About BROKEN BARREL

Risk Takers. Barrel Breakers.

Broken Barrel Whiskey is distilled and sourced from the historic Owensboro Distilling Co. Eighth-Generation Master Distiller Jacob Call distills each barrel using 100% Kentucky corn sourced from local farmers. The bourbon and rye whiskey is distilled using a 54-inch Vendome™ copper column at the top of a beer still, along with copper condensers and a copper doubler. ​

Owensboro Distilling Co. has been through a distillery fire, Prohibition, multiple owners, abandonment, and a long period of dormancy before its revival in 2014. After two years of restoration and renovation, the distillery began filling barrels in 2016. Broken Barrel believed the story and history of this distillery and has been growing alongside the distillery starting with just 9-month-old whiskey when the first bourbon was launched in 2017. ​

Today, Broken Barrel Whiskey’s core products feature aged Kentucky Straight whiskey, denoting a minimum of two years in the barrel before even being tasted and selected for the next batch.

Our Story

Broken Barrel began with a man, an axe, a barrel and a dream. From its inception, the brand was intended to be different from all other whiskeys. Broken Barrel’s founder Seth Benhaim, had already found success with his first liquor brand of single bottle infused vodkas, Infuse Spirits (www.infusespirits.com). At age 29, Seth sourced his first barrels of bourbon from Owensboro, Kentucky to produce what would later become Broken Barrel Whiskey Co. The experiment involved sourcing used bourbon barrels, French oak barrels, and sherry casks from Spain – all to be used in the first ever Oak Bill™. ​

It was unsure how people would react to the concept of using different broken barrels staves to finish a bourbon whiskey. Back in 2017 and the looming eclipse and domination of every kind of barrel finished American whiskey had not quite come into full maturity. ​

Benhaim believed that there was a missed opportunity in traditional barrel finishing – namely the reliance on one type of barrel used to finish one type of whiskey. He wanted Broken Barrel to be an expansion of the barrel finishing concept, involving not only broken barrel staves (vs. intact barrels), but also the combination of multiple barrel types all finishing aged bourbon in tandem. Benhaim also believed blended whiskeys would be bracing options more suitable for stave finishing. Broken Barrel’s concept proved successful, with positive reception across a 17-state launch in late 2017.