If you’re the type of whiskey geek who pays close attention to things like mash bills of your favorite distilleries, then you’ve probably noticed the slow creep of malted rye into the distilling world in recent years. If you’re a beer geek, on the other hand, you may have just assumed it was there all along, as beer is primarily brewed with malted grains. In the rye whiskey world, however, traditional American ryes were always produced from unmalted rye grain, and this convention effectively created the spicy, drier profile we now associate near universally with rye whiskey. But malting was always an option as well, and distilleries are increasingly turning to it in order to transform the profile long associated with rye whiskey. Such is the case for the newly announced Basil Hayden Malted Rye Whiskey from Jim Beam.
Credit on this release goes to the company’s younger leader, eighth generation master Freddie Noe, who heads up the innovation side of the Beam distilling operation. Where some distilleries now use both traditional rye and malted rye in conjunction with each other, Noe opted to craft this one exclusively from malted rye–a 100% malted rye mash bill, in fact. That’s a pretty big philosophical departure from the traditional, 51% Kentucky rye style, but it gives this bottle a chance to reflect the flavor profile of the malted rye with no other outside influences. The company describes the malting as having created “a more subtle, mellow spice with delicate sweet and floral notes,” dubbing it “the more refined side of rye.” It makes sense that the Basil Hayden brand was chosen for the experiment, given that the brand traditionally spotlights Beam’s higher-rye bourbon mash bill. The company recommends neat drinking–which only makes sense, given the low 40% ABV (80 proof)–for the brand, which carries a $60 MSRP.
A brief disclosure: I have had mixed feelings on most whiskeys I’ve sampled to date that heavily rely on malted rye. Having first developed a taste for rye whiskey in the mid-2010s via exposure to very high-rye brands with 95-100% rye mash bills from the likes of MGP of Indiana and Alberta Distillers Ltd., perhaps it’s only natural that my personal taste has always embraced the bolder, spicier, potentially more abrasive side of the grain. Rye whiskeys featuring lots of malted rye, on the other hand, have a tendency to read to me as sweeter but especially as much more grain forward, with more of a toasty, bready or “doughy” dimension that I haven’t always preferred. As time has gone by, I’ve increasingly gone out of my way to seek out rye whiskeys that don’t contain malted rye. This is all to say that Basil Hayden Malted Rye probably finds itself at a bit of a disadvantage in terms of its appeal to my personal preferences.
So with that said, let’s get to tasting this new bottle.
On the nose, the first thing on display here is (unsurprisingly) a delicate impression of the classic rye grain, lightly spicy and pleasant. I’m getting traces of pumpernickel, with light honey and caraway, mixed peppercorn, and some nice florals that almost evoke something like lavender. Surprisingly to me, the profile here doesn’t necessarily scream malted barley specifically, as it doesn’t have a ton of the heavy malt sweetness or intense doughiness I’ve often associated with it. This may be on some level because the nose just isn’t that assertive, with the mere 80 proof of any Basil Hayden batch, but overall I like the delicate presentation here.
On the palate, this is likewise quite light and delicate, as Basil Hayden tends to be, with rye flavors that are lightly herbal and grassy, with impressions of honey and light pine, and some pears in syrup. It’s again not nearly so malty or bready as I’ve often found in malted rye whiskeys–even whiskeys using only a portion of malted rye, actually–and instead feels more like a subtle evolution of the traditional rye style. It of course drinks very easily, which is not just an expectation but a necessity for a premiumized brand with this kind of low proof point. The character isn’t exactly exploding from the glass, but it’s a pleasant little diversion.
As is always the case with Basil Hayden, the question on some level becomes “what do I do with this?”, given that it’s really not assertive enough to mix up in classic cocktails. As Beam suggests, neat drinking seems like the answer, though there it butts up against the value proposition that this brand frequently runs into when there are so many other high-value, bolder brands also available from Beam. At the end of the day, you can think of this one as a well-composed rye for unchallenging neat drinking, offering a gentle introduction into the different flavors that malted rye has to offer. Does a bottle of Knob Creek provide more bang for your buck? Absolutely, but at the very least, Basil Hayden Malted Rye has a concrete novel element to fall back on.
Distillery: Jim Beam
City: Clermont, KY
Style: Rye whiskey
ABV: 40% (80 proof)
Availability: 750 ml bottles, $60 MSRP
Jim Vorel is a Paste staff writer and resident beer and liquor geek. You can follow him on Twitter for more drink writing.