Balcones Brimstone Review

Here's a bottle that was bequeathed to me during /u/tvraisedme's whiskey dumpster giveaway before he moved away from the Nashville area. Of all the craft distilleries out there, I feel like Balcones is one of the better ones but like the rest, the major rub is you're paying a lot for what you are getting. As such, I would have never purchased this bottle on my own, not only because of the price but also because it's such a divisive pour. Looking at how it's made, it's easy to see why. What we have here is a 100% blue corn whisky that as been smoked with Texas scrub oak via some proprietary process. Not that I think it matters but some may like to know that this particular bottle was released when Chip Tate was still the Balcones master distiller. I'm expecting something pungent like the corn whisky equivalent of a heavily peated Islay Scotch.

Batch BRM12-2, 02/08/2012; No Age Statement; 53% ABV; $60

Nose: Very corn and smoke forward. It smells like Fritos corn chips that have been left in a smoker for days. The smokey notes here have a very distinctive yet strange quality to them that I can't quite describe. It's sort of medicinal but mostly like an old mesquite barbecue grill. 

Taste: The palate has all of the notes from the nose but with some added honey. It's sweet, corny, and that oddball oily mesquite barbecue smoke note. It tastes like honey coated mesquite smoked barbecue Frito corn chips. It's a bruiser of flavors with not really much oak influence so the alcohol still has some of that off-putting young craft new make vibe to it. 

Thoughts: This stuff is batshit crazy. It's not as wild as some other ridiculous things I've tasted like the Bourbon Crusader's Charbay or Charbay RIII but it's up there. If they were going for something that tasted like smoke bombed corn chips then they succeeded with flying colors and kudos to them for trying something different. I can barely drink this though and every time I get an odd craving for a pour I can't help but ask how much I hate myself for wanting to try this again. And yet that's a scenario that's played out at least several times so there is something oddly memorable/enticing about it.

Rating: 100/100 if you want high proof smoked corn chips, 80/100 if you're a whisky voyeur/masochist, 60/100 if you wanted a drinkable whisky

Note that price is not considered when assigning a rating.