Since Tuesday morning, the American Whiskey shelves in all LCBO stores have been bare. It was a response, of course, to 25 per cent tariffs on all Canadian products taking effect that morning.
American distillers are known for the quality of their whiskey production, but so are many Candian distillers. For every bottle of Jack Daniels and Jim Beam, there’s a Canadian Club or Crown Royal that whiskey lovers can turn to..
There are, of course, options closer to home. If you’re not angry with the hockey legend wearing a MAGA hat and visiting Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Resort, you might try the Red Cask or Ice Cask whiskeys made right here in Niagara-on-the-Lake at Gretzky Estates.
Suppose you have also decided to boycott the Great One. In that case, there’s the Maple Cask whiskey from Niagara Falls Craft Distillers or one of the eight whiskey varieties produced by Grimsby, Ontario’s Forty Creek Distillery.
What is a dedicated bourbon lover to do, though, now that Wild Turkey, Maker’s Mark and Knob Creek are not available?
Arnie Lepp has the solution in Spirit in Niagara’s Canadian Brrrbon Whiskey.
“You can only call something bourbon if it was made in the US,” Lepp tells The Local. “We call ours Brrrbon. It’s two words together - ‘brrr’, because it’s damn cold here, and ‘bon’, the French word for cold. We’ve trademarked the name.”
The move to legalize the Brrrbon name was a shrewd one for Lepp.
“I did get a letter from some agency in the states a couple of years ago to cease and desist,” Lepp recalls. “They had a certain time to bring their case forward, but they dropped the ball. By spelling it differently, we’re protected.”
According to website whiskeyid.com, besides being made in the US, to be called bourbon, whiskey has to be made of a mashbill that’s at least 51% corn grain, distilled to no higher than 160 proof, aged in new virgin barrels, bottled at a minium 80 proof, display an age statement if any of the whiskey is under four years old, and not contain any added flavouring or colouring.
Lepp says other than its country of origin, Spirit in Niagara’s Canadian Brrrrbon, one of the distillery’s top-selling products, checks all those boxes.
“We’re at 75 per cent corn,” the owner of the Lakeshore Rd. small batch distillery says. “The rest is barley and wheat. It makes for a really smooth-drinking product. It’s aged a minimum of three years. We follow all the rules for bourbon other than the fact that we’re in Canada.”
The Local stopped in at Spirit in Niagara to speak with distiller Josh Beach, who took us upstairs to the barrel room where batches of SiN Canadian Brrrbon are aging.
Beach poured a small glass for this non-drinker, a whiskey neophyte. The rich auburn colour was immediately impressive.
“That colour comes from the virgin oak barrels,” Beach said, clearly proud of his work.
Indeed, by law in the US - yes, it’s actually a law - bourbon must be aged in new, toasted and charred oak barrels. The charring process creates a layer of carmelized sugars and vanillins in the wood that the spirits, which are clear when poured into the barrel, absorb.
The longer the liquid stays in the barrels, the more flavour it absorbs from the wood. About 70 per cent of the bourbon’s flavour is determined by this step.
You can taste the oak in SiN’s Canadian Brrrbon, along with sweetness and a definite hint of caramel flavour. And Arnie’s claim of a smooth-drinking whiskey is spot-on. There’s none of the bitterness or that feeling of a fire in the throat that some whiskeys can leave you with.
There is another distiller in Canada claiming to make a bourbon-style whiskey. BC’s Okanagan Spirits Craft Distillers ages its BRBN in charred and toasted oak barrels for three years. Some reviewers, however, have opined that BRBN tastes a bit more like scotch than bourbon. And the product is not sold in LCBO stores. That may change eventually, though, as the country’s premiers are finally exploring ways to improve east-west trade between provinces and territories.
Right now, though, the only American bourbon-style whiskey available in Niagara, or Ontario for that matter, is Spirt in Niagara’s Canadian Brrrbon.
And if bourbon is not your thing, whiskey lovers can also turn to the distillery’s Mixed Mash Whiskey, also aged for three years in virgin oak casks, or its Canadian Whiskey, produced in Cabernet Sauvignon barrels.
Along with a full line of other spirits, all three whiskeys are available to purchase and taste at SiN’s Lakeshore Rd. location or via their website. And check out the menu in the Confessional Lounge while you’re at it.