Wheat Whiskey Looms LargeBut it's the straight wheat whiskey that may be most exciting to whiskey lovers. Old Elk will release 35,000 bottles of wheated bourbon this year. Similarly, the straight wheated bourbon, also aged 5 years, is particularly wheat-forward, using 45% wheat, which Metze notes is two to three times higher than the norm, along with 51% corn and 4% malted barley.

At the risk of bragging, I would say that there's only two people in the world that can produce that whiskey and have it come out the way it does, and that would be myself and Larry Ebersold who is the master distiller that I trained under during my tenure at the Lawrenceburg distillery.” While Old Elk has offered single barrels of the rye in very limited quantities in the past year or so, this release, which is 5 years old, makes it much more widely available, with a projected 10,200 bottles for 2020.Old Elk's flagship 5 year old bourbon is what you might call high malt, comprising 51% corn and 34% malted barley, as well as 15% rye. “It's very difficult to make and achieve a good quality product. “It is not what I would call a custom mashbill, but it's certainly one of my favorites from the perspective of one,” Metze says. Now mature, these whiskeys have been nurtured by him from start to finish.Old Elk's straight rye whiskey will be most familiar to drinkers, as it uses the signature Lawrenceburg mashbill of 95% rye and 5% malted barley. While still employed at MGP, Metze designed Old Elk's custom mashbills and oversaw its first distillations. That's not just because MGP has the capacity Old Elk's master distiller, Greg Metze, was a long-time employee at the Lawrenceburg facility, holding the title of master distiller when he resigned in June 2016. The bulk of its whiskeys currently in bottle were distilled at MGP Distillery in Lawrenceburg, Indiana. These aren't limited-edition whiskeys either they're permanent additions to the lineup, with ample availability to satisfy drinker demand.Based in Fort Collins, Colorado, Old Elk produces just 150 barrels of whiskey per year, although it's in the process of building a huge new distillery. Old Elk is taking that route, however, launching new expressions of straight rye, wheat whiskey, and wheated bourbon across the country by mid-April. Distilleries release new whiskies all the time, but rarely does a single producer debut multiple products at once.

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