In the latest, and perhaps the coolest partnership between a distillery and a celebrity, Virginia’s Catoctin Creek and outrageous metal band GWAR will finally release their infamous Ragnarök Rye on May 28. The award-winning distillery known for its rye whisky, was set to launch the collaboration this past February, but according to a press release, “the monster metal rock band drank it… all of it.”
The band, which is based in Richmond where Catoctin Creek does well, approached husband and wife co-founders Scott and Becky Harris to make a whisky for them.
“We knew working with GWAR on this whisky would be troublesome, but we didn’t realize it would be this troublesome,” said co- founder and general manager, Scott Harris. “Usually, we have the production process under control, but this time the band members drank everything we distilled, and then demanded we create bottle toppers using rare metal ore sourced from the fillings of trolls.”
Three members from the current lineup of GWAR at Catoctin Creek’s tasting room in Purcellville, in … [+]
Catoctin Creek
Chief distiller Becky Harris takes pride in her adventurous style; it’s been said that if there is a wine, berry, fruit, vegetable, tuber with starch or sugar in it, you can bet that she will try to distill it. To make sure Ragnarök Rye is as unique as her label partners, she pulled out all the stops. According to legend, Becky used the blood of the immortal, godlike members of GWAR and experimented with various woods that had been charred by the comet in which they arrived on Earth eons ago.
Aged in charred new white oak with sugar maple and cherrywood staves, the resulting 92-proof intergalactic rye whisky has a smokiness reminiscent of BBQ, and subtle flavors that are not traditional in a rye whisky. “If whisky is liquid sunshine, this rye is a scorching alien sun,” lead singer The Berserker Blóthar commented.
Spirits connoisseur and Forbes senior contributor Fred Minnick joined GWAR and the Harris for a virtual tasting and live review of the Ragnarök Rye. “Well done. This is a great addition to the rye whiskey scene,” he said. “I think that this is one of the best tastes I’ve had from Catoctin Creek… it is very good. This is the kind of rye that will convert Scotch drinkers.”
Up to 200 cases of Ragnarök Rye (92 proof/46% ABV) $99/750mL will be available throughout Catoctin Creek’s national distribution footprint beginning Friday, May 28, with more on the way soon. Each bottle comes with a cast-metal collectable bottle topper featuring each of the five members of GWAR: Blóthar; Bälsäc the Jaws o’ Death; Jizmak da Gusha; Beefcake the Mighty; and Pustulus Maximus.
The cast metal tops of Ragnarök Rye will feature each of the current members of GWAR.
Copyright © 2020 Alicia Bruce
Ragnarök Rye will also be on sale in the distillery’s online store for curbside pickup or direct shipping in Virginia only. Pre-sale orders can be purchased through Seelbachs.com. Catoctin Creek Distilling’s distribution footprint includes the following 29 markets in the United States and internationally in Finland, Germany, Mexico, Netherlands, Italy, Singapore, Spain and the United Kingdom.