Koval Single Barrel Four Grain

Lunch pour, because: Wednesday. This holds the moniker 4 grain, which I usually don’t care for. Of course, I’ve only had a few of the cheap versions, like Lee W. Sinclair, and given that a friend of mine said this was phenomenal, fingers are crossed. Nose is grainy for sure, and bitter. There’s walnut, nail polish, sawdust, and spearmint. Body is better. Brown sugar, oat. More mint. Finish is… absent. Possibly some cinnamon. This is 100% skippable. It is better than Lee W. Sinclair, and they did a noteworthy job avoiding the water sourcing issue that plagues so many of the distilleries up this way (this is from Chicago). It’s still conspicuously young, it lacks depth, and it makes some very curious flavor profile choices. Not going to order or buy this again.

Bietje zurig

This is an interesting whiskey on paper. It’s a four-grain, led by oat, followed by malted barely, rye, and wheat. It’s the first I’ve had with that specific combination. It’s also my first Illinois distillery, coming out of Chicago. Let’s check it out. Barrel # 7G6X6K Nose: Heavy brown sugar. Oat and almond. An astringent sweet nail polish note. Banana-walnut muffin balances that out. Rum cake as well. Cocoa and oak. Palate: Again, very heavy on the brown sugar. Oat and almond also carry over from the nose. The almond is toasted. Walnut as well. Caramel and vanilla. Fudge and milk chocolate. Sawdust and timber. Some more of that nail polish. The rye is more prominent here—rye spice and black pepper now accompany the oak. Finish: Brown sugar. Nail polish. Cola. Banana bread. Almond, walnut, and oat. Black pepper, rye, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, and oak. Medium length finish. This is a strange whiskey, but a good one. The mash bill is definitely reflected in the flavor profile. Oat is an interesting lead role, and I think this one pulls it off. At $45, I think I got my money’s worth out of this one. I will return to it. I had a bottle a couple years back that was terrible. Massive upgrade with this one. I will certainly revisit this in the future, but a 3/5 rating is where I have this for now. Solid.