If you’ve been keeping track of the domestic spirits market recently, you may have noticed a growing trend of distilleries releasing high-proof rye whiskeys. There are a few reasons behind this, including the affinity many bartenders and cocktail enthusiasts have for this approach to rye. Not to be outdone, there is also plenty of demand for bourbon with a high proof, as our recent rundown of cask-strength bourbons reveals.
The latest distillery to experiment in this direction is Pursuit Spirits, which recently announced a very limited-edition, very high-proof bourbon. That would be the Pursuit United Barrel Proof Bourbon, also known as “The Alpha Barrel.” This whiskey was bottled at 132.4 proof, which puts it at the higher end of the high-proof bourbon market. If you’re unfamiliar with Pursuit, it was founded by Ryan Cecil and Kenny Coleman, creators of the popular whiskey podcast “Bourbon Pursuit.”
Just 81 bottles of this bourbon exist, some of which are set to go on sale at their Louisville location on Wednesday, February 25, for $99.99. (It’s unclear if Pursuit’s staff will also be demonstrating their variation on curling, but it never hurts to ask.) Some of this extremely limited-edition run will be set aside for members of Pursuit Spirits’ P.Club, which offers rare bottles to members quarterly.
Woodford Reserve Is the Latest Distillery Debuting a High-Proof Rye
Their Barrel Strength Rye is available nowIf the scarcity of this release has you down, know that Pursuit Spirits is treating this as something of a proof of concept (no pun intended) and views this as the prelude to more high-proof offerings. “The ‘Alpha Barrel’ proved that our blend can not only handle higher proofs but thrive with extended aging,” explained co-founder Ryan Cecil in a statement. “Because of this success, we are officially beginning the process of laying down more barrels for further single barrel releases.”
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