On Saturday, Dec. 5, 87 years will have lapsed since the repeal of Prohibition and its an anniversary that Milwaukee's Great Lakes Distillery has celebrated for more than a decade with the release of its latest iteration of Repeal Reserve Straight Rye Whiskey.
A new batch of rye is put into the barrel each Dec. 5 (beginning 11 years ago) and on the same day (starting six years ago), the whiskey that's been resting in oak for five years is bottled in the morning and released at noon in 375ml bottles.
The mashbill is 92 percent rye and 8 percent malted barley, and the whiskey is bottled at 90 proof.
"It is a proven recipe," says Great Lakes founder Guy Rehorst. "We've been doing this release every year for 11 years. It's always a little different because of the wood."
He'll find out how this batch tastes not long before you do tomorrow morning when the bung is removed from the cask so that bottling can begin.
As is the case every year, there will be a very limited number of bottles, which are available only at the distillery.
You can stop in at Great Lakes Distillery, 616 W. Virginia St. in Walker's Point, or order it online and pick it up curbside.
This year, in addition to the whiskey, GLD has house sour mix and a special new addition to its flask lineup for sale, too. It's all at the link above.
Born in Brooklyn, N.Y., where he lived until he was 17, Bobby received his BA-Mass Communications from UWM in 1989 and has lived in Walker's Point, Bay View, Enderis Park, South Milwaukee and on the East Side.
He has published three non-fiction books in Italy – including one about an event in Milwaukee history, which was published in the U.S. in autumn 2010. Four more books, all about Milwaukee, have been published by The History Press.
With his most recent band, The Yell Leaders, Bobby released four LPs and had a songs featured in episodes of TV's "Party of Five" and "Dawson's Creek," and films in Japan, South America and the U.S. The Yell Leaders were named the best unsigned band in their region by VH-1 as part of its Rock Across America 1998 Tour. Most recently, the band contributed tracks to a UK vinyl/CD tribute to the Redskins and collaborated on a track with Italian novelist Enrico Remmert.
He's produced three installments of the "OMCD" series of local music compilations for OnMilwaukee.com and in 2007 produced a CD of Italian music and poetry.
In 2005, he was awarded the City of Asti's (Italy) Journalism Prize for his work focusing on that area. He has also won awards from the Milwaukee Press Club.
He has be heard on 88Nine Radio Milwaukee talking about his "Urban Spelunking" series of stories, in that station's most popular podcast.
