Blending My Own Bottle

It doesn’t really matter what’s on the front of the bottle or how much it cost, what matters is that you enjoy what you’re drinking. I have purchased $30 bourbon and I have bought $130 bourbon, but I am buying bourbon that I enjoy drinking. While I do enjoy collecting and often have several bottles at a time, I don’t purchase a bottle to sit on a shelf forever, I buy it to drink! So I want to make sure, whatever it is, that it tastes good. This week I decided to try a differen

t kind of whiskey tasting with a twist, I would be making my own blend to take home. I had done this once before at a distillery in Tennessee, but with a lot less knowledge about the whole process. So, I was excited to give it a try and see what I could create. Based on a recommendation from a friend I went downtown to visit Barrels

and Billets. I bought my tickets online through the site and showed up with no idea of what to expect.

Aside from myself there were only 4 other people that had joined, so the group was small, but we were ushered into a room with places set for all of us. At each place setting there was a jug of water, 6 small glasses with the different types of bourbons we’d be sampling, as well as additional empty glasses for us to play around with blending the whiskies. We were also given a booklet to write down notes, rank our options, and also included a few blended recipes we could try ourselves.

The experience starts with an explanation, the name “Barrells and Billets” comes from the Hillerich family and Hillerich & Bradsby Co. The patriarch of this family was apparently responsible for creating the barrels used on the infamous “Whiskey Row” in downtown Louisville. His son later expanded the wood crafting business and became known for making “Louisville Slugger” baseball bats. Apparently, the pieces of wood selected and cut to become these bats are called “billets”. Personally, I loved this connection to the city. Barrels are everywhere in whiskey and some source theirs while others have their own cooperage, but the additional connection to the baseball bats, and being so close to the Louisville Slugger museum added a nice touch of hometown pride.

Next in the history lesson we were walked through a brief history and the bourbon industry and the popularity of bourbon itself. This entire section took about 10 minutes in total but there are so many more in depth resources about this topic that I want to get into, so I will spare you the details here and we can talk about it another time. For now…onto the tasting!

With this tasting the control variable was the distilled liquor and so the flavors and tastes were purely from the type of wood used for the barrel the liquid was aged in. The first 3 samples we tried were whiskey aged in: a 200-year-old oak, a European oak, and an American oak. The one aged in a 200-year-old oak hade some bite to it, the American really did not have any flavor at all, but the European oak I really enjoyed. The whiskey had a citrus flavor and it was very smooth. The next three that we tried were a Cherry Wood finish, a Maple Wood finish, and a Smoked Oak. The Cherry wood sample was a bit tart funnily enough, and the Maple wood sample was very smooth. The Smoked oak though, we were warned ahead of time had a bit of a “bite” to it and it sure did. Taking even the tiniest sip of that sample tasted like I had bitten into a totally burnt marshmallow. It was interesting, but too much felt like I was choking on a campfire.

So, after tasting everything, now came the hard part: blending. I could go simple and pick 2 or 3 mixes to go together or try mixing more and create a more complex blend. I tried a couple of the sample blends they recommended but none tasted like something I would want to drink again and again. Luckily, they had a very useful tool called the “Bourbon Wizard” which allowed me to answer just a few questions about the type of bourbon I liked, the tastes, the finish, and even how complex I wanted my recipe to be. I answered the questions honestly and was surprised when it recommended me a recipe that included almost every single sample in varying amounts. I did make some adjustments, but after a few more tests, it was ready to go. I gave the percentages to the teacher leading our tasting, and within 10 minutes, I had a specialized bottle blended to my preferred tastes!

Based on the site here are the tasting notes for my own special blend: “oak, vanilla, brown sugar, maraschino cherry, cocoa, almond, maple syrup, honey, with a lightly smoked flavor”. Overall, I was very impressed with the entire process and the final result. I would absolutely recommend it to anyone looking to find new flavors or who enjoys experimenting with whiskies.

I hope you enjoyed and maybe this will encourage you to seek out similar experiences. Happy Trails!