I spent this post talking about why I started the Indiana Barrel Pick Club. I’ve always thought that writing was one form of expression, but a video is worth like 1,000 words. I sat down today and gave a run down on why I started the Indiana Barrel Pick Club and why you should consider joining.
You can join here: https://www.patreon.com/indianabarrelpickclub
If you want to hear me talk about my passion and dream in the bourbon world, here you go!
I want to introduce the Indiana Barrel Pick Club – An extension of the Bourbon Master community.
The Indiana Barrel Pick Club is group of bourbon lovers who want to get access to special content, reviews, tastings, and barrels of bourbon (and bottles of bourbon).
I started the Bourbon Master blog in 2022 and started getting some interested from readers about providing some special content and possibly picking a barrel or two of bourbon and getting it locally.
After some research and conversations, I decided to create this Patreon to build that community.
This club is designed to focus on those bourbon lovers in Indiana and provide them with a special community that isn’t just pictures and comments of allocated bottles of Buffalo Trace. The content created for this group is around the Indiana Bourbon community, their bottles, and other store picks that you can actually find on the shelf.
Once this community reaches enough members, we will be partnering with a liquor store in Indiana to do a barrel pick just for the Indiana Barrel Pick Club. If it goes well, we’ll start doing multiple of these a year and the members of the club will help choose the distillery, name of pick, and possibly even the barrel!
In addition, I have added several perks for subscribers that include (depending on your level):
Full details and perks for each level can be found here.
I invite you to be a part of my journey from barrel to glass and be a part of one of the best bourbon communities in Indiana!
Have questions? Let me know below or shoot me an email at chris@thebourbonmaster.com – I’m investing in this community and I want to make sure it has what everyone wants.
I’m not sure that this opinion will be the most popular in the bourbon community, but I am a firm believer that barrel picks are typically a better purchase than an allocated or rare bottle of bourbon. I think there is more character, more uniqueness, and more adventure when you purchase a store barrel pick than when you buy a bottle of Eagle Rare. I’m not discounting the awesome of some special bourbons on the market, but I want to provide an argument on why you should stop bourbon hunting and start hunting for amazing liquor stores with great barrel picks.
I think we all might have a general idea of how the aging and blending process works in the bourbon world. If not, here’s a crash course. For bourbons you can find on the shelf at any time, master distillers take multiple barrels (100+) and blend them together to get a constant flavor that is repeatable and predictable. It’s the McDonald’s version of bourbon. If you stop at a McDonalds in Kentucky or in California, you can expect a double cheeseburger and fries to taste exactly the same in both places. The same is true when you crack open a bottle of Jim Beam or Maker’s Mark. These are going to taste like the same bourbon you had the last time and the next bottle you open will taste the same as well. This constant flavor and taste is what gives comfort to most bourbon or whiskey drinkers. They know what they are going to get when they order a specific bourbon.
It’s like a choir. Some members (or barrels) might suck, but the good ones make everything sound great.
That’s where single barrel or barrel select bourbons come into the picture. It’s like picking the best singer in the choir to sing a solo. You are in essence highlighting a specific barrel of bourbon that stands out among the rest of the barrels. You don’t need to blend it because it has enough unique character on its own.
This whole concept was brought to light for me when I did a tasting at Three Boys (now Whiskey Thief Distilling) years ago. I stoped for a tasting and for an extra $10 I could taste bourbon straight from 4 different barrels. The first 3 barrels I tried were not great at all. One had too much spice, one was a little harsh, and the other was pretty mellow. Blended together, these barrels would have most likely made a good tasting bourbon. When I tasted the 4th barrel, I was blown away. It was freaking amazing. The crazy part was all of the barrels had the same exact liquor (mash bill included) in the barrel. There was literally nothing different than the wood and the location of the barrel. But yet somehow, the bourbon tasted completely different.
All things being the same, each barrel is not even close to the same.
Sometimes the bourbon gods intervene and make a specific barrel better than the rest. There is no rhyme or reason (there can be things that encourage certain traits) and it takes a special talent to be able to identify these special barrels. And the people (or liquor stores) who pick these barrels, they are the reason barrel picks are fun.
In short – Barrel picks are the selection of a specific barrel from a distillery for special distribution to your customers. You pick the barrel and you get to sell it. No one else will ever get to taste that magical barrel unless they buy your pick. Typically – A barrel has 180-220 bottles of bourbon inside (depending on age) and a distillery sells the entire barrel to a customer.
That’s what a barrel pick is. Now let me tell you why this is one of the best things in the bourbon world.
When we look at allocated bourbons, we tend to fall in two different categories.
It really comes down to the that dreaded supply and demand curve that you might have learned about in economics. When supply is limited and demand exceeds the supply, there is a need for a rationing device (aka allocation). Rationing can take many forms, but it tends to land with a rationing technique like a lottery, a wait, insider knowledge, or even a higher price (aka a shift in the demand curve).
That’s why it is so hard to find allocated products. There is just literally not enough bourbon to go around. You either have to get lucky or you have to pay a price. It’s just straight economics.
That’s why I love barrel picks way more than these allocated products.
Don’t get me wrong. I am never going to pass up an 18 year Knob Creek or a bottle of Weller Full Proof or even Pappy. It is known that this is amazing bourbon and if I could get my hands on it, I’ll always make the purchase (within reason).
But those opportunities just don’t happen on a regular basis.
And as a bourbon drinker, I think you need to come to a realization that you can search for gold, but sometimes you enjoy the silver that is plentiful all around you.
Barrel picks are my silver and my go to when I go to purchase bourbon. They are the unique picks that area always going to surprise me and possibly the best bourbon I’ll ever have and only have a chance to have it once.
I love barrel picks (or store picks) for a few specific reasons:
I’m not going to sit here an argue that allocated bourbon isn’t extremely tasty. It is. I just think there is a hidden gem when you start taking a look at barrel select bourbons from stores and places you love. It’s there way to bring an amazing expression of bourbon to you without you having to empty your bank account to try it.
I hope to one day start a group where we work together to select a barrel and then share that barrel with the group. If this is of interest to you, please join our email list (right hand side bar) or our Facebook group. I don’t think this is happening soon, but I can’t wait to make it a reality. If you are a distillery or a distributor that could make this happen, shoot me an email at chris@thebourbonmaster.com.