Chattanooga Whiskey

Tim Piersant and Joe Ledbetter started Chattanooga Whiskey in 2011 and immediately ran into a problem. Distilling was illegal in Hamilton County. Their Vote Whiskey campaign changed the state law in 2013, and the Experimental Distillery opened in 2015 as the city's first legal distillery in generations.

The house style is Tennessee High Malt, a four grain mash of yellow corn, malted rye, caramel malt and honey malt. Those specialty malts are the point. They come from brewing rather than bourbon tradition and give the whiskey a creamy, malt forward body where most bourbons lean on rye pepper or wheat softness. Barrel 91 took more than two years of test batches to land on. Worth a pour if you think you already know what bourbon tastes like.