Dread River Master Series Batch 2 Review [In Depth]
Dread River Master Series Batch 2
by: ALEX WANG
Founder, writer
Founder, writer
Dread River Master Series Batch 2 Details
Distillery: Dread River
Type & Region: Bourbon, Alabama, USA
Alcohol: 53%
Composition: 60% corn, 30% wheat, and 10 % malted barley
Aged: About 3 years
Color: 1.3/2.0 on the color scale (russet, muscat)
Price: $80-100
From the company website:
Dread River’s flagship Straight Bourbon is the first bourbon distilled in Birmingham in over 100 years. For the Master Series Batch 2 Bourbon, Dread River transferred the straight bourbon originally aged in American oak casks for one year into a 60-gallon French oak cask for an additional two years. The French oak finishing beautifully rounds out the flavors and provides additional vanilla and caramel flavors. The double-barrel cask finishing draws out the bold qualities of the straight bourbon distilled with a mashbill of 60 percent corn, 30 percent wheat, and 10 percent malted barley. It is hand-bottled at cask strength, 106 proof, or 53% alcohol by volume.
Dread River Master Series Batch 2 overview
You may not associate Alabama with bourbon, but bourbon is in fact produced in all 50 states plus DC, although I’m not sure about US territories such as Puerto Rico and Guam. I think that Dettling may be the best-known whiskey producer in Alabama, although I haven’t had anything from them yet…but this review isn’t about them. This is about Dread River, which I learned about when their media company contacted me.
I am always down to learn about a new distillery, so bring it on.
Dread River, based in Birmingham, Alabama, was founded by Dr. Jeff Dugas and John Cubelic, and started distilling in 2019. They distill and produce vodka, gin, rum, agave spirit (made like tequila minus in Jalisco, Mexico), rye, and bourbon, which is all normal activity for a distillery.
What we have here is Dread River Master Series Batch 2 Bourbon, which is a specially selected release. This release is particularly unique because it was “selected and bottled by Assistant Distiller, Master Sergeant Trey Bruner, a 20-year USAF [Air Force] Combat Controller Veteran with eight combat deployments”.
To that point, if didn’t read the description earlier in this review, here’s how it was made
Aged for about year in the usual 53 gallon virgin oak barrels required for bourbon
Dumped into a 60 gallon French oak cask (I think this might actually be a single barrel) and aged for 2 more years.
Bottled at cask strength, which turns out to be fairly low 53% (for cask strength at least).
I just wish they were more clear about whether he also came up with the idea for this bourbon, but it’s not a big deal.
Wait a minute…Dread River mentions “straight bourbon” and I don’t think that’s quite right. Straight bourbon has to be aged for at least 2 years in virgin oak, and Dread River clearly states that the bourbon is aged for about 1 year in virgin oak. The two years in French oak don’t count towards the 2 year minimum in virgin oak. This is undoubtedly bourbon, but it’s probably not straight bourbon. Dread River should double check that statement.
Let’s find out if bourbon completes the mission set out for it in this Dread River Master Series Batch 2 review.
This sample was provided at no cost to me. All opinions are still my own.
As an FYI, I bought and use these Glencairn glasses for everything (they’re the best): Glencairn Crystal Whiskey Glass Set of 6, Set of 4, Set of 2, or just one. Full transparency, this is an affiliate link, so I may earn a commission if you buy this or something else from Amazon.
Dread River Master Series Batch 2 smell
The scents have slightly soggy toasted biscuit, grain, honey, ginger, soggy oak, orange peel, baked bread, caraway seed, carrots, and cinnamon. Lightly sweetened Carrot cake comes to mind (weird I know). Oh boy, Dread River Master Series 2 smells young, grainy, and very “craft”.
I don’t think it necessarily smells bad, but I don’t associate these scents with good bourbon. I associate these scents with underdeveloped bourbon aged in casks that aren’t so good.
After swirling and rest, I smell youthful toasted grain, honey, orange peel, soggy toasted oak, ginger, earthy grains, cinnamon, dry hay, nutmeg, and baked bread. Dread River Master Series 2 smells so immature and uh…crafty…but not in a good crafty way. It has some body and richness, but it doesn’t put it to good use.
I know they describe how they crafted this bourbon, but it doesn’t smell ready for the limelight. I know this is very harsh, but who decided that this was a good idea to release?
Dread River Master Series Batch 2 taste and aftertaste
Dread River Master Series 2 has honey, ginger, roasted grain, orange peel, lightly soggy toasted oak, vanilla, cinnamon, caraway seed, baked bread, carrots, and dry oak. Thankfully, it tastes better than it smells because it’s not nearly as soggy and grainy as the scents are, but it’s still an odd experience.
I don’t know what it is, but lightly sweetened carrot cake keeps coming to mind. It’s strange, but that’s where my head goes. No, I haven’t had carrot cake recently.
Dread River Master Series 2 still tastes so young and immature. I’ve had other 3 year old bourbons that tasted a lot more mature and developed than this. Still Austin is doing crazy good stuff with 2-3 year old bourbon.
With hard “chewing”, I taste honey, orange peel, cocktail bitters (like angostura bitters), more orange, toasted oak, fresh and toasted grains, cinnamon, vanilla, ginger, and a little bit of soggy bread and earthiness.
“Chewing” makes it taste so much better, to the point that it redeems the whole experience from being a youthful disaster. There’s decent viscosity and richness so it’s far from thin or bland, and the heat is well controlled too.read River Master Series 2 is very obviously young and immature, but it has brief moments of goodness. It’s still not much fun to drink though, but it’s also not awful.
The extra burst of orange is pleasant, and that single handedly keeps this from being in the “Bottom Shelf” category.
The finish leads with honey, dried ginger, soggy toasted oak, cinnamon, and earthy caraway seed. After “chewing”, it leaves honey, orange peel, ginger, toasted oak and grain, dried hay, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
I’ve unfortunately lost some Glencairn’s while in transit, and that made me very sad. So, I wised up and bought this Glencairn Travel Case that comes also comes with 2 glasses so I don’t need to worry so much about them breaking. I think it’s great, and I think you’ll love it too.
Seriously, if you already have glasses, protect them.
Dread River Master Series Batch 2 Rating
I’m going to be harsh – Dread River Master Series 2 is a mess for most of the smelling and tasting experience. To me at least, it is clearly and painfully immature, and I struggle to envision what they’re planning to produce for the future. Let’s be clear, 3 years is still on the young side and there’s still time and room to improve, but it’s not so young that you can’t get a feel for what it’s going to be in the future.
Of course there’s stuff like young and cheap bourbon like Benchmark, which is intentionally blended with crap barrels that aren’t good enough for anything else, and sold for sub-$20. But this bourbon isn’t meant to be that. This is meant to be a thoughtful and intentional creation that highlights the distillery, the people, and what they can do. And the result here is lackluster and in my opinion, not ready for showtime.
The reason that this isn’t “Bottom Shelf+” is because I’d still rather drink this than Jack Daniel’s or Jim Beam White Label. As young and off the scents are (very), there’s a nice orange flavor that cuts through the youth. That’s the redeeming thing that makes this acceptable enough.
The price is a real head scratcher too. For $107, you’re not really paying for the excellent drinking experience. I can think of a whole slew of sub-$30 bourbons that I would rather have. What you’re doing here is paying to support a local (and very young) distillery and veterans, with the hope that their whiskey in the future will be great. Even then, it’s a really tough sell.
Based on only this experience, I have a hard time telling if this bourbon shows that Dread River has a promising future. They may have one, and I could have just had an ok experience with one of their bourbons, which is not representative of other bourbons they make. I hope they have much better whiskey lying around their rickhouses.
I don’t like these reviews to bash small distilleries. They ask me to do these reviews and I do them because I am always hopeful and optimistic that it will be great. If it is as good as I hope, then we all win. If it’s not so good, I’m not happy about it. It sucks to drink whiskey that isn’t great, and it sucks even more to tell someone that their hard work didn’t pay off. It just comes with the territory of what I do.
But for now…I hate to say it…no this did not pay off.
Meet the Author: Alex
I have far too much fun writing about whiskey and singlehandedly running The Whiskey Shelf to bring you independent, honest, and useful reviews, comparisons, and more. I’m proudly Asian American and can speak Cantonese, Mandarin, and some Japanese.
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