Look, I get it. The liquor store aisle is a shouting match of fancy labels and made-up history. We’re not here to give you a vocabulary test or just repeat the marketing team’s playbook. We’re here to give you a pour of information about new spirits and how to pinpoint the right ones for your unique preferences.
Today, we’re talking about a distillery that’s actually doing something interesting: ASW Distillery. Based in Atlanta, Georgia, their product is designed for a single purpose: to taste great. We will now detail how they optimized the variables to achieve that—and not just because they figured out how to make whiskey in the humid South without it tasting like boiled peanuts.
If you are researching new ASW Distillery products to try, you’re in the right place. I’ve spent decades drinking the good, the bad, and the acetone. And now OAKR crowd sources tastings from dozens of panelists to give you quantifiable data you can trust about what’s in every bottle. We’re getting right to the juice.
Before we get into the bottles, let’s quickly cover who these people are. ASW (American Spirit Whiskey) is located in Atlanta. They have a Master Distiller named Justin Manglitz who seems to enjoy making his life difficult by using Scottish-style twin copper pot stills and “grain-in” distillation.
Why should you care? Because most bourbon is made in massive column stills that strip out a lot of the heavy, oily flavor compounds in favor of efficiency. Pot stills are inefficient, annoying to operate, and expensive. But, they leave a lot of flavor in the glass.
ASW also likes to mess around with mashbills (the recipe of grains). While the rest of Kentucky is fighting over who uses 2% more rye, ASW is over here using malted rye, cherry-smoked barley, and foraged wheat. They finish their spirits in everything from Georgia oak to maple barrels.
We’ll cover the boring science of barrel char levels and fermentation curves in a future post when you’re having trouble sleeping. For now, let’s get to the booze.
If you’re new to ASW Distillery products, don’t start with the weird experimental stuff. Start with the bottles that keep the lights on.
This is the daily drinker. If you walk into a bar in Atlanta and ask for an ASW bourbon, this is likely what you’re getting. Fiddler Unison is a high-wheat bourbon.
Here is the deal with wheated bourbons: usually, bourbon uses rye as the “flavor grain” to give it a spicy kick. Wheat is softer. It’s the reason people lose their minds over Pappy Van Winkle. ASW takes a high-wheat bourbon and marries it with their own house-distilled high-malt bourbon.
The Experience: It’s bottled at a sensible 90 proof. It’s not trying to be a chest-hair-grower, but it’s far from a compromise. You’ll get classic caramel and toffee notes. It’s sweet, round, and effortless. This is the bourbon you pour when you want a damn good drink without having to write a thesis about it.
This is the one you buy when you want to impress your father-in-law or apologize for something minor. It’s essentially the Fiddler base, but they finish it with staves (wooden planks) of Georgia White Oak harvested from the actual heart of the tree.
They put these staves into the barrel to ramp up the wood contact. It’s often bottled at cask strength (usually over 110 proof), so this is not for the faint of heart.
The Experience: It’s intense. Because of that extra wood contact, you get a massive hit of maple syrup and baking spice. It’s like drinking a pancake breakfast that gets you buzzed. It’s high proof, and you will feel it. It’s not ‘smooth’ because it’s not supposed to be. It’s meant to have a character that demands your attention. If you like bold, aggressive flavors, this is your jam. If you prefer your whiskey to whisper sweet nothings, stay away.
This is for the nerds. Fiddler Soloist is distinct because it’s distilled on those copper pot stills I mentioned earlier. It’s a “high-malt” bourbon, meaning they use a lot of malted barley in the recipe alongside the legally required corn.
The Experience: It’s chewy. That’s the best word for it. It has texture. The flavor profile often leans toward Cinnamon Toast Crunch and chocolate. It’s complex and weird in a good way. It doesn’t taste like the standard Kentucky bottle you grab for $20.
Once you’ve graduated from the standard bourbons, ASW Distillery products get really interesting. This is where they stop trying to sound like Kentucky and start acting like craft distillers.
If you think you hate rye whiskey, you might actually like this. Most rye whiskey is made from raw rye grain, which tastes sharp, grassy, and spicy—like chewing on a peppercorn wrapped in dill.
ASW makes Resurgens from 100% malted rye. Malting the grain changes the flavor completely. It converts starches to sugars and mellows out that aggressive bite.
The Experience: It doesn’t taste like pickles or grass. It tastes like chocolate and graham crackers. It’s got a stone fruit vibe, like apricots. It’s incredibly soft for a rye. It confuses people who think rye has to hurt to be good.
This is the bottle that makes purists angry. It’s the world’s first “Double Malt” whiskey. They take 50% malted rye and 50% cherry-smoked malted barley, mash them together, and distill them in pot stills.
It’s a hybrid. It’s not quite a scotch, not quite a rye. It’s a Frankenstein monster of deliciousness.
The Experience: Do you like smoke? Not the “I licked an ashtray” smoke you get from some Islay Scotches, but a sweet, BBQ-pit kind of smoke. That’s the cherry wood. Combine that with the chocolate notes from the rye, and you have a glass of smoky toffee. It’s fantastic, but it’s distinct. You have to be in the mood for it.
Here’s the cold, hard truth about whiskey reviews: I can tell you Fiddler Heartwood tastes like “maple syrup and victory,” but when you take a sip, you might get “burning oak and regret.” Everyone’s palate is unique. Your tasting experience is a cocktail of your biology, what you ate for lunch, and how much you hate your job today. That’s why relying on a single reviewer is a flawed system.
This is where OAKR comes in.
OAKR is the best bourbon sommelier app on the market today, and frankly, it does the leg work that I’m too lazy to do for you individually. Instead of relying on one guy’s opinion (even an expert opinion like mine), OAKR aggregates tasting data from blind tasting panelists. It crunches the numbers to showcase flavor profiles based on data, not poetry.
Before you go out and drop $60 on a bottle of Duality Double Malt because I said it tastes like BBQ, download OAKR. You can explore in-depth flavor profiles and get personalized recommendations. The app learns what you like. If you hate smoke, it’s not going to tell you to buy the smoked whiskey. It’s like having a friend who knows everything about bourbon but isn’t annoying about it.
ASW Distillery isn’t just churning out the same old juice. They are leveraging pot stills, unique grains, and local wood to create flavors you won’t find in the big heritage brands. Whether you want the sweet, easy-drinking Fiddler Unison or the smoky, complex Duality, they have something that will likely surprise you.
Just remember: drink what you like, not what the internet tells you is “cool.” And if you don’t know what you like yet, let the data do the driving.
Login to OAKR for spirit profile flavor data, create your own lists and customize your palate to get custom somm recommendations on whiskey you’ll love.
