Nashville, Indiana-based Hard Truth Distilling has released sweet mash ryes (and other spirits) since its founding in 2015. Sweet mash is the distillation process that begins with entirely new ingredients as opposed to the more commonly used sour mash technique, which uses a portion of a previous batch’s mash to start fermentation.
Now Hard Truth is adding three bourbons to its lineup: Sweet Mash (45%), Sweet Mash Wheated bottled in bond (50%), and Sweet Mash Four Grain bottled in bond (50%). The bourbons, like its ryes, are distilled mostly from Indiana-grown grains.
Master distiller and co-founder Bryan Smith worked with Independent Stave Company to create barrels constructed from staves dried for 18 to 24 months (three to four times the typical drying period) that were then toasted and charred specifically for each of the expressions. No more than 30 barrels of each expression were produced.
The three new bourbons will be available for purchase at the distillery on February 24th and at retail beginning March 1st.
We look forward to trying Hard Truth’s bourbons. Its barrel strength rye scored 93 points and Harvest a 92 with our tasting panel.
