Bands, festivals and the lot are releasing branded booze by the dozens these days. GRIMM makes it its mission to get to the bottom (of the bottle) of this trend with insightful reviews and extra backgrounds. So sit back, PICK YOUR POISON, and discover all you need to know about your favorite band’s alcoholic brands!
Poison Fact Sheet
- Band: Motörhead
- Poison name: Motörhead Whisky
- Poison style: Whisky – Single Malt
- ABV: 40 %
- Distillery: Mackmyra (Sweden)
(ABV = Alcohol By Volume)
When you say Motörhead, you think Lemmy. For most of his life, when you saw Lemmy, you saw a Jack (Daniels) or a Jack ‘n’ Coke. So not too surprising that after the beers and the wines, there’s also a Motörhead whisky! For the whisky they collaborated with the Swedish distillery Mackmyra to create a high quality Swedish single malt, released again in collaboration with Brands For Fans. First it was released to mark “40 years of eardrum crushing”, but quickly became a constant in their available products. Matured for five years in new American oak barrels for a bourbon character, a small portion was also finished in Oloroso casks for six months. It’s been described as “immediate”, which should be music to fans’ ears.
The band, including the one and only Lemmy Kilmister helped choose the casks. As Motörhead‘s drummer Mikkey Dee explains,
“We think it’s great fun to launch a whisky in collaboration with a Swedish, world-famous distillery, Mackmyra. The whisky is incredibly good, with full character and fully flavoured with a superb bourbon touch, as it’s been aged in bourbon casks. All of us in the band have been active in the production process and are very proud over the result, and are happy to now launch such a great, characteristic whisky, Motörhead-style.”
Tasting
When getting to taste it, with the experiences we had with Brands For Fans products, we expected a decent product but nothing to “waw!” us. Pouring it in our glass, it showed a beautiful deep amber colour which already set our hopes higher. After adding a drop of water and putting our nostrils over the golden liquid, we caught the pleasant aroma’s of warming vanilla and caramel as described. Underneath we also found hints of dried fruits and a slight wood aroma from the aging process in the oak barrels. After plenty time of dreaming away on just the great perfume of the whisky, we finally put our lips to the brim of the glass for our first sip. When the whisky filled our mouths, it brought again those vanilla and caramel elements and with it some spice. What surprised us was the incredibly smoothness of the whisky. While some might immediately burn their way up to your brains, this one just warmly nestled itself in your mouth, comforting your palate without lacking any punch. There’s a real subtileness to this whisky that we very much appreciate! Of course there’s also a hint of bourbon to be found in it, since it was matured on bourbon barrels, but blended in perfectly with all the other interesting flavours.
Packaging
The packaging itself is again very sober and simple like most of the other products of Brands For Fans, but in this case we have the opinion that it fits the product really well. The shorter, round bottle looks as sturdy as some of the music of the band and the style full black wrap-around etiquette completes the pictures. Of course in the center you can find the ever present “Snaggletooth” with the words “Motörhead” and “Whisky”, much like the other products from the band. With an “Ace of Spades” and some more information about the whisky, including a little promo text about the product, all in silver letters, the look is completed. And as most good whiskies do, it comes in a nice box featuring many of the same things you could find on the bottle, like again “Snaggletooth”.
