Keeper’s Heart Launches New Irish + Bourbon

Those that first hear about Keeper’s Heart might be incredulous. How does an upstart model out of Minnesota lure the top distiller from Irish Distillers in Middleton, which makes Jameson, and a bunch of different whiskies?

However that’s till you discuss to Brian Nation, who uprooted his household to maneuver to St. Paul, after studying a message from Patrick O’Shaughnessy on LinkedIn, and agreeing to fulfill him on a little bit of a lark when O’Shaughnessy and his spouse traveled to Eire. O’Shaughnessy, and his cousin Michael O’Shaughnessy, have a serial entrepreneur and enterprise capital background, and set their sights on build up a enterprise that will contain members of their giant Irish-American household which are unfold out throughout the nation. They had been ingesting whiskey whereas discussing the concept of such a enterprise, and effectively, the concept of constructing a distillery was born.

“You take a look at bourbon, you take a look at beer, all of the craft actions that started, Irish whiskey was due for an inevitable renaissance, and we had been actually intrigued by that concept,” Patrick stated.

The O’Shaughnessys did their analysis, speaking to folks throughout the business — therefore the chilly outreach to Nation over LinkedIn and the short-notice assembly.

Nation and the O’Shaughnessys describe their dinner in Eire as a second of friendship at first sight, and a little bit of kismet. Nation’s spouse and kids shortly received on board with the concept of going to America as an journey, and Nation discovered the concept that he may have the liberty to innovate interesting.

“It was very, very simple to have a dialog. It was a really fast connection, which made it very simple to spend 5 and a half hours on the dinner,” Nation stated.

As soon as Nation was on board, the model additionally reached out to David Perkins, the founding father of Excessive West Whiskey. The 2 knew one another from a couple of years again when Pernod Ricard thought of shopping for Excessive West (it was later acquired by Constellation Manufacturers), and Perkins has expertise in growing blends and familiarity with rye and bourbon whiskies.

“Brian is sort of the skilled on the pot nonetheless stuff, which is totally completely different than American-style spirits, it took some getting used to for me to style the pot nonetheless whiskey,” Perkins stated of the quintessentially Irish fashion of whiskey which makes use of some inexperienced, unmalted barley within the mash invoice which provides a creamy mouthfeel and fruitier flavors.

“We approached it by asking how can we Irishize the American whiskey and Americanize the Irish whiskey, and take the perfect of each and mix them and make one thing new, completely different and enjoyable,” Perkins stated.

Mixing collectively Irish and American whiskies sourced from Nice Northern distillery in Eire and MGP in Indiana is the spine of the Keeper’s Coronary heart progress plan. The primary main launch from the model, Irish + American Whiskey, was a mix of Irish grain whiskey, pot nonetheless whiskey, and American rye, and debuted final yr.

“I didn’t assume it might work to be trustworthy, and that’s the enjoyable half about it. It sounds really easy to place collectively a mix of issues, however on the finish of the day, you undergo so many iterations it’s exhausting to consider that a lot of these iterations actually don’t style that good, and the truth that you possibly can create one thing that does style good is basically stunning even to somebody who has carried out it earlier than,” Perkins stated. “What a pleasing shock once we got here up with the Keeper’s Coronary heart Rye mix.”

Now becoming a member of the combo is the Irish + Bourbon. Just like the Irish + American, it’s a mix of three whiskies: grain and pot nonetheless whiskey from Eire however, as an alternative of rye whiskey, bourbon from MGP is used.

“Bourbon is such a distinct animal than the rye, with extra intense sweetness from the corn,” Perkins stated. “How can we marry that with the pot and the grain to reinforce the bourbon. I can’t consider what number of iterations we went by to get it proper.”

Nation stated at first, he was making an attempt to only mix the pot nonetheless and the bourbon, or the pot nonetheless and the rye and it was extremely tough.

“We couldn’t get them to truly stability, every certainly one of them was combating in opposition to the opposite. It was an important studying expertise for me in that you simply wanted to usher in a little bit of grain whiskey to permit the 2 different elements to coexist,” Nation stated.

The ensuing mix has a layering impact of flavors. The grain whiskey provides sweetness, butterscotch, caramel and citrus notes, and the pot nonetheless whiskey presents a creamy mouthfeel with natural earthy notes, baking spices, cooked orchard fruits and cereal notes. The bourbon brings extra sweetness, with a number of vanilla from the charred oak.

As each the Irish + American and the Irish + Bourbon roll out to completely different states and with plans to go worldwide, the Minnesota distillery is up and operating to provide modern liquids. They’re producing certainly one of America’s first single pot nonetheless whiskies (the smaller Talnua Distillery close to Denver, Co. is one other distillery additionally doing this), in addition to what’s considered the primary triple pot distilled rye whiskey and triple distilled bourbon whiskey that shall be launched in coming years.

“I feel there’s an actual spirit of innovation to the whiskies we’re mixing and making,” Patrick O’Shaughnessy stated. “Generally you’re feeling the whole lot has been carried out earlier than, however we’ve stumbled into this fascinating innovation house that was staring everybody within the face.”