Yellow Rose

Yellow Rose Distillery based its name on a local folklore character, a woman known as the Yellow Rose of Texas. Legend has it her bravery and guile helped Sam Houston win the battle for Texas’ independence from Mexico. It’s with that same independent spirit that Yellow Rose craft their whiskeys in the heart of Houston, Texas.

Houston’s surprisingly hot, humid and constantly changing climate has proven to be the optimal atmosphere for the aging of their whiskey. This allows it to quickly develop a unique flavour compared to other whisky areas, as it allows the liquid to pick up more barrel characteristics in a shorter amount of time. Yellow Rose Outlaw Bourbon and Rye Whiskey were first released in 2012, just two years after the distillery was founded, and at the time were sold only in Houston, and only in one retailer. The next year, they went on to win Gold at the San Francisco Spirits Competition where Outlaw was awarded the ‘Best Bourbon’ title at the American Distilling Institute awards.

As the fourth largest city in the US, and the most diverse, Houston has proved to be the ideal inspiration for the quality cues that make this locally sourced and distilled whiskey the ‘yellow rose’ of the US craft whiskey movement.

Yellow Rose launched in the Texas market in 2012. After years of hard work and dedication, we are proud to be Houston’s First Legal Whiskey Distillery.

Yellow Rose Whiskey starts in Texas soil with Texas grains grown by Texas farmers. The climate and growing conditions impart unique flavor qualities only found in Houston, TX. Whether it’s corn, rye or barley, only the best grains are chosen to make the whiskey.

First of all, hot water cooks the local Texas grains, then enzymes convert the starches into sugars. This results in a pleasantly sweet mash, which highlights the bold flavours of the raw materials.

The mash is added to the fermentation tank, along with yeast. The yeast converts the sugar to alcohol. After three or four days, the resulting liquid is about 10% alcoholic and is known as distiller’s beer. Creates the wide range of complex flavours that make Yellow Rose whiskey unique.

The distiller’s beer is heated to the point where the alcohol turns to vapour, but the water remains liquid. The alcohol is then collected in a second container. This process is repeated to produce a “new whiskey.” A copper pot still is utilized to perform this double distillation each time.

Next, pure water is added to the “new whiskey,” which is aged in Yellow Rose’s charred oak barrels. The whiskey ages until it’s good and ready. Yellow Rose whiskey is aged based on flavour, not a production deadline. The unique Houston climate cannot be imitated and neither can its impact on the final whiskey fingerprint.

When the whiskey is ready, it is bottled by hand at the Yellow Rose Distillery in Houston. Each label is marked with a batch and bottle number, then labelled by one of the passionate, Yellow Rose whiskey-loving teammates.