Spirit Hound Distillers Celebrates National Bourbon Day with New Bourbon Release

Colorado’s award-winning Spirit Hound Distillers is excited to commemorate this year’s 2024 National Bourbon Day with the release of Barrel Project Bourbon arriving at both tasting rooms on Friday, June 14, and joining its year-round spirit portfolio in full distribution at hundreds of retail partners across Colorado starting June 21.

Spirit Hound is proud of distilling, aging, and bottling its own spirits and utilizing Colorado-local ingredients whenever possible which has meant that historically, they have only been able to release their in-house bourbon quarterly, due to capacity constraints and excessive demands on their stills from existing products. They wanted to address their fans' continued requests for a year-round Spirit Hound bourbon even as they continue to grow production thoughtfully and responsibly. So, they followed their palate tasting countless bourbons before Master Distiller Craig Engelhorn found just the right partner for this project. This new bourbon expression was then finished in freshly emptied barrels of award-winning Spirit Hound American Single Malt Whisky.  Time and the Colorado climate did the rest, giving this fantastic Bourbon a “Spirit Hound Soul”. 

Aged to their discerning palate, Spirit Hound’s Barrel Project Bourbon is golden straw-colored and has an inviting nose with fruit, vanilla, and maple syrup notes. On the palate, it brings tastes of sweet corn, cherry, and subtle cloves. The finish is warm and lingering with pepper notes. Never blended, this is a Single Barrel Bourbon unlike anything else.

Barrel Project Bourbon becomes the first and only whisky in its portfolio that will employ a base bourbon from a partner distillery. “We followed our palate in trying dozens of base bourbons before finally identifying a flavor profile that lived up to our standards,” explained co-founder and Master Distiller, Craig Engelhorn. “Over the past 12 years, we’ve built such a tremendous community around our iconic American Single Malt Whisky and while we’ve been busy steadily growing production, we wanted to be able to offer our whisky fans a more consistent year-round bourbon offering as well.”

Barrel Project Bourbon is built on 60% corn, 36% rye, and 4% malted barley, aged in fresh American white oak barrels with a #4 char and a level #3 barrel head char before being finished in freshly emptied Spirit Hound American Single Malt Whisky barrels which helps to impart element’s of both Spirit Hound’s award-winning whisky flavor and Colorado’s incredible aging climate giving this bourbon a “Spirit Hound Soul”. As with all of Spirit Hound’s whiskys, each bottle of Barrel Project Bourbon will be produced and packaged as a single barrel release and never blended to showcase the subtle nuances of each unique barrel.

Spirit Hound continues to make its prized in-house bourbon with the next release scheduled for  September. Featuring a mash bill consisting of 60% Corn, 20% Malted Barley, 20% Rye, and a #3 barrel char, Spirit Hound’s Colorado Bourbon will give fans a unique opportunity to discover distinct differences between two quality bourbon offerings from Spirit Hound Distillers.