2025 Re-Cap

Well, to say 2025 was a busy year is a bit of an understatement. We filmed more stories than previous seasons, re-freshed the Bourbon Bunker with a new look and participated in our first ever barrel pick with a Bourbon Club we belong to. Not to mention we got to thief some barrels during many of the distillery filming's we did. Let's re-cap the year.

FILMING OF STORIES

For an on-site production crew of only 3 or 4 people (we run pretty lean), and post-production being 2 people (Kirk and myself) with a last set of eyes on the video's by the Big Human, we covered a lot of ground this pasts year and were very very busy. For a good part of the year, we had a back-log of footage to not only log, story build and then edit, but just keeping track of all the different episodes was a bit mind-numbing. I'm not an excel master, but....that's how we are tracking the different episodes as we write, edit, and post them. It sort of looks like a Christmas tree with all the colors.

We generally shoot for about 6 to 7 main stories (think distilleries) that drive our content. Because from each distillery, we usually get anywhere from 5 to 8 main stories, plus several tasting video's. However this year, we filmed at 8 distilleries plus 2 additional main stories. Here's the master list from 2025:

• Rush Creek Distilling (Harvard, Illinois)

• Lonely Oak Distillery (Earling, Iowa)

• West Fork Distillery (Westfield, Indiana)

• Oxmoor Bourbon Co./Oxmoor Farms (Louisville, Kentucky)

• Old Louisville Distilling (Louisville, Kentucky)

• Old Glory Distilling (Clarksville, Tennessee

• MB Roland (Pembroke, Kentucky)

• STilL630 (St. Louis, Missouri)

• Brian Haara; Spirits Attorney (Louisville, Kentucky)

• Whiskey University (Columbia, Tennessee)

So yeah.....a busy, busy production year. But so much good content. I know that by the time we were headed home from our production filming trip in the summer, both Kirk and the Big Human were tired. We ran extremely hard. If you want a rundown of our Indiana / Kentucky / Tennessee / Missouri trip check out this Blog Post.

We filmed at so many great distilleries making some fantastic whiskey. And the passion these whiskey Cookers have is contagious. If you drink curious and want to expand your pallet, we highly encourage you to seek out whiskey from any of the above the distilleries. Or hell, pick up Brian Haara's book Bourbon Justice and read about some great whiskey history. And if you want more knowledge, hit Whiskey University, and take some classes. matter of fact, email me at (jeff@greatamericanwhiskeycookers.com) and I will get you some initial free classes.

BOURBON BUNKER

We renovated (or really re-dressed) the Bourbon Bunker. New back drop, better display and a much more comfortable place to film in. This was one of those projects that was needed and in the works for a long time. We just needed the right amount of time and people power to do it. Luckily, we got some great help from Patreon Supporter Nate Pilcher who was instrumental in the re-fresh. While I have a tendency when measuring things to say "....close enough" Nate had full on diagrams and exact measurements. There were T-Squares, and Carpenter Squares, and lines drawn....Whew. The set looks great now, and if you pay close enough attention, you may notice the bottles behind us change. Mainly due to drinking them. So look for the new set on Friday Blind Tastings.

BARREL PICK

While we have been fortunate to thief from a barrel on many shoots at distilleries, we have never participated in a full on barrel pick. That changed in 2025. We were along for the ride and tasting of a barrel pick that our local bourbon club did. It of course was from a craft distillery (our favorite type of distillery). We tasted 6 barrels in all. 3 Bourbon and 3 Rye. In the end, we chose one of the Bourbon barrels. We helped dump it, then we bottled it all and brought it home. A big thanks to Pursuit Spirits for the barrel pick experience.

That pretty much wraps up our 2025. A lot of activity. Looking ahead to 2026 (as of this writing), we already have two distilleries filmed. Another one on the calendar and working on confirming filming dates for 2 more. That puts us at 5 already for the year. Our dance card is getting full.

Stay tuned to the website and our YouTube channel for updates on new distilleries. And don't forget to subscribe to the channel.