A powerful dram filled with youthful notes of Reese’s Cups and Cracker Jacks at 55.5% ABV.

For much of the last one hundred years, it was illegal to distill in Tennessee except in a few special counties. In the mid 2000s, the winds of change began to blow and one-by-one, most counties opened up to craft distilling operations. Chattanooga Whiskey is the first legal distillery in the town of Chattanooga after more than a century of Prohibition and complications. It took years of law-changing efforts, launched by the founders Tim Piersant and Joe Ledbetter in 2011, to finally amend the Chattanooga distilling laws. They released their first bottles in 2012 with Spirit sourced from Lawrenceburg Distiller of Indiana and they started distilling themselves in 2015.

Chattanooga Whiskey Cask 111 Straight Bourbon is cut from the same cloth as its sister Bourbon — Chattanooga Whiskey 91. That means it starts with the same "Tennessee High Malt Bourbon" mash bill of 51% yellow dent corn combined with three malted grains — malted rye, caramel malted barley, and honey malted barley. The main difference is that this dram is bottled at near Cask Strength of 55.5% ABV. But the difference is more than a little heat and writing on the label. This dram has an almost peanut candy tone layered over the rest of the flavor profile. It’s fairly new, but has still managed to win a handful of Gold Medals — including two Double Golds.