Forty Creek Copper Pot Reserve, the second rung of the Forty Creek product line. This is our third foray into this brand, previous trying the Premium Barrel Select, and pitting their Cream Liquor against Bailey’s on Christmas Day.
As we mentioned in the PBS review, we have some history with Forty Creek, mostly for parties and other bad decision opportunities. We went into more detail about the brand in the BattleScotch! So this time I’m going to look at chemistry – specifically, why copper?
Copper gets used in stills because of byproducts created fermentation and distillation. These are typically sulfurous compounds that detract from the taste and smell of the spirits. I can’t quickly determine if this is a copper sulfate (CuxSOx) or a sulfide (CuxSx) and I don’t know if most of the oxygen is already tied up in H2O and CH3CH2OH or if it’s ionized in solution. Because as much as I loved chemistry in high school it’s been almost 20 years. Either way, the sulfur compounds are sticky and adhere to the copper elements in the still. This means regular cleaning and repair or replacement after a certain number of years, since chemical erosion is exactly what you’re looking for here. Speaking of here, here’s what we thought:
colour
Dan – copper
Goran – dark amber
Simon – much darker than expected
Matt – bronze
nose
Dan – caramel, hairspray
Goran – nail polish, alcohol & salt
Simon – slight polish, perfume
Matt – caramel, salt water taffy
neat
Dan – dark caramel, chocolate
Goran – smooth brown sugar, sharp alcohol
Simon – salt, spice
Matt – oaky, 9v battery
finish
Dan – soapy, fully dries tongue
Goran – herbal
Simon – lingers too long
Matt – don’t like the finish, soapy
splash
Dan – also smoke, less gross, chocolate
Goran – caramel, better, milk, sweet
Simon – worse
Matt – note good, crazy weird bite, smoke biting back of tongue
Forty Creek Copper Pot Reserve – 43% 750ml – $26.95 – Ontario
Try it? No. Buy it? Not better than the PBS, which you should only buy for mix.
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