American Whiskey Magazine 36 — full-source synthesis

Full-source analysis: Issue 36, July 2025

All 84 supplied OCR PDF pages read; seven contact sheets and enlarged pages 4, 17, 35, 39, 51, 62, 65, 73, 74, 75, 77, 79 and 81 reviewed. Masthead visually confirms July 2025, editor Phoebe Calver, Paragraph Publishing Inc., ISSN 2516-855X. Locators are supplied PDF pages. Photography and ads were inspected, not silently omitted. Small charts visible within photographs are not supplied as independently legible research datasets.

Complete contents and evidence map

1–5: William H Macy cover, Old Fitzgerald advertisement, Calver's culinary editorial, masthead and contents. Culinary enjoyment is a personal preference rather than a universally superior way to taste whiskey.
6–9: Horse Soldier/Minden promotions, dated Australian Whisky Live calendar, Kimberl's cheese/cocktail pairing column, New Riff and Ironroot ads. Kimberl describes a KOBBE/Heaven Hill dinner at Jewel of the South, with specific courses, cocktails and aged whiskeys; useful event/cultural evidence. Pairing generalizations are practitioner suggestions, not controlled findings. Book lead: Which Fork Do I Use With My Bourbon? by Stevens/Reigler.
10–13: Kimberl on Heaven Hill Springs' first barrel, April 7, 2025, visibly marked DSP-KY-31 and serial 31-00000001. Retrospective November 7, 1996 fire, 1999 Bernheim purchase, June 6, 2022 groundbreaking; construction/visitor completion September 2025 is a forecast. Reported $200m project, initially 150,000 barrels/year with ultimate capacity over 450,000; not realized production. Max Shapira, Kate and Allan Latts, Conor O'Driscoll, Charlie Downs and Adam Ganoe participate. Downs is described as having worked at all four company distilleries. Onsite live-yeast propagation reportedly returns after the fire. Sustainability measures: smart water meters, wastewater pretreatment, energy recovery, 3,000 LEDs, 600 white oaks and 32 acres of native grasses. These are measures, not an audited net-emissions result.
14–19: Guevara interviews Vienna Barger on Southern Distilling and Statesville. Contract production finances own brands, complementary responsibilities with Pete Barger, SBA-backed construction and measured expansion. Her 2012 organizing/2013 trade association account and later tasting-room/Sunday-sale changes need dated statutes for legal reuse. Reported 20-acre campus, two 24,000-barrel warehouses, 500-person event space and over 150 clients are dated company claims. Farm partnerships supply corn and most wheat; stillage returns to farms. Eight-product range includes high-rye bourbon, wheated bonded/single-barrel, double rye, cream and white whiskey. The Liquor Capital title is historical promotional language; verify six rectifiers, hundreds of licensed farms and the nearly-17-years-before-ratification local prohibition claim independently.
20–27: Kimberl's hosted journalist travelogue with William H Macy, Mary/Pat Scanlan, Sean Kenyon, chefs Gabrielle Burt/Katie Baum Hueth and master distiller Blaine Hudson. Potato-growing link explains Macy's involvement. Expansion, offsite/Wyoming storage, palletization, humidity control, altitude and mash choices are useful reported operations. Landfill disposal of spent grain is an important counterexample to universal closed-loop claims. Hospitality and celebrity context may shape impressions.
28–29: Jack Daniel's 14-year release at 126.3 proof, alongside 12-year Batch 3 at 107 and 10-year Batch 4 at 97; reported common 80 corn/8 rye/12 malt recipe. $150 suggested retail is historical, not current availability. Author's inferred lower/interior warehouse placement is explicitly not confirmed barrel history. Founding, location continuity, Tennessee 1911 and national 1919 prohibition language need primary chronology; ratification is not the date nationwide enforcement began.
30–35: Storgaard interviews Ouita Michel about Holly Hill & Co, return to Kentucky, local farm/mill supply, tourism, rural jobs and community. Hannah Arvin, Jackie Anthony, Weisenberger Mill, Zim's Cafe, Holly Hill Inn and Woodford are retrieval links. FEAST began in 2017 with four other chefs, supporting women and FoodChain. Bourbon Trail counts/counties, freshwater-coastline comparison and Indigenous maize chronology require corroboration; do not equate all Indigenous occupation with maize cultivation. Strong material for foodways and women beyond distilling roles.
36–40: Kimberl interviews Maker's Mark's Leslie Krockenberger: Houston background, Scott Beattie influence, Kentucky move in 2020, seasonal gardens/walnuts and base/heart/head flavor analogy. Four named cocktails with subrecipes: You Say Tomato, Mushroom Quarry Highball, Twisting the Lion's Tail and Jam Cake Old Fashioned. Clarified foie-gras/cherry punch is described but not a full quantified recipe. Tonka/foraging, allergens and shelf-life statements need appropriate validation before consumer instructions.
41: Bainbridge Whiskey 40 Saloon and Four Branches advertisements. Bainbridge ad's wheated heading versus 66 corn/22 rye/12 wheat recipe merits producer verification, not silent relabeling. Four-grain advertising does not reveal component percentages.
42–45: Kimberl discloses paid Heaven Hill training/launch work for the Alec Bradley partnership; Smoke and Oak and Louisville ordinance history are dated. Four pairings: Herrera Esteli Brazilian Maduro with Unbendt bonded wheat; 20 Acre Farm with Ol' New Riff bonded rye; Alec Bradley Kintsugi with Mellwood bonded bourbon; Fine & Rare A(11)-FYT 2024 #14 with Cyrus Noble. Jake's and Louisville Cigar Company are venue leads. Not independent product endorsement or tobacco advice.
46–51: Reigler tours Fred B Noe research distillery with April Elston, Davis Jeffries, Hannah Hardison and Jenna Baker. Yeast monitoring, experimental mash bills, brown-rice Basil Hayden Toasted, wood treatment and age-sampling decisions provide unusually direct production/blending process evidence. Details below.
52–59: Miller's greater-LA guide, all 20 entries indexed below. Geographic scope extends to Long Beach and Montecito, not a feasible guaranteed one-day circuit. Venue status and accolades are time-sensitive.
60–65: Kimberl on Gary Hinegardner/Wood Hat: Peace Corps, agronomy, Independent Stave scrap utilization, 2010 project origin, 2018 breeding collaboration, Mexican genetics work and Missouri suitability. Corn/aging hypotheses and limitations below.
66–69: Reigler reviews Bourbon Lore (Mason Walker/Clay Risen, 2024, Scott & Nix), Whiskey Stories (Richard Thomas, 2025, Cider Mill), and Behind Bars (Mike Gerrard, 2024, Prometheus). These reviews are not full processing of those books. Wild Turkey Cuvée Lafayette 1988–1992/12-year, Four Roses/Kirin 2002, stillage and Pappygate are leads. The 70-percent pre-Prohibition federal revenue assertion, income-tax causation and theft details require primary checks; retain neither as settled from a book review. Printed Kiren spelling needs correction to the entity record, not a duplicate contributor.
70–73: Stevens' balance/counterbalance/intensification framework with High N' Wicked 123.2 and Never Say Die Small Batch 95, age seven-plus. Marketing assertions and a duplicated tasting record are flagged below.
74–81: all 25 blind-reviewed samples registered below; two reviewers, proof/style disclosed, tasted individually over two weeks. Scores total 17.5+ qualify for Recommended; highest total Editor's Choice. This is not proof-normalized testing or population consensus.
82: Wyoming cofounder David DeFazio selects Elijah Craig 18, Maker's Black Wax, Four Roses Small Batch, Wild Turkey 101 and Wyoming Ten Year Anniversary. Steve Nally gift/mentorship and father-introduced tasting are attributed recollections. Rye-like sensory notes do not establish rye in a mash bill. 83–84: subscription and Sazerac ads; first-cocktail slogan belongs in marketing/lore, not a verified origin claim.

Production and blending synthesis

Fred B Noe (47–51): Little Book Chapter 1 (2017) is described as 13-year corn, five-year rye, five-year malt and four-year bourbon, all straight and uncut; no percentages. Elston reports two yeast lineages, Beam and Old Grand-Dad acquired in 1987, refrigerated/continually cultured with hops used in microbial control. Temperature, pH and growth phase are monitored to achieve intended fermentation character. Distinguish this interview from independently documented uninterrupted strain genealogy. Pacult's American Still Life is the explicit source of the Booker recollection; do not cite this secondary quotation as a new interview. The exact main mash bills are undisclosed, so the article's over-70-percent estimate must not become an exact recipe. Brown rice replaces the usual secondary grain in Basil Hayden Toasted; secondary toasted/flash-charred wood is another variable. Small experimental runs, yearly sampling and decisions to stop aging before a profile deteriorates support our testing approach. Blending may redirect experimental stock, but does not guarantee rescue of defects. Separate head/stave treatments, oak species and bung-position clocking are discussed. The opening literary attribution to Dickens needs checking before reuse.

Woody Creek (25–26): chosen 100% Elbon rye uses added enzymes after an earlier 80/20 trial; Macy selected this profile. Bloody Butcher and Olathe experiments use all-corn recipes and new charred wood, deliberately labeled whiskey; recipe/wood alone are insufficient to verify every legal bourbon requirement. Carl hybrid still originally chosen for vodka; additional copper contact under consideration, not completed work. Altitude's reported 203°F boiling value is site-dependent; pH/antifoam and humidity management are operational reports, not safe engineering instructions. Pallet preference does not prove no maturation difference. Colorado-wide snowfall and universally optimal watershed mineral claims are overgeneralized. All raw materials being Colorado-grown is the producer's claim, not independently traced grain provenance.

Wood Hat (60–65): different corn phenotypes are crossed and evaluated for sensory quality and oil content, but agronomic maturity and moisture determine practical suitability. The 18/43 cross failed to synchronize pollination in successive years. Over 70 blue varieties and 75 trial plots are reported; these are not 75 controlled replicated experiments. A photograph's Corn (PPM) chart cannot establish methods, sample sizes or compositional effects. Broad claims that No. 2 yellow dent is worst, blue corn avoids burn, or oil content ensures body remain Hinegardner's hypotheses. No controlled sensory panel, distillation controls or raw dataset is supplied. Orange flint deemed ready at 18 months was actually released at three years; do not miscatalog its release age. Air-seasoned wood and corn interact, undermining grain-only explanations. Scrap-fired heat/geothermal systems illustrate efficiency choices without proving carbon neutrality. Corn-genetics ownership/trade-war predictions require independent market evidence. For blending, retain grain-forward options and evaluate actual bottles, not color-based guarantees.

Krockenberger's base/heart/head analogy (38) closely fits functional blending roles, but cocktails add acids/sugars/aromatics and cannot validate a whiskey-only recipe directly. Perfumery language is an organizing metaphor. Pairing frameworks likewise suggest experiments, not predictable molecular cancellation. High N' Wicked's sweet-mash fruit causation and Never Say Die's sweet-mash smoothness, universal 95-proof sweet spot and accelerated maritime aging are brand claims requiring controls.

Cocktail retrieval and transcription checks

Page 39 visually resolves You Say Tomato: 1.5 oz washed Maker's 46, 2 oz fino, 1.5 oz tomato-water cordial. Wash uses 4 oz tomato caramel per 750 ml; OCR omitted the 4. Tomato caramel combines reserved tomato pulp, coconut cream, brown sugar, lemon, vanilla and salt. Cordial uses strained tomato water plus half its weight sugar and Licor 43; preserve source refrigeration guidance as unvalidated shelf-life advice. Mushroom Quarry: 1 oz each cask-strength Maker's and Dolin Blanc, 0.75 oz each vinegar and mushroom/cacao honey, bitters and soda. Subrecipes include 10:1 dried shiitake/cacao, 9 g per 950 g honey, then 3:2 honey/water; this is culinary formulation, not straight-whiskey blending. Page 40 Lion's Tail variant uses bourbon/allspice/fruit-acid cordial/lime topped with ginger beer; Jam Cake uses Maker's 46, blackberry liqueur, chai syrup and cacao bitters. Detailed batch ingredient lists remain in the preserved original for precise retrieval; no public reuse or food-safety approval inferred.

Complete tasting register

Proof; Peggy/Susan scores, paraphrased impressions. Keep samples and reviewers separate; scores are not intrinsic permanent brand properties.

74: Bardstown Amrut Finished 110, 7.8/8.8: musty grain/tannin versus bright fruit/candy; substantial disagreement, water improves perceived balance. Barrell 036 114.4, 8.7/8.5: caramel/apple/toffee, dry pepper finish; time and water suggested.
75: Ben Holladay Bourbon Lore 118.6, 8.9/8.9: dense caramel/chocolate, fruit/spice integrated despite proof. Bendt No.5 83, 7.6/7.8: grain/herbs/tannin versus mild fruit; printed triple-digit-proof comment conflicts with 83 and cannot be reconciled by guessing. Chattanooga Founder's 12th Anniversary 100, 8.6/8.5: malt/corn/vanilla/mocha and fruit/floral/nut; mixed-drink utility.
76: Cyrus Noble 90, 8.3/8.4: stone fruit/herbs/nuts, soft warm finish. Elijah Craig B524 130.6, 9.0/9.0: dark fruit/caramel/oak, water opens flavor. Fierce Whiskers Bourbon 98, 8.6/8.8: smoke/coffee/grain versus softer raisin/vanilla, sustained flavor. Fierce Whiskers Rye 90, 8.5/8.5: berries/herbs/hay/floral, savory sweetness.
77: Green River Full Proof 117.3, 9.1/9.0: chocolate/cherry/caramel or peach/vanilla, chewy oak/spice. Hard Truth BW2 bonded wheated 100, 8.6/8.8: shortbread/pecan/cherry/nougat, integrated spice. High N' Wicked Cask Strength 123.2, 9.0/9.2 (digit visually recovered): fruit/custard/anise, layered warm finish; water softens spice.
78: High N' Wicked Rye 98.2, 8.6/9.0: brioche/herbs/leather, balanced floral/nut sweetness. Larceny B524 125.4, 8.7/9.1: fruit/caramel/chocolate with ginger, prolonged body; different preferences for water. Milam & Greene bonded 100, 8.9/8.5: granola/apple/mocha/toffee, finish more drying than nose for Susan.
79: Never Say Die Rye 105, 9.2/9.1, Editor's Choice: printed fruit/pastry and cocoa/citrus/herbs, light perceived proof. IMPORTANT: Peggy's notes/9.2 are duplicated under the 95-proof Small Batch Bourbon on 73; uncertain which entry the notes belong to, exclude them from validated profile mapping pending publisher clarification. Off Hours Rye 95, 8.4/8.6: cherry/apple/herb, sweet finish. Ol' New Riff bonded rye 100, 8.7/8.8: savory herbs/vanilla/root-beer-like finish, texture.
80: Redemption High Rye Bourbon 131, 92, 8.4/8.6: dry herbs/oak versus banana/chocolate fruit. Redemption Rye 273, 92, 8.0/8.5: earthy grain/honey, fruit and manageable rye spice. Redemption Wheated 008, 96, 8.7/8.4: caramel/apple/peach, drying finish. Still Austin bonded rye Spring 2024, 100, 8.8/8.8: cherry/honey/cocoa/nuts, approachable rye.
81: Unbendt bonded straight malt 100, 8.4/8.5: cereal/ginger/apple/oak, develops in glass. Unbendt bonded straight wheat 100, 9.0/8.9 (visually recovered): caramel/smoke/pear versus vanilla/apricot/almond, velvety. Wood Hat WHO-8 100, 8.7/8.1: smoke/toffee/cherry versus cereal/bread and limited fruit. Grain-specific character is perceived differently even by these two tasters.

Regional index and final disposition

LA guide 52–59: restaurants Melissé, Holbox, Quarter Sheets, Carmel, Meteora; bars Jackalope, Baby Gee, Neat, Musso & Frank, Redbird; hotels Sandbourne, Beverly Hills Hotel, Downtown LA Proper, Rosewood Miramar, Pendry West Hollywood; distilleries Greenbar, Bonetree, Stark, Obscure and Los Angeles Distillery. Production leads include Greenbar multiwood aging, Bonetree malted rye, Stark mixed casks, Obscure chestnut and LA multiple yeasts/Hungarian oak. These descriptions do not confer a regulated whiskey designation; hotel's Michelin-star wording and American-produced Tequila wording require verification.

Route Heaven Hill/Statesville/foodways to history; Barger/Michel/Krockenberger/Elston/team/Hinegardner/Macy to people; research sampling/yeast/corn/copper to production; cocktail structures to flavor design; 25 dated reviews to profiles with explicit conflict flags. Full reading and visual review complete. Contributor relations remain a separate administrative cleanup task; no full public reproduction rights inferred.