Leopold Bros Store Pick 4 Yr. Straight Bourbon Whiskey

In the nose the combination of grains is quite evident with aromas of rye bread, corn souffle, and fresh barley joined with mint, brown sugar, and oak. The palate has a rounded mouthfeel with present grain notes, mint, spun sugar, oak spice and a bit of citrus to finish. D&M Tasting Notes

Todd and Scott Leopold grew up in Colorado before both made their way to the Midwest for college. Scott is distinctly more technical with undergraduate studies at Northwestern in Economics and Industrial Engineering followed by a Masters in Environmental Engineering from Stanford University. Todd went more experiential and after receiving a diploma in Malting & Brewing from the Siebel Institute of Technology in Chicago he packed his bags and headed to Munich to study and make lagers. While Scott was working with Fortune 500 companies in environmental systems design, Scott was honing his craft on how to brew and ferment best with an increasing eye towards distillation. In 1999 Leopold Bros. started in Ann Arbor, Michigan focused on the bounty of fruit that the area has to offer. Similar to what happened with St. George distilling, they realized that fruit based brandy and liqueurs alone were not going to pay the bills. After a half decade they moved their operation to Denver, Colorado.

While both brothers are involved with the business, it must be stated that Todd Leopold is a straight up distilling-whiskey geek. We mean this in the best possible way, and with deep affection. In talks, you can tell that every aspect of the distilling process has been deeply thought about and informed by both pre-prohibition tradition as well as modern science. From start to finish, here is Leopold Bros, and why they are so worth your time and attention. Location. From their place on Colorado’s front range, they have 300 days of sunshine and access to spectacular water. Recipe. 64% Corn, 21% Malted Barley, and 15% Rye: this doesn’t stress the indiginous yeast strains and is closer to pre-Prohibition whiskey. Brewing. Leopolds do their own floor maltings for the malted barley and complete their fermentations low and slow in the 60 degree temperature range, without the use of modern enzymes. As Todd has said: “you can have yield or flavor, and we choose flavor.” Distillation. They utilize small copper pot stills to do a double distillation. They distill to 50% alcohol by volume, which was the 1800s standard, and modern science tells us extracts the least “off” flavors from oak barrels. Barrels. Leopold Bros use Independent Stave barrels. Ageing. The warehouses that Leopolds has purpose built for their needs are closer to the style of Scotland: single floor, earthen to naturally control humidity & temperature, and lit only with skylights to minimize electricity needs. Bottling. Because of their use of natural mitigation strategies to evaporative loss in the warehouse, their barrel exit proof is the same as the entry proof, making your cask strength single barrel 50% ABV when it is bottled. This is a team doing many things the hard way-- and quite close to the low and slow methods that were used before prohibition in making Bourbon. Michael Kennel, D&M 

50% ABV Barrel #53