"This could very well be the first whiskey in the world that is meant to taste like beer."

From Sara's article.

Master distiller Chris Morris of Woodford Reserve was on hand earlier in the year when The Exchange pub + kitchen released its Old Forester Single Barrel Selection.

Top-shelf everything: The Exchange pub + kitchen's Old Forester Single Barrel Selection dinner.

 ... Speaking for myself, it was a first-rate experience. The world of spirits remains lesser known territory for me, and although we inhabit a golden age of bourbon, almost all of it slips blissfully past me. Having acknowledged this, if bourbon always tasted as satisfying as Exchange's single barrel cull, I'd sip it more often.

Morris has the best line in Sara Havens' piece. She asks him why make a whiskey like this?

"Because it's fun."

Outstanding.

Woodford Reserve’s latest Distillery Series release is an ode to beer
By SARA HAVENS | June 9, 2016 4:19 pm

Woodford Reserve‘s latest Distillery Series release, titled Five Malt, is like bourbon in reverse, explained master distiller Chris Morris to a small media group Thursday afternoon at the historic Versailles distillery. The whiskey is distilled from a malt-only mash, making it technically closer to beer than bourbon.

Back in the day — the day being the late 1800s and early 1900s — some whiskey distillers would buddy up with brewers and buy already ground up, sometimes fermented mash to make their product. The brewers took care of the more difficult parts of grinding the grains and fermenting the yeast, so the distillers would then work their magic by running it through stills and aging it in barrels.

Morris and the Woodford team wondered what it would be like to start from an all-malt recipe, like beer, and craft a fine tasting whiskey that tipped its tasting notes to beer. Inspired by the popularity of micro-breweries, they decided to experiment with malted grains normally used in beer to come up with the Five Malt whiskey ...

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