After a successful crop of bourbon corn in 2022, we decided to return to the same area on Kauai, the west side farm at Kaumualii. We figured we would aim for farm consistency in our whisky production this year so that many years down the road we could compare one vintage of bourbon from another on the same farm.
Like everything in agriculture the harvesting did not go without its hiccups. The old John Deere combine, circa 1980, which has been used to harvest our corn since 2018 may have seen its final days of use as mechanical problems have beset the old lady for several years now. To finish the harvest the crew at Hartung Brothers had to switch to a sweet corn harvester which required shelling the corn at their plant. The end product was a much cleaner batch of kerneled corn, and much to the delight of those running the distillery!
In 2022 we produced 60 barrels of bourbon from our Kauai grown corn, and remarkably in 2024 we were able to fill nearly 71 barrels of whisky from the same amount of corn! The quality of the corn, it’s cleanliness, the milling and mashing techniques all contributed in the making of more Kapahi bourbon. Needless to say we were excited to hear the results of this run. In 2022 we used barrels exclusively from the Nadalie cooperage which uses only aged oak in their barrel production. In 2024 we used only three of the 71 barrels from Nadalie and it will be interesting to track the results. As with our barrels in the past we again turned to the 110 year old Independent Stave Company (ISC) for the other 68 barrels. Over the next many years it will be fun to compare the vintages of bourbon, and the different barrels used for aging. These evaluations are perhaps the best, and most entertaining aspect of making Kauai Grown Kapahi Bourbon!