After Nearly 20 Years of Sourcing, Templeton Prepares to Debut Its First Homemade Whiskey

On Monday, Templeton Distillery announced its first whiskey distilled at the brand’s own Iowa distillery. Templeton Straight Bourbon is set to launch in May 2024.

Templeton Straight Bourbon celebrates the “indomitable spirit of the 352 residents in Templeton, Iowa,” the brand said in a news release. Clocking in at 92 proof, Templeton Straight Bourbon is distilled from a mashbill of 55% corn, 40% rye and 5% malted barley. The non-chill filtered whiskey was aged in new American oak barrels with a level 4 char.

According to the brand, it was distilled in column and copper stills after a three-t0-four-day fermentation process using a yeast strain called Fermentis Safspirit. The corn was locally sourced from within 15 miles of the Templeton Distillery.

In November 2022, Templeton released a stout cask-finished rye whiskey, which received a score of 6/10 at Whiskey Raiders and made our list of the 8 Best Rye Whiskeys to Spice Up Holiday Gifting in 2023.

About Templeton Distillery

Templeton Distillery touts itself as a brand built upon the “shared experiences” of the Iowa community. The roots of Templeton can be traced back to the bootleggers of Prohibition.

The brand is known for its expressions of rye whiskey and sources from the whiskey megaproducer, MGP. MGP is the maker of whiskeys like Penelope Bourbon, Remus, Yellowstone and Blood Oath.

Templeton found itself surrounded by controversy now nearly a decade ago. The Chicago Tribune reported that in 2015, Templeton was faced with a class-action lawsuit over allegedly misleading customers to believe its whiskeys were from Iowa when it was sourcing them from MGP in Lawrenceburg, Indiana.

The plaintiff alleged that “thousands of consumers across the country… thought they were buying authentic Iowa whiskey and were unaware of the actual origin of its whiskey.”

Templeton ended up offering financial compensation to its customers and changing its labels to read, “Distilled in Indiana,” in addition to removing the words “Small Batch” and “Prohibition Era Recipe” from the front of its bottles.

Yet it appears the brand is making efforts to localize its whiskey production.

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