Thirty One Whiskey

🍋 When life gives you lemons... you make limoncello.
New on the blog: our step-by-step recipe for homemade limoncello — and it’s way easier than you think. Less than an hour of actual kitchen time, four lemons, some grain alcohol, and a little patience while things steep.

The trick? Use grain alcohol instead of vodka for a cleaner base, peel carefully to avoid the bitter white pith, and add simple syrup to taste until you find your sweet spot. Keep it in the fridge door and you’ve got a perfect after-dinner pour all summer long.

Full recipe (plus what to do with the leftover lemons) at ThirtyOneWhiskey.com 🔗

Sometimes you just need a hotel old fashioned, and 50mL Rocky Mountain Old Fashion hits all of the right notes - just need to find your own bougie cherry

✈️ Can you make a decent old fashioned in a hotel room with zero bar tools? We tested four TSA-friendly cocktail kits to find out.

We bought every travel old fashioned mix we could find on Amazon — powders, tea bags, infusion kits — and ranked them from worst to best.

Ratings ranged from 2/5 to a perfect 5/5 — and the best option is the one you’d never think to search for.

Full breakdown and rankings at ThirtyOneWhiskey.com 🔗

🎁 Father’s Day is right around the corner — and we just dropped a review of the perfect gift for the whiskey-loving dad in your life.

We’re big fans of — a two-person operation out of Chicago making seriously thoughtful gear for whiskey on the go. We reviewed three of their products:

🥃 Neat Traveler ($44) — a glass + 3oz bottle in a compact padded case. TSA-friendly. Train-beer approved. Clips to your bag.
🧳 Bottle Flight ($48) — four 3oz glass bottles with silicone sleeves for road trips and flights
👜 Bottle Caddy ($58) — a padded bag with separators that fits full-size bottles. No more clanging around.

We gave the whole lineup a 5/5 — the only perfect score we’ve given to a non-spirit product. These are buy-it-for-life quality from a company that clearly uses their own stuff.

Full review at ThirtyOneWhiskey.com 🔗

🌶️ The spice must flow… just not neat.
New review up: Heaven Hill Grain to Glass Kentucky Straight Rye Whiskey — the rye companion to the Grain to Glass bourbon we reviewed earlier. Same radical transparency on the label (corn varietal, distillation year, rickhouse floors), but a completely different beast in the glass.
How different? Try 63% rye in the mash bill and 123.2 proof. This thing landed on Arrakis and chose violence.
🥃 Neat — black pepper so intense it buries everything else. We called it borderline undrinkable for most sippers. Proceed with caution.
🧊 On ice — night and day difference. The brown sugar and baking spices finally get to breathe. This is the move.
🍸 Old fashioned — one of the best we’ve had in a while. Pro tip in the review for a bitters swap that takes it to another level.
🍺 Mule — the rye actually stands its ground against the ginger beer, which almost never happens.
At $110, the catch is the same as the bourbon: it’s a fantastic cocktail rye, but that’s a lot to pay for a bottle you can’t comfortably sip on its own. 3/5
Full review at ThirtyOneWhiskey.com 🔗

🏕️ A bourbon you can throw down a river. Literally.
New review up: Montana Whiskey Co Blackfoot River Bourbon — a straight bourbon that comes in a stainless steel bottle designed for drift boats, saddlebags, and campfires. No glass. No fragile nonsense. Just bourbon in what’s essentially a really nice piece of outdoor gear.
Named after the river from A River Runs Through It, founded by a decorated Marine turned distiller who spent four years developing the bottle alone. And he’s refreshingly honest about the whiskey inside — it’s sourced from Indiana, aged in Montana, and proofed with Montana water. No smoke and mirrors.
So how does it taste?
🥃 Neat — caramel, vanilla, cinnamon, milk chocolate. Light but surprisingly flavorful for a 2-year bourbon at 80 proof 🍸 Old fashioned — this is where it earns its keep. Genuinely delicious. 🍺 Mule — crisp, clean, and built for a hot afternoon 💰 $40ish — you’re partly paying for that unbreakable bottle, and honestly? Worth it for camping season.
3/5 — simple pleasures, beautiful packaging, and a bourbon that knows exactly what it is.
Full review at ThirtyOneWhiskey.com 🔗

🌾 From seed to sip — Heaven Hill wants you to know exactly what’s in your glass.
New review up: Heaven Hill Grain to Glass Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey — the first edition of a new series where they put everything on the label. The corn seed varietal. The distillation year. The rickhouse floors where it aged. It’s a level of transparency you almost never see from a distillery this size.
Here’s what matters:
🥃 This is NOT your usual Heaven Hill bourbon. The mash bill runs 35% rye — compare that to the 10% rye in Elijah Craig and Evan Williams. It’s a completely different animal. 🧊 Excellent on ice — caramel, black walnut, a hint of chocolate. This is the move. 🍸 Makes a rock-solid old fashioned you’ll want on repeat 💰 But at $110... let’s talk about that price tag
We gave it a 4/5 — it’s genuinely well-made and delivers across the board. But we’ll be honest: if you just want a great bourbon and don’t care about the backstory, you can save $70 and grab an Elijah Craig from the same distillery.
Full review (and the wild story about the fire that destroyed 90,000 barrels and lit a creek ablaze for two miles) at ThirtyOneWhiskey.com 🔗

⚾ Baseball is back — and we found a bourbon straight out of Cooperstown.
New review up: Beanball Bourbon from Cooperstown Distillery, made just steps from the Baseball Hall of Fame. Named after the most feared pitch in the game, distilled with a four-grain mash bill that includes oats (one of the only distilleries doing that), and finished with oak dominoes for extra barrel character.
So does it deliver? Here’s the scouting report:
🥃 Neat — comes out throwing heat with cinnamon, brown sugar, and orange citrus... but the finish fades like a starter who’s gassed by the fifth inning 🧊 On ice — holds its composure, nothing flashy 🍸 Old fashioned — this is the sweet spot. The bourbon’s natural citrus pairs perfectly with the orange peel garnish. A genuine hit. 🍺 Mule — riding the bench
At $35 it’s a strong reliever, not a Cy Young starter — but for the baseball fan who appreciates decent bourbon, it’s a no-brainer. 3/5
Full scouting report at ThirtyOneWhiskey.com 🔗

🥃 A bourbon that gets better the less it tries.
We just dropped our review of Journeyman Distillery Featherbone Bourbon — a craft bourbon out of tiny Three Oaks, Michigan, distilled in a building that used to manufacture stays for women’s corsets. (Yes, really.)
Here’s the highlight reel:
🍫 The nose smells like a Reese’s cup — and we mean that as a compliment 🧊 On the rocks is where this bourbon finds its groove 🍸 Makes a solid old fashioned, but go easy on the sugar ☠️ The mule was so bad it got poured down the drain
At $50, we wanted a little more personality for the price. It landed at a 3/5 — solidly middle-of-the-road, but a genuinely good rocks pour for a summer evening by the fire.
The good news? We left the Journeyman gift shop with a lot more bottles, and those reviews are coming soon.
Full review at ThirtyOneWhiskey.com 🔗

✈️🏠 The best souvenir we’ve ever brought home from a flight.
We just published our review of the KLM Delft Blue House Bols Genever — and yes, that’s a tiny porcelain canal house filled with Dutch genever. Handed out to Business and First Class passengers since 1953.
Here’s the best part: KLM originally started giving these out to poach passengers from competitors. When the other airlines cried foul, KLM argued they were just “serving drinks” — in a collectible Delft porcelain bottle. Legend move. 🇳🇱
Inside? A smooth, malty genever with vanilla, brown sugar, and hints of dried apricot. Not the most complex spirit we’ve ever tasted — but the packaging? 10/10. The history? Even better.
Oh, and when you normalize the price to a standard 750ml bottle? It comes out to $642.85. Easily the most expensive liquid we’ve ever reviewed. 💸
Full review (and the trick to getting the cork out without breaking the house) is live now at ThirtyOneWhiskey.com 🔗