While on the American Duchess in August, we stopped in Paducah, Kentucky. This is the home of the Silent Brigade Distillery. It is a small distillery on Broadway in Paducah. It has a small pot still and doubler and they focus on making flavored moonshines. However, they are building a larger distillery outside of town. For those who are in Paducah, it is worth a visit to the distillery. It is a small place with a bar where you can sample their products and get a cocktail. They also offer food. I have yet to visit there when they were distilling, but you can see the whole distillery from the bar. They have a warehouse outside of town where they are aging some whiskey and they have sourced whiskey from another Kentucky distillery in Owensboro. On my last visit, I purchased a bottle of this sourced whiskey and Matt and I have tasted it.
I did not meet the distiller/owner on my visit, but he called me later. He had been working in the warehouse and was sorry to have missed me. We discussed the new distillery and the plans for the future. The new distillery will be located about twenty miles from Paducah and have a larger still, mash tubs and warehousing. They plan to make a Bourbon that has the same flavor profile as the whiskey sourced from Green River distillery. I hope so. Here are our tasting notes.
Silent Brigade Bourbon
Proof: 90
Age: No Age Statement
Nose:
- Mike: Corn, vanilla with a hint of caramel, oak wood.
- Matt: Corn, cotton candy, maple syrup, oak wood.
Taste:
- Mike: Corn and vanilla, apples, nutmeg, allspice, oak wood. Tasted with a dried cranberry and the vanilla and apple flavors are enhanced. Tasted with a pecan and oak dominates the flavor.
- Matt: Caramel and a chewy granola bar with nutmeg spice and oak. The dried cranberry brought out flavors of raisin bran and nutmeg spice. The pecan made the flavor strong in caramel with less grain flavors.
Finish:
- Mike: Medium long with oak and spice. The dried cranberry made the finish shorter but added lingering apple sweetness. The pecan made the finish very long with lots of oak.
- Matt: Medium long with nutmeg spice and lingering caramel. The dried cranberry shortened the finish and brought out grain flavors, oak and nutmeg. The pecan made the finish long with oak and nutmeg.
I would pair this Bourbon with a My Father La Opalencia cigar. I find the smoke to have some herbal notes of licorice and tobacco with vanilla and caramel. It would work well with spicy notes of the Bourbon.
Photos Courtesy of Rosemary Miller