Most casual whiskey drinkers don’t consider brewers to be in the same league with their favorite distillers, but you can’t make good whiskey without starting out with a base of a good beer. The process of distillation starts by mashing a blend of grains with water and yeast to create a “distillers beer,” a relatively low-alcohol product that is concentrated through distillation.
While you might not enjoy a mug of distillers beer on its own, it is absolutely the building block of the flavors of the spirits you love. Of course, the characteristic of the barrels that whiskey rests in is a major part of the end product as well. Especially when it comes to more malt-forward whiskeys from Scotland, Ireland and even my favorites from Corsair and Chattanooga Whiskey Co., the initial malt beverage shows off as a larger part of the final flavor profile. Those types of distilleries depend heavily on the brewing talent of their staff to create a good base for the future distillation.
So it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that a large distillery has decided to get into the malted whiskey game, but it actually is a bit of an outlier. Not many mega-brewers have ever successfully dipped their toes into whiskey-making, outside of maybe Suntory in Japan and California’s Anchor Steam.Â
Now, Molson Coors has made the leap to the spirits side of the business with the venerable beer company’s first whiskey, Five Trail Blended American Whiskey. Retailing at around $60 a bottle, this whiskey lives squarely in the premium price point, so it had better be something special, right? Well, aside from the novelty of being Coors’ first whiskey, it really is a pretty unique blended whiskey.
Coor doesn’t have its own distillery (yet), but the company could probably build a facility with the take from a single Kenny Chesney concert, so it wouldn’t be a shock if it does in the future. In the meantime, Coors has found ways to inject its influence into this blend of four whiskeys from three different states.
The blend is listed as 45 percent wheated bourbon from Indiana, 35 percent four-grain bourbon from Kentucky, 15 percent Colorado single malt, and 5 percent 13-year-old bourbon from Kentucky. The Colorado component was distilled using the same barley that Coors uses in its beers, so that’s one local stamp on the product. Another Colorado touch is when the four whiskeys are de-barreled and blended in Kentucky, Colorado river water is used to dilute the final product down to 95 proof.
The result is definitely a nice whiskey, exhibiting the sweeter corn/vanilla/caramel elements of the bourbon components and the complexity of the older Kentucky bourbon. But the single malt from Coors barley adds a lovely grain element to make the blend more interesting.
I’ve often said that talented blenders are a key component of a good whiskey, and Coors has brought together a delightful melding of flavors in Five Trail. If they do decide to start distilling their own product in the future, they’re off to a great start!
