Review #122: Shenk’s Homestead 2024 Release
Review #122: Shenk’s Homestead 2024 Release (Batch 24E2234)
COST: $130 for 750mL bottle
AGE: NAS
MASH BILL: Undisclosed, but confirmed to contain rye, malted rye, and caramel malt (a first for Shenk’s)
PROOF: 91.2
Simply put, I’m a believer that there’s not much Michter’s can fuck up. That said, I’ve never been able to get my hands on my own bottle of Shenk’s or Bomberger’s until this bottle here. As a happenstance, while I was in Minnesota a couple months ago for vacation, I wandered into a Total Wine in Minneapolis and they just happened to have 3 bottles of Shenk’s sitting on the shelf like it was no big deal (where I’m from in South Carolina, those bottles wouldn’t have lasted to closing time the day they got off the truck). So, while I had no intent of buying a bottle of Shenk’s while I was there, I obliged myself. Let’s see how it is and whether I still think Michter’s can’t do anything wrong!
Reviewed neat in a Glencairn.
APPEARANCE: Deep brown (1.8), fast, medium thickness legs with a slightly syrupy beading.
NOSE: There is a noticeable rye malt smell. (Trying to describe it in words is difficult because it’s going to sound like a bunch of other common notes, but it’s a unique smell with a combination of earthy malted grain, peppercorn spice, and a slight campfire vibe. See a review of a rye malt whiskey here.) Vanilla custard, graham crackers, clove, chocolate, and a rich light fruit note.
PALATE: Nice spice stands out right away with a whirling of rye, clove, white pepper, and a touch of cinnamon. The spice is a forward and lasting note with sweetness providing a backdrop with notes of vanilla, butterscotch, and Rollo candies. There is a light fruit sweetness as well with some caramelized pears and cherry slices. I feel like it is normally more typical to find the sweeter notes front and center and spicier notes providing depth, but this pour is the opposite to me which is very intriguing and memorable. This has a very pleasant mouthfeel being cool like menthol and thicker than I would expect for a 91 proof whiskey.
FINISH: The sweetness is a bit more prominent in the finish with light fruit notes of apricot, orange slices, and vanilla extract. The spice then comes back in amongst light oak and a flourish of rye spice, light cinnamon and clove, and white pepper. This has a medium to long finish.
RATING: 8.7/10
VALUE: 7.0/10 (this value is based on a ratio of the $/mL to the rating above compared to this same ratio for all other r/Bourbon reviews I’ve made and normalized to 10)
OVERALL: This is a really fantastic sip! The sweetness and spice kinda take role reversal throughout the sip to me with the sweetness providing the background and depth on the palate and then being more prominent in the finish, and vice versa on the spice. The uniqueness throughout this is fun and memorable. I’m glad to have found this bottle when I wasn’t seeking it, and I popped on it when I had the chance. And, yes, I still think Michter’s can’t fuck much up.
BEHIND THE BOTTLE
Michter’s produces two annual releases that bear legacy labels: Shenk’s and Bomberger’s. These names stem from previous names the “Michter’s distillery” operated under. The original distillery was located in Schaefferstown, PA (where it still exists today but has been closed since 1990). Because I’ve always felt the story of the Michter’s brand, the legacy names, origins in Pennsylvania and now residing in Kentucky, etc. was always very convoluted, here’s a one paragraph summary of a very long story (Mike over at Bourbon Culture shared a fantastic article of the full history on their website. Check it out here.)
The Shenk’s distillery first began distilling rye whiskey in 1753. It operated under the name Shenk’s until about 1860 when it was purchased by a friend of the Shenk’s family, Abraham Bomberger. However, it wasn’t until 1904 when Abe passed away that his sons renamed it to the H.H. Bomberger distillery. The distillery closed in 1920 due to the start of Prohibition. The distillery then traded hands quite a few times until 1950 when Louis Forman purchased it (it was actually the second time in a decade he purchased it) and began distilling with his master distiller, Charles Everett Beam (yes, that Beam family). The whiskey they distilled was called “Michter’s Original Sour Mash Whiskey” named after a combination of Louis Forman’s sons Michael and Peter. Due to a recession, Forman needed to sell the distillery before his whiskey ever made it to shelves. He sold the distillery to Pennco Distillers but kept his formula and aged whiskey and sold his whiskey through his liquor wholesaling business. Pennco used the distillery for contract distilling until 1974. Forman was then able to reacquire the distillery in 1974 due to the foreclosure sale of Pennco, at which point, Forman established the name Michter’s Distillery, Inc. As the whiskey industry slowed down in the 80s, the distillery was forced to file for bankruptcy in 1983. The bank that acquired the distillery had a holding company take care of the distillery, but in 1989, all production came to a halt and the distillery finally closed its doors permanently. Joe Magliocco and Chatham Imports, Inc. purchased the Micther’s brand in 1996. In 2011, Michter’s began to create their new distillery in Shively, KY. Reopening the Schaefferstown, PA distillery was certainly an option, but it was not lost on Joe and company that all the best talent were located in Kentucky, so it would be a challenge to convince said talent to relocate to Pennsylvania. Michter’s currently has two locations: the Shively distillery, which is the primary distillation and aging facility, and the Fort Nelson distillery in Louisville, which was really more of the public face of Michter’s right in downtown Louisville but is a fully functional distillery on its own.
As a homage to the storied history of the original distillery that birthed the Micther’s name, the Micther’s Distillery produces annual releases of Shenk’s and Bomberger’s labels, and the intent is to produce a whiskey that would resemble what would have been released under those names.
The Shenk’s operation would have been producing a rye whiskey. Now, the modern Shenk’s label is called a “sour mash whiskey.” The term sour mash whiskey describes the mash process used in the whiskey making process; it’s not a category of whiskey such as bourbon, rye whiskey, wheat whiskey, etc. That is, you can have a bourbon or rye whiskey that are considered a sour mash whiskey. It just depends on the mashing process that is used.
The sour mash process involves using leftover mash from the previous distilling run in the next distilling run. So, in this process, the concept would be that you would have trace amounts of the original mash in all future whiskey mashes. The opposite of this would be the sweet mash process in which every batch is made fresh.
So, the implied nature of Shenk’s Homestead being a sour mash whiskey is that it contains an older, more traditional style of whiskey, something not modern or familiar to most modernized palates. However, I always thought that Shenk’s was a sour mash rye whiskey. While the Shenk’s mash bill is not disclosed, they normally disclose some of the grains which I thought were rye forward. This 2024 batch for example was stated to contain rye, malted rye, and caramel malt. However, I recently saw Bourbon Culture's review of this bottle and they stated something interesting that I hadn’t heard before: when Michter’s uses the term “sour mash whiskey,” this is Micther’s code for blending bourbon and rye whiskey together. I have no reason to doubt this claim, and it makes sense in a way because I always found it strange that Micther’s would have an expression simply labeled as “sour mash whiskey” when that’s really not a whiskey style such as bourbon or rye whiskey. But if that is code for a bourye, well…I could buy it!
1 | Disgusting | ...I've not subjected myself to this level
2 | Poor | Balcones Lineage
3 | Bad | High West Double Rye, Jefferson's Ocean 28
4 | Sub-par | Weller's SR, Woodford Reserve Distiller's Select
5 | Good | Buffalo Trace, Sazerac Rye, Green River Wheated
6 | Very Good | Blanton's, Holladay Bourbons, Eagle Rare
7 | Great | Baker's 7yr SiB, WhistlePig PiggyBack SiB, 1792 BiB
8 | Excellent | Most ECBP batches, JD SiB BiB, High West MWND Act 11
9 | Incredible | Barrel Bourbon Batch T8ke, BBC DS #7, Four Roses OESQ
10 | Perfect | Found North Batch 08
The Shenk’s distillery first began distilling rye whiskey in 1753. It operated under the name Shenk’s until about 1860 when it was purchased by a friend of the Shenk’s family, Abraham Bomberger. However, it wasn’t until 1904 when Abe passed away that his sons renamed it to the H.H. Bomberger distillery. The distillery closed in 1920 due to the start of Prohibition. The distillery then traded hands quite a few times until 1950 when Louis Forman purchased it (it was actually the second time in a decade he purchased it) and began distilling with his master distiller, Charles Everett Beam (yes, that Beam family). The whiskey they distilled was called “Michter’s Original Sour Mash Whiskey” named after a combination of Louis Forman’s sons Michael and Peter. Due to a recession, Forman needed to sell the distillery before his whiskey ever made it to shelves. He sold the distillery to Pennco Distillers but kept his formula and aged whiskey and sold his whiskey through his liquor wholesaling business. Pennco used the distillery for contract distilling until 1974. Forman was then able to reacquire the distillery in 1974 due to the foreclosure sale of Pennco, at which point, Forman established the name Michter’s Distillery, Inc. As the whiskey industry slowed down in the 80s, the distillery was forced to file for bankruptcy in 1983. The bank that acquired the distillery had a holding company take care of the distillery, but in 1989, all production came to a halt and the distillery finally closed its doors permanently. Joe Magliocco and Chatham Imports, Inc. purchased the Micther’s brand in 1996. In 2011, Michter’s began to create their new distillery in Shively, KY. Reopening the Schaefferstown, PA distillery was certainly an option, but it was not lost on Joe and company that all the best talent were located in Kentucky, so it would be a challenge to convince said talent to relocate to Pennsylvania. Michter’s currently has two locations: the Shively distillery, which is the primary distillation and aging facility, and the Fort Nelson distillery in Louisville, which was really more of the public face of Michter’s right in downtown Louisville but is a fully functional distillery on its own.
As a homage to the storied history of the original distillery that birthed the Micther’s name, the Micther’s Distillery produces annual releases of Shenk’s and Bomberger’s labels, and the intent is to produce a whiskey that would resemble what would have been released under those names.
The Shenk’s operation would have been producing a rye whiskey. Now, the modern Shenk’s label is called a “sour mash whiskey.” The term sour mash whiskey describes the mash process used in the whiskey making process; it’s not a category of whiskey such as bourbon, rye whiskey, wheat whiskey, etc. That is, you can have a bourbon or rye whiskey that are considered a sour mash whiskey. It just depends on the mashing process that is used.
The sour mash process involves using leftover mash from the previous distilling run in the next distilling run. So, in this process, the concept would be that you would have trace amounts of the original mash in all future whiskey mashes. The opposite of this would be the sweet mash process in which every batch is made fresh.
So, the implied nature of Shenk’s Homestead being a sour mash whiskey is that it contains an older, more traditional style of whiskey, something not modern or familiar to most modernized palates. However, I always thought that Shenk’s was a sour mash rye whiskey. While the Shenk’s mash bill is not disclosed, they normally disclose some of the grains which I thought were rye forward. This 2024 batch for example was stated to contain rye, malted rye, and caramel malt. However, I recently saw Bourbon Culture's review of this bottle and they stated something interesting that I hadn’t heard before: when Michter’s uses the term “sour mash whiskey,” this is Micther’s code for blending bourbon and rye whiskey together. I have no reason to doubt this claim, and it makes sense in a way because I always found it strange that Micther’s would have an expression simply labeled as “sour mash whiskey” when that’s really not a whiskey style such as bourbon or rye whiskey. But if that is code for a bourye, well…I could buy it!
1 | Disgusting | ...I've not subjected myself to this level
2 | Poor | Balcones Lineage
3 | Bad | High West Double Rye, Jefferson's Ocean 28
4 | Sub-par | Weller's SR, Woodford Reserve Distiller's Select
5 | Good | Buffalo Trace, Sazerac Rye, Green River Wheated
6 | Very Good | Blanton's, Holladay Bourbons, Eagle Rare
7 | Great | Baker's 7yr SiB, WhistlePig PiggyBack SiB, 1792 BiB
8 | Excellent | Most ECBP batches, JD SiB BiB, High West MWND Act 11
9 | Incredible | Barrel Bourbon Batch T8ke, BBC DS #7, Four Roses OESQ
10 | Perfect | Found North Batch 08
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