Hard Truth Sweet Mash Rye

Quite evocative on the nose, with a spice driven profile that instantly shouts “rye”. The first sip features sharp rye characteristics. Bready, grainy, peppery, chewy and held together by the vanilla/caramel cohesion of the barrel. But, there is also a fruity sweetness here. Like baked apples with brown sugar. As the flavor progresses, notes of cocoa, and lightly roasted coffee bean come into play, leaving the palate with a dry finish. As an aside, we love the design of this bottle and the beautiful cork. Really a thoughtful and artistic ensemble. Hard Truth has a real winner here for rye lovers. Time for a Sazerac cocktail!

Quite evocative on the nose, with a spice driven profile that instantly shouts “rye”. The first sip features sharp rye characteristics. Bready, grainy, peppery, chewy and held together by the vanilla/caramel cohesion of the barrel. But, there is also a fruity sweetness here. Like baked apples with brown sugar. As the flavor progresses, notes of cocoa, and lightly roasted coffee bean come into play, leaving the palate with a dry finish. As an aside, we love the design of this bottle and the beautiful cork. Really a thoughtful and artistic ensemble. Hard Truth has a real winner here for rye lovers. Time for a Sazerac cocktail!

My favorit rye! Starts off with a butterscotch nose and is super smooth with a long finish. Definitely different than your standard rye but in a good way. I’d definitely buy it again.

Better than the Indiana

Tasty in an old fashioned!

Having just had the standard rye whiskey from Hard Truth, I had done enough research to find the other new whiskey products that they were releasing, and was really excited to see that this was a part of it. Especially so given how rare sweet mash is, but at least they are proper enough to give it an extreme percentage of rye, as it should be. I resigned to never being able to find it in the shithole that is Ohio, but I luckily found myself out of state for business (and confirmed my new credit card works), and found this among my gains. Even though I did confirm that this is not Straight No Chaser's brand (just a collaboration for one of their shows in the past), a barrel proof proper rye did sound like a great improvement from the original rye whiskey (and a proper 115 proof, none of that 105 "barrel proof" garbage). However, for $72 a bottle (and "on sale," no less), the expectations are incredibly high. After all, being a small distillery does not automatically allow you to charge a premium for your whiskey without justifying it; there is no substitute for time, and having the "dumped on" date but not the barreled date is not a good start. The scent starts out quite nicely, and very simple. The rye grain is very potent, both from abundance and ABV, with notes of cinnamon, mint, citrus, and a decent amount of red berries. I can tell the spiciness will easily (and thankfully) enter the gums when tasted, but I'm very curious about the lighter notes that are very much not typically found in other rye whiskies. As predicted, the initial flavor is quite hot, with the cinnamon spice overpowering the mint "spice," although this is still present as it attacks the gums, but doesn't dig that deep. The rye grain transitions to a floral flavor after a few seconds, with a bit of citrus floating around, but the sweet/sour berry note on the nose is now missing. The finish is pretty short, given that the floral and citrus notes are too light to be drawn out. However, after a few quick sips back to back, the spices from the gums seem to "release" back into the mouth, rounding out the final flavors with more familiar rye notes. Additionally, this is the first place that I taste oak, most of which is from a lighter barrel char, but compliments the lighter notes of the taste; I wish this was more present during the actual tasting notes. Empty glass scent includes a warmer cinnamon, like from a cobbler, more citrus and mint, and a small touch of raw melon, like cantelope or honeydew. This is actually a cool, fairly unique rye whiskey, especially with the floral, berry, and citrus notes that I have yet to really find in another rye whiskey. Since the age is quite young, it seems the high proof is the only thing that gives this particular rye the more familiar spicy mouth feel, so this was probably the best choice of bottling strength. I'd love to continue supporting this whiskey and continue buying it, especially since each batch will be fairly different from each other, given the sweet mash, but this is definitely not $72 good. If this price point continues, this will be my final bottle purchased from this distillery, until the price point becomes more competitive, or until the age more accurately reflects the monetary amount demanded.