Casey Jones Distillery Blends Corn and Cane in Unconventional 10th Anniversary Bottling

(Photo: Casey Jones Distillery)

On Monday, Kentucky-based Casey Jones Distillery announced a toast to its 10th anniversary with an unconventional tribute to its moonshining forefather.

The limited-edition Founder’s 10th Anniversary Blend is a mix of three barrels, two of which don’t qualify as whiskey. The first in the trio, Barrel #160, held a Kentucky bourbon with a mashbill of 96% corn, 3% rye and 1% malted barley. The other two casks, Barrel #200 and #234, held a proprietary spirit dubbed “Barrel Cut” composed of 50% corn and 50% cane. Both batches used in the blend were aged for five years.

The resulting spirit was bottled at a cask strength of 103.3 proof. The brand says to expect aromas of sweetened brown butter, brown sugar and teakwood alongside flavors of bittersweet cherry, caramel, coffee bean and light smoke.

Master distiller Arlon “AJ” Jones designed the smorgasbord spirit as a tribute to his grandfather, the titular Alfred “Casey” Jones. The original Jones was twice imprisoned for working as a moonshiner at the height of Prohibition, designing stills that purportedly caught the eye of Al Capone. One of those stills eventually found its way into the hands of his grandson, who founded the Casey Jones distillery in 2014 alongside his wife, Peg.

The brand’s Barrel Cut, which sits halfway between a rum and a whiskey, pays homage to the “everything in the kitchen sink” approach of early-1900s distilling.

“Honoring my granddaddy’s history meant digging into the family archives, so we brought back those old-school recipes and honored the game-changing copper square pot still he designed,” Jones remarked in a news release. “We obtained our distilling license on November 1, 2014, and never looked back. Ten years later, we are proud to be a growing American Distillery that celebrates tradition, craftsmanship, and family.”

Beginning Friday, Founder’s 10th Anniversary Blend will go on sale at the brand’s Hopkinsville distillery for $99.99 per bottle. For more information on Casey Jones, find the distiller’s website here.