Age your own? How patient are you?

Saturday while looking around for information about bourbon producers outside Kentucky I stumbled across the Woodinville Whiskey Company in Washington. Right now the company does not offer any bourbon products. They are promising an aged in new-oak barrel product some time this year. That would more than likely then be a bourbon.

Right now their product line includes Peabody Vodka and Headlong White Dog, both are clear distilled products.

Aging whiskey takes a real toll on cash flow, so upstart distilleries often sell spirits that don’t require aging to maintain a revenue stream.

Ah, but another Woodinville product certainly has the chance to create some buzz and a little revenue.

That’s where their “Age Your Own” Whiskey Kit fits. This is not a distill your own whiskey kit, that would be illegal.

Here, for about $170 bucks, you have the chance to pour two 750ml bottles of the company’s white dog into a mini charred new-oak barrel.

Woodinville Whiskey

Then you wait.

How long?

The company says you can have a decent product in about three months. That is significantly shorter than the years for Kentucky bourbon. Woodinville’s information says that the mini-barrel makes it possible to accelerate the aging process.

You could use the barrel over and over, but remember, you can only call the first batch out of the barrel a bourbon. By federal statute, to call it bourbon the white dog spirit must  be aged in new charred oak barrels. You can call the second batch whatever you want, just not bourbon.

Do you have the patience to wait several months to see what you get for that price? In addition to the alcohol and barrel, you get two drinking glasses and a funnel. I suspect that little oak barrel is not cheap to either. The new full-size barrels easily cost $250-$300

If our Kentucky bourbon producers wanted to get in on this, they would have to come up with their own turn of phrase because “Age Your Own” is already a trademarked phrase of the Woodinville Whiskey Company.

How about some of these possibilities:
• Make your Mark
• Meet your Makers
• My Times
• Quick Times
• Pappy’s Power Nap

Do you have some ideas for a you-age-it kit from a Kentucky distillery? Add your ideas to the comments.

I sent off an email to the distillers up in Washington to get some more information on the kit and other plans they have for aged spirits. I give those guys up in Washington an A+ for creating a buzz factor for thir yet-to-be-released aged product.

If you get tired of using the mini barrel, I guess you could always cut the barrel in half and create a a couple of bonsai gardens.

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About Kim Kolarik

Exploring bourbon one sip at a time and sharing the experience.© Contact me at kdkolarik@bourbonsips.com I've followed the original bourbon trail from my native Pennsylvania, where the whiskey rebellion erupted to Louisville, Kentucky, my current home. Bourbon is now in a revolution of expansion. I'll be bringing you news, information and tasting notes of bourbon from Kentucky and the emerging craft distillers from around the United States. I am photographer, designer and editor. --Kim D. Kolarik
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One Response to Age your own? How patient are you?

  1. MixnSip says:

    Heaven Hill Distilleries could offer a Heaven Help Us kit, which includes two bottles of water and a prayer that it will turn into booze.

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