"Are you making whiskey yet?"

Barrels are stored right on site at Cardinal.

"Are you making whiskey yet?" It's a question that we field every day. We've already made White Oak Whiskey, an un-aged single-malt from 100 percent Indiana-malted barley. But, of course, we know what you're getting after: Where's the aged stuff? We hear you. We're anxious, too!

Here are the answers to questions we get asked most about our whiskey. Have more? Just ask next time you're in. 

Jason and Doug filling whiskey barrels at the distillery.

Q: Are you making whiskey yet?
A: Yes. We have both bourbon and single-malt barley whiskey aging in barrels. 

Q: When will it be ready?
A: We hope to release some of it in time for the holidays. 

Q: Where are the barrels aging?
A: Right here at the distillery. We'll show you when you take a tour.

Q: What are you aging it in?
A: We're aging the bourbon in charred, new American oak barrels. The single-malt barley whiskey is in toasted oak barrels.

That's Cardinal co-founder Jeff Wuslich checking on the contents of the barrels using a whiskey thief, a tool that pulls out a small sample.

Q: Where do you get your grain? What's the grain bill?
A: We source from independently-owned providers in Indiana including Glick Seed of Columbus and Sugar Creek Malt Company in Lebanon. The bourbon is 60 percent corn, 20 percent malted barley, 10 percent rye and 10 percent wheat. And it smells incredible. The single-malt is a blend of 2- and 6-row barley.

Q: How much is a bottle going to cost?
A: The price hasn't been set, but it's going to be competitive. What would you guys pay?

Q: What's it going to taste like?
A: Whiskey! 

Our Rum Diary

Last week we gave you a peek at something bubbling away in our test still...

That's rum, folks! It'll be one of our upcoming bottled spirits for release this summer. Our goal is to make a rum that is great for cocktails but also for sipping on its own. We're leaning toward a Jamaican-style rum with tropical flavors, and we've gotten plenty of direction from our #tikituesday masterminds Chris Resnick and Baylee Pruitt.

Much of the flavor of rum comes from the yeast, so we're spending a lot of time getting that right. Our tiny test still has been running like mad, one gallon of experimental rum at a time.

(Any name suggestions for our test still? Still the One?)

Each test batch produces 50 milliliters of rum — that's 1.7 ounces, or about what you'd use to make a tiki drink. It's veeeery small batch rum at this point.

We started experimenting with five or six foundations, from molasses to cane juice, and now we're playing around with eight yeasts. Yeast wrangler Matt Bochman, a professor at Indiana University, is helping out with that.

We're getting close!