Jeptha Creed Four Grain Bourbon Review [In Depth]
Jeptha Creed Four Grain Bourbon
by: ALEX WANG
Founder, writer
Founder, writer
Jeptha Creed Four Grain Bourbon Details
Distillery: Jeptha Creed
Type & Region: Bourbon, Kentucky, USA
Alcohol: 49%
Composition: 70% Bloody Butcher Corn, 15% malted rye, 10% malted wheat, 5% malted barley
Aged: At least 2 years
Color: 1.4/2.0 on the color scale (tawny)
Price: $50
Link to the company website:
Being in good company makes everything better. The same is said for our Four Grain Mash Bill. By bringing together our Bloody Butcher Corn, Malted Rye, Malted Barley, and Malted Wheat, each grain’s distinctive flavor comes forward in the right way. The perfect amount of spicy and sweet, toast and earthy, it’s simply delicious but there’s nothing simple about it.Jeptha Creed Four Grain Bourbon overview
Jeptha Creed is one of many new kids on the block in the Kentucky bourbon scene, located in Shelby County, Kentucky, between Lexington and Louisville. And just like the big distilleries, and a growing number of craft distilleries, they’re distilling everything themselves. Unlike the big distilleries or even some of the medium-size craft distilleries, Jeptha Creed is still a small operation, producing give or take “nine barrels of bourbon per day” as stated by their website. This is a really small operation
Depending on what you define as founded, Jeptha Creed was founded somewhere around 2010-2014, when they were getting everything set up to start a distillery. You could even make the case that they started even earlier, as they were growing their own grains knowing that they wanted to start a distillery.
Regardless of when it was founded, Jeptha Creed now offers a range of spirits, including vodka and brandy. Let’s be honest though, you probably only care about the bourbon…and maybe the rye, although they don’t make rye (yet). In that case, they have a few options for you.
But what separates them from the pack is their emphasis on using heirloom corn. It’s not reserved for limited releases, it’s a part of every bourbon they make. This Jeptha Creed Four Grain Bourbon is made with 70% Bloody Butcher Red Corn, while their other bourbons use upwards of 75% heirloom corns (the plural is intentional). No one was harmed or murdered in the making of this Bloody Butcher Red corn.
The unique mashbill makes the Jeptha Creed Four Grain Bourbon stand out. The very high percentage of red corn plus malted rye, malted wheat, and malted barley is really unique. From my experience, malted grains tend to make the whiskey more earthy, although there’s no guarantee that will be the case here. I have no experience with malted wheat.
Another fun fact, they grow their own Bloody butcher corn (aka red corn), which is no small feat. It’s lower yield per acre than the usual yellow corn, which makes it more expensive to grow. That’s serious commitment to the craft. If you want to learn more about their corn and their journey to make their bourbon, Jeptha Creed’s website provides more interesting details on that too.
Let’s find out if all this red corn leads to a bloody good experience in this Jeptha Creed Four Grain bourbon review.
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.
Jeptha Creed Four Grain Bourbon smell
The scents first have sweet corn, red apple, orange peel, cherry, roasted oaks, cinnamon, a slight mustiness, vanilla, an earthy pine-like something and pumpernickel, caramel nougat, apricot, dried nuts, and a gummy mint or something like that. The pine, pumpernickel, and earthiness make it seem like there’s more rye than there actually is, but I’ve found that malted rye can come off more earthy than un-malted rye.
Jeptha Creed Four Grain Bourbon has surprisingly good fullness and richness to it with fairly well-developed sweetness and fruitiness. Those two things stuck out to me almost immediately. The heat is very mellow as well.
This bourbon has a distinct twist to it, but I can’t quite figure it out yet. Over time, a light mustiness and funkiness starts to set it, which is a little bit odd. Overall though, this actually smells really good.
After swirling I smell fragrant honey, orange, and baked apple up front followed by roasted oak, vanilla, slightly musty earthiness, licorice, darker caramel nougat sweetness, fresh raw corn, mint, and hints of chalkiness. The chalkiness isn’t jarring or distracting, but it’s there and just a tad odd.
Even though the label states aged at least 2 years, Jeptha Creed Four Grain feels older than that, easily 6+ years old. The range is already pretty good, spanning bright, dark, fruity, earthy, spicy, and more. Nothing is all that bold or complex, but all together I like it quite a lot. It’s already way ahead of schedule.
Jeptha Creed Four Grain Bourbon taste and aftertaste
The flavors have honey, red apple, cinnamon, cherry, vanilla, apricot, roasted oak, more cinnamon, clove, earthy caraway seed, dried nuttiness, and some roasted corn and dry oak. Jeptha Creed Bloody Butcher has nice fruitiness and sweetness up front with earthiness, spice, and oak in the back that expands with time.
It’s not necessarily super sweet or fruity, but it’s still very enjoyable, although the back is a hint too dry for me so it’s ever so slightly out of balance. In the grand scheme of the flavors it’s not a big deal and Jeptha Creed Four Grain Bourbon tastes surprisingly good.
With “chewing”, I get honey, vanilla, baked red apple, orange peel, roasted oak, cinnamon, dried apricot, earthy caraway seed, clove, fresh corn, mint, rosemary, and a little bit of mustiness and chalkiness. This really hits the range of sweet, fruity, spicy, oaky, and earthy flavors with surprisingly good richness and maturity.
The aftertaste leaves honey, baked red apple, caraway seed, roasted oak, dried cherry, cinnamon, and a little dry oak.
I can’t say that Jeptha Creed Four Grain Bourbon is all that mature or complex just yet, but all the parts are there with already solid fullness and balance. The oakiness and dryness are better integrated with the sweetness and fruitiness now, which could be my tastebuds adjusting to everything.
Jeptha Creed Bloody Butcher Corn Bourbon is very good, simple as that.
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.
Jeptha Creed Four Grain Bourbon Rating
Age be damned, Jeptha Creed Four Grain Bourbon is really good. It’s not quite “Top Shelf”, but it’s not that far off either. The range is already there, as is budding depth, but it’ll take more time to fill out what’s already there. This is incredibly promising.
Apart from the not quite all there richness, there is a little bit of mustiness and chalkiness that could come from the grains, age, or something else. It’s in the back so it’s not a big deal, but it’s something I’d prefer not to smell and taste at all if it can be avoided.
All things considered, Jeptha Creed Four Grain Bourbon is actually a good option for $50. It’s not necessarily the best, but I can appreciate the unique ingredients and hard work that go into it, because that bloody butcher corn is doing some great stuff. It’s expensive and it’s a pain to grow, but it’s clearly paying off in this bourbon.
There’s still so much more room to grow, and if this is what they have at 2ish years old, I am so excited to discover what it’ll be like in a few more years. I think that a 4 year age-stated version of this would probably be fantastic. It’s going to give Still Austin, the king of younger whiskey, a run for their money…and we all win if that’s the case.
Great job Jeptha Creed, we all need more of this.
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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BrüMate NOS’R, Double-Wall Stainless Steel Whiskey Nosing Glass – 7oz (Matte Black)
