Sips & Sites & Bites

At Frey Ranch Distillery, just about everything is crafted in house. The whiskey maker has taken on organic, tackled slow growing their own barley on the ranch estate, and generally putting forth a real “can-do” attitude about distilling.

Now, as the American Single Malt category of whiskey expands, Frey Ranch enters the realm with the new release of their Frey Ranch American Single Malt Smoked Whiskey. 

Clocking in at 110 proof, the smoked single malt was aged six years and seven months, made from 100 percent of the slow-grown barley that’s grown, harvested and now smoked, as well as milled and distilled on the Frey Ranch farm.

A statement from Frey Ranch noted that co-founder and whiskey farmer, Colby Frey, not only grew 100 percent of the barley used to create this mash bill, but he fashioned the smoker himself.

Colby, along with Frey Ranch Master Distiller Russell Wedlake, reconstituted a smoker from an old grain silo and a fireplace, which in turn allowed the whiskey to be smoked versus roasted.

Just as impressive, the whiskey founder made his own peat from decomposed plant matter from the farm, pressing it into bread pans and dehydrating it to properly smoke the whiskey for the desired taste profile.

Colby explained that this smoked single malt was designed to be a sipping whiskey, a robust American Single Malt that pairs with smoked gouda, blue cheese, or chocolate. 

On the nose, the distiller’s notes show it has aromas of campfire, huckleberry, and sweet pipe tobacco, and on the palate are hints of leather with a thick yet soft mouth feel. The finish has a lingering taste of sweet cigarillo.

“American Single Malts are having a moment, so we figured this was an opportune time to showcase our Nevada grown and harvested barley … putting our personal stamp on it by smoking it,” Colby Frey said. 

Frey Ranch American Single Malt Smoked is the first expression in the company’s Smoked Series, which will be followed by Frey Ranch Rye and Smoked Oat Whiskey.

The new single malt is available online at http://www.freyranch.com at $59 for a 375ml bottle.

Check out freyranch.com for more information, as well as their Instagram page @freyranchdistillery.