Review #316 - Hard Truth Sweet Mash Wheated Bourbon
While Hard Truth has specialized more in rye whiskies over the last several years, they've now given us their first efforts in the bourbon realm, at least in terms of their own distillate. Three releases arrived in the Spring season of 2024, and they took the forms of a standard sweet mash bourbon, a wheated bourbon, and a four grain bourbon.
Like most of Hard Truth's whiskies, this wheated bourbon is made using the sweet mash process, meaning no backset from previous mashes is added back into the future mashes to help control pH levels during fermentation. This product specifically uses mashbill BW2, a wheated mashbill consisting of 69% corn, 19% wheat, and 12% malted barley. That's a relatively high corn mashbill, which should add a nice backbone to counteract the softer wheat character.
This is a bottled-in-bond product, so we get a strength of 50% ABV (100 proof), and it must be at least 4 years old; in fact, they give us the distilling season and bottling season on the bottle: Spring 2019 and Spring 2024, respectively, so it's about 5 year old bourbon. Batches are small, generally containing 30 or fewer barrels - this first batch consisted of 28 barrels.
Hard Truth Sweet Mash Wheated Bourbon
USA - Bourbon
Price Paid: USD 49 (2024)
Current Locally Available Price: USD 51 (2024)
Age Statement: NAS
Strength: 50% ABV
Details: Not chill filtered; bottled-in-bond, distilled Spring 2019, bottled Spring 2024
Tasting Methodology: Reviewed 4 times over 3 months; bottles at 100%, 90%, 80%, and 70% fill levels at times of review. Tasted in a Glencairn glass each time, rested 10-15 minutes
Nose: Oaky with some interesting spirit character to start: a bit earthy, mineral notes (like slate), and a little hint of funk. There's a soft floral grain smell, and the oak becomes more dry and peppery. With time, sweeter baking spices become stronger: caramel, peanut brittle, cinnamon, some vanilla, and at the end, butterscotch is the strongest scent.
Palate: The mouthfeel has a medium thickness; lots of baking flavors take over now. Cinnamon oatmeal, more caramel and especially butterscotch, as well as hints of soft vanilla. The earthy and mildly floral character returns, showing off that wheated mashbill, and the oak has a mild influence. With time, apples and perfume become stronger flavors at the back of the palate.
Finish: More oaky tannins start to pucker the cheeks in the finish, and while some sweet flavors linger, it turns a little more dry overall. Brown cooking spices, dry oatmeal, and little hints of acetone are there, with vanilla, caramel, and butterscotch in the background. A medium length finish, softer and more reserved.
Final Note: Pleasant enough, and there are some interesting distillate notes, such as the earthy and mineral flavors, that come from that wheated mashbill; overall, the baking spice dominance becomes a bit simple, though it isn't overly sweet. A decent pour, and we're looking forward to more of the experiments that Hard Truth shows us in the next few years.
Value here is relatively good - initial pricing came in under the $50 mark, and it's still hovering close to that, with just small markups by local retailers.
Our Average Rating: 6.3 / 10
In the current whisky landscape of increasing prices and variable quality, we've added a value rating to our reviews that relates to the score and the available pricing of each whisky. This roughly equates to a 0-10 scale; no reviews so far have exceeded a score of 10, although it is technically possible for the formula to produce a value rating higher than 10 with a high enough score and low enough price.
Value Rating: 6.81
About Us: We're a husband and wife review team living in the Midwest United States. Generally, our reviews and tasting notes will be a compilation of both of our experiences with a whisky over several tasting sessions.
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