Beehive Distilling - Straight Bourbon Whiskey

Beehive Distilling, Salt Lake City, UT, has been making GREAT gin and barreled gin for a decade plus. Now they have their own straight bourbon whiskey, made from Oaxacan Green corn, rye, and barley, all cultivated and sourced from local farmers. It's aged for a minimum of four years in new American oak barrels, and bottled at 46% ABV for $45. I'm tasting this Batch #4 bottle neat. Dark rosy copper and strong coating legs in the glass. The nose is sweet brown sugar, vanilla oak, and bubble gum, with a whiff of spice way back. On the palate, white sugar sweetness, astringent oak, vanilla, and then a raft of baking spices. The mouthfeel is rather thin and slightly hot for this ABV. The finish takes off from that astringent and spicy point, with a little stone/dried fruit sweetness and plenty of spearmint tingle. Long and tingling mouthfeel. Once that astringent tannic oak char dissipates the finish becomes quite pleasant. I'm not afraid of oaky whiskies, but this breaks the balance between both a pleasant nose and an interesting finish. Hard to drink past that palate. Ice doesn’t really change that flaw, but makes this easier to sip. I'm hopeful the folks at Beehive will keep tinkering with this new product which is grown, distilled, aged, and bottled in Utah. Cheers to that!