The nose is pungent, with overripe fruits, raisins, figs, apples, and apricots with a heavy pour of pepper. Water brings out a honeyed sweetness with notes of herbal cough drops. The palate leads with green veggies and black pepper. There’s chocolate and instant coffee, too, but from palate to finish, this whiskey is predominantly peppery.

Reviewed by: Shane English (Fall 2022)

Roasted apples, cherry danish, walnuts, dark caramel, and grape jelly on the nose, with more bakery notes emerging after water is added; deep oak is prominent throughout. Tannic and chewy on the palate, which leans more bitter than sweet, with coffee beans and baking chocolate underscored by a savory ashy character. Water pulls out more dark fruit and takes the finish from rough to rounded.

Reviewed by: Susannah Skiver Barton (Winter 2020)

The concentration here is impressive, as dates and raisins meet leathery oak that smells of a dusty tack shop, joined by some lovely cinnamon, clove, and spearmint. The intensity on the rich palate is face-melting, hot, and muscular. Sweet flan, caramel corn, and vivid spice succumb to a finish built for oak lovers, drying and a bit tannic, bringing the molten sweet flavors to an end too soon.

Reviewed by: Jeffery Lindenmuth (Spring 2018)

Balcones has partnered with fellow Texan Spoetzl Brewery in the past, supplying barrels for the Shiner bock and märzen-style beers. This is its first whiskey distilled from Spoetzl beer. Its dark hue hints at an earthy, malty profile, and the nose delivers rich malt, spice, dried fruit, dried leaves, and oak. Rustic on the palate, with caramel and oak char. More malt on the finish, with water bringing out some sweetness. (6,000 bottles)

Reviewed by: David Fleming (Fall 2020)

Baking spices, pipe tobacco, vanilla, citrus peel, cardamom, dried apricots, and dates unwind on the nose, carried by plenty of fresh oak. The potent palate explodes with up-front sweetness, laced with cocoa and maduro tobacco notes, but the chest-thumping herbal oak brings it to a quick and slightly bitter finish. A splash of water brings the elements into better balance as peach syrup sweetness starts to shine.

Reviewed by: Jeffery Lindenmuth (Spring 2018)

Oddly smoky nose that grows on you — this is blue corn smoked with Texas scrub oak — you can smell burnt oak and light wreathings of corn. The first jolt is jalapeño without the heat, followed by a cornbread rush with a very light riff of smoke. The smoke builds to the finish and curls nicely around the corn. A very different whiskey experience; one I could get to like (could I try some with a plate of brisket?).

Reviewed by: Lew Bryson (Summer 2012)

A polarizing nose of tropical fruit (papaya, mango, melon) drenched in butterscotch vies with the distinct aroma of tennis shoes on asphalt. The palate is hot, dry, and somewhat ashy, with billowing smoke, tobacco leaf, and nuttiness, undercut by lime and orange oil. Drying and oak-driven on the finish, it’s sweetened by the addition of water.

Reviewed by: Susannah Skiver Barton (Fall 2019)

Oily, earthy, and a bit vegetal on the nose, with nori, moss, caramel corn, toasted pecans, barbecue potato chips, and butterscotch haystacks. The oily-textured palate is heavy on smoky char, roasted corn and nuts, savory mesquite-cooked meat, and spearmint. On the finish, it’s all cigar wrapper, dark chocolate, mint oil, and coffee bean, with plenty of lingering char flavor.

Reviewed by: Susannah Skiver Barton (Summer 2019)

Quite dark brown in the glass, and lots of vanilla and fruit — white grapes, pear — in the nose, with a sweet, clean floral character as well; a rich nose. Vibrant with malt and vanilla in the mouth, rather hot without water, and shot through with oakspice, which dominates the finish, though the vanilla struggles through. Water helps the heat in the middle, but not the finish. Texas is pretty darned hot!

Reviewed by: Lew Bryson (Summer 2012)