Who has the largest barrel program?

You don't need a big barrel program when you have those kinds of margins. They run on the de beers model of fake scarcity. ;-)

 

I determined it was JD from an article listing the 20 top-selling Kentucky bourbon/Tennessee whiskey companies in the country, but maybe that was based on $ amount and not units sold. I invite you to do the maths on that one.

 

I'm going to guess that it's Alltech/Lexington Brewing, who makes Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Ale. To my knowledge, they're the only brewer that ages 100% of their product in whiskey barrels, & I believe I remember them saying they were the biggest purchaser of bourbon barrels domestically.

 

OPEC

 

Jolly Pumpkin sees fairly good distro, right?

 

Maths not really needed as I pretty much agree with your calculations as to the number of JD barrels needed to support that many cases sold. Assuming the same factors and conditions apply to HH, 14+ million cases sold works out to be a larger number of barrels. (Within the limits of tolerance normally allowed for government work. )

Edit: BTW do you have a link to that article as it would be interesting to see if they author takes account of the difference between distilleries and brands. Some distilleries such as HH market their Bourbons under more than one different lable and there are reasons to believe that some distilleries do "contract" distilling for smaller places that then do their own barrel aging program.

 

Given that the price of used barrels has dramatically increased in the last few years I'd guess that the Scots are biting the bullet and still buying used Bourbon barrels because they do get re-use. I saw a report from one distillery in Scotland that the had a few barrels being recondition for another use that were in the close neighborhood of 100 years old.

 

The Scots do a lot to reuse barrels. Often after few uses they dissemble the barrel, grind down the char, reassemble the barrel, then rechar.

 

I was told on a tour at Wicked Weed that they had the 3rd largest barrel program in the country. I forget the two that the dude said were bigger, but GI was not on his list. I politely called him out on it, though. I think he meant wild barrel program.

But I would say these have to be contenders:

Goose Island
Firestone Walker

Do foudres count? If so:

Allagash
New Belgium

I'm probably forgetting a few obvious ones.

 

http://www.bizjournals.com/dayton/news/2014/07/23/top-20-best-selling-whiskey-brands-of-2014.html
then there's a link to the list after the first couple paragraphs

 

Real question is where do Firestone wine barrels go?

They use some but whiskey/brandy/rum makers use wine barrels too.

Just a guess they are trading with strong spirit makers.

 

I talked to a Boulevard rep recently and he said they have the second largest barrel program in the country behind Goose Island.

/thread

 

They do?

 

Last I heard New Belgium has 64 foeders (104 barrel capacity) = ~6600 barrels or so equivalent.

http://www.westword.com/restaurants...oubling-the-size-of-its-foeder-forest-5749750

I would agree, Firestone Walker, Boulevard, Avery, New Belgium, Bruery are probably all in line after Goose Island

 

Bourbon Barrel aged Zinfandel? Wow, that is a combination I find....baffling, maybeeee intriguing.

 

That is interesting. I live very close to that brewery and I had no idea. I think there is some fuzzy math going on there! I believe you were probably correct and the tour guide is not. I just don't see it, although I guess its possible. I do know they use both whiskey and wine barrels for their sours. I think Black Angel says on the bottle (or I read it somewhere?) that they use Four Roses. Four Roses is a fairly large outfit but they are not nearly as big as Beam/Heaven Hill or JD. And I have noticed a lot of beers being specifically noting that they use Four Roses (I also think they are pointing this out because Four Roses Limited Edition Small batch was whiskey of the year two years in a row recently) I also heard that Four Roses used to distill Bulleit bourbon until very recently and that was because Four Roses has had such high demand on its higher end stuff that the master distiller puts out that he needs every bit of what he makes for Four Roses to sell under that brand name.

 

The winery was sold in 2007 to a vintner not named Firestone. The Firestone Walker brewery has one of the California Firestones.
http://www.firestonebeer.com/brewery/adam-firestone.php

http://www.firestonewine.com/Our-Story/History

 

Central Waters in Amherst WI has a big barrel age program for their brewery size. It seems every year they come out with a new BA offering.
14
15
16
17
Black Gold
BA Chocolate Porter
BB Stout
BB Cherry Stout
BB Scotch Ale
BB Barleywine
Peruvian Morning (on tap only this year limited)
BB Headless Heron
BB La Petite
Exodus

 

yep

 

Bruery.