copper & Kings Against the Grain is finished in Against the Grain's Mac Fannny Baw. So, just to be clear, this is a brandy aged in casks from a beer that is supposed to taste like a peated Scotch. Got it?

This one begins with a very nice nose with beer and some sweet, brandy notes, probably the first real fruit I've gotten on any of these. The palate has nice sweet brandy notes with just a touch of beer, and the finish is mostly beer. This one is nice and balanced.  I don't get much in the way of smoky, peat type notes, but I like it a lot.

Conclusion

The big winner for me was definitely the Oskar Blues. It was the perfect synthesis of beer and brandy, and was reminiscent of some of Charbay's hopped whiskeys. The Against the Grain was my second favorite; it was the most brandy-like of the three and probably the most drinkable. These are two I would absolutely spend money on. The Sierra Nevada was good but not as interesting as the other two, and I didn't care for the 3 Floyds which was all over the map, flavor wise.

Kudos to Copper & Kings for trying something unique here. Using the same brandy base in four different beer casks created four very different spirits. I don't know if this is a first, but I'm not aware of any other beer finished brandies. The spirit they created isn't anything like a typical brandy; it has more in common with hopped whiskey and would probably appeal more to beer fans than brandy fans.
  Thanks to Copper & Kings for providing samples of their brandies.

More on Copper & Kings Brandy

My post about Copper & Kings Butchertown Brandy led to a lot of questions and speculation in the comments so I reached out to Copper & Kings' Joe Heron, who had joined the comments, for some answers. There's also a lot of good information on their website. According to Joe:

• The brandies are sourced from multiple producers in Washington, Oregon, California, Idaho, Ohio, Michigan, and New York State.
• All of the brandies are distilled in pot stills (note that this would exclude brandies from the big California producers).
• The blend is 75% aged in bourbon casks and 25% aged in medium char American white oak
• They use a solera type system with a new blend each year which uses a portion of the previous year's blend. They are up to their fifth blend right now.
• They purchased brandies at 3 to 12 years old and continued to age them. Current bottlings contain brandies from 54 months to 13 years old, though most of the blend is around 8 or 9 years old. 
• Sources for pot stilled brandies have pretty much dried up.
• Their apple brandy is pot distilled, aged in bourbon and sherry casks and the youngest brandies in the blend are four years old.
• None of the brandies are chill filtered or use any sugar, caramel or boise.

Thanks to Joe for being willing to share information about his brandies.

Kentucky Brandy: Copper & Kings Butchertown Brandy

Last week I tasted a single malt from Cognac. Today, it's a brandy from Kentucky. It's become a topsy-turvy spirits world.

Copper & Kings is a brandy distillery/blender in Louisville, Kentucky. Their brandy has recently appeared at K&L in California, so I thought I'd try one of their offerings (there's lots of background about the distillery on K&L's blog). While they do have a distillery, Copper & Kings is currently bottling sourced brandies aged in a solera style. They have three aged brandy offerings: Small Batch Brandy ($35), Butchertown Brandy ($60) and an apple brandy ($40). Today I'm tasting their Butchertown Brandy which is cask strength and non-chill filtered.

Copper & Kings Butchertown Brandy, 62% abv ($60)

The nose is spicy with light fruit like a good Cognac. The palate opens with sweet grapes and cocoa. Midway through, it takes on spice which gets stronger through the finish which is spicy on the palate but fruity on the nose. It's got great flavor, though you can definitely feel the high abv. Where it really shines though is with a splash of water. Water brings out a fuller fruit on the nose and a more rounded palate which synthesizes the fruit and the wood. It was tasty without the water, but with the splash, it tastes like one of those great single cask Cognacs that K&L has brought in over the last few years.

The K&L blog called Copper & Kings the next big thing. I'm a big fan of the K&L blog, but I can understand some people's skepticism since sometimes it seems like everything they write about is described in glowing terms. In this case though, I'd have to agree. This is fantastic stuff and at $60, it's a great price for the quality you're getting. Brandy fans, and fans of good spirits generally, should definitely give this one a try.