EPCOT Garrison Brothers Distillery Beverage Seminar, October 24, 2018

Our first ticketed event of the 2018 International Food and Wine Festival was a beverage seminar held at the Festival Center in Future World.  The seminar featured the Garrison Brothers Distillery from Hye, Texas.  As we learned from the Kentucky Bourbon Trail experience in 2014, all bourbon is whiskey, but not all whiskey is bourbon.  Bourbon can be made anywhere in the US, although the vast majority of it is made in Kentucky.  Among the requirements for a whiskey to be called a bourbon is that bourbon must be made from at least 51% corn.  The recipe used by the Garrison Brothers uses 74% corn, 15% wheat, and 11% barley.

These are the three samples we would taste at this beverage seminar. The 2015 Small Batch is on the left, a Single Barrel is in the middle, and Cowboy Bourbon is on the right.

The seminar included three separate tastings of the Garrison Brothers’ bourbon.  First up was the 2015 Small Batch.  The bourbon is made using sweet mash, not sour mash.  (Sweet mash uses fresh yeast.   Sour mash is a method that uses a small amount of the already fermented mash held from the previous fermentation.)  The Small Batch was the lightest in color and had a slightly sharp initial taste.  There was also some burn on the tongue, but no burn on the finish.  Not surprisingly, the taste became smoother with consumption.

The second tasting was a Single Barrel.  The color was slightly darker than the Small Batch and had some hints of butterscotch or caramel.  There’s one important thing to remember with Single Barrel whiskeys.  The taste of the whiskey or bourbon is different with each barrel.  Therefore, the taste of a bottle of Single Barrel bourbon may taste fairly different from a bottle of taken from a different barrel.  Small Batch bourbon blends many different barrels to create a fairly uniform taste.

The last tasting was Cowboy Bourbon.  The makers use their favorite barrels to bottle this bourbon.  It is darker in color and smoother in taste.  There are also more hints of butterscotch notes on the nose and a little heat or kick on the finish.

As with the tastings, the 2015 Small Batch is on the left, the Single Barrel is in the middle, and the Cowboy Bourbon is on the right. The 2015 Small Batch and the Single Barrel are both 94 proof. The Cowboy Bourbon is 133 proof.

These bourbons are somewhat expensive.  The 2015 Small Batch costs approximately $75.00 per bottle, the Single Barrel costs approximately $109.00 per bottle, and the Cowboy Bourbon costs approximately 168.00 per bottle.  You can pay more online. 😉  We did however, enjoy the tastings.  It was a fun way to start off the Festival.