Buffalo Trace Mash Bill Breakdown - Digital

Almost a year and a half ago I created my first distillery mash bill breakdown for Buffalo Trace. There has been several changes since then so I decided it was time for an updated and expanded version. I’ve tried to focus on whiskies that are distilled (at least once) at Buffalo Trace distillery. The Buffalo Trace/Sazerac/Age International/Barton brand(s) is an intricate web and would require much more typing than I feel like doing in this post.

Major Changes:

– All Van Winkle bourbons are now from the Buffalo Trace wheated mash bill

– The Van Winkle rye is still from a different source (probably Bernheim or Medley) and there’s no a official word on when this supply will run out. If I had to guess I’d say 2017.

– 2015 will be the last year of stainless steel vatted Sazerac 18. Starting 2016, Sazerac 18 will be from the Buffalo Trace rye mash bill.

Buffalo Trace uses two primary mash bills. While they don’t disclose the exact recipe we can make educated guesses at the mash bill percentages. Mash bill # 1 is probably 10% or less andmash bill #2 is somewhere between 10%-12%.

The wheated bourbon mash bill is a mystery as well. However, the rye portion (and maybe more) is replaced by wheat. This creates a very different flavor profile than the Rye. I also believe that wheated bourbons handle (even need) aging much better than bourbons that have rye in the mash bill. See Buffalo Trace Master Distiller, Harlen Wheatly’s comments about this in my post about bourbon aging.

The rye mash bill is thought to be 51% rye. Just enough to be legally considered rye whiskey but still enough corn to bring out the familiar taste of bourbon. These low-rye rye whiskeys are much different than the currently popular high (some up to 95%) rye whiskeys.