Texan distillery Balcones is nearing the end of construction following its move to much bigger premises, and the resulting increase in production is going to see the UK receiving a lot more of its core range, fans will be pleased to hear.
The craft distillery is currently having its second new wash and spirit stills fitted, which will see production jump from two barrels of spirit a day to 20.
'Demand has really taken off,' says Balcones CEO Keith Bellinger. 'We’ll be concentrating on increasing the amounts of the core range [Baby Blue, Texas Single Malt, Brimstone, Rumble and True Blue 100] abroad, as well as special releases as they come available. We see the UK as a key market.'
The brand moved to the new warehouse in Waco, Texas in April 2016 when it outgrew the tiny former welding shop premises.
There are some exciting new products in development too, including a peated single malt whisky and a 100% rye. Both show great promise, with the rye boasting incredibly chocolatey notes, and the smoke in the peated whisky balancing the big sweet and spicy Balcones malt character.
It turns out that the peated malt is a long time coming, as head distiller Jared Himstedt told Imbibe. 'Making single malt was the goal. We thought that peated was going to be our first product, probably finished in some way. That was the plan. We just got sidetracked with a bunch of other stuff!'
It looks like there’ll be some more special releases coming too. 'Even with all our extra growth, we’ve taken the opportunity to play around a lot more, and make more different things,' Himstedt said. 'Because I don’t think we want to see four times as much Single Malt, or Baby Blue. I don’t know how much demand there is out there, but if we find out there’s more then we’ll make it. But in the meantime we can do a lot more other things and have a lot more special releases.'
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