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Fellow Drammers!
In honor of the arrival of our latest single barrel of rye whiskey from Wilderness Trail, we’re thrilled to announce that our annual online event with Dr. Pat Heist returns on Thursday, December 17th. Dr. Pat is of course the Master Distiller and co-founder at the Wilderness Trail Distillery in Kentucky. With BS, MS, and PhD degrees from the Univ. of Kentucky under his belt related to plant pathology and microbiology, he is one of the most admired experts in the field (he also runs the ubiquitous FermSolutions, which is the go-to company for distilleries when they are experiencing problems with their fermentation).
One of my favorite stories about Dr. Pat is when Limestone Branch came to him and asked if he could recreate the yeast that their great great grandfather had used at the old, long-gone distillery. They had an empty jug that had been sitting in a museum for decades where the great great grandfather in question had kept the treasured yeast used in their whisky, but of course it had been empty for many decades. Dr. Pat was able to chemically analyze the inside of the jug and was able to find trace chemical compounds that lead him to identify the strand of yeast that had been stored in the jug years ago, which is today what Limestone Branch uses in their whisky. True Jurassic Park level stuff. In any case, after 10 years of leading the field at FermSolutions he and Shane Baker founded the Wilderness Trail distillery in 2013 and the rest is history. In October 2022, the distillery was acquired by Campari (the same folks that own Wild Turkey). Their bourbon and rye whiskeys were always great, but now, with a build up of stocks that are 10 years old, they are starting to release some of their best stuff yet, some of which we’ll be tasting at this event. The tasting includes:
“Symphony of Disruption” 2026 Kentucky Bourbon Festival 10yo Bourbon Special Edition. Made from 3 special barrels of their signature wheated bourbon, this was available only at the Wilderness Trail booth at this year’s Kentucky Bourbon Festival. Named with a nod to Dr. Pat’s favorite band, Slayer. Labeled as a Private Batch Selection, only 414 bottles released at 61.5% abv.
2026 Kentucky Bourbon Festival 8yo Rye. Their oldest rye ever released! This was the other special edition they released at the festival, marking the first time their national brand ambassador Haley Perros had created a blend (meaning a combination of Wilderness Trail rye barrels), to celebrate her 10 year anniversary working for Wilderness Trail. Only 408 bottles released at 58.05% abv.
Distillery Exclusive 10 Year Wheated Bourbon (2026 Special Edition). We picked this up at the distillery in April during our barrel pick.
Wilderness Trail - Harvest Rum - As far as we know, this is only available at the distillery. “Handcrafted Small Batch”, 45% abv.
Wilderness Trail Blue Heron Vodka!? Who knew? We found this at the distillery in May. As we understand it, they’ve closed this one out so this is a bit of Wilderness Trail history here.
Our NEW Drammers Single Barrel Rye! Our 120th single barrel pick here at Drammers, this rye whiskey was aged for 6 years, 2 months, barrel #790975, aged in Rickhouse 6-E14-15-17, Yeast strain 927. Of course, this single barrel is non-chill-filtered and was made using their signature sweet mash production process. It’s so good. 59.15% abv.
Our 2025 Drammers Single Barrel Rye “Marshmallow Rainbow”. Aged 5 years, 11 months, barrel type: ISC Classic #4, yeast strain #048. 53.2% abv.
Our 2024 Drammers Single Barrel Bourbon. Family Reserve Cask Strength Single Barrel, Barrel no 771648, aged 5 years, 3 months, aged in an ISC (Independent Stave Co.) classic #4 barrel, rickhouse E-N25-10-4, Yeast strain FP1. 55.4% abv.
That’s our lineup, we hope you can join us! The event will take place over Zoom and we will circulate the login details closer to the event. Please let us know if you have any questions!
Cheers,
Drammers Club