Boss Hog 六: The Samurai Scientist

STIR offers over 350 handpicked spirits and rare selections that would be difficult to find anywhere. One such rare find is WhistlePig The Boss Hog 六: The Samurai Scientist, a rye whiskey created through a collaboration between WhistlePig and Kitaya brewery on Japan’s Kyushu island. Two things make this Straight Rye Whiskey unique. It was created using koji fermentation and then aged in umeshu plum cordial barrels.

Koji is a Japanese term for fermenting cultured grain with Aspergillus oryzae, a fungus typically used for making soy sauce and miso. Koji fermentation makes the rye sweet and fragrant, and in honor of this process, each bottle is adorned with The Samurai Scientist – Jōkichi Takamine – who first pioneered koji fermentation in the American whisky industry over a century ago.

The rye whiskey is then aged in umeshu plum cordial barrels. Umeshu is a Japanese liqueur made by steeping fresh plums (ume) in shochu and sugar to create a liqueur with both sweet and sour notes. Because umeshu is an aromatic spirit, it imparts deeply complex flavors to Boss Hog. WhistlePig is one of the first American distilleries to age its whiskey in umeshu barrels.

The final result is a fascinating rye whiskey. The Boss Hog 六 boasts an intensely aromatic nose, tobacco, ginger, baking spices, and savory umami flavors, and a long finish with oak spice, char, and a touch of smoke. WhistlePig produced only 90 barrels of The Boss Hog 六: The Samurai Scientist. Sample this unique rye with us before it’s gone.