Liberty Pole Spirits takes its name and branding from the symbol of the Whiskey Rebellion, an apt historical connection for a young distillery located in Washington, Pennsylvania, where the 1794 uprising happened. According to the distillery, a liberty pole was a pole with strips of fabric reading “no excise tax” tied to it. What the distillery doesn’t say is that liberty poles—prototypically a pole topped with a Phrygian cap, and often bearing inscriptions like “no Stamp Act”—were a form of protest that was widespread in the years leading up to the Revolution. Their use during the Whiskey Rebellion was an invocation of the ideals of that earlier time period.
Liberty Pole Peated Bourbon, the focus of this review, is made with a mash that’s 59% bloody butcher corn and 41% malted barley, “most of which is heavily peated,” according to a press release. I called the distillery to clear up the syntactic ambiguity there, and they confirmed that only the malt is peated; I couldn’t get any more specifics other than the fact that it’s imported from Scotland.
This expression is pot-distilled, aged at least six months in new, charred barrels in an extra-small 10-gallon size, and bottled at 46% ABV.
Tasting Notes: Liberty Pole Peated Bourbon
Vital stats: 59% bloody butcher corn, 41% peated malt. Aged 6 months in new, charred 10-gallon barrels, bottled at 46% ABV. $57 on the distillery’s website (Pennsylvania residents only)
Color: Light copper
Nose: As promised, the initial impression I get is smoke. It’s the real deal, too, strongly peaty, more seaside than campfire. I also get a gentle whiff of something grassy. After a few minutes in the glass, I notice a little grain character, almost like shortbread.
Palate: Now I do get campfire—there’s quite a strong wood smoke character to the palate. I get some caramel sweetness, too, but it’s a dark, almost burned caramel, and it comes alongside a serving of bitter oak. The finish eventually fades to wood ash.
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