Bill And Mike’s Excellent Adventure – The Final Chapter -Bottle Release

It has been seven years in the making, but the Fountain Run Bourbon has been released. It started in December of 2017 when Bill Thomas and I had Kentucky Artisan Distillers make a Bourbon for us. It was made in December of that year with the distillation of a Bourbon that is 65% Hickory Cane white corn, 20% rye, 12 % distillers malt and 3% chocolate malt. It was late December when the whiskey was made, but due to the holidays, it did not go into the barrel until January 2018. I have written blogs about every step of the way from barrel entry (103 Proof) to tasting it along the way, to picking a bottle type (with a screw cap), to label design and bottling the whiskey. It has been a long journey with Covid 19 interrupting the process and a bypass surgery for me, but it is finally at its completion.

Bill invited me and Rosemary to Jack Rose Dining Saloon for the bottle release. We invited Matt and Becca to join us for the event. The bottle release was part of Jack Rose’s Premier Drams program they do every year and included brands from all across the country and Scotch and Irish brands as well. There was food served and lots of drinks being poured. It was well attended and everyone seemed to like the Fountain Run Bourbon. We sold bottles there for $99.95 a bottle and we also made it available on Seelbach’s online sales. Unfortunately, Seelbach’s does not ship to Kentucky (they do ship to Indiana) and due to miscommunication, no bottles were left in Kentucky for purchase.

This is the final chapter of the adventure. There were over 700 bottles of this whiskey made, but we don’t have any other whiskey in the barrel. I am open to making more in the future, but that will depend upon Bill, as he was kindly paying the bills for the project. If we do make more, it will be at least four years before it hits the market as it is a Bottled-in-Bond Bourbon. It will be seven years before this same whiskey would be available. It has been a fun adventure and I would like to do it again. I would like to make the same recipe, but also do a Bourbon with wheat instead of rye in the mash bill. I would also like to make a rye whiskey flipping the corn and rye percentages in the mash bill. Stay tuned here for an update. I may have more to write on the subject in the future.