A re-barrel project

[Fox Sterlingworth]

*Sorry for such a long post, but bourbon is a passion of mine

Around 2ish years ago, a single barrel selecting club of which I’m a member was slated to pick a barrel of Buffalo Trace bourbon to be privately bottled.

The day before the barrel pick, I made the 8 hour trek to my good friend and fellow club member Bill’s Kentucky home.  That night after some stogies and several pours of bourbon we discussed how it sure would be nice to be able to bottle the barrel we would be selecting at cask strength instead of the 90 proof the labeling would require.  Or better yet, getting the barrel bottled at cask strength and putting the bottles right back into the barrel for extra aging!

As some of you bourbon aficionados may already know, Buffalo Trace uses its #1 mashbill for many expressions.  Regular Buffalo Trace bourbon (Usually around 8-9 years old) for one.  Another?  George T Stagg.  An annually released highly sought after 16+ year barrel proof bourbon.  And quite delicious.  What if we were to refill the barrel with our selection at barrel proof and wait 5+ years?  Would we get George T Stagg?

Fast forward the next day at the barrel selection where we selected a fine barrel to be bottled.  It was 9 years old and weighed in at 131 proof, but would be taking lots of water to reach the label’s 90 proof.  We jokingly asked our guide for it not to be watered down to 90 proof.  “No dice, boys”.  

So our next call was to a chemist friend. “Can we take our 90 proof bottles and in some process remove all the water added to jump out proof back to 131?  You know, reverse engineer.”.  The answer was yes.  But not cheaply.  And not without risks of losing certain barrel characteristics.  So that’s out.

My next thought was what if we put another mashbill #1 product in the barrel?  Better yet a cask strength one.  And even better yet, a similar age to our Buffalo Trace barrel.  And that answer was Stagg Jr.  A mashbill #1, cask strength, 8-9 year old bourbon also in the Buffalo Trace portfolio.  Only one problem:  I was going to need 30 gallons (150 full fifths that is), to refill the barrel to the level our selected barrel of Buffalo Trace had yielded.  And at mid-$70s per bottle and starting to become allocated/hard to find, this wouldn’t be easy or cheap.  I had done several re-barrel projects before, but not one that would cost $12k in whiskey alone!

We raised 25 volunteers from the barrel club who pledged an average of 6 bottles of Stagg Jr. to refill our barrel and share in the spoils when the barrel reached it’s anticipated peak.  And time was of the essence to get the bottles to the barrel refilling site as we couldn’t allow the barrel to sit dry long and allow for leakage.

With 150 bottles of Stagg Jr. on hand, Bill drove to Buffalo Trace distillery the day after our barrel was emptied to pick it up and I made my 8 hour journey back to Bill’s.  We planned to refill the barrel with a few other club members the next day.

Four of us worked like an assembly line refilling the barrel.  Keep track of which members bottles went in and what proof the bottle was (Stagg Jr. has released several batches, all of which have slightly varying proofs).  The barrel had a very slightly leak which Bill (who is a master wood worker) quickly remedied.  But we had done it!  

We had successfully recreated a George T Stagg barrel that just needed more age.  A Buffalo Trace mashbill #1, at cask strength, 9ish years old, with the same barrel, and aging at the same elevation as the distillery itself.

 

There’s no guarantee the barrel will taste as good as a George T Stagg in 5+ years, but it’s a good start.  We plan to taste it annually to see its progression.  At the start, it has some wonderful cherry, leather, and tobacco notes.

 

Time will tell!  Cheers!

[Astar20]

Awesome concept!! Cheers to you fellas for doing this!! And if you have any spare bottles I'd love to try some 😅 huge bourbon chaser here!! 

[Fox Sterlingworth]

I wish there was going to be spares.  After evaporation of 5+ years of aging, I think I’m going to have a hard time getting any of the participants to give up a bottle though.

[Astar20]

No worries, I totally understand I'd settle for a sample 🤣

[Meklown]

very cool concept and when the day comes, do a blind taste and let us know your thoughts!

couple of questions (pardon the ignorance) - is it common that the distillery allows you to "takeaway" the barrel you picked? I know a lot of them sell the barrels (to scotch distilleries for e.g.). And also, why is it that the distillery doesn't allow cask strength bottlings? 

The process is not unheard of - many distilleries take their product and age them in barrels that used to age other distilleries' products. (first link i found on google - https://killaradistillery.com/product/ex-tawny-port-cask-ex-laphroaig-cask-finish/). I think it falls foul of Scotch whisky regulations but I have definitely seen distilleries from other regions do that. for Scotch, bourbon barrels are commonly used. 

Now you got me thinking - I have a barrel resting away .. once that is done, I should get my partners to put some other cask-strength whisky inside to refill! 

[JoshD]

Awesome project!  Do you have any estimation of how many bottles you'll get out of the cask after 5 more years? 

 

On the topic of Buffalo Trace distillery, I recently had a conversation with a friend, and we agree that BT should sacrifice Eagle Rare and Buffalo Trace production to increase Stagg Jr. production......I don't know any serious bourbon drinker that would disagree with that.  Jr is nearly impossible to find around here.

[wine_junkie]

Well done sir!! Similar to what A Bowman did with their recent cask strength release.  Have you tried one of those? Reminds me of 2010 Stagg.  Would love to procure a bottle off this lot if you’re selling 🙂

 

Where are you storing it?

[Fox Sterlingworth]

On 12/28/2021 at 12:27 PM, JoshD said:

Awesome project!  Do you have any estimation of how many bottles you'll get out of the cask after 5 more years? 

 

On the topic of Buffalo Trace distillery, I recently had a conversation with a friend, and we agree that BT should sacrifice Eagle Rare and Buffalo Trace production to increase Stagg Jr. production......I don't know any serious bourbon drinker that would disagree with that.  Jr is nearly impossible to find around here.

We figure we should experience up to 1/3 of loss possibly.

Personally, I don’t think Stagg jr is fantastic as is.  It’s more of a cocktail bourbon for me.  It’s been speed aged in my opinion.

I haven’t had much Bowman stuff in recent years.  The only special release I’ve ever loved from them was the 17/18 year old hazmats they released around 2012 if I recall correctly.

 

On 12/16/2021 at 7:36 PM, Meklown said:

very cool concept and when the day comes, do a blind taste and let us know your thoughts!

couple of questions (pardon the ignorance) - is it common that the distillery allows you to "takeaway" the barrel you picked? I know a lot of them sell the barrels (to scotch distilleries for e.g.). And also, why is it that the distillery doesn't allow cask strength bottlings? 

The process is not unheard of - many distilleries take their product and age them in barrels that used to age other distilleries' products. (first link i found on google - https://killaradistillery.com/product/ex-tawny-port-cask-ex-laphroaig-cask-finish/). I think it falls foul of Scotch whisky regulations but I have definitely seen distilleries from other regions do that. for Scotch, bourbon barrels are commonly used. 

Now you got me thinking - I have a barrel resting away .. once that is done, I should get my partners to put some other cask-strength whisky inside to refill! 

Yes, most American whiskey distilleries allow you to take the emptied barrel as well.  

[Fox Sterlingworth]

I give you the end results!

My friend Bill had been periodically checking the barrel over the course of 4 1/2 years and was very happy with his sampling in January. He immediately emptied the barrel into 5 gallon glass carboys so there would be no further aging until we could meet up to bottle and order glass and labels.

Our final product ended up with an almost half the original dump evaporation (yikes!), so we decided to bottle in pints in order to make splitting up everyone’s contributions evenly.  

What it gained was proof! 141pf at bottling!  It also took on a great deal more color. Tasting notes are not GTS, but similar. Loads of cherry ludens cough drops on the nose and palate. A nice bit of leather, pipe tobacco, and oak as well.

Over all, I’m quite pleased. Would I repeat it?  There’s no way we as a group of 20 or so could even reasonably buy that much Stagg jr. Currently the barrel is refilled with regular Wild Turkey 101 and is showing better promise than this one 😬

[JohnS]

Thank you for the update. Whether it worked out in the end or not, for me, the main thing is that you had a go at it. Kudos to you!

[Fox Sterlingworth]

I cannot say it was unsuccessful, just not the expected result.

It’s very very tasty, but it isn’t GTS. That said, I’d take it over certain years of GTS (mainly the low proof years).