These are our whiskeys. Each is crafted from its own traditional distilling method and authentic recipe that we have not dared change since 1842.
The Legend
Old Goat Fine Bourbon
A traditional bourbon whiskey perfected and refined over 170 years. Deep, rich amber the color of your grandfather's hunting gloves. Easygoing, wise expression with dynamic finish.
Take a walk with Jim Henderson through his corn fields in Kensington, Indiana some day and let him show you his crop. It’s like a master class is agriculture and national history. Jim's family has been growing corn there for over 200 years. He’s a big, stern guy but his eyes light up like a kid’s when he talks about his work. You can tell it’s not just a family business for him—it’s his heritage, it resides in his soul. When he gets into how important integrity and quality is to him and his family, his voice becomes resonant and deep, and you get the feeling he’s talking about more than just farming.
Jim grows all his corn organically. No tinkering with DNA, no modifying of anything. Just good soil, good sun and a lot of care. He grows us a special breed called Sweet Susan, exclusive to us. Its leaves are thin, almost transparent, so more sun can get in. And it has a very short, fat stalk so it can take in more nutrients from the ground.
Grown in very small supply to maintain control of quality, Henderson’s Sweet Susan corn is the only corn we trust when it comes to making the mash for our classic. Its gives the profound, honeyed vanilla expression the honest, descending charred follow-through that you just cannot replicate. It’s the foundation of our spirit.
The Strong, Silent Type
Old Goat Rye
A versatile flavor array of vanilla, honey, tobacco and oak notes make this the perfect whiskey both for cocktails or sipping neat. Muscular but adaptable body. Color of a brown beaver with a little hot whiskey in his belly.
Once every year, our grandfather, John Lawrence III, would take us to Stoughton, Nebraska to visit the grain fields of Tom Hathaway. Tom supplied us with the grain for our mash. He still does. Or, rather, his granddaughter does. We all grew up together, Tom's grandkids and us Lawrence kids. We used to chase each other through those fields, playing hide-and-seek not a care in the world. We remember how gold the wheat was then, and its oaty smell on the wind when the weather was warm. Gold is never as gold as it is when you're a a child. And the wind is never so rich. Those moment are still there. They might have passed, but they still live. They're timeless because we remember them.
That's what we look for, when we taste Old Goat rye today: that feeling. If one sip doesn't bring us back those moments, to those perfect times when we were running loose, without a care, then it just isn't right yet. And we keep working on it until it is. Because rye should be as timeless as a memory.
The Unicorn
Old Goat Select Reserve
Our double-barrel, for the whiskey lover who thinks they've tried it all. The best of the most select ingredients bring you this rare creature to enjoy on the most special of occasions.
Every week or so, a truck pulls up at our distillery, driven by one of our buddies, like Carl Fulton, who always has rock n roll blasting from his open windows when he arrives. Those trucks contain boxes of fresh barley and grain and corn, picked no more than eight hours earlier. This is what we use to make the mash for our 8 year old bourbon. Every now and again, standing out even that exceptionally good crop, there will be a box of absolute superstars. We get shivers when we find them. We set them aside to use in the mash for our Select Reserve.
Sometimes no superstars come in on those trucks. That's to be expected. If that's the case, we simply won't make the Private Stock.
First we barrel it in American oak. Ten years later, after it's seeped in a decade's worth of that sweet, pure Kentucky air among all its bourbon buddies in our 100-year storehouse, we come back and move it into sherry casks. Those come from our friend Carly Michael's vineyards out in Somona -- she makes the best sherry you'll find. There our bourbon remains for two years, developing that remarkable nose starring cinnamon and charred oak spice, which is the first thing you'll notice about it when you crack a bottle.
When two years is up, the flavor will sing like a beautiful, warm baritone, with a harmony of of sweet peanut notes wrapped in chocolate and spicy honey. And it all finishes smoothly, with class and balance, as clove, citrus and whisper of fine tobacco have the true and final word on the matter.