New Liberty Distillery, the Philadelphia craft distillery and home to spirit lines including the now-revived heritage Kinsey brand, announced the release of Bloody Butcher Sour Mash Straight Bourbon Whiskey, aged for three years and distilled using heritage grains including bright-red Pennsylvania corn varietals, malted rye, and malted barley.

The spirit, made using a sourdough starter from local breadbasket High Street Philly, is now available for purchase across Pennsylvania via online shipping, on-site in the New Liberty Distillery bottle shop, at New Liberty Distillery’s satellite bar and bottle shop location titled The Bar Cart in Reading, PA, and at Art in the Age, located in the Old City neighborhood of Philadelphia. 

With the newest iteration of Bloody Butcher Bourbon, the Sour Mash rendition, distillers utilized the traditional sour mash technique with a unique twist, creating a riff on the dunder pit fermentation process used in many excellent Jamaican rums.

Spent mash from a previous batch of staple Bloody Butcher Bourbon is allowed to sour in open barrels, then, a sour dough starter from local breadbasket High Street Philly is added, and left to ferment and produce wild esters. After fully fermenting, the liquid is double pot distilled and rested in a 53-gallon new American charred oak barrel. 

Bloody Butcher Sour Mash Bourbon is now available in a 200ml size for $24.99 across the state of Pennsylvania. Bottled at 95 proof, it is created from a base of 70% Bloody Butcher corn, 27% malted rye, and 3% malted barley.

New Liberty Distillery Bloody Butcher Bourbon celebrates the United States’ early agricultural heritage. In the early 1800s, European settlers in the southern United States blended their corn with a native variety, resulting in Bloody Butcher corn: instantly recognizable for its striking deep red kernels and legendary fruity, buttery flavor.

Unsuitable for industrial scale farming, this heirloom variety is grown by very few farmers in the United States. To make Bloody Butcher Bourbon today, distillers source Bloody Butcher corn from Castle Valley Mill in Doylestown, PA, just 25 miles from the distillery’s flagship South Kensington location, and combine it with malted rye and barley from Deer Creek Malthouse located in Glen Mills, Pennsylvania.