Old Potrero Rye Whisky
OLD POTRERO® SINGLE MALT STRAIGHT RYE WHISKEY is an offshoot of our attempt to re-create the original whiskey of America. Distilled in a small copper pot still from a mash of 100% rye malt, it is aged for three years in new charred oak barrels at our small distillery on Potrero Hill in San Francisco. Rye was the grain of choice for America's first distillers, and when you taste Old Potrero you will see that using a mash consisting entirely of malted rye produces a whiskey with a wonderful character. After Prohibition "rye whiskey" was precisely defined by the Federal Government to require aging in "charred new oak" barrels, and we have made this whiskey that way. The first American whiskeys were made in the 18th century, from rye, and in small copper pot stills, but it is unlikely that charred barrels were used. Although not the way it once was done, charred barrels lend a unique and interesting quality to whiskey. We hope you will enjoy comparing it to our other, more traditional, releases.