LOUISVILLE, KY (Feb. 26, 2025) – There’s a saying that bourbon brings people together. In Louisville, Kentucky, the heart of bourbon country, the bourbon and technology industries have come together to form Hogshead, the first-of-its-kind online marketplace for barrel-aged spirits.

Named after the old English reference to a large cask that holds liquid, Hogshead Company was formed in 2023 by a bourbon industry insider and a team of tech entrepreneurs based in Louisville with the goal of bringing barrel-aged buyers and sellers together in one seamless platform.  On the site, licensed buyers can browse an inventory of aged bourbon worth more than $310 million, held inside more than 135,000 aging barrels for sale by various proprietors.  Sellers who have an excess of aging bourbon barrel inventory can reach a broad audience of potential buyers, and distilleries can utilize the site to streamline and automate their contract distilling business.  

“Hogshead is a one-stop-shop for the online buying and selling of bulk whiskey,” said Chris Wiedmar, co-founder, Hogshead.  “We’ve taken the technical knowledge that all of our team has in software development, IT strategy, applications, data mining and online marketplaces, and brought it together in this site.  We’re a tech company focused on whiskey, and we’ve brought the management of aged barrel inventory up to the 21st century.”  Wiedmar has spent his career in various tech and start up companies, including a founder of a barrel sensor technology company and creating software for a large global distilled spirits company based in Louisville.

Another Co-Founder, Beau Beckman, brings over a decade of experience in managing and developing barrel sales and web-based platforms for one of the world’s largest spirits companies. “In my previous career, I built a marketplace of sorts for single barrel buyers because I recognized the growing need for purchasing barrels online. Now, with Hogshead, we’re doing the same for bulk barrel buyers—making it easy for both buyers and sellers to connect, while also simplifying execution and management for distilleries and bonded storage facilities,” said Beckman.  “When the bourbon industry declined in the 1980s, it coincided with the rise of software and tech. But when the industry bounced back, it lacked the standardization and documentation to keep up. That’s why the first thing we built at Hogshead was a barrel commerce engine—to streamline transactions and create a centralized tool that aggregates, facilitates, tracks, and manages everything from bulk sales to storage contracts, removing complexity from the process. By simplifying how brands source barrels for bottling and adding pricing transparency, buyers can make more informed decisions, finding the best barrels at the right quantities and prices. Ultimately, this delivers more value to the customers enjoying the whiskey—because without them, none of this works."

All sellers are vetted before they can begin listing their product on Hogshead, and all inventory is checked by the Hogshead team to ensure everything is legitimate.  Buyers must have a federal tax identification number to purchase.  “There are no ‘scams’ on the inventory we list, everything you see on the site is authentic,” adds Beckman.

Buyers may see barrels listed for sale in ages ranging from 16 years old to recently made bourbon, also called “new fill.” The barrels listed are from some of the most recognized distilleries in the world, many with hundreds of years of distilling expertise behind them.  All of the barrels have a minimum order quantity, or MOQ, some as low as one barrel.

Since the barrels are physically located in different storage facilities, depending on the seller’s warehousing location, Hogshead can also assist in the logistics of moving barrels to the buyers.  Financing is also available for qualified buyers.  More updates and opportunities will be added to Hogshead.com as they develop.

About Hogshead
Hogshead is a barrel business company founded in 2023 by five Louisville, Kentucky residents with backgrounds in technology, starts ups and bourbon.  Named one of the 2025 KY Inno Startups to Watch, Hogshead is a first-of-its-kind online marketplace for bulk spirits, bringing together buyers and sellers of barrel-aged spirits.  Hogshead offers solutions for all sides of the sprits industry, sellers, brands, investors and distillers.  For more information on Hogshead visit www.hogshead.com