OT: Buying a barrel of Bourbon

G_S

So I have birthday coming in about a month, where I get hang another zero on the end.

And I was trying to come up with a cool & memorable gift, to get myself.

And it came into my mind, a barrel / cask of Bourbon! !!!
Or, whiskey, or scotch, or tequila.
I am not to picky.
But a barrel of booze


So has one ever done this?
How does it come?
Is it just a bunch of small bottels?
Or can I get one big barrel with a spicket on the bottom,  where I can just get out as much as need

I have a budget of around $3,000

How does getting one work?
Has anyone ever done this?
Insite?
Experience?
Advice?
Pictures?
Stories?
Is this even do able with my budget? 

JustineCaseyFeldown

Best bourbon i ever had was cask strength, from natureboy at the Georgia mountain eggfest

he bought a bottle. But my understanding was that he got to taste a few before choosing. 

You might ask him. Chris, from Dizzy Pig

Ozzie_Isaac

Have a friend who bought a barrel of JD.  They actually couldn't sell it in the barrel.  They poured it all into specially labeled bottles and sent it all with the empty barrel.  Pretty cool deal.

nolaegghead

What can not be done legally can be done in alternative ways, as this quote may be attributed to the wrong seer - Confucius.

pgprescott

Ding ding ding. Must be sold through a liquor distributor and bottled. Still a cool idea. I would try to find a whiskey club in existence and join them or strike a deal. They will be very knowledgeable and potentially helpful. 

Rick1

Try this, http://rebrn.com/re/i-love-you-costco-755712/

MaskedMarvel

My brother in law did it with Buffalo Trace. I'll get the link...

pescadorzih

Woodford Reserve does it. 
http://www.woodfordreserve.com/whiskey/by-the-barrel/
Price, I don't know.  I thought they said $5-6000 when I was there thus past Spring. 

Mickey

Please keep us up on this.  

steel_egg

Not a whiskey or liquor drinker for that matter but I'm curious as to how his ends up. 

HeavyG

Costco is not allowed to sell liquor in my state (just beer and wine) but I vaguely recall a couple years ago from their catalog that they were selling barrels of some kind of whisky for a few thousand bucks. 

Don't know if they still offer that. Might check Sam's Club also.

rifrench

When I worked at my friends saw and small engine shop, we would talk about getting a barrel of Early Times and putting it up in the attic, with a plastic tube attached, closed off by a spring clamp, like the battery acid used. You can question the choice of whiskey, but hey- quantity over quality. We drank PBR, too.

tgs2401

You visit the distillery and sample different batches. Once you decide, they will bottle and private label your selection. The distillery will ship the bottles to your local liquor store for pick up due to all of taxes and local laws involved in selling and transporting alcohol. I would recommend staying at 21c Museum and Hotel. Great place and convenient to Bardstown and Frankfort. Highly recommend Buffalo Trace or Woodford Reserve but Jim Beam is very good and may be less expensive. I understand barrels run around 5-6k.

GATraveller

Buy yourself a Still.  That would be cool and memorable......and it's a gift that keeps on giving.

hondabbq

GATraveller said:

Buy yourself a Still.  That would be cool and memorable......and it's a gift that keeps on giving.

I would love to do that. I watch that show Moonshiners all the time. I would just like to do it to say ive done it. Lord knows I have the privacy to do it.

Killit_and_Grillit

A buddy of mine has one of those stills. he got it for about $600-800. It's a fun little project and is a lot easier than the traditional ones. 

I had about 6 Soldiers chip in on a barrel of JD when we got home from Afghanistan and then they invited the whole company to a Jack and coke celebration party. We all signed the barrel and put a crazy dent in the bottles of JD they shipped. It was a pretty cool deal. 

It gave me the idea to finish up a Jack barrel myself. Now any time friends come over and haven't signed it we do a shot on it and they write a message on it. It's absurdly inappropriate and awesome. 

Raymont

A barrel is a pretty obscene amount of bourbon... 53 gallons is 114 HANDLES (1.75 liter each) bottles in a barrel. Let's say you drank 1 handle a month.. it would take you 10 years to finish it all. You better really, really like whatever you decide to buy! Yes -- I'm jealous and come up with negatives to talk myself out of it.

Killit_and_Grillit

@Raymont one handle a month?

You have a very different group of friends than I do apparently I have to leave a weekly sacrificial 1.75 of Makers Mark on my work bench in the garage to keep the heathens out of the good stuff!

DoubleEgger

Jack is $10-12k per barrel and it's put into 240-250 750ml bottles FWIW

fishlessman

Raymont said:

A barrel is a pretty obscene amount of bourbon... 53 gallons is 114 HANDLES (1.75 liter each) bottles in a barrel. Let's say you drank 1 handle a month.. it would take you 10 years to finish it all. You better really, really like whatever you decide to buy! Yes -- I'm jealous and come up with negatives to talk myself out of it.

more like two barrels bourbon and one barrel disaronno per year theres 7 empty handles on the counter since xmas eve day im saving for a  friend, i dont know what he is going to do with them yet probably a good thing he didnt ask for barrels

hondabbq

Motley Crue had a single barrel of JD bottled for a fundraiser. there was 290 bottles made out of the barrel and only 150 were made available to the public. For a minimum $100 donation to the Skyler Neil Foundation got you a bottle back in 2011.

Here is mine. Even signed by the master distiller #7 Jeff Arnett 

pgprescott

Find a whiskey club. They already do this sort of thing and cut it up among many members. You will benefit from their extensive knowledge and experience as well as their contacts throughout the country. 

Raymont

pgprescott said:

Find a whiskey club. They already do this sort of thing and cut it up among many members. You will benefit from their extensive knowledge and experience as well as their contacts throughout the country. 

Sorry to go off-topic, but when is it appropriate to drink commemorative bottles? I have 7 years worth of Woodford Reserve Kentucky Derby commemorative bottles unopened. They are nice but aren't really a display (stored in back of cabinet).. at what point do you drink? Do you hold forever? I ask due to your bottle from 2011.. Do you see yourself ever drinking? 

G_S

I am not locked into just bourbon.

I know Emmitt Smith, was doing it with Tequila.
And I do really like tequila!!


But based upon my current drinking habits.
I go through about one .750 bottle of any given liquor ever 3 months.


If a barrel comes with
50_gallons.
189271_milliters
189271 divided by 750 = 252 bottles.
252 bottles divided by me drinking 5 a year = 50 years of drinking. Give or take afew years for Parties, Gifts, Eggfests & tailgating.


I can store a barrel with a tap / spicket on it over in corner of my man cave and it cool.

Not sure where I could 250 + bottles, for the next 50_years.
It is not like something you can keep in the garage, you have to keep it in semi- temperature-controlled environment.

SirSquatch

Losing 3% of your whiskey every year to evaporation would make attempting to keep a barrel less than ideal. 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

You don't want to keep it in the barrel. it wil continue to take on the oak and become to overpowering at some point. They age to a certain time frame for the flavor profile. You keep in in there another 20 years it's going to be nasty.and look like coffee. 

The Cen-Tex Smoker

My bro in law did this for his business with single malt scotch. It was cool. They branded it with his name and made custom boxes for the bottles. 

He gave them out to family and work associates are Christmas presents for a couple of years. IT was great scotch. 

RedSkip

Don't buy a still, make your own.  If you buy you're put into the federal registry and the ATF can show up at any time.  The gooberment loves its taxes, and bypassing that process really makes folks angry.

Killit_and_Grillit

@RedSkip this is true but as long as you are making for personal consumption you aren't going to get any grief.  Hell the ATF is so backlogged as long as you aren't out at the Farmers Market peddling your brand of Peach Pie they won't hassle you. I have enough legal Class 3 firearms that I have been expecting a knock on my door for about a decade. I finally had lunch with two field agents a few months back (just by odd coincidence with some local sheriff guys) and they flat out told me as long as you weren't getting reported for blatantly breaking the law they don't have the time or resources to pester you. 

The_Stache

GATraveller said:

Buy yourself a Still.  That would be cool and memorable......and it's a gift that keeps on giving.

Or a Grainfather (1 device beer brewing system) and it's still attachement!

https://www.grainfather.com/shop/distilling.html

Beer AND Whiskey!!!!

RedSkip

@Killit_and_Grillit

"Don't sell, don't tell."  I've even read angry wife that ratted out her husband.  

http://thecabin.net/news/local/2013-02-11/wife-outs-husband-moonshine-still

My my thought is, if your going to take the time to make it, why not learn the craft and make the still too.  It's not hard, but often I find that people are lazy and just want it done for them.  It's the society we live in today - instant gratification.

BTW, not sure on Canadian laws, only speaking for the US.