The Bar Journal

White whiskies are proving to be a popular area of innovation following the recent popularity of both moonshine and un-aged White Dog whiskies. Releases by craft producers have spurred mainstream brands to launch their own white whiskey variants.

Jim Beam plans to release a young, clear whiskey that is neither a moonshine nor un-aged White Dog. Jim Beam Jacob’s Ghost White Whiskey has been aged for a 1-year minimum and is then clear distilled and clear filtered to remove any discoloration. Under US law, whiskey is spirit which has spent time ‘stored in oak barrels’ but there is no stipulation on the minimum length of time it needs to be aged for.

Jack Daniel’s too is to launch an un-aged rye from December. It is described as a combination of 70{779800b323ee42e5ed999e502e0319b1817165bd3ddf64ca8ef6f651c78cdacf} rye, 18{779800b323ee42e5ed999e502e0319b1817165bd3ddf64ca8ef6f651c78cdacf} corn and 12{779800b323ee42e5ed999e502e0319b1817165bd3ddf64ca8ef6f651c78cdacf} malted barley, and at 40{779800b323ee42e5ed999e502e0319b1817165bd3ddf64ca8ef6f651c78cdacf} ABV will sell at the premium price of around $50 a bottle.

There are a number of white whiskies already on the market, however historically these have all come from craft producers, particularly craft bourbon producers.

Bigger producers also with a white dog product on the market include Heaven Hill, with Trybox New Make and Rye New Make and then Buffalo Trace Distillery with White Dog Mash No. 1, White Dog Wheated Mash and White Dog Rye Mash .

More innovative variations on white dog have also started to appear. Georgia Moon Lemonade is a young corn whiskey flavoured with lemons and comes in a jam jar, labelled with an age statement of “less than 30 days old”. With the clear white spirit seemingly a natural target for flavours to be added to, expect further flavour variants as consumer understanding of what a white dog or white whisky is, grows.

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