Review #224: Journeyman Distillery Corsets, Whips and Whiskey Batch 43

MASH BILL: 100% wheat

AGE: NAS

PROOF: 117

COST: $40 for 750mL bottle

Journeyman Distillery started distilling in Three Oaks, Michigan at the historic Featherbone Factory where corsets and buggy whips were manufactured. This whiskey gets its name from the fact that the factory had the corsets and whips and they added the essential ingredient to make it a great party. This is a 100% wheat whiskey using local organic Red Winter Wheat served up at cask strength. Let’s dive in!

This is bottle 471 of 666 from batch 43. Reviewed neat in a Glencairn.

APPEARANCE: Orangey auburn color (1.4), fat, slow, oily legs..

NOSE: Very sweet nose with some earthy spice undertones. Butterscotch, vanilla, caramel, and orange citrus lead off. Nutmeg and clove provide a nice spice. Dried oak is ever present while notes of barrel char dance around. I do get a light astringent note with a strong inhale, but it doesn’t burn my nasal cavity or make me need to back off – it’s just present.

PALATE: A creamy mouthfeel with dryness later on. I’m actually not able to recall if I’ve ever had a 100% wheat whiskey before, so while the profile on this is unique to me, I’m not sure if it’s a standard 100% wheat whiskey profile. Caramel and spoonfuls of vanilla cream are the first to strike. After a few seconds, nutmeg, cinnamon, and orange peel all swirl around creating a complex profile. There’s an earthy oak note with a minerality to it that carries into the finish.

FINISH: A long, dry finish. A touch of sweetness from the palate lingers in the form of caramel and orange zest, but an unexpected hint of cherry shows up briefly. I think the barrel profile and 100% wheat character really dominate the finish though. Tannic oak, barrel char, and wheat crackers. A touch of nutmeg, ground clove, and cinnamon powder. I occasionally get notes of chocolate, but they’re fleeting like that cherry note.

RATING: 6.8/10

OVERALL: When I first opened this bottle, it was a little medicinal to me. I drank past the shoulder of the bottle and then didn’t touch it for about 3-4 months. Having some time to breathe has done a lot for this whiskey. It’s a unique profile with a dominating sweetness but a dusty like earthiness. It strangely gives me wild west/westward expansion/cowboy vibes. In wheated bourbon, the corn adds a lot of sweetness that the wheat component can work with and add wonderful fruit notes. While I did get that touch of cherry and some orange citrus, this 100% wheat whiskey didn’t have nearly as many fruit notes as I expected. That said, it showed off a decent amount of barrel character along the way. The astringent touches on the nose and palate and the minerality were detractors for me (though the minerality I think is one aspect giving it a wild west feel to me). Overall, I am really enjoying this bottle now that it’s had time to breathe and each sip really does make me feel like I’m sipping something of a vintage long ago that I can’t say I’ve picked up in a whiskey before.

Behind the Bottle

Journeyman Distillery has been built on sustainable practices since day 1 when they decided to repurpose the historic Featherbone Factory in Three Oaks, MI rather than building a new facility. Throughout their facility, they utilized reclaimed wood, salvaged hardware, and antique fixtures all to try and reuse or repurpose materials rather than generating waste and sending it to landfills. In 2024, they acquired a second location in Valparaiso, Indiana, the American Factory, where they implemented the exact same sustainability practices.

But it doesn’t stop at the facilities. Their approach to whiskey making focuses on finding a better way every step of the way. From using local, organic grains to repurposing empty whiskey bottles as water carafes and using linen napkins instead of paper, they are practicing sustainability. They even self-audit their packaging, energy use, and byproduct use to continuously improve their operations to be more sustainable. As an employee within the commercial nuclear power industry, their effort to continuously improve resonates with me as that is a fundamental pillar of the nuclear industry.

Switching to the whiskey, Corsets, Whips and Whiskey is the cask strength version of Journeyman’s Buggy Whip Wheat that goes straight from the barrel to bottle without dilution (and I believe it because my particular bottle has a nice chunk of barrel char floating around in it that you can see in my photos). This particular batch, batch 43, was a blend of 7 barrels that produced 666 750mL bottles and 189 50mL bottles. The age range varies from batch to batch. At the time batch 43 was bottled, they were using a lot of 15 and 30 gallon barrels, which would suggest to me this batch is probably younger than you would think (smaller barrels can impart cask flavors quicker than larger barrels due to the surface area to volume ratio of the barrels). Their process for determining which barrels to include in each batch involves picking an ideal age in mind and begin sampling barrels that are about 3-6 months younger than that desired maturation length. They will continue to sample those barrels until they reach the desired profile they are looking for. Those barrels are then selected, dumped, and put straight into a bottle.

Journeyman Distillery is averaging around 1-2 batches of Corsets, Whips and Whiskey a month (at the time of this posting they are on batch 89). All the distillate up to this point comes from a pot still at their Three Oaks, MI distillery. While they just started distilling at their Valparaiso, IN location in 2025 on a new column still, that distillate has not reached desired maturation times (an employee of the distillery indicated they wouldn’t touch those barrels for another 3-4 years). While the distillate that goes into Corsets, Whips and Whiskey may change in the future and including some barrels from a column still instead of just a pot still, it sounds like there will be a few more years of enjoying it as it is with it’s dusty, vintage sort of vibe that I’m certain the pot stills has some part in.

1 | Disgusting | see my 1/10 ratings

2 | Poor | see my 2/10 ratings

3 | Bad | see my 3/10 ratings

4 | Sub-par | see my 4/10 ratings

5 | Good | see my 5/10 ratings

6 | Very Good | see my 6/10 ratings

7 | Great | see my 7/10 ratings

8 | Excellent | see my 8/10 ratings

9 | Incredible | see my 9/10 ratings

10 | Perfect | see my 10/10 ratings

Check out all my reviews: Woodgrain & Whiskey.