Overview

At Hjortu Destilleri, we intend to make one of the first bourbon-style whiskies using only Danish ingredients. This is done using our own yeast strains which we find in the Danish nature. 

What is bourbon whisky? 

Bourbon is a type of whisky – broadly characterized by three distinct traits: 1) It must be made of a grain bill that is at least 51% corn, 2) It must be aged on virgin (new) oak casks, and 3) It has to be made within the US. 

We fulfil all the requirements for making bourbon except one: We make it outside the US. Hence, what we produce is a bourbon-style or bourbon-inspired whisky. We do, however, mature our spirit in virgin oak casks and our recipes are in accordance with traditional bourbon recipes. Furthermore, our products are made entirely from Danish ingredients and with our own strains of yeast!

Our still

In order to capture and emphasize the taste of our new make we have chosen to use a pot still. The majority of bourbon distilleries use column stills; however, in the quest for complexity in flavor, we went with a pot still which allows us to more precisely manage and adjust the flavor profiles of our whiskies: 

Our products

Our output is 100% Danish bourbon-style whisky:

As indicated in the image above, our first production will include two bourbon-style whiskies: One wheated and one high-rye. You can claim these for yourself by clicking the perks on the right! You will find that our products are competitively priced: Our hope is that this will motivate you to actually drink our whisky instead of letting it gather dust as part of your collection. 

The two whiskies will have different flavors: 

Adding wheat to our whisky gives it a smooth, sweet flavor. We age it in 200 L casks to give it a balanced profile and the final alcohol percent of 40-45% makes this bourbon-style whisky accessible for most.

Adding rye to our whisky provides a spicier, more peppery flavor, mixed with the intensity of the wood infusion that comes from aging it in a 50 L cask. As we keep this spirit at a cask strength of around 55-60% alcohol, our high-rye bourbon-style whisky will provide a premium taste that we hope even the most experienced taster will enjoy.

The team

Your contribution

It is no secret that our set-up is small. We can’t compete with the big scale productions of many other distilleries, nor is that our ambition. What we wish to do is make innovative, top-quality whisky. And we will not compromise on the quality of our product.

Your contribution will allow us to perform all of our experiments and to develop our products. Without your contribution we won’t be able to unfold the full potential of our distillery. Help us achieve our whisky dream and cement Denmark as a stronghold on the whisky scene! 

If you don’t have the financial capacity or motivation to support us economically that’s okay! Luckily, there are other ways through which you can support us. Spread our name on social media and in your personal networks. Chances are you know someone who might be interested in whisky – let them know our name!

Timeline

Thank you so much for reading so far! Now that we’ve uncovered the basics of our project in general and who we are, we would like to get a little nerdy and elaborate on some of the ways that we want to run our distillery.

Mash bills

At Hjortu Destilleri we make bourbon-style whisky using the best Danish corn we can get our hands on – and lots of it. Our mash bills generally consist of 60-65% corn and just enough malted barley to ensure diastatic acitivty for proper starch conversion. So far, we include either wheat or rye in the grain bill, giving each whisky its own distinct character: 

Yeast

Serving a simple purpose of ethanol formation, yeast is often an overlooked contributor in the art of whisky crafting. Just like, say, the grain of choice, the distillation process, the maturation in casks all confer a significant impact on the properties of the bottled whisky, yeast metabolites formed during fermentation have a big say in the quality of this fine product.

Because, when yeasts break down sugars to form ethanol and carbondioxide, a plethora of other reactions take place simultaneously. These resulting molecules can impart flavors both beneficial as well as detrimental to the spirit. If the right yeast is used, compounds associated with e.g. fruity and floral flavors will be formed during the fermentation stage. These will then carry over into the distillate.

This is why we have decided to cultivate our own strains of yeast, which we harvest ourselves from plants we find in nature. After collecting populations of yeasts, we select strains fit for our purpose based on favourable qualities such as fermentation performance and the flavors they form. Having our very own ‘house yeasts’ is in line with age-old bourbon traditions!

Still

There are, very broadly, two main still types for distilling whisky: Pot stills and Column stills. Both come with a number of subcategories. In Scotland and Ireland, distilleries traditionally use pot stills (as do most Danish distilleries, by the way) – but in the US, and within the bourbon tradition, column stills are the preferred choice. There is a multitude of theory covering this subject, but the main rule of thumb is this: Pot stills produce more flavor and complexity, whereas column stills provide a cleaner, more refined product.

We have ourselves visited a number of distilleries and tasted countless bourbon whiskies. And although it is tradition to make bourbon-style whisky on column stills, we have chosen to use a pot still in order to capture and emphasize the taste as much as possible. This is not totally uncommon: We have visited a number of distilleries in the US, some of which also use pot stills. Inspired by the complexity and taste of their products, we decided to follow in their footsteps.

Casks

One of the criteria for making bourbon is that you have to use virgin casks – that is, casks that never have aged another spirit or liquid. Moreover, the cask has to be charred, meaning that the cask is burnt within, which helps unfold and develop certain tastes in the spirit.

According to this tradition, we have chosen to use charred virgin oak casks and will like many American distilleries begin with American oak. Later on, we are looking forward to start experimenting with different types of casks as well as finishes.

We have chosen to age the two products of our first production on two different sizes of casks. Out wheated bourbon-style whisky is aged on a 200 L cask, because the wheat requires a softer and smoother aging from the tree, since the taste is delicate and mild. Hence, it requires a lesser wood infusion. Our high-rye bourbon-style whisky, however, is aged on a 50 L cask. The rye is very distinct and potent in its taste and is often very hard to drown out – so we believe that it will benefit from a stronger wood infusion.

Experiments

We wish to be an innovative and experimenting distillery. We want to explore not only taste but also different methods and processes. This is why we also experiment with our own different strains of yeast – we just can’t help but explore the impact that it has on the final product.

We will also be experimenting with different grain bills in order to give different flavor profiles to our whiskies. A part of this experiment will also be to test the different cuts of our spirit and taste how the different cuts impact our whisky.

Finally, we want to experiment with different casks and finishes. We hope that in 3 years’ time or so we will continue aging some of our product in different casks. This could be casks that have aged sherry, port wine, rum or other spirits. We will also hope to finish on other types of wood – for example French oak or other wood types outside the oak family.

Thank you!

Thank you very much for reading our page! Should choose to buy a perk you are helping us launch our dreams of making Danish bourbon-style whisky. However, your contribution should be seen as exactly that – a contribution. Please keep in mind that, while we will do everything in our power to keep our production on schedule, unforeseen delays that are out of our hands may occur. In such case, we will of course inform our backers appropriately. In three years time, however, our first and foremost priority will be to provide our wonderful backers with their products!