Barrell Craft Spirits was founded over 10 years ago by Joe Beatrice. After a few years in business, master distiller Tripp Stimson joined Barrell Craft Spirits and provides a critical role to the company, as the duo batches and blends all of their releases with a high level of attention to detail.

‍‍Barrell Craft Spirits does not distill their own bourbon or whiskey, instead sourcing whiskeys from multiple states and even countries in some cases, aging and finishing it themselves, and creating unique, often complex blends.

‍‍Barrell Bourbon laid the company’s foundation, starting with Batch 001, the company’s first release. This release highlighted the fact that Barrell Craft Spirits set out to make every batch unique and released at barrel proof. Batch 036 highlights the first major overhaul to the brand’s label since its initial launch, though it remains grounded in a similar style as its predecessor.

The aroma starts with a rush of stone fruit, citrus, cinnamon, and allspice. Apricot, black cherry, and hints of tangerine emerge, and are complemented by layers of fresh cornbread and light oak. The underlying intensity of the scents borders on hot, giving away the whiskey’s nearly 115 proof. It’s a diverse range of scents that leans heaviest into the whiskey’s fruit-driven side.

A wave of caramel surges over your senses and is joined by notes of dried apricot, orange rind, and simple syrup. Hints of nutmeg and allspice glister in the background. The intensity is right on the mark for the proof. Like the nose, the palate is fruit-forward, but the initial surge of caramel grounds the sip in more traditional territory.

Allspice, white pepper, and nutmeg are joined by underlying caramel as the sip fades. Brown sugar and graham cracker soften the spice notes, pushing the finish further into sweeter territory. The sweetness overpowers the sip at this point, but what it lacks in complexity, it makes up for with pure drinkability.

Batch 036 shares many similarities with previous Barrell batches, including its Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee origins and relatively wide range of aged bourbons within the blend. It does see a slight uptick from Batch 035, pushing from 6-13 year old bourbons to 7.5-15 year olds within the blend. Batch 036 dials in its fruit notes by comparison, though caramel maintains a strong undercurrent present through much of the sip. Like other Barrell Craft Spirits Bourbon batches, it’s a well-crafted bourbon that delivers a nicely balanced sip with barrel proof intensity.

What’s most notable about Batch 036 is the fact that the company has overhauled the label for the first time since the brand’s initial launch of Batch 001 approximately 10 years ago. While the color and weight of the label remains largely unchanged, two of the more notable changes include adding a much larger batch number to the front of the label as well as a full breakdown of state origin and ages of bourbons within the blend moved to the front label and shown prominently next to the batch number. While the change is subtle at first glance, it’s actually quite involved and does well to highlight Barrell’s focus on bringing many different bourbons together to form one cohesive blend. Ultimately, the change will allow consumers to more clearly distinguish the specific batch number, origins, and ages of bourbons within each blend.

If there’s any solid barrel proof bourbon that’s premium priced but consistently good, it’s Barrell Craft Spirits’ Bourbon batches. While batches might have been coming fast and strong at one point, they are now few and far between, with the last one released nearly a year ago in August 2023. This slower pace is due in part to Barrell Craft Spirits’ focus on their move to a new blending and bottling facility, but is also due in part to a growing number of brand extensions the company is managing. But where the real value of Barrell Bourbon lies is the company’s ability to blend a wide range of whiskeys together to make something entirely their own, a process that has ultimately defined who Barrell Craft Spirits is as a company. For fans of barrel proof bourbons, and especially those who are already fans of the brand, Batch 036 is worth scooping up for the price.

Barrell Bourbon batches are all different, but in many ways they are also the same. The blend components often originate from the same or similar states, proofs have more recently hovered in 115+/- territory, and they are consistently complex and high quality. Flavor profiles aren’t exactly the same, but there are underlying similarities that can be drawn from batch to batch. Looking across wider spans of batches creates further distance, but in many ways the brand has maintained continuity from batch to batch, never taking a 90 degree turn in another direction, instead keeping within eyesight of each batch’s predecessor. This grounds the batches to some degree, giving a familiar consumer enough to rely on to know whether they will enjoy it or not and giving the unfamiliar consumer something that does not fall into the quintessential Kentucky bourbon category, or any category for that matter. Being nearly a year since their last batch release and seeing a label redesign, Batch 036 is a must-buy for Barrell Bourbon fans who have been thirsty for the next batch and is consistent with other recent batches for newcomers to the brand.