American Barrel Whiskey

“The bottle embodies two things Americans hold dear – whiskey barrels and gun barrels.” (image via American Barrels)
 
In his words, “The bottle embodies two things Americans hold dear – whiskey barrels and gun barrels.” The bottle is shaped like a shotgun shell, with a plastic-etched faux-metal priming cap at the base. Engraved along the face is a snake, jaws open in defiance; printed on its back is the phrase – you guessed it – Don’t Tread on Me. The bottle is complete with a hemp-wrapped neck with a – I’m not kidding – metal dog tag label attached as some sort of tribute to our Armed Forces. Reed describes how vision of the whiskey bottle came first – and how the whole whiskey-as-a-drink part seemed to follow after. In his words, “With an alcohol business, 90 percent is marketing and 10 percent is what’s inside the bottle.”
Distilled and bottled in Charleston, South Carolina, American Barrels Bourbon – the company’s sole offering – advertises itself as “small batch,” but gives no age statement. In fact, they seem to scoff at longer-aged spirits, “We drink our bourbon because it tastes good, not because it has been sitting in a barrel for 10 years.” The brand looks as if it is utilizing a technology owned by whiskey producer Terresentia (who produces whiskeys for a number of other smaller companies). This technology uses an ultrasonic refinement process to speed up the aging by using sound waves to make chemical reactions in the bourbon occur faster than they normally would – cutting down barrel time from several years to several hours.
While this is certainly good for production, what about the consumption of what’s in the final all American bottle? Let’s see whether American Barrels Bourbon’s taste lives up to its eye-catching presentation.