Glenn’s Creek Millville Malt™ Single Malt Whiskey
I’ll start this one out here: there are only three barrels of Glenn’s Creek Millville Malt™ Single Malt Whiskey available, and I don’t know how many bottles are left.
Normally, I wouldn’t write about a bottle like this. Single barrels or bottles so limited as to be unavailable serve no purpose for reviewing - why write about a bottle nobody can get? I do know, however, that there are bottles remaining at Glenn’s Creek.
If you’re a longtime reader, you know how obsessed I’ve become with American Single Malt. Old Line’s Cask Strength is still my American Single Malt of the year as of this writing, and one of my favorite new whiskies of the year as well. Santa Fe Spirits, Whiskey Del Bac, Westward Whiskey, elements of Borrowed Page Vol. 1, I love it all.
So when Glenn’s Creek offered to send me samples before our Whiskey Ring Podcast episode, I politely requested that this be included.
Millville is the town in which Glenn’s Creek, the former Old Crow Distillery, and that part of McCracken Pike are located. It’s been the home of whiskey distilling for generations and was named for the many mills in the area, some of which fed the distilleries’ need for grain. Castle & Key and Woodford Reserve are both just down the road, making this a true hub of whiskey-making.
That being said…was it a hub of American Single Malt (and the names under which that was produced before recent years?) Probably not. Local farmers might have grown barley alongside wheat and corn crops, though not at any great scale and certainly not at a scale necessary for distilling of any great note. This is the heart of bourbon country, after all.
Two questions thus arise: why did Glenn’s Creek decide to produce a single malt here, and why are there only three barrels of it?
Both answers are surprisingly simple. Dave and his team produced a single malt because they wanted to try it, and being small and nimble they could make a small amount to try out the process. That process is why there are only three barrels of it.
Glenn’s Creek’s machinery is all fabricated by Dave and his team, and thus there are some customizations that haven’t been incorporated either due to time or money. One of these is the size of the connection between the mash tubs and the stills. When corn mash passes through this, it does so relatively easily, and they can run a full tank worth of distillation in a day, two if things all go right. For the malt, the different grain size after milling and mashing leads to chokepoints in the line, making it a tedious and difficult process. For now, at least - there might be changes to the system in the future, but nothing concrete.
All this to say, due to the machinery in place, only these three delicious barrels were made. Using all 100% malted pilsner-style barley with peat imported from Scotland, the Millville Malt has a light smokiness that just tickles the palate. The peat gets the malt’s ppm up to 20 before distillation, but as we’ve discussed before the ppm level always dips in distillation. This drinks right at the stated proof of 97º, not too hot but far from watery. There are multitudes of flavors and profiles that come in and out of the tasting, keeping you interested from beginning to end.
Thank you to Glenn’s Creek Distillery for providing this sample with no strings attached.
Glenn’s Creek Millville Malt™ Single Malt Whiskey: Specs
Classification: American Single Malt Whiskey
Origin: Glenn’s Creek Distillery
Mashbill: 100% Malted Barley
Proof: 97 (46.5% ABV)
Age: ~3 Years
Location: Kentucky
Glenn’s Creek Millville Malt™ Single Malt Whiskey Price: $72.64
Glenn’s Creek Millville Malt™ Single Malt Whiskey Review: Tasting Notes
Eye: 14K gold. Medium rims and syrupy legs and drops.
Nose: Lots of malt and lemon, signs of a clean distillate. Hint of proof. Clearly malt, but there’s also something different here. After learning this is a pilsner base, the profile makes perfect sense. White pepper and lager-style barrel-aged beer but not yeasty at all.
Palate: Clearly a single malt, spicy and astringent. Style is closer to a Highland than anything else, but much bolder. Lemon zest custard studded with peppercorns. Sweet malt is kept in check by pepper and the drying oak. Mouthfeel is medium-bodied to full, creamy and coating, roasted and mint evolving. Vinous dark fruit and coffee.
Finish: Medium-length, coffee-aged beer, pepper finally abating a bit as the malt settles in. Date fruitiness or dried figs. Malt syrup on the back end.
Overall: This is like a toddler just learning to walk - it wants to go everywhere! And it does, throwing you flavor after flavor while never letting you forget it’s a malt. Drinks right on proof with lemon zest and pepper. Complex, intriguing, and makes me want to pay for the machinery change so they can make more.
Final Rating: 7.9
10 | Insurpassable | Nothing Else Comes Close
9 | Incredible | Extraordinary
8 | Excellent | Exceptional
7 | Great | Well above average
6 | Very Good | Better than average
5 | Good | Good, solid, ordinary
4 | Has promise but needs work
1-3 | Let’s have a conversation
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