Poor Man's Pappy - How to Make a Pappy Van Winkle 20-Year Bourbon Substitute

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• published: 28 May 2016
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Pappy Van Winkle is the most prized whiskey in the bourbon world. This is an easy way to make DIY "Pappy." The recipe is pretty straight forward. It just takes a little patience. All bourbons are grain whiskeys made with at least 51% corn. Most bourbons are made with mostly corn, some rye and some malted barley. But Pappy Van Winkle is what's known as wheated bourbon or a wheater. A wheated bourbon replaces the rye with wheat, so it's corn, wheat and malted barley. This wheated mash bill is typically characterized by being sweeter or softer tasting, as opposed to rye mash bills which are a little spicier. Most familiar bourbons, Wild Turkey, Four Roses, Buffalo Trace, Jim Beam, etc., all use a corn, rye, malt mash bill. The biggest wheated bourbon is Maker's Mark, but there's also, Larceny, Weller and, of course, Pappy. Both Weller and Pappy currently being made at the Buffalo Trace distillery. All of the Weller bourbons and all of the Pappy bourbons are made with the same mash bill. The biggest and most obvious difference between Weller and Pappy is the age. Wellers are aged from 4-7 years (with the obvious exception of the Weller 12). But there are also less tangible differences; the Pappy barrels are selected for certain qualities unique to the Pappy line and they are aged in a different location in the rickhouse. Because the Weller bourbons are made from the same juice as Pappy, they are considered the poor man's substitute for Pappy. The idea with this batch is to try and simulate the Pappy 20-year, which is considered in a lot of circles to be the best bourbon in the world. It's rated 99 out of 100 by serval ratings agencies and is a favorite among celebrity chefs like David Chang and Anthony Bourdain. Pappy 20-year is bottled at 90.4 proof. So, ideally you want to take the 107 proof Old Weller Antique and water it down to 90.4 proof. If you can only find the 90 proof, W.L. Weller Special Reserve, don't worry, Antique and Special Reserve are the exact same thing, just one is bottled at a higher proof than the other. Special Reserve will still work, it will just be 90 proof instead of 90.4, and obviously you won't need to dilute it, just stick it in a barrel and let it age. But if you're using Antique, the water you use will have an impact on the flavor. You'll want to use what they use at the Buffalo Trace distillery, which is limestone-filtered water. If you live in Kentucky, you can find it a lot more readily. If you don't, you should get ahold of a bottle of Old Limestone water. It's the same stuff you'd want to use for a Bourbon & Branch (https://youtu.be/MQxTkDhjKl4). The last piece to the puzzle is the small, 1-Liter oak barrel. This is the same kind of thing you'd use for barrel aging a cocktail. The 1-Liter barrel will age the bourbon faster than the full-sized barrel. This is because more of the liquid is coming in contact with more of the wood. The 53-gallon, full-size bourbon barrels are almost exactly 200x larger than the 1-Liter barrel. So, assuming the relationship between years and barrel size were linear, it would take about 25-30 days to add another 14-16 years to the bourbon. Unfortunately it doesn't exactly work that way. This aging will change the flavor of the bourbon and give it a smoother, more rounded, almost aged-rum-like flavor. It may not be the same thing as Pappy, but it will be a damn good sipping bourbon, especially considering it was only a $20 bottle. You want to age it for about 30 days. But taste it every once in a while, just see how it's progressing. Once it gets to a good spot, pour it out and re-bottle it. There may be a little evaporation, the angel's share, during the aging process, but assuming the barrel was cured correctly and that the bourbon is not leaking, it evaporation should be pretty minimal. Again, this is mostly for fun. It won't be the same as the real deal Pappy, but it will be better than Weller that's just off the shelf, which in an of itself is already a pretty good whiskey. Enjoy! **UPDATE** Grams and milliliters are only the same when it comes to water. Alcohol weighs less, so it is not quite 1:1. For Old Weller Antique, which is 107 Proof, you'd need to measure out 750g to get it to equal 845ml, so use that if you're measuring by weight. If you're using a measuring cup, the 845ml will be correct. **UPDATE** Recipe: 845ml (750g) Old Weller Antique Bourbon 155ml (155g) Old Limestone Water Add to 1 Liter oak barrel. Age for about 30 days. Strain through a fine mesh strainer and bottle. Follow Us! https://www.facebook.com/DistinguishedSpirits http://instagram.com/distinguishedspirits https://twitter.com/DistinguishedSp http://www.pinterest.com/DistinguishedSp Featured in this Episode: Old Weller Antique http://www.buffalotracedistillery.com/brands/wl-weller#1 Old Limestone Mixing Water http://amzn.to/25sGvnT Bluegrass Barrels http://bit.ly/2ocrqmK http://amzn.to/27WWglU