![]() in Chemical Engineering, Greg spent his entire professional career preparing for his Master Distiller role, which he achieved in 2002. This is from Metze’s bio on the Old Elk website:Īfter graduating from the University of Cincinnati in 1978 with a B.S. What kind of distilling experience? Oh, you know, just the casual 38 years of experience Greg Metze had at a particular large distillery in Indiana. Founded in 2013 by entrepreneur Curt Richardson (founder of OtterBox) the brand seems to have emerged the opposite way most new whiskey brands do–due to the fact that appeared on the scene with financial backing, business structure, and a boatload of distilling experience from the get-go. According to Metze, “when reduction water is added to barrel proof distillates, heat is liberated and can drive off high volatility congeners. By doing the reduction in many stages, rather than one or two, the amount of heat liberated is incrementally less, thus protecting the congener profile.Old Elk, as a brand, isn’t actually old. The benefit is it preserves the more delicate congeners produced during fermentation, distillation, and maturation. While proofing is typically a 24-48 hour process, Old Elk’s process takes several weeks longer. I think this is attributed to the “Slow Cut” proofing process they use, which is a unique and proprietary one. But there is something different about this bourbon, and it’s very subtle. Admittedly, the first word that came to mind when I sipped this was “smooth,” and yes we joked about it. We get requests on a regular basis from folks looking for “smooth” bourbons. While some critics cringe at the use of the word when describing bourbon, it is one that comes up often. The marketing and conversations with Metze consistently use one word - smooth. Old Elk currently has the ability to mash, ferment, distill, and age at their distillery, and as of the end of this year their distillery and warehouse located in Fort Collins, Colorado are scheduled to be completed.įinally, there is one thing about this bourbon that really stood out to me. As a result the existing bourbon stock continues to age, and as of November 2018 all of the inventory reached a minimum of four years old. But this was always only a temporary strategy to build enough stock early on, and the initial production run is now complete. Each bourbon in the blend is a straight bourbon, and the reason the label states “blended” straight bourbon is strictly because of this, as Metze confirmed it would qualify as straight bourbon if not for the multi-state sources. The custom Old Elk Bourbon mashbill was subsequently produced at New York and Colorado distilleries. Metze developed and produced the custom Old Elk mashbill, along with four other custom mashbills currently aging, for Old Elk during his time as master distiller at MGP in Indiana. ![]() Old Elk has been distilled with the custom mashbill and aged in three different states before being blended and bottled in Colorado. At 34%, this is an unusually high amount of malted barley for a bourbon. ![]() To accomplish this he lowered the corn content to the minimum 51% allowable for bourbon in order to make room for 34% malted barley providing sweet smooth characteristics, and 15% rye for some spice notes. When Old Elk approached Metze about five years ago, the goal was to create a “smooth and easy bourbon,” according to Metze. He now works exclusively with Old Elk Distillery. Former master distiller at MGP - the Indiana distillery behind many sourced brands along with their well-known 95% rye - Metze resigned from his role there in 2016 to venture into the bourbon consulting business. A veteran master distiller, Metze may just be one of today’s most prominent distillers you’ve rarely heard of. The most prominent is the name scribed on the front label - Greg Metze. But digging deeper there are some interesting things about this bourbon that require a little more exploration or knowledge about the industry. On the surface Old Elk might seem like just another premium priced bourbon in an elegant bottle.
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