- Santina Croniser
- Carl Akeley’s fighting African Elephants, Sue the T-Rex, and a pterodactyl presided over the Lively Water Whiskey Festival
With the popularity that whiskey is enjoying these days, there appears to be plenty of room for multiple whiskey festivals in Chicago. After all, WhiskyFest Chicago regularly sells out months before the event (in fact, tickets for next spring’s event went on sale yesterday, and VIP tickets are already gone). Red Frog Events has stepped in to fill the void, and the inaugural Lively Water Whiskey Festival took place Saturday at the Field Museum.
- Santina Croniser
- The crowd around 8:30 PM
And during the VIP session, before the lines got long, I managed to try all of the whiskeys (plus an applejack) from Holland, Michigan’s Coppercraft Distillery, which started selling vodka and rum late last year and has gradually introduced gin, whiskey, and applejack. Both the wheat and rye whiskeys were rich and buttery; the wheat had notes of soft cocoa and butterscotch, while the rye was spicier and woodier, with hints of dark chocolate. I didn’t care for the hot alcoholic burn of the corn whiskey, but distiller Walter Catton had warned us that it needed a little more time in the barrel. The applejack was lovely, though I don’t seem to have taken notes on it for some reason. Coppercraft will release a bourbon next spring, and based on its other whiskeys, I’m betting it’s going to be excellent.
